“I can’t see him.” Adika’s voice was half drowned by the thundering sound of water.
I opened my eyes. Adika had shot ropes across the river, and he and Forge were wading into the waist deep water. They wore belts that were clipped to the ropes, and were pulling themselves along with their hands, while their legs were being swept from under them by the current.
“He’s nearer the other bank. Over there!” I screamed the words, waving my arm frantically at where my mind could see Eli.
Forge glanced at me, then back at the churning water. “I see him now!”
He was just in time to snag the dark tumbling shape that was Eli. Adika joined him, and together they fought against the strength of the river to wind an orange harness around Eli. They got it clipped to the ropes, adjusted it, and slowly dragged themselves and Eli back towards the eager hands of the rest of the Strike team.
Eli was white and motionless when they stretched him out on the riverbank, but I could still sense a sliver of unconscious thought. Adika knelt beside him, pressing rhythmically on his chest to pump water from his lungs, as a roar sounded above us.
“Aerial one requesting target location,” said a female voice in my ear crystal.
I closed my eyes and searched. “Target is across the river. Running directly away from it. Three cors away from my position and still moving.”
I opened my eyes again, looked up, and saw the impossible sight of something huge and grey hanging in the sky. I stared at it in shock, as it moved across the river, paused to hover above the trees, and was joined by its identical twin.
“Aerial one and two have target on heat sensors,” said Nicole. “Aerial three will arrive at your location in two minutes.”
“We’ll need Aerial three to pick us up,” said Adika. “Elden’s on the wrong side of the river to us, and Eli’s in bad shape. A compound fracture of his left leg and a head injury. What’s the target’s situation like, Amber?”
“Elden was shot in the left arm and then the left shoulder. He fell out of his tree after that. He’s in a lot of pain, but he doesn’t seem to care. He’s still running through the trees. His mind looked like it was rippling before, but now it’s separating into fragments. I can see my own face in the images on the subconscious levels. He’s not just in pain from his wounds. There seems to be pain inside his head as well.”
“He’s seen you and your Strike team hunting him, Amber,” said Lucas. “He knows what that means. We’ve discovered his plan, removed your imprint, and everything he’s been through in the last fifteen years has been for nothing. The shock has sent his imprint overload into cascade failure, and his mind is coming apart at the seams. No wonder he’s in pain.”
“Will he recover from that?” I asked.
“No,” said Lucas. “No chance of recovery. No possible treatment. There’ll be some remaining rational thought, he’ll still be dangerous, but he’s broken beyond repair.”
There was a roar from overhead. Another massive grey object was above us. That had to be Aerial three. We were by the side of the river with a precipitous slope next to us, so how could the aircraft pick us up?
Then I saw a rigid, man-sized cradle was dangling below the aircraft, and being lowered towards us. Forge and Rothan reached up to grab it and guide it to the ground. They loaded Eli in, careful of his twisted leg, and strapped him in place. He soared up into the air to be taken aboard the aircraft.
A couple of minutes later, Megan’s voice spoke. “We have to get Eli back to the Hive immediately.”
“Megan, are you in Aerial three?” asked Adika.
“Yes. I’ve got a full team of doctors with me, and we’ll do our best for Eli, but we need to get him into a specialist unit as fast as possible.”
I felt sick at the tone of her voice. I’d thought that once Eli was in medical hands then he’d be safe, but it wasn’t that simple.
“Aerial three, go!” Adika ordered. “Aerial two, pick the rest of us up. Aerial one, maintain contact with target.”
The aircraft carrying Eli suddenly accelerated and shot out of sight beyond the trees. Another took its place. Something was being lowered towards us again, not a one-man cradle this time, but a huge net. Adika caught it, and found an opening.
“Rothan, Forge, Amber, Lucas, Matias, Kaden. You go first.”
Rothan and Forge went through the opening, one on each side of the net, using their weight to spread it out and make room for the rest of us. Matias helped Lucas inside, and I gulped and let Kaden lift me in after him.
“Just close your eyes, Amber,” said Forge. “Keep them closed until we’re aboard.”
I closed my eyes, felt the net rock as Matias and Kaden climbed in, and then the world seemed to sway drunkenly as gusts of wind blew around us. I dug my hands into the web of netting and hung on tight, telling myself it was impossible to fall. After a few moments, I felt the netting go slack.
“We’re aboard,” said Forge. “You can let go of the net, Amber.”
I opened my eyes, and saw a stranger, a woman, beckoning us towards a door. I disentangled myself from the webbing, and turned to follow her, catching a sickening glimpse of a hole in the floor with an endless drop below it. I froze, standing staring at it, and Lucas tugged me firmly through a door into a normal looking room filled with seats. He thrust me down into one of them, sat next to me, and the rest of the Strike team gradually arrived to join us, looking either exhilarated or shocked by the experience of riding in the net.
A warm cup arrived in my hands. I looked down stupidly at it for a moment, and then realized it was hot soup. I came out of my trance and drank it greedily.
“Now,” said Adika, “we get on the right side of the river and …”
“Aerial one here. We’ve lost the target,” said a voice over the sound link.
“What?” Adika burst out in fury. “How the waste did you lose him?”
“The heat signal just vanished.”
“Even if Elden died,” said Lucas, “he wouldn’t lose his body heat all at once. Three possibilities. He’s using stealth technology, he’s underwater, or he’s underground. Amber?”
I already had my eyes closed, reaching out with my mind. “He’s still alive. Still moving. It’s dark, and there’s a beam of light flashing around. Mud underfoot. Glimpses of rock walls. No, not rock, blocks of carved stone.” I felt Elden slip, and instinctively reach out a hand to steady himself. “Cold, hard, gritty, damp walls.”
“Underground then,” said Lucas. “Rothan, are there any tunnels round here?”
“There’s no mention of them on my maps,” said Rothan, “but ramblers wouldn’t be interested in ancient tunnels. We want to spend time Outside, not underground.”
“We’re checking the records for tunnels,” said the voice of Nicole. There was a pause of several minutes before she spoke again. “We had to go into the archived records to find any mention of tunnels, but there used to be underground express belt links between the Hive, Hive Futura, and the sea farm. When Hive Futura was abandoned, the underground belt links were abandoned too. The ends of the tunnels were sealed off, and now all supplies are sent to and from the sea farm by aircraft.”
“Elden must have stumbled across a way into the old tunnel between the sea farm and the Hive when he was exploring this area,” said Lucas. “Possibly through an air vent or emergency exit. However he got in there, Elden had a perfect route to our Hive, safe from curious ramblers and aerial surveillance. The belts wouldn’t be working, he’d have to walk along them, but that would still be faster than the paths above ground. Why didn’t Hive Defence mention these underground tunnels to us?”
Adika groaned. “They probably don’t know they exist. Abandoned express belt links wouldn’t be included in anyone’s imprinted data.”
I didn’t say it aloud, because it wouldn’t help at this point, but I felt this showed that the Hive’s policy of carefully controlling information could sometimes be counterproductive.
“Amber, do you know how Elden got in there?” asked Adika.
“No.” I shook my head in frustration. “I can’t understand the high levels, and the low levels are a waking nightmare. I just get the odd clue from things he sees, smells or touches. Things he hears too, but at the moment he’s only hearing dripping water and his own breathing and footsteps. I’m sorry.”
“You’re doing brilliantly,” said Lucas.
“There’s thick forest down there,” said Adika. “It could take us days to find a way to get underground after him.”
“Elden knows he’s failed,” said Lucas, “and there’s no way for him to get back to Hive Genex. He may still be able to send them a message, but he’s too badly wounded to make the swim offshore to meet an aircraft.”
“We should increase the coastal patrols on this whole length of coastline anyway,” said Adika.
“Contacting Hive Defence about that now,” said Nicole.
I was still checking Elden’s distant mind for clues. He was sitting on the ground now, back against the tunnel wall, tying up his throbbing wounds and checking his possessions. I caught an angry memory that involved physical movements rather than words. “Elden’s lost his gun. He’s still got a knife, but no gun.”
“No gun?” repeated Adika. “You’re absolutely sure about that, Amber?”
“I’m sure,” I said. “Elden was high up in a tree next to the river when Eli shot him in the shoulder. Elden lost his grip on his branch, and slithered down the tree, grabbing more branches to break his fall. Somewhere in the middle of that, his gun fell, and was either lost in the river or the undergrowth.”
An image appeared in the pain-torn mind. “Elden’s planning something,” I said urgently. “I just saw him thinking about my brother, Gregas! How does Elden know about Gregas? Why is he thinking about him?”
“Elden will have found out every detail he could about you, Amber,” said Lucas. “That would include information on your brother. If he’s thinking about him, then …”
I had a shocking thought and interrupted him. “Gregas is another true telepath, and Elden is planning to kidnap him?”
“Your brother has a higher than usual chance of being a borderline telepath,” said Lucas, “but it’s highly unlikely that he’s a true telepath. Elden knows he’s failed to kidnap you, and that he can’t possibly make it back to his own Hive, so he’s going for a revenge killing. He’s aware he won’t stand a chance of getting through your bodyguards to kill you, so he’s aiming to kill Gregas instead. Elden will be hoping that traumatizes you so much that it damages your ability to work for our Hive as a telepath.”
I glared at him. “How can you talk about it so calmly? Gregas is irritating, but he’s my brother!”
“I can talk about it calmly, because we won’t let it happen,” said Lucas. “Nicole, we need Gregas guarded until we’ve captured Elden. Other potential victims as well. Amber’s parents obviously. Amber’s best friends on Teen Level were Forge and Shanna. Forge can take care of himself, but we’d better put some guards on Shanna.”
“That’s not good enough,” I said. “A few hasties would be no match for Elden. The man’s deadly.”
I turned in my seat to look at Adika. “I want my brother and my parents safely inside my unit behind the best defences in the Hive.”
Adika frowned. “You want your family kept inside our unit for days, Amber? That could cause security problems.”
“It won’t matter if they find out roughly what our unit does, so long as they don’t find out we use telepathy to do it.”
Adika sighed. “The girl, Shanna, too?”
Shanna didn’t mean much to me these days, but Elden wouldn’t know that. “Yes, Shanna too.”
“Nicole, get hasties to pick all four of them up and take them to the unit,” said Lucas. “We’ll fly home ourselves now, and wait for Elden to arrive at the Hive. Even if we could find a way to go underground after Elden, I’m not taking us on a chase along ancient tunnels that could collapse at any moment. It’s a totally unnecessary risk when we know exactly where Elden is, where he’s going, and what he plans to do when he gets there.”
“What if he dies on the way to our Hive?” asked Adika.
Lucas shrugged. “In that case, we’ll have to send people into the tunnel to retrieve his body, but I’m betting he’ll make it there alive. The man seems indestructible. It should take him at least three days to make the journey, and we know he’ll head straight for Gregas’s room on Teen Level. We can send Elden’s image to every hasty in the Hive, and have them all looking out for him.”
“Elden will be conspicuous anyway,” said Emili’s voice. “He should reach the Hive just in time for the Halloween holiday, and it’s trick or treat then. Anyone not wearing a costume is fair game for everyone.”
Lucas laughed. “Elden will be pelted with scum balls wherever he goes. We’ll need costumes to wear ourselves when we chase after him, because I don’t want to smell of algae for days.”
“I’ll advise Nicole on appropriate costumes,” said Emili.
“Aerial one, stay and patrol to make sure our target doesn’t double back to the waterfall nest,” said Adika. “Aerial two, take us home.”
Chapter Thirty-eight
When our lift doors opened back at the unit, we found a crowd waiting to welcome us. Even Sofia had torn herself away from her latest painting to come and meet Matias.
Megan and Emili moved eagerly forward. Emili hugged Rothan, and I noticed Megan was smiling at Adika as well as at me, but the reunion was interrupted by the doors of another lift opening. A gorgeous girl in sparkling party clothes stormed out, followed by my parents, Gregas, and half a dozen blue-clad hasties.
Shanna scowled round at us. “I demand to know the meaning of this outrage!”
She had the same ornate hair and perfectly made up face that she’d had on Teen Level. She was reacting the same way she would have done on Teen Level as well. She hadn’t changed a bit since Lottery, while Forge and I were smeared in mud, wearing peculiar, bulky clothes, and openly carrying guns on our hips. It was an utterly surreal moment.
No one answered Shanna, so she tried shouting louder. “I’m a Level 9 Media Presenter. You can’t treat me like this.”
She expected us to be impressed that she was Level 9. I couldn’t help laughing, not because I was Level 1, but because levels hardly seemed to matter any longer. My laughter attracted her attention. She turned to me, wrinkled her nose in disgust, and then blinked in shock.
“Amber! You look ghastly.” She marched towards me. “What’s going on?”
“You’ll be staying here for a few days, Shanna. I suggest you keep quiet and do what you’re told.”
“I can’t stay here. I’m co-host of the special teen Halloween programme on Hive channel 8!”
“They’ll cope without you.” I threw a glance at my parents and Gregas. They looked stunned at the sight of me wearing a gun, but they had enough sense to wait quietly for instructions rather than make fools of themselves like Shanna.
“I’ll tell all my viewers how I was forcibly dragged here by a bunch of ignorant hasties!” screeched Shanna.
I lost patience with her. “Shanna, this is a Level 1 unit that’s dealing with a Hive security breach. Since this situation potentially puts you in danger, you’ve been brought here for your own protection. You’ll tell your viewers nothing, you’ll forget this ever happened, or you’ll spend the rest of your life polishing pipes on Level 100.”
I looked round for Forge. “Can you deal with Shanna, Forge? Make sure she understands I really mean that threat.”
Forge moved out of the crowd of Strike team members. Shanna didn’t seem to have noticed him until now, though admittedly he was almost unrecognizable, still wet and covered in mud after rescuing Eli. Her eyes widened as she looked at him.
“Forge, you’re Level 1 as well?”
He didn’t say a word, just nodded.
Shanna hesitated for
a moment as she absorbed that information, then her face lit up in an encouraging smile. “It’s wonderful to see you again. We’ll be able to talk about old times on Teen Level, and make plans for the future.”
Forge seemed to wince in pain. “We don’t have a future, Shanna. You made that very clear the last time I saw you. Your old teen clothes and fashion accessories weren’t good enough for you any longer. Neither was I.”
“I regretted saying that the moment you’d gone,” she said. “We were so good together on Teen Level. We can be just as good again.”
Forge raised his eyes to the ceiling for a second. “I used to think we were good together on Teen Level, but now I realize I was stupidly naive back then.” He turned to look at me. “Can someone else deal with Shanna, Amber?”
“If that’s what you prefer.” I nodded at Kaden.
“You can’t mean that, Forge. Remember how …” Shanna’s words broke off as Kaden grabbed her by the arms, and dragged her unceremoniously away.
My parents had been staring at Sofia’s mural of me giving my speech, but now they looked hopefully at me, while Gregas was literally bouncing with excitement. I waved a hand at them.
“I need a minute to check a few things.” I turned to Megan. “How is Eli?”
“In the best specialist hands, but they say he’d stand a better chance if they take his leg.” Megan gave me a meaningful look. “Eli’s unconscious, so they can’t ask him for a decision on this.”
It took me a moment to take in what she was telling me, what she was asking me. Eli couldn’t speak for himself right now. I’d read his thoughts on a daily basis for months, I knew him better than anyone else could ever do, so it was up to me to speak for him. There were those on the Strike team who could accept losing a leg, having a prosthetic limb, moving to a less physically demanding role, but Eli …
I wanted to keep Eli safe, but I had to give his answer not mine. “Eli would want to keep his leg.”
I rubbed a grimy hand across my eyes. I was faced with my worst fear. A member of my Strike team, my family, dying.
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