“Does that mean we’ve got to stop the express belt to get the dataview back?” asked Nicole anxiously. “Shutting down one of the main Teen Level express belts is going to be …”
“You shouldn’t need to shut down the belt,” interrupted Eli. “I told a maintenance worker that my precious new dataview had gone down the gap. She said people are always losing things down there, and I’d have to wait for Byron to come back from his break, crawl down the tunnel under the express belt, and retrieve the dataview from the salvage system for me.”
“You can’t retrieve it yourself?” asked Adika.
“I’m currently pretending to be an ordinary teen,” said Eli, in a wounded voice. “I can’t demand to go crawling around under express belts. Besides, I’m told that Byron’s the expert at retrieving items without letting them fall into the crusher.”
“I’m not sure what the crusher is,” said Lucas, “but it doesn’t sound like we want that dataview to fall into it. We’ll wait for Byron.”
“The maintenance worker said he’d be back soon,” said Eli. “He’s only gone to … Oh, I think that’s Byron coming now. I’ll report back in a minute.”
“Eli said the dataview is still chiming,” said Emili. “Hopefully that means it isn’t damaged. The thought of telling everyone we have to redo all that pattern analysis …”
“We’ll find out soon,” said Lucas.
There was a suspenseful wait until Eli’s triumphant voice rang out on the crystal comms. “Byron’s retrieved the dataview for me! Do you want me to test if it’s still working?”
“No, you mustn’t do anything with Beckett’s dataview,” said Lucas. “It’s far more complicated than it looks, so just bring it back to the storage complex.”
A few minutes later, Eli ran into the room waving the dataview, with the rest of the Alpha Strike team chasing after him. Lucas hastily rescued the dataview and took it over to Beckett.
“Please try sending a copy of the timeline pattern analysis to our unit right away, so we know if it’s safe or not.”
Beckett tapped at his dataview. “Starting transmission now.”
There was a brief pause before Emili spoke. “We’re receiving the timeline pattern analysis. It’ll take a while to complete the transmission, but it’s on its way.”
Lucas gave a massive sigh of relief. “That means the Beta team can continue to Blue Zone and put our men undercover. The Alpha team will now head down in the freight lifts for our quiet ride home.”
I was surprised that we’d be using a freight lift, but followed him to the end of the room.
Lucas summoned both freight lifts. “Megan and Beckett can go down first in one of the lifts. There should be room for everyone else in the other lift with me.”
The first lift came, and Megan and Beckett went inside. As the doors closed on them, the second lift arrived, and the rest of us crowded into it. I watched as Lucas set the lift destination, and frowned.
“Why are we going down to Level 100 when our unit is at the top of the Hive?”
“We’re going to Level 100 because quiet rides use the freight transport system,” said Lucas. “There are only two networks of freight transport belts in the Hive. One on Level Zero and one on Level 100. We all know from bitter experience that Level Zero holds complex, hazardous, and often noisy equipment, cared for by roaming groups of maintenance workers. Level 100 is mostly filled with pipes and reclamation tanks.”
I nodded. “So quiet rides all use the freight transport belts on Level 100, but doesn’t that mean we’ll have to keep dodging crates?”
Lucas smiled. “That’s why quiet rides have to be booked at least an hour in advance, to allow time to schedule a suitable gap in the freight traffic.”
A moment later, our lift doors opened. Lucas led us out into a wide, dimly lit corridor that held what looked like a medium belt flanked by two slow belts. I’d expected there to be a long line of standard crates going along it, but the size and shape of crates varied hugely, and there were a lot of bulky objects that weren’t wrapped at all. I watched in awe as a piano went by.
“We’d better move clear of the delivery area,” said Lucas.
He gestured at the floor, and I saw it was painted with red zigzag markings. Lucas led the way further down the corridor, to where the floor was a plain, grubby grey. Megan and Beckett were standing nearby, and Megan said something to Beckett before hurrying to join us.
“Lucas, I’ve just had a message from Assisted Transportation to say that they’re merging a priority transportation request into our scheduled slot.”
Adika frowned at her. “What sort of transportation request is it, Megan? Law Enforcement sometimes uses the quiet ride system to make long-distance transfers of dangerous prisoners, and I’m not letting a prisoner transport pod anywhere near Amber.”
“There isn’t anything threatening about this transportation request,” said Megan. “A Blue Upway game group had an accident on Level 100. One of the players was critically injured, so they’re being transported to the Orange Zone Trauma Casualty Centre in an intensive care medical cocoon.”
“You and Beckett should join the belt first then,” said Lucas. “The rest of us will follow you on as one large group.”
Megan gave me a worried look. “Amber, I have to warn you not to read the mind of the patient.”
I winced. I knew what that warning meant. I mustn’t read the mind of the patient for the same reason that I had to leave a target’s mind when Lucas called a strike. I’d never had the courage to ask what happened if a telepath was reading a person’s thoughts at the moment of their death, but it obviously wouldn’t be good.
“I won’t read the patient’s mind,” I promised.
Megan went back to Beckett, and I stood staring anxiously at the belt. There was another minute or two of crates and random objects going past us, then a short gap before I saw the white medical cocoon approaching with its attendant medical team. They went by so close to me that I could see the flashing lights and incomprehensible displays on the top of the cocoon.
Megan left a respectful gap after them, then she and Beckett stepped onto the slow belt and moved to the medium.
Lucas turned to the rest of us. “Be careful not to step on the roller system at the edge of the belts,” he warned. “They should only be activated when freight is being loaded or unloaded, but there’s no point in taking risks.”
Inevitably, Adika lifted me into his arms and carried me across to the medium belt himself, to make absolutely sure that his irreplaceable telepath wouldn’t get injured.
Lucas waited until everyone was settled on the medium belt before speaking again. “This is supposed to be a quiet ride, so try not to chatter too much. Beckett needs some peace after a hard day, and we don’t want our conversations distracting the medical team either.”
“I’m not feeling like chatting at the moment,” said Rothan softly. “It isn’t that long since I was in a medical cocoon myself.”
We rode in almost perfect silence after that, travelling along the dimly lit corridor with its banks of dusty pipes and occasional side turnings. When I was up in my Telepath Unit on Industry 1, I had the babble of a hundred million minds below me and quiet overhead. Here the situation was oddly reversed. Total quiet below me, and the roar of the Hive mind overhead.
Finally, Lucas spoke on the crystal comms. “We’re nearing our unit’s dedicated bank of lifts. Be ready to follow Megan and Beckett off the belt.”
As Adika reached out to pick me up, I became aware of a warning sensation that I’d had several times before. Something that felt like an itch deep in my mind, and always meant someone was in trouble.
I dodged Adika, and spoke urgently on the crystal comms. “I itch. Megan, Nicole, we need to warn the medical team to check their patient.”
Lucas seized my shoulders and shook me. “Break contact with the patient’s mind right now, Amber!”
“I’m not reading the patient’s mind,�
�� I said. “The itch thing doesn’t work that way. We need to warn the medical team.”
“I think they already know.” Lucas let me go and turned to point at the distant white cocoon. The medical team members were clustered around it, frantically working on the controls.
Megan spoke on the crystal comms in her most soothing voice. “The patient must be having a crisis. Don’t worry, Amber. There are ways for the medical team to help them, special drugs they can use to …”
“It’s too late,” I interrupted her. “The itching has gone now.”
“That probably means the patient is recovering,” said Megan.
“No, it doesn’t,” I said flatly.
“But I can see the medical team is still working,” said Megan.
I groaned. “The medical team is still working, still trying, but they can’t do anything to help.”
There was a long silence before Megan spoke again, her voice tired and grieving. “Amber’s right. I just saw the medical team turn off the cocoon’s life support.”
“How did you know it was too late, Amber?” asked Lucas.
“I’ve no idea,” I said. “I’ve never understood the itch thing, and I don’t understand this either. I felt, saw, heard, something indescribable happening. It was like feeling the artificial wind of a park stop blowing. It was like seeing a light fade away to nothing. It was like hearing the end of a piece of music. It was like all of those things and none of them. My itching sensation stopped at the same moment, and I knew Blue Upway had killed someone.”
Chapter Twenty-eight
Five minutes later, we were all inside lift 2. As it started moving upwards, I spoke on the crystal comms.
“Nicole, could someone bring a box to the lift for me?”
“What sort of box?” asked Nicole. “Big? Small?”
“A box to stand on,” I said. “I need to make a brief speech. What’s the current status of our Beta team?”
“Our four undercover people have been delivered to their rooms,” said Nicole. “Buzz and the rest of the Beta team are on their way back to the unit now.”
“Please make sure my speech is transmitted on the Beta team crystal comms, and send a copy to the undercover men’s dataviews.”
I watched the lift level indicator swiftly changing, working its way up the hundred accommodation levels, and continuing on through the fifty industrial levels until it halted and the doors opened on my unit.
As usual, there was a crowd of people waiting to welcome us back, but they were organized in a rough semicircle around a large and alarmingly purple box placed in front of the lift. I went to stand on it, and took a deep breath. When I lived on Teen Level, the mere idea of making a speech would have terrified me. I was getting used to it now, but it wasn’t something that I’d ever really enjoy, and I was feeling tired and depressed.
“A lot of teens have been injured playing Blue Upway,” I said grimly. “The inevitable just happened, and one of them died. We have to shut down that game as quickly as possible.”
I paused. “The good news is that six people who lived and worked here when Claire had this unit have returned to give us vital assistance. Vance, Osric, Dex, and Kris have joined our Alpha Strike team to act as my regular bodyguards. Akiko is our new deputy Liaison team leader. Nora is a second deputy for Megan.”
I gestured at Beckett. “We’re also deeply fortunate to have Beckett joining our Tactical team. As you all know, he’s already helped Lucas with the key pattern analysis of Blue Upway.”
I gave a questioning look at Lucas. “Do you want to say something too?”
“Yes.” Lucas lifted me down from the box before taking my place. “Can my Tactical team please gather in the Tactical office to start work on integrating the timeline pattern analysis of Blue Upway? Amber and I need to make an important call to Gold Commander Melisande, but I’ll join you immediately after that.”
Lucas turned to smile at Beckett. “You mustn’t worry about the timeline pattern analysis. Your priority for the next few days should be resting, getting your apartment organized, and doing anything else that helps you settle in with us.”
“What will help me most is completing the integration of the timeline pattern analysis by myself,” said Beckett firmly. “Megan says the quiet room next to the Tactical office is ready for me, so I can work on it there.”
Lucas blinked. “Are you sure you don’t want anyone to help you?”
“I said that I’d have the timeline pattern analysis completed tomorrow morning,” said Beckett. “I can still do that if I work alone, but it will take much longer if I have to keep explaining things to other people.”
Lucas sighed. “Well, if that’s what you prefer, then go ahead. Call me straight away if you find you need help with anything, and please try to get a few hours’ sleep at some point.”
He jumped down from the box to join me, and Megan came hurrying up to whisper to him. “Lucas, you should insist on Beckett taking some recovery time before beginning work.”
Lucas waved both hands helplessly, and whispered back. “You and I may think that Beckett needs recovery time. Standard medical advice may be that Beckett needs recovery time. Beckett is the real expert on what helps him though, and he wants to finish that integration.”
“It’s true that people react in different ways,” said Megan dubiously.
“Yes, and trust me when I tell you that Beckett reacts very badly to being prevented from finishing a pattern analysis,” said Lucas. “Do you remember the time you tidied up the remains of a chocolate crunch cake when Amber was still eating it?”
“Oh.” Megan shuddered. “I’ll show Beckett the quiet room, and then get some food for him and Cee Cee.”
She went to join Beckett, and Lucas and I headed down the corridor to our apartment. Lucas’s dataview chimed as we went inside. He stopped in the hallway to take it out of his pocket, glanced at it, and groaned.
“It seems that we won’t need to call Gold Commander Melisande after all. She’s calling me.”
He tapped at the dataview, and Gold Commander Melisande’s voice spoke rapidly. “Tactical Commander Lucas, Keith has called me to complain that Amber has kidnapped his pattern specialist, Beckett. Keith is demanding that Amber returns Beckett to him at once.”
My tiredness was swept away by outraged fury. I grabbed Lucas’s dataview from him, and snapped into it. “Wait one minute, Gold Commander. I wish to take this call in my bookette room.”
“Amber!” Gold Commander Melisande was clearly disconcerted. “I was told you were away from your unit on a run, so I called Tactical Commander Lucas.”
“Tactical Commander Lucas was on the run with me,” I said coldly, “but we arrived back at our unit five minutes ago. Now please wait while I take this call in my bookette room.”
I put the call on hold, marched down the hallway, and Lucas chased after me. I hesitated in the bookette room doorway.
“You’d better wait in the hallway while I talk to Commander Melisande. I don’t like arguments, but I think I’m about to have a serious one with her, and I don’t want you getting caught in the middle of it. I’m a telepath, so desperately needed by the Hive that I’m effectively above the law and untouchable. You aren’t.”
Lucas pulled an apprehensive face before nodding.
I went into the bookette room, closed the door, and transferred Gold Commander Melisande’s call from Lucas’s dataview to the bookette room systems.
A holo of Melisande instantly appeared in front of me, sitting at an imposing desk. Her personality normally dominated any meeting or conversation, but this time I was far too angry to let her take charge.
I swept into speech before Melisande could say a word. “So, Keith has accused me of kidnapping Beckett. If you’re naïve enough to believe him, then Lottery failed catastrophically when it chose you to be our Hive’s Gold Commander. It’s Keith that’s distant from the Hive’s moral code, not me.”
“I didn’t believe Kei
th,” said Melisande hastily. “I called Tactical Commander Lucas to find out the true situation.”
“Then I’ll tell you the true situation,” I ranted at her. “We didn’t kidnap Beckett. In fact, it would have been completely impossible for us to kidnap him. Beckett has a condition that makes him highly sensitive to his environment, so he prefers to stay in familiar places. Today was the first time that he’d left Keith’s unit in well over three years, and he didn’t leave it by choice, but because Keith fired him and threw him out.”
I paused for breath. “Worse still, Keith sent Beckett away without his custom-designed headset or glasses. You won’t realize the significance of that, or how vulnerable Beckett would be without them, but …”
“I do realize the significance of that,” Melisande interrupted grimly. “I’ve met Beckett several times during discussions of cases. I understand exactly how badly the removal of his customized headset and glasses would impact him. I also realize how vulnerable he would feel in that situation. I spent my childhood having a series of operations, and there were periods when I couldn’t move or even breathe without the help of specialized equipment.”
“Then you should also understand why Lucas and I reacted to the news by taking our Alpha Strike team to find and help Beckett. That wasn’t a kidnapping. It was a rescue mission.”
“That version of events sounds far more consistent with the past behaviour of both you and Keith,” said Melisande. “I’ll come to your unit to collect Beckett, and return him to Keith’s unit myself.”
“No,” I said flatly. “You won’t return Beckett to Keith’s unit. I’ve done the initial check on Beckett’s mind, confirmed him as a member of my unit, and I won’t allow him to leave unless he requests a transfer of his own free will. Beckett has already said that he doesn’t want to work for Keith ever again, so he’s staying here.”
Borderline (Hive Mind Book 4) Page 28
