Telepath (Hive Mind Book 1) (21 page)

After a while, Lucas reappeared
with a very thoughtful looking Gregas. “If you have any problems, Gregas, just tell
your sister,” said Lucas. “I’ll get a message to you about the best way to deal
with them, and after the first couple of weeks you’ll have no trouble at all.”

Gregas nodded. “I need to
go before anyone misses me. Goodbye.” He shot out of the apartment before any
of us could reply.

My mother looked
gratefully at Lucas. “Thank you so much.”

I glanced at the time
display on the wall, aware that we were nearing the end of our unit’s mandatory
twenty-four hour recovery time after yesterday’s emergency run. Lucas hadn’t
planned any check runs for today, but we needed to be ready to respond to emergency
calls.

I stood up. “I’m afraid we
have to go now. Coming here wasn’t a problem, because one of the long experiments
is running at the moment, but I need to be back in the unit when it finishes.”

“Your work schedule seems
very demanding,” said my father.

“I’m afraid that’s unavoidable,”
said Lucas. “Our research is only possible because of Amber’s unique skills and
insight.”

My parents looked
impressed and proud to hear that. Everybody moved out into the hallway, there
was a round of polite farewells, and then I led my party back to the nearest
belt. Once I’d stepped on and moved across to the express belt, I realized that
Adika had somehow ended up at my side, his bulk meaning everyone else had to
either stand in front or behind us. He breathed a barely audible question in my
ear.

“There’s no trouble
between you and Lucas, is there? If Forge is becoming a problem, I can trade
him to another unit.”

I was silent for a moment,
counting to ten to make myself calm down. It didn’t entirely work. “Forge is an
old friend,” I whispered back. “He has never been my boyfriend. Neither of us
mentioned we’d met before, because Forge wanted to prove he was on the team on
merit. A stupid mistake in Lottery meant the physical preferences for the
Strike team were influenced by Forge’s looks. I strongly recommend that you
don’t start gossiping about that unless you want to find a different job.”

I realized my voice was
getting far too loud, and forced myself to quieten down again. “Lucas was about
a day ahead of you at leaping to conclusions. He knows the real situation now.
There’s no problem, there’s no need to trade Forge, and Lucas really was
sleeping on the couch not sharing my sleep field last night. Do you need any
more information on my love life, or are you happy now?”

“I consider myself severely
reprimanded,” said Adika. “Sorry, but I had to ask. Forge is a good man, but losing
Lucas would cripple the unit.”

I peered over my shoulder
for Lucas, spotted him standing behind Eli, and shouted to him. “Lucas, get up
here.”

Lucas bounced up to join
me, and Adika retreated to lurk as inconspicuously as possible at the back of
the group. Lucas turned to eye him thoughtfully.

“Why is Adika acting like
a scolded toddler?”

I groaned. “When you were
out of the room, Megan sent us a message about Matias and Forge. My mother
asked if that was the Forge I knew on Teen Level.”

I watched Lucas’s thoughts.
He took less than five seconds to work out an approximation of my conversation
with Adika.

“Yes, you’ve got it almost
word for word,” I said. “Adika offered to transfer Forge.”

Lucas gave a shout of
laughter and lapsed into speed speech. “Adika toddler in big trouble. Amber hates
privacy violation. Amber furious at transfer suggestion.”

I couldn’t help joining in
his laughter. “I know that being defensive about my privacy is hypocritical for
a telepath, but I can’t help it. Everyone watches me, thinks about me, studies
my every move. I can’t so much as breathe without them going into huddles to
discuss it.”

“This is a Telepath Unit,
Amber. I’m afraid that means the telepath is a natural focus of attention.”

“Yes.” I gnawed guiltily
at my bottom lip. “I’ll have to call Adika later and apologize to him. I’d
better call Forge as well, and warn him that people know we were friends on Teen
Level.”

Lucas shrugged. “You don’t
need to apologize to Adika. You let him give you orders. You allow him to criticize
you when you make mistakes. You’ve just made it clear that you draw the line at
him asking intrusive personal questions, and I can assure you that it’s not the
first time Adika’s been shouted at for doing that.”

That was true. Adika was a
Strike team leader. If he felt action was needed, he took it quickly and decisively.
If he felt information was needed, he asked for it. Only last week, he’d
annoyed Megan with a personal question about her dead husband. They’d been on
much better terms since the dramatic scene with Fran, I’d been getting quite
hopeful about the two of them, but Megan had reacted to the question by
verbally ripping Adika to shreds. I was starting to think their relationship
was doomed.

“You don’t need to give warnings
to Forge either,” Lucas continued. “He babbled about you riding the rail at
Carnival in front of the whole Strike team. He’ll know someone will work out
what that meant, but he won’t be worried about it now. He must realize he’s
proved that he’s more than worthy of his spot on the Strike team.”

“I suppose so.”

Lucas hesitated before
speaking again. “Amber, I know the real reason you lost your temper with Adika
was because that visit to your parents upset you. Was that my fault? Given my
history with my own parents, I admit I was panicking about meeting yours, so I reverted
to doing my clown act from Teen Level.”

I shook my head. “It was
my fault, not yours. My parents had visited me in my fancy apartment, but they
hadn’t seen me with a group of hulking bodyguards before, and then I made that
stupid joke about demoting people. They looked absolutely terrified of me. I’m so
grateful to Eli for chattering away and making things relaxed and comfortable
again. I’d hug him, but I suppose that would start Adika asking questions
again.”

“You mustn’t do anything
to worry Adika,” said Lucas solemnly. “In fact, you should be reassuring the
poor man. I suggest a good method would be if we lie entwined on the grass in
the park, madly kissing each other, while the Strike team are running laps.”

I laughed.

The next day, Adika announced he
wanted to test everyone on the Strike team’s swimming ability, and mine as
well, before we made any more trips to 600/2600. We all headed over to the unit
swimming pool. I went into a changing room, stripped off my clothes, pulled on
my swimming costume, studied my reflection in a wall mirror, and wrinkled my
nose. The Strike team were going to have a big disappointment. My figure didn’t
live up to their fantasies.

When I came out of the
changing room, the Strike team were already at the pool side in their swimming
costumes. They were all very pointedly not looking at me. A quick check of the
closest mind told me that Adika had given them a typically unsubtle warning. “Don’t
ogle the telepath or I’ll drop you down a lift shaft!”

I was startled to see
Lucas appear from a changing room, wearing a swimming costume and with a towel
slung round his shoulders. He came to stand next to me, giving me a blatant
inspection.

“Lucas, behave!” I hissed
the words at him.

His eyebrows bounced
wickedly at me. “Seen you wearing less,” he whispered.

Adika came over and looked
at him disapprovingly. “Why are you here, Lucas?”

Lucas beamed at him. “Reporting
for swimming ability check.”

“We know that you’re half
fish, Lucas,” said Adika. “There’s no need to prove it.”

“I insist,” said Lucas. “This
is my big chance to show I’m better at something than half the Strike team.”

“Oh, all right,” said
Adika. “If you must humiliate someone then you can humiliate me. We’ll go
first.”

I watched the two of them
line up at the pool edge. The watching Strike team, including Forge, were very decorative
half naked, but I was far more interested in Lucas. This was the first time I’d
seen him in just a swimming costume. Despite his constant comments about the
muscle-bound Strike team, he had plenty of muscles himself.

Lucas did a low racing
dive, and powered up the pool and back again at impressive speed, while Adika
struggled to swim a single, painfully slow length. My Strike team leader could
barely swim, but he’d still gone underwater in that lake, and entered a flooded
pipe to help Forge. I was awed by his courage.

When the pair of them were
out of the water, Adika made a note of their times. “Amber next!” he called.

I strolled up to the pool,
positioned myself ready to dive in, but hesitated. The whole of the Strike team
knew about my old friendship with Forge now so …

“Forge!” I beckoned him over.

Adika raised an eyebrow,
but didn’t say anything. After our conversation yesterday, he was probably
scared to comment.

Forge lined up next to me,
and we exchanged smiles. “Three, two, one, go!”

We chanted the words in
unison and went for the racing dives. I surfaced an instant before Forge as
always, and swam hard for the turn and the second length. Forge beat me by the
normal couple of seconds, climbed out of the pool with one smooth movement, then
took my hand to pull me up to join him.

There was stunned silence
from the rest of the Strike team, followed by applause.

“High up, Amber!” yelled
an excited Eli.

Lucas groaned. “Unfair,
Amber. I wanted to show off and impress you.”

I smiled. “You did impress
me. Your time was faster than mine.”

“But there was nothing in
your record to show you could swim at all, let alone at competition standard. I
was planning to teach you to swim.”

Lucas was genuinely disappointed.
I thought rapidly, and remembered my feeling of utter defencelessness back in
that park. “You can teach me to use a gun instead.”

Everyone seemed startled
by this suggestion. “Why would you want to learn to use a gun, Amber?” asked
Adika. “Your job is reading minds, not shooting people.”

I shrugged. “Lucas isn’t
supposed to shoot people either, but he carries a gun when he comes with us on
a run. I’d feel a bit less vulnerable if I was armed too.”

Adika frowned. “Well, if
it makes you feel more comfortable, I suppose you can carry a gun once you’ve
done the appropriate training. Lucas keeps his gun on stun, and would only use it
if things went badly wrong. The same applies to you, Amber. The telepath only
pulls a gun as a last desperate resort when everyone else is out of action.
Understood?”

“Yes.”

Adika turned back to the
waiting Strike team. “Anyone else able to swim well?”

Several of the team were
able to swim a few lengths at a slow but steady speed. The rest were struggling
to manage a width, and Forge had to stand by to rescue anyone who got into
trouble. Lucas and I stood watching the show.

“If you can swim that fast,
why is there no record of you being on a teen swimming team?” asked Lucas.

“Isn’t it obvious? I had
that weird fixation on Forge, and he was a keen swimmer and surfer. I took up swimming
so I could go training with him, but I’d no interest in competing myself.” I
paused. “Why do you swim, Lucas?”

“I find swimming soothing,”
he said. “It helps me relax and think through difficult problems.”

Adika blew a whistle, and everyone
went quiet to listen.

“We’ll replace some of the
regular sessions of running in the park with swimming training,” he said. “Forge
can be our swimming instructor. Lucas, when the Strike team has swimming
sessions, you can take Amber over to the shooting range for weapons training.”

Lucas smiled.

“We had problems in that
park because we’d never expected to have to follow a target underwater,”
continued Adika. “I’ve been trying to think of any other environments where we would
be especially vulnerable. I think we’re already well prepared for anywhere else
inside the Hive. That leaves one very obvious weak area. Outside.”

There was a startled
silence. I froze up. Adika must be joking.

“There are specialist maintenance
workers who regularly go Outside,” said Adika. “Nicole found one of them to
give me some advice. He said that we’ll find the huge scale of things Outside startling
to begin with, but with time we should all be able to adjust.”

He paused. “Does anyone have
experience of going Outside?”

Lucas, Eli and Rothan
raised their hands.

“That’s actually going Outside,
not just looking out of an aircraft window,” Adika added.

The hands stayed up.

“Well, that’s a good
start. Why did you go Outside, and for how long?” He looked at Eli first.

“A friend bet me that I
couldn’t stay Outside for an hour,” said Eli. “I won.”

Adika nodded. “How about
you, Rothan?”

“My family are members of
the Ramblers Association,” said Rothan. “We regularly go walking and camping Outside.”

“What’s camping?” asked
Adika.

“If you’re going to be Outside
for more than one day, you take a tent along. That’s a shelter made of cloth.
You sleep in it at night and it keeps the rain off. Well, most of the rain off.”
Rothan glanced round anxiously at the audience of open-mouthed people staring
at him. “I know any interest in Outside is considered a sign of disloyalty to
the Hive, but I’m not disloyal. I just like the views and the …”

“Calm down, Rothan,” interrupted
Lucas. “Admitting to liking going Outside won’t put a black mark against your
name. Everyone in the Strike team will have broken the rules of accepted Hive behaviour
and explored forbidden places. Lottery deliberately selects Strike team members
who are risk takers, attracted to danger.”

“Oh.” Rothan seemed to
relax. “It’s just that my parents warned me not to talk about this to anyone
outside the Ramblers Association. I did mention going camping once at school. I
couldn’t bear the silly things the other children were saying about the Truesun,
but the way the teacher looked at me …”

He shuddered. “Anyway, there
are about fifty thousand of us in the Ramblers Association. We go Outside in
groups, for a day, a weekend, or even weeks at a time. There are lots of
footpaths out there.”

“Incredible,” said Adika.
“I didn’t even know this Ramblers Association existed.”

“I did,” said Lucas. “A
Tactical Commander’s imprint includes details of all known subversive or
non-conformist groups. The Hive doesn’t want its people requesting transfers elsewhere,
so it limits information on other Hives and discourages any interest in Outside.
The idea is that everyone will literally think of this Hive as being the whole world.”

He smiled at Rothan. “That
means the Ramblers Association is technically classed as a non-conformist group,
but in reality its existence is beneficial to the Hive. It helps those with a psychological
need for more space and contact with nature than they can get in a Hive park.
It also provides a useful pool of people that Lottery can draw on to supply the
Hive with its Outside workers.”

“A lot of Ramblers Association
members work Outside,” said Rothan. “I expected to come out of Lottery as an
Outside worker myself.”

“The Hive obviously doesn’t
want the Ramblers Association spreading information about Outside to the
general population,” continued Lucas. “Members are expected to be discreet
about their shameful hobby, and are forbidden from attempting to recruit new
members while inside the Hive. Anyone they meet Outside is displaying
non-conformist tendencies already, so regarded as fair game. Ramblers Association
members have tried to recruit me several times when I was in country parks.”

“What are country parks?”
asked Adika.

“There are a lot of exits from
the Hive that lead to one of the ten areas of Outside parks,” said Lucas. “You
must have seen the parks out of the aircraft window when we flew to Hive Futura.”

“No,” said Adika. “You
were the one who insisted on uncovering a window. I was down the other end of
the aircraft minding my own business.”

“Well, my imprint includes
details of the country parks as well as the Ramblers Association,” said Lucas.
“When I came out of Lottery, I was intrigued by the idea of an Outside park, so
I went to take a look at one. I’ve made several repeat trips to admire the sky,
especially at night.”

He laughed. “If I’m Outside
long enough, I get approached by people in clumpy footwear, who whisper
furtively about the love of the open countryside and the existence of the Ramblers
Association. I keep telling them I like sitting on a bench in a country park, but
feel no desire to go tramping through the wilderness.”

Adika shook his head. “Well,
we’re very fortunate to have a couple of people with experience of conditions
Outside, but the rest of us have some acclimatizing to do. Since Lucas is familiar
with Outside, there’s no need for him to join us on our training trips.”

“But I’d love to come
along,” said Lucas.

“I had a feeling you might.”
Adika finally turned to me. “Amber, how do you feel about coming along on a few
training trips Outside?”

“Not keen.” What I really
meant was that I was utterly terrified, and I’d rather drown in a slime vat
than go Outside where the Truesun could get me.

“The Strike team have to
be able to cope out there well enough to chase a target,” said Adika, “but you
could keep your eyes closed the whole time.”

I didn’t say a word. Keeping
my eyes closed wouldn’t save me from the Truesun burning me. I was going to
stay safely inside the Hive.

Adika seemed to get the
idea he wasn’t winning this argument, because he turned back to the Strike team.
“We’ll do some more swimming training now.”

I went to change from my
swimming costume back into ordinary clothes. When I came out of the changing
room, I found Lucas lying in wait for me. When I headed towards my apartment,
he walked alongside me, ignoring my unwelcoming body language.

“The idea of going Outside
frightens you.”

I didn’t reply.

“You were fine inside Hive
Futura.”

“That was inside a Hive,
Lucas. Not Outside. I thought you were supposed to be highly intelligent.”

“You coped inside the aircraft
too,” said Lucas.

“Again, that was inside,
and it still wasn’t easy. Can we stop talking about this now?”

I reached my apartment and
went inside. The protein scum, Lucas, followed me.

“Amber, the Hive uses
social conditioning to discourage people from going Outside. Schools treat any
interest in Outside as shameful, and encourage children to believe the myths about
the danger and the Truesun. There’s no truth in those myths, any more than it’s
true the nosies are telepaths. If you try going Outside, or even read my
thoughts about it, you’ll see it’s quite a pleasant place.”

I turned on him. “I’ve
been Outside, Lucas! I went Outside when I was a little girl. It terrified me,
and I will never go Outside again. Now get out of my apartment or I’ll call the
Strike team to throw you out!”

I ran into my bedroom, and
locked the door.