Telepath

by Janet Edwards

  I frowned.

  “Our best tactical move is to leave Elden thinking he’s in total control of the situation,” added Lucas. “Of course our Hive won’t process your request, but Elden will expect there to be a delay while we try to convince you not to leave. He’ll wait patiently for the next few weeks, joyfully imagining you carrying out your imprinted orders, causing havoc, and convincing everyone our Hive is better off without you.”

  My instinct was to cancel the transfer request immediately, but I gave a grudging nod. “I suppose that’s the best plan.”

  Lucas stood up. “I’ll get Forge in to do some tests, just to confirm the imprint hasn’t left any lingering effects.”

  He went out of the room, and returned a moment later with both Forge and Megan.

  “Amber, how are you feeling?” asked Megan anxiously.

  I stood up and smiled at her. “Calm down, Megan. I’m myself again and I can still read your mind. Removing the imprint hasn’t damaged my telepathy.”

  The frantic tension in her mind abruptly relaxed, and her thoughts sagged into weariness. She was very tired, though not in as bad a state as Lucas. She’d had a couple of hours sleep in the last three hideous days, but Lucas hadn’t rested at all.

  I made myself turn to face Forge. He seemed embarrassed, and I didn’t dare read him. Eventually, I’d have to face his thoughts about me acting as his obedient slave, but not now. I wasn’t being a coward; I just had too many other things to cope with right now. No, it probably was cowardice, but either way I’d leave reading Forge until another day.

  “We think Amber’s cured, Forge,” said Lucas. “Try the puppet thing.”

  Forge gave me a self-conscious look and coughed. “Sit down, Amber.”

  I didn’t move.

  “Wave at me.”

  I did nothing.

  “Kick Lucas.”

  I winced.

  Forge took a deep breath. “You’re a good girl, Amber.”

  “I’m not a good girl!” I snapped out the words in fury. I wasn’t angry at Forge for saying them, but at Elden for using me, controlling me, owning me.

  Forge breathed out in a soft sound of relief. “It’s really you again. When I saw what an agent of another Hive had done to you, turning you into his obedient little doll, I wanted to kill him. I am going to kill him.”

  “We don’t just need to deal with Elden,” said Lucas, “but bring the wrath of Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement down on Hive Genex too. Our best plan is to keep Elden in his fool’s paradise, thinking he’s controlling Amber, while we …”

  Megan interrupted him. “You shouldn’t be making plans for the future now, Lucas. You need to get some sleep.”

  Lucas frowned. “It’s important that I …”

  “No, it isn’t!” she said sharply. “Amber will be suffering an unknown amount of trauma. You’re on the edge of collapse. Everyone else in the unit is exhausted too. We must allow ourselves recovery time before we do anything at all.”

  I let Megan argue with Lucas, while I closed my eyes and let my thoughts reach out across my unit, briefly touching mind after mind. Megan was right. Everyone seemed exhausted and hovering somewhere between deep depression and total despair.

  I could understand the Strike team feeling like that. They cared about me and I cared about them. Their job was to protect me but physical defence was useless against this attack. They’d spent days in helpless suspense, waiting to see if Megan and Lucas could find a way to bring me back to myself.

  I hadn’t expected to find nearly as much emotion among the Tactical and Liaison team members, and I hadn’t expected the maintenance, medical, and other wildly varied general staff who worked for Megan to be worried about me at all. After all, they hardly knew me.

  I was wrong. Every mind that I touched was a huddled mass of anxiety. Their thoughts were running in frantic circles, worrying about me as a person, worrying about how much my loss would harm the Hive, and worrying about the threat to their own futures.

  Our Telepath Unit had been developing into a tightly knit community. Without me, the unit would be shut down, and my staff scattered across the Hive. All of them would miss the friends they’d made here. Some of them would lose precious budding relationships that crossed the normal divisions between levels and wouldn’t survive elsewhere in the Hive. None of them could hope to get as good a position again. It would be years before Lottery found another telepath.

  I pulled back from that suffocating fog of anxiety, and broke into the argument between Megan and Lucas. “Megan’s right, Lucas. You’ll be able to plan far more effectively if you allow yourself to rest. You told me earlier that Elden will wait patiently for weeks before doing anything.”

  He sighed. “I suppose that’s true. Megan can message people to tell them that you’ve recovered, and then I’ll get some sleep.”

  I shook my head. “Everyone in the unit seems to be scared to death, Lucas. It’s not enough for Megan to send them a message that I’m all right. They need to see and hear it for themselves.”

  I turned to look at Megan. “Please message everyone in the unit. Tell them that Amber is herself again, and is calling an immediate full unit meeting in the park.”

  Megan gave me a dubious look. “Are you sure you’ll be able to cope with that, Amber.”

  “I’m sure.”

  Megan took out her dataview and started tapping at it. I didn’t wait for her to send the messages, just went out of the door and headed for the park. Halfway down the corridor, Lucas caught me up.

  “I’d expected you to be badly affected by memory loss, Amber,” he said. “You must have lost most of your personal memories of the last three days because they’d be inextricably linked with the imprint. Aren’t you finding that confusing?”

  I pulled a face. “I don’t remember what my body has been doing for the last three days, but I remember other things very clearly indeed. I’m not confused, Lucas. I’m angry. I’m deeply aware of the damage Elden’s done to me, to you, and to everyone in my unit, and he and Hive Genex are going to pay dearly for it.”

  Lucas didn’t speak again until we’d gone through the door into the park. “Do you want to tell me these other things you remember, Amber?”

  “Not now. Maybe never. Just accept that I’ve been in a very dark place of nightmares for the last few days. Now I’ve escaped, I don’t want to dwell on the memories.”

  We walked on towards the picnic area, and I perched on the edge of a table. The bright lights of the suns burned in the ceiling above me, the artificial breeze was cool on my face, and gentle water sounds came from the nearby stream. A couple of birds flew to perch on a tree branch, watching hopefully in case I had seed to feed them.

  After a few minutes, people started arriving and automatically gathering into work related groups. Adika and the Strike team. Nicole and the Liaison team. Emili and the Tactical team. Small clusters of medical, maintenance, administration and cleaning staff. I noticed our park keeper had a pair of tiny black and white monkeys perched on her shoulder and grooming her hair.

  Once everyone seemed to be present, I climbed on top of the table and looked out at the crowd. There was dead silence as they waited for me to speak. I’d just been planning to tell them that I was myself again, but standing here like this, seeing the exhausted figures and their expressions of defeat, I knew that I needed to say far more than that.

  I remembered the bookette room playing a scene of a holo battlefield, with a king rallying his defeated troops for another charge at the enemy. That was what I needed to do now. I’d never made a speech before, and I’d no script to tell me what to say, but I had to restore the confidence of these people ready for the next round of the battle against Elden.

  Chapter Thirty

  When I was trapped in the crystal cage, I’d had to fight to avoid being crushed out of existence. Somewhere in that battle, I’d defeated the self-loathing part of me that hated nosies. Perhaps that was because I’d gained that
attitude when I was very young, so the feelings belonged to the three-year-old Amber rather than me.

  Whatever the reason, I had my life back now, and I was going to live it as my true self. I’d still have to be careful to hide the fact I was a telepath from my parents, but here in my unit I could embrace my right to use the gift I’d been given. I’d worried a lot about what rules I should follow as a telepath, but in the end there was only one rule that mattered, and it was a rule that applied to everyone, telepath or not. I should try to help rather than harm those around me.

  I’d never made a speech before, and I didn’t have a script to tell me what to say, but I didn’t need one. I could read the minds of my audience and see the words they desperately wanted to hear.

  I tried to match the ringing tones that I’d heard Henry use in the bookette room. “We’ve been fighting an enemy and losing every encounter. We’ve been losing because we were fighting blindfolded and with our hands tied behind our backs. Our enemy was faceless and nameless, with an unknown purpose. He’d been making his preparations for fifteen years. He’d imprinted me as a three-year-old child, writing a set of orders in my mind.”

  I paused for a moment. “Three days ago, our enemy activated those orders and took control of me. He expected that to be the devastating blow that utterly defeated us. It hit us hard, but it did not defeat us. Thanks to the efforts of Lucas, Megan, and all of you, I’m my own person again.”

  I turned to nod at where Lucas and Megan were standing together, and then faced the crowd again. “We know the face, the name, and the purpose of our enemy now. He is Elden, an agent from Hive Genex, and he is trying to steal true telepaths like me.”

  I shouted the next words at the top of my voice. “Elden’s attempt to steal me has failed! This is where everything changes. Elden has been hunting me for fifteen years, but now I am hunting him. We are hunting him.”

  The faces in front of me had lost their dead, defeated expressions. They were looking eager now, and there was a wild yell that had to be from Eli.

  “High up!”

  There were some more yells from the Strike team, and other people were clapping. I let the noise die down before speaking again.

  “All of you will have a part to play in that hunt. Some of you carry guns and chase a target, while others help plan the chase, or make sure innocent bystanders are moved to safety. Some of you treat injuries, order equipment, or make repairs. Some of you make sure the park is a very special place, full of beautiful birds and animals, where everyone can enjoy vital relaxation time.”

  I looked pointedly at Hannah. “Some of you make sure the telepath doesn’t get buried in a heap of her own rubbish.”

  There was a burst of laughter.

  “Whatever your job is,” I said, “you’re here in this unit because that job is essential and you’re one of the best in the Hive at doing it.”

  I paused to check my dataview. “It’s almost noon. This unit is beginning a mandatory twenty-four hour recovery period. Everyone must get some sleep now, because we’ll need you all fully rested and alert by noon tomorrow. That’s when Lucas will tell us his plans. That’s when our new hunt will begin.”

  I stayed on the picnic table while the crowd drifted away. Megan gave me a hesitant look before turning and walking away too. There was just me and Lucas left here now.

  I climbed down from the table. “I told everyone to go to sleep, Lucas. That includes you.”

  He gave a mock salute, wandered across to where the grass grew thickly by the edge of the stream, and lay down. I went to sit beside him, and watched his mind slowly sink into sleep.

  I was the only person in the unit who wasn’t physically tired, and I had a lot of thinking to do. Not just about the past, but its effect on the present and the future. I’d been imprinted as a three-year-old child, and burdened with a terror of the Truesun. My time on Teen Level had been dominated by a fixation on Forge, because his appearance and his birthmark reminded me of the man who imprinted me. That fixation had ruled my life for five years, affecting everything I’d done and every decision I’d made.

  I felt a nagging fear that I’d never truly made a decision of my own free will in the whole of my life, and was just a doll moulded by Elden’s imprint, but I told myself that was silly. Some of what I was, most of what I was, had nothing to do with that imprint. It hadn’t made me a telepath. It hadn’t made me chronically untidy. It had given me a fixation on Forge, but it hadn’t made me fall in love with Lucas.

  I sat there for hours, my mind floating through Lucas’s dreams and out across the sleeping minds of my other unit members. A handful were awake. Nicole had been woken by her chiming dataview because it was time for her to take her medication. Rothan’s lips were curved into a smile as he looked at a holo image of Emili’s face. Sofia was working at frantic speed, painting a mural of me standing on the picnic table and giving my speech. Megan was lying in bed, unable to sleep because she was worrying about me.

  I groaned, picked up my dataview, and sent Megan a message. I watched her mind relax as she read it, and then she abruptly fell asleep.

  Eventually, Lucas became restless, his dreams turning into a nightmare where he couldn’t find the key symbol that would return me to my true self. I was wondering whether to wake him, when he abruptly sat up, stared round, and then relaxed.

  “Bad dream.” He turned to face me.

  “I saw it.”

  “You stayed with me.” He smiled.

  “I was worried about you. Your thoughts had slowed down to normal human speed.”

  “You and Megan were right about me needing rest. I’ll be able to work better now.”

  “I absolutely forbid you to do any work before tomorrow morning. If I catch you even thinking about work, I’ll kick you on the ankle.”

  He laughed, then turned serious and went full sentence mode for emphasis. “You have to ignore the imprint, Amber. You must try to forget how it influenced you, either over Forge or anything else. Deliberately acting against any lingering effects makes you just as much a slave as obeying them.”

  “I’ve already worked that out, Lucas. Megan was worried I’d fire my whole Strike team because of their looks, and she’d have a terrible problem finding replacements because most of the candidates imprinted for Strike team in the last Lottery were chosen to resemble Forge. I messaged her to reassure her I wouldn’t do anything so stupid and unkind. I don’t care what my Strike team look like. They’re my friends.”

  I paused. “We need to discuss something else now.”

  “Yes?”

  I took a deep breath, and studied his mind as I spoke. I wasn’t risking any more misunderstandings between us. “I was lost in darkness for the last few days, fighting for my existence. That taught me that life is very precious. I’m not wasting mine brooding on the past. I’m living for the future. Removing my imprint must have involved hypnotics or something. There aren’t any problems like after the dream are there? We don’t need to be careful?”

  His mind did a second of lightning, multi-level analysis, and then he grinned. “All protocols strictly followed. Work done by Megan in a controlled environment. Safety period elapsed before you were allowed to regain consciousness. First kiss moment?”

  “Definitely.” I pulled a face. “The issue is starting to become …”

  “An intimidating psychological barrier,” he completed the sentence. “You’re the only person I’ve ever met who could interact with me on a social level, and you’re a true telepath. The chance of me finding another telepathic girlfriend is effectively zero.”

  His logic said that I was literally the only girl in the world for him. It was incredibly flattering that he thought of me that way, but it meant he was terrified of making a mistake and losing me.

  I was scared too. I desperately wanted this relationship to work. I hoped it would eventually turn into a marriage, and a lifetime commitment to a man with thoughts that glittered and danced like a Carnival cro
wd.

  “Best get it over with then,” I said.

  We looked at each other, both hesitated to allow the other to come to us, and then both moved to meet halfway. I was still reading Lucas’s thoughts as our lips met clumsily. His nervous excitement mingled with my own, and then his nervousness changed to a different sort of tension that lit a response in me.

  I grabbed Lucas, pulling him closer to me. He wasn’t a telepath, but he was an expert in reading body language, and couldn’t miss what mine was screaming at him. Everything blurred into a wild whirlpool of emotion, as his feelings fed into mine and my response fed back into him. We finally had to break off the kiss to gasp in air, and Lucas stared at me in stunned disbelief.

  “I’d expected kissing you to be special, Amber, but that was … What happened there?”

  “Feedback loop,” I said. “You should have warned me that would happen if I was reading your mind when we kissed.”

  There was a split second of analysis and then he laughed. “I’d no idea.”

  “Surely you knew about this from working with Keith.”

  “Respectfully point out that I’ve never kissed Keith. I’ve never heard him talking about this either. It’s possible Keith’s never experienced it because he’s only interested in his own feelings.” Lucas gave me a hopeful look. “Shall we try another kiss?”

  “Just a second.” I took out my dataview, then left Lucas’s mind to search for Adika. I found him deeply asleep, and hesitated. It seemed unfair to wake the poor man up with a call. It wasn’t really necessary anyway. I’d been in Adika’s mind a dozen times when he was working on the unit security system. I knew how it worked, and remembered his passwords. I worked on my dataview for a moment, and then put it down.

  Lucas frowned. “What did you do to the security system, Amber?”

  “I locked the park doors.” I smiled at him, and linked to his mind again. “We’re all alone in here except for an assortment of birds and animals.”