Keith stopped by a heap of clothes that he’d obviously pulled off before joining my conference call. He dragged on some black leggings, and a matching jacket that he didn’t bother to do up, then went to slump into a chair.
“I’d no idea we were related,” he said, “but don’t make the mistake of thinking the cousin claim has any significance for me. Claire had twenty-five duty children, and the Hive made the decision to invite all of them to take part in the duty child programme whatever their level and abilities. Most of them agreed and had six duty children, so I’ve hundreds of obscure relations.”
He paused. “I’m the son of duty child number twenty-two. I wasn’t adopted, my bad character was a disappointment to my parents, and Claire considered me the worst-behaved of all her grandchildren.”
Keith laughed. “Then I went into Lottery. Claire had always dreamed of one of her children becoming a telepath. When that dream failed, she transferred her hopes to her grandchildren. I wish I’d seen her face when she found her dream had finally come true, but the telepath was me. She must have been cruelly disappointed.”
I frowned. I’d learned a little about behavioural analysis from reading Lucas’s mind. Keith was throwing out these statements with a sort of studied insolence that I suspected hid personal pain.
“It wasn’t just that I was disreputable,” added Keith bitterly. “I was a flawed telepath too, with my telepathy cutting out at intervals. Claire and I couldn’t meet after I came out of Lottery, so she couldn’t lecture me about my failures in person. She could only say things to me in calls, and even then she was limited by the rules of good manners.”
He shrugged. “So you must be one of Claire’s adopted grandchildren. Were you told your proud heritage when you came out of Lottery?”
“No. I recently discovered my father had been adopted, and asked Information Archive for my paternal ancestry details.”
“And how long did it take Information Archive to collate that information for you?” asked Keith. “Days? Hours? Minutes?”
I was confused. “It seemed to be instantly available.”
“I assume the version they gave you had a lot of gaps for other duty children who got adopted?”
I nodded.
“They had that ready for if you asked about your ancestry,” said Keith. “Information Archive must have a version with all the other adopted duty children included as well, but they won’t share that with us. I suspect there’s an expert in telepath genealogy somewhere, but we’ll never be allowed to meet them. The Hive is obsessed with keeping its secrets.”
He paused. “Go ahead and say it.”
“Say what?”
“The Hive knows best.”
“I’m not sure that the Hive does know best about keeping secrets,” I admitted. “There’ve been times when it’s caused problems with my unit’s cases. We could have asked for information earlier if we’d known it existed.”
“You aren’t quite the dutiful doll I’d imagined,” said Keith. “Where do you fit into the multitude anyway?”
“I’m Claire’s great-granddaughter,” I said. “The granddaughter of duty child number one.”
“Barely a cousin of mine at all then,” said Keith. “More like an extremely distant connection.”
“You weren’t adopted, so presumably everyone knows you’re Claire’s grandson, but I only found out about it when I saw my paternal ancestry. I don’t understand why people didn’t mention it to me before.”
Keith made a choking noise. “Of course people wouldn’t mention me being related to the perfect Claire. I was an embarrassment. All my host of relatives used the excuse that they couldn’t be in close contact with both of us to drop me entirely. Even my own parents!”
I winced. However bad Keith’s relationship with his parents had been, it must have hurt to be dumped by them. Had he come out of Lottery expecting them to celebrate his result, only to find they used it as an excuse to discard him?
The people who’d dropped contact with Keith must have included Gideon. It would have been impossible for Gideon to make any other decision. He was a member of Claire’s Tactical team, he clearly adored her, and they had two children.
I couldn’t blame Gideon for choosing Claire over Keith, but I felt Keith’s parents were wrong to discard their son. I was aware that I was only hearing Keith’s side of events though, and remembered Lucas saying that he’d learned not to trust a word that Keith said.
If I wanted to know the real truth, then I’d have to ask Gideon about it, and probably read his mind as well. I suspected Gideon had been avoiding discussing his knowledge of Keith with me for the same reason he’d avoided discussing his duty children. He felt I had more than enough to worry about already.
Keith was still talking. “When Claire died, the family made a half-hearted attempt to get me to attend a family gathering. Even that grudging message was all about mourning the loss of Claire rather than wanting contact with me though. I replied saying I wasn’t a piece of rubbish to be tossed away as inconvenient and reclaimed when it suited them. Then I told them to go and jump down the nearest lift shaft.”
He glared at me. “You don’t need to worry about the family’s reaction to you being half-hearted, Amber. All you need to do is message your grandparents, and they’ll spread the word that the new telepath is Claire’s great-granddaughter. The whole family will be delighted that I rejected contact with them, and rush to welcome you into the family gatherings instead. I can imagine exactly what my mother will say to you.”
He spoke in a high-pitched voice that was presumably an imitation of his mother. “You’re such a skilled telepath, Amber. So well behaved. So conscious of your duty to the Hive. Just like my wonderful mother. Such a pity that Keith isn’t more like you.”
I’d made this call hoping I could use our family connection to create a bond with Keith that would help me make peace with him. I’d got things entirely wrong. The family connection was just increasing Keith’s anger towards me. He was remembering his parents choosing Claire over him, and imagining them doing the same again with me.
The answer was obvious though. My connection to Keith’s family wouldn’t help, but my lack of contact with them might.
“I’m not messaging them to say I’m Claire’s great-granddaughter,” I said fiercely. “I’ve heard how Claire felt about handing her children over to strangers. All twenty-five of her duty children were raised in her unit, but when it came to them having duty children themselves …”
I gave an indignant shake of my head. “My father’s adoption was arranged before he was even born. His parents were Level 1, they could have easily raised him themselves, but they didn’t care what happened to him. They don’t even know that I exist. If they discover their relationship to me in future, and try contacting me, then they’ll get the same response from me that they got from you.”
I paused. “You aren’t a piece of rubbish to be tossed away as inconvenient and reclaimed when it suited them. I’m not a piece of rubbish to be discarded as worthless and then reclaimed because they’ve discovered I’m more valuable than they thought. I don’t want contact with relatives whose only interest in me is because I turned out to be a telepath.”
The odd thing was that I wasn’t acting a part for Keith. What I was saying was perfectly true. My parents, my brother, and my Level 31 maternal grandparents were my family. The members of my unit were my family. I didn’t want or need contact with these unknown genetic relatives. If Claire had been alive … Well, that would have been a very different situation.
Keith laughed. “It’s ironic really. They were all so desperate to have more telepaths in the family. Now there are two of us, and neither of us wants to have anything to do with them.”
Keith and I were, briefly, on the same side, and I had to use that fleeting moment of understanding before it faded. “Can we forget about them now and discuss the real reason I called you?”
Keith waved his hands. “Go ahead.
”
“I want to know why you’ve started this war with me,” I said. “I want to negotiate a truce.”
“I didn’t start this war, Amber. You did.”
I frowned. “What do you mean? I’ve never done anything to you.”
“How can you sit there and say that? You didn’t just destroy my life, Amber. You danced on its ashes as well.”
“I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.”
Keith’s voice rose in sudden anger. “I’m talking about Olivia. I’m talking about how you told everyone she was a danger to the Hive. I’m talking about how you stirred them all up into having Olivia’s mind reset to before she went into Lottery. Didn’t it occur to you that there could be someone who’d learned to love Olivia during the eight years you were taking away? That there could be someone who Olivia had learned to love in return?”
Keith was on his feet now, shouting a distorted version of the words from the Light and Dark pageants at me. “We were lovers once. I called Olivia my light angel, and I was her dark angel. We were forever divided by being telepaths, so we could never meet in person, but we both had our vast bookette rooms where we could play the same bookettes and walk and talk together.”
I had an appalling new view of events. “I was trying to help Olivia,” I babbled guiltily. “She was lost in fragmentation, and the echoes fighting for control of her mind weren’t just making her an active danger to the Hive, but making her life a torment. The only way to give her back control of her mind was to reset her to before she was a telepath. I was so focused on Olivia that I didn’t think how it would affect anyone else until the reset was in progress.”
I groaned. “I know it’s no use apologizing, but I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. I’ve heard that Olivia is only a borderline telepath now, but she’s back in control of her mind. I appreciate how terrible this situation must be for you though.”
The anger in Keith’s voice abruptly changed into mourning. “I called Olivia only a week after her unit went operational. My excuse was an interaction between our cases, which meant it was good manners for me to talk to her, but I was also curious about a new female telepath who was only five years younger than me. Olivia was eager to learn about other telepaths and knew nothing about my bad reputation.”
He sagged back down into his chair. “We had some incredible months before the signs of fragmentation started. I couldn’t help Olivia deal with them because echoes were never a problem for me. They’d clutter up my head for a couple of weeks at most before my telepathy cut out for a while and wiped them away. The other telepaths all had their own ways to cleanse themselves of echoes. Claire used Hiveist services, Morton used meditation, Sapphire used physical love, and Mira used flowers.”
Keith gave a distressed shake of his head. “But Olivia couldn’t find anything to help her. With every day, every week, every month, the echoes grew more numerous and dominant. They fought among themselves to seize control of her mind, and the periods of time when Olivia was truly herself grew shorter and shorter. Eventually, there were only a few minutes a day when you could see a glimpse of the old Olivia.”
I didn’t dare to say anything, so we sat in silence until Keith finally spoke again. “And yes, as you just pointed out, the reset worked. Olivia has control of her mind again. She’s only a borderline telepath now, but that’s probably best. If she was still a telepath, then she’d go through the whole dreadful cycle again, and I couldn’t bear her being torn apart for a second time.”
He shook his head again. “Olivia has her mind back, and her happiness is more important than mine. I could have accepted that what you did was for the best, Amber, if it wasn’t for one thing.”
“What’s that?” I asked nervously.
“Your unit is called Light Angel,” said Keith. “You took Olivia from me, you took her memories of me, and then you took her name as well!”
“It wasn’t my idea to call my unit Light Angel,” I said sadly. “Gold Commander Melisande used it as a codename for my unit once, and then other people in Law Enforcement started using it too. I don’t think there’s any way for me to change that now, but can we please make some sort of peace between us? Morton’s unit is about to shut down for him to have his surgery. The Hive desperately needs the remaining Telepath Units to work together.”
I paused. “If the Hive falls into total anarchy, then a lot of people will get hurt or killed. You don’t want anything to happen to Olivia.”
Keith sighed. “You didn’t need to try the blatant manipulation, Amber. I’ve no intention of letting the Hive descend into anarchy. I’m well aware that both Olivia and I would suffer if that happens. I’ve just been punishing you a little for what you did to me. Playing the game of trying to steal your people. Making you realize how much it would hurt to lose someone you love.”
“You went further than just playing games,” I said. “You set Tobias free when you knew he was a threat to my life.”
Keith waved a dismissive hand. “You’re over-dramatizing things. Tobias was never going to succeed in killing you. Your own Strike team members are just inexperienced children, but you’ve four of Claire’s old Strike team bodyguarding you now. I know those men are like the Hive’s structural shield. Tobias was never going to harm a hair of your head with them guarding you.”
I wanted to scream that Keith hadn’t just put me in danger but my people too, and rant that Tobias could easily have killed Caleb rather than just wounding him. I mustn’t do that though. If this conversation escalated the conflict between Keith and me, then my nightmare of a mental battle between us could become reality.
I had to say whatever was needed, do whatever was needed, promise whatever was needed to make peace between Keith and me. I knew that Keith would break any agreement as soon as it suited him, but I just needed to hold this situation together until Morton’s unit was operational again. There was that extra glittering hope of a new telepath arriving as well.
“You said that you’d called me because you wanted to negotiate a truce,” said Keith. “I was going to contact you with an offer of peace during the New Year festival, but you can agree to my terms now if you like.”
“What terms?” I asked suspiciously.
“I was going to demand two things from you. The first was an apology, but you’ve already apologized. All I’m asking now is your promise that one day I can call on you for a favour.”
I hesitated. “What sort of favour?”
Keith smiled. “You’ll have to wait to find that out. Do you want peace, or would you rather our war continues and destroys the Hive?”
I knew I’d regret doing this, but I didn’t have any choice. “That favour can’t harm my family, my people, other true telepaths, or the Hive.”
“Accepted,” said Keith briskly.
“Then you have my promise.”
Keith gave a triumphant laugh. “You have bought peace between our units, Amber. New Year fortune to you.”
“New Year fortune,” I automatically repeated the standard greeting, and Keith’s holo vanished as he ended the call.
Chapter Forty-eight
On New Year’s Eve, everyone in my unit gathered by the picnic tables in the park. Megan had given Caleb and Eli permission to go to visit their parents for the New Year festival, on condition they used powered chairs the whole time rather than walking. I’d noticed Caleb furtively standing a couple of times, but wasn’t worried because he’d only been wounded in the shoulder. After all the problems Eli had had with his leg, I was relieved to see he was carefully following medical orders.
Most people were resplendent in Level 1 festival clothes, but the unit maintenance staff were far lower level. Some others, including Caleb, had deliberately chosen to wear clothes far below their level so they wouldn’t be too overwhelmingly glittering next to parents near the bottom of the Hive.
My parents and brother had already gone home to Blue Zone. After my call, Keith had sent formal apologies for hi
s behaviour to Gold Commander Melisande and every Telepath Unit Tactical Commander. His message said that he realized he’d gone much too far when he released Tobias, and promised he wouldn’t trouble my unit again.
Everyone seemed surprisingly impressed by that gesture, mostly because Keith had never apologized for anything in the past. Lucas said that Gold Commander Melisande and Gaius were suspicious of Keith’s sudden change of heart though, so Gaius would still be following all the agreed precautions to stop Keith causing more problems.
I moved towards the nearest picnic table, intending to stand on it and make my speech, but saw Adika was already jumping onto it. I frowned, rapidly linked to his thoughts, and sighed. I didn’t approve of this, but the last time I’d interfered in Adika’s management of the Strike team had gone exceptionally badly. He was currently wondering if he should make his key point by saying an extremely crude sentence, or phrasing it in more professionally polite language.
Adika started talking. “During our run after Tobias, Rothan decided to take over command and order me to retreat to the park.”
Everyone turned to look at where Rothan was standing among the Alpha Strike team. His face was perfectly calm but strained.
“I haven’t spoken to Rothan about that incident until now,” continued Adika. “Most people in the unit heard what Rothan said on the crystal comms, and I felt my response should be equally public.”
Emili left the group of Tactical team members to walk across to stand next to her boyfriend. There was a slight shifting of position as the Alpha Strike team moved closer to her and Rothan.
Adika waited for them all to settle down, before throwing a wary look in my direction and speaking again. “I wish to commend Rothan for correctly following protocols, and congratulate him on leading a successful strike against an unusually difficult target.”
Borderline (Hive Mind Book 4) Page 47