“Aster is mourning him,” I said sadly.
Cador pulled a face. “Aster could be acting the part of the grieving widow.”
“I think Aster’s grief is genuine,” said Lucas, “but Amber had better ask the nosy to check her mind to make sure.”
I grimaced but went back outside and walked across to join the Strike team before closing my eyes. It only took a few seconds to find Aster’s mind and see what I needed to know.
Why did Treeve die? Why did he die now? If it had happened a year or two ago, it would have made more sense, but why now? Even my brother admitted that Treeve was getting almost bearable since …
I opened my eyes again and turned around. Lucas and the others were just leaving the workshop, so I walked across to join them.
“Aster is truly grieving about Treeve’s death and doesn’t understand why he was killed,” I said.
Lucas nodded. We went across to the house door, knocked again, and Juniper returned the workshop key to Aster. She looked down sadly at the piece of metal.
“I don’t know what to do about the tools,” she repeated her earlier words. “I don’t know what to do about the workshop either. Perhaps I should ask the Admiral to arrange for us to move to a house in Tropics. There’s always work in the glasshouses.”
“If you want to move to Tropics, I’m sure the Admiral will help,” said Cador.
“I’m very sorry for the intrusion,” I said. I didn’t just mean the words as an apology for the intrusion into Aster’s house and the workshop, but her mind as well.
“That’s all right,” said Aster. “When Cador called to tell me you were coming, I said I was happy to help.”
Lucas waited until Aster had closed the door, and we’d walked back to the Strike team, before turning to speak to Cador in a cold, harsh voice.
“Query. You told Aster we were coming to visit her?”
“Yes,” said Cador. “I called her last night to make sure she’d be here this morning to talk to you.”
Lucas winced. “Please don’t tell me that you called Massen last night as well.”
“Yes,” repeated Cador nervously. “I didn’t want us to have to wander across fields searching for where he was digging ditches.”
“If I’d wanted you to warn people of our visit, then I’d have told you to do it,” snapped Lucas. “Massen made his feelings about nosies clear yesterday. He isn’t going to sit meekly at home waiting for us to bring a nosy to visit him. He’ll have left his house at dawn to avoid us.”
I wasn’t sure if Lucas was acting the angry Tactical Commander. I checked his mind and found his thought levels screaming emotion.
… attempting to save a few minutes. Now it will take us at least an extra day to track down Massen and get the information we need. An extra day when people could get hurt, killed, or …
I hastily pulled back into my own head. No, Lucas wasn’t acting. He was furious.
Cador gave him an apprehensive look. “Sorry, sir, but don’t worry. I wasn’t going to let Massen sneak off to avoid talking to you. I sent a couple of men to watch his front door before I called him. The guards have been out there all night.”
“Does Massen have a back door?” asked Lucas.
“No, he doesn’t. Massen’s got the most basic type of two-roomed house.” Cador seemed more sure of himself now.
“Does he have a back window?”
“Well, yes, but only the front windows of those houses will open, and Massen wouldn’t break the back windows when he can’t afford replacements.”
Lucas groaned. “Send your men to knock on the door and see if Massen’s there.”
Cador took a few steps away from us, and began talking rapidly into his dataview.
“I’m sorry,” Emblyn repeated the same words she’d said earlier. “Cador’s a bit overenthusiastic sometimes. The previous head of Sea Farm Security was killed ten years ago by someone resisting arrest, and there wasn’t a deputy in place to succeed her, so …”
“I understand,” said Lucas. “There are a hundred million people in the Hive, so Lottery can do full-scale succession planning with plenty of people imprinted for each post. You’ve only got a small population here though, and not everyone chooses to go through Lottery. How many candidates do you send into Lottery each year?”
“About a hundred,” said Juniper.
Lucas nodded. “So when the previous head of Sea Farm Security was killed, the Admiral asked for the next Lottery to have the post flagged as an urgent priority for imprinting. Lottery chose the best person it could from the small pool of candidates available that year, and it did quite well in the circumstances. Cador has all the key characteristics for a head of Sea Farm Security. He believes in the importance of law and order, is scrupulously honest, fair, eager, and hardworking.”
“Most of the time he’s wonderful,” said Emblyn.
“Lottery had to compromise on some minor characteristics though,” continued Lucas. “Your reaction makes it obvious that this isn’t the first time Cador’s impulsive nature has made him rush into something and cause problems.”
“It isn’t,” said Emblyn and Juniper in unison.
“This is yet another day of the duck,” added Juniper.
“What?” I asked in bewilderment.
“Cador thought there’d been a burglary,” said Emblyn gloomily. “He arrested two people, but then we found the real culprit hiding under a bed.”
“It was a duck?” I asked.
“Yes,” said Emblyn. “There’ve been a few times like that, when Cador looked a bit silly, but this one could be serious.”
“I’m afraid this one could be very serious,” said Lucas.
Cador returned, his depressed expression warning us what he was going to say. “The back window is broken, and Massen’s gone. He’s taken some clothes with him, so he must have faded into the countryside. I don’t know why he’d go to these lengths to avoid meeting a nosy when he’s already been confirmed innocent.”
Lucas made a moaning sound, and buried his face in his hands for several seconds before looking up again. “Massen was in the first group of suspects sent to the Hive after Hazel’s murder and confirmed as innocent. I agree he’s going to extreme lengths to avoid having his mind read again, first trying to trigger a riot at the seawall and now going into hiding. I think I know the reason why he’s doing that.”
Lucas paused. “Massen was innocent when he was sent to the Hive, but he isn’t innocent any longer. Massen is our second target.”
Chapter Thirty-four
I gazed in awe out of the windows of the Admiral’s command centre. The width of the room wasn’t unusual, but its curving length ran a third of the way around the top of the Haven hill, so the long sweep of windows gave a whole series of views. To my left, I could see a land train had just arrived outside the main entrance to the Haven. In front of me, a group of people were gathering on the seawall. To my right, I could admire the ocean.
Behind me, Lucas was breaking the bad news to Admiral Tregereth, while the rest of our party lurked nervously by the main doors of the command centre. I turned to see how the Admiral was reacting, and thought he looked remarkably calm in the circumstances. There were at least twenty desks in the command centre, but the only member of staff here at the moment was the Admiral. I had the impression this room was similar to the operations rooms in our unit, which we only used during emergency or check runs.
“So, you’re telling me that we’ve had two different people setting traps,” said the Admiral. “Treeve set the ones before Hazel’s death, and you think Massen set the ones after that?”
“Treeve definitely committed the first set of attacks,” said Lucas. “We found the evidence in his workshop. He promised Aster that he’d stop making spiteful remarks to people, and he did. Treeve stopped hurting people with words, but he started hurting them with traps instead. He was very careful about it, and didn’t get caught, but then Hazel died.”
Lu
cas sighed. “Treeve’s friend, Massen, was sent to the Hive in the first suspect group. Massen hadn’t set any traps, and he hadn’t killed Hazel, so he was confirmed as being innocent and sent back to the sea farm. By then, the whole of Sea Farm Security was busily investigating Hazel’s murder, and they were bound to discover the suspiciously large number of recent accidents had actually been caused by traps. Treeve was worried he’d become a suspect, so he went to work at the mine, and asked Massen to help him establish an alibi by setting a couple of traps while he was away.”
The Admiral groaned. “Massen could set traps in perfect safety. Nobody would suspect him when he’d just been confirmed innocent.”
“Exactly,” said Lucas. “My theory is that Massen eagerly agreed to set some traps. This was his chance to take revenge on the people of the sea farm who’d refused to give him repair work and forced him into digging ditches instead. Massen’s traps were far more recklessly dangerous than the ones Treeve had set, they seriously injured people, and Massen was enjoying himself so much that he kept on setting them.”
The Admiral began running his fingers through his beard. “We know Massen didn’t kill Hazel, so that must have been Treeve. We know Treeve didn’t kill himself, so that must have been Massen.”
“We’ll need to find Massen and have a nosy read his mind to be sure of the facts about the murders,” said Lucas.
“And thanks to the helpful warning given by my head of Sea Farm Security, Massen has gone into hiding.” The Admiral looked at the rest of our party, and bellowed a single word. “Cador!”
Cador reluctantly came forward.
“You called Massen yesterday evening and warned him that he’d be questioned today?” asked the Admiral.
“Yes,” admitted Cador guiltily.
The Admiral gave a despairing shake of his head. “And where does Massen live?”
An impressively detailed map of the sea farm dominated the wall opposite the windows. Cador went over to stab a finger at a point near the river in Harvest.
“Massen needs to avoid being seen, so he won’t try to use the land train,” said the Admiral. “Does he own a horse or a boat?”
“Massen doesn’t own a horse or a boat,” said Cador, “but it would be easy for him to steal one. He could have travelled anywhere in the sea farm or beyond it by now, but his obvious move would be to head east into the hills. There’s a good track across to the mine, and he could take any of the dozens of side paths to find shelter in one of the old stone houses.”
“Could I speak to you privately for a moment, Admiral?” asked Lucas.
The Admiral nodded. “We can talk in my office.”
The pair of them went into a side room and closed the door. Cador was looking utterly dejected, and I saw Emblyn touch his arm in a gesture of comfort.
Several minutes passed by, and Adika started pacing restlessly up and down the room. I glanced at the door to the Admiral’s office, and considered reading Lucas’s mind to find out what was happening in there, but decided it would be too dangerous. I couldn’t risk Cador, Emblyn, or Juniper noticing something odd about my behaviour. I studied the images on the walls of the command centre instead, intrigued by one of a mass of boats crammed close together.
Finally, the Admiral and Lucas returned. “Tactical Commander Lucas agrees with me that all the people of the sea farm, including those who’ve faded into the countryside, need to be warned about Massen,” said the Admiral. “I’ll send an emergency message to all their dataviews, but I don’t want to mention anything about Treeve until I’ve had the chance to talk to Aster.”
He paused. “That means my message will just say we believe Massen was involved in the more recent attacks, and anyone with information on his movements should call Sea Farm Security. Since Massen is potentially dangerous, I’m calling my crisis team to the command centre, and putting the sea farm into lockdown status until he’s been arrested.”
“What does lockdown status mean?” I asked.
“It means everyone should stay at their homes, places of work, schools, or other safe places.” The Admiral looked pointedly at Cador. “Sea Farm Security should send out all available surveillance drones to search for Massen, and check recent surveillance camera images for signs of him. You should also ask the coastal patrol base for a list of calls made either by Massen or to him during the last week.”
The Admiral’s voice took on a hard edge. “Any information your people discover about Massen should be sent to Tactical Commander Lucas. You will not, under any circumstances, try to arrest Massen yourself, Cador. Understand?”
“Yes, Admiral,” said Cador, in a depressed voice.
I heard a musical series of notes, and Emblyn took out her dataview and checked it. “I’ve got a message from my parents in Tropics. Hazel’s house is on fire!”
I looked out of the window. Smoke was still drifting up from the remains of our fire on the beach, but there was a thicker and blacker cloud of smoke further along the coast in the Tropics region.
“My team and Juniper need to go to Hazel’s house at once,” said Lucas. “One of our aircraft is already on standby in the hangar.”
The Admiral nodded, and we hurried out of the main doors of the command centre.
“Juniper had better lead the way to the hangar,” said Lucas. “This place is as confusing as one of the housing warrens back at the Hive.”
Juniper turned into a corridor on the left. “This is a shortcut to the hangar, sir. Thank you for still taking me with you after what happened.”
“I’m not blaming you for Cador’s mistake.”
We reached the end of the corridor and Juniper waved at a small door directly ahead of us. “This is a side door to the hangar.”
We went through the door into the hangar, and up the steps of the waiting transport aircraft. The Alpha Strike team were unnaturally silent as they took their seats, obviously fully aware that Lucas might have calmed down but Adika was still furious about losing a dangerous target.
Lucas sat down next to me and spoke on the crystal comms. “Pilot Ralston, I want us to go to the Tropics Region and land as close to Hazel’s house as possible. It should be quite conspicuous since it’s on fire, but I’m sure Juniper can give you directions if necessary.”
“Hazel’s house is near the Tropics school and the glasshouses,” said Juniper. “Our aircraft probably won’t be able to land closer to it than the beach.”
“Nicole, have the Liaison team got access to Sea Farm Security’s surveillance drone and camera images?” asked Lucas.
“Yes,” said Nicole’s voice.
“Cador mentioned that after Hazel died, Sea Farm Security added some extra surveillance cameras that gave views of her house,” said Lucas. “Check their images for information on how the fire started.”
Two minutes later, our aircraft landed on a flat, sandy beach. The Strike team members jumped down from the doorway, and then lifted the rest of us down to join them, with Eli insisting on lifting Juniper down himself.
Juniper led the way across sandy hillocks, between some houses, to a group of massive domes that seemed to be almost entirely built of glass. As we walked past them, I could see people working inside, but there was nobody out here at all. Beyond the glasshouses, an empty land train stood on a deserted road.
“People are following the Admiral’s lockdown instructions,” said Lucas. “Juniper, is the ditch at the side of the road the one that Massen was working on when he had the argument with Hazel?”
“Yes, the school lawn was getting waterlogged in heavy rain, so they wanted a ditch to improve the drainage.” Juniper continued along the road and gestured at a long building surrounded by a flat expanse of grass. “That’s the Tropics school.”
I saw a mass of children’s faces were looking out of the school windows at us. Lucas ignored the audience, hurrying on down the road to a blackened building that was dripping with water.
“Someone has already put the fire out,”
he said.
“When there’s a fire, everyone in the area comes to help put it out,” said Juniper. “With the school and the glasshouses so close by, there’d be plenty of people to help with this one.”
“The stone walls are still standing,” said Lucas, “but everything inside is nothing but ash now.”
“If the purpose of the fire was to destroy some evidence, it’s been highly successful,” said Adika.
I stared sadly at the neatly dug flowerbeds of Hazel’s garden, and what seemed to be a miniature house, untouched by the flames. “That orange thing must be the hen house. Are the birds safe?”
“The birds are perfectly safe,” said Juniper. “Hazel’s sister took them to join her own hens weeks ago.”
“Liaison, have you found any useful surveillance camera images?” asked Lucas.
“We’ve just found an image sequence that shows a drone starting the fire,” said Nicole. “Sending it to your dataviews now.”
We all studied our dataviews. The images seemed to have been taken by a camera on the roof of one of the glasshouses. It showed the dark shape of a drone swooping low over a house roof, and a couple of objects falling from it.
“The drone dropped a bottle which presumably held accelerant,” said Lucas. “That was followed by another object. I’m not sure exactly what that was, but it was generating a small flame to light the accelerant.”
“I think that object was the sort of fire lighter we use to start our camp fires,” said Rothan. “You press the switch to create a flame for a second.”
“Our target must have rigged the fire lighter to make it keep creating flames.” Lucas glanced at Juniper. “Are there many of those fire lighters at the sea farm?”
Juniper pulled a face. “Just about every house has one.”
Lucas sighed. “So the illegal drone set fire to Hazel’s house. How far away can a person be from the drone that they’re controlling?”
Juniper shrugged. “In theory, the person with the control unit can send their drone anywhere in the sea farm, but there are some black spots in High Fold because of the hills. If Massen is over in the direction of the mine, then the distance to here wouldn’t be an issue, but again there’d be some black spots because of the hills by the mine.”
Hurricane (Hive Mind Book 3) Page 31