Telepath (Hive Mind Book 1) (11 page)

Until I was thirteen, I lived on Level
27 of the Hive. My first clear memory of leaving that level was the school geography
trip when I was seven years old. Our teachers escorted a wildly excited crowd
of us down in a lift to Level 100, and then we rode the upway through all the accommodation
levels to Level 1 itself. I was dazed to discover the world was so big. I’d
only ever seen a small part of Level 27, and now I was passing through level
after level.

When we finally reached Level
1, we were allowed five minutes to look in awe at the people walking by. Our
teachers told us there were fewer people living on the higher levels, and those
who were Level 1 were very special indeed, vital to the success and prosperity
of the Hive.

After that, we were taken
higher up still, riding in an express commuter lift to one of the fifty working
levels above Level 1. We paraded in a wide-eyed line through a hydroponics bay,
were allowed to pick strawberries to eat, and then rode up in a lift again to Industry
1, the top level of the Hive, the edge of the world. Some of the other children
were brave enough to venture outside the lift, but I stayed at the back with
the other cowards. We didn’t believe our teachers’ reassurances that the
Truesun couldn’t blind us on Industry 1, and kept our eyes firmly closed until
the lift headed down to take us home to Level 27.

As a teen, the working
levels were forbidden territory. Now I was back on Industry 1 for the first
time since I was seven years old. I couldn’t cower at the back of the lift with
my eyes closed this time. Not when I was supposed to be in charge of this unit.

I forced myself to step
out of the lift, and saw a large open area, with corridors running off to
either side and directly ahead.

“I’ll take you to your
apartment, Amber,” said Megan. “You’ll want to rest and adjust to the
background noise of the Hive.”

“I’d like a tour of the
unit first.” I turned to look behind me. The lift we’d arrived in was one of a
row of six. A couple of them had unusually large doors.

“Coming back to the Hive
is a major step,” said Megan. “You need to rest.”

I couldn’t rest until I’d
made sure this place was safe from the Truesun. “I’d like a tour of the unit,”
I repeated. “I’ll find it easier to relax when I know my surroundings.”

Megan turned to look at
Adika for support, but he’d already grabbed a bag from our luggage trolley and
headed off down a corridor.

Lucas laughed as he picked
up a bag as well. “Never argue with the telepath, Megan. A brief tour will help
Amber get oriented.”

He vanished off as well,
followed by Fran. Hannah furtively picked up the luggage trolley controller,
and stole silently away with the trolley chasing her. Megan and I were left
alone.

Megan sighed. “A very
brief tour then. This unit was shut down and put into maintenance mode after
Claire died a few years ago.”

Claire had obviously been
another true telepath. I checked Megan’s mind, and was relieved to discover
that Claire hadn’t broken under the strain of using her telepathy, but died of
extreme old age.

“Once you were discovered in
Lottery, a complete refurbishment was carried out.” Megan gestured at the row
of lifts. “We have our own dedicated set of ultra express speed lifts, which connect
to major belt interchanges on each level of the Hive, enabling you to reach all
areas as quickly as possible. Lift 2 is bigger than standard, designed to take
the combined Alpha and Beta Strike teams in extreme emergency. Lift 6 is our freight
lift.”

She walked straight ahead
across the open area. I followed her, gradually calming down as I saw the
ceilings were reassuringly solid.

“These corridors are our accommodation
section,” said Megan. “Your family can spend time with you here and in the park,
but mustn’t enter the operational section of the unit.”

Park? We had our own park?
Megan had to be joking. I checked her thoughts. No, she wasn’t joking.

Megan led me on through security
doors into a corridor, and paused at a crossway. “We’re now in the operational
section. Tactical area on the left. Liaison area on the right.”

We walked on past huge
offices to the next crossway. “Administration offices are straight ahead,” said
Megan, “and the right turn leads to the storage and maintenance areas. We’ll
skip all that, and go left past the conference rooms.”

I obediently turned left,
my head dazed by the sheer scale of this. By now I’d worked out the number of
people on the Alpha Strike team, the Tactical team, and the Liaison team, and allowed
for the fact there’d be a Beta Strike team in future. I hadn’t absorbed the
fact that there’d be a lot of administration and other support staff too, and
all these people would need offices and apartments in the unit.

We reached yet another
crossway, and Megan paused again. “This area all belongs to the Strike team.
Gym, swimming pool, and equipment storage to the right. Ready room, shooting
range, and medical area to the left. Ahead is the park.”

Gym? Swimming pool? Medical
area? All we needed was a shopping area, and this place would be a whole little
level of its own. I shook my head in disbelief, and followed Megan through more
security doors. The park looked a little unkempt, with faded patches on the
blue ceiling, but the suns were on, there was birdsong among the trees, and a
rabbit was watching us curiously.

We followed the path alongside
a stream, took a side turning through some trees, skirted a lake, and finally reached
more doors. “And we’re now back in the accommodation section,” said Megan. “The
community rooms are all on this corridor.”

We walked on and arrived back
in the open area by the lift. “You and the Strike team all have apartments close
to the lifts to allow a fast response to emergency calls,” said Megan. “Adika’s
apartment is directly opposite yours for security reasons.”

She left me at the door of
my new apartment, clearly assuming I’d want to explore it by myself. I went inside,
and was stunned by the size of the palatial hall. I wandered round it, opening
doors on a ridiculous number of rooms, a lot of them totally empty. I paused in
one to investigate a stack of boxes, which turned out to contain all the
clutter I’d left in my storage locker on Teen Level. Eventually, I found the
living room, and frowned at the luxury comms system.

I’d faced my worries about
being on Industry 1, but now I had to deal with a bigger problem. I was
scheduled to meet Forge tomorrow morning. I was nervous already, and I was
bound to dream about him tonight.

I called Adika, and a holo
of his head appeared in front of me. “Yes, Amber?”

“I know I’m scheduled to
interview your Strike team tomorrow, but I’d like to do a few of them today.”

Adika gave me a rueful
smile. “Megan won’t approve, but I understand you being impatient to get on
with your job. Do you want to see anyone in particular?”

The only person I wanted
to see was Forge, but I didn’t want to make that too obvious. “It’s sensible to
begin by checking your five potential candidates for the deputy team leader positions.”

Adika nodded. “I’ll get
them here as soon as possible. Shall we use one of the conference rooms?”

I closed my eyes for a
second to search for Megan’s familiar thoughts.

“Megan’s roaming the
offices,” I said, “checking everything has been set up properly, so we’d better
use a room in my apartment. I think I remember seeing a meeting room somewhere
near my front door. With luck, I may manage to find it again. Why do I have
lots of completely empty rooms in here?”

Adika laughed. “The unit
is in an isolated part of the Hive because it makes things quieter for you, and
because it’s easier for us to set up security defences. Your apartment is huge
for the same reasons. If we ever had intruders in the unit, then you’d take
refuge in your apartment with your bodyguards. Take a look at the thickness of
your walls some time.”

He paused. “I’ll call you
when my candidates are here.”

His holo vanished. I stared
thoughtfully at the empty air where it had been, and then went to examine the
front door of my apartment. There was something odd about the wall and the
door. They were thicker than standard, and … I rapped on the wall with my
knuckles. It felt, and sounded, like I was knocking on a structural pillar.

I stood still for a
moment, thinking about the confusing layout of my apartment and all the empty
rooms, then went back to nose around the central area that contained my living
room, dining area, and bedroom. Yes, this was surrounded by even thicker walls.
If any intruders managed to cut their way into my apartment, my Strike team and
I could retreat into here.

This seemed an unbelievable
arrangement, but I was a rare and precious resource for my Hive, to be strictly
guarded and pampered with endless luxuries. The abrupt change from my basic
existence on Teen Level was unnerving.

I stopped worrying about security
defences, and started worrying about my meeting with Forge instead. I didn’t
want to wear my old teen clothes for this interview – I’d need all the
advantages I could get when I came face to face with Forge – so I headed to my
bedroom. I’d passed my mother’s suggestions for new clothes to Megan, and a whole
array of them were hanging inside the bedroom storage wall.

There were a couple of
packages on the shelf next to them. People were permitted to give occasional
personal gifts to lower level family members, so I’d got a fashionable beaded necklace
for my mother, and a top of the range dataview for my gadget-loving father.

I hadn’t got anything for
Gregas. He’d probably sulk about that, but the Teen Level equality rules barred
teens from being given presents. Everyone, whether their family was high or low
level, was supposed to start on Teen Level with the authorized set of basic
clothes and possessions, and live on the standard teen allowance after that.
I’d known a couple of cases where teens talked their parents into breaking the
rules and giving them luxury items. Those teens had ended up deeply unpopular
with everyone else, so I wasn’t encouraging Gregas to make the same mistake.

I left checking the
presents for later, picked out a very official looking onesuit, changed into it,
and dropped my old clothes on the floor. I knew that Hannah would sneak into my
apartment and tidy up later. I was probably getting a shameful reputation as
the untidy telepath.

I’d just arrived in the
meeting room, when the comms system chimed and I heard Adika’s voice. “We’re outside,
Amber.”

I ordered the front door
to open, and replied over the comms system. “Please wait in the hall until I
call you in.”

I sat down in a chair,
took a deep breath, and cautiously lifted the mental curtain that blocked my telepathic
view of the world. I guessed the mind of a borderline telepath would be like an
even brighter version of Lucas’s glowing thoughts. I was ready to be dazzled, prepared
to slam down the curtain and blot out a blinding sight, but there was nothing.

I reached out nervously to
Adika’s mind, and then to the five unfamiliar ones with him. This was ridiculous.
I couldn’t even guess which of them was Forge. I dipped into one of their minds,
touching the top level of thoughts.

… is it. The
telepath says yes or no. All or nothing, and no possible appeal.

There was no mental picture
of the telepath linked to the words. Adika, obsessed with security, hadn’t told
them my name or even my sex, let alone shown them a holo of me. I moved on to
the next stranger.

… was supposed to be
tomorrow. Is the change good or bad, and why …?

I checked the other three
minds as well, but still had no idea which of them was Forge. None of them was
thinking of their own name, and the levels below pre-vocalization were just a
mess of nervous anticipation. I’d learnt exactly nothing, except that Forge was
about to have the shock of his life. I peered at the controls inlaid into the
top of the meeting room table, and tapped one of them.

“Please send Forge in.”

I straightened up in my chair,
and tried to look calm and in control as the door opened. Forge entered,
looking less confident than on Teen Level, but a lot better dressed. His new
clothes suited him, though Forge could wear a sack and still look handsome.

He took one look at me and
froze in shock. I was grateful for his moment of utter confusion, because the
sight of his face had hit me just as strongly as in the days before Lottery. I instinctively
closed my eyes, and the effect was like turning off a light. From the
telepath’s viewpoint, Forge was nothing special at all. No joyous Carnival of a
mind like Lucas. Forge was an indistinct shadow of Adika, without the hard strength
of mind that came from years of experience.

“Amber.” I heard him murmur
the word, and saw his thoughts struggling to adjust to the situation.

…really is her, but
how can she be a telepath when …

Her hair is actually
tidy for once. Now that’s hard to …

The old days on Teen
Level. Shanna!

I winced and surfaced. The
low levels were a mess. I’d always seen Forge as the master of every situation,
but now he was feeling bewildered and uncertain. There was pain too, because
seeing me had triggered memories of the past, making him relive his parting
with Shanna.

“Hello, Forge.” I opened my
eyes but kept them firmly fixed on the table. “Please sit down.”

I heard the scrape of a
chair as he sat down, and then he spoke in a husky, nervous voice. “I’m ready.
Go ahead.”

“If you mean go ahead and read
your mind,” I said, “I already did that.”

I suddenly relaxed. Forge definitely
wasn’t either a borderline or true telepath. I still had no idea why his face
had such an effect on me, but all I needed to do was close my eyes and read his
mind to break the spell. I still didn’t understand what was going on here, but I
could control it.