Borderline (Hive Mind Book 4)

by Janet Edwards

  Adika was giving a torrent of orders to his men. I pulled out of Warwick’s frustrated mind and searched for Alvin again.

  “Target is at floor level now,” I said. “He’s one cor west of me and running further west.”

  … find somewhere safe to hide. Have to find somewhere safe to hide. Have to …

  Alvin’s thoughts were looping in fear. I couldn’t learn anything useful from them, so I focused on the view from his eyes. He could see the open inspection hatch ahead of him now. A moment later, he dropped down into the darkness.

  “Alvin has reached the inspection hatch he used earlier, and entered a maintenance crawl way,” I said. “He’s two cors west of me now but is moving back east. There’s plenty of headroom, and Alvin regularly uses this route to reach air vents, so he’s moving quickly. I think there used to be motion-activated lighting in there, but he’s disabled it so people wouldn’t see the betraying glimmer of light coming from their air vents.”

  “I’ll be at the inspection hatch in thirty seconds,” panted Adika. “Eli, there’s another inspection hatch to the east. Get there to block Alvin’s escape route and …”

  “On my way,” said Eli’s voice.

  There was a long pause with only the sound of laboured breathing on the comms. Alvin was gasping for breath too.

  “Alvin is just north of my position now,” I said, “and …”

  I broke off my sentence. The blur of fear in Alvin’s mind had suddenly vanished, and the thought trains were moving logically again.

  The head of Hive Politics is at work now. No one will think of looking for me inside his apartment. I just need to put the air vent cover back in place behind me and …

  “Alvin’s heading for this apartment,” I cried. “He’s been in here before. He’s made an entrance through an air vent in the bookette room.”

  “Bodyguard formation two attack, three defence!” screamed Matias.

  He tugged me out of my chair, thrust me against the wall, then plastered his body against mine so Alvin’s knife would have to go through him to reach me.

  I opened my eyes. I was Amber, seeing two of my other bodyguards sprint out of the door, before slamming it shut behind them. I was Alvin kneeling in the darkness, using the tool that would open the air vent from his side.

  “Alvin’s got the air vent open,” I reported. “He’s coming through it now, and dropping to the floor.”

  “Amber, get out of Alvin’s mind now!” ordered Lucas. “Bodyguard team, deadly force authorized.”

  Alvin saw two men hurtle through the doorway of the bookette room, their guns aimed at him.

  No chance. No chance. No chance at all.

  “Don’t shoot!” I shouted. “Don’t shoot. Alvin’s surrendering.”

  The part of me that was Alvin dropped the knife, fell to my knees, and started crying. Hands were grabbing me, putting something around my wrists, and tying them together behind my back. I didn’t know what they’d do to me. I didn’t care what they’d do to me. My whole life had been destroyed, and the worst thing was that I knew I was the one who’d destroyed it.

  “Target secure,” chorused the two bodyguards in unison.

  I pulled away from the despairing Alvin, and became wholly Amber again. The warm intimacy of Matias’s body against mine was broken as he stepped away, and Nicole’s voice spoke on the crystal comms.

  “If the immediate danger is over, I’d better warn you that we’re now the lead news story on Hive channel 1.”

  Chapter Five

  There was more than the usual amount of tidying up to do after the emergency run. Alvin had to be handed over to a team of forensic psychologists for treatment, and we needed to deal with the three bystanders as well. Lucas said we could just let the Lieutenant go, but the boy who was terrified of the dark was so traumatized that he needed a standard psychological team to come and take him for therapy.

  I had serious reservations about tampering with someone’s memories, but I could see that it might be the best option in the boy’s case. If his memory was reset a few hours, unravelling his personal experience chain to before he went into Level Zero, then he could be spared months or even years of nightmares.

  The injured Captain was the biggest problem. Red group had to finish giving him the blood transfusion before they could carry him across the aerial walkways to meet a medical team.

  While they were doing that, my bodyguards escorted me to meet the rest of the Strike team in a nearby lift. Liaison had sent everyone a recording of the Hive channel 1 news coverage, so we all watched that on our dataviews. The game group had been too busy running away from Alvin for the Captain to take any pictures of him, so the coverage began with several seconds of almost purely black images taken on top of the tank, while the Captain gabbled about them being attacked.

  After that, came a recording of Lucas’s call, and then a sequence showing a shadowy red group descending on ropes, while a presenter gushed about the heroism of Hive Security. Finally, a Health and Safety representative gave a stern warning about the perils of trespassing in forbidden areas, and the recording ended.

  There was a long silence before Adika spoke in apocalyptic tones. “This run was a humiliating disaster. Everything possible went wrong.”

  I caught myself linking to Adika’s mind, but stopped, and firmly pulled down the curtain on my telepathic senses. It would be a huge mistake to read Adika’s thoughts when he was in this mood.

  “It isn’t true that everything possible went wrong,” said Lucas’s voice on the crystal comms. “The precious surfboard was completely undamaged.”

  “This is no time for jokes,” snapped Adika.

  “I’m not entirely joking,” said Lucas. “I’ve called Senior Ambassador Elliott to break the news that he’s had someone spying on him and entering his apartment while he was out. He just commented that was very obsessive behaviour, and checked that the person wouldn’t have been able to access the reinforced central area of his apartment.”

  I’d shaken off Alvin’s viewpoint of events, so reacted to that as myself. “What?” I asked incredulously. “Senior Ambassador Elliott didn’t care about having someone roaming around the rest of his apartment?”

  “I suspect he’s had trouble with obsessive people before, and is resigned to this sort of thing happening occasionally,” said Lucas. “The man’s extremely good looking and charismatic. I can understand Lottery selecting people with those characteristics for senior positions in Hive Politics – they’re bound to be an advantage in negotiations with other Hives – but good looks and charisma can attract some unwanted attention.”

  “We’re fortunate that Senior Ambassador Elliott isn’t making a fuss about this,” said Adika, “though I think he should fire his bodyguards for not checking the bookette room air vent was secure.”

  “That air vent was perfectly secure until last month,” I said. “It took Alvin hours to cut his way through the reinforced bars protecting it.”

  “I carry out daily security checks of your apartment,” said Adika.

  I frowned. I hadn’t known Adika did security checks that often. When Lucas and I were out, Hannah sneaked into our apartment to clean up my mess. I supposed that Adika must be doing the same thing, and hoped it was after Hannah had done the cleaning. I had a bad habit of leaving clothes lying on the bedroom floor.

  “Senior Ambassador Elliott’s calm reaction doesn’t change the fact that was a disastrous run,” continued Adika.

  “I agree the run went badly,” said Lucas. “It’s deeply embarrassing having to go public with an enemy agent story to cover up an incident. Telepath Units have to keep that explanation for a last resort, because using it too often makes it look as if enemy agents are constantly strolling around the Hive.”

  He paused. “I’m just pointing out that it could have been far worse. Senior Ambassador Elliott isn’t complaining about us catching the wild bee inside his apartment. We had to use the enemy agent story, but we made it
appear that Hive Security was devastatingly efficient, only delaying catching the enemy agent to ensure the safety of some irresponsible teens trespassing in Level Zero. My comments about nosies also supported the myth that they’re genuine telepaths checking for criminal thoughts.”

  Adika clearly didn’t find this comforting. “Going public with an enemy agent story is a serious failing, but nothing in comparison to letting a target reach the telepath’s location. I spent ten years as a Strike team member in Mira’s Telepath Unit, and seven years as a deputy Strike team leader in Morton’s Telepath Unit. I’ve never known an emergency run go this horribly wrong.”

  “You’re exaggerating, Adika,” said Lucas. “I only came out of Lottery three years ago, and I can think of a dozen runs that were far worse.”

  “That’s because you spent those three years working for Keith,” said Adika, in a withering tone. “Everyone knows that Keith’s intermittent telepathy and personality problems combine to make a lot of his emergency runs descend into chaos.”

  “This is my fault,” I said miserably. “I didn’t warn you that Alvin was heading for my location until far too late. All his thought levels kept repeating the same words over and over again; that he needed to find a safe place to hide. I didn’t realize until the last moment that he wasn’t thinking about finding a safe place in general, but about hiding in the apartment of the head of Hive Politics.”

  “This wasn’t your fault, Amber,” said Lucas hastily.

  “Absolutely not your fault,” said Adika. “Chase team allowed a target to break away and reach our telepath’s location. We were in the last resort situation of her bodyguards capturing the target. Total incompetence.”

  He sighed. “Lucas, does your Tactical team have a holo recreation of what happened during the target breakaway?”

  “Yes,” said Lucas. “The location was so complicated, with all the tanks and aerial walkways, that Hallie had a real-time holo recreation running in the Tactical office.”

  “I’d like Hallie to send me that holo recreation,” said Adika. “I’ll watch it as soon as we get back, then the Alpha Strike team will meet in the gym to have a detailed discussion of what went wrong.”

  The Strike team members exchanged apprehensive looks. We all knew that when Adika said they were going to have a detailed discussion, he actually meant he was going to yell at them.

  “I assume that Tobias is still listening to the crystal comms,” added Adika, in a menacing voice. “Although he wasn’t on this run, I particularly want him to be present during our discussion.”

  “Remember that we’re having a team leader meeting immediately after the run,” said Lucas mildly.

  Adika snorted. “When the team leader meeting finishes, I’ll meet with the Alpha Strike team. Rothan, why is that blood transfusion taking so long?”

  “The blood transfusion has now completed,” said Rothan. “We’ve handed our patient over to the medical team, and are precisely ten seconds away from joining you in the lift.”

  “Really?” asked Adika suspiciously. He started counting down from ten, and opened the lift doors as he reached zero.

  “Really.” Rothan led red group into the lift.

  Adika gave him a frustrated look, and closed the doors again. We had a short lift ride, and then a tensely silent trip on an express belt, followed by another lift ride up to our unit. When the doors opened, I saw Lucas standing at the front of the crowd waiting to welcome us back. He stepped forward to put an arm around me, and gazed anxiously down at my face.

  “If you’re too tired for a team leader meeting, Amber, then …”

  I interrupted him. “We’ll go ahead with the meeting. I know you wouldn’t have suggested holding it straight after our run unless it was vitally important.”

  I hesitated, unsure whether to ask Lucas what the meeting was about or read his thoughts, but was distracted by the sight of Zak appearing from the crowd and hurrying towards Rafael. I watched uneasily as the two of them had a rapid whispered exchange and looked across at Adika. They surely weren’t planning to …

  I winced as I saw the two of them embrace and share a passionate kiss.

  Chapter Six

  Adika gave one incredulous look at Zak and Rafael, then strode wrathfully towards them.

  “What are you two doing?” he demanded in a voice of thunder.

  Zak and Rafael broke off their kiss and faced him. “We’ve just started a relationship,” said Zak.

  “We understand that the rule against having relationships with someone on the same Strike team means one of us will have to leave the Alpha team,” said Rafael.

  “If you understand that, why did you still choose to have a relationship with each other?” Adika waved his arms in despair. “You could have taken your pick of the men on the Beta team without a problem. You could still do that.”

  “I don’t think they’re attracted to me,” said Zak, in a strangled voice.

  “And I’m perfectly sure I’m not attracted to them,” added Rafael.

  Adika let out his breath in a sound of pure exasperation. “We’ll talk about this later. Where are you holding this urgent team meeting, Lucas?”

  “In meeting room 4,” said Lucas.

  Adika turned and strode off towards the operational section of the unit at high speed. Lucas and I exchanged expressive glances, then followed him at a more normal pace.

  “I assume you’d noticed what was happening between Zak and Rafael,” I said.

  Lucas laughed. “I’m not a telepath, but I’m a highly skilled behavioural analyst. Zak and Rafael’s attraction for each other was clear from the way they were carefully avoiding touching each other.”

  “I knew they were planning to break the news to Adika about their relationship,” I said. “I’d discussed it with them. What I don’t understand is why they decided to do it at a moment when he was already furious.”

  “Because they had no choice,” said Lucas. “There’s currently one vacancy on each Strike team. Zak and Rafael know that whichever of them is dropped from the Alpha team has to get the Beta team vacancy or leave our unit entirely. Once Adika mentioned moving Tobias to the Beta team, they had to tell him about their relationship right away.”

  I ran my fingers through my hair. I was obviously too tired to think properly. I’d known about Zak and Rafael needing the Beta team vacancy. I’d heard Adika mention moving Tobias to the Beta team. I hadn’t thought through the fact that those two situations were going to come into direct conflict with each other.

  “However angry Adika is about Zak and Rafael forcing him to drop one of them from the Alpha team, there’s no doubt about his decision,” I said. “They’re two of his best men.”

  “Agreed,” said Lucas. “Adika won’t sacrifice either Zak or Rafael to keep Tobias in the unit.”

  “So you think Adika will go ahead with dropping Tobias from the Alpha team even if it means firing him entirely?” I asked unhappily.

  Lucas stopped walking and faced me. “Read me, Amber.”

  I linked to the mind that still took my breath away every time I read it. The staggering number of glittering thought levels raced past at express belt speed. Some of them analyzing today’s run, others planning for the meeting ahead, but the pre-vocalized thought level was aimed specifically at me.

  I know you’re protective of your Strike team members, Amber, but you must realize Tobias has become a severe problem.

  “I’m protective of my Strike team members because they risk their lives to defend me.”

  I appreciate that, but we’ve reached the point where you can’t save Tobias from the consequences of his own actions. He’s been falling behind the standards of the rest of the Alpha Strike team ever since he came out of Lottery. It isn’t because of injury. It isn’t because of illness. It definitely isn’t because of an error in the Lottery testing process. I looked up the full details of Tobias’s test results myself when you were on your way back from the emergency run.
<
br />   I blinked. “You did?”

  Yes. It’s part of my job to watch for failures in Lottery testing. I cross-checked Tobias’s Lottery test results with the records of his sports career on Teen Level. Everything was consistent. Tobias is physically capable of keeping up with the rest of the Alpha team. He’s created his own problems by skimping on the personal training, and now he isn’t even following the basic rule of keeping his equipment with him at all times.

  I didn’t like revealing the secrets I discovered when I read minds. “There is a personal factor in Tobias’s behaviour.”

  Adika told me about that last week. Tobias’s brother is imprinted as a Strike team leader, so Tobias was disappointed to only be imprinted as a Strike team member. Tobias claims his brother has been making the situation worse by taunting him, but he could be overreacting to innocent remarks. You regularly read the minds of all your Strike team, so probably know the truth.

  I grimaced. “It’s impossible for me to know the truth about something like this. Whenever I encounter someone’s memory of a conflict, I experience it from their viewpoint, complete with their feelings and personal bias about the events.”

  Whether the brother is deliberately taunting Tobias or not doesn’t really change the situation. This is a classic example of why the Hive encourages teens to end old friendships when they enter Lottery. Differences between Lottery results fuel resentment, and what was a friendly rivalry can become intensely destructive.

  I was confused. “Tobias isn’t involved in a conflict with a friend, but his brother.”

  It’s basically the same problem. The only difference is that the Hive doesn’t pressure people to break close family ties. There are two reasons for that. Firstly, a break with close family would be hugely psychologically damaging to many people. Secondly, the knowledge that they’d have to break contact with their children when they went through Lottery would deter people from having children at all.

  “I’d never thought of that second point,” I said, “but you’re perfectly right.”