Borderline (Hive Mind Book 4)

by Janet Edwards

  That means every individual has to find their own solution to the problems Lottery results cause within the family circle. Tobias needed to do one of two things. Either work at overcoming his jealousy of his brother, or break off contact with him.

  I wrinkled my nose. “I can see why Tobias wouldn’t want to break off contact with his brother. It would mess up all the rest of their family relationships.”

  In which case, Tobias needed to work at overcoming his jealousy. He hasn’t done that. In fact, he’s actively refused offers of counselling, choosing to wallow in his resentment instead. That has inevitably soured what should have been delight in his Lottery result, which is why he hasn’t bothered to put in the effort needed to keep up with his teammates.

  “I accept that Tobias hasn’t helped the situation,” I said. “What I don’t understand is how there can be such major issues when the brothers had virtually identical Lottery results. Both incredibly successful. Both rated Level 1. Both assigned to a Telepath Unit Strike team. There’s only the tiny difference between them that Tobias’s older brother was imprinted for Strike team leader and Tobias wasn’t.”

  The fact the brothers had virtually identical results is what’s caused this problem. You were on Teen Level with Forge. When you came out of Lottery, and discovered he was assigned to your unit’s Strike team, was there ever any hint of him wishing he was in your position as telepath?

  “Of course not. Being a telepath means having a Strike team constantly protecting you from danger. That’s a far more difficult situation than it sounds. I know that in a truly disastrous situation, my Strike team will give their lives to save mine. I know that I would have to let them do that, turn my back on them, and run away to safety because the Hive can’t afford to lose me.”

  I rubbed the back of my hand across my eyes. “It’s hard enough for me to know that, Lucas, but Forge … He loves pushing his body to its physical limits and taking risks. He was ecstatic about being assigned to the Strike team, and now he’s been promoted to lead the Beta Strike team his life is perfect. Forge would find the cosseted, protected existence of a telepath unbearable.”

  Exactly. Forge could never be jealous of you. He has his ideal life on the Strike team and would find being a telepath unbearable. Tobias and his brother got virtually identical Lottery results, because they are virtually identical people, and want the same things in life. Add in the factor that Strike team members are naturally competitive, and jealousy about getting the imprint for the higher-ranked position becomes a serious problem.

  “I see.” I hesitated before mentioning a nagging worry of my own. “You can imagine how my brother Gregas felt when I came out of Lottery as Level 1.”

  He’d inevitably be thinking that whatever he achieves in Lottery will be a disappointment compared to his wildly successful older sister.

  “Yes. Ever since I admitted to my family that I actually ran some sort of Hive Security Unit, Gregas has been alternating between being thrilled and jealous. I’m worried that when he goes through Lottery himself, he’ll have the same sort of issues as Tobias.”

  Gregas has over four more years on Teen Level before he enters Lottery. That’s plenty of time to adjust to the idea of being rated lower level than you. Lottery will give Gregas work that he loves, so if you and your parents praise his result then there shouldn’t be a problem.

  “I hope you’re right.” I groaned. “Well, the immediate issue isn’t Gregas, but Tobias. When I read Adika’s thoughts, I share his anger at Tobias. When I read Tobias’s thoughts though, I feel his emotions, and sympathize with him.”

  I appreciate the problems of feeling the emotions of both sides in an argument. You’ve good reason to hate any conflict in your unit.

  “Yes, I hate any conflict, and I don’t want this one to end in Tobias being fired.”

  Lucas started speaking aloud for emphasis. “Megan is in charge of the everyday running of the unit, and I’m in charge of unit operations, but you’re the overall head of our unit, Amber. You make the final decision on everything, and you could block Adika from firing Tobias, but you have to think through the enormity of what happened today. A wild bee reached your location as a direct result of Tobias’s incompetence.”

  I shook my head. “But Tobias wasn’t on that run.”

  “Exactly,” said Lucas. “Tobias had missed the lift. Alvin managed to get through the net of men closing in on him, and use the tool lift to get to ground level, because Adika had one man too few to cover every escape route.”

  I frowned. “I didn’t know that. I’m always running circuits during a strike, so I only get a very fragmented view of what’s happening.”

  “Adika has asked Hallie to send him her holo recreation of the target breakaway,” said Lucas. “The minute he watches that holo, he’ll see that he’d positioned his men perfectly, and they’d all performed as well as humanly possible. There simply weren’t enough of them.”

  “Oh,” I muttered.

  “Once Adika realizes Tobias missing the lift was the key factor in what happened, he’s going to fire him. You really need to let Adika do that, Amber. Think what could have happened today if we’d been dealing with a wild bee who was more physically dangerous. The wild bee would have been killed. One of your bodyguards could have been injured or killed in your defence. You could have been injured or killed.”

  It wasn’t the words that defeated me. It was the emotion that swept through Lucas’s mind as he pictured the ultimate nightmare of losing me.

  “I accept your point,” I said.

  I pulled back out of Lucas’s mind, and we walked on towards meeting room 4 in silence. When Lucas opened the door, I saw my other three team leaders and my counsellor, Buzz, were already there waiting for us.

  We’d had such an exhausting time lately, that I wasn’t surprised to see Nicole’s long, red, flyaway hair was hanging limply around her shoulders, and she’d come to the meeting in her powered chair rather than on foot. Megan, my Senior Administrator, was sitting at the table next to her, organizing some trays of drinks, chopped fruit, and tiny pastries.

  Adika and Buzz were both standing at the far end of the room, watching a holo that showed skeletal shapes of tanks and walkways, with glowing dots moving around them. After Lucas’s explanation, I understood why Adika had such a grim expression on his face.

  Lucas went over to join Adika and Buzz, but I shamelessly dodged an unpleasant issue by sitting down at the table and raising my eyebrows at Megan. “We don’t usually have food at team leader meetings.”

  “We don’t usually have team leader meetings directly after an emergency run.” Megan glared her disapproval at Lucas. “You haven’t eaten since breakfast, Amber, so I arranged for us to have some snacks during the meeting.”

  “Nobody else has eaten since breakfast either,” I said.

  Megan’s sniff implied that whether anyone else had eaten or not was irrelevant. Only the telepath mattered. This was the most exasperating thing about Megan. She was so unwavering in her devotion to me. However often I was unreasonable, ungrateful, or outright rude to her, she continued to smother me with care, and I was left feeling dreadfully guilty.

  It had taken me a long time to work out why I found Megan so annoying. I’d tried blaming it on multiple things. The disastrous counselling sessions I’d had with her before we brought in Buzz to take over as my counsellor. Megan’s clashes with Adika in the early stages of their relationship. The way she kept trying to act as a substitute mother to me when I didn’t want anyone replacing my own mother.

  Now I knew the real issue was that Megan had been the one who told me I was a telepath. I’d had no idea there was anything unusual about me until that moment, because telepaths instinctively blocked their skills as babies to protect themselves from the hundred million minds in the Hive. Learning the truth about myself had been a terrible shock, and part of me had blamed Megan for it.

  I’d moved on from that initial shock now and accepted
my telepathy, but the life of a telepath was full of highs and lows. I was constantly reminded of Carnival and Halloween, the twin Hive festivals of light and darkness, of life and death. When I linked to Lucas’s mind, plunging into his dazzling thoughts was like being in a joyous crowd celebrating Carnival. Linking to the mind of a wild bee could be the exact opposite, hitting me with all the most monstrous images of Halloween.

  There were moments when I loved being a telepath, but there were also moments when I hated it, and felt I would crumble under the pressure of knowing how many lives depended on me. Those were the times when I unconsciously blamed my problems on Megan. Sometimes I only had to look at her painstakingly styled blonde hair, precisely applied makeup, and rigidly figure-controlling clothes to feel furious with her.

  I knew I was being deeply unfair to Megan. When Lottery testing revealed I was a telepath, someone had to tell me the news and give me my initial training. As my Senior Administrator, with an imprint that included medical and counselling information, doing that was part of Megan’s duties. She wasn’t guilty of anything more than serving the Hive to the best of her ability, just as everyone else did. It seemed impossible for me to change my feelings about her though, so I was working on the alternative strategy of just changing my behaviour.

  Megan handed me a glass of melon juice, and I forced myself to smile at her. “It was very thoughtful of you to arrange the food, Megan.”

  She looked so pathetically pleased by my words that I felt guiltier than ever. I picked up a bite-sized pastry and popped it into my mouth. As I munched and swallowed it, my fake gratitude became entirely genuine.

  “I hadn’t realized how hungry I was.” I ate another pastry.

  Lucas, Adika, and Buzz came to sit down as well. Lucas chose a pastry that was a worryingly bright purple, but Adika just glowered at the food.

  “Perhaps Lucas will finally explain why this meeting is so urgent,” he said.

  “Apologies for not explaining earlier,” said Lucas. “I didn’t want to distract people during the emergency run. When Morton’s unit shuts down to allow him to have his surgery, there’ll be at least three months where the Hive only has four Telepath Units to keep order. My Joint Tactical Meeting earlier today was spent discussing plans for that period with the other Tactical Commanders, and I need to pass on some details to you all.”

  “I still don’t see why we need to have this meeting right now rather than in the morning,” said Adika. “We’ve got seven weeks before Morton’s unit shuts down.”

  “That’s one of the things I need to tell you,” said Lucas grimly. “Morton’s doctors have reported a sudden change in Morton’s condition.”

  “Morton’s condition has worsened?” demanded Adika anxiously.

  “It’s actually improved a little,” said Lucas. “I don’t understand all the medical issues, but the improvement means his surgical team can perform a preliminary operation ahead of the main surgery.”

  He paused. “I’m told that’s excellent news. This preliminary operation should mean the main surgery is more effective. However, it also means Morton’s unit will be shutting down earlier than expected.”

  “How much earlier?” asked Nicole in alarm.

  “Immediately after the New Year festival,” said Lucas. “We now have less than two weeks to prepare for being without Morton’s unit.”

  Chapter Seven

  “Our Hive has been in the situation of only having four operational Telepath Units before,” said Lucas. “After Claire died, there were three nightmare years where we couldn’t keep up with checking areas of the Hive that had warning signs of wild bees developing. That meant increasing numbers of those wild bees progressed to active violence, and the number of emergency runs began spiralling out of control. Amber came out of Lottery just in time to prevent the Hive falling into total anarchy.”

  Lucas’s voice took on a harsh edge. “We’ve regained a lot of ground in the months since our unit became operational, but the Hive still isn’t as stable as it was before Claire’s death. Once Morton’s unit closes down, projections show that the situation could deteriorate rapidly.”

  Adika seemed to forget his bad temper as he concentrated on the new crisis. “I was a deputy Strike Team leader with Morton’s unit when Claire died. The number of emergency runs kept increasing during the next two years, and the third year we were buried in them.”

  “I came out of Lottery just before Claire died, and went to work on Keith’s Tactical team,” said Lucas. “Megan was already Keith’s deputy Admin team leader back then. We were obviously sheltered from the main pressure during the three years that followed, because Keith’s unit had rest breaks during the times when his telepathy wasn’t working. Since Morton was already having health problems, and Mira finds emergency runs stressful, Sapphire and her unit had to carry a huge burden.”

  Lucas pulled a face. “At today’s Joint Tactical Meeting, Sapphire’s Tactical Commander, Penelope, told us some things that appalled me. During the third year after Claire’s death, the situation became critical. Somewhere around Halloween, Sapphire’s unit had to resort to desperation measures to hold the line between order and chaos in the Hive. They kept using those desperation measures until Amber came out of Lottery, completed training, and our unit went operational.”

  Lucas stared down at his hands. “Gold Commander Melisande is in overall charge of both Hive Defence and Law Enforcement. When Sapphire and Penelope discussed the situation with her, she insisted on them keeping the worst details of what was happening from the Tactical Commanders of the other units. Penelope has now been given permission to share that information with the rest of us, so we can learn from the lessons of the past.”

  He paused. “There was an eight-month period where Sapphire regularly went out on two emergency runs in a single day.”

  I blinked, and there were horrified gasps from around the table.

  “But a telepath must never do that,” said Megan fiercely. “They must have at least twenty-four hours of recovery time after an emergency run, where they only read the safely familiar minds of their unit members, or …”

  Lucas lifted his head again and interrupted her. “I said that it was a desperation measure, Megan. Sapphire’s unit paid a dreadfully high price for doing it.”

  I was too cowardly to ask what that price had been, or read Lucas’s mind to find out the answer. Instead, I thought back to my training period. It was clear now that Lucas hadn’t known the full details of how desperate the situation was, but I’d still picked up his sense of urgency about getting our unit operational. The final stage of training was supposed to be me doing a week or two of simple check runs with the Strike team, but we’d ended up going straight into an emergency run because …

  “Our unit went fully operational ahead of plan, Lucas,” I said numbly. “I’ll never forget how I felt heading down in the lift with the Strike team, or the sound of your voice briefing us on the crystal comms. You told us that Keith and Morton’s units were in mandatory twenty-four hour shut down after emergency runs, and Mira’s unit was still recovering from a bad run with Strike team injuries.”

  The full revelation hit me. “You said that Sapphire and her Strike team couldn’t respond to the emergency call because they were already committed following a target. You were repeating the exact message you’d received from Sapphire’s unit, weren’t you?”

  “Yes.” Lucas grimaced. “When Penelope told us Sapphire’s unit had been breaking the rules on emergency runs, I had the same thought as you. I asked Penelope about that day, and she said I was right. That was the moment when Sapphire’s unit reached despair point. Sapphire had regularly done two emergency runs on the same day, but she couldn’t do two emergency runs at once. They had to call on us to help whether we were ready or not.”

  There was a long silence before Lucas spoke again. “I’ve already said that the situation could deteriorate rapidly after Morton’s unit closes down. The worst projections show
it may only take two months to reach the incident rate during the third year after Claire’s death. Penelope has argued passionately that Sapphire cannot stand alone as the first line of defence again. Since Mira and Keith both have limitations on what they can do, Penelope wants Amber to step forward to share the load.”

  After what I’d just heard, it was impossible to refuse. “Of course I have to help Sapphire.”

  “Amber mustn’t be asked to do two emergency runs on the same day,” said Megan in alarm.

  “We’re hoping there won’t be any need for either Sapphire or Amber to do that,” said Lucas. “Penelope presented a detailed plan during the Joint Tactical Meeting, which she hopes will get us safely through the months until Morton’s unit is operational again.”

  His voice took on a brisker note. “Penelope’s core strategy is that Sapphire and Amber will handle the maximum number of emergency runs between them while still having the standard rest breaks. Mira and Keith will need to take the remaining emergency runs, but their main focus will be on doing check runs. Catching wild bees in the developmental stage, before they become seriously destructive, will be key to stopping the number of emergency runs from escalating.”

  “Our unit has already been concentrating on dealing with active wild bees,” said Adika. “We haven’t done a simple check run in weeks.”

  “Morton has mostly been doing check runs because of his illness,” said Lucas. “That means there’s been a gradual shift towards him taking on the check runs that would normally go to Sapphire and Amber, while they take most of his emergency runs. When Morton’s unit shuts down, there’ll need to be a further shift in responsibilities, with Sapphire and Amber taking most of the emergency runs off Mira and Keith, so they’re free to deal with all those extra check runs.”

  Lucas paused. “When we first learned Morton would need major surgery, I had a conversation with Megan about our unit facing an increased burden. We agreed that she’d do a review of our unit, looking for weak areas that could be improved. I know you’ve had less than the agreed time to do that, Megan, but we need to discuss this issue immediately.”