Telepath (Hive Mind Book 1) (22 page)

Two days later, my team leaders and
I were in meeting room four. Lucas was sitting directly opposite me, so I was staring
at the table top to avoid looking at him.

After my angry response to
the idea of me going Outside, Lucas had told Adika to abandon his plan, and warned
everyone in the Unit not to mention Outside to me. That meant nobody was
talking about Outside, but it didn’t stop them thinking about it.

Lucas was worst of all,
constantly worrying about the violence of my reaction, and nosing through my
records for any reference to me going Outside. He’d even tried calling my
parents to ask them about it, which had triggered the first in a series of spectacular
arguments that …

No, I mustn’t let myself think
about that because I’d only get upset again. I forced myself to focus on the conversation.

“Nothing has happened in 600/2600
since our emergency run,” said Lucas. “No warning signs. No oddities. Absolutely
nothing.”

“We might have scared our
target into moving their activities to another area,” said Adika.

“Why would the target be
scared of us?” Lucas had a bitter edge to his voice. “We got the child back,
but no information about who was behind the incident. There’s no reason for the
target to panic and leave their familiar territory. They’re still there, they’re
giving us absolutely no clue to their plans, but eventually there’ll be another
incident.”

“You think we should go
back for a check run then?” I asked.

Lucas didn’t say anything,
just frowned down at his hands. My Tactical Commander knew we needed to go back
to 600/2600, but he was worried enough, both professionally and personally, that
he wouldn’t give the order to send us there again.

I took a deep breath. “We
either go back to check 600/2600 now, or wait to be forced into action by
another incident. I don’t want another emergency run with a child’s life at
stake. None of us does. That means we have to do the check run. Agreed?”

Everyone nodded.

“Do we begin at the park?”
asked Adika.

“It’s the obvious place to
start,” said Lucas. “If Amber can’t find a target there, then we’ll try a couple
of places on other levels.”

“Do we go today or tomorrow?”
asked Adika.

A delay would just make me
more nervous. “We go right now.”

“Do you want me to come with
you?” asked Lucas.

“No!” Adika and I chorused
the reply.

“We treat this like an emergency
run,” Adika said firmly. “No debate. No discussion. No towing along a Tactical
Commander.”

I stood up and headed back
to my apartment. Lucas scampered after me, and waited in the hallway while I
went to my bedroom and got changed. Body armour, clothes, ear crystal. I was
ready.

Lucas and I went back
outside the apartment, and there was an awkward, silent moment. Several Strike
team members jogged past us heading for the lift. This was a planned run to
check an area, not an emergency run, so they weren’t sprinting flat out.

“Read me,” said Lucas.

I reached out to touch his
thoughts. Lucas loved me. He was sorry about the arguments. He was worried
about this run. I had to be careful, because I mustn’t get hurt. Not just
because I was the irreplaceable telepath, but because I was me.

“I’ll be careful,” I said.

“First kiss moment?”

More of the Strike team
went past, some of them carrying bags of special equipment that included a
newly delivered robot. Everyone that went by gave us curious looks. The entire
unit knew about our arguments because two of them had happened in public.

I sighed. This wasn’t a
good time to try to progress my relationship with Lucas. The arguments about
going Outside were too fresh in my mind. People were watching us. I was filled
with nerves about today’s run. “Maybe not. We have to work on the physical
contact issue though.”

“I’m scared of messing it
up,” Lucas admitted.

We were both scared of
that. I was a telepath. Lucas had an incredible mind. Our relationship had
progressed at high speed mentally, but we were both torn between eagerness and
fear at the idea of making it physical. There was so much at stake here. We
both felt we could never have another relationship like this, and were
terrified that it could be wrecked by a disastrous physical encounter.

“I know,” I said. “Eventually,
we’ll have to take the risk.”

We shook hands. Lucas ran
for his office. I ran for lift 2, and the doors closed behind me.

“Strike team is moving,”
Adika said, in a deafening voice.

I twiddled my ear crystal
to lower the volume.

“Tactical ready.” Lucas’s
voice sounded breathless. He must have just sprinted into the office to join
the rest of the Tactical team.

“Liaison ready. Tracking
status green,” Nicole said.

I checked my dataview. We
had a full team, except for Matias who was still on restricted duties while he
recovered from his appendicitis operation. “Green here.”

Lucas started briefing us.
He’d got his breath back now, and his voice sounded reassuringly calm, but I
knew his thoughts would be frantic with worry.

“You’re going back to the
600/2600 area to check it at several different locations,” he said. “First
location, back at the park, 601/2603 Level 80. I don’t need to remind you about
last time. Extreme caution advised. You’ll find the park empty, because it’s still
closed after the incident with the child.”

Adika listed eight names
to be my bodyguard team, putting Rothan in charge of them, and then the rest of
the trip went by in grim silence.

Everyone’s nerves were
wound up to breaking point when we entered the park. Chase team formed a
defensive perimeter. Rothan carried me, and the other bodyguards clustered
tightly around us. They put me down by a vaguely familiar looking tree. There
was still a silver and gold balloon stuck in its branches. I ignored it. We’d
been here before. We’d done this before.

“Checking the area.” I closed
my eyes and reached out with my mind. There was a tight knot of bodyguards surrounding
me, thoughts concentrated on my protection. Spread around the perimeter, the Chase
team were equally tense and alert.

“Check the park itself,
Amber,” said Lucas. “The target might have returned. It’s not that hard to get
into a locked park.”

Only the wordless thoughts
of birds and small creatures floated around me. No strangers. “No one in the
park. Reaching further. Checking this level first.”

Minds. Lots of minds. None
distinctive. None with a different taste, smell, shape. I drifted across them,
not going deep into any individual thoughts, just checking the feel of each
mind as I brushed its surface. Tame bees, working in their hive, absorbed in
their everyday lives. No jarring note among the busy hum.

“Nothing on this level. Trying
the higher levels.”

I was checking the
chattering human heads in the area directly above the park, when I became aware
of an itch inside my head. I had a sick feeling in my stomach.

“Itch. Going circuit!” I
opened my eyes and stared at my dataview, gabbling the names of both Bodyguard and
Chase team members as I checked their minds.

“Amber?” Adika’s voice asked.
“What’s happening?”

“She’s got an itch.”
Lucas’s voice was sharp and anxious. “Amber had an itch when the child was
unconscious. Amber woke up with an itch when Matias was hit by appendicitis.
Someone’s in trouble.”

“Everyone take cover!” Adika
snapped out the order.

My bodyguards covered me. Literally.
At least one of them was lying on top of me. I couldn’t see my dataview any
longer, but I kept chanting names from memory.

“Eli’s down. Unconscious. Dhiren’s
down. Unconscious.”

“They were next to each other
on Chase team perimeter north,” said Adika. “The recording of their visual
links just shows the angle changing as if they slowly sat down. Pity they
weren’t looking at each other. Kaden, you’re closest to them. Can you see anything?”

“I’m in some bushes. I can
only see Eli’s foot from here. I could sneak out of the bushes and …”

“Stay in cover!” Adika
ordered. “Is everyone else all right?”

I paused in my soft
chanting of names. “So far.”

“Everyone keep hidden,”
said Lucas. “Amber, can you get anything from Dhiren and Eli’s minds? Any clue
to what happened?”

I hated quitting circuit,
my team were in danger and it was instinctive to keep checking them. Lucas was
right though. We needed to know what had happened.

“Stopping circuit,” I said.
“Checking Dhiren and Eli. They’re unconscious. Dreaming. Rose without a thorn. Something
about a thorn. I’m getting an image from Eli.”

I focused on the image. Eli’s
dream was replaying in a loop. “Eli felt something sharp stick into his arm. He
thought it was a thorn from one of the bushes. He brushed at it, looked down, and
saw that some kind of dart had gone straight through his body armour. He tried
to speak but couldn’t, then he passed out.”

“Darts,” muttered Adika.
“Still no target mind?”

“No target,” I said. “There’s
no one except us in this park. I can’t swear the dart thing is right. I’m
getting it from a dream sequence, and editing out what is obviously just
fantasy.”

“Tell us the edited bit as
well,” said Lucas. “It might mean something.”

“There’s a winged angel,”
I told him. “The light angel from the Halloween festival. She’s flying above
Eli, and she’ll save him from the dark hunt.”

“Halloween festival,”
muttered Lucas. “Filled with frightening images. People all dressed as evil
creatures hunting prey. Light angel only exception, only hope of escaping the
hunt. Light angel clearly Amber. She’ll save Eli from the hunt. Why is she flying?
Light angel has wings but isn’t normally flying. What exactly does she do,
Amber?”

“She looks over her left
shoulder at something, and then flies up towards it. The dream sequence starts
looping after that. I don’t look much like her, Lucas. I wish I did, but I
don’t.”

Lucas was jabbering away, verbalizing
his thought trains in abbreviated sentences. “Idealized image. Flying to save
Eli. In the air. Something high up. No target mind. Target uses booby traps.”

“Back on circuit.” I started
chanting names. “Rafael’s been hit.”

…my hand. The slim,
black dart sticking into it didn’t hurt much, but I was …

“Rafael’s unconscious,” I
reported.

“He was on the other side
of Eli and Dhiren.” Adika sounded furious. “There’s something to the north, and
it’s taking us down one at a time. Keep under cover everyone. Don’t show a
hand, a foot, a finger.”

I was still running
circuits, checking the unconscious minds along with the rest. So far they just
seemed to be peacefully sleeping, but if they started feeling sick …

“Nicole,” said Lucas, “cut
all power to the park.”

“Working on it,” said Nicole.

“You’ll turn out the suns,
Lucas,” said Adika, “and we won’t be able to see. Eli had the bag with the wristset
lights.”

“There’s a device targeting
you,” said Lucas. “It may be attached to the park power supply, or it may have
its own power cell. If it’s using the power supply then it’ll be turned off
with the suns. If it isn’t turned off, then it may not be able to detect you in
the dark.”

“I’ve got someone on the
power supply now,” said Nicole, in a panicky voice. Conflicting orders from the
Tactical Commander and the Strike team leader were Liaison’s worst nightmare.
“Do we turn it off or not?”

“Turn it off,” said Adika.

Everything went very
black. At least, it went black to Forge. My own eyes were closed, but I was in
his head at the second the lights went out.

“Stay still unless told to
move,” said Adika. “Kaden, you’re closest to Eli and you’ve got the robot. Can
you use it to retrieve Eli’s bag of wristset lights?”

At the mention of Kaden’s
name, I automatically swapped to his mind. I found him wishing he’d been shot
so he didn’t have to tell Adika the bad news. “The robot is broken down into four
pieces for transport,” he admitted reluctantly. “I’ve only got three of the
pieces. Rafael’s got the main section, and he’s …”

“Unconscious,” Adika finished
the sentence himself and groaned. “You’ll have to try to get the bag yourself
then. Crawl cautiously towards Eli.”

“It’s pitch black,” said Kaden.
“I’m not sure where Eli is now.”

“I’ll guide you,” I said.

“Heading off in hopefully
the right direction.”

I was a passenger in
Kaden’s thoughts as he left the shelter of his bushes. I could hear the rustle
of leaves as he crawled forward, feel the coolness of grass under the palms of
his hands, share his tense awareness that whatever weapon had taken down his
team mates could be about to shoot him too.

“Turn a bit more to your
left,” I said.

“I just hit a tree trunk. Going
round it. Now I can move left.” Kaden crawled onwards in the darkness.

“Straight on now,” I said.

“Found Eli!” A pause. “Got
the lights. Do I turn one on?”

“Get into the bushes
first,” said Adika. “Then turn one light on and throw it away from you. See if
anything shoots at it.”

“Got that,” said Kaden.
“Throwing now. Nothing happening.”

“Good,” said Adika. “Now
put on one of the wristset lights and turn it on. If anything shoots at you, turn
it off again. If nothing happens, crawl round to team members and hand out
lights.”

“I’ve been trying to work
out the relative positions,” said Lucas. “I think the device shooting you was
attached to a park safety camera. Those are focused on lakes or anywhere else dangerous
for small children, and automatically analyze people’s movements. If their
internal software decides someone is in trouble, they trigger alarms and
release rescue devices.”