Defender Page 2

  I realized I’d drifted from reading Adika’s thoughts to experiencing them as my own, shook my head, and hastily disentangled myself from his mind. I wasn’t thirty-five, but eighteen. I wasn’t Adika, but Amber.

  Waste it! I kept making the same mistake over and over again. The other four telepaths in our Hive struggled to get more than a couple of levels below pre-vocalization, the highest level of the mind where sentences were formed before being spoken aloud. I was different, naturally operating on deeper, more emotional levels, and it was usually more of a liability than an advantage. I kept getting sucked into other people’s emotions, trapped in their feelings as if they were my own.

  I tried to shake off the remnants of both Adika’s burning frustration and my own annoyance at myself, and reached out further into the darkness. There was a bright blur of minds that must be the nearby housing warren, and more minds both above and below me, but I should concentrate on this level of the Hive for the moment.

  I tried sweeping methodically across the area ahead of me, moving from right to left, and found a nervous huddle of four minds. Hasties lurking behind a temporary barrier.

  … never been caught up in anything like this before, and never want to be caught up in anything like it again. It …

  … knew in theory that these things happened, but couldn’t believe I’d …

  … Waste it, my job is making sure people follow health and safety rules, keeping small children from …

  I pulled out of their minds and moved on. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Then a single mind glowed, alone in the emptiness.

  … Saw me. Saw me. Figure in blue saw me. Saw me. Saw me. Figure in blue saw me. Saw me. Saw …

  … wiping away the dried, crusted blood from her throat. My fingers running down her arm, taking her hand, tracing the line of the delicately coloured nails and …

  … was so cold. So beautiful. My ideal partner that …

  “Target located,” I said. “He’s at the south end of the storage complex, sitting down, and leaning his back against something hard and rough. I can’t judge the physical position well enough to say which room he’s in, and it’s too dark for me to get any clues from his surroundings.”

  “Is he hiding inside a container, Amber?” asked Adika.

  “No, he’s in a room but it’s extremely dark.”

  “The rooms have motion activated lighting,” said Nicole. “If there’s no movement for five minutes it automatically dims to the minimum setting.”

  “I think the target has been sitting still for a while,” I said. “There’s nothing to give me a clue about his identity. The top level of his mind is frozen in terror, looping round and round the fact the hasty saw him. Underneath, he’s thinking about the dead woman, not himself. He’s wiping away the blood from her throat. No, he’s remembering wiping away the blood, stroking her arm, and taking her hand.”

  “Nicole, can you override the motion activation controls and turn the lighting on in there?” asked Lucas.

  “Getting my team to work on that now,” said Nicole.

  Most of my mind was with my target, but part of me was vaguely aware of Adika’s voice giving instructions. The Strike team were dividing into two groups. Those on chase duties were moving towards the storage complex doors. Those on bodyguard duties were staying with me. One of them was picking me up, transporting the luggage of my body to a better defensive position in case the target made a break in our direction.

  “Amber, is the target still sitting there?” asked Lucas.

  “Yes. Still sitting there. Still thinking about the woman. She’s my ideal … She’s his ideal partner. I’m not sure she was really in a relationship with him though. It seems more as if he’s fantasizing.” I felt the grief in the target mind. “He didn’t like the blood. The cut in her throat spoiled her. He wanted to find a scarf to cover it, but he couldn’t make himself leave her side.”

  Overhead lights suddenly blazed at full brightness. The target was dazzled, rubbing his eyes with both hands, and then staring around in alarm. If the lights had come on, it meant someone was here! The hasties were here!

  “The lights came on,” I reported. “The target has been to this place several times before. He knows the lights are motion activated, so he thinks the hasties are in there looking for him.”

  “Amber, what weapons does the target have?” asked Adika.

  “Both his hands are empty. He’s standing up now. I can see part of the number on a crate to his left. It starts with S771-57. The rest is out of his view.”

  “We’ve got a location from the storage facility inventory system,” said Nicole eagerly. “That code is for shop fittings, all held in the south-west corner of room 7.”

  Adika started rattling out a series of instructions. Chase team were moving now, closing in on their prey, but I caught a fleeting thought in the target mind.

  “Wait! He didn’t kill her. The woman was dead when he found the body.”

  “Hold positions, everyone!” snapped Adika. “You’re sure, Amber?”

  “I’m certain,” I said. “The target was thinking about how cold she was. He’d been with her body for hours before the hasty disturbed him, so I thought that was why she was cold, but it wasn’t. She was already cold when the target went into the storage complex and stumbled across the body.”

  “That makes no sense,” said Adika. “Why would he discover a body and sit next to it for hours? Why would he even go into a closed storage complex? Was he planning to steal something?”

  “Highly unlikely,” said Lucas. “There’s virtually no theft anywhere in the Hive, because people are afraid a nosy would read their minds and arrest them if they stole things.”

  He paused for a second. “I suspect the real answer is this man has some … unusual preferences in a partner. Amber said he’d been to the storage complex several times before. He instinctively ran to hide where the shop fittings are stored, because that’s where he goes. He visits the mannequins, the shop dummies, and fantasizes about them. On this visit, he stumbled across his true ideal partner, not a mannequin but a genuine dead body, and couldn’t tear himself away from it.”

  There was a stunned silence.

  “Would that be consistent with your impressions, Amber?” asked Lucas.

  “Yes, that would explain the …” I broke off, and rubbed my forehead. As a child and teenager, I’d suffered from occasional headaches. I hadn’t been troubled by them much since Lottery, but I could feel one starting now. “I don’t understand why anyone would want a partner that’s …”

  I’d lost count of the number of target minds I’d read in the last few months, and many of them had had deeply unsettling ideas, but I was finding this run especially hard. I wasn’t sure if the sound of my voice gave away my distress, or Lucas saw my face on the images arriving from one of my bodyguards’ cameras. Either way, he responded by abandoning his official emergency run voice, to use his own distinctively casual tones.

  “Speaking as your current partner, I’m highly relieved to hear that, Amber. This man’s preferences are probably due to an unfortunate past relationship experience. He now finds the idea of a non-rejecting partner deeply appealing.”

  “Nobody enjoys being rejected,” said Adika dryly, “but I’d still rather have a living partner. If this man isn’t our target, what do we do now?”

  Lucas went back to his emergency run voice. “There’s no reason to assume the man currently in the storage complex is a threat to anyone, but he would benefit from some therapy. Is he moving at all, Amber?”

  “No, he’s sitting down again.”

  “Then the Strike team can collect him and hand him over to appropriate medical staff for assessment,” said Lucas. “You’d better retrieve the body first though, so he doesn’t see it again.”

  “Dispatching medical support to your location now,” said Nicole.

  “But what about our genuine target?” asked Adika.

  “Our genuine target must
have left the storage complex before this man arrived,” said Lucas, “and that was several hours ago. Amber can run checks on the surrounding area, but she’s unlikely to find him or her. The lack of warning signs in this area indicates our target doesn’t spend much time here. We’ll have to take the alternative approach of identifying the victim, working out all the people closely connected to her, and scheduling check runs for Amber to read their minds and find out which of them is guilty.”

  “So we tidy up here, and if Amber doesn’t find us a new target then we can head home,” said Adika. “All right. Rothan, Eli, Caleb, come with me to collect the body.”

  I stayed with the mind that was too frightened and bewildered to run, until I heard Adika speak again in a shocked voice. “Waste that!”

  I instantly linked to Adika’s mind to check if he was in danger, and saw the view from his eyes as he looked down at the body of a woman. Neck gory with blood, but face clearly visible.

  Adika knew this woman. I knew this woman. It was Fran.

  Chapter Three

  Fran’s face was exactly as precise, as controlled, as elegantly made up as when I’d known her. Only the startled expression in those lifeless, open eyes was different from her usual rigid professionalism.

  My forehead throbbed with pain as I remembered my last confrontation with Fran. She’d been my Liaison team leader, causing one problem after another for my unit, until the situation ended in an explosive team leader meeting. Fran had shouted abuse at me, I’d fired her, and Nicole had been promoted to replace her.

  I’d thought about Fran a lot since then, but solely about how she’d affected me. I’d never asked what happened to her after she left my unit, and now she was dead.

  I watched through Adika’s eyes, felt through Adika’s hands, as he and Rothan gently lifted Fran onto a stretcher and took her out to the waiting medical team. Fran was a Level 1 Liaison team leader, or she had been before I fired her. Why had she died in a storage complex on Level 68? Was this my fault? Had the Hive sent her to work here as a punishment for daring to distress one of its five treasured telepaths?

  “Amber? Are you all right? Amber?”

  I’d been aware of voices speaking from my ear crystal but been too occupied with my thoughts to listen to what they were saying. Now I realized Lucas was calling my name.

  “Yes,” I said, hastily. “Sorry, I was distracted for a moment. Did I miss something?”

  “The Strike team are going to collect the man from inside the storage complex now, so we need your assistance,” said Lucas.

  I tried to drag my thoughts away from the past, ignore the pain of my headache, and concentrate on doing my job. I had to watch over my team to keep them safe. Run circuits to make sure that anyone hurt or in trouble got help quickly. “Who’s going in? Everyone on Chase team?”

  “Just Adika, Rothan, Eli, and Caleb,” said Lucas.

  I opened my eyes, reached for my dataview, stabbed the circuit button with a finger, and focused on the list of four names scrolling up the right side of the display. I could remember four names myself, but following the proper routine would help me calm down.

  “Adika, Rothan, Eli, Caleb.” I chanted each name aloud as I checked the man’s mind, and made sure he was uninjured and in no danger. Then I tapped the display to send that name back down to the bottom of the list and moved on to the next. I’d just reached Adika again, when Lucas interrupted me.

  “Umm, no need to run circuits for this, Amber. We’re dealing with an innocent man, unarmed, and frozen in fear. We’d rather not add to his stress by using force or stunning him, so can you watch his mind and tell us his reactions as we try to coax him out?”

  Judging from the careful way Lucas said that, he’d already said it at least once before. I was making a complete mess of this. “Sorry,” I said again. “Finding the man now.”

  I left Adika’s head and reached out to the isolated, frightened mind in the depths of the storage complex. I hesitated before speaking, making sure what I said was right. “The man is huddled in a ball now, clutching his knees with both hands. He definitely has no weapons.”

  “Good,” said Lucas. “Adika, take your group to room 7 now. Stop when you’re just inside the door.”

  There was a pause before Adika spoke, his voice barely a whisper. “We’re in position now. There’s shelving blocking the view of the south-western corner, so we can’t see the man.”

  “He doesn’t know you’re in the room,” I said.

  “Amber, any clue at all about his name?” asked Lucas.

  “No. People don’t often think of their own name, and this man’s thoughts are stuck in a terrified loop.”

  “Adika, can you please approach him alone and try not to appear too threatening?” said Lucas.

  I was seeing the view from the man’s eyes and hearing through his ears. The view was just his own hands hugging his knees. Even when he heard the sound of heavy footsteps on the bare floor, he didn’t look up.

  “Hello,” said Adika.

  Now the man lifted his head. I saw Adika kneeling, trying to minimize his intimidating bulk, a surprisingly open and compassionate look on his usually harsh face.

  “The man’s scared,” I reported. “Not of Adika particularly. The man’s just scared of everything at the moment. He’s even scared of himself.”

  “You aren’t in any trouble,” said Adika gently. “You’ve done nothing wrong. What’s your name?”

  The man didn’t speak. The top of his mind was still looping terrified thoughts about the hasty who’d seen him, but I saw the answer to Adika’s question on the deeper levels. “He’s Logan.”

  “You aren’t in any trouble, Logan,” repeated Adika, “but you can’t stay here. You’re feeling overwhelmed by the situation, and very afraid. I’ll take you to some people who’ll help you feel better.”

  The looping thoughts faltered, and then started again.

  “Logan’s scared of hasties, of being arrested,” I said. “Tell him it won’t be hasties.”

  “You aren’t in any trouble,” Adika said the words for the third time. “There are some doctors here who’ll help you feel better.”

  The repeating thoughts faltered again before stopping. Logan studied Adika’s dark-skinned face, the black hair that clustered tightly round his scalp, the sympathy in his eyes, and suddenly relaxed.

  “Adika, slowly reach out your hand now,” I said. “Don’t touch him, just reach out.”

  Adika held out his hand, and Logan took it. Together we, they, stood up.

  “Rothan, Eli, Caleb, stay out of view,” said Lucas urgently.

  Adika led Logan out of the storage complex, to where a medical team was waiting. A woman stepped forward and started talking to Logan in a soft, soothing voice.

  “Amber, you can leave Logan’s mind now, and do a quick check of the surrounding area,” said Lucas.

  As I left Logan’s mind, the pain in my head eased. I linked briefly to Adika’s thoughts, curious about the sympathy I’d seen on his face. Yes, it was genuine. Adika had encountered vast numbers of people with unbelievably varied problems. He was long past the stage of being shocked by them, and had nothing but compassion for anyone who wasn’t a danger to others.

  I left Adika and moved on to scan minds in the housing warren. Most of them were still asleep, but a few were awake, their thoughts occupied with the trivia of getting dressed or thinking ahead to the working day. One mind lit up, burning with fury, and I tensed until I saw it was just a toddler having a tantrum about not being allowed to wear his favourite clothes.

  I moved on to the west, skimming through yet more minds. People travelling to work on a busy express belt. A man singing discordantly in the shower. A couple arguing about …

  Lucas snapped out an order. “Potential isolation perimeter breach. Evacuate north to Orange Zone!”

  “Go one corridor length north, then another cor west, and you’ll reach the nearest northbound express belt.” Nicole’
s voice was often anxious, but now she sounded close to panic.

  I’d never heard anyone use the words isolation perimeter breach before. What was happening? I hastily pulled back into my own mind. I still had my eyes closed, but I could feel hands grabbing me. I was cradled against the warmth of a man’s chest, and whoever was carrying me started running at full speed.

  Everyone in my Strike team would know what an isolation perimeter breach was. I linked to Adika’s mind, and found the same thought repeated on multiple levels.

  Telepaths must never meet!

  Chapter Four

  An isolation perimeter breach meant that two telepaths were in danger of meeting! I was swept up by Adika’s taut emotions, felt my heart start racing in response, and my headache flared up again. It was a strict rule that telepaths must never meet, included in the imprinted knowledge of all my specialist staff.

  There’d been a hundred times when I’d rebelliously wished that rule didn’t exist. Wished that I could meet other telepaths, see what their minds were like, and learn from their experiences. However much Lucas loved me, however hard he and everyone else in my unit tried to help support me, I was going through experiences that they could never truly understand, and there were moments when I felt dreadfully alone.

  The most frustrating thing was that I didn’t even know the reason behind the rule that kept me isolated from the other telepaths. I’d discussed this issue with Lucas months ago. His theory was that if all my staff were just imprinted with the stark rule that telepaths mustn’t meet, without any background justification at all, then the reason behind it must be so horrifying that merely seeing it in someone’s mind could leave me traumatized.

  Lucas thought it would be safer for me to forget about the mystery, but it kept nagging away at me. I could believe that physically meeting a telepath was dangerous because their minds were somehow brighter, more dazzling than those of other people, but that didn’t explain why telepaths weren’t allowed to use dataviews to call each other. Was it because other telepaths might tell me things that the Hive didn’t want me to know?