Hurricane (Hive Mind Book 3)

by Janet Edwards

  I arrived at the Level 1 beach each morning. The woman at the food stall handed me my packed lunch. I sat on the sand, watched the artificial waves, and dreamed of escaping and going back to the real ocean. There was no way to escape though, because a couple of Morton’s Strike team members followed me wherever I went, and took me back to his unit in the afternoon.

  I grew increasingly desperate, and even tried publicly threatening to attack Morton in the hope that his unit would insist on him letting me go. Morton laughed at my threats though. He knew that however much I wanted to have my life back, I would never kill to achieve my freedom. He told me that he already considered himself my husband, and in time I would accept the relationship too.

  “He still speaks of you as his wife.”

  Morton has no right to call me his wife! I told him repeatedly that our relationship was only that of jailor and prisoner.

  I was hit by Tressa’s feelings of outrage. “I totally agree with you,” I said hastily. “Perhaps he isn’t using the word to stake a claim on you, but to punish himself.”

  Perhaps. Well, when I’d been a prisoner for nearly a year, I went to Morton’s apartment to demand for the thousandth time that he should let me go. I found the bookette room door open, Morton was in the middle of a call to someone, and they were arguing about me.

  “Claire?” I asked.

  Yes. I hid until the call ended. Morton stalked out of the bookette room, furiously angry, and went out of the apartment. I sneaked into the bookette room, ordered it to resume last call, and talked to Claire myself.

  Other people didn’t dare to defy Morton, but Claire was a telepath too, so in an equally powerful position. She said that she would help me escape, and we would use the plot of an ancient bookette by Shakespeare. I would be like a character called Juliet, taking a drug that made it look as if I’d died.

  I remembered Gideon mentioning Claire’s passion for Shakespeare.

  Claire arranged everything. I was to go to the Level 1 beach as usual, collect my packed lunch from the food stall, and then sit on the beach at a specific point. Inside my packed lunch would be an extra small box containing some tablets. I’d take the tablets, collapse, and appear to die.

  A woman sitting nearby would hurry over to help, tell my guards that she was a doctor, call for an emergency medical team to come, and then fake trying to resuscitate me. Two more people would arrive dressed as an emergency medical team, sadly announce that I’d died of a massive brain haemorrhage, and take my body away.

  Morton would read the minds of my guards, see what had happened, and be sure I was genuinely dead. If he asked to see my body, he was to be told that it had already been sent to the sea farm for burial according to their customs. Given Morton’s fear of the Outside, Claire and I knew that he wouldn’t try to go to the sea farm himself.

  “So that’s what really happened back then,” I muttered.

  I assume so. I was afraid the tablets would kill me, but was desperate enough to take them anyway. I passed out as planned, and woke up hours later aboard an aircraft heading back to the sea farm.

  I rubbed my forehead. “When you arrived back at the sea farm, you took the new name of Tressa.”

  Yes. I’d only been at the sea farm for a couple of days before being sent to the Hive. After a year’s absence, everyone had forgotten about Celandine. Everyone except Tregereth. His imprint included the truth about telepaths, so I could tell him about Morton holding me prisoner.

  Tressa’s face lit up in a joyous smile.

  Tregereth helped me pretend I’d only just arrived at the sea farm as driftwood. He removed all the old information and images of Celandine from the sea farm records to prevent anyone connecting me to her. We chose my new name, Tressa, together, because it means third, and this was to be my third name and my third life.

  I’d assumed the Hive had erased all the records on Celandine, but that wasn’t true. The Hive had never known anything about this. It had been Tregereth who erased the records. He hadn’t done it to cover up Celandine’s death and protect Morton, but to hide the fact she was still alive and give her a new beginning.

  I smiled. “And you ended up marrying Tregereth.”

  We married on the seawall, with a crowd watching as we joined our hands and our lives. Tregereth is the only man with a right to call me his wife.

  I nodded. “You told me this story for a reason. What do you want me to do?”

  I can’t risk talking to Morton myself to see how much or how little he has changed. I need you to make the judgement on whether he should be told I’m alive or left believing me dead.

  I frowned. “Morton believes that taking you away from the sea farm, and keeping you locked up inside the Hive, directly caused your death. He’s been living his life according to the strictest of rules for nearly four decades as a penance. I think you’re right that he’ll stand a better chance of surviving his operation if he knows you’re alive.”

  Tressa abruptly started talking aloud again. “In that case, I want Morton to know I’m alive, but he mustn’t learn about my new identity or my marriage to Tregereth. The Morton I knew was a selfish boy wielding his power without a thought for others. I’m not gambling my freedom on the hope he’s left his selfishness behind him.”

  “I think that’s a wise decision,” I said. “Morton doesn’t need to know where you are, or what life you’re living now. He just needs to know you’re alive. The real problem will be convincing him that’s true.”

  Tressa thought for a moment, then took a blue marker pen from her pocket, and made a rapid drawing on the wall. It showed a girl sitting on a rock and combing her hair. She should have had her legs trailing in the water, but instead of legs she had something that looked like a fish’s tail.

  “If Morton sees an image of that,” said Tressa, “then he’ll know I’m alive.”

  I took out my dataview, and carefully took several images of the drawing.

  “Now you’d better return to your people before your Strike team leader collapses from nervous strain,” said Tressa.

  I laughed. “Yes. I’m sorry that Morton treated you so badly. I promise you that I’ll never act in such a way myself.”

  “You won’t make Morton’s mistakes,” said Tressa. “You’ll make plenty of your own though. Everyone does.”

  “That’s very true. I’m glad I had the chance to meet you, Tressa, and I wish you fair winds for the future.”

  Tressa lifted her hand in farewell. “Goodbye, Amber. When you next visit the Level 1 beach, toss a stone into its waves for me, and say that Celandine thanks it for the comfort it gave her during her captivity.”

  Juniper and I left the stone shelter and walked back to join the others. Juniper smiled at Lucas before speaking.

  “I want to thank you all for the help you’ve given me. To thank you all for the help you’ve given the whole sea farm. I wish you could stay longer, but I understand that hurricanes only stay in one place for a few days before moving on.”

  “I’m not sure what you mean,” said Lucas. “We aren’t leaving because the storm is over, but because we’ve completed our mission.”

  Juniper shook her head. “Tactical Commander Lucas, the hurricane I’m talking about isn’t the physical storm that did some minor damage and will be forgotten within a week. People at the sea farm have been comparing you and your unit to a hurricane ever since you arrived. You came with a cloud of aircraft that blackened the sky, and hit us with a storm of changes.”

  She laughed. “People at the sea farm felt threatened by the arrival of armed strangers, and were afraid of having our minds read by an inhuman nosy, but you showed us that what we really needed to fear was the inhumanity hidden inside one of our own children. We were worried what you’d do with the power you wielded on behalf of the Hive, but you used it to solve our concerns about Lottery. Now you’re leaving, but you’ve changed our lives for the better, and your impact on us will never be forgotten.”

  “
We won’t forget you either,” I said. “Perhaps we could call each other sometimes, Juniper. I’d like to hear how you get on as deputy Admiral.”

  “I’d like to hear from you too,” said Juniper.

  “And if you ever have problems again, then you just have to tell us,” said Lucas. “Our unit will come back and help.”

  “I hope we never have another problem like the last one,” said Juniper, “but if we do call on you again, then you can be sure of a much better welcome.”

  We turned and started walking back along the beach path. After a couple of minutes, I paused to give one last look back at the seawall, saw Juniper waving to me, and waved back. As I faced forward again, a small aircraft appeared over the top of the Haven hill and came in to land on the beach next to Aerial one.

  “The aircraft with the prison warden has arrived to collect Rose,” said Lucas.

  Chapter Forty-three

  We arrived at the beach exit just as Rothan and four of the Alpha team came out of the observatory with their prisoner. Rose looked pathetically tiny next to their muscled figures, and had two sets of restraints binding her wrists together in front of her.

  Adika grimaced as he watched them walk towards the waiting small aircraft. “I hope Rose doesn’t manage to fool the warden with her act of being the poor little innocent.”

  The aircraft door opened, and a female figure dressed in a striped grey onesuit jumped down onto the sand.

  Lucas raised an eyebrow. “The Hive has sent a warden who isn’t afraid of Outside.”

  Rothan’s group stopped in front of the warden. “We’d better take Rose on board the aircraft and secure her to a seat,” said Rothan. “She’s far more dangerous than she seems.”

  The warden stared him in the eyes, her face expressionless, and her blonde hair arranged in a rigid knot on top of her head. “I don’t need your warnings or your help dealing with my prisoner.”

  Rothan looked doubtful, but nodded his acceptance, and led his men over to join the rest of us. The warden turned her stare on Rose, silently studying her from head to foot.

  Rose’s shoulders slumped, making her look even more pitifully helpless. “There’s been a dreadful mistake,” she said, in a quivering voice. “I didn’t do anything.”

  “Your mind has been read by a nosy,” said the warden coldly. “You have been confirmed guilty of three murders and one attempted murder.”

  “But I didn’t do anything,” wailed Rose again. “Look at me. How could I possibly kill three people? I’m only ten years old!”

  “You’ve certainly begun your criminal career at an unusually young age,” said the warden. “I was six years older than you when I committed murder.”

  “What?” Rose stared at her.

  “Ten years ago, I killed the head of Sea Farm Security.” The warden turned to look along the beach. “We were standing at the far end of the seawall one winter evening. There’d been a spate of thefts at the sea farm, and she told me that she’d discovered I was the thief and was going to arrest me.”

  The warden gave a terrifyingly cold laugh. “It was a little like the way you killed your father and Massen, Rose. When people don’t think of you as a physical threat, you just have to pick the right moment to attack them. The woman turned her back on me to admire the sunset. I hit her on the head with a rock, pushed her into the sea, and watched her drown before starting screaming for help.”

  I blinked. The warden claimed to have killed Cador’s predecessor as head of Sea Farm Security. Why would the Hive send someone like that to collect Rose? It didn’t make sense.

  The warden smiled. “The rest of Sea Farm Security believed me when I said their leader had fallen in by herself, and then hit her head on something when she was in the water. They were very apologetic about having to follow the rules for an unexpected death and send the only witness to the Hive. I didn’t really believe in the abilities of nosies until a man came into my prison cell, told me that one had read my mind, and recited all the details of my thefts and the murder. I’ve been sent just as detailed a report on your crimes, and I’m sure every word of it is true.”

  Rose looked wary now.

  “Let’s cover the other basics as quickly as possible,” continued the warden. “This is the first time I’ve been back here to the sea farm since I was arrested. I always hated the winter wind, and it feels even more bitingly cold now than in my memories, so I’ve no desire to linger here.”

  She faced Rose again. “The Hive chose me to be your warden because I’m exactly like you. Highly intelligent but totally lacking in empathy or moral scruples from birth. You can’t fool me with protestations of innocence because I know that the nosies don’t make mistakes. You can’t manipulate me into pitying you because I have no compassion. You can’t persuade me to help you because nothing you can offer is worth me losing hard-earned privileges.”

  Rose stood there in silence for a moment, and then shed her pathetic act, like someone taking off a Carnival mask. She stared the warden in the eyes. “What’s going to happen to me?”

  “I’ll take you back to the Hive. We will be met by a medical team who will implant a tracking chip in your brain. That chip will monitor your movements, record your actions, and if necessary can be remotely triggered into exploding and killing you.”

  The warden paused. “Once you’ve been chipped, you will work on finding a way to be useful to the Hive and earn privileges. Don’t try to be clever about that. Your suggestions will be checked by myself and five others like me, searching for any possibility they could be used to help you harm others or escape.”

  “What if I don’t care about earning privileges?”

  The warden laughed again. “Rose, our Hive enters into a mutually beneficial contract with its citizens at birth which gives them a host of rights. You broke that contract when you knowingly and of your own free will killed a fellow citizen. That means you no longer have any rights. From now on, everything is a privilege to be earned. Food is a privilege. Accommodation is a privilege. Life is a privilege.”

  “But I didn’t kill anyone knowingly. I’m only ten years old. I didn’t understand what I was doing.”

  “Your psychological evaluation states that your comprehension is either at or above the level of most adults. You were fully aware of what you were doing. You have never been capable of normal human interactions, so your problems can’t be solved by resetting your mind to an earlier point in your life. You have no illness that could be treated or medicated to make it safe for you to mix with ordinary citizens, and you will become even more dangerous as you grow older.”

  The warden shrugged. “You are fortunate that our Hive does not waste people lightly. You are being given a chance to prove yourself useful enough to have the privilege of continuing to live. Whether you choose to take that chance or not is entirely up to you.”

  Rose abruptly lifted her head and gave the warden a triumphant look. “The Hive can’t take away my basic rights under the Joint Hive Treaty Agreement. I invoke my right to transfer to another Hive city.”

  “I thought you hadn’t suggested that earlier because you were intelligent enough to realize it wouldn’t work. Apparently not. Putting aside the obvious point that no one has the right to transfer between Hives or leave as driftwood until they are eighteen, our Hive is obliged to report details of unsalvageable criminals to Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement and keep them securely confined.”

  The warden gestured at the aircraft door. “We will fly to the Hive now, and you can start thinking of ways you can earn your right to stay alive.”

  The pair of them climbed into the aircraft. A minute later, it took off and gained height before turning to fly inland.

  Rothan stared thoughtfully after it. “I almost feel sorry for Rose being put into the care of a warden like that.”

  “I don’t feel sorry for her at all,” said Adika. “She killed three sea farm people, and nearly killed one of my Strike team.”

  “I do
n’t feel sorry for her either,” said Lucas. “Interviewing her convinced me that she was the most terrifying target we’ve ever had. What about you, Amber?”

  “I waded through the waste system that’s Rose’s mind,” I said grimly, “I know you all think I’m far too sympathetic to people, but I can’t feel any sympathy at all for Rose. If it’s impossible to salvage her, then all that can be done is to prevent her from harming others, and the only people she’ll never be able to fool are people like herself.”

  I sighed. “I didn’t understand the Hive’s choice of a warden for Rose at first, but now I do. This is a case where the Hive definitely knows best.”

  There was a moment of silence. “We’d better get aboard Aerial one,” said Adika briskly.

  “I’ll just need five minutes alone on the beach,” I said. “I want to rid myself of every lingering trace of Rose before we go back to the Hive.”

  I walked to the water’s edge, stopping where the waves had left a trace of white foam before receding. I closed my eyes and reached out with my mind towards the horizon.

  I’d shared the thoughts of a troubled man called Irwin, who was attuned to the song of the wave tanks of an artificial beach. He could be salvaged with proper treatment and return to serving the Hive in the way that he loved.

  I’d met the courage and self-sacrificing loyalty of Juniper, who would serve the sea farm well as its deputy Admiral, and in the fullness of time succeed to Tregereth’s position.

  I’d known the joyously confident and adventurous mind of a child called Glenna. One day, she would go through Lottery and be assigned to some role in Hive Defence or Law Enforcement. She might even end up on the Strike team of a telepath like me.

  I’d encountered something far darker than any Halloween story in Rose. She was that thankfully rare case. The wild bee who could never be salvaged, but only safely contained.

  Ever since I’d read my first sea farm mind, I’d been confused by the strange extra edge to their thoughts. Now I’d met Celandine, I understood that strangeness came from having contact with people from other sea farms, and an awareness of Hives other than our own.