Chapter Thirty-nine
Lucas and I were among the crowd at the lifts to welcome Forge back to the unit. We joined in the cheers as Buzz and Megan united forces to drag Forge off to our medical area for a full health check, then we went back to our apartment to sleep well into the next day.
The small crate holding the game master stack of Blue Upway arrived at the Teen Level beach storage facility late that afternoon. Adika insisted on collecting it himself to make sure it couldn’t cause any more trouble, and Megan grudgingly agreed to allow Forge to go with him to retrieve his surfboard.
When the two of them returned to the unit, I went to the Tactical office to watch Emili and Lucas unpack the game master stack from its crate, and was disappointed by its appearance. “It’s just some battered old dataviews.”
“Of course it is,” said Lucas. “We told you that a game master stack was just some old donated dataviews.”
I shook my head. “Yes, but after all the fuss, I expected something more dramatic.”
Lucas turned to Emili. “I want you and the Tactical team to charge the dataviews, do hazard assessments of the Blue Upway challenges, and remove all the ones that are too dangerous. After that, ask Adika to take the game master stack to the Hive Politics offices on Industry 1.”
“Why are we sending the Blue Upway game master stack to Hive Politics?” asked Kareem.
“If we shut down both Halloween and Blue Upway, we’ll have thirty thousand bored and frustrated players causing trouble in the Hive,” said Lucas. “I’ve decided our best option is to remove all the dangerous challenges from Blue Upway, and keep it running until the new games start up next Carnival.”
He shrugged. “It would be difficult for us to keep running a game with so much delegation of tasks, and it’s not worth us restructuring the whole game to use automation when we want to close it down in three months. I asked Hive Politics to find someone who can handle all the delegation needed to keep Blue Upway running for us. They’ve assigned Diplomat Michaela to help us. I believe she came out of Lottery within the last year or two, so should be able to communicate well with the teen players.”
“I don’t understand why you want to shut down Halloween but keep Blue Upway running,” Beckett grumbled. “Halloween is a huge success. We should keep it running permanently, then there’ll never be any more problems from Teen Games.”
Lucas smiled at Beckett. “Halloween is only a huge success because of the novelty of our events. The Hive needs our Tactical team focused on dealing with wild bees, not desperately inventing unusual new events to entertain teens. We want teens to run their own games anyway, to give future Tactical team members a chance to practise their skills.”
Beckett gave a sad sigh. Cee Cee was sitting bolt upright on his desk, and seemed to give Lucas a disapproving look.
“Lucas is right,” said Gideon. “Running Halloween has been amusing, but we don’t want to spend the rest of our lives working on it.”
“I’m looking forward to having a free evening to relax with Rothan again,” said Emili.
“We’ll do a few more events to give Diplomat Michaela time to get Blue Upway running properly,” said Lucas, “and then we’ll shut down Halloween. There’s no need for you to worry about being bored without it, Beckett. We’ve got a lot of areas of the Hive with warning signs waiting for you to run a pattern analysis, and I’ve agreed with Gold Commander Melisande that the other Telepath Unit Tactical teams will be able to call on you to help with their more difficult problems too.”
Beckett looked much more cheerful.
Lucas turned back to Emili. “Once you’ve sent off the game master stack, I’d like you to do the Blue Upway case completion report for Gold Commander Melisande.”
Emili raised her eyebrows.
“Amber and I need to go back to our apartment now,” added Lucas.
I frowned. “We do? Why? I thought we were joining Buzz in meeting room 4 to discuss Bruce’s treatment.”
“Buzz said she’d prefer to come to our apartment,” said Lucas.
We headed out of the door and through the unit to our apartment. When we arrived in the living room, Lucas got some drinks from the kitchen unit.
“Emili seemed a bit surprised that you wanted her to do the case completion report,” I said.
“I normally do the reports on more complicated cases myself,” said Lucas, “but I feel it’s safer to get Emili to do this one. She can’t accidentally include any hints of the political complications because she doesn’t know about them.”
I nodded.
“Now, this conversation with Buzz is crucial,” said Lucas. “We need to convince her it’s necessary to reset Bruce immediately, and to carry out his treatment in our own unit. I’ve worked out what to say, so you should read my mind and follow my lead.”
I nodded again.
A couple of minutes later, Buzz arrived at our apartment front door, but Lucas never managed to say a word of his carefully planned speeches. The moment I ordered the front door to open, Buzz swept through the hallway and into the living room, with two clothing bags over her arm.
“Your New Year festival outfits have arrived from the clothes designer. I need you to try them on at once and make sure that you like them.”
I gaped at her. “What are you talking about? We had to abandon the clothes shopping trip before my appointment with the clothes designer.”
“I could see that any attempt to get the pair of you to go clothes shopping was doomed,” said Buzz, “and decided to take an entirely different approach. When I called the clothes designer we were supposed to visit, he was rather huffy about my idea, so I dumped him. I tried calling the eager young man we met on the belt system instead, and he was happy to do anything a prestige client wanted.”
“You’re talking about the clothes designer we met on our way to go shopping?” I asked. “The one who gave you a card?”
“That’s right.” Buzz laughed. “I thought he was going to faint when I told him you had diamond priority. I sent him your measurements from your latest medical scan, a holo sequence of you in your beach dress, and instructions to create a festival dress based on it. I’m pleased with the result, and I hope you’ll like it too.”
Buzz opened one of the clothing bags and flourished a dress at me. It had the same colours as my old beach dress, but was …
“What do you think?” asked Buzz.
“It’s gorgeous,” I said, in a dazed voice. “Much too gorgeous for me.”
“It’s exactly right for you.” Buzz handed Lucas the second clothing bag. “You can change into your outfit in the bookette room, while Amber and I go into your bedroom. We’ll meet you back in here.”
Buzz swept me off into the bedroom. Minutes later, I was staring at myself in the mirror. The dress didn’t just look amazing, but felt as comfortable as my beach dress, and there was a matching blue artificial flower to wear in my hair.
“You like it?” asked Buzz.
I nodded, totally speechless.
“Let’s show Lucas.”
We went across the hall to the living room. Lucas was already standing there, wearing a festival outfit that toned with the blues of my dress. I thought his outfit suited him perfectly, but he gave me an appalled look that made my confidence plummet faster than an express lift.
“Doesn’t Amber look beautiful?” Buzz gave Lucas a meaningful look.
“Yes, she looks nice,” said Lucas, in a stilted voice.
“I can see why you had dozens of girlfriends swooning at your feet on Teen Level,” said Buzz.
“What?” Lucas stared at her. “I didn’t have any girlfriends on Teen Level.”
Buzz sighed. “That was sarcasm, Lucas.”
I gave Lucas a wounded look. “You obviously hate my dress.”
Lucas groaned. “I don’t hate your dress. It’s just me messing things up again. Read me, Amber.”
I linked to his mind and saw the words laid out for me on the pre-
vocalization level.
You look utterly stunning, Amber. Being me, I reacted to that by having a fit of blind panic. I’ve always had a nagging fear that I won’t be able to hold the interest of a girl like you, but right now that fear isn’t just nagging at me but screaming at a deafening volume.
“Oh.” I considered that. “You mean you’re having one of your insecure moments, but you do like the dress.”
I love the dress. I love you wearing the dress. Most of all, I love you. I’d be much better at showing you how I feel with actions rather than words, but I’m a bit limited with Buzz standing there watching us.
Below the pre-vocalization level, an urgent thought train was flaring bright with alarm.
…the same at every New Year. All the old insecurities spring up again, and I turn into an irrational mess, saying the wrong things, driving people away with my clown act. My fear of losing Amber makes it even worse. I’ll end up driving her away too with my desperation, and then …
I took his hands. “You don’t need to worry about the New Year festival, Lucas. It’s going to be all right. Remember that I can see more than words.”
The pre-vocalization level of Lucas’s mind broke into fragments, overwhelmed by the emotional thought train beneath it.
Amber can see more than words. She can see past all the defensive mess, the desperate clown act, the panic, and the uncontrollable emotions, to the petrified child inside. She’ll see the worst of me, the way she’s always done, and somehow care for me anyway. She …
“I should probably leave the two of you alone now,” said Buzz.
I was about to agree, but remembered why Lucas and I had asked her to come. “No, we need to discuss Bruce.”
Lucas was getting his thoughts back under control now, and trying to remember his planned speeches. “Yes, Bruce is extremely dangerous and needs to be dealt with quickly. He’ll have to be reset to before he learned the truth about telepaths, and I’d like you to carry out his treatment here in the unit because …”
“I know, I know.” Buzz gave a dismissive wave of her hand. “You’ve been behaving really oddly about this case, Lucas. You kept taking Amber off into meeting rooms to have secret conferences. You went into unnecessary detail about Blue Zone group needing to keep Bruce unconscious on the way to our unit. You didn’t even allow Bruce to be fully awake when Amber was reading his mind.”
She grimaced. “Everyone knew Bruce was dangerous because he’d managed to take Forge prisoner, but you were clearly aware of a far bigger problem. When I left to go down to the holding cells, I got an insight that you were terrified of what Bruce might do to the Hive, and then I got an obsessively malignant insight from his prison transport pod.”
She paused. “After you and Amber went to bed last night, the Tactical team and I had a conference and worked out why you were so worried.”
“You did?” asked Lucas cautiously.
“Yes,” said Buzz. “Bruce wasn’t just using Blue Upway to harm players. He’d worked out a way to use it to do some dreadful damage to the Hive. So dreadful that you didn’t even dare to let your own Tactical team know the details.”
She shrugged. “I’ve got a specialist in the area of reset psychology waiting down at the holding cells. As soon as you’re sure you’ve got all the information you need from Bruce, I’ll work together with the specialist to make sure the last three years of Bruce’s memory are completely removed. Will it be safe to send him to a Therapy Unit for standard rehabilitation treatment after that?”
Lucas gave her a dazed look. “Yes, once Bruce’s memory has been reset, he won’t be a threat to the Hive any longer. Adika has just brought the game master stack of Blue Upway to the Tactical office, so I think you can go ahead with the reset now.”
“I’ll go down to the holding cells straight away then.” Buzz pointed a warning finger at me. “The clothes designer has sent us fabric samples and holos of possible designs for other dresses, Amber. We can look at those another day. Now make sure you hang that dress up rather than dropping it on the floor!”
She headed out of the door, and Lucas shook his head. “I suppose I should have realized I couldn’t hide my fear of Bruce from Buzz.”
Lucas had a habit of saying it was impractical to lie to a telepath. Now I used the phrase to tease him. “It’s impractical to hide blind terror from a borderline telepath.”
Lucas laughed. “Well, Buzz’s insight obviously convinced both her and my Tactical team that they shouldn’t ask questions, just do everything necessary to stop Bruce from being a threat to the Hive. Let’s eat now, and then I need to go back to the Tactical office and make arrangements for the final Halloween events.”
“We’d better change out of these clothes before we eat,” I said. “Buzz wouldn’t be pleased if I spilt melon juice on my brand new festival dress.”
Lucas nodded, and we changed back into ordinary clothes. I made the supreme effort to hang my festival dress up before going to eat. Once we’d finished our meals, Lucas gave me a questioning look.
“Do you want to join in the planning of the Halloween events?”
“Unlike Beckett, I feel the running of a Teen Game is getting a bit repetitive,” I said. “I’ll spend some time in the park, and come and see how you’re getting on later.”
Lucas and I walked as far as the lifts together, then he went through the security doors into the operational section of the unit, while I continued straight on down the corridor to the park. I followed my usual routine of feeding the birds before sitting down at one of the picnic tables and closing my eyes. Forge had seemed his normal reckless self when he arrived back at the unit last night, but I was worried he might be suffering some aftereffects of waking up trapped in that crate.
I’d been trained to link instantly to the minds of my Strike team members when running circuits, so I just had to think of Forge’s name to find myself inside his head. He and Rothan were in the gym. Rothan was lifting weights, while Forge stood watching him. The medical checks had shown Forge didn’t have any broken ribs, but his right side was still painful where Bruce had kicked him.
“You didn’t take long to dye your hair back to its real colour,” commented Rothan.
Forge grinned. “Buzz made her feelings very clear. Certain things weren’t going to happen while I had blond hair.”
Rothan put his weights back on the rack. “I thought Buzz was joking about the blond hair to begin with. It isn’t a joke though, is it?”
“No, it isn’t,” said Forge. “Buzz said I should explain the blond hair problem to you in case the Alpha Strike team start joking about it. She witnessed a murder when she was a small child, and the wild bee had distinctive blond hair. The incident triggered Buzz’s borderline telepathic ability, so her memory couldn’t be reset, and some situations reawaken the past trauma.”
“If the Alpha Strike team start making jokes about blond hair, then I’ll make sure there’s a rapid change of subject,” said Rothan. “I know it’s not realistic to reset the memories of Strike team members after every bad experience, but I sometimes wish I’d asked to have my memory reset after the fire that damaged my lungs. Smoke makes me nervous. How are you feeling about crates and other small spaces?”
“It’s not a problem so far,” said Forge.
I checked the lower levels of his mind. Forge was telling the exact truth. He hadn’t noticed any problems yet.
Rothan reached out to grip his shoulders with both hands. “It will take a while to be sure there aren’t any aftereffects. We spend a lot of time crawling through cramped, dark spaces. That could make things better, or it could make them even worse.”
Forge laughed. “Buzz says she has some creative ideas for therapy if needed.”
Rothan let his hands drop to his sides. “I shudder to think what those ideas might be.”
I saw the thought of Buzz’s suggestions in Forge’s mind, and hastily drew back into my own head and opened my eyes. I stood up, and strolled along
the path heading south alongside the stream, enjoying the warmth of the park suns. I’d intended to sit on the bench under the maple tree for a while, but stopped walking, disconcerted, when I saw Gideon was already sitting there.
Gideon noticed my arrival at the same moment, smiled at me, and patted the bench beside him. I hesitated before going to join him. I’d been meaning to discuss something with Gideon for days. I’d kept delaying the conversation out of cowardice, but it was time for me to have it now.
Chapter Forty
Gideon and I sat quietly on the bench for a few moments before I spoke. “Aren’t the Tactical team working now?”
“Yes, but I’m seventy years old,” said Gideon. “I’m allowed to leave sessions whenever I feel tired or unwell.”
“So you’re feeling ill?” I asked anxiously.
“I felt ill the moment Lucas said we needed to do hazard assessments on every one of the hundreds of challenges in Blue Upway,” said Gideon. “I’m expecting to have a sudden recovery as soon as there’s something more interesting to do.”
I laughed, then moved the conversation on to the subject I needed to discuss. “This bench was here in Claire’s time.”
“Yes. This was Claire’s favourite spot in the park because it was so quiet. Most people liked to sit in the picnic table area, while the unit children always played at the far end by the lake.”
I thought that through. “Everything else in my unit was refurbished or replaced, but this bench was left behind. I thought the maintenance workers had overlooked it. That wasn’t what happened though, was it? This was Claire’s favourite spot, so her people scattered her ashes here and asked for her bench to be left untouched.”
Gideon nodded. “Does that worry you, Amber?”
“No. I’ve been thinking of this as Claire’s area of the park for a long time now. You mentioned the unit children. I’ve been wondering if Claire had any duty children?”
Gideon gave me a startled look. “Yes. She had twenty-five duty children.”
Borderline (Hive Mind Book 4) Page 39
