Elliott was clearly as work-obsessed as Lucas, answering his dataview immediately in virtually any situation. I’d seen Lucas answering calls when swimming or running along corridors, and could imagine him having precisely the sort of accident that Elliott was describing.
“Elliott hit his head on the edge of a shelf while he was falling, and knocked himself out,” said Charlotte. “Bruce spent a happy fifteen minutes nosing through the messages on Elliott’s dataview before calling Emergency Services to ask for help.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Bruce had deliberately pushed Elliott off the box,” added Francesca in a bitter voice.
“Elliott could have died lying there waiting for Bruce to call for help,” said Paula. “Fortunately, he made a full recovery, and we all believed Bruce when he said he’d called for help at once. We even thanked him for acting so promptly.”
“So, at the point when I joined the surfing team,” said Michaela, “I still believed nosies were genuine telepaths, but Bruce knew they were fakes. He’d always laughingly begged a few favours from my brothers and sisters – the equivalent of teens visiting their family and returning to Teen Level with a bit of cake in their pocket. He’d never pushed for anything significant, because he didn’t want a nosy to spot him getting too greedy, but now he was free to try for whatever he wanted.”
She paused. “Bruce had been enjoying his visits to Level 1, and his friendship with important members of Hive Politics, but I was the youngest of the family. Bruce realized that when I left Teen Level, his main connection to our family would be broken, and his visits to Level 1 would probably trail off and come to an end. He came up with a plan to solve the problem, but it depended on Elliott using his position to do a big favour for him. Bruce knew he’d have trouble persuading someone as ethical as Elliott to do that, but he’d seen me interacting with Elliott, and believed I could coax him into doing anything I wanted.”
I was startled to see the head of Hive Politics blush. “One of the reasons Lottery imprinted Michaela as a Senior Ambassador is that she’s incredibly persuasive,” he said.
“Elliott is especially vulnerable when Michaela uses the baby sister tactic against him,” said Paula. “He just crumbles and gives in. I can see exactly why Bruce decided to use her as a weapon against Elliott.”
“Bruce spent about six months complimenting me to make sure I’d be on his side,” said Michaela. “That didn’t work as well as he thought. Bruce was working too hard at the compliments, so they felt unnatural and forced. Eventually, he explained his grand plan to me. He wanted Elliott to get him a new post giving individual tuition to surfers on the Level 1 beach. That way, Bruce would see all of us regularly when we went surfing on our days off, and be able to make new Level 1 friends as well.”
She shrugged. “I refused to help. This wasn’t a trivial thing like coaxing Elliott to let me use his bookette room for an hour or two. Elliott had just been promoted to head of Hive Politics. Asking him to do what Bruce wanted would put him in a terribly embarrassing position.”
“Yes,” said Elliott. “Every surfing coach or trainer would love a prestige post on the Level 1 beach. It would have been a dreadful misuse of power to arrange one for my low level friend.”
“Bruce kept asking me to help him, and I kept saying no,” said Michaela. “Finally, he turned nasty, and told me that I had to do what he wanted or he’d throw me off the team.”
She sighed. “My parents had an apartment on Level 1 near the centre point of Blue Zone, but they were away on a long-term posting at the main European trading centre, so Elliott was hosting weekly family gatherings at his apartment in Orange Zone. At the next few gatherings, I tried to explain the problems with Bruce to my brothers and sisters but failed.”
“Bruce was actually present at a couple of those gatherings,” said Elliott, “and when he wasn’t there himself, any mention of him started the rest of us chatting away about our happy memories of him and the surfing team.”
“I decided to take the simplest way out of the situation,” said Michaela. “I told Bruce that his behaviour had destroyed my pleasure in surfing, and I was quitting the team.”
“Then Bruce apologized,” said Lucas. “He promised he’d never put pressure on you again, and seemed so distraught that you felt obliged to give him a second chance.”
Michaela gave him a surprised look. “How did you know that?”
“I’ve had to deal with this type of toxic person before, and I recognize the pattern of behaviour,” said Lucas. “Bruce had to stop you leaving the team because it would break his main connection to your family. Lottery had imprinted him as a coach because he had the ability to manipulate people’s emotions. Correctly channelled, that ability was a positive thing. It let Bruce inspire his surfers to perform at their best level, and make them love their time on his team.”
Lucas grimaced. “For years, Bruce had believed nosies were watching his thoughts. He’d used his ability in the right way, so all five of your older brothers and sisters had wonderful memories of their time surfing on Teen Level beach. Now Bruce knew the truth about telepaths, he could happily misuse his ability to put emotional pressure on you.”
“Bruce left me in peace for the next few days,” said Michaela. “but I arrived at the next family gathering to find he’d told my brothers and sisters a twisted version of the truth. One that made it sound as if I’d overreacted to a bit of gentle criticism, and threatened to leave the team in a fit of childish sulks.”
“Bruce was afraid that you’d tell them what had happened,” said Lucas, “so he told them his version first. I’m sure that he was highly credible, and ended by asking them not to mention it to you, so how did you find out?”
“Bruce was totally convincing,” said Paula. “He said that we mustn’t mention it to Michaela, because it might trigger another fit of sulks, but we felt a diplomatic word with her would help the situation. We gently reminded Michaela that it was a coach’s job to tell team members their faults so they could improve them.”
“I should have told my brothers and sisters what had really happened, but I lost my temper, said some rude things, and left,” said Michaela.
I remembered how angry I’d been when Gold Commander Melisande said that I’d kidnapped Beckett. “I understand how you felt. It’s horrible when someone attacks you, and then people accuse you of being the guilty party.”
“I messaged Bruce to say that I was quitting the team and nothing he could say would make me go back,” said Michaela. “He called me ten times every day during the next week, but I wouldn’t answer his calls. At the next family gathering, everyone was a bit tense, and then Bruce arrived, walked straight up to me, and began talking about what events I wanted to be in for the last big surfing competition before Carnival.”
“You’d refused to answer Bruce’s calls,” said Lucas. “He gambled that the pressure of having your family watching the conversation would make you politely go along with what he was saying. He knew that once you’d agreed to be in an event at the next competition, you’d feel obliged to go through with it, and that meant you’d have to rejoin the team.”
“Bruce lost his gamble,” said Michaela. “I’d been brooding on all the things I should have told my family the last time, and yelled them at Bruce at the top of my voice. Everything about the job he wanted and the way he’d threatened me. Then I told him to throw away anything I’d left at the Teen Level beach because I’d never set foot there again, and stormed out of the apartment.”
“The rest of us had a confrontation with Bruce after Michaela left,” said Charlotte. “He started telling lies to justify himself, we didn’t believe him, and then he suddenly shed the old lovable Bruce act and turned into a vindictive stranger.”
“Bruce hurled a tirade of spiteful comments at us,” said Elliott. “When he ran out of breath, we told him he was never to call or visit us ever again, and he should leave before we got some hasties to arrest him.”
Paula nodded. “As soon as Bruce had gone, we called Michaela to tell her what had happened. We thought that we’d never see or hear from Bruce again.”
“But of course you did,” said Lucas sadly. “Bruce had lost his hold on your family by getting too greedy, but he didn’t blame himself for what had happened. He blamed Michaela and wanted to punish her. What happened next?”
“What happened next was that I got stuck in a lift during the massive Blue Zone power cut,” said Michaela grimly.
“Oh, no!” I instinctively cried out in sympathy. “I was caught in the Blue Zone power cut too, but I was lucky enough to be in my room when it happened.”
“I used my dataview to call for help,” said Michaela, “but there were people trapped in just about every lift in Blue Zone.”
“How long was it before help reached you?” I asked.
“Forty-seven hours,” said Michaela shakily. “I know that wasn’t anyone’s fault. Emergency Services were doing their best, but they were overwhelmed by calls for help, and their priority had to be rescuing larger groups of people and the sick and injured. Other zones were sending in their emergency teams to help as well, but it took them a long time to work their way to the centre point of Blue Zone.”
Her hands clenched into tight fists at the memory. “It was totally dark in the lift, and I daren’t use my dataview for a light in case it ran out of power. I didn’t have any food or water, and I was panicking about the air situation. Emergency Services sent me a message saying that wouldn’t be a problem, because most people were in the parks and getting air from an emergency system, but when you’re trapped alone in the dark …”
She shook her head. “Well, an emergency team finally reached me and took me to a makeshift medical area in the closest park. There was light, air, food, and water. I really thought I was fine at that point, but when the power came back on, we all went back to our rooms and …”
She stared down at her hands. “I started having ghastly nightmares. I was afraid to enter lifts or ride on belts. I began hoarding food and bottles of water in my room.”
“That was a natural reaction to your experience,” said Elliott.
“Perfectly natural,” I said. “Everyone in Blue Zone was avoiding using lifts for weeks.”
“You should have been offered therapy,” said Lucas.
“I was on the therapy list,” said Michaela, “but there were a huge number of other people in Blue Zone needing help too. I couldn’t travel to therapy appointments in another zone of the Hive, or areas of Blue Zone that were beyond walking distance from my room. In fact, I couldn’t even leave my hoard of food and water for an hour without getting panic attacks.”
She shrugged. “I had some calls from a therapist. Eventually, she had time to visit me in my room to carry out a full assessment. She decided to refer me to a specialist for a potential memory reset to before the power cut, but that meant another long wait. By the time the specialist visited me, he was concerned about the amount of my memories that would have to be unravelled. I ended up having standard therapy in a nearby area of Blue Zone, and gradually working my way through my problems.”
“That meant you were isolated and vulnerable for a long time,” said Lucas.
“Yes,” said Michaela. “Teen Level rules allow teens one afternoon or evening visit to their families a week, but I couldn’t get to Level 1.”
“And families aren’t supposed to visit Teen Level at all,” said Elliott. “People as high ranked as us have to set a good example, so we could only call Michaela’s dataview for a chat.”
“I’m sure Bruce took advantage of the situation,” said Lucas.
“He did,” said Michaela. “When you move to Teen Level, you usually get assigned a room in the same area as your parents, so you’re only a lift ride away from home. That meant my room was near the centre point of Blue Zone.”
She paused. “As the Blue Zone teen surfing coach, Bruce had one office at the Teen Level beach, and another at a Blue Zone community centre. He said he needed a more central location for his Blue Zone office, and arranged to move it to the community centre nearest my room. That gave him a perfect excuse to walk past my room every time he visited his office.”
“Devious,” said Lucas.
“Yes, and Bruce didn’t just walk along the corridor,” said Michaela. “He’d always do something to make sure I knew he was there, accidentally bumping against my door as he went by, or standing outside it calling someone on his dataview and talking in a loud voice so I could hear him. I wasn’t in a good state at the time, and knowing Bruce was right outside my room door made me feel intimidated.”
“Did you complain to the hasties about it?” I asked.
“No. I had the feeling that Bruce wanted me to complain to either the hasties or my family. It would have given him the chance to play the long-suffering man who wasn’t even allowed to walk to his office without a paranoid girl making accusations against him. He’d probably have been able to manipulate the situation to force a conversation on Elliott, and try some emotional blackmail on him.”
“There was no need for you to sacrifice yourself in my defence,” said Elliott indignantly. “I could have survived a conversation with Bruce.”
“Complaining wouldn’t have helped anyway,” said Michaela firmly. “I knew that if Bruce couldn’t keep walking past my door, then he’d find a worse way to torment me. I hoped that if I ignored it then he’d eventually get bored and stop.”
“What was happening to Blue Upway during all this?” asked Lucas. “You must have started the game just before the Blue Zone power cut happened.”
“I didn’t start Blue Upway,” said Michaela. “A boy on my corridor on Teen Level did that. He was a keen cliff climber, so we’d often travel to the Teen Level beach together. After the Blue Zone power cut, we obviously weren’t travelling together any longer, but he’d call by my room to chat with me. He told me about Blue Upway, and complained about how much work it took to run a Teen Game.”
She smiled. “I ended up helping my friend run Blue Upway, because I’d nothing else to do. A few weeks later, he dumped the game master stack in my room and told me the game was mine. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I’d shut the game down at that point, but I was so lonely sitting in my room that I kept it going. I only knew the players by their game names, but they became my friends. Weirdly, it helped me to send players exploring all the places I was afraid to go myself.”
“You must have met Forge when you were on the surfing team,” I said.
Michaela pulled a face. “Yes, but I hardly ever spoke to him. All the girl surfers avoided Forge because he had a dreadfully pushy blonde girlfriend.”
I frowned as I remembered Shanna. She’d been my best friend on Teen Level, but I could see why Michaela would describe her as being pushy. Shanna had liked being in charge of everything.
“Did you know Forge was the Blue Upway Champion?” asked Lucas.
“I didn’t find that out until six months after I left the surfing team,” said Michaela. “I was exchanging messages with the Blue Upway Champion about one of the challenges that had been causing problems, and Forge accidentally used his real name. Forge is such an unusual name that I guessed it had to be the same boy that was on the surfing team. I suppose Bruce went through those old messages when he got control of the game, and discovered the Blue Upway Champion’s identity in the same way.”
Her voice shook slightly. “Forge seemed a nice boy. I don’t want him getting hurt because of me.”
“Forge and Amber went into the last Carnival Lottery,” said Lucas. “You were clearly expecting to go into it too, because you shut down the game master stack for Blue Upway. What went wrong?”
“I completed my therapy over a month before Carnival,” said Michaela. “I was feeling so positive back then. I was able to travel around normally again, was going to the weekly family gatherings at Elliott’s apartment, and attended all the special events for Lottery can
didates.”
She groaned. “On the last day of Carnival, Bruce did his trick of walking past my door and thumping it. I made the mistake of opening the door and yelling at him. I told him that once I came out of Lottery, I’d have my own apartment on another level of the Hive. If Bruce ever came near me after that, I’d report him to the hasties for trespassing.”
She paused. “The next morning, I set off for Lottery, but I didn’t make it to my assessment centre. Someone grabbed me from behind, put a bag over my head, and locked me in an isolated storeroom.”
“That attack was why you didn’t go through the Carnival Lottery?” asked Lucas, in the tightly controlled voice that meant he was furious.
Michaela nodded. “The lights in the storeroom had been smashed, so I spent six hours in total darkness before I heard someone unlock the door. By the time I staggered outside, there was no one in sight. I somehow managed to reach my assessment centre, but being locked in the dark for so long had reawakened all my trauma from the lift incident. The Lottery staff took one look at me and called for a medical team.”
“Did you report Bruce for attacking you?” asked Lucas,
Michaela grimaced. “Yes. I made a call from the medical facility where I was being treated, and a hasty came to listen to my story. He was very sympathetic, but he came back the next day and said a nosy had read Bruce’s mind and confirmed he knew nothing about the attack on me. I believed the nosies were really telepaths back then, so I had to accept Bruce was innocent.”
“I wish you’d told us about it at the time,” said Paula. “It was such a serious incident that we could have got a true telepath to read Bruce’s mind.”
Michaela waved her hands in a helpless gesture. “My cliff-climbing friend had told me Bruce had been spreading poisonous lies about why I left the surfing team. I thought Bruce had made the team hate me so much that one of them had attacked me as a cruel joke. I knew that if Elliott found out about it, then he’d make a huge fuss. I didn’t want nosies arriving at the Teen Level beach to read the minds of the whole surfing team, or someone getting into terrible trouble because they’d believed Bruce’s lies, so I kept quiet.”
Borderline (Hive Mind Book 4) Page 35