The Infected 3: Cast Iron by P. S. Power Page A

mission after all and getting a vacation for Brian was pretty important. It might be the last one he ever got after all. That meant doing things that might be considered fun while keeping up with the other stuff. Marcia put a smile on her face before anyone could see her, just in case she seemed worried.
    With a bunch of potentially missing friends, even old ones, she was. Who wouldn’t be though? Of course she also had to worry about it being a trick or trap, but that was the business, not just her. She was out of that part of things, but not totally. You never really could be, once you got in deep enough to the secret world. The world of spies and assassins. Sometimes you were just the person that had the information that other people needed, even if you hadn’t been in the game for a long time. Not everything was written down and even if it was, not everything would be accessible to the people that needed it. Plus, as far as the government was concerned, an ex-agent was a current asset, if they could use them.
    Unless, like her, they were Infected.
    That was a game changer for almost all areas of the government. If you popped Infected you were out and that meant cut off, more or less. Most of the time that made sense. The idea of using people with super powers was a great one, but the fact was that most Infected were too unreliable for intelligence work thanks to their first modes. It was a solid argument. One she could even see made sense. It would have been better to take it on a case by case basis, since it couldn’t come up all that often, but the governments of the world didn’t want to take the risk or time. Instead almost everyplace just dumped the Infected. The U.S. was one of only a handful of countries that still had something like the IPB. Russia, China and France being the others. Of course France was a mess right now, run by Infected from around the world. It would eventually be a problem, but for the moment it was a good place for Infected people to run off too, if they couldn’t take the persecution where they lived. They had to go somewhere.
    Warren looked down her body appraisingly.
    “Pretty hot. You should put on a bit of make-up though. People will be taking your picture. A pain in the sun and sand though.” The man grinned but didn’t move out of her way at all.
    She stuck out her tongue then, trying to seem the age she looked, not the one she felt at the moment, which was ancient.
    “Screw that. I’m going swimming and that would just be wasted effort. Let’s go and get the others. I don’t know how long a wait were going to have, but we should all go, even if everyone else has other plans.” When in unfamiliar territory, it paid to stick together most of the time. It wasn’t always possible, but it made sense to do when you could.
    They didn’t, as it turned out, have to wait at all. Everyone was ready to go with them, except Peggy, who seemed to be feeling shy about wearing a bathing suit in public.
    “Besides, I… Well, I might stand out a bit.” She waved at her face, which got Tobin to walk over to her, and look into her eyes for a few seconds, pushing himself to interact.
    “No… we need to be willing to let people see us. Even if they call us names and give us dirty looks. If they can’t see some Infected people like us, ones that look funny, but who are just living their lives, they won’t ever learn that we’re just like they are.” He looked back and smiled. “Except, you know, not as dumb.”
    Peggy huffed, looked at everyone else and started walking. She had on shorts which showed off her smooth and slightly tan legs, which were muscular and lean, as well as a t-shirt that hugged her body closely enough to show abs and just a hint of breast. She didn’t look very girly, Marcia realized, but that was just who she was. Hiding it wouldn’t make her feel better about herself. Besides, some guys liked that look.
    There was a back entrance to the hotel, which had a