Telepath (Hive Mind Book 1) (17 page)

“It’s much more complicated
than that,” said Lucas. “I only know the very basics about this, but they’d reset
Callum’s mind, unravelling his personal experience chain to take him back to
the point where his ego problem either didn’t exist or could be treated with appropriate
medication and therapy. Once he’s cured, he can …”

“Who decides he’s cured?”
I interrupted. “Who decides it’s safe to let Callum live on Teen Level again,
and what if they’re wrong?”

“In a case this serious,
either Sapphire or Morton would make that decision,” said Lucas. “Eventually,
you’ll be assessing reset cases too. Patients have been known to fool even a
borderline telepath psychologist into thinking they’re cured and referring them
for telepath assessment. No one can fool a true telepath though.”

“Oh.” I frowned as I
thought that over. “I suppose that might work, but it doesn’t seem right that
there’d be no consequences for Callum at all. Not even guilt. He stabbed
people, he could easily have killed someone, but he’d go back to live on Teen
Level without even remembering what he’d done.”

“It would be far more
difficult to treat Callum if he remembered stabbing someone.”

“But if the girl doesn’t
remember what Callum did either, he could end up dating her again.”

“That wouldn’t be allowed
to happen,” said Lucas. “Reset cases are always relocated to a distant area of
the Hive, because close contact with someone involved in their past behaviour
could trigger remaining fragments of memory.”

He paused. “It’s better to
salvage someone than to waste them. Better for the person. Better for the
Hive.”

“I suppose so,” I said
doubtfully. I wasn’t sure what I thought about this. I wasn’t even sure what
Lucas thought about it. How much of what he was saying were his own ideas, and
how much came from his imprinted data?

Lucas was studying my
expression. “Amber, the reason I don’t worry too much about these things is because
I know the Hive has no shortage of borderline telepath experts to treat people.
The huge problem is it only has five true telepaths to catch wild bees before they
hurt people. Yesterday, you saw what happens when we fail to do that. Today, you
saw what happens when we succeed. It’s better, isn’t it?”

I nodded. “Far better.”

“Our unit is operational
now. If we focus on doing our jobs, and help the Hive get more stable, then
there’ll be fewer emergency runs. That’s the real answer to your concern,
Amber. We can make sure there are fewer cases like Callum and more like Perry. We
can make sure no one needs their memories of traumatic events removing, by
preventing those events from happening in the first place.”

That definitely did make
sense. “You’re right.”

Lucas switched on his ear
crystal again. “I’m hungry.”

I switched mine on as
well. “I’m starving.”

“The rest of us would like
to eat too,” said Adika’s voice through my ear crystal.

Lucas jumped up. “There’s
a restaurant over there. After we’ve eaten, you can help me buy socks, Amber.”

My new life was one where
chasing knife-wielding wild bees intermingled with buying socks. Lucas grabbed
my hand, pulled me to my feet, and towed me into the restaurant. As we sat down
at a table, groups of Strike team members strolled in to join us.

A smiling girl arrived and
handed us menu cards, before hurrying to deal with her sudden rush of muscled, black-haired,
male customers.

Lucas studied the menu.
“I’m afraid they don’t have melon juice here.”

“I can survive on other
drinks.” I remembered something. “Eight levels.”

“What?”

“Your head currently has
eight levels between pre-vocalization and the subconscious.”

“You’re reading me again?”
He grinned. “Speeds discussion. Level content?”

“The level seven content is
totally unsuitable for an open sound link. Level eight … I’m not even going to
hint at level eight.”

“Lucas has a filthy mind?”
asked Adika’s amused voice in my ear crystal. “I’m profoundly shocked to hear
that.”

“His mind is a slime vat
that needs scrubbing out with disinfectant,” I said.

Lucas laughed.

I stood outside the gym, furtively watching
Sofia work on her latest mural. She’d painted several dazzling flower designs
in the accommodation area of the unit. Those had been scanned into the Hive
records, to be copied by other mural painters or even traded to other Hives. This
mural was totally different, a wickedly accurate caricature of Adika scolding a
cowering Strike team.

Sofia took a step back to
scowl fiercely at her painting, finally noticed I was there, and waved an
impatient paintbrush at me. “Go away!”

I hastily retreated in the
direction of the park. Sofia didn’t like people watching her working, and had a
habit of blobbing paint on people who didn’t leave fast enough when ordered,
whether they were lowly office cleaners or illustrious telepaths.

Once inside the park, I walked
along the path by the stream, listening to the soothing sound of the water
while enjoying the warmth of the suns overhead. Our unit had been fully operational
for three weeks now, and it felt like three months or three years. We’d done a
dozen relaxed check runs, and handled seven tense emergencies.

The old voice of self-loathing
that lurked in the corner of my mind hadn’t vanished entirely, but it was far
quieter now. When I learned I was a true telepath, I’d naively set out strict
rules for my future behaviour. I’d broken all those rules by now because they
were impossible to keep, but I’d saved over twenty lives already, and I knew I would
save many more in future. That had earned me some grudging self acceptance.

The shadows of Olivia and
York disturbed me less often too. I thought I’d made it past the main danger
points for a new telepath, and the pressure on me and the other telepaths
should gradually ease in future. With my unit fully operational and helping the
others, there were already signs that the Hive mind’s downward spiral into
chaos had been reversed.

I just had a couple of
minor worries now. It was much harder to arrange for my parents to visit me now
that my unit was operational. If they witnessed me heading off on an emergency
run, the cover story of me heading a research unit would fall apart. I had to
settle for arranging last minute visits during the mandatory twenty-four hour recovery
time after an emergency run. I’d blamed the problem on the demands of my mysterious
research work, explaining to my parents that I only had free time when a long experiment
was running, and so far they’d accepted that without asking too many questions.

The other concern was Forge.
The weird effect he’d had on me in the past had vanished without trace. It must
have been an ordinary teen crush after all, and had faded away because of my developing
relationship with Lucas. Now I wanted to tell everyone that I’d known Forge on Teen
Level, but Forge was still nervous of pointing fingers and accusations of favouritism.
He wanted to be sure he’d proved himself, to Adika as well as his team mates,
before we told them the truth. I hoped Forge wouldn’t insist on us waiting for
much longer. I didn’t feel comfortable hiding things from Lucas.

I sat down on the grass by
the stream’s edge, and closed my eyes to think of Lucas. It was a couple of
months now since he’d walked into that room in Hive Futura, and I’d first seen
his amazing mind. Since then, he’d let me roam freely inside his head, and I
knew him better than I’d ever known anyone in my life. Lucas had thrown open
the door to the apartment of his mind, and told me to explore wherever I liked.

He’d shown me all his
memories, good or bad. He’d applied the logic that he was no saint, but no
especial sinner either. There was nothing there that was worse than I’d see in
any number of other minds, and he trusted me not to judge him harshly. He’d accidentally
walked into my bedroom, seen me naked, and the discarded clothes littering the
floor. I’d seen much more intimate things about him.

I was a private, defensive
person, and the sheer openness of Lucas stunned me even more than his
brilliance. He’d told me that he had no secrets and he truly meant it. His
feelings for me weren’t just constantly in his thoughts for me to read, he was advertising
them to the amused audience of the entire unit. I didn’t understand how he
could put himself at risk of laughter and ridicule like that.

Lucas had been totally and
utterly honest with me, and if he found out I …

A warbling sound filled
the air and a computerized voice spoke. “Unit emergency alert. Unit emergency
alert. We have an incident in progress. Operational teams to stations. Strike
team to lift 2.”

I jumped to my feet and sprinted
for my apartment. Once inside, I left a trail of garments on my way to the
bedroom, grabbed the body armour and the set of clothes that Hannah had hung
with it, dressed, and snatched my crystal unit from its place on a shelf before
running for the lift. When I arrived there, I found the entire Strike team were
already inside, including the two who were officially on down time today.

I put my ear crystal in place,
and heard the familiar routine start up as the doors closed and the lift headed
downwards.

“Strike team is moving,”
said Adika.

Lucas’s voice spoke in my
ear crystal. “Tactical ready.” He was safely in the office with the rest of the
Tactical team.

“Liaison ready. Tracking
status green.” Nicole sounded tense but calm. She’d settled in well as Liaison team
leader.

I checked my dataview. All
the Strike team were on my circuit list, including the two who’d chosen to come
along with us rather than go shopping or visit family. “Green here too.”

Lucas started briefing us.
“We have an emergency call about an incident, definitely strength four, potentially
six or higher.”

I was already tense, but
my nerves stretched tighter. Strength six was a death. What was worse than dead
people?

“A child is missing,”
Lucas said. “A girl aged three.”

How could you lose a three-year-old?
Children were tagged with unbreakable tracking bracelets until they were ten,
so parents could always check up on their location. Having your bracelet
removed was one of the significant stages in growing up. You got increased privacy,
new rights, and the responsibilities that went with them.

“The girl’s bracelet is no
longer functioning.”

Lucas was in briefing
speech mode. Explaining clearly, using all the words, his voice calm and
relaxed to build his listeners’ confidence in our ability to handle whatever
crisis was being thrown at us this time. There was something different from previous
emergency runs though. He had an unusual edge to his voice as he continued
speaking.

“It’s possible this was a
freak bracelet failure at a bad time, but you should assume the child was
abducted and the bracelet deliberately sabotaged by a target or targets. Incident
location is 601/2603 Level 80.”

Now I knew why there was
that odd edge to Lucas’s voice. He’d been worried about the area around 600/2600
for months. Keith had been there twice and found nothing. I’d been there once
myself, found nothing either, and had another trip planned for next week. That
return trip had arrived ahead of schedule.

“Warning signs have been
appearing in this area over a long period,” said Lucas, “but they have no discernible
pattern. You should assume your target, or targets, are extremely dangerous.”

Adika started talking.
“First priority, always, Amber stays safe. Second priority, finding the child. Group
assignments are …”

He rattled out names and
groups. I glanced at my dataview, and was startled to see eight names listed to
be my bodyguards instead of the usual five. Lucas had infected me with his
worries about area 600/2600, and he’d obviously got to Adika too.

“Incident location is a
park,” said Nicole. “People in the area are getting upset. They’re demanding a
telepath to help find the child.”

“Send in one of the fake
nosy patrol groups to calm them down,” said Lucas.

I frowned. “Lucas, I can’t
work with people’s minds screaming numbers at me. You remember what happened when
I was out last week. A nosy patrol got too close, I lost my target, and it took
nearly an hour to find her again.”

“People won’t be hostile
this time,” said Lucas. “They want that child found, so the nosy will be
welcomed.”

“Sending nosy patrol,”
said Nicole. “There’s one nearby. They should be at the location in a couple of
minutes.”

We were out of the lift,
riding an express belt, when Nicole reported again. “The nosy patrol is getting
a good reception from the crowd.”

“Now ask people to leave
the immediate area,” said Lucas. “Tell them the telepath is looking for a very
small child, who may well be hurt, even unconscious. The young mind will be
very weak and hard to hear. The telepath needs people to move out of the area
so they can concentrate.”

“Making announcement.” Nicole
was silent for couple of minutes before speaking again. “People are leaving the
area. We’ve persuaded the parents to move to a distance too. Hasties at the
scene are trying heat detectors with no success so far.”

“Adika, please make your
final approach by lift,” said Lucas. “We’ve just asked everyone to leave, so we
don’t want you seen coming in.”

Adika got us to jump belt,
then took us into a lift and down a few levels to Level 84. We rode the belt
there for a bit more, before swapping back into another lift.

“Approaching scene,” said
Adika. “Crystal units to visual.”

I adjusted my ear crystal
so the camera unfolded, and touched it briefly with my fingertips to check it
was correctly in position by the right side of my face.

“Visual links green for
all Strike team,” said Nicole.

My eight bodyguards
clustered round me, guns in hand, as the lift opened. They were really tense
about this run. I was too.

Chase team left the lift
first. When they’d formed a defensive perimeter, my bodyguards hustled me across
to a nice solid tree trunk and formed a human wall round me. Something silver
caught my eye. I instinctively looked upwards, and glimpsed a silver and gold
balloon caught in the branches of the tree above us.

“Amber, you’re at the
child’s last known location,” said Lucas.

I forgot the balloon, huddled
into a ball, and shut my eyes. Everyone was acting like I was in mortal danger,
but I had to ignore that and sit defenceless with my eyes closed. For the first
time, I wished I carried a gun like the Strike team, but I wouldn’t know how to
use one if I did.

I had to forget about the
danger. I could trust my team to keep me safe whatever the cost. My bodyguards
would die for me. That fact was clear in their heads right now, too strong to
miss. They’d kill to defend me. They’d die to save me. I’d never been hit with
that so directly before, and I felt a surge of emotion in response. I loved
them. All of them. My Strike team were my brothers, my friends, my family.
They’d defend me to the death, and I’d care for them in return.

I forced that emotion away,
and made myself concentrate on my job. If we were in danger here, then I
mustn’t waste time. I reached out past the familiar minds, and encountered the thoughts
of the nosy squad. They were feeling frustrated that they could only pretend to
be useful rather than actually help.

I moved on again, trying
to find anyone else in this park. The child. The target, or targets. Lucas had repeatedly
used the plural, to emphasize we shouldn’t assume there was only one person
involved. Some of the inconsistencies around the 600/2600 area might be because
there wasn’t just one wild bee there, but two or even more.

“I can’t find anyone,” I
said, frustrated at my lack of success.

“You’re getting nothing at
all?” asked Lucas.

“I itch.”

“Itch?” he repeated. “What
do you mean?”

“I don’t know, Lucas.
There’s an odd feeling that I haven’t felt before. Like an itch deep inside my
mind. Add it to the list of weird things around 600/2600. I’m getting absolutely
nothing other than that.”

“The child could have been
taken further away,” said Adika, “or already be dead.”

“Amber, what mind level
are you searching on?” asked Lucas.

“Level 1 through 3.” I realized
what he was thinking. “I usually start high level, find the right mind, and
then go deeper. I’ll see if I can reverse that, and search on the subconscious
levels.”

I wasn’t sure I could do
this. How did I even start? I picked Forge’s tension filled mind, went down a
few levels, and saw some stuff about his feelings for Shanna. He’d seen her!
Waste it, he’d found out her apartment location on Level 9, gone to see her on
his first precious free day, and she’d …

Shanna had been my friend for
years, but I could pelt her elegant face with slime balls for treating Forge
like that. The fact she’d made us all promise to stay friends after Lottery
made it even worse. She hadn’t just sneered at Forge for being a hasty, but mocked
him for getting his birthmark removed to please her.

The irony of it was that Shanna
had been so horrified to find a hasty on her doorstep, so proud of her status as
a Level 9 Media Presenter, that she’d driven Forge away before he could tell
her anything. If Shanna had learned he was Level 1, that Amber was in charge of
his unit and could use her position to give Shanna work there too, then Forge was
cynically sure her reaction would have been very different. Oh yes, Shanna would
have grabbed the chance to be with him if it meant she could live in Level 1
luxury and dress in Level 1 clothes.

I guiltily realized I was
getting sidetracked from my real goal. That was the problem with fooling around
on the lower levels. There were so many swirling feelings, that it was hard to
avoid being sucked into the emotional morass.