Telepath (Hive Mind Book 1) (37 page)

Nicole spoke to us over
the sound link. “We’ve accessed the Ramblers Association records, and found some
images of the waterfall. Sending them to your dataviews now.”

Everyone took out dataviews,
unfolded them, and stared at the images. Infinite amounts of water cascading
down a cliff face, and then swiftly swirling onwards between two slopes that were
even steeper than the descent from table top. I’d seen waterfalls in parks, but
nothing like this.

“Waste it!” said Dhiren,
in an awed voice. “That’s impressive.”

“That’s … inconvenient,”
said Adika aloud, though the thought in his head was far more strongly phrased.

The Strike team went back
to building their bridge, and I briefly closed my eyes for another check on my
target. “Elden’s much closer now. I think I can give you a fairly accurate
distance. Seven or eight cors ahead of us.”

“Which is uncomfortably
close to the waterfall.” Adika’s voice held a note of grim resignation. “Of
course Elden would base himself by the river, so he’d have a constant supply of
water and fish. If he’s on the far bank, then crossing the river using ropes
will leave us wide open to attack. Rothan, am I right in assuming that wading
across at the ford would be a bad idea after heavy rain?”

“Suicidal,” said Rothan.

Adika left the bridge
builders to work on their own, and came over to where Lucas and I were sitting.
“Lucas, now we’ve got Elden’s position and are sure of his identity, can we
just wipe him out with an aerial attack?”

Lucas pulled a face. “Hive
Politics would prefer to submit Elden alive to Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement,
but his dead body should provide more than enough evidence against Hive Genex.
Would we end up with a body?”

Adika groaned. “With so
much tree cover here, we’d need to take out the whole area to get him. That
wouldn’t leave much of a body, or anything else.”

I closed my eyes. “I’ll
see if I can get any clues from Elden. It’s frustrating not understanding the
conscious levels though.”

I reached out to Elden’s
mind again, and went down to the lower levels where images flashed and emotions
burned. “Elden’s cold and wet and wants to go home to his nest.” I saw a
fleeting image. “The nest might be underground. It’s definitely somewhere dark
and dry.”

Adika sighed. “If Elden’s
got an underground nest, then an aerial assault isn’t an option.”

I concentrated on Elden’s sense
of smell and touch. The now familiar forest scent of leaf mould. The sensation
of damp clothes slapping against skin. The heavy weight on his hip. No smooth,
supportive, slippery feel of … “Elden has a gun, but isn’t wearing body armour.”

“Amber, you’re sure he
doesn’t have body armour?” asked Adika.

“Quite positive.”

Adika smiled. “Excellent
news!”

“If he doesn’t have body armour,
then we should try to get a shot at him before he knows we’re here,” said
Lucas. “Ideally kill him, but aim to at least wound him. If he starts running,
we can call in aircraft to take us across the river and help us chase him down.
A wounded man shouldn’t get far.”

The bridge was ready now, so
we moved on. This time I made the mistake of looking down at the water beneath me,
and saw it flinging itself over jagged rocks. Forge had to tug me forwards to
reach the other side.

“We’ll leave the bridge in
place this time,” said Adika. “It won’t help us with the river ahead, and we
want the option to move back at speed if necessary. Guns accessible. Crystal
units to visual.”

Everyone clipped their
guns to their hips. The camera extensions unfolded for the first time since
we’d come Outside.

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

“Forge, Dhiren, Kaden, Rafael,
Caleb will be on bodyguard duty,” said Adika. “Rothan and the rest are with me
on Chase team. Amber, I’m assuming you won’t be able to help us with much information
from Elden, but we daren’t leave you far behind us in this situation. Lucas,
stay close to Amber and keep your head down.”

Progress was very slow,
because those cutting the path were trying to make as little noise as possible.
Forge was carrying me, so I closed my eyes and tried to make sense of the bewildering
mind of my target.

“Elden’s head is like a kaleidoscope
of images,” I said. “They’re disjointed. Flickering. Getting close now. One or two
cors ahead and right a bit.”

“Bodyguard team drop back
and follow us in,” said Adika.

We moved on a little further.

“He’s one cor ahead, or a
little less,” I said.

“Across the river then.”
Adika gave a rapid series of orders. “We’re coming up to the river edge now.
The ford is directly ahead, and the river goes over the waterfall to our right.
Bodyguard team stay in the trees. Chase team crawl from now on, fan out to the
left and right and try to spot Elden. If you can get a clear shot, then go for
it. Guns on kill. Stunning him is pointless, because he’d regain consciousness
long before we got across that river.”

I could hear the sound of
fast flowing water ahead of me. A sudden clap of wings, loud as a drum roll,
drowned it out for a moment. We’d been hearing this periodically for days as we
startled birds along our path.

“Waste those pigeons,” said
Adika. “Freeze everyone. Amber, did that worry Elden?”

“I don’t know.” I groaned
my frustration. “He noticed it but I don’t know if he’s worried.” I sieved
through images. “He’s high up, looking down at the water.”

“If he was above the waterfall,
then he’d be level with the water. He’s to our right then?” asked Adika.

“No. He’s directly ahead.”

“But …”

I felt the roughness of
bark under my target’s hands. “A tree! Elden’s up a tree!”

Forge instantly dropped to
the ground, taking me with him. A new image flashed in Elden’s mind. Men
crawling through bushes. Others among trees. One man cradling the slight figure
of a girl against him.

“He can see us! He can see
me!” I yelled.

Bodies landed heavily on
me. My bodyguards throwing themselves between me and danger. I kept focused on Elden’s
mind. He mustn’t escape.

“I have visual!” yelled
Eli. “Partial shot. Do I take it?”

“Eli, kill!” Adika ordered.

The sharp note of a kill
setting sounded as Eli fired, and I felt flaring pain. “You got his arm.”

“Amber, get out of Elden’s
head!” screamed Lucas from next to me. “You know you have to leave a target’s
mind the instant the kill order is given.”

I’d been stupidly
over-eager to help, but I left Elden’s mind now. “Going circuit. Adika, Eli …”

I saw the view of the
target from Eli’s eyes. Elden was high in a tree on the opposite bank, a dark
shape among yellow leaves, swinging round to shelter behind the tree trunk.

Eli ran forward to the
river edge to get another, clearer shot at him, and fired a fraction of a
second before he was hit by a hammer blow to the shoulder. His body armour
protected him, but he was caught off balance, staggered and fell. I felt the
cold of the racing water engulf him, carrying him on towards the waterfall.

“Eli’s hit! He’s in the river!
Waste it, my leg!”

I screamed in agony as I, as
Eli, crashed down the face of the waterfall. I had to fight to force myself to
stay with him despite the pain tearing through my, his, body. “Eli’s leg’s
broken. He’s unconscious now, caught on some rocks. Cold. So terribly cold.”

“There’s a path that cuts
the corner to a view point,” said Rothan. “If we can get downstream of Eli …”

“Rothan, go!” shouted
Adika. “Amber, where’s Elden?”

I left Eli and searched. “Elden’s
running away from the river. He’s hit, shoulder and arm. Staggering through the
trees. No threat to us.”

“We’ve lost Eli’s visual
link and tracking,” said Nicole. “His crystal unit must be smashed.”

“Everyone after Rothan!”
Adika ordered.

Bodyguards tumbled off me.
Forge went off at a frantic sprint, while Kaden grabbed me and carried me along
with the main rush of the Strike team. The ground was rocky here, there were no
bushes and the sparse trees were stunted. The path was so steep and muddy that
we skidded and slid our way down it, but I didn’t care.

“Nicole, we need air
support now!” Adika gasped the words.

“Aerial one and two are
launching,” Nicole responded. “Aerial three is holding while medical staff
board and will launch in three minutes.”

I closed my eyes, hung on
to Kaden, and searched for Eli again. There was agony from his leg, and a sick
stabbing in his head and chest, but Eli himself was too far gone to be aware of
it.

“We’re downstream of Eli
now,” I yelled. “He’s unconscious still. Alive. Just.”

There was the sound of the
gun that Adika had used to fire ropes across the streams. It fired a second
time.

“Eli’s been washed off the
rocks,” I yelled again. “He’s coming towards us now!”

“I can’t see him.” Adika’s
voice was half drowned by the thundering sound of water.

I opened my eyes. Adika
had shot ropes across the river, and he and Forge were wading into the waist
deep water. They wore belts that were clipped to the ropes, and were pulling
themselves along with their hands, while their legs were being swept from under
them by the current.

“He’s nearer the other
bank. Over there!” I screamed the words, waving my arm frantically at where my
mind could see Eli.

Forge glanced at me, then
back at the churning water. “I see him now!”

He was just in time to
snag the dark tumbling shape that was Eli. Adika joined him, and together they
fought against the strength of the river to wind an orange harness around Eli.
They got it clipped to the ropes, adjusted it, and slowly dragged themselves
and Eli back towards the eager hands of the rest of the Strike team.

Eli was white and
motionless when they stretched him out on the riverbank, but I could still
sense a sliver of unconscious thought. Adika knelt beside him, pressing rhythmically
on his chest to pump water from his lungs, as a roar sounded above us.

“Aerial one requesting
target location,” said a female voice in my ear crystal.

I closed my eyes and searched.
“Target is across the river. Running directly away from it. Three cors away
from my position and still moving.”

I opened my eyes again, looked
up, and saw the impossible sight of something huge and grey hanging in the sky.
I stared at it in shock, as it moved across the river, paused to hover above
the trees, and was joined by its identical twin.

“Aerial one and two have target
on heat sensors,” said Nicole. “Aerial three will arrive at your location in
two minutes.”

“We’ll need Aerial three
to pick us up,” said Adika. “Elden’s on the wrong side of the river to us, and
Eli’s in bad shape. A compound fracture of his left leg and a head injury.
What’s the target’s situation like, Amber?”

“Elden was shot in the
left arm and then the left shoulder. He fell out of his tree after that. He’s in
a lot of pain, but he doesn’t seem to care. He’s still running through the
trees. His mind looked like it was rippling before, but now it’s separating
into fragments. I can see my own face in the images on the subconscious levels.
He’s not just in pain from his wounds. There seems to be pain inside his head
as well.”

“He’s seen you and your
Strike team hunting him, Amber,” said Lucas. “He knows what that means. We’ve
discovered his plan, removed your imprint, and everything he’s been through in
the last fifteen years has been for nothing. The shock has sent his imprint
overload into cascade failure, and his mind is coming apart at the seams. No
wonder he’s in pain.”

“Will he recover from
that?” I asked.

“No,” said Lucas. “No chance
of recovery. No possible treatment. There’ll be some remaining rational
thought, he’ll still be dangerous, but he’s broken beyond repair.”

There was a roar from
overhead. Another massive grey object was above us. That had to be Aerial three.
We were by the side of the river with a precipitous slope next to us, so how
could the aircraft pick us up?

Then I saw a rigid,
man-sized cradle was dangling below the aircraft, and being lowered towards us.
Forge and Rothan reached up to grab it and guide it to the ground. They loaded
Eli in, careful of his twisted leg, and strapped him in place. He soared up
into the air to be taken aboard the aircraft.

A couple of minutes later,
Megan’s voice spoke. “We have to get Eli back to the Hive immediately.”

“Megan, are you in Aerial
three?” asked Adika.

“Yes. I’ve got a full team
of doctors with me, and we’ll do our best for Eli, but we need to get him into
a specialist unit as fast as possible.”

I felt sick at the tone of
her voice. I’d thought that once Eli was in medical hands then he’d be safe,
but it wasn’t that simple.

“Aerial three, go!” Adika
ordered. “Aerial two, pick the rest of us up. Aerial one, maintain contact with
target.”

The aircraft carrying Eli
suddenly accelerated and shot out of sight beyond the trees. Another took its
place. Something was being lowered towards us again, not a one-man cradle this
time, but a huge net. Adika caught it, and found an opening.

“Rothan, Forge, Amber,
Lucas, Matias, Kaden. You go first.”

Rothan and Forge went
through the opening, one on each side of the net, using their weight to spread
it out and make room for the rest of us. Matias helped Lucas inside, and I
gulped and let Kaden lift me in after him.

“Just close your eyes,
Amber,” said Forge. “Keep them closed until we’re aboard.”

I closed my eyes, felt the
net rock as Matias and Kaden climbed in, and then the world seemed to sway
drunkenly as gusts of wind blew around us. I dug my hands into the web of
netting and hung on tight, telling myself it was impossible to fall. After a
few moments, I felt the netting go slack.

“We’re aboard,” said
Forge. “You can let go of the net, Amber.”

I opened my eyes, and saw
a stranger, a woman, beckoning us towards a door. I disentangled myself from
the webbing, and turned to follow her, catching a sickening glimpse of a hole
in the floor with an endless drop below it. I froze, standing staring at it,
and Lucas tugged me firmly through a door into a normal looking room filled
with seats. He thrust me down into one of them, sat next to me, and the rest of
the Strike team gradually arrived to join us, looking either exhilarated or
shocked by the experience of riding in the net.

A warm cup arrived in my
hands. I looked down stupidly at it for a moment, and then realized it was hot
soup. I came out of my trance and drank it greedily.

“Now,” said Adika, “we get
on the right side of the river and …”

“Aerial one here. We’ve
lost the target,” said a voice over the sound link.

“What?” Adika burst out in
fury. “How the waste did you lose him?”

“The heat signal just
vanished.”

“Even if Elden died,” said
Lucas, “he wouldn’t lose his body heat all at once. Three possibilities. He’s
using stealth technology, he’s underwater, or he’s underground. Amber?”

I already had my eyes
closed, reaching out with my mind. “He’s still alive. Still moving. It’s dark, and
there’s a beam of light flashing around. Mud underfoot. Glimpses of rock walls.
No, not rock, blocks of carved stone.” I felt Elden slip, and instinctively
reach out a hand to steady himself. “Cold, hard, gritty, damp walls.”

“Underground then,” said
Lucas. “Rothan, are there any tunnels round here?”

“There’s no mention of
them on my maps,” said Rothan, “but ramblers wouldn’t be interested in ancient
tunnels. We want to spend time Outside, not underground.”

“We’re checking the
records for tunnels,” said the voice of Nicole. There was a pause of several
minutes before she spoke again. “We had to go into the archived records to find
any mention of tunnels, but there used to be underground express belt links
between the Hive, Hive Futura, and the sea farm. When Hive Futura was
abandoned, the underground belt links were abandoned too. The ends of the
tunnels were sealed off, and now all supplies are sent to and from the sea farm
by aircraft.”

“Elden must have stumbled
across a way into the old tunnel between the sea farm and the Hive when he was
exploring this area,” said Lucas. “Possibly through an air vent or emergency
exit. However he got in there, Elden had a perfect route to our Hive, safe from
curious ramblers and aerial surveillance. The belts wouldn’t be working, he’d
have to walk along them, but that would still be faster than the paths above
ground. Why didn’t Hive Defence mention these underground tunnels to us?”

Adika groaned. “They
probably don’t know they exist. Abandoned express belt links wouldn’t be
included in anyone’s imprinted data.”

I didn’t say it aloud,
because it wouldn’t help at this point, but I felt this showed that the Hive’s
policy of carefully controlling information could sometimes be counterproductive.

“Amber, do you know how Elden
got in there?” asked Adika.

“No.” I shook my head in
frustration. “I can’t understand the high levels, and the low levels are a
waking nightmare. I just get the odd clue from things he sees, smells or
touches. Things he hears too, but at the moment he’s only hearing dripping
water and his own breathing and footsteps. I’m sorry.”

“You’re doing
brilliantly,” said Lucas.

“There’s thick forest down
there,” said Adika. “It could take us days to find a way to get underground
after him.”

“Elden knows he’s failed,”
said Lucas, “and there’s no way for him to get back to Hive Genex. He may still
be able to send them a message, but he’s too badly wounded to make the swim
offshore to meet an aircraft.”

“We should increase the
coastal patrols on this whole length of coastline anyway,” said Adika.

“Contacting Hive Defence
about that now,” said Nicole.

I was still checking Elden’s
distant mind for clues. He was sitting on the ground now, back against the tunnel
wall, tying up his throbbing wounds and checking his possessions. I caught an
angry memory that involved physical movements rather than words. “Elden’s lost
his gun. He’s still got a knife, but no gun.”

“No gun?” repeated Adika.
“You’re absolutely sure about that, Amber?”

“I’m sure,” I said. “Elden
was high up in a tree next to the river when Eli shot him in the shoulder. Elden
lost his grip on his branch, and slithered down the tree, grabbing more
branches to break his fall. Somewhere in the middle of that, his gun fell, and
was either lost in the river or the undergrowth.”

An image appeared in the
pain-torn mind. “Elden’s planning something,” I said urgently. “I just saw him
thinking about my brother, Gregas! How does Elden know about Gregas? Why is he
thinking about him?”

“Elden will have found out
every detail he could about you, Amber,” said Lucas. “That would include information
on your brother. If he’s thinking about him, then …”

I had a shocking thought
and interrupted him. “Gregas is another true telepath, and Elden is planning to
kidnap him?”

“Your brother has a higher
than usual chance of being a borderline telepath,” said Lucas, “but it’s highly
unlikely that he’s a true telepath. Elden knows he’s failed to kidnap you, and
that he can’t possibly make it back to his own Hive, so he’s going for a
revenge killing. He’s aware he won’t stand a chance of getting through your bodyguards
to kill you, so he’s aiming to kill Gregas instead. Elden will be hoping that traumatizes
you so much that it damages your ability to work for our Hive as a telepath.”

I glared at him. “How can
you talk about it so calmly? Gregas is irritating, but he’s my brother!”

“I can talk about it
calmly, because we won’t let it happen,” said Lucas. “Nicole, we need Gregas guarded
until we’ve captured Elden. Other potential victims as well. Amber’s parents obviously.
Amber’s best friends on Teen Level were Forge and Shanna. Forge can take care
of himself, but we’d better put some guards on Shanna.”

“That’s not good enough,”
I said. “A few hasties would be no match for Elden. The man’s deadly.”

I turned in my seat to
look at Adika. “I want my brother and my parents safely inside my unit behind
the best defences in the Hive.”

Adika frowned. “You want
your family kept inside our unit for days, Amber? That could cause security
problems.”

“It won’t matter if they
find out roughly what our unit does, so long as they don’t find out we use telepathy
to do it.”

Adika sighed. “The girl,
Shanna, too?”

Shanna didn’t mean much to
me these days, but Elden wouldn’t know that. “Yes, Shanna too.”

“Nicole, get hasties to
pick all four of them up and take them to the unit,” said Lucas. “We’ll fly
home ourselves now, and wait for Elden to arrive at the Hive. Even if we could
find a way to go underground after Elden, I’m not taking us on a chase along ancient
tunnels that could collapse at any moment. It’s a totally unnecessary risk when
we know exactly where Elden is, where he’s going, and what he plans to do when
he gets there.”