Defender

by Janet Edwards

  Lucas worked on his dataview for a moment. I was startled when it made a staccato bleeping noise. An unfamiliar male voice spoke.

  “This is Information Archive. You have searched for restricted information. Please state your identity and the reason for your request.”

  “I’m Tactical Commander Lucas 2511-3022-498,” said Lucas. “I’m requesting this information with Telepath Unit priority.”

  “I cannot release this information without a specific, compelling reason why it is required,” said the voice.

  “This information is needed to progress the search for a group of targets,” said Lucas, with an angry edge to his voice. “These people have murdered an ex-member of my Telepath Unit, killed five more people in an arson attack that totally destroyed a Hive Security Unit, and are conspiring to assassinate our telepath. Is that reason specific enough and compelling enough for you?”

  “Your information request is approved,” said the male voice hastily, “however this information has highly sensitive implications. It must not be repeated to people outside your unit.”

  “Understood. Now what’s so terribly secret about these names?”

  “There are one hundred and seven Hive cities in the world,” said the voice. “The world has one moon orbiting it. The world is one of multiple planets orbiting the Truesun.”

  I blinked. There were multiple planets? There were multiple worlds?

  “Mercury, Mars, Venus, and Jupiter are the names of four of the other planets orbiting the Truesun,” continued the voice. “Are you in need of further related information?”

  “I think that’s all for now, thank you.” Lucas ended the call, and there was a moment of silence before he gave a dazed shake of his head. “That was … interesting information.”

  “That was staggering information,” said Adika. “Multiple other worlds!”

  “Do you think there are Hives on these other worlds?” I asked.

  “I’ve no idea. We’ve all seen the moon when we were Outside. I noticed some stars were different from the others, but …” Lucas shook his head again. “The idea of other worlds is bewildering and distracting, but we need to focus on our current case. Crystal units back on now, please.”

  Lucas tapped at his ear crystal. “Hello again, everyone. Forge, Kaden, and Matias can rejoin us now.”

  He waited for them to come back into the room before speaking again. “Amber, Adika, and I have watched Fran’s message. It appears that someone calling herself Jupiter recruited Fran and two other people to carry out missions against the Hive. Interestingly, Jupiter called her three recruits Venus, Mercury and Mars. Those names are linked for a reason that’s kept highly secret by our Hive, so should be known to very few people.”

  He paused. “Fran was Venus. She went to meet Mercury and Mars, pretending to be Jupiter, and hoping to get details of the other conspirators’ identities and missions. She must have made a mistake that gave her away. I believe she told Mercury and Mars that she’d given information to a work colleague. She hoped that would deter them from harming her, but they killed her anyway.”

  “One of Mercury and Mars is our firebug, Martin,” said Gideon’s voice. “It seems likely that the other person killed Fran in a moment of anger. Martin then moved Fran’s body to the storage complex to try to make it look like a random killing, and started the fire at the Security Unit in an attempt to destroy Fran’s information and kill the work colleague who had it.”

  “Agreed,” said Lucas. “We’re therefore hunting three targets, calling themselves Jupiter, Mercury, and Mars. Jupiter doesn’t take action herself but manipulates others to follow her orders. One of Mercury and Mars is our meticulously planning firebug, Martin, while the other has moments of uncontrollable violence.”

  “So what do we do next?” asked Adika.

  “Jupiter is the key to solving this,” said Lucas. “She recruited the others. That means she either knew them personally or had access to their Law Enforcement records.”

  Adika groaned. “But we know nothing about Jupiter.”

  “Yes, we do,” said Lucas. “We know that Jupiter has access to some highly secret information. When I’m back at the unit, my Tactical team will work out what imprints might include that information, and …”

  “Sorry to interrupt,” said Megan’s voice, “but I’ve got a message from Rothan’s doctors. His vital signs are climbing.”

  “That means he’s responding to the treatment?” I asked eagerly.

  “Yes.”

  “High up!” yelled Forge and Lucas in unison.

  I closed my eyes, reached out for Rothan’s mind, and smiled. “Yes, Rothan’s still unconscious, but his thought levels are definitely stronger than they were.”

  “Rothan will have to remain in the medical cocoon for at least another day,” warned Megan, “but all the signs indicate he should make a swift recovery.”

  “And the other patients?” I asked.

  Megan seemed to hesitate before replying. “Most of them are responding to treatment.”

  “Most?” I asked anxiously.

  “One hasn’t responded yet,” said Megan. “There’s still a small chance, but …”

  The way Megan said that told us the chance was very small indeed. Our jubilant mood suddenly darkened.

  “We’d better get back to the unit,” said Lucas grimly. “Rothan is recovering and we have work to do.”

  I didn’t need to read his mind to know what he was thinking. One of the critically ill patients was probably going to die. Lucas didn’t want me here when that happened. He didn’t want me seeing all the grief-filled minds. I didn’t want to see them either.

  We went back to waiting room 3 to collect the rest of the Alpha team. The exuberantly happy faces of Emili, Rothan’s parents, and his brother showed they hadn’t heard about the other critically ill patient who wasn’t responding to treatment. None of us mentioned it when we said goodbye. They should be allowed to enjoy the good news that Rothan would recover, without being troubled by guilt that another patient might be dying.

  When we went out of the Fire Casualty Centre, Adika paused by Sapphire’s Beta Strike team to exchange polite farewells with their leader, Murray. I heard distant music coming from the major belt interchange ahead of us, and saw some of the Hive roaming entertainers had gathered in the open area next to it, putting on an impromptu performance for a crowd of arriving travellers.

  As we walked on towards the belt interchange, my mind automatically reached out to the entertainers. There were two dancers in jewelled costumes, several musicians, and a man dressed as a comic monster with a lumpy back. The man and woman dancing had the same delight in their minds as my Strike team had when they rejoiced in their physical fitness. The musicians were swept up by their music. The man dressed as the comic monster was thinking …

  … would have been so much simpler if Mars had kept his temper instead of lashing out and killing …

  … still can’t understand how anyone survived the Security Unit fire. I have to make sure they all burn to death this time, but getting into that Fire Casualty Centre is …

  If whoever has that information talks …

  I changed my ear crystal from the receive setting to transmit. “Target acquired!”

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Adika gave me a startled look, and tapped his ear crystal. “Alpha Strike team is moving.”

  “Tactical is confused but ready,” Gideon’s voice came over the crystal comms.

  “Liaison is ready. Jade, cover hasty coordination desk, and someone find …” Nicole’s voice abruptly cut out as she belatedly remembered to turn her comms transmission off.

  “Who is our target?” asked Gideon.

  “Nobody look his way or you’ll frighten him,” I said. “Our firebug, Martin, is here to burn the Fire Casualty Centre. He’s among the performers entertaining the crowd, disguised in a comic monster suit.”

  “Strike team, gather closely round Amber, b
locking Martin’s view of her,” said Lucas. “We have to assume that Fran gave Jupiter details about our telepaths, including images of them, and all that information was passed to our firebug. If he sees Amber, then he’ll start running.”

  I skimmed through the levels of my target’s mind, relaying relevant thoughts. “Jupiter gave the firebug the name Mercury. He likes to think of himself as that rather than Martin, because Jupiter said Mercury was a fiery name. It was Mars who lost his temper and killed Venus.”

  I sensed Mercury’s mind change its colour, taste, brightness. He’d noticed a group of dark-haired men at the end of a wide corridor. “Mercury has seen us. He’s wondering why we’re standing here. Sapphire’s Beta team have been guarding the Fire Casualty Centre all day, so Mercury has got used to their presence, but he’s suspicious of us.”

  “There’s a bank of lifts over to our left,” said Lucas. “We’ll walk towards them and get inside one.”

  We moved on to the lifts, and stood there waiting for thirty seconds. “Nicole, where is our lift?” asked Lucas impatiently.

  “I’m working on the lift system myself,” said Nicole. “All the lifts in that bank have got passengers already, so … One is empty now! Locking it to priority usage and it will be with you in three seconds.”

  The light above the right-hand lift flashed to show it had reached our level, and the doors opened. We went inside, and Lucas closed the doors behind us.

  “I’m taking us up one level and keeping the doors closed,” he said. “We need Mercury to be reassured by the lift lights changing to show we’ve left, and one level won’t be far enough to strain Amber’s mental link with him.”

  The lift made the brief movement upwards. Now I was out of view of other people, I could sit down, close my eyes, and focus my full attention on my target.

  “Mercury thinks we’ve gone,” I said. “He’s stopped worrying about us and is thinking about how Mars killed Venus.”

  I saw a horrific image of Mars’s knife sweeping across Venus’s throat, but I was deep in Mercury’s mind, with his emotions swamping my own. I felt only cold annoyance at the impulsive murder that had caused him so much inconvenience.

  “Venus told them she’d given a data cube to someone,” I reported. “She said that meant they wouldn’t dare to harm her, and gave a triumphant laugh. That was when Mars lost his temper and killed her. If Mars had been sensible and controlled himself, they could have forced Venus to tell them who had the data cube. Instead, they only discovered who Venus was, and where she worked, when they searched her body and found her Security Unit identity card.”

  I saw another image, this time of Mercury’s hand removing a Carnival mask from Fran’s face. Mercury thought it was odd that her expression in death was one of surprise rather than fear.

  “Mars is male then,” said Lucas. “Is he here as well? Does Mercury know his identity?”

  “Mars shouldn’t be here. Mercury doesn’t know who Mars is, or what he looks like. The only time they met was when they were called to that meeting with Venus, and all three of them were wearing Carnival cloaks and masks.”

  “Is there anything else at all about Mars and Jupiter?” asked Lucas.

  “Mercury was furious with Mars for killing Venus. I told Mars to stay out of things while I reported what had happened to Jupiter and cleaned up his mess. No, Mercury told Mars to stay out of things while he cleaned up his mess.”

  “What’s the plan, Lucas?” asked Adika. “Do you want to drop out and go back to the Fire Casualty Centre to call tactics for us?”

  “I’d rather stick with Amber’s bodyguards,” said Lucas. “Mercury is here to try to burn the Fire Casualty Centre. I’ve already been nearly cooked alive in one of his fires, and I’m not eager to repeat the experience.”

  “Should we tell the Fire Casualty Centre to evacuate?” asked Nicole.

  Megan’s voice spoke on the comms. “They can’t evacuate the critical cases like Rothan. Moving them now would disrupt the crucial recovery phase, and they wouldn’t survive long enough for additional medicine to be delivered.”

  Adika said a much ruder version of waste it. I felt like saying it myself, but it was more important to report what I was seeing in Mercury’s mind.

  “The monster suit is a strange shape because Mercury is wearing a backpack underneath it. That’s crammed with canisters of inflammable liquid.”

  There was a full minute of silence before Adika spoke. “Lucas, do we go for the strike?”

  “I can’t make up my mind,” said Lucas. “I hate this situation. We’ve got a firebug carrying canisters of inflammable liquid. He’s positioned next to a crowd of over a hundred people. Amber, if we corner Mercury, is he likely to panic and set fire to himself?”

  “I can’t tell,” I said. “He’s not thinking about the possibility of getting caught.”

  “We can’t risk it,” said Lucas. “If Mercury sets fire to the liquid he’s carrying, he could kill or injure dozens of people. On the other hand, I was trapped in a fire myself only days ago, so I could be letting my own fear cloud my judgement. Gideon, what’s your call on this one?”

  “I’m a defence expert, Lucas. I’m not qualified to call a strike.”

  “Kareem then.”

  “I haven’t called a strike decision in decades, Lucas, and I’m definitely not calling this one,” said Kareem’s voice. “However, I’m happy to point out we must take this firebug alive. We need him to lead us to Mars and Jupiter.”

  “True.” Lucas went silent again.

  I was getting worried now. Lucas shouldn’t be expressing doubt in his own judgement like this. He knew that people couldn’t trust a Tactical Commander’s decisions if he didn’t appear confident about them himself.

  I risked leaving Mercury’s thoughts to check the glowing beacon of Lucas’s mind. Normally it had a host of thought levels, each chasing different ideas, but now all the levels were united in working through a single problem. He’d been hit by a crisis of confidence after the fire, thinking it was his fault that people had died. When he found out that wasn’t true, he’d picked himself up again, but now he was faced with making this decision and …

  If I call a strike now, and it goes wrong, there could be even more deaths than last time. Deaths that truly are my fault.

  If I don’t call a strike, and the target gets away, he’ll set more fires and kill more people. Deaths that truly are my fault.

  Even if I get this call right, there’ll be another, and another, and another. Eventually …

  Adika’s voice was openly impatient now. “Lucas? What do we do?”

  I pulled myself away from Lucas’s thoughts for a second, opened my eyes, and turned to look for Adika. He was right next to me, staring at Lucas, so I grabbed his arm and shook my head urgently.

  Adika frowned down at me, but I was already closing my eyes and returning to Lucas’s thoughts. I didn’t know what I could say to help him. I’d convinced him he hadn’t made a mistake last time, but I couldn’t convince him he’d never make a mistake in future. What Lucas was thinking was perfectly true. A Tactical Commander had to make endless decisions, and eventually one of those decisions would kill people.

  I didn’t know what to say, but someone else did. Kareem’s voice spoke over the crystal comms. I was puzzled at first, because I could hear him through Lucas’s ears but not my own. Then I realized that Kareem had got Liaison to set up the comms so he could talk privately to Lucas.

  “Decades ago, I made two mistakes, Lucas. The first one was calling a strike at the wrong time. It killed seventeen people. The second one was quitting as a Tactical Commander. That killed hundreds of people.”

  Kareem paused. “I didn’t fully understand that for a very long time, and by then it was far too late to change my mind. I’d been given my post as Tactical Commander because I was the best candidate available. After I quit, someone had to take over who wasn’t quite as good. Every time they made a bad decision when I’d hav
e made a better one, every time someone died as a result, it was my fault not theirs, my death count not theirs. My death count is getting larger with every year that passes, and it will keep increasing until the day I die.”

  He gave a heavy sigh. “The question isn’t whether you’ll kill people, Lucas. All Tactical Commanders make mistakes that kill people, because we are human beings and fallible. The question is whether you’ll kill less people than the most capable replacement candidate for your job. You’re nearly the best Tactical Commander in the Hive. With a little more experience, you’ll be the very best. Don’t walk away or you’ll have a huge death count.”

  Lucas’s mind seemed to have totally shut down. There were no thoughts at all for several seconds, and I was starting to panic, then I saw a single sentence overlaid with grim resignation.

  I will have my death count.

  After that, the usual multi-levelled thought trains came rushing back, and Lucas started speaking in the familiar, calm voice he used on emergency runs. “We need to ambush our target in a place clear of any people or vital equipment that can be harmed by fire. Tactical team should find me potential ambush locations.”

  He paused. “Once we’ve chosen our location, Chase team will be positioned ready to pressure the target into moving into our ambush. Forge, I want you to leave the lift now and go back to the Fire Casualty Centre, entering by the rear entrance to avoid being seen by Mercury. You will then move to just inside the front entrance and wait there. When Chase team are in position, you’ll head straight towards Mercury, moving at a slow, purposeful walk. Your goal is to make him nervous enough to run, without frightening him into taking any drastic measures.”

  There was the sound of the lift doors opening and closing.

  “Mercury prepares everything meticulously in advance,” continued Lucas. “He’ll have planned an escape route in case of trouble. What’s he thinking now, Amber? Any indication of which way he’s likely to run?”

  Lucas was back to his true decisive self. I shouldn’t be studying his thoughts now but those of my target. I hastily searched for Mercury’s mind again and started babbling random facts. “Mercury is angry and frustrated. He set up the Security Unit fire to make it impossible for anyone to escape, but somehow dozens of people survived. One of them may have Venus’s data cube, and that puts the joint attack in jeopardy.”