All my information was coming from touch rather than sight. My target’s eyes were open, but the only lights in this area were tiny ones on a nearby control panel, so I could only see some shadowy outlines in the darkness.
“It’s too dark here.” The petrified murmur from what sounded like a young male voice echoed my own thoughts. “Much too dark.”
“We have to call Emergency Services for help,” whispered a voice that was certainly female.
As well as suffering from the pain in his arm, my target was feeling dizzy from loss of blood, but he hissed back sharply. “No! We aren’t calling for help. I’m in charge, and I’ve got this situation under control.”
“You’ve lost all touch with reality,” said the female voice. “You haven’t got this situation under control. That man is still down at floor level looking for us. Eventually, he’ll work out that we must have climbed a ladder, come up here after us, and attack us again.”
“I won the fight with him last time,” said my target stubbornly. “I can win another fight too.”
“You didn’t win that fight,” the female voice sounded totally exasperated now. “You didn’t do anything except get yourself stabbed. I was the one who kicked the man’s legs out from under him, hit him with my lantern, and then dragged the pair of you off between the tanks. I was the one who tied a cloth around your arm as a makeshift tourniquet. I was the one who thought of climbing a ladder to hide up here.”
She groaned. “Even if that man gives up looking for us, we’ll never get out of here by ourselves. We’ve no lanterns now, and no idea where we are. You have to give us our dataviews back so we can call Emergency Services for help.”
“No! If we call for help, then we’ll get in trouble.”
My target’s pain was making it hard for me to think, but I started babbling details on the crystal comms.
“I’ve found our wounded person. It’s almost completely dark where he is, so I can’t see anything to give us a precise location. He must be at least one corridor north of me, perhaps more like two cors, and at least five levels higher up. He’s been stabbed in the arm and seems to have lost a lot of blood. There are two people with him, and one has put a cloth tourniquet around his arm.”
I paused for breath. “The wounded person is lying on something cold and metallic, probably the top of one of the tanks. One of the other two people is male and frozen in terror of the darkness. The other is female and having an argument with the wounded person. They sound quite young. Definitely no older than me.”
“The people are arguing,” repeated Lucas. “Is one of them our wild bee? Do we have a hostage situation, Amber?”
“No. The three people were attacked by the wild bee. One of the boys was stabbed, but the girl fought the wild bee off, and they managed to get away, climb a ladder, and hide. She thinks the wild bee is still down at floor level looking for them, and the argument is because the wounded boy has all their dataviews and won’t call Emergency Services for help.”
“Are you sure it’s the wounded boy who won’t call for help?” asked Adika. “That doesn’t seem to make sense. Surely he’d want medical treatment.”
“The wounded boy doesn’t want to call for help because he thinks they’ll get into trouble,” I said. “I agree that isn’t sensible, but he isn’t thinking too clearly even at the level of pre-vocalized thoughts, and his lower thought levels are just a blur of pain.”
“We have three vulnerable bystanders hiding on top of a tank,” said Lucas grimly. “Our wild bee has already seriously injured one of them, and he’s probably down at floor level hunting for them right now. There’s obviously no motion-activated lighting around those tanks, but there must be some sort of lighting available.”
“There’s some overhead lighting in the area,” said Nicole. “That’s normally only turned on when maintenance work is being done on the tanks.”
“Our wild bee either doesn’t know how to turn the lights on or prefers to keep searching in the dark,” said Lucas. “We may want to turn the lights on ourselves later, but for now we want to keep the wild bee thinking he’s in control of the situation.”
He paused. “Amber, I want you to leave the three bystanders now, and see if you can find the wild bee.”
I left the pain-filled mind of the wounded bystander, and began sweeping the area looking for the wild bee. I was vaguely aware of the conversation continuing on the crystal comms.
“Sending details on the lighting to everyone on the Strike team,” said Nicole.
“Rothan, you have three people to protect and get to safety instead of one,” said Adika. “Caleb and Rafael had better join red group.”
“We mustn’t endanger the bystanders by leading the wild bee to their location,” said Lucas. “If he’s roaming Level Zero at floor level, then red group should avoid him by taking a lift up to Industry 46 and finding a floor access point. The plan is that you’ll lower yourselves down on ropes, land on the top of one of the tanks, and then use the aerial walkways to reach the bystanders. Don’t open the access point until I give you the order.”
“Red group is moving now,” said Rothan.
A moment later, I found a mind that was burning with anger. “Target acquired. Wild bee is three cors west of me, and one level up.”
“Blue group should get into position ready to corner the wild bee,” said Lucas. “You should remain hidden until red group have reached the bystanders and can defend them.”
“Understood,” said Adika. “Blue group is moving.”
I was reading thoughts that were filled with whirling emotions. “The wild bee is furious. Those three people trespassed on his territory. They learned his private secret. They showed disrespect when they laughed at him.”
“Our target thinks of this place as his territory,” said Lucas. “That means he’s an expert on this area of Level Zero. The bystanders encountered him by accident and learned an embarrassing personal secret. He responded by suddenly escalating into violence.”
“Amber, is the target carrying a lantern?” asked Adika.
“He never carries a lantern in Level Zero because maintenance workers sometimes pass through this area,” I reported. “He’s memorized every inch of this place, and trained himself to move around with only the control panel lights for guidance.”
“Is he wearing a maintenance uniform?” asked Lucas.
“The feel of the fabric isn’t right for a maintenance uniform, and there’s a high collar that’s more like the one on a formal onesuit. The wild bee’s approaching a control panel with lights, so …”
I studied the view from my target’s eyes as he walked past the control panel. “I just caught a glimpse of one of his sleeves. It’s torn and smeared with dirt, but I saw what looked like a leaf design shimmering in the lights of the control panel.”
Buzz spoke on the crystal comms. “Those clothes can’t be more than three months old. Shimmering leaf and flower designs are the very latest fashion on the elite top ten levels of the Hive.”
“The target is ruining brand new expensive clothes by wearing them in a dirty maintenance area,” said Lucas. “He doesn’t care if he ruins his clothes because he can easily afford more. Our wild bee is a Level 1 resident of this area.”
Chapter Three
I was startled. “You seriously think that we’ve got a Level 1 wild bee, Lucas? Surely that’s unusual.”
“It’s extremely unusual,” said Lucas. “Most Level 1 people are perfectly contented. Lottery hasn’t just allocated them work that they love, but given them the highest status and most luxurious lifestyle in the Hive. While Level 1 people can still have relationship problems, they have the best medical and counselling support to help deal with them.”
He sighed. “There are the exceptional cases though. Amber, your telepathic talent is so rare and desperately needed by the Hive that you were allocated your work whether it was suited to you or not. Some other people are in the same situation as you, doing wor
k that they don’t love and may even actively dislike. They can suffer from severe stress as a result, and grow to resent the happiness of people around them.”
“There aren’t many of these people in the Hive, Lucas,” said Nicole doubtfully.
“There aren’t many of them,” said Lucas, “but they’re all given especially luxurious living conditions. Virtually all of those people who have been assigned to work in Orange Zone will be living here in area 500/2500.”
His voice took on a harsh note. “This is the Orange Zone Level 1 centre point. It has the most luxurious apartments suitable for illustrious people like the head of Hive Politics. Its shopping area and other facilities will only be surpassed by those in area 500/5000, the centre point of the whole Hive.”
“I hope you aren’t suggesting that the head of Hive Politics is our wild bee,” said Adika. “That would be an exceedingly awkward situation.”
“I’m sure that the head of Hive Politics isn’t our wild bee,” said Lucas. “When I called him to ask permission to use his apartment, he was in his office on Industry 1, and sent one of his bodyguards to assist us. Our wild bee could be someone else stunningly important though. Does that seem possible, Amber?”
“The wild bee does think he’s important,” I said cautiously. “There’s an overtone of superiority present in every level of his thoughts. That’s why he’s so furious about those bystanders discovering his secret. The low level protein scum dared to laugh at him. It was humiliating.”
I paused. “But the fact he thinks he’s important doesn’t necessarily mean he genuinely is important. I’ve read the minds of wild bees rated as low as Level 80 who think of themselves as important, and all that means is they’ve got an overblown ego.”
“Very true,” said Lucas. “Are you seeing anything that could give us a clue to our wild bee’s identity?”
I skimmed hastily through my target’s thought levels. “He’s not thinking about his name. He’s not thinking about his work. He’s not even thinking about the reason he’s been exploring the maintenance areas. His mind is focused on finding the people who laughed at him and killing them.”
I groaned. “He’s got to find them, he’s got to kill them, and he’s got to do it quickly. His whole life is at stake. He’s been getting messages from Health and Safety about Level 1 area 500/2500 being evacuated because of electrical issues, but he knows that’s a lie.”
“So what does our wild bee think is happening?” asked Lucas.
I concentrated on a relevant thought train and rapidly recited details. “He used to keep his behaviour under control because he believed the patrolling nosies could read his mind. Two years ago, he discovered that wasn’t true. He made a mistake that caused an accident in his laboratory. He lied about what happened, and spent weeks expecting nosies to challenge him about it, but they never did.”
“My team are checking records on laboratory accidents,” said Nicole.
“The wild bee still believes nosies are genuine telepaths though,” I said. “He thinks they can’t read his mind because his superior logic is beyond their comprehension. The funny thing is that it’s true his mind is especially logical, but that just makes it easier to read his thoughts.”
I shook my head. “Anyway, the wild bee started indulging himself with his secrets. Everything went perfectly until those bystanders saw him. Now he thinks that the bystanders have called for help, and Health and Safety are evacuating the area because they’re sending in an army of nosy squads. He never wanted to hurt anyone, but now he’s desperate. The only way to save himself from exposure and ridicule is to find the bystanders and kill them before the nosies arrive. Once the nosies read the minds of those people, and find out what they saw …”
The thought train was swamped by the images of a memory sequence, and I broke off my sentence to concentrate on them. My target had gone into Level Zero, opened an inspection hatch to go down into the maintenance crawl way, and was lying there working on the air vent cover of a new neighbour’s apartment. The grilles of the cover were designed to stop anyone looking through them at people inside their apartments, but he’d got skilled at using a knife to widen the gaps to give him a clear view.
He was so focused on his work that he didn’t hear the people coming, didn’t notice that the light of their lanterns had been added to that of his own flashlight, had no idea they were standing around the inspection hatch and watching him. Then he heard them laughing.
“I’m seeing the wild bee’s memory of meeting the bystanders,” I said. “He’s been using Level Zero and the interlinking maintenance crawl ways as a route to reach the air vents of his neighbours’ apartments on Level 1. The bystanders caught him using a knife to alter an air vent to let him see into an apartment. They laughed at him. He climbed out of the inspection hatch and shouted at them, but they just kept laughing. The wild bee instinctively lashed out with his knife to stab the one that was laughing loudest, but then one of the others kicked him, hit him with her lantern, and they all ran off into the darkness.”
“So our wild bee didn’t intend to hurt anyone,” said Lucas. “He just got caught spying on people in the shower.”
“He wasn’t spying on them in the shower.” I was sharing my target’s thoughts, feeling his emotions, and was indignant at the false accusation. “He’s been living their lives.”
“You’ll need to explain that a bit more,” said Lucas.
“You were right about Lottery allocating the wild bee to do vital work that didn’t really suit him,” I said. “Perhaps he’s been complaining about the unfairness of that. Perhaps he’s too proud of his importance. Perhaps he’s just an unpleasant person. Whatever the reason, nobody likes him, and they do everything they can to avoid spending time with him. He works alone in his laboratory. He lives alone in his apartment. He has no friends. He’s got so lonely that he’s borrowing the social life of other people.”
I paused. “He’s been using the air vents to watch his neighbours’ lives and fantasize about being them. Sometimes he takes it a step further, takes off the air vent cover, or manages to make other routes into their apartments. He knows all their daily routines, so he waits until he knows they’ll be out for hours, then he enters their apartments and acts out the things he’s seen. He eats the meals they’ve eaten. He repeats the conversations he’s watched them have with their visitors. Sometimes he even dozes in their sleep field. He’s careful not to damage anything though, and puts everything back in place before he leaves.”
“That’s the reason people have been reporting being worried,” said Lucas. “Our wild bee was being careful, but there’d still have been missing meals, objects left in slightly the wrong position, and odd sounds as he moved through the maintenance crawl ways.”
“We have an identity for our target,” said Nicole. “Level 1 Researcher Alvin 2498-2411-186. He’s doing solo research into solvents, and I can understand him being lonely working alone, but why didn’t he ask for counselling help? A counsellor could have arranged for him to join an organized group for people with similar issues.”
“Alvin couldn’t ask for counselling help,” I said. “That would have meant admitting people didn’t like him. His ego wouldn’t let him do that.”
Lucas sighed. “Alvin didn’t intend to hurt anyone. He had a knife in his hand and instinctively hit out at the bystanders because they laughed at him. The problem is that he now believes killing the bystanders is his only way to escape from this situation.”
“Red group are now on Industry 46,” said Rothan’s voice on the crystal comms. “We’ve found a floor access point that we think is above the bystanders’ position.”
“Amber, where is Alvin now?” asked Lucas.
“He’s still roaming around Level Zero at floor level, and is currently one cor west of me. He doesn’t think the wounded man could have climbed a ladder, so he’s worried the bystanders have found their way out of the area.”
“You can leave Alvin’s
head now,” said Lucas. “Focus on guiding red group to the bystanders.”
I pulled myself out of Alvin’s panicking mind. I’d intended to search for the bystanders next, but just thinking about red group was enough to make me link to Rothan. He was staring down at where some floor tiles had been dragged aside to expose a floor access point, the cover labelled with urgent warnings about sheer drops.
… hope I’m right about us being above the bystanders. We’re definitely close to them, and it would be logical for these access points to be positioned directly above the tanks, but Adika isn’t in a mood to forgive even the slightest mistake. He …
Infected by Rothan’s anxiety, I left his head, tensely searched downwards, and was relieved to find the glow of three minds. “Red group are perfectly positioned directly above the bystanders.”
“Good,” said Lucas. “Amber, please check the bystanders now, and see if you can find any information about what they were doing on Level Zero. The wounded person was worried about them getting into trouble if they called for help. Is that just because they were trespassing, or have they been doing something more serious? We need to know if they’ll be so scared about getting in trouble that they’ll either run from red group or try to fight them.”
I avoided the mind that was bright with pain and linked to one of the other two.
… too dark. Much too dark. Much too dark. Much …
… Can’t be happening. Can’t be real. Just a bad dream. Keep my eyes closed and wait until I wake up. Can’t be …
The thoughts were repeating in terrified loops that couldn’t tell me anything useful. I moved on again and found myself inside the head of the female bystander. She was afraid of the darkness too, but even more afraid of the man with the knife.
… he’ll be especially keen to kill me after the way I hit him with my lantern. If only we’d ignored that open inspection hatch, and kept walking straight on through Level Zero …
Borderline (Hive Mind Book 4) Page 3