We arrived at meeting room 4, went inside, and Lucas closed the door behind us. “So we’ve come here to call Diplomat Michaela?” I asked.
“I’ll try to call her, but I expect I’ll get Ambassador Paula. I’d like you to join in the call this time.”
“I’ll join in if you think it will help, but you’d better do the talking. Do you think Ambassador Paula knows anything helpful?”
“Oh yes,” said Lucas bitterly. “She knows Michaela is in trouble. I think the head of Hive Politics knows too. In retrospect, I should have guessed something serious was going on when I learned a newly imprinted Diplomat Michaela had been included in an important delegation to Hive Genex.”
“But if Senior Ambassador Elliott knew his sister was in trouble, surely he’d have asked Law Enforcement for help rather than sending her to Hive Genex.”
“I’ve got a theory about why he didn’t ask Law Enforcement for help,” said Lucas grimly. “Let’s find out if I’m right.”
We sat down at the table, Lucas set up his dataview in front of us, and then tapped at it. It was a few seconds before the holo figure of Ambassador Paula appeared. She gave me a shocked look of recognition, followed by a respectful nod of her head.
“Tactical Commander Lucas, I’m delighted to speak to you again, and honoured by the presence of Amber. How can I assist you both?”
“I’d like to talk to Diplomat Michaela,” said Lucas.
“I regret that Diplomat Michaela is still unavailable.”
“Since she isn’t available,” said Lucas, “I’ll begin by speaking to you. As you know, Diplomat Michaela started a Teen Game called Blue Upway, which has recently caused large numbers of player injuries as well as one death.”
Ambassador Paula frowned. “If the purpose of your call is to make accusations against my sister, then I’ll need to refer the matter to my eldest brother, Senior Ambassador Elliott. You may be unaware that he is the head of Hive Politics.”
“I’m fully aware that your brother is the head of Hive Politics, and he’s just as desperate as you to protect your little sister,” said Lucas. “Please invite him to join our call. I’m sure he’d prefer to discuss this privately with me, rather than have me refer the whole mess to Gold Commander Melisande.”
“Please wait one moment.”
Ambassador Paula’s holo image froze for about ninety seconds. When it came back to life, it was instantly joined by another holo head and shoulders. This was a slightly older, startlingly handsome man, with a strong family resemblance to his sister. I could see a glimpse of a wall behind him, with a familiar surfboard hanging on it. The head of Hive Politics was in the reinforced central area of his apartment.
Lucas’s eyes widened. “Your surfboard was literally hanging on the wall in front of my nose from the very start. Everything that’s been happening is connected with the Teen Level beach and surfing. You aren’t just protecting your little sister, Senior Ambassador Elliott. You’re personally involved yourself.”
“Involved in what?” asked Senior Ambassador Elliott, his face unreadable.
“After Diplomat Michaela left Teen Level and went through the Halloween Lottery, your family sent her to Hive Genex to protect her from a stalker,” said Lucas grimly. “That stalker retaliated by taking control of Michaela’s old Teen Game Blue Upway, and using it to endanger the players and cause increasing problems across the Hive.”
Lucas paused. “My unit was given the job of shutting down Blue Upway, so we sent four men undercover on Teen Level to infiltrate the game. One of those men was Forge, the old Blue Upway Champion, so we made sure he was heavily disguised, but your sister’s stalker recognized his surfboard. The stalker has now taken Forge hostage, and is threatening to kill him.”
Senior Ambassador Elliott’s face was still expressionless. “That’s an extremely interesting statement.”
“Your only response is to say that’s an extremely interesting statement,” said Lucas incredulously. “I was foolish enough to assume that anyone imprinted as Senior Ambassador would put the wellbeing of the Hive ahead of their own interests. I believed the fact Diplomat Michaela hadn’t made a report about Blue Upway proved she was completely ignorant of what had happened to the game since she left Teen Level. I carefully made sure that only Amber and myself knew of Michaela’s involvement in the case to avoid causing her any embarrassment.”
Lucas’s voice rose in anger. “Now I’ve worked out that the stalker has discovered some dreadful guilty secret and is blackmailing Diplomat Michaela, you, and quite probably Ambassador Paula as well. You’re afraid to involve Law Enforcement because the stalker would reveal that secret.”
He shook his head. “I suppose whatever you’re hiding is bad enough to destroy all your careers, but I’m still incredibly disappointed that the head of Hive Politics would choose to protect his career rather than his Hive. A Blue Upway player has been killed, and Forge’s life is at stake. You have to tell us what you know about this stalker.”
“Yes,” I said fiercely. “If you don’t tell us what’s going on right now, then I’ll bring a Strike team to your apartment, arrest you, and read your mind to get the information.”
“It’s true that my family has chosen not to report our knowledge of Blue Upway to Law Enforcement,” said Senior Ambassador Elliott calmly, “but I feel you should listen to the full story before giving judgement on our motives.”
Lucas abruptly calmed down. “I’d be delighted to listen to the full story.”
“Please give me a moment to get the others,” said Senior Ambassador Elliott.
There was a brief wait before six holo figures were facing us. Two brothers and four sisters, all immaculately dressed, with thick dark hair, and blueish eyes. They gave me a formal respectful nod, moving in the perfect unison of a troupe of actors bowing to an audience, while I just stared at them in bewilderment. Their presence had to mean all six of them were involved in what had been happening with Blue Upway!
“Allow me to introduce my younger brother, Ambassador Declan, and my three youngest sisters, Ambassador Francesca, Ambassador Charlotte, and Diplomat Michaela.”
“So Diplomat Michaela has returned from Hive Genex after all,” commented Lucas drily.
“The other members of our delegation are still at Hive Genex, Tactical Commander,” said Senior Ambassador Elliott, “but I recalled Michaela immediately after your first attempt to contact her.”
He waved his hands. “The Light Angel Telepath Unit has only been operational for a few months, but reports from Gold Commander Melisande and Admiral Tregereth of the sea farm indicate you can be trusted to act with discretion in the interests of the Hive. I believed that you would contact us again within the next day or two. If you didn’t, then I felt things had reached the point where we should call you back ourselves. It was obviously best to have Michaela here when we did that.”
I blinked.
“I’ve spent most of the time since I arrived back at Hive England in a specially shielded quarantine facility,” said Diplomat Michaela, in a strained voice. “I had to go through screening for diseases and any micro spy devices planted on me by Hive Genex. My brothers and sisters couldn’t tell me anything about Blue Upway while I was at Hive Genex, because we believed our communication channel was being monitored. Elliott was just explaining the recent events in Blue Upway to me when Paula received your call.”
“Tactical Commander Lucas, you were right about everything being connected to the Teen Level beach and surfing,” said Senior Ambassador Elliott. “Our parents were both keen surfers, but ended up working in Hive Politics rather than having careers in sport. The six of us all followed in their footsteps in turn.”
He groaned. “I was on the Blue Zone teen surfing team for my last two years on Teen Level, and Bruce was our coach. He was Level 41, only four years older than me, chosen by Lottery for his charismatic ability to inspire his team, and I thought he was perfectly wonderful. Eventually, I left Teen Level to
go through Lottery, but Paula was two years younger than me. As I left Teen Level, she joined the surfing team, and Bruce started coaching her.”
“I thought Bruce was perfectly wonderful too,” said Paula. “The six of us are all duty children, born almost exactly two years apart. As each one of us left Teen Level to go through Lottery, the next would arrive on the surfing team. We all enjoyed the company of friendly, dependable, good-humoured Bruce, and we made the fatal mistake of encouraging him to visit us on Level 1.”
Elliott sighed. “By the time it was Michaela’s turn, she’d known Bruce as a family friend for years, and had all five of us telling her that he was an amazing coach. That made it hard for her to confide in the rest of us when he began causing trouble.”
“Let me check the facts here,” said Lucas. “Bruce is the coach of the Blue Zone teen surfing team. Are you saying that he’s the current Game Commander of Blue Upway, and the person who has taken Forge hostage?”
“Yes,” chorused the brothers and sisters.
I frowned down at the table, and thought back to the days I’d spent on the Teen Level beach, cheering for Forge in the teen inter-zone surfing competitions. The team members would cluster around their coach between the events. A man with unusually long hair, who was constantly gesturing with his hands.
“Forge’s life is in danger, and our Strike team leader is close to exploding from frustration,” said Lucas. “Is there any reason I can’t order Bruce to be arrested and brought to our unit’s holding cells straight away?”
Elliott lifted his hand. “Considering potential issues.”
He sat in silence for a few seconds while the others waited expectantly, and then spoke in a brisk voice. “This has to be our best chance of successfully resolving this crisis. We commit.”
“We commit,” chorused the others.
“Tactical Commander Lucas, you can order Bruce’s arrest now,” continued Elliott, “but we request that you take three precautions. Firstly, that you don’t mention our involvement when giving that order. Secondly, that you have Bruce sedated as soon as he’s arrested, so he can’t speak to anyone until you’ve heard our full story. Thirdly, that you avoid arresting him in Michaela’s Level 1 apartment.”
“Why would Bruce be in Diplomat Michaela’s apartment?” asked Lucas.
“Because he’s had the use of it for the last couple of months,” said the younger brother, Ambassador Declan, bitterly.
“I think Bruce has a meeting this evening anyway,” said Ambassador Paula. “Let me check his schedule.”
Her image froze for thirty seconds before she spoke again. “Bruce should be at the monthly meeting of the Blue Zone teen coaches for at least the next hour. That’s being held in room 9 of the Teen Level area 510/6510 community centre.”
“Then give me a moment to order his arrest.” Lucas tapped his dataview, and the six images froze.
“Do you understand what’s been going on?” I asked.
“Not in the slightest,” said Lucas, “but I’m willing to trust the combined statements of six members of Hive Politics that Bruce is our target, and that it’s wise to keep him sedated while he’s brought to our holding cells. Especially given you’ll be reading Bruce’s mind soon to confirm their story.”
He glanced warily at the frozen images. “All this talk of spying is making me nervous. Let’s go into the corridor to do this.”
Lucas left his dataview on the table, and we went out into the corridor, then put our ear crystals back in place.
“Amber and I are briefly back on the comms,” said Lucas.
“Briefly back on the comms,” repeated Adika, in a despairing voice. “You can’t keep wandering off like this, Lucas. Forge is in serious trouble.”
“I’m aware of that,” said Lucas. “Forge made the mistake of going surfing on the Teen Level beach. Our target was there, knew Forge personally from his time on Teen Level, and recognized him. I’ve been checking some details, and I believe our target is called Bruce and is the Level 41 coach of the Blue Zone teen surfing team. He’d naturally notice a brilliant new surfer appearing at the Teen Level beach and go to chat to him.”
Adika groaned. “That would definitely explain what happened. Forge’s disguise was good, but he’d been a member of the Blue Zone teen surfing team for two years.”
“Yes,” said Lucas. “Bruce might not have recognized Forge’s face, but he did recognize either his surfing style or his training surfboard. I expect Bruce pretended to be completely fooled by Forge’s disguise, and managed to inject him with a dose of sedatives. Once Forge collapsed, Bruce could easily pretend he was one of his surfing team who’d become ill, and wheel him away on a stretcher.”
He paused. “We all know exactly how vast beaches are, and how their complex maintenance areas intertwine with each other. Bruce had plenty of places to hide Forge, or routes he could use to take Forge to an entirely different area of the Hive.”
Adika groaned again.
“Bruce should currently be at a coaches’ meeting in room 9 of the Teen Level area 510/6510 community centre,” said Lucas. “Penn, I want your group to go there now and arrest him. We know Bruce is an extremely dangerous man because he managed to take Forge prisoner. You should catch him by surprise, cornered in a room, but there will be other people in that meeting. Be prepared to shoot Bruce on stun if he tries to grab a hostage.”
“We’ll be ready for anything,” said Penn.
“We need you to bring Bruce to our unit’s holding cells,” added Lucas, “but we can’t risk him causing trouble or escaping on the journey. As soon as you’ve arrested Bruce, sedate him, put him in restraints, and take him up in a lift to Level 20. Liaison should send a prisoner transport pod to you, which you’ll use to transport Bruce on the Level 20 express belts to reach our unit as quickly as possible.”
“Understood,” said Penn.
“I hope Adika will accept Amber and me going to check some more details before Bruce arrives in our unit,” said Lucas pointedly. “Emili should call my dataview at once if Bruce isn’t in that meeting or there are any problems arresting him.”
“We won’t let Bruce get away from us,” said Penn grimly.
I was worried about the Blue Zone group arresting Bruce without me to watch over them or the rest of the Beta Strike team to help them. Delaying the arrest while I took a full Strike team to Blue Zone wasn’t an option though. If Bruce was in that meeting, then he’d left Forge prisoner somewhere. We had to arrest Bruce before the meeting ended, or he’d go back to wherever he’d left Forge, and it could take us hours to find them after that. Hours when Bruce would be free to injure or kill Forge.
I limited myself to saying two words. “Be careful.”
“And remember that you can shoot Bruce on stun, but you mustn’t kill him,” Buzz’s voice joined the conversation on the crystal comms. “We need him alive, so Amber can tell us what he did with Forge.”
Lucas and I took out our ear crystals, and turned them off.
“You spent a lot of time with Forge on the Teen Level beach,” said Lucas. “Did you ever meet Bruce yourself?”
“I’ve been trying to work that out,” I said. “I often saw Forge’s surfing coach in the distance, but I don’t think I ever got close to him, and I certainly never spoke to him. The man was always surrounded by a crowd of adoring surfers, eagerly competing for his attention.”
“Senior Ambassador Elliott said that Bruce was charismatic,” said Lucas bleakly. “Forge would have been one of those adoring surfers and trusted his old coach absolutely. It would have been easy for Bruce to catch him off guard.”
Lucas led the way back into meeting room 4, where the six frozen holo images were waiting. He tapped his dataview, and they came back to life.
“Senior Ambassador Elliott, we’ve already got three men near Bruce’s location in Blue Zone,” said Lucas. “They should be arresting him within the next few minutes. Please tell us the rest of your story while he’s being b
rought to our unit’s holding cells.”
Chapter Thirty-five
“It’s delightful to picture Bruce being arrested,” said Senior Ambassador Elliott. “Now, as the old saying goes, I think we should leave our titles at the door to save time during the rest of the discussion.”
Lucas nodded. “If I’m interpreting that correctly, then I agree, Elliott.”
“I was explaining that Michaela had all five of us telling her that Bruce was wonderful,” said Elliott.
“Bruce learned the truth about telepaths a month before I arrived on the surfing team though,” said Michaela. “That meant he behaved differently to me from the very beginning.”
“You mean that Bruce’s behaviour had been held in check by the fact he believed nosies were constantly checking his thoughts,” said Lucas. “Once he knew there were only a handful of true telepaths in the Hive, his underlying character started showing. How did he find out the truth?”
“It was my fault,” said Elliott. “Law Enforcement live on their own private Level 20, but our family lives on Level 1, so we’re careful to keep the Hive’s secrets from even our closest relatives. Each of us believed in the nosy myth until we went through Lottery and were imprinted for high level positions with Hive Politics. Unfortunately, I carelessly allowed Bruce to access my dataview, and he saw some messages about telepaths.”
“You weren’t careless,” said Paula, in a scolding voice. “You were unconscious.”
I frowned.
“Bruce was visiting Elliott in his apartment that evening,” said Declan. “They were arguing about the result in some surfing competition, and Elliott went to get his trophy from the top shelf to see which of them was right.”
“I was standing on a box to reach it, when my dataview chimed with an urgent message,” said Elliott. “I took my dataview from my pocket, and was answering it when I somehow slipped off the box.”
Borderline (Hive Mind Book 4) Page 34
