Telepath (Hive Mind Book 1) (29 page)

I hadn’t expected to find nearly
as much emotion among the Tactical and Liaison team members, and I hadn’t
expected the maintenance, medical, and other wildly varied general staff who worked
for Megan to be worried about me at all. After all, they hardly knew me.

I was wrong. Every mind that
I touched was a huddled mass of anxiety. Their thoughts were running in frantic
circles, worrying about me as a person, worrying about how much my loss would
harm the Hive, and worrying about the threat to their own futures.

Our Telepath Unit had been
developing into a tightly knit community. Without me, the unit would be shut
down, and my staff scattered across the Hive. All of them would miss the
friends they’d made here. Some of them would lose precious budding relationships
that crossed the normal divisions between levels and wouldn’t survive elsewhere
in the Hive. None of them could hope to get as good a position again. It would
be years before Lottery found another telepath.

I pulled back from that suffocating
fog of anxiety, and broke into the argument between Megan and Lucas. “Megan’s
right, Lucas. You’ll be able to plan far more effectively if you allow yourself
to rest. You told me earlier that Elden will wait patiently for weeks before
doing anything.”

He sighed. “I suppose that’s
true. Megan can message people to tell them that you’ve recovered, and then I’ll
get some sleep.”

I shook my head. “Everyone
in the unit seems to be scared to death, Lucas. It’s not enough for Megan to send
them a message that I’m all right. They need to see and hear it for themselves.”

I turned to look at Megan.
“Please message everyone in the unit. Tell them that Amber is herself again, and
is calling an immediate full unit meeting in the park.”

Megan gave me a dubious
look. “Are you sure you’ll be able to cope with that, Amber.”

“I’m sure.”

Megan took out her dataview
and started tapping at it. I didn’t wait for her to send the messages, just
went out of the door and headed for the park. Halfway down the corridor, Lucas
caught me up.

“I’d expected you to be badly
affected by memory loss, Amber,” he said. “You must have lost most of your personal
memories of the last three days because they’d be inextricably linked with the
imprint. Aren’t you finding that confusing?”

I pulled a face. “I don’t
remember what my body has been doing for the last three days, but I remember other
things very clearly indeed. I’m not confused, Lucas. I’m angry. I’m deeply aware
of the damage Elden’s done to me, to you, and to everyone in my unit, and he
and Hive Genex are going to pay dearly for it.”

Lucas didn’t speak again until
we’d gone through the door into the park. “Do you want to tell me these other
things you remember, Amber?”

“Not now. Maybe never. Just
accept that I’ve been in a very dark place of nightmares for the last few days.
Now I’ve escaped, I don’t want to dwell on the memories.”

We walked on towards the
picnic area, and I perched on the edge of a table. The bright lights of the
suns burned in the ceiling above me, the artificial breeze was cool on my face,
and gentle water sounds came from the nearby stream. A couple of birds flew to
perch on a tree branch, watching hopefully in case I had seed to feed them.

After a few minutes,
people started arriving and automatically gathering into work related groups.
Adika and the Strike team. Nicole and the Liaison team. Emili and the Tactical
team. Small clusters of medical, maintenance, administration and cleaning
staff. I noticed our park keeper had a pair of tiny black and white monkeys
perched on her shoulder and grooming her hair.

Once everyone seemed to be
present, I climbed on top of the table and looked out at the crowd. There was
dead silence as they waited for me to speak. I’d just been planning to tell
them that I was myself again, but standing here like this, seeing the exhausted
figures and their expressions of defeat, I knew that I needed to say far more
than that.

I remembered the bookette
room playing a scene of a holo battlefield, with a king rallying his defeated troops
for another charge at the enemy. That was what I needed to do now. I’d never
made a speech before, and I’d no script to tell me what to say, but I had to restore
the confidence of these people ready for the next round of the battle against
Elden.

When I was trapped in the crystal
cage, I’d had to fight to avoid being crushed out of existence. Somewhere in
that battle, I’d defeated the self-loathing part of me that hated nosies. Perhaps
that was because I’d gained that attitude when I was very young, so the
feelings belonged to the three-year-old Amber rather than me.

Whatever the reason, I had
my life back now, and I was going to live it as my true self. I’d still have to
be careful to hide the fact I was a telepath from my parents, but here in my
unit I could embrace my right to use the gift I’d been given. I’d worried a lot
about what rules I should follow as a telepath, but in the end there was only one
rule that mattered, and it was a rule that applied to everyone, telepath or
not. I should try to help rather than harm those around me.

I’d never made a speech
before, and I didn’t have a script to tell me what to say, but I didn’t need
one. I could read the minds of my audience and see the words they desperately wanted
to hear.

I tried to match the
ringing tones that I’d heard Henry use in the bookette room. “We’ve been
fighting an enemy and losing every encounter. We’ve been losing because we were
fighting blindfolded and with our hands tied behind our backs. Our enemy was
faceless and nameless, with an unknown purpose. He’d been making his preparations
for fifteen years. He’d imprinted me as a three-year-old child, writing a set
of orders in my mind.”

I paused for a moment. “Three
days ago, our enemy activated those orders and took control of me. He expected
that to be the devastating blow that utterly defeated us. It hit us hard, but
it did not defeat us. Thanks to the efforts of Lucas, Megan, and all of you, I’m
my own person again.”

I turned to nod at where
Lucas and Megan were standing together, and then faced the crowd again. “We
know the face, the name, and the purpose of our enemy now. He is Elden, an agent
from Hive Genex, and he is trying to steal true telepaths like me.”

I shouted the next words
at the top of my voice. “Elden’s attempt to steal me has failed! This is where
everything changes. Elden has been hunting me for fifteen years, but now I am
hunting him.
We
are hunting him.”

The faces in front of me
had lost their dead, defeated expressions. They were looking eager now, and
there was a wild yell that had to be from Eli.

“High up!”

There were some more yells
from the Strike team, and other people were clapping. I let the noise die down
before speaking again.

“All of you will have a
part to play in that hunt. Some of you carry guns and chase a target, while
others help plan the chase, or make sure innocent bystanders are moved to
safety. Some of you treat injuries, order equipment, or make repairs. Some of
you make sure the park is a very special place, full of beautiful birds and
animals, where everyone can enjoy vital relaxation time.”

I looked pointedly at
Hannah. “Some of you make sure the telepath doesn’t get buried in a heap of her
own rubbish.”

There was a burst of
laughter.

“Whatever your job is,” I
said, “you’re here in this unit because that job is essential and you’re one of
the best in the Hive at doing it.”

I paused to check my dataview.
“It’s almost noon. This unit is beginning a mandatory twenty-four hour recovery
period. Everyone must get some sleep now, because we’ll need you all fully
rested and alert by noon tomorrow. That’s when Lucas will tell us his plans.
That’s when our new hunt will begin.”

I stayed on the picnic
table while the crowd drifted away. Megan gave me a hesitant look before
turning and walking away too. There was just me and Lucas left here now.

I climbed down from the
table. “I told everyone to go to sleep, Lucas. That includes you.”

He gave a mock salute,
wandered across to where the grass grew thickly by the edge of the stream, and
lay down. I went to sit beside him, and watched his mind slowly sink into sleep.

I was the only person in
the unit who wasn’t physically tired, and I had a lot of thinking to do. Not
just about the past, but its effect on the present and the future. I’d been
imprinted as a three-year-old child, and burdened with a terror of the Truesun.
My time on Teen Level had been dominated by a fixation on Forge, because his
appearance and his birthmark reminded me of the man who imprinted me. That fixation
had ruled my life for five years, affecting everything I’d done and every
decision I’d made.

I felt a nagging fear that
I’d never truly made a decision of my own free will in the whole of my life,
and was just a doll moulded by Elden’s imprint, but I told myself that was
silly. Some of what I was, most of what I was, had nothing to do with that
imprint. It hadn’t made me a telepath. It hadn’t made me chronically untidy. It
had given me a fixation on Forge, but it hadn’t made me fall in love with
Lucas.

I sat there for hours, my
mind floating through Lucas’s dreams and out across the sleeping minds of my
other unit members. A handful were awake. Nicole had been woken by her chiming dataview
because it was time for her to take her medication. Rothan’s lips were curved
into a smile as he looked at a holo image of Emili’s face. Sofia was working at
frantic speed, painting a mural of me standing on the picnic table and giving
my speech. Megan was lying in bed, unable to sleep because she was worrying
about me.

I groaned, picked up my dataview,
and sent Megan a message. I watched her mind relax as she read it, and then she
abruptly fell asleep.

Eventually, Lucas became
restless, his dreams turning into a nightmare where he couldn’t find the key
symbol that would return me to my true self. I was wondering whether to wake
him, when he abruptly sat up, stared round, and then relaxed.

“Bad dream.” He turned to face
me.

“I saw it.”

“You stayed with me.” He smiled.

“I was worried about you.
Your thoughts had slowed down to normal human speed.”

“You and Megan were right
about me needing rest. I’ll be able to work better now.”

“I absolutely forbid you
to do any work before tomorrow morning. If I catch you even thinking about work,
I’ll kick you on the ankle.”

He laughed, then turned
serious and went full sentence mode for emphasis. “You have to ignore the
imprint, Amber. You must try to forget how it influenced you, either over Forge
or anything else. Deliberately acting against any lingering effects makes you
just as much a slave as obeying them.”

“I’ve already worked that
out, Lucas. Megan was worried I’d fire my whole Strike team because of their
looks, and she’d have a terrible problem finding replacements because most of
the candidates imprinted for Strike team in the last Lottery were chosen to
resemble Forge. I messaged her to reassure her I wouldn’t do anything so stupid
and unkind. I don’t care what my Strike team look like. They’re my friends.”

I paused. “We need to
discuss something else now.”

“Yes?”

I took a deep breath, and
studied his mind as I spoke. I wasn’t risking any more misunderstandings
between us. “I was lost in darkness for the last few days, fighting for my
existence. That taught me that life is very precious. I’m not wasting mine
brooding on the past. I’m living for the future. Removing my imprint must have
involved hypnotics or something. There aren’t any problems like after the dream
are there? We don’t need to be careful?”

His mind did a second of
lightning, multi-level analysis, and then he grinned. “All protocols strictly
followed. Work done by Megan in a controlled environment. Safety period elapsed
before you were allowed to regain consciousness. First kiss moment?”

“Definitely.” I pulled a
face. “The issue is starting to become …”

“An intimidating psychological
barrier,” he completed the sentence. “You’re the only person I’ve ever met who
could interact with me on a social level, and you’re a true telepath. The
chance of me finding another telepathic girlfriend is effectively zero.”

His logic said that I was literally
the only girl in the world for him. It was incredibly flattering that he
thought of me that way, but it meant he was terrified of making a mistake and
losing me.

I was scared too. I desperately
wanted this relationship to work. I hoped it would eventually turn into a marriage,
and a lifetime commitment to a man with thoughts that glittered and danced like
a Carnival crowd.

“Best get it over with
then,” I said.

We looked at each other,
both hesitated to allow the other to come to us, and then both moved to meet
halfway. I was still reading Lucas’s thoughts as our lips met clumsily. His
nervous excitement mingled with my own, and then his nervousness changed to a
different sort of tension that lit a response in me.

I grabbed Lucas, pulling
him closer to me. He wasn’t a telepath, but he was an expert in reading body
language, and couldn’t miss what mine was screaming at him. Everything blurred
into a wild whirlpool of emotion, as his feelings fed into mine and my response
fed back into him. We finally had to break off the kiss to gasp in air, and
Lucas stared at me in stunned disbelief.

“I’d expected kissing you
to be special, Amber, but that was … What happened there?”

“Feedback loop,” I said.
“You should have warned me that would happen if I was reading your mind when we
kissed.”

There was a split second
of analysis and then he laughed. “I’d no idea.”

“Surely you knew about
this from working with Keith.”

“Respectfully point out
that I’ve never kissed Keith. I’ve never heard him talking about this either.
It’s possible Keith’s never experienced it because he’s only interested in his own
feelings.” Lucas gave me a hopeful look. “Shall we try another kiss?”

“Just a second.” I took
out my dataview, then left Lucas’s mind to search for Adika. I found him deeply
asleep, and hesitated. It seemed unfair to wake the poor man up with a call. It
wasn’t really necessary anyway. I’d been in Adika’s mind a dozen times when he
was working on the unit security system. I knew how it worked, and remembered
his passwords. I worked on my dataview for a moment, and then put it down.

Lucas frowned. “What did
you do to the security system, Amber?”

“I locked the park doors.”
I smiled at him, and linked to his mind again. “We’re all alone in here except
for an assortment of birds and animals.”

Lucas smiled back at me,
we kissed again, and lost ourselves in the wild feedback loop.