“I’m back at the beach exit now,” Rothan’s breathless voice joined in the conversation. “I can take care of Zak during the flight.”
“I need you here, Rothan,” said Adika. “You’re our expert on Outside.”
I couldn’t resist making a suggestion. “Rafael’s good at persuading Zak to obey instructions from doctors.”
“Yes, Rafael can go with Zak,” said Adika’s voice. “Where is Rafael anyway? Oh, I see him. Rafael, come and help me get Zak onto a stretcher.”
Three minutes later, Adika reported that Aerial one was airborne.
“I’ve arranged for a specialist medical team to meet Aerial one when it arrives at the Hive,” said Megan.
“Good,” said Lucas. “Zak will soon be in expert hands, so now we all need to focus on finding out what happened to him, and making sure that it doesn’t happen to anyone else. Megan, is there an air vent in the medical room?”
“I don’t remember seeing one,” said Megan.
“The only air vents here are in the corridors,” said the shaky voice of one of our maintenance people.
“Whatever caused the air issues isn’t in the vent system then,” said Lucas. “Hannah, can you remember what items were in the medical room when your team cleaned it?”
Hannah responded on the crystal comms, speaking with a defensive note in her voice. “There wasn’t anything in the medical room at all. Some of the Alpha team scrubbed the walls, floor, and ceiling clean. I checked the room myself when they finished, so I’m sure what happened to Zak was nothing to do with the cleaning work.”
“I wasn’t suggesting Zak’s problem was connected to the cleaning work, Hannah,” said Lucas. “I just wanted to know if there were any items in that room when we arrived. Since there was nothing there, and any contamination on the walls, floor, or ceiling would have been removed during the cleaning process, the next question is what was taken into the medical room.”
“The only things we took into the room were a few crates of medical equipment, and a bed so Zak could lie down,” said Megan.
Lucas groaned. “We brought the medical equipment with us from the Hive, but the bed came from the sea farm stores. The mattress must have been treated with some sort of chemical that created poisonous fumes. When Zak was lying on it …”
“Waste it!” Adika’s voice was bitter with self-accusation. “I checked that bed myself. I scanned the bed frame and mattress for hidden knives and other unpleasant surprises. I couldn’t find anything. I couldn’t see any stains on the mattress. I couldn’t …”
Lucas interrupted Adika. “This isn’t your fault, Adika. You took every reasonable precaution. Megan, have we brought any more of the sea farm furniture inside?”
“No,” said Megan. “We didn’t want to bring in the rest of the furniture until the corridors and rooms had been properly cleaned.”
She made a sound as if she was about to be sick. “I’m the one to blame for this, not Adika. I ordered the Strike team to bring in that bed. I ordered Zak to lie down on it. I ordered everyone else to leave him alone so he could get some sleep. If Amber hadn’t got that warning mental itch of hers, then I’d have killed Zak.”
For once, I didn’t have to make an effort to be fair to Megan. “Only one person is to blame for what happened to Zak,” I said fiercely, “and that’s the person who treated his mattress with a poisonous chemical.”
“I failed to protect my patient though,” said Megan miserably.
“Lucas,” Adika’s voice was suddenly appalled. “Have you realized that Amber saved Zak, and might have saved anyone else in the same situation, but if she’d been the one lying on the bed then there’d have been no one to save her?”
“Yes, I’ve realized that,” said Lucas savagely. “I’ve imagined exactly how she’d have …”
He broke off his sentence, covered his face with his hands, and stood in perfect silence for a few seconds, before lifting his head and speaking in a rigidly controlled voice.
“So we just have one poisoned bed in the medical room. It’s possible this was a casual piece of sabotage, done days ago with the aim of injuring a random person, but it seems far more likely that this attack was aimed specifically at us.”
He paused. “I was worried our target might try to tamper with our furniture or lay traps in our base corridors before our arrival, so I took certain precautions. Only Admiral Tregereth and his wife, Tressa, knew our planned base location in advance, and I warned them both to keep it secret. Tressa checked there was plenty of furniture in the stockpile of general supplies on Level 3 of the Haven, but she wasn’t supposed to arrange for anything to be moved to the Level 10 beach exit until after we’d arrived at the sea farm.”
“And Tressa seems to have followed your instructions precisely,” said Rothan. “When I first went out of the beach exit, I saw people bringing the furniture down the hillside path.”
“I went out a couple of minutes after Rothan,” said Forge. “I stayed by the aircraft, organizing unloading the supplies, until Amber said Zak was in trouble. I kept a careful watch on the people who delivered the furniture, making sure they didn’t go near the aircraft or try to go inside our base corridors. All they did was bring the furniture down the path and stack it in piles.”
“Could someone else have been hiding nearby?” asked Lucas.
“I’ve checked the whole area near our beach exit for hiding places and ambush points,” said Rothan. “It’s a windswept hillside covered in tussocks of salt-tolerant grasses. No trees, hardly any bushes, no significant holes in the ground, and the beach itself is totally flat. A rabbit or fox might be able to hide among the grass, but a man or woman would find it hard to sneak up unnoticed.”
Lucas grimaced. “In which case, the only people with an opportunity to poison Zak’s mattress were the people who delivered our furniture and the Admiral’s wife.”
Chapter Twenty-four
“So one of our suspects, and to be completely honest our main suspect, is the Admiral’s wife,” said Adika. “If the people delivering the furniture didn’t know in advance that it was going to be used by us, they’d have had very little chance to get hold of poisonous chemicals. Tressa had ample time to poison the mattress though, either earlier this morning or during last night.”
“That’s true,” said Lucas.
“Does it seem credible that Tressa is our target, Lucas?” asked Emili. “You’ve spoken to her about our accommodation, so you must have an opinion about her character.”
“I haven’t been able to form much of an opinion about Tressa at all,” said Lucas. “Whenever I contacted her, she either kept the call sound-only at her end or replied with a text-only message. I assumed that was because she was Outside, and considerately avoiding sending potentially disturbing images to someone at the Hive, but now her pattern of behaviour seems more ominous.”
Lucas pulled a face. “Tressa is currently at the top of our list of suspects, but Admiral Tregereth is deeply attached to his wife, so we’ll need to arrange an opportunity for Amber to read her mind discreetly rather than make open accusations. If Tressa does turn out to be guilty, then we’ll be able to close this case extremely quickly, but we need to consider other possible explanations as well.”
“But there aren’t any other possible explanations,” said Adika. “Tressa and the Admiral are the only two people who knew in advance that we’d be using the furniture, and we know the Admiral is innocent.”
“The other possible explanation is that another person learned about the furniture,” said Lucas. “The Admiral or Tressa could have accidentally revealed the information, or someone could have eavesdropped on my communications with Tressa.”
Lucas shrugged. “The data integrity defences on the Hive call system prevent anyone from monitoring calls, and our electricians have now set up what should be a totally secure communications link between our unit and the Hive. My earlier exchange of calls and messages with Tressa had to go through the stan
dard sea farm call system though. If that system uses similar low level technology to everything else we’ve seen here, someone could have monitored those calls.”
“People in Sea Farm Security use surveillance equipment to watch what people at the sea farm are doing,” said Adika. “They may be able to monitor calls as well.”
“Exactly my thought,” said Lucas. “We need to arrange for Amber to read Tressa’s mind, but also follow my original theory about our target being a member of Sea Farm Security.”
He paused. “If that theory is right, then the sequence of events was that the second murder made the Admiral go to the Hive to ask for help. Our target wanted to know how the Hive would respond, took the obvious step of monitoring calls to the Admiral’s wife, and learned all about our plans. They then had plenty of time to find some poison and use it on the mattress before our aircraft arrived.”
Lucas’s voice became briskly practical. “Now we need to get two of the Strike team into hazard suits, so they can retrieve the bed from the medical room and take it back out of the beach exit. We then need to find out what chemicals were used on the mattress to create the poisonous fumes.”
“How do we do that?” asked Adika.
“I’ve no idea. Analysis of poisons is well outside the area covered by a Tactical Commander’s imprint. Ideally, we don’t just want to find out what was used to create the poisonous fumes, but crucially when that mattress was turned into a death trap.”
“We’ll need to send some physical samples to the Hive for expert analysis,” said Nicole.
I noticed a betraying shake in her voice on the crystal comms. What had happened to Zak had scared her, but she was still determinedly doing her job. I knew that other members of my unit would be feeling even more frightened.
“We’ve still got six transport aircraft here, and we can call for more from the coastal patrol base if we need them,” said Lucas. “It might be simplest to send the whole bed to the Hive, but make sure the aircraft pilot wears a hazard suit, the bed is carried in the freight compartment, and the people receiving the bed are aware it’s dangerous.”
“I’ll make sure everyone is fully informed, and arrange for the aircraft to be decontaminated afterwards,” said Nicole grimly.
“You’d better send a couple of other random mattresses as well,” said Lucas. “We can’t risk using any more of that furniture whether it appears to be safe or not, but it would be interesting to know if only one mattress was poisoned or this was large scale sabotage.”
Lucas paused. “As soon as Zak’s bed is safely Outside again, Hannah’s cleaning force can get back to work, and our electrical specialists can set up our mobile operations centre. Once that’s working, I need the Liaison team to establish a link into the sea farm systems. We want a list of all the people who have access to the stockpile of general supplies on Level 3 of the Haven. We also want a list of the people who delivered the furniture to us.”
“Understood,” said Nicole.
“I also need you to establish a link to the Sea Farm Security systems and get a full list of their staff,” added Lucas, “but I’m not sure how cooperative their people will be.”
“Understood,” Nicole repeated.
“If that’s settled, then I’ve got a question for you, Lucas,” said Megan. “If we can’t risk using the beds, chairs, and tables from the sea farm stores, how will we manage for furniture?”
Only minutes ago I’d been admiring Megan’s heroism, but now I was annoyed at her raising what seemed like a trivial issue. I kept carefully quiet.
“We can get creative with empty crates, and use them for chairs and tables,” said Lucas. “We’ll need some sort of beds though.”
“We’ve got our camping equipment with us, which includes some heat sacks,” said Rothan.
“I’ve seen those thin, silvery heat sacks,” said Gideon. “I don’t think my bones would enjoy sleeping on a hard floor with just one of those for protection.”
“Some people use camping mattresses for extra comfort,” said Rothan. “Ralston will be flying back here in Aerial one this evening, so Megan could arrange for him to bring a lot of heat sacks and camping mattresses with him.”
“You’d better call the camping equipment suppliers and arrange that yourself, Rothan,” said Megan. “You know far more than I do about the different types of equipment.”
“The Tactical team, Amber, and I will now return to our grubby, but probably not poisonous room,” said Lucas. “I want to contact Juniper again to find out what she knows about Tressa.”
We trooped back into the room, everyone turned their ear crystals to receive only, and the Tactical team skulked out of view again while Lucas sent a message to Juniper. The response was much slower than the previous time, and when Juniper’s face finally appeared her expression was oddly strained.
“Yes?”
“I need to ask you another question, Juniper,” said Lucas. “I see you’re still on the beach, so I assume it’s safe for us to talk.”
The last time Juniper had spoken to us, she’d been enthusiastic and eager to help. Now there was a weary note in her voice. “Yes. What’s the question?”
“Can you tell me what you know about Tressa?”
Juniper looked startled. “Tressa is my mother. Why do you want to know about her?”
“Perhaps there’s more than one Tressa at the sea farm,” said Lucas cautiously. “I was asking about the Admiral’s wife.”
“Oh, I see,” said Juniper. “Yes, Tressa is one of the more common traditional names here. The Tressa that’s married to the Admiral came to the sea farm as driftwood. Deputy Admiral Tregereth fell in love with her, and they married a year or so later. The old Admiral died about twenty-five years ago, and Tregereth succeeded him.”
I frowned. “It seems a strange coincidence that someone arriving as driftwood has a name that’s one of the traditional ones used at our sea farm.”
Juniper shook her head. “It’s not a coincidence. Driftwood people change their name to a local one when they arrive at a new sea farm. It’s an acknowledgement that their old life has ended. The name Tressa is traditionally used for a girl who is the third daughter in their family, like my mother. Tressa could have chosen it because she was her parents’ third daughter, or possibly ours was the third sea farm she visited as driftwood.”
Juniper stopped to think for a moment. “Anyway, Tressa and the Admiral are a devoted couple. They have three sons and a daughter, who all went through Lottery when they were eighteen. I know the two older sons are imprinted as Sea Captains, but I’m not sure what the other son and the daughter do because they work in Tropics rather than Harbour. Tressa and the Admiral have several grandchildren as well now.”
“If Tressa arrived at the sea farm as driftwood, I assume she isn’t imprinted,” said Lucas. “Why did she leave her old sea farm and what work does she do now?”
“Tressa doesn’t have any fixed work,” said Juniper. “Whenever something goes wrong, and you need someone dependable to sort out the problem, you call on Tressa. I don’t know why she left her old sea farm. I could ask other people about it, but I’m not sure that even the Admiral knows. Tressa rigidly follows the rules about not talking about her past.”
“You mustn’t ask anyone questions about Tressa’s past,” said Lucas. “If you ask about something that unusual, you’ll attract attention to yourself, and our target may realize you’re helping us.”
Juniper lifted her right shoulder in a disinterested shrug.
“You don’t seem to be taking the dangers of this situation seriously,” said Lucas.
“That’s because I’ve got other things to worry about,” said Juniper bitterly. “I thought the Guild of Sea Captains would let me complete my Apprenticeship of the Seas. I was wrong.”
Her voice took on a defeated note. “Five minutes ago, I got a message from the Guild of Sea Captains. They had a meeting while I was away at the Hive. They’ve decided to terminate my Appr
enticeship of the Seas immediately, and banned me from ever working on a fishing boat. They say I’ll have to do something like pick fruit instead.”
I’d seen inside Juniper’s mind, and shared her love of the sea, so I was outraged by this news. “That’s totally unjust. You won the best apprentice award two years running!”
Juniper’s face twisted in distress. “The Guild’s message said they regret having to make this decision, but if they let me work on a fishing boat, even as a deckhand, then I’d be a danger to myself and others. They don’t care how much the exoskeleton and attachments help me in ordinary conditions, because they think there’ll be a risk of them failing when they’re exposed to the wind and waves at sea.”
“I’ll see if I can find out if the issue with your exoskeleton is a valid concern or not,” said Lucas. “Even if it is, we may be able to find other options for your future that involve working closely with the sea.”
Juniper looked puzzled. “Why do you care about the future of someone as useless as me?”
“I don’t believe anyone is useless,” said Lucas. “Sometimes people aren’t offered the right opportunities, sometimes they aren’t given credit for how much they contribute, and sometimes people deliberately choose to misuse their talents, but no one is useless.”
Juniper shook her head. “You’re very different today from when I met you before. Far less grand and more caring.”
Lucas seemed disconcerted, so I answered that for him. “Lucas has to maintain the dignity of his rank when he’s in public. In a private conversation like this, he can speak more freely.”
“Exactly,” said Lucas. “I’m professionally concerned about your future, Juniper. My duties as Tactical Commander involve dealing with people who are a threat to others, but I also have a responsibility to make sure that Lottery delivers the best possible outcome for both its candidates and the Hive, or in your case, the sea farm.”
“I don’t see how those two things are connected,” said Juniper, “and I’m not planning to go through Lottery now anyway.”
Hurricane (Hive Mind Book 3) Page 22
