“Eli, are you ready to shut down wave tank 306?” asked Lucas.
“Yes,” said Eli. “I’ve already altered the wave machinery settings, so I just need to push a button to activate the changes.”
I felt a shift in the balance of Glenna’s emotions. Unease abruptly changed to a conviction that something was terribly wrong. “Lucas, Glenna’s scared. She’s thinking about running.”
“Initiating plan now,” snapped Lucas. “Eli, shut down tank 306!”
Chapter Five
I moved from Glenna’s mind to that of Irwin. He was so attuned to the song of the wave tanks that he immediately noticed the discordant note among the rest. One of the choir was out of step, singing the wrong line of the verse. Where the other tanks were still filling with water, this one was already dumping it.
… safety override shutdown. Probably an overheat due to blockage of …
“Irwin’s noticed the sound of a tank shutting down,” I said. “He thinks the safety system must be shutting it down because of a blockage. He’s looking for the faulty tank. Spotted it. Told Christie, I mean Glenna, that he’ll be back in a moment. Turning to head towards tank 306.”
“Not yet, Adika,” said Lucas.
“Irwin’s not worried,” I continued the running commentary on my target’s thoughts. “He’s walking towards the tank now. Blockages happen all the time. Mostly because of something like limpets, but there’s the occasional lost shoe.”
“Not yet, Adika,” Lucas repeated.
“Irwin’s kneeling down on the walkway. Leaning over the edge to check the tank mechanism. There are a lot of limpets, so he’ll try clearing them before …”
“Adika, now!” Lucas ordered.
I heard the sound of a voice shouting. My voice shouting. “Glenna, run to us! That man is the hunter of souls.”
“Irwin’s looking back at Christie,” I reported. “He thinks that was her shouting, but her words didn’t make sense.”
I was still deep in Irwin’s thoughts as he looked at Christie. There was an odd blurry moment, where he seemed to have two different sets of thoughts running in parallel and be seeing with two different sets of eyes.
One set of eyes saw Christie turn away from him, her long, blonde hair trailing down her back. The other set of eyes saw a girl with hair that was a little shorter and a shade darker than Christie’s hair.
A series of images flashed past. The Beach Controller sitting smugly at her desk. A dataview screen displaying a message from Child Protection. A door opening to show the man who’d taken Irwin’s place, taken his home, taken his daughter.
Visual images were replaced by a more physical form of memory. The tension in Irwin’s body as he hammered a fist on the Beach Controller’s desk. The palms of his hands pressed on the cool surface of a mirror, screaming his fury at his reflection. The thrust of the limpet knife into the stomach of his usurper.
Then the two sets of thoughts merged into one that burned with fury. The girl had tricked him into thinking she was his daughter!
“Irwin’s back to reality!” I screamed the warning. “He’s on his feet. Chasing after Glenna. Taking the tool from his pocket and setting it to the knife for removing limpets. When he catches her, he’s going to cut her lying throat before throwing her into the wave tanks.”
“If Irwin gets too close to Glenna, then someone will have to shoot him on stun,” said Lucas. “If that makes Irwin fall into a wave tank, it’s unfortunate, but this is a primary rule situation. If we can only save one of their lives, we have to save Glenna.”
Irwin was running after the girl, the strength of his rage engulfing me, and drawing me into being him rather than Amber. The sound of my feet clanging on the metal walkway warred with the sound of the wave tanks. My eyes were fixed on the girl’s back. Her feet were slipping on the walkway, so she had to keep clutching at the rails with her hands to steady herself. I’d soon catch her up and deal with her.
Who sent the girl here to deceive me? My wife? Her new husband? The Beach Controller? How many more people are part of the conspiracy? When I’ve …
Then I saw a giant of a man sprinting towards the girl. He seized her, thrust her behind him, and stood barring my way. I stopped and studied him warily. Where had he come from? Who was he? What was he?
A glimmer of light caught my eye. I glanced up and saw the answer to my question. The light angel was floating above the end of the walkway, her wings shimmering. The spirit of justice was both floating next to her and taking physical form to confront me. He had black hair, black clothes, a dark face, and inhuman muscles that looked as if he could carry the whole Hive on his shoulders.
I took one step backwards, and then a second. This couldn’t be happening. The Halloween stories were myths. The light angel and justice didn’t exist. The man in front of me was definitely real though, and …
“Strike time!” Lucas’s voice called me back to being Amber again. “Eli, shut down all the wave tanks.”
I fought my way free from Irwin’s mind and emotions, opened my eyes, and stabbed a finger at the circuit button of my dataview. The names of the Bodyguard team appeared on the left side of the screen and the Chase team on the right.
“Going circuit.” I began the standard routine of chanting the name on the top of the Chase team list, checking that person’s mind for an instant to see if they were safe, and then tapping the name to send it down to the bottom of the display and moving on to the next.
“Adika.” I advanced on Irwin, watching for the betraying signs that showed he was about to lunge at me with …
“Kaden.” I’d been chasing Adika down the walkway. My instinct was to dodge past Glenna and go to help Adika fight Irwin. I’d been given strict orders though, so I grabbed Glenna, injected her with the sedative, and carried her towards …
“Rothan.” We’d calculated that Glenna would reach Adika near where I was standing, but we’d overestimated her running speed. I needed to move to …
“Silas.” I reached the top of the ladder at the back of wave tank 250 just in time to see the confrontation between Irwin and Adika. I wasn’t surprised when Irwin’s nerve cracked and he turned to run away. When Adika wanted to look menacing, he could …
“Matias.” I was in position on the ladder of wave tank 280, watching Irwin run along the walkway towards me. Adika was chasing after him but steadily losing ground. I didn’t understand how Irwin could be running faster than Adika. I wanted to get across to the walkway to block Irwin’s flight, but the wave tanks were still shutting down and …
“Tobias.” The wave tanks had finally finished shutting down. I stepped off the ladder onto the wall between wave tank 300 and 301, slipped, landed inelegantly on my rear end, and swore.
“Dhiren.” I tensed as I saw Tobias slip, but he landed safely on the wall rather than falling into the tank and breaking an arm or leg. I heard Adika’s breathless voice on the crystal comms, spitting out a single acid sentence. Adika wasn’t impressed by people who didn’t listen to their telepath when she warned them you had to crawl rather than walk along the top of wave tank walls. I wasn’t impressed either. In my opinion, Tobias was …
“Zak.” I crawled cautiously along the wall between wave tank 320 and 321. I could see Irwin running along the walkway towards me, with Adika trailing behind him. I should just reach the walkway in time to …
“Rafael.” I pulled myself up onto the walkway, turned, and saw Zak twisting the knife from Irwin’s hand. I sprinted towards them, seized both Irwin’s arms from behind, and wrestled with him while Zak shot him on stun. It took a couple of seconds for the stun to take effect, and then I lowered Irwin to the metal floor of the walkway.
I lifted my head to give Zak a triumphant smile, but saw he had his left hand pressed against his stomach. Blood was dripping through his fingers, and he was swaying as if he was about to faint.
Chapter Six
I instinctively recoiled back into my own head, dropped my dataview,
and screamed. “Zak’s been stabbed!”
Keith had lost one of his Strike team on an emergency run to a beach maintenance area. Was I going to lose one of my team too? I frantically linked to Zak’s mind to check how badly he was injured. He was lying on the metal walkway now, feeling as if his stomach was on fire, and fighting against a sickening dizzy spell.
“Don’t let me fall off the walkway,” he said.
“I won’t let you fall,” said Rafael.
… Rafael won’t let me fall. Can feel his hands holding my shoulders. Ah, and here’s Adika with the medical kit.
“Rafael, I’ll take care of Zak now.” Adika’s voice had a harsh edge of anger. “You go and put restraints on Irwin before he recovers consciousness. You’d better secure him to the handrail as well. We’ve gone to a lot of trouble to catch him alive, so it would be a waste to let him fall into a wave tank now.”
I watched through Zak’s eyes as Adika knelt down and glared at him.
Adika looks as if he doesn’t want to help me but kill me himself. What did I do wrong? It wasn’t my fault I slipped trying to dodge the knife. This walkway is impossibly …
“If you don’t die, Zak,” said Adika bitterly, “we’re going to have a long conversation about exactly how you managed to get stabbed. I understand you having problems fighting Irwin, because it’s hard keeping your footing on this walkway, but I don’t understand how you could forget to wear your body armour.”
“I am wearing my body armour.”
“You are?” Adika pulled up Zak’s top to expose his wound. “Waste it, Zak’s right. That knife went straight through the mesh of his body armour and sliced into his stomach. Why does the Hive issue maintenance workers with knives that can cut through body armour?”
“You need a really sharp knife for the limpets,” I said miserably. “If they clamp down onto the sides of the wave tank, they’re hard to prise off. I should have warned you.”
“Amber, did you know Irwin’s knife was sharp enough to go through body armour?” asked Lucas.
“No, but …”
“Then stop blaming yourself.”
There was a blinding flash of pain, and Zak and I cried out in unison.
“Sorry, Amber,” said Adika. “I didn’t realize you were still reading Zak’s mind.”
“Never mind me, what did you do to Zak?” I demanded furiously.
“I pulled the ragged edge of his damaged body armour out of his wound,” said Adika. “I’m not surprised Zak was passing out from pain with that stuck in there.”
“It does feel a bit better now,” said Zak.
“The good news is Zak’s body armour absorbed most of the force of the knife blow,” said Adika. “This is a long cut, but shallow enough that there shouldn’t be any serious damage. I’ll put a temporary bandage on to slow the bleeding.”
Adika carefully applied a large bandage to Zak’s stomach. “I assume Liaison already has a medical team on the way to us?”
“There’s a medical team on the way to treat Zak, a psychological team on the way to treat Glenna, and a hasty team on the way to collect Irwin,” said Nicole.
“Can you cope without pain relief until the medical team get here, Zak?” asked Adika. “You’re going to need surgery, so I’d rather leave it to experts to decide what level of pain relief to give you.”
“I’ll cope,” said Zak.
“And now I’d like the answer to one very important question,” said Adika. “How could Irwin run on this walkway without slipping?”
I watched through Zak’s eyes as Adika moved across to examine Irwin’s shoes. “I thought so. Irwin’s got peculiar soles on his shoes that must be specially designed to grip the walkway’s anti-slip grating. It would have been nice if someone had warned us you needed special shoes for the anti-slip grating to work.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “Irwin didn’t think about his shoes at all.”
“I wasn’t criticizing you, Amber,” said Adika. “It’s the job of the Tactical team to inform us when special equipment is needed.”
“I apologize,” said Lucas. “The protocols for responding to a beach emergency didn’t mention shoes with special soles. We’re updating those protocols right now.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” said Adika.
I decided Zak should be safe now, pulled out of his mind, and opened my eyes to see Forge and my other bodyguards standing around me.
“Where do you want the response teams to meet the Strike team, Lucas?” asked Nicole.
“Send the hasty team and medical team to maintenance entrance 67F, but cancel the psychological team. If we hand Glenna over to them, they’ll remove all her memories of the encounter with Irwin, and I don’t want that to happen.”
“It may not be necessary to remove the memories of people present during the original stabbing,” said Adika. “The fact a nosy squad arrived at that exact moment strengthens the nosy myth rather than undermines it. Glenna’s memories have to be removed though. We can’t leave her with knowledge of such a serious incident as this.”
“The problem is that you can’t remove memories with pinpoint accuracy,” said Lucas. “Buzz is a specialist in victim trauma treatment and forensic psychology. She advises me that whether the psychologists opted to reset Glenna’s memory chain to before she met Irwin, or do a spot memory removal, the boundary effects would leave everything else that happened today as just a vague blur.”
Lucas paused. “Buzz and I feel that would be disastrous for Glenna. Today isn’t an average day that she can lose from her memories without noticing. It’s her Freedom Day. Not being able to remember what she did on such a significant day would trouble her for the rest of her life.”
“It’s unfortunate that Glenna has to lose her memories of her Freedom Day,” said Adika, “but we’ve no other option.”
“We do have another option,” said Lucas. “I deliberately used the images of the light angel and justice to make what happened appear as dreamlike as possible. Glenna was on the Level 67 beach when Irwin took her through a maintenance door in the cliffs to reach the wave machinery area. I want you to take Glenna back to that maintenance door now. Buzz is sending a hypnotics sequence to your dataview. If you let Glenna recover consciousness, and get her to watch the sequence, it should convince her she’s been dreaming. You can then send her back through the door to the Level 67 beach.”
“Understood,” said Adika.
“Everyone else should now move to maintenance entrance 67F,” said Lucas.
“We can’t get Amber to maintenance entrance 67F from here, Lucas,” said Forge. “We’ll have to retrace our steps to maintenance entrance 69K and then go through public areas to join you.”
Retracing our steps meant facing those ladders again. I cringed. “I don’t think my nerves can survive climbing more ladders today.”
“I don’t think my nerves could survive it either,” said Lucas. “Forge, you can take Amber through the water pumping and cascade areas to reach maintenance entrance 67F.”
“Those are extreme hazard zones, Lucas,” said Adika sharply.
“They’re extreme hazard zones when the wave machinery is running,” said Lucas. “At the moment, we’ve got all the wave tanks turned off, so they’re perfectly safe.”
“That’s a good point,” admitted Adika.
My bodyguards ushered me along the corridor, up and down some wonderfully normal staircases, and through some incomprehensible machinery areas. By the time we arrived at maintenance entrance 67F, Irwin had been handed over to the hasty team, while Zak was lying on a wheeled stretcher having his wound scanned by a doctor. I noticed Rafael was hovering anxiously next to them.
“We’ll take you to a nearby medical facility for what should hopefully be minor surgery,” said the doctor.
I saw Eli wince at the mention of surgery. His injured leg had healed well, and he’d worked hard to get back to full fitness, but he’d soon need a follow-up operation. On the surface, he
appeared his usual ebullient self, but underneath he was terrified at the prospect of having a surgeon work on his leg again.
“Can I go along to the medical facility with Zak?” asked Rafael. “He’s got a bad habit of disobeying instructions from doctors.”
“Yes, you go with Zak and make sure he does what he’s told,” said Rothan.
Zak was wheeled off by the medical team, with Rafael trailing behind the stretcher.
“Adika is running the hypnotics sequence on Glenna now,” said Lucas. “Amber, I’d like you to check the girl’s thoughts when she returns to the Level 67 beach.”
I frowned. “Lucas, my telepathic range is going to be very short on that crowded beach.”
“I understand that,” said Lucas. “Your bodyguards can take you to the nearest public beach entrance. There’s a clothes kiosk there, so you’ll be able to pick up some casual beach clothes to help you blend in among the crowds.”
Forge led the way out of the door, and the rest of my bodyguards clustered around me as we headed for the beach.
“Has Liaison come up with an explanation for the Level 67 beach not having any waves?” asked Lucas.
“We’ve been making announcements on the Level 67 beach speaker system,” said Nicole. “The waves have been temporarily shut down to allow a lost seagull to be rescued from the wave machinery area.”
Lucas laughed. “I like that story.”
“The staff who were on maintenance duty know the problem wasn’t really caused by a seagull,” added Nicole. “They think the Beach Controller ordered the evacuation because Irwin was screaming insults again. The reason the wave tanks had to be shut down was so Irwin’s therapist could go in there to talk to him.”
“That’s a good story too,” said Lucas.
“We didn’t invent that one,” admitted Nicole. “The maintenance staff have been sitting around in a room speculating on what was going on. They came up with the explanation themselves, and since the story just had Irwin throwing a tantrum rather than stabbing people, we decided to agree with it.”
Hurricane (Hive Mind Book 3) Page 5
