I fought my way out of Kaden’s mind just as Adika spoke. “Forge and I are out of the structural column,” he said. “Bodyguard team, wait at your current position for us to regroup. Rothan’s group, come and rejoin us too.”
“We’ve got expert information on the device now,” said Nicole. “It’s not a bomb, but some sort of communications relay.”
“Which explains everything,” said Lucas bleakly. “Elden’s done exactly what we expected, gone into hiding to wait for us to agree to Amber’s transfer, but he’s not using his nest in 600/2600. He’s set up a device to relay information to him, and gone Outside.”
There was dead silence for the next thirty seconds.
“Waste it!” said Adika. “Why did Elden go Outside? If he has to wait around for weeks while Amber’s transfer is processed, he’d surely be more comfortable inside the Hive.”
“Remember that Elden’s done a lot of travelling Outside,” said Lucas. “He’s used to the conditions, and could always come back to the Hive if he needs to do something to progress Amber’s transfer. I suspect there’s an extra incentive for Elden to do his waiting Outside. He’s expecting Hive Genex to send an aircraft to collect Amber, and hoping it can pick him up on the way home and save him a long swim.”
“Hive Defence can try to hunt Elden down,” said Adika, “but searching a vast area of countryside is nothing like patrolling a concrete border strip. The second Elden sees our aircraft or drones on a search pattern, he’ll know we’ve discovered his plan and are chasing him.”
He made an exasperated noise. “Elden will have been imprinted with all the ways to beat heat sensors. He may even have a stealth cloak, designed to block his body heat and camouflage him into near invisibility. He just has to stay hidden while the search pattern passes over him and then make a run for the coast. Once he’s made it offshore and called Hive Genex to send an aircraft to pick him up, we’ll have no evidence to give to Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement.”
I opened my eyes, wriggled out of Kaden’s arms, and stood up. “We can’t let Elden escape. If he’s gone Outside, then we have to go there after him. He may be able to hide from heat sensors, but there’s no way for him to hide from a true telepath.”
“What are you suggesting, Amber?” asked Lucas. “That we send you Outside in an aircraft to search for Elden?”
“No. Even if I could work from an aircraft, Adika’s right that Elden would start running the moment he saw the aircraft hunting for him. I’m thinking of us going Outside to search for him on foot. We could pretend to be one of the rambler groups that Rothan mentioned.”
Lucas sounded startled. “You can’t have thought this through, Amber. Elden could be anywhere between our Hive and the nearest stretch of coastline. Hunting him down would take days or even weeks.”
“You said that my imprinted fear of the Truesun has been removed. The natural fear that remains should be easier for me to overcome. If I can’t manage that, then I’ve already coped with being Outside at night. I might be able to shelter somewhere when the Truesun is out.”
“That would mean doing all the travelling after dark,” said Lucas, “which would be very difficult.”
“It would be virtually impossible,” Rothan’s voice joined in the conversation. “Once you’re away from the country parks, Outside is a complete wilderness, with narrow winding tracks that are often overgrown with stinging plants and brambles. The further away from the Hive you get, the worse the conditions become. We couldn’t travel at night without using lights on a scale that Elden would see from a huge distance away.”
“Perhaps one of the other telepaths would be willing to try going Outside,” said Adika.
“Sapphire might be able to handle both the physical and mental demands of hunting Elden Outside,” said Lucas, “but we can’t put the Hive in the situation where only Morton, Mira and Keith are available to handle emergency runs.”
“Amber could help with …”
Lucas interrupted Adika before he could finish his sentence. “If Sapphire was away hunting Elden, then Amber couldn’t help with emergency runs or anything else. Remember that Elden’s still able to eavesdrop on our Hive using his communications relay. If he spotted any indication that our Telepath Unit was still operating, he’d know he’d lost control of Amber and run for the coast.”
Adika groaned. “I suppose that cutting off his communications would send him running home too.”
I took a deep breath. “Then it has to be me that hunts down Elden. We can do some test runs Outside and see how well I cope with daylight.”
“You can’t try facing the Truesun yet, Amber,” said Lucas. “You’ve been through a huge amount in the last few days and need time to recover.”
“If we’re going to stand any chance of catching Elden, then we have to do this now,” I said. “We’ll only have two or three weeks before he gets suspicious, and we could need all that time to locate him Outside.”
There was a moment of silence before Lucas spoke. “I admit that’s true. You’re quite sure you want to try this, Amber?”
I didn’t want to try it. I had to try it. “I can’t just sit around and let Elden escape after everything he’s done. I can’t let his Hive carry on kidnapping other true telepaths. I have to try to hunt him down. If the only way I can do that is to go Outside and face the Truesun, then that’s what I’ll do.”
Chapter Thirty-two
The next evening, everyone else in the unit seemed to be incredibly busy, but I was under orders to rest, sleep if possible. The plan was that there would be a meeting just before midnight, followed by another trip Outside.
I couldn’t sit still, let alone sleep. My mind was overloaded with thoughts and emotions, nervously anticipating tonight’s trip. We would be staying Outside until dawn, when I’d find out how much of my old fear of the Truesun remained. I didn’t know if I’d just be scared, or be hit by total blind panic. Whatever I felt, I had to control it if I was to have any chance of capturing Elden.
I walked three times round my apartment, and then headed to the shooting range. I’d begun my weapons training by firing at stationary targets with a genuine gun. Now I’d graduated to using holo guns in the bookette style, friend or foe scenarios. I had to explore randomized locations and kill enemies before they killed me, while trying not to shoot my own team or innocent bystanders.
Today’s scenario had me navigating the vent system, and I ended up scoring an abysmal 21 per cent. When the friend or foe programme shut down, the holo of the vent system vanished, leaving just a featureless hall around me. I was surprised to find Adika standing in the doorway, watching me critically.
“You’re incredibly slow on the friend or foe decision,” he said, “which is why you’re scoring so badly, but your accuracy is good when you finally decide to shoot. Of course there’s the point that you can’t read the minds of holo targets. You’d have a huge advantage over a genuine human opponent. We should try you in some duels.”
“What are those?”
He smiled. “Two of you in there, trying to get a kill shot on each other. I’m betting you could take down half the Strike team. I’m hoping we never need you to fire a gun in reality, but it would be excellent practice for my team. Let’s give it a try ourselves.”
“But …”
He took a holo gun from the rack, and made some adjustments to the scenario control panel. Our surroundings suddenly changed to be a park at night. The moons and stars programme was running, providing just enough light for me to see the shadowy outlines of trees. I took one wild look round and dived into the nearest bush.
“I wanted a chat with you about the unit security system,” said Adika, from somewhere in the darkness. “After your speech in the park, I went back to my apartment to rest. While I was asleep, someone used my passwords to access the system.”
I could feel myself blushing. “I just wanted to lock the park doors for a few hours. It didn’t seem worth waking you up for that.”
>
“Another time, I’d prefer to be woken up.”
I slipped into Adika’s mind. He was in amongst some trees, with his back to one of them. He was amused by me locking the park doors, but he didn’t want me messing with the unit security system again.
“I apologize,” I said. “I’ll always call you in future.”
Adika accepted my promise, and moved on to another issue. “You’ve also blocked my request for Kaden to be transferred out of the unit. You’re too kind sometimes, Amber. You didn’t reject Fran and look what happened.”
“Keeping Fran was a mistake. This isn’t.”
“Kaden has to go. I admit he seemed an excellent Strike team member, I was seriously considering him for one of the two deputy positions, but I can’t keep him on the team after that screaming incident Outside.”
“I’d like you to let Kaden come Outside with us tonight,” I said. “Give him a second chance to prove he can face the conditions there.”
Adika had been listening to me talk, worked out my location, and was moving through the trees to get a clear shot at me. “The primary purpose of the Strike team is to protect the telepath. I can’t have a man on the team who is afraid to go where you go, Amber.”
I rolled sideways, reaching the refuge of a holo rock just before Adika shot the bush where I’d been hiding. “Yes, the Strike team protect me, and I protect them in return. I don’t want to discard Kaden over one moment of weakness. You’ve just said that he’s been an excellent Strike team member. When you found out how fast I could swim, you didn’t fire all the men who couldn’t keep up with me in the water.”
Adika knew I was behind the rock, and was working out his best way of outflanking me. “The men just needed to have extra swimming training to be able to deal with that situation. Giving way to fear, having a panic attack, is a very different issue. It’s completely unacceptable in a Strike team member.”
“I’ve seen the whole of the Strike team thinking about this. Most of them were scared when they were Outside in the dark, remembering all the frightening childhood stories of the hunter of souls. Kaden was just unlucky that the mouse or rabbit or whatever it was ran over his foot while he was lying in the bushes. A lot of the others know that they’d have screamed too if it had happened to them.”
Adika started creeping along the ground, invisible to my eyes but glaringly obvious to my mind. His aim was to circle round to my left while I was busy arguing with him, and then shoot me.
“Rothan has been pleading Kaden’s case to me as well,” he said.
“The others daren’t talk to you directly about this. Rothan can. He’s been going Outside all his life, so you know he isn’t scared of anything out there.”
Adika didn’t reply. He was approaching his destination point, and didn’t want to give away his position.
I shuffled further round my rock to keep it between me and Adika. “You’re worried that you’d have screamed yourself in Kaden’s situation.”
Adika was silent for a moment. “You’re telling me that I’ve been trying to hide my own fear of Outside by being brutally harsh to my men, so they’re taking their problems to Rothan instead of me?”
I really didn’t need to reply to that. “The Strike team weren’t selected or trained for going Outside. They have to learn to cope with conditions there just as they had to learn to swim. I’d very much appreciate you giving Kaden a second chance.”
Adika was huddled behind a tree, brooding over the twin difficulties of either catching me by surprise or arguing with me when I was reading his mind. “All right, but Kaden’s no longer a contender for one of the two deputy positions. I can’t ask men to trust his leadership after they’ve had to pin him to the ground to stop him screaming.”
“Accepted,” I said.
“Eli’s a good man, but he’s been playing the comedian too much for me to make him a deputy. Humour can be useful to a leader, I use it myself to calm the team down when the tension gets too much, but Eli’s misjudging the balance.”
“Also accepted.”
“Matias was unlucky getting appendicitis,” continued Adika, “but I’d already decided he was more interested in his girlfriend than his career. That boy needs to get his hormones under control. They all do. I’ve got Eli having angel fantasies about you. I’ve got Rothan meeting his secret love in the park after dark. I’ve got Forge going round mourning for some girl he was involved with on Teen Level. They need to stop thinking about their love lives and concentrate on their work.”
“You aren’t doing too well at stopping thinking about Megan.”
Adika hastily moved the conversation on. “I’d like to appoint my two deputies now, so I can work with them on choosing candidates for our Beta Strike team. Things will be much easier when we have two fully trained teams. I’ll be able to give my men proper rest breaks, and assign temporary cover for injured personnel.”
He was moving rapidly through the trees towards my rock now. He’d worked out that keeping quiet didn’t hide his position from me, and was trying to use speed instead. I scurried furtively away through the bushes.
“My preference is to put Rothan in charge of Alpha team, and Forge in charge of Beta team,” said Adika. “That would flag Rothan as my second in command and eventual successor. I’m aware that Forge is your friend though.”
“Forge is my friend,” I gasped, “but I agree that Rothan is the better leader. He’s won the confidence of the men, and should take charge of Alpha team.”
Adika heard me speak, and turned to fire at my location. I saw the thought in his head, and rolled sideways so his shot just missed hitting me. I ran through more bushes, sending a holo rabbit running wildly, and dropped to the ground. The poor holo rabbit got shot, and I struggled to my knees and fired back at Adika. An instant later, I was hit right between the eyes.
“Excellent!” shouted Adika. “You winged me!”
The programme ended, the fake park vanished, and the scores flashed up on the wall. “You have a superficial arm wound, but I’m dead,” I pointed out.
“I’ve had seventeen years practice at this.” Adika gave me a smile of delight. “You’re definitely ready to wear a gun when you’re out with the Strike team. There isn’t time for another duel before the meeting, but we must do this again soon.”
We walked across to the meeting room together, and found Lucas, Megan and Nicole there ahead of us. There was a stranger too. I took one look at the man’s mind and took an instant dislike to him. He’d done some research on my team leaders, and was literally putting a price on their heads.
Once Adika and I had sat down, Lucas started talking. “Telepath Unit imprints don’t cover external Hive affairs, so Hive Trade has loaned us an expert to assist us with information on Hive Genex. Over to you, Barrett.”
Barrett gave up trying to decide how he’d price Lucas on the trading system, and started talking. I forced myself to listen. I found Barrett’s mercenary nature unpleasant, and if he’d been suggested as a permanent member of the unit I’d have rejected him, but he was just on loan to give us some vital knowledge.
“There are 107 Hives at the moment,” said Barrett. “All Hives are included in both Treaty and the trade system, but our Hive only trades goods with nineteen other Hives. That’s partly due to the geographical difficulty in reaching some Hives while avoiding territory infringements. We have little need for physical goods from other Hives anyway, since we’ve opted to limit imported luxury goods in the interests of maximizing self sufficiency.”
He paused. “We trade people with only fifteen other Hives, and where possible with only seven. Those have similar language and social structures to our own, which eases the transition for traded personnel. Adapting to a new Hive can be difficult, as you’ll know from personal experience, Lucas.”
I gave Lucas a startled look. He surely wasn’t from another Hive. He couldn’t be. If he was, I’d have seen it in his mind long ago.
“My father is irrelevan
t to this.” Lucas’s voice betrayed the fact he was struggling not to lose his temper. “Can we concentrate on Hive Genex, please?”
Lucas’s father was from another Hive. That made far more sense. I wouldn’t have seen that in Lucas’s mind, because I’d never seen him thinking about his parents at all.
Barrett nodded. “The relevance of my comment is that we never trade people with Hive Genex because there would be serious cultural adjustment problems. We don’t trade goods directly with Hive Genex either, but we do receive some goods that originated from Hive Genex through secondary trading with other Hives. This means any items left here by Elden can’t be used as evidence for Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement. Hive Genex would just claim we’d obtained them through legitimate trading.”
He paused. “We could have offered our telepath’s imprint in evidence, but unfortunately it has already been removed. It might have been wiser to delay that process for a few weeks, so that a deputation from Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement could be present.”
Barrett would have left me trapped in that crystal cage for weeks! How much of the true me would have been left after that? Would there have been anything at all? Before I could put my anger into words, my team leaders burst into simultaneous speech. Nicole was among them, but her shy voice was completely drowned out by three louder ones.
“The risk of brain damage on removal, with consequent loss of telepathic and other abilities, increased with every hour the imprint was active,” said Lucas.
“The danger of including so many people in an imprint removal would …” Megan was practically incoherent.
“You think we should have sat around doing nothing for weeks?” Adika was standing now. He placed both hands flat on the table, and leaned across it to bring his face closer to Barrett’s apprehensive eyes. “If Amber had got loose with an enemy Hive controlling her, just think how impossibly hard it would be to hunt down a telepath.”
Adika’s voice had beaten the others into submission now. “Amber wouldn’t just have the advantage of knowing our every move before we made it. She’s had months to learn all my knowledge of Hive security defences and my passwords. She’s familiar with every hiding place in the Hive, she knows the strengths and weaknesses of my entire Strike team, all our tactics, and can move nearly as fast as us.”
Telepath Page 29
