Infected [01] - Prey by Andrea Speed

Author:Andrea Speed [Speed, Andrea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary, Fantasy, Mystery
ISBN: 9781615814671
Google: MSL55Lx_WmUC
Amazon: 1615814671
Goodreads: 8393603
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2010-06-25T00:00:00+00:00

“Hey, Buchanan said it first, I’m just—”

“I don’t care,” she snapped, glaring at him with open contempt. “Just shut the fuck up.” Although Brad had no accent, the way she talked to him and the slightest facial resemblance made him wonder if they were related.

Brother and sister? Cousins?

Paris decided to play the “impatience” card now, as it would probably be expected at this point. “Is this the entire meeting? Just us?

Seems a bit… small, doesn’t it?”

Tim sat forward, resting his clasped hands on his knees, taking on the look of a marriage counselor about to tell you that learning to trust is the hardest but most rewarding part of any relationship. “You have to understand, Kevin, we have to be very careful about the people we let in.

We want people who are committed to the cause, who want to be proactive. We have to be careful, because there are people who wish to…

Infected: Prey

269

sabotage us.”

He pretended to be confused, all the while thinking, Yes, people like this fudge packer here. “Sabotage you? For what, not liking cats?”

“It’s more than that,” Tim replied, clearly trying to think of some way to put it.

“You a cop?” Reese suddenly asked. It was the first thing he’d said all evening.

Paris’s scoff was genuine. “Do I smell like bacon to you? No, I’m not a cop. What the hell’s this about?” He watched Amy, Tim, Brad, and Reese all exchange looks with each other, quizzical and demanding, and he had a feeling he was in.

Which meant they didn’t shoot Roan, but that didn’t make him feel better.

It just meant they were still in the running as the kitty killers.

Tim remained coy, which Paris suspected was his strength. They needed “young people like him,” full of “vitality and passion” (he was tempted to ask if he was coming on to him, but he knew no one in this room had a sense of humor), and they wanted to know if he was committed to bringing these infected “to justice,” no matter how it might seem to some people. (“Kitty fuckers.” Brad sneered. “They ain’t people.

They’re like another species entirely.”) He pretended to take a moment to work out what they were really saying, then feigned shock at the idea before gradually settling into it, letting the anger come back as he almost accepted it. But he retained some wariness as he asked how illegal the things they were discussing were. Tim explained that they weren’t “illegal per se,” just things that people wanted to do but were afraid to do.

He found himself thinking of 1984, of Orwellian doublespeak as Tim calmly and rationally sold a vague bill of goods that could have meant anything from simple vandalism to all-out murder. This was Tim’s role: he was the clear-eyed, seemingly sane cult leader, the subtle snake-oil salesman who gradually suckered you in, as insidious as the more obvious and charismatic Eli. They were two sides of the same coin, with Eli never hiding the fact that he

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