“I think he made the right decision,” said Lucas.
I pictured Perran arriving at another sea farm as driftwood, washed clean of his past by the sea. “I agree.”
“I admit to being relieved that Perran has gone,” said Juniper. “What he did in a moment of anger has consequences for me that are as solidly unyielding as this seawall. For the rest of my life, I’ll be working around the limitations of my left arm, so I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forgive him fully.”
She sighed. “I may not be able to forgive Perran fully, but I accept he’s learned something from what happened. I believe he’s changed for the better, so I wished him fair winds for the future.”
“And now it’s time for us to wish you people fair winds as well,” said Admiral Tregereth. “I asked you to come here to solve a case that we couldn’t handle ourselves. You haven’t just done that but found a deputy to succeed me as well.”
He smiled at Juniper. “I’ve been very worried about my lack of a deputy. Lottery has had the post flagged as an urgent priority ever since I succeeded to the position of Admiral myself, but the years kept going by without anyone being appointed.”
“Lottery could appoint compromise candidates to fill most sea farm posts,” said Lucas, “but appointing a compromise future Admiral would be disastrous. That post had to be filled by someone perfect for the role. Someone who’d been born at the sea farm, and who wasn’t just intelligent and capable, but had the trust of its people and was willing to put their needs ahead of her own.”
He paused. “Admiral, only half of your sea farm eighteen-year-olds have been entering Lottery, which has been making it hard to find suitable candidates for key posts. I appreciate that forcing reluctant sea farm eighteen-year-olds to enter Lottery would make things even worse, pushing many of them into going drifting to other sea farms. I thought the best solution would be to offer your candidates the option to reject the verdict of Lottery, so I used Juniper as a test case.”
Lucas smiled. “Lottery Administration has accepted Juniper’s case as evidence this rule change would encourage more sea farm eighteen-year-olds to become Lottery candidates, and benefit both the sea farm and the Hive. If you’ll give your approval, Admiral, we can make this rule change apply to all future sea farm Lottery candidates.”
“I’m delighted to give my approval,” said the Admiral. “Increasing the number of sea farm Lottery candidates should reduce the number of compromise appointments, so I don’t have any more problems like the one I’m currently facing with Cador.”
“Having interrogated Rose, I understand why Cador was struggling to solve this case,” said Lucas.
“I’m not blaming Cador for failing to solve this case,” said the Admiral. “My issue is with the way he warned Massen he was going to be questioned. After the day of the duck, Cador promised me he’d always think before doing things in future, but he keeps making the same mistake over and over again.”
The Admiral faced Juniper. “That call to Massen didn’t just cause a lot of unnecessary work for Tactical Commander Lucas and his people, but led to Massen’s death. I want you to deal with Cador before he causes any more disasters.”
“You want me to deal with Cador?” Juniper looked startled.
The Admiral nodded. “You were helping with this case, and saw how each of Cador’s actions helped or hindered the investigation, so you’re ideally placed to decide what should be done. Cador’s deputy, Emblyn, came out of Lottery three years after him, and is imprinted for head of Sea Farm Security as well. She wasn’t a compromise appointment, so the obvious solution is to reverse their posts.”
“It’s the obvious solution,” said Juniper thoughtfully, “but it may not be the best one. Putting Emblyn in charge of Sea Farm Security, and demoting Cador to deputy, would create an awkward working situation for everyone. I’m wondering if there’s a way to make them joint heads of Sea Farm Security, and divide the duties between them in a way that makes the best use of both their strengths. Cador’s fatal flaw is that he rushes into doing things without thinking them through, but he’s a much better judge of character than Emblyn, and no one could fault the effort he puts into his work.”
Juniper shrugged. “I’ll need to think about this for a few days before making a decision. I’m still finding it difficult to access the overwhelming mass of information in my imprint.”
“I warned you that an Admiral’s imprint is sizeable, so it would take time for your brain to integrate the data,” said Lucas. “You’ll find that retrieving information becomes much easier over the next week or two.”
“I’ve been focusing my attention on the more significant facts.” Juniper turned to look pointedly at me. “My imprint has given me a whole new understanding of many things, Amber. Can I have a private word with you before you go?”
I winced. Juniper had the imprint of an Admiral of the sea farm now, and that included the truth about telepaths. I could see why she’d want a private word with me.
“Yes, I think I owe you some explanations, Juniper.”
Juniper pointed at the stone shelter on the hillside. “We can go in there and sit out of the wind while we talk.”
I set my ear crystal to receive only, and we started walking along the path towards the shelter. I saw Adika was following us, so I shook my head at him.
“Juniper and I want to talk in private, so please stay with the others.”
Adika grimaced, but reluctantly let the two of us walk on together.
“Juniper, I’m sorry I had to tell you so many lies,” I said.
“There’s no need to apologize or give me explanations,” said Juniper. “My imprint contains all the information about why the nosy myth is so vital to the Hive. I accept that you had no option but to lie.”
“If I don’t need to explain anything, why did you ask to talk to me in private?”
“I don’t need to talk to you in private,” said Juniper, “but someone else does. She’s waiting for us in the shelter.”
I frowned but kept walking. I wasn’t sure what was happening here, but I knew I couldn’t be in danger. Not only had I read Juniper’s mind, but Lottery had just chosen her as the next Admiral of the sea farm. If Juniper thought it was important for me to talk to this person, then I trusted her judgement.
When I went into the shelter, I saw a woman was sitting in the corner where she couldn’t be seen from the windows. The hood of her jacket was down, showing the silver hair and lined face that I’d seen in the Admiral’s memories.
I stared at her. “Tressa!”
“Yes. Please sit down, Amber.”
I sat down near Tressa, while Juniper went to stand against the wall.
“I believe that when you arrived at the sea farm, you wanted to read my mind, Amber.” Tressa had an unusual but attractive way of pronouncing her words, which I guessed was because she’d grown up at the sea farm of a Hive that spoke another language.
“When our party arrived at the sea farm, we felt that one of the nosies should read your mind,” I said cautiously.
Tressa smiled. “Amber, I know that nosies are ordinary people dressed up in costumes. When Tregereth went to the Hive to bring back a true telepath, we decided that I should go out with the fishing fleet to avoid any risk of my mind being read and my secrets discovered.”
Tressa had secrets to hide? What sort of secrets? I threw an anxious glance at Juniper, and she gave me an encouraging nod.
“The Admiral claimed he hadn’t told you anything about telepaths,” I said.
“That was the truth, but it wasn’t the whole truth,” said Tressa. “Tregereth has never told me anything about telepaths. Juniper hasn’t told me anything about them either. Nobody needed to tell me what I already knew.”
“You mean that you grew up at a sea farm that didn’t hide the truth about telepaths?”
“The sea farm of my birth belonged to a Hive that promoted a similar myth to the one used here. Instead of nosies, they were
called something that roughly translates to … all-seeing ones, and their costumes were silvery green.”
Tressa shrugged. “I didn’t learn the truth about telepaths at the sea farm of my birth, but from Morton.”
If she’d learned about telepaths from Morton, that had to mean … I took out my ear crystal for a moment, wanting to double-check it wasn’t transmitting before I said the next words.
“You’re Celandine!”
Chapter Forty-two
Tressa smiled. “You’ve heard about me then. My birth name was Celine, but the name I used when I first came to this sea farm was Celandine. I chose it because it was a local name similar to my birth name, but when I returned to the sea farm I became Tressa.”
I gave a bewildered shake of my head. “Yes, I’ve heard about you, but I was told you were dead.”
“That’s why I arranged to talk to you,” said Tressa. “Morton believes that Celandine is dead. Tregereth told me that Morton needs a dangerous operation to save his life, and it may be egotistical of me to feel this way, but Morton was a very superstitious man. I believe he will have a much better chance of surviving his operation if he knows that Celandine is alive.”
I hesitated. “Perhaps we should ask Juniper to leave so we can discuss this alone.”
“If Juniper leaves this building without you, then your bodyguards will be alarmed and come to check you’re safe. There’s no need for Juniper to leave anyway. Tregereth and I agreed that the future Admiral of the sea farm needs to be fully informed about my past, so I’ve already told Juniper most of what happened between me and Morton decades ago.”
“Oh,” I said doubtfully.
“There are a couple of minor details that should be kept confidential though,” said Tressa. “We can talk in the way that I used to talk to Morton. Read my thoughts, Amber.”
Tressa, Celandine, Celine was totally unnerving me. I was reluctant to read her mind, but it seemed safer to agree than to have her say more things aloud in front of Juniper.
I reached out to a mind that had a scent, taste, sound that was even more unusual than the other sea farm minds I’d read. Tressa’s mind, like her speech, still carried the mark of the sea farm of her birth. I found the top level of pre-vocalized thoughts had a message laid out for me.
Can you read my thoughts, Amber?
I checked the levels of thought below that, but they were just a mass of incomprehensible words, intermingled with swirling emotions and an image of a far younger Morton.
“Yes, I can read them.”
Despite the Hive’s attempts to keep telepaths isolated they have found ways of calling each other.
Tressa knew about telepaths calling each other! This situation was getting completely out of control. I hovered on the edge of panic.
Don’t worry. I have kept this secret for nearly four decades. I have never shared it with anyone, not even Tregereth, and I never will. I have every reason to believe in the importance of telepaths being able to contact each other.
Juniper couldn’t read Tressa’s thoughts, but she could hear what I said aloud. I needed to be very careful what I said about telepaths contacting each other. Where possible, I shouldn’t say anything at all.
If Morton has talked to you about me, then I’m correct in thinking he hasn’t forgotten me. How does he feel about my death?
I felt I had to respond to that. “Remorseful.”
He regrets his past actions then?
“Deeply.”
Claire hoped that losing me would shock Morton out of his selfish ways.
I blinked. What did Claire have to do with this?
I’ve decided to tell you the full story of what happened all those years ago because …
Adika’s voice spoke in my ear crystal. “Is everything all right, Amber?”
I groaned and pulled an apologetic face at Tressa. “I’m sorry. My Strike team leader is getting nervous, so I’ll have to talk to him for a moment.”
I turned my ear crystal to transmit. “Everything is fine, Adika. Juniper and I are just talking through what’s happened.”
“It would be nice if you could have this conversation where we can see you’re safe,” said Adika meaningfully.
“I don’t want to stand around in the freezing cold wind.”
“If you don’t want to come out of that shelter, then I’ll join you in there.”
I glared at a perfectly innocent patch of seaweed that was lying on the floor of the shelter. “No, you won’t join me in here, Adika. I don’t want you looming over me while I’m having a private conversation with Juniper.”
“It’s my job to safeguard …”
“No!” I snapped out the word. The Admiral and Juniper had set up this meeting with Tressa because they believed it was vitally important for me to know what had happened between her and Morton. I couldn’t let Adika interfere.
“But …”
“No!” I said for the third time. “I’ll probably never see Juniper in person again. I want a few minutes of private conversation with her before saying goodbye.”
“It’s just that …”
“Quiet, Adika,” Lucas’s voice joined in the conversation. “Remember that Gold Commander Melisande told us certain information about the sea farm was restricted. Juniper’s imprint will include that information.”
“Oh, that’s why Amber is acting so strangely. They’re discussing restricted information.” Adika gave a resigned sigh before saying the inevitable words. “The Hive knows best.”
I’d lost my link to Tressa’s mind while talking to Adika. Now I reached out to Lucas’s familiar glittering thoughts, and found what I’d suspected was true. Lucas had guessed there’d been someone waiting to speak to me in the stone shelter.
Since the Admiral was still standing right next to him, Lucas thought the most likely explanation was that Gold Commander Melisande had flown here to have a secret conversation with me. Whoever it was in the shelter though, the way I’d snapped at Adika made it clear that something important was happening, so Lucas would make sure I wasn’t interrupted again.
Reassured, I turned my ear crystal back to receive only, drew back from Lucas’s mind, and returned to reading Tressa’s thoughts. “I’m sorry about that. Please continue what you were … thinking.”
As I told you, my birth name was Celine. I never went through my Hive’s equivalent of Lottery. When I was twenty years old, I decided to go drifting for reasons that no longer matter, arrived at this sea farm, and chose a new name, Celandine. Less than a week later, there was a fire that injured three people.
It was obvious the fire had been started deliberately, so Sea Farm Security collected up a group of suspects to send to the Hive to have their minds checked. I was driftwood, and had arrived suspiciously soon before the fire, so I was naturally included as a suspect.
I pulled a sympathetic face.
I’d never been to my home Hive, so being forcibly dragged to a strange one was terrifying. I was locked in a room, waiting in horror to have my mind read by one of the all-seeing ones that people here called nosies. As it turned out, Morton read my mind, but couldn’t make any sense of what he saw in it. Back then, my thoughts were all in my birth language, except for the words on the pre-vocalization level of my mind.
“Your mind is still like that,” I said.
After all these years? I’m surprised, but that means you’ll appreciate what Morton encountered back then. The person who had set the fires was among the other suspects, so the rest were sent home, but Morton insisted on me being kept in my prison because I intrigued him.
I frowned. “He shouldn’t have done that.”
I agree. Eventually, he came to talk to me. It wasn’t much of a conversation because I’d only had time to learn a few words of the language here. Morton wanted us to be able to talk properly, so he ordered me to be imprinted with your language.
“What?” I shook my head fiercely. “Morton had you imprinted for his personal conveni
ence? He’d no right to do that. Why did people obey him?”
Morton had been a telepath for several years, and grown intoxicated by power. He knew the Hive needed him desperately. If he was denied anything he wanted, then he refused to work until he got his way.
Tressa’s thoughts were edged with weariness, as if she’d relived these events so often in her mind that anger had been worn down to resignation.
Morton kept visiting me after I was imprinted. He had fallen in love with me, and was convinced that he just had to keep me in the Hive for a little longer and I would fall in love with him in return. I told him that love had to be freely given not forced by imprisonment. I told him I could never be happy in his underground world. I told him I needed the wind and the waves to be truly alive. He didn’t understand though. How could he understand when he was too afraid to set foot Outside?
Morton moved me to a luxurious apartment in his unit. He filled its rooms with flowers and gave me fine clothes. He arranged for me to visit the Level 1 beach. He expected me to be grateful for his generosity, and fall helplessly in love with him, but I wasn’t and I didn’t. The apartment was luxurious but a windowless prison. The flowers had never seen the sun. The fine clothes didn’t interest me, and the Level 1 beach …
Tressa gave a despairing laugh.
The Level 1 beach was a pretty toy, with its artificial waves, and its artificial cliffs, and its artificial suns, but I pined for the magnificence of the ocean. I told that to Morton, and he said he would only keep me at the Hive for a few more weeks to see if I could learn to like this life.
But the day of my promised freedom came, and Morton wouldn’t let me leave. Month after month went by, and he always said the same thing. It would only be a few more weeks. After a while, I wasn’t living any longer, I was just enduring a monotonous existence when every day was the same.
Hurricane (Hive Mind Book 3) Page 39
