“You did everything possible, Amber,” said Megan. “You stayed with him.”
She didn’t dare to mention my telepathy with my parents listening, but I knew what she meant. I’d been in Eli’s head when he was in trouble. I’d stayed with him despite the pain. I’d told the team what was happening to him, so they had a chance to help.
“Eli knew the risk when he broke cover,” said Adika. “He did a great job, but a slightly more accurate shot would have been even better. If the lad lives, he’s going to do a lot of target practice.”
I had to trust the experts to do everything they could for Eli, while I made sure we caught the man who’d shot him. “Situation status check. Have Hive Defence started the extra coastal patrols yet?”
Nicole nodded. “Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement immediately queried our high level of military activity at our borders. Hive Defence replied that these were temporary defensive manoeuvres in response to another Hive’s violation of our territory, necessary while we were gathering evidence to submit a formal complaint. Several Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement aircraft have just arrived to monitor what we’re doing.”
Adika laughed. “That ties the hands of Hive Genex. They won’t dare to send an aircraft to collect Elden from under the noses of Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement.”
“So Elden’s definitely got no way to escape,” I said. “We just have to wait for him to get here.”
“The Hive is already on full scale alert,” said Lucas, “but he can’t possibly get here for another three days.”
“Good.” I finally turned to my parents and brother. “You’ve probably worked out by now that I don’t run a Research Unit. We’re actually a Security Unit, and we’re in the middle of dealing with an attack by an agent from another Hive. There was a possibility the agent might take you hostage, so we’ve brought you here for your protection.”
“Enemy agents! High up, Amber!” gasped Gregas.
“This is all highly secret,” I continued, “so it’s vital you don’t tell anyone about it.”
My parents solemnly nodded. I knew I could trust them to keep the Hive’s secrets. It was my brother that was worrying me.
“Gregas, you understand that?”
He gave an urgent nod. “Amber, when I go through Lottery, can you get me into your unit?”
I wasn’t sure what to say, but Lucas stepped forward. “That might be possible, Gregas, but only if you keep totally silent about what you see here. A Security Unit couldn’t accept anyone who’d breached Hive secrecy restrictions.”
Gregas instantly looked obedient and discreet, a model future member of a Security Unit.
Lucas turned to smile at my parents. “You may remember me. I visited your apartment. I’m just another of Amber’s team leaders.”
Lucas turned to give me a teasing look, and I felt myself blushing.
“Mum, Dad, I should have told you this days ago, but I wanted to say it in person rather than in a call. Lucas isn’t just a team leader now, but my boyfriend and partner.”
My parents looked doubtfully at Lucas, who was just as filthy as the rest of us, and had a clownishly wide smile on his face. I checked his mind. The over-anxious smile was because he knew my parents were important to me, and could cause huge problems if they tried to block our relationship.
There was no need for him to worry. Lucas and I were Level 1. My parents were Level 27, and they’d always been very aware of their place in the Hive hierarchy. The days of them nagging me to tidy my room were gone forever. Their daughter was Level 1 now, always faultless, always right. They wouldn’t dream of objecting to my relationship with Lucas.
That was an unnerving thought. I somehow felt alone, abandoned, but of course I wasn’t. My parents wouldn’t offer advice on my decisions any longer, but they still cared about me as much as ever.
I took Lucas’s arm. “I’ve had a huge amount to cope with since Lottery, and Lucas has been there for me through all of it, helping and supporting me.”
My parents nodded again, clearly tongue tied in front of so many high level members of the Hive. I took pity on them.
“Nicole will find you somewhere to stay. I really need to go and clean up now.”
My mother gave a single, deeply expressive, look at my clothes and my mud, and said the closest thing to criticism that she’d ever direct at me now. “Yes, I can see that.”
Nicole led my parents and brother away, and Lucas and I headed back to the apartment that had been mine and now was ours. There was the luxury of showers and my favourite foods, and then we retired to the blissful comfort of a proper sleep field.
I was exhausted, but could only doze fitfully while watching the wall of our bedroom. Lucas had set it to display the doctors’ latest report on Eli’s condition in glowing letters, so I just had to turn my head to see it in the darkness. The doctors nearly lost Eli twice before midnight, and it was seven in the morning before the words told me he was stable and they’d saved his leg.
I’d looked my worst fear in the face. One day I’d lose a member of my team, but not this time. I could sleep at last.
Chapter Thirty-nine
The warbling sound of the alarm came during the first evening of Halloween, summoning us to lift 2. Elden had arrived on schedule, and we were ready and waiting to hunt him. Lucas had insisted on coming with us, so he was among the masked figures wearing red and black Halloween costumes.
The last time I’d worn a mask was for Carnival, months ago, a lifetime ago. Carnival of the silver and gold costumes. Halloween of the red and black. The twin Hive festivals of light and darkness, of life and death.
When the lift doors opened on Level 1, we moved to ride an express belt. I remembered the last day of Carnival. Twenty-two of us from our corridor on Teen Level, all in Carnival costumes of silver and gold except for our leader, Forge, who was breaking tradition by wearing red and black. We’d jumped on the handrail on Level 1, and plunged downwards through the shopping areas, balanced in a proud line and screaming our defiance at fate. Forge’s red and black costume had been an act of defiance too.
Now it was Halloween, and Forge and I were back in costume. He was in red and black, and I was in silver and gold, just like before. There was no Eli with us, so nineteen Strike team members, Adika, Lucas, and myself made twenty-two again. Lucas had laughed when he’d seen our costumes, and said Emili had been amusing herself with symbolism when she chose them.
Forge and I were dressed as the twin angels of dark and of light, forever divided by our choices between evil and good. He was the dark angel who had made the wrong choice and fallen. I was in silver and gold, the light angel, the one lone symbol of hope allowed in the grimness of Halloween. Adika was justice, dressed in unrelieved black and carrying a great sword on his back. Lucas was wearing the red-eyed helm of the hunter of souls. The Strike team were in the motley costumes of the members of the pack, the scavengers of darkness.
“Hasties report that Elden has just reached the 510/6100 Level 1 shopping area,” said Emili’s voice in our ear crystals. “He’s cleaned himself up, but he’s not in costume, so everyone’s shouting at him. He’s looking confused, and staggering towards the downway. He must be planning to use that to go down to Gregas’s room on Teen Level. The hasties are following.”
“Keep the hasties at a discreet distance,” said Lucas. “We know Elden has a knife, so we don’t want to trigger him into violence in a shopping area packed with people.”
“Approaching scene,” said Adika.
We stepped off the belt and Forge picked me up. The dark angel carrying the light angel. The crowd looked at us, recognized a full Halloween hunt in professional costumes, and applauded. They thought we were part of the official entertainment.
I closed my eyes, searched for my target, and instantly found him. His mind was blazing like a burning camp fire in darkness, consuming itself. His imprint was tearing apart, the horrors in his subconscious had spread upwards to overwhelm his waking thoughts
, and reality was conspiring against him too. He’d come to a Hive that was in Halloween costume. He was surrounded by creatures of nightmare, who were screaming abuse at him.
“Elden’s on Level 2 and still descending,” I said. “He’s totally disoriented, terrified by the Halloween costumes.”
“We’ll follow,” said Adika. “Amber, Lucas, and bodyguards at the back. The crowd will slow us down, but …”
“No!” I wriggled out of Forge’s arms to stand on my own feet. “We’re the Halloween hunt. People think we’re entertainers, so we’ll play the roles and the crowd will let us through.” I pointed at the handrails of the downway. “Forge, with me!”
I jumped on one handrail and Forge on the other. We balanced there, riding downwards. Adika cursed my folly and moved to stand on the moving stairs between us. The dark and light angels on the handrails, with justice standing between them. Behind the three of us, on the handrails and the steps, the pack streamed after us. Demons, wolves, and creatures of the night, led by Lucas, the hunter of souls.
“Amber!” Adika shouted above the noise of the crowd. “Get down! You’re too conspicuous riding the rail, and you could fall.”
“Amber won’t fall,” said Forge. “We came to this shopping area on the last day of Carnival, and she rode the handrail all the whole way from Level 1 down to Level 100.”
I laughed. “I know what I’m doing, Adika. I promise I won’t fall or put myself in danger from the target. I know exactly where Elden is. His head’s exploding and he’s impossible to miss. The crowd is slowing him down, so we’ll catch up with him soon.”
“If he had any sense,” said Lucas, “he’d just take a lift down to Gregas’s room.”
“Elden’s past sense and rational thought, Lucas,” I said. “He’s broken and in agony. His Hive did this to him. They … they wasted him.”
I almost felt sorry for Elden. No, I did feel sorry for him. He’d been loyal to his Hive and done everything it demanded of him, no matter how hard the task or how high the personal cost. If that was a crime, then I was as guilty as he was.
I’d hated Elden, but it was his Hive that was my real enemy, not him. Hive Genex had cold-bloodedly used, broken, and discarded its agent. There was no way to cure what his imprint had done to Elden. He was lost in a tortured existence and worse was to come.
When we captured Elden, he’d be handed over in evidence and destruction analyzed. I’d seen what that inhuman phrase meant in Lucas’s head, all the grim details of how a body and mind would be picked apart cell by cell. There would be much more pain before Elden was finally lucky enough to die.
We were on Level 6 when Adika shouted. “There he is!”
I could see him too, the lone figure struggling through the mocking crowd. The people saw us coming, and deliberately blocked Elden’s escape, forming a solid wall and laughing at him. Trick or treat. A man was out without costume, the legitimate prey of the Halloween hunt. The mob was holding him for us, so we could pelt him with slime balls or pour fake blood over his head for their entertainment. They didn’t know he had a knife. They didn’t know he was ripped apart by pain, and might hit out in panic and kill them.
Elden saw the wall of people ahead, turned, and saw the demonic hunt descending on him. He looked at me, at the light angel, at the one sign of hope in the darkness. He’d spent his entire adult life hunting me, but his mind had shattered and he didn’t recognize me.
“The Hive wants Elden alive, so guns on stun and take him down as soon as you get a clear shot over the crowd,” Adika ordered. “We don’t want anyone getting stabbed.”
Forge and I were poised on the handrails, looking out over the crowd, and we both drew guns. My Hive wanted Elden alive, but his body was all we really needed to prove our case to Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement. I was a telepath, above the law, untouchable, and I chose to allow myself one moment of rebellion. Elden was a poor broken thing now, and I would grant him the only possible mercy.
Forge’s gun was set to stun, but mine was on kill when I shot Elden in the heart. He fell to the ground, and the crowd cheered the dramatic performance by the Halloween entertainers.
Chapter Forty
The warbling sound of the alarm cut into my dreams. I groaned and rolled out of the sleep field.
“Unit emergency alert,” said the computerized voice. “Unit emergency alert. We have an incident in progress. Operational teams to stations. Strike team to lift 2.”
Adika’s voice cut in. “Alpha team, you have the strike.”
I grabbed my body armour, pulled it on, and wriggled to get it comfortable before finishing dressing. Over the other side of the sleep field, Lucas was pulling on clothes while simultaneously reading a scrolling display on the wall. I ignored the glowing text. Lucas would brief us on the details later.
We left the apartment together, grabbed a split-second hug and kiss, and then split up. Lucas sprinted for his office, and I ran for lift 2. Adika, Rothan, and the Alpha Strike team were in there already. Forge and the Beta Strike team were standing nearby, and waved cheerfully at me. This wasn’t their strike, but Forge still wasn’t satisfied with their emergency response speed, so he had them responding to Alpha team alerts for extra practice. I didn’t see why he was complaining. They were a lot faster than me. I’d have to sleep in the lift, wearing body armour and full equipment, to get there ahead of either Strike team.
I skidded to a halt in the lift, the doors closed behind me, and the lift started moving. I spotted a familiar mind and figure among the Alpha team, and hugged him in delight.
“Eli! Welcome back to active duty.”
He made the most of the hug before releasing me and grinning. “I could have been back weeks ago, instead of being stuck training with Forge and the Beta team greenies.”
“We had to be sure your leg was properly healed,” said Rothan.
“We certainly did,” I said. “We couldn’t take silly risks with someone as valuable as you, Eli.”
Eli flushed with pleasure and embarrassment.
Adika decided we’d spent enough time giving Eli his welcome back to full Alpha team duty, and started the standard routine. “Strike team is moving.”
Lucas’s voice spoke in my ear crystal. “Tactical ready.”
Nicole came next. “Liaison ready. Tracking status green.” She sounded anxious, the way she always did.
I checked my dataview. “We are green.”
The warm, relaxed voice of Lucas started briefing us. “We have an emergency call about an incident, strength six. Location is …”
Strength six meant someone had already died. The atmosphere in the lift gained an extra degree of tension as we braced ourselves for the chase. A wild bee was out there on a killing spree. The Strike team were preparing themselves to use deadly force if necessary. They’d been carefully selected by Lottery to be capable of taking instant decisions, and using whatever level of violence was in the interests of the Hive.
I hadn’t been like them. I’d been an ordinary girl and should have lived an ordinary life, but it had been a long road from Carnival to Halloween. I wasn’t an ordinary girl any longer. I’d read tame minds and wild minds. I’d shared their thoughts and felt their emotions. I’d known the light and the darkness, and walked the thin line between mercy and revenge.
The Hive hadn’t let me meet any of the other true telepaths, and now I knew one of the reasons why. Morton, Sapphire, Keith, or even Mira, would have told me the truth. That of all the people in the Hive, only true telepaths were free from imprints and fears of consequences. We would serve the Hive, as everyone did, but we would serve it on our own terms. The Hive didn’t want us to know that, but we all learnt it for ourselves in the end.
The lift doors opened, and the Strike team clustered protectively round me as we headed out to defend our Hive.
Message from Janet Edwards
Thank you for reading Telepath. Please visit me online at my website to see the latest information on my oth
er books. You can also make sure you don’t miss future books by signing up to get new release updates.
Best wishes from Janet Edwards
Books by Janet Edwards
Set in the Hive Future
TELEPATH
Set in the Portal Future
The prequel novellas:-
EARTH AND FIRE: An Earth Girl Novella
FRONTIER: An Epsilon Sector Novella
The Earth Girl trilogy:-
EARTH GIRL
EARTH STAR
EARTH FLIGHT
The Earth Girl prequel short story collection:-
EARTH 2788: The Earth Girl Short Stories
Other short stories:-
HERA 2781: A Military Short Story
Please visit www.janetedwards.com for the latest information on all the books
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About the Author
Janet Edwards lives in England. As a child, she read everything she could get her hands on, including a huge amount of science fiction and fantasy. She studied Maths at Oxford, and went on to suffer years of writing unbearably complicated technical documents before deciding to write something that was fun for a change. She has a husband, a son, a lot of books, and an aversion to housework.
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Telepath Page 36