Hurricane (Hive Mind Book 3)

by Janet Edwards

  Adika went across to a heavy brown door at the right-hand side of the room, opened it, and led the way out to where several Beta team guards were standing. The moment I stepped through the door onto the path, the wind hit me. It had the distinctive scent and hint of moisture that I associated with Hive beaches, but was bitterly cold.

  I hastily did up the front of my jacket, pulled its hood up, and plunged my hands into my pockets in search of my gloves. I’d been wrong to think Rothan had ordered clothes that were too warm. If anything, we needed them to be even warmer.

  When I’d seen the sandy path through the window, I’d assumed it would be soft underfoot, but I could feel the hardness of stone under my boots. I kicked some of the sand aside, expecting to expose paving, but instead there was a layer of natural rock that seemed to have been carved in places to remove the most jagged areas.

  I frowned, turned to study the hillside more closely, and saw the dark edges of rock everywhere, peeping through the sand and tussocks of grass. “I thought this hillside was made of sandy soil, but it’s solid rock.”

  “You couldn’t build something like the Haven into the side of an unstable sandy hill,” said Lucas. “Someone chose the location for our sea farm very carefully. There’s a rocky hill to provide a good site for the Haven. There’s a river for a reliable water supply. The coastline has a natural inlet that just needed some seawalls to make it an ideal base for a fishing fleet. There’s good land for grazing animals and growing crops. There’s a forest for timber and an iron ore site in the area.”

  I was still studying my surroundings. The glass-walled room of the beach exit was built against a clifflike outcrop of rock. The stacks of furniture to one side of it were an unpleasant reminder of what had happened to Zak.

  “Crystal units to visual,” said Lucas. “My Tactical team will want as many images as possible of what’s happening at the seawall.”

  I adjusted the camera setting on my ear crystal, so the extension unfolded at the right side of my face.

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

  Adika and half the Alpha Strike team started heading along the path towards the seawall. Lucas and I followed them, with Forge and the rest of the Strike team taking their positions behind us.

  “The people waiting on the seawall have all turned to stare at us,” said Adika.

  “That’s a perfectly normal reaction,” said Lucas. “We’ll keep walking along the path at a confidently steady pace. Amber, is anyone inside the stone shelter?”

  The stony path was too uneven for me to risk walking while using my telepathic sense. My Strike team couldn’t carry me when we were in full view of the people at the seawall, so I had to stop for a moment to reach out with my mind.

  “The shelter is empty.”

  We walked on in silence until we reached the shelter. It was positioned on the hillside to the left of the path, while the beach was on the right. Ahead of us, the path continued on downhill to the seawall.

  I hadn’t appreciated the width of the seawall until now. You could have had the standard combination of express, medium, and slow belts running along the top of it. The seawall was much higher above the water than I’d realized as well, so only the tops of the boats’ masts stuck up above it. Given my fear of heights, I was glad to see a safety rail prevented people from falling over the edge into the sea.

  I followed Forge into the shelter. He had to stoop to go through its open doorway without knocking his nosy mask, but I was short enough to keep my head upright as I went inside. When I turned around, I saw the open doorway and wide front window gave a good view out to sea. The side wall just had a single narrow window, little more than a vertical slit in the wall, which faced the houses and the section of seawall where the Admiral and crowd were waiting.

  “The people on the seawall have a much more relaxed posture now,” said Lucas. “They’ve worked out the nosy will be staying here and are feeling relieved.”

  Forge went to stand by the side window. “Will it be safe for me to watch events from this window, or will the crowd be able to see me?”

  “I’m standing only a dozen paces from that window, and the grey of your nosy outfit and mask makes you look like a shadow,” Adika replied. “The people at the seawall shouldn’t be able to see you at all.”

  I sat down on a stone bench by the front window, closed my eyes, and reached out with my telepathic senses. The large group of minds down by the houses was unmissable, their jostling thoughts having the strange edge, shade, overtones that showed they belonged to the sea farm.

  I made a tentative attempt to skim through them in the same way I did with the dutiful minds of people back at the Hive, but found that was a horrible mistake. The effect was like being surrounded by dozens of musicians playing the clashing notes of different tunes, and my head started aching.

  I hastily withdrew to what should have been the safely familiar mind of one of the Strike team to recover, but found myself in Tobias’s head, reading thoughts that were a dark reddish-brown from bitterness.

  … and Forge grabbed the chance to gloat about Buzz giving him training in playing the nosy. We all know that isn’t the only sort of training she’s giving …

  … unfair that Lottery gave Forge a Strike team leader imprint instead of me. If I’d had that imprint, I’d have been promoted. Then Buzz would have chosen me instead of Forge, and my brother would …

  Tobias had always been frustrated that Lottery had only imprinted him as a Strike team member rather than a Strike team leader like his older brother. Now he seemed to have added a new grievance about Buzz being Forge’s girlfriend. I hated conflict in my unit, and could feel the ache in my head growing stronger, so I randomly moved minds again.

  Now I was sharing Jalen’s thoughts, and feeling a swirling mixture of excitement, pride, tension, and fear.

  … huge chance for me. Going on a key run with the Alpha team. They have more training than me, more experience of Outside than me, so I have to stay focused and …

  … everything’s so big Outside. The beach. The sky. The sea. Waste it! How can things be so …

  … sea. Mustn’t look at the sea. Mustn’t look at the sea. Mustn’t look at …

  Despite Jalen’s nerves and terror of the sea, the ache in my mind was easing. There was no conflict here. Jalen was focused on doing his best for his new teammates, for me, and for his Hive.

  “Amber, are there any people in hiding near this shelter?” asked Lucas.

  I left Jalen’s thoughts and briefly scanned the area. “There aren’t any sea farm minds near the shelter. I can sense the crowd down by the seawall, there are some other people inside the houses, and a larger number further inland. I’m not sure if those are inside the Haven or just near it. Probably both.”

  “Amber and Forge’s bodyguards are in position now,” said Lucas, “so the rest of us can move on to meet the Admiral.”

  I linked to Lucas’s mind, and found him walking along the path towards the seawall with Adika at his side. Once they’d reached the smooth, stone top of the seawall, Lucas paused to examine his surroundings. To his right, the wide expanse of the seawall continued out into the waves, seemingly uncaring whether it stood on the land or the sea.

  … wonder how you build something like that in the sea. How deep does …?

  Lucas dismissed that irrelevant train of thought, and turned left to follow the curving top of the seawall round to the houses. As he got closer to the Admiral and waiting crowd, he could see their facial expressions. The top levels of his thoughts exploded into a whirl of analysis, running so fast that I could only catch the occasional fragment of them.

  … interactions with Juniper show there are only minimal differences in body language between …

  A loud clanging sound hit Lucas’s ears. I felt his step falter, and his body tense. He looked at where a man was swinging a large handbell, and then glanced at the Admiral.

  The Admiral’s face shows
this is standard routine, so …

  Lucas faked a relaxed posture and kept walking forward.

  “I’ve got Juniper on an open call,” said Gideon. “She says the bell ringing is to tell people that a live broadcast will be starting soon.”

  Then the doors of houses began opening. People were coming out of the doors. People were appearing from gaps between the houses. People were hurrying along the seawall. More and more people were arriving from all directions.

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  I was seeing the view of the crowd through Lucas’s eyes. He had his nerves rigidly controlled, but I could feel my own heart racing.

  “There must be over five hundred people in that crowd now.” Hallie gasped out the words in alarm, and the top level of Lucas’s thoughts responded.

  … need to have a word with Hallie after this. It’s essential the Tactical team sound calm and confident at all times during a run. If she can’t control her voice, she shouldn’t be talking on the crystal comms herself but passing messages to …

  “There’s going to be a larger audience than we expected for this broadcast,” said Emili calmly.

  “There are children in the crowd young enough to still be wearing tracking bracelets,” Gideon’s voice oozed tranquillity and reassurance. “The presence of children under ten years old shows people aren’t expecting violence.”

  “The children could be wearing tracking bracelets and still be older than ten.” Kareem was speaking in his usual lazy tones. “Tracking bracelets are intended to help keep small children away from dangerous places. There seem to be far more hazardous places at the sea farm than at the Hive, such as the sea, cliffs, and a mine, so we can’t assume the ages for wearing tracking bracelets are the same.”

  “I accept we have to challenge every assumption we make here,” said Emili, “but some basic facts about people, like the average speed of children’s growth, must be the same as at the Hive. There are definitely children under ten years old in that crowd. Take a look at the view from Matias’s camera. The woman in the red jacket has two children with her who can’t be older than five.”

  “Good point,” said Kareem. “I’d missed that camera angle. For some reason, the smallest children are all at the far end of the crowd.”

  “See how the wind is blowing people’s hair and clothes,” said Emili. “People with small children are standing where the houses shelter them from the wind.”

  “The crowd seems to be stabilizing at about a thousand people.” Hallie had her voice rigidly under control now too.

  “I’m talking to Juniper,” said Gideon. “She says this is a far larger audience than normal, but that isn’t surprising given the importance of this broadcast.”

  I was still linked to Lucas’s mind. He kept walking steadily forwards with his eyes fixed on the Admiral’s face.

  … size of the crowd is dangerously bigger than we expected, but we’re committed to …

  The Admiral came forward to meet Lucas, and gestured at where a man was holding a spherical object in his hands and frowning down at it.

  “Lowen is having trouble with the camera. He isn’t familiar with the controls because my wife usually does the camera work for the live broadcasts. If Lowen doesn’t get things working soon, then we’ll have to broadcast using the lower quality images from my dataview.”

  Lucas’s glittering thoughts accelerated to higher speed. “Your wife isn’t here then?”

  “No. Tressa sailed with the fishing fleet yesterday morning. One of the deckhands on our eldest son’s boat didn’t turn up for work – she’s probably faded into the countryside with her family – so Tressa went along to help out.”

  “Amber, please check the Admiral’s mind and tell us if that’s true,” said Emili.

  I left Lucas’s mind and checked the Admiral’s thoughts.

  … a terrible thing that I’m glad Tressa is out with the fishing fleet rather than at my side. Even if the murderer sailed with the fleet, Tressa has to be safe on the boat with our sons and …

  “Tressa did sail with the fishing fleet,” I said. “The Admiral is thinking she must be safe from the murderer on their son’s boat. With virtually all the boats having missing crew members, their second son chose not to take out his own boat but sail with his older brother. That means the only people on board the boat with Tressa are her two oldest sons and two deckhands who are old friends of the family.”

  “Which means our main suspect is innocent.” Emili sighed so heavily that there was a rustling sound on the crystal comms.

  Lucas was still talking to the Admiral. “I’m a little confused. I’ve been calling and messaging Tressa about the arrangements for our accommodation and furniture, so how can she be out with the fishing fleet?”

  “Tressa has been replying to your messages from the boat,” said the Admiral. “The fishing fleet needs to have a comms link with the sea farm so they can get storm warnings and other important messages. The only problem is the link doesn’t cope well with images.”

  “Which explains why all our communications were sound-only or text-only,” said Lucas. “Did the fact Tressa was with the fishing fleet mean she had to arrange the delivery of our furniture in advance?”

  The Admiral shook his head. “You told us it was vital to keep all the arrangements secret, so our murderer wouldn’t have any chance to set traps in your base corridors or tamper with your furniture before you arrived. After I’d escorted you to your base corridors, I went up the hillside path to the general supply store on Level 3 of the Haven and told people which furniture to deliver to you.”

  “So that was the first moment anyone except you and Tressa knew we would be using the furniture?”

  “Yes,” said the Admiral. “Why are you asking?”

  “Because one of my people was poisoned by a chemical smeared on a mattress,” said Lucas. “The same chemical that had been used to kill Hazel. Without immediate medical attention, the man would have died.”

  “But no one had a chance to poison any of the mattresses.” The Admiral started running his fingers through his bushy beard. “I stood on the hillside supervising the furniture delivery myself. Once the furniture was stacked outside your beach exit, I assumed it would be safe because you had men on guard duty.”

  “Amber, is that true as well?” asked Emili sharply.

  “Yes, absolutely true. It’s hard to make sense of the Admiral’s general thoughts, because they’re full of incomprehensible details about the sea farm. One thought level is replaying his memories of the furniture delivery though, and that’s perfectly clear. He carefully watched what everyone was doing.”

  “So we need to focus on the theory our target is a member of Sea Farm Security,” said Emili. “They learned the details about the furniture in advance by monitoring Tressa’s calls, and poisoned the mattress soon before it was delivered to the beach exit.”

  She sighed. “Amber, you should leave the Admiral’s mind now. We need to limit the amount of time you spend reading sea farm minds because you already sound strained.”

  I thankfully pulled out of the Admiral’s thoughts and returned to the safety of Lucas’s familiar mind. “The problem isn’t so much the Admiral’s sea farm mind, but the fact he’s running his fingers through his beard. I don’t think I’ve ever been deep in the thoughts of someone with a beard before, and it’s almost as disconcerting as …”

  I was interrupted by a shout from Lowen. “The camera’s working!”

  I watched through Lucas’s eyes as the Admiral went to stand on a raised area of seawall, took a black object from his jacket pocket, and held it to his lips. “Can everyone hear me? Lowen, is the broadcast sound working?”

  The black object had to be a microphone, because the Admiral’s voice was booming out across the harbour now.

  “Sea farm live broadcasts seem to be amateur affairs,” commented Emili. “I suppose it hasn’t got a high enough population to be worth imprinting people as Media Presenters o
r Media Technicians. The Admiral’s imprint obviously doesn’t cover making speeches either. The core information about the sea farm must be so large that adding extra details would carry a risk of imprint overload.”

  The Admiral looked around enquiringly, seemed to decide everything was working, and began speaking in a brisk voice. “Right, everyone, we were all shocked by the news of Treeve’s death. I want to take this chance to extend my personal sympathy to Treeve’s wife, Aster, and his two daughters. I’m not sure exactly how old the daughters are now, but …”

  “Rose is ten, and Poppy is two,” called a helpful voice from the crowd.

  “Thank you, Bracken,” said the Admiral. “If Aster needs help with the children or anything else, then she should contact my command centre. They’ve got instructions to pass all her calls directly to me.”

  He paused. “Now, Treeve’s death made you all lose patience with the situation. You wanted me to go to the Hive and demand they send us some nosy squads to hunt down our murderer.”

  A tall man shouted from the middle of the crowd. “We didn’t all want you to go to the Hive.”

  The Admiral gave him a wary look. “Most people wanted me to go to the Hive. I did that, and I’ve brought back the help you wanted.”

  The tall man elbowed his way to the front of the crowd. He stood there, in a bulky, brown coat, and a knitted hat in an incongruously cheerful shade of red, glaring at the Admiral.

  “We didn’t all want you to go to the Hive, and we didn’t all want you bringing back nosies either. There’s one up at the viewpoint right now.”

  He turned to yell at the rest of the crowd. “Most of you got here too late to see the inhuman creature, but it’s up there, skulking inside the shelter. I expect its master will be calling it down here in a minute to start prying around inside our heads and snooping through our most intimate memories.”

  I was still linked to Lucas’s mind, still seeing his glittering thoughts, but there was something like a dark mesh coming between him and me. My telepathic view of the world had been operating like sight, but now it did its strange trick of swapping senses to mimic hearing instead. Lucas’s thoughts were still there, their words somehow seeming to be spoken aloud in his familiar voice, but I could hear a background noise as well.