Hurricane (Hive Mind Book 3) Page 23

  “The connection is that I don’t just apprehend people who are a threat, but investigate what made them act that way, and ensure no failure of Lottery was a contributing factor. This is the first time I’ve been involved in a case at the sea farm, so I’m interested in how well Lottery serves the people here.”

  Lucas paused. “Juniper, if someone of your intelligence and strength of character refuses to enter Lottery, then I have to investigate if that decision is purely due to extreme personal circumstances, or it’s an indication that Lottery is failing the sea farm in some way. Whatever the reason though, one thing is clear to me. Whether you regain any use of your injured arm or not, you have the potential to make an important contribution to this sea farm and to our Hive itself.”

  Juniper’s face flushed, and she rubbed her hand across her eyes. “Thank you. The people who know me don’t have faith in me, so I didn’t expect strangers would.”

  “The Hive has faith in you, Juniper,” said Lucas solemnly. “If you have faith in the Hive, then Lottery may well be able to help you. Please consider that, because I’ll be discussing this with you again later.”

  Lucas ended the call, gave a deep sigh, and turned to his Tactical team. “Any thoughts? Apart from the obvious one that I’m a dreadfully bad actor.”

  “Tressa arrived at our sea farm and married the deputy Admiral,” said Emili. “That’s consistent with the actions of a long-term sleeper agent, sent here with instructions to infiltrate the sea farm hierarchy. Once her husband became Admiral, her Hive would send her activation orders, and tell her to carry out a sabotage campaign.”

  “Tregereth became Admiral of our sea farm twenty-five years ago,” said Lucas. “If Tressa’s a sleeper agent, her Hive would surely have sent her activation orders decades ago. They’d know that the longer they waited to send Tressa orders, the less likely she’d be to obey them. The most dedicated of sleeper agents is likely to change their loyalties once they’ve got children and grandchildren to consider.”

  “Perhaps Tressa wasn’t an enemy agent to begin with, but is now,” said Hallie. “Her original Hive could have contacted her, and threatened to harm her children or grandchildren if she didn’t cooperate.”

  “Why would Tressa meekly surrender to threats?” asked Lucas. “She just had to tell her husband about them, he’d call Gold Commander Melisande, and our Hive would complain to Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement. It would respond instantly to a treaty breach as serious as another Hive threatening the children of our Admiral.”

  Lucas shrugged. “We could have fun inventing dozens of different theories, arguing the case for and against Tressa’s guilt, but it would be a waste of effort. We’ll find out the truth as soon as Amber reads her mind.”

  He set his ear crystal to transmit. “Megan, what’s the current state of our operations room?”

  “The room has been cleaned to Hannah’s exacting standards,” said Megan. “The electricians are having to work around some issues with the power supply, but the mobile operations centre is almost working now.”

  “What do you mean by almost working?” asked Lucas.

  “I mean all the equipment is working except for one of the Liaison screens. Every time the electricians connect that to the power supply, it works perfectly for thirty seconds, but then goes black.”

  “I’ve tried everything, including hitting it,” said the despairing voice of Sakshi.

  “Megan, put a replacement screen on the list of supplies to be brought back by Aerial one,” said Lucas. “The Tactical and Liaison teams should now move to the operations room. The Alpha Strike team, Amber, and I will be heading out on our trip to the seawall in about forty minutes. We’ll be taking Forge with us to play the part of our nosy.”

  He turned to look at me. “Hannah, has our apartment been cleaned yet?”

  “Your apartment has only had the first round of cleaning,” Hannah’s voice replied. “That’s got rid of the worst of the dirt, but the walls and ceiling are still covered in streaky marks.”

  Lucas laughed. “Amber needs to have a proper wash before she changes into her outdoor clothing, but I’m sure she won’t mind a few streaky marks.”

  “Why do I need to wash?” I asked in confusion.

  “You were sitting on this filthy floor when you were reading minds during the Zak crisis.” He gestured at the floor of the room. “You’re a little bit grubby, Amber.”

  Was I? Lucas was looking directly at me, so I took the easy option of linking to his mind to see the view from his eyes. I winced. My clothes were a blueish-grey, pale enough to make a dramatic contrast with the large smears of dirt from the floor. I must have put my grimy hands over my eyes when I was using my telepathy, because there were handprints on my face.

  “Lucas carried Amber out into the corridor,” said Gideon, “so he got a bit grubby too.”

  Lucas’s clothes were a darker colour than mine, so I had to look closely to see the smears of dirt.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “When I got the warning itch, I was in such a frantic hurry to find out who was in trouble that I didn’t think before sitting on the floor.”

  “Don’t apologize, Amber,” said Adika, in a harsh voice. “You should never apologize for concentrating on saving lives.”

  “That’s right.” Megan’s voice was shaking.

  “When you and Lucas change into your outdoor clothing, you should put on your heavy-duty combat armour under your jackets,” added Adika.

  I blinked. I’d been given a set of heavy-duty combat armour when our unit went operational, but never worn it before.

  I was still linked to Lucas’s mind, and expected to see him shocked too, but he’d guessed Adika would insist on taking this precaution. The top levels of his thoughts were busy analyzing the voices speaking on the crystal comms.

  Zak’s alive, and hopefully will make a full recovery, but all of us will be suffering from reaction for days, weeks, or even longer. Even the Strike team will be filled with horror at the thought of a death they’d no chance to fight, no chance to …

  … can hear it in Megan’s voice, in Adika’s voice, and having to fight to stop my own voice betraying it too. Could have been any of us lying down to sleep and never waking up again. Could have been me. Could have been Amber. No! I can’t afford to think about what would have happened if …

  Waste it! If this hits our Strike team leader this hard, hits me this hard, how will the ordinary members of our unit be feeling? Cleaners like Hannah, electrical specialists like Sakshi, should never be in a position where they’re in physical danger. I should have refused to bring them with …

  … except the reality is Gold Commander Melisande was right. All the support staff who keep our unit operating back at the Hive are needed even more here. We can’t achieve anything without …

  Down near the subconscious, thought trains flared red.

  It’s not just our target that’s a threat to us, but the population of the sea farm as well. The potential for mass violence is …

  I don’t know what I’m doing. This isn’t my world. This isn’t my Hive. These aren’t my rules. I can’t keep everyone here, endangering their lives when I don’t know what I’m doing. I can’t take them back to the Hive, because if we run away now …

  Lucas was fighting his fear and uncertainty, and I didn’t know how to help him. All the doubts his subconscious was throwing at him were based on solid reality. He didn’t understand the rules of this world. None of us did. We’d barely been at the sea farm for an hour, and already someone had nearly died.

  We couldn’t go back to the Hive though. We’d made too dramatic an entrance. If the people of the sea farm saw us turn and run now, there’d be a mass panic, with everyone fading into the countryside. Our Hive would be sanctioned, Morton would die, and the fate of the twenty million people in Purple and Violet Zones would depend on the slim chance of a new telepath being found in the next Lottery.

  We had no choice here. Lucas knew that.
I knew that. Everyone in our unit knew that. We had to stay at the sea farm. We had to carry on with our work. We had to hunt down our target whatever the danger.

  I tried to fill my voice with inspiring confidence and spoke on the crystal comms. “We came here to hunt down our target. We can do that. We will do that.”

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Lucas and his Tactical team headed to inspect the operations room, while I retreated to a minuscule apartment where the walls were still damp after being cleaned. The shower cubicle was even more basic than the one I’d had in my room on Teen Level, and the water was cold. I settled for taking the crystal unit from my ear, and washing in a small basin.

  It took three bowls of water to get myself properly clean, and then I inspected the row of crates in the main room. The green ones contained my possessions, and the blue ones belonged to Lucas. I found my combat armour and the special clothing designed for the conditions Outside, and fought my way into them. When I put my crystal unit back in my ear, I heard Lucas speaking on the crystal comms.

  “Can I have a status report from the other team leaders? Adika?”

  “We’ve unloaded all the supplies from the aircraft now. The Beta team are on guard duty, and the Alpha team are ready to head down to the seawall. We’ve even persuaded Forge to put his nosy mask on.”

  “Only the guilty have anything to fear,” said a horribly distorted voice on the crystal comms.

  “As you can hear, Forge is making us suffer for that,” added Adika.

  “Megan?” prompted Lucas.

  “Most of the rooms are clean now, but the electricians are struggling with the ancient electrical wiring. It isn’t compatible with some of our more power-hungry devices, like the kitchen units.”

  “I’m sure you’ll find a way to solve the problem,” said Lucas.

  “I may not be here to solve it,” said Megan. “Rafael has just called me from the Hive. Zak has been admitted to a specialist medical facility in Yellow Zone, and his doctors say he should make a full recovery, but Rafael is worried because they mentioned some possible complications.”

  She paused. “Rafael asked if he could stay with Zak to keep an eye on the situation rather than returning to the sea farm. I told Rafael I’d consult with Adika and call him back with a decision, but I’ve thought things over and feel I should fly back to the Hive to monitor Zak’s recovery myself. Rafael’s imprint only includes emergency medical care.”

  I frowned. Was Zak genuinely likely to suffer complications in his recovery, or was Rafael exaggerating the danger so he could stay with him?

  “Surely Zak is surrounded by specialist doctors,” said Lucas. “What would you be able to do for him that they can’t, Megan?”

  “Not very much,” said Megan, in a guilt-ridden voice, “but I still feel I should keep a personal eye on him. The risk of complications should be remote, but Zak has already suffered from one failure of care on my part.”

  Now I was sure Rafael had been exaggerating the danger. I’d interfered once, arranging for Rafael to go to the Hive with Zak. I wasn’t sure whether that had been a good idea or not – any happiness they had in being together now might be paid for with unhappiness in future – so I kept quiet this time.

  “Rafael has already offered to stay with Zak,” said Lucas, “so I think it’s unnecessary for you to fly back to the Hive yourself, Megan. We need your organizational skills here, or nobody will get anything to eat tonight.”

  “Lucas is right.” Adika’s speed in agreeing with Lucas betrayed his personal interest in Megan staying at the sea farm. “Rafael is intelligent and reliable. He can stay with Zak and relay any concerns about his wellbeing to Megan. Having both Rafael and Zak out of action means the Alpha team will be down to sixteen men, which is below the acceptable operational minimum, but I can temporarily transfer one of the Beta team.”

  “That’s settled then,” said Lucas. “Nicole, what’s Liaison’s status?”

  “We accidentally discovered that swapping over the faulty screen with one of the others meant they both worked,” said Nicole happily. “Nobody understands why that cured the fault, but it means we’ve got our full number of working positions and have been able to make considerable progress. We’ve established our link into the sea farm systems, and are compiling the lists of people you requested. We’ve also just received the initial analysis report on the substance used on the bed.”

  “That’s a remarkably quick response from the experts at the Hive,” said Lucas.

  “It’s a remarkably quick response because this is the same chemical that was used in the first sea farm murder,” said Nicole grimly.

  “The first sea farm murder was of a woman called Hazel,” said Lucas. “She died from eating poisoned food, not breathing poisoned air.”

  “Yes,” said Nicole. “The analysis report says this chemical is poisonous when eaten and also has highly poisonous fumes. There was only one round patch on Zak’s mattress, about the same size as a small plate. The other mattresses we sent tested negative.”

  “Does the report give any information about when Zak’s mattress was poisoned?” asked Lucas.

  “There’s an incomprehensible technical section about the speed the chemical gives off fumes. The report summary says that means the mattress must have been treated with the chemical less than two hours before Zak was poisoned.”

  “It wasn’t a random attack then, but aimed specifically at us.” Lucas was silent for a moment before speaking again. “Why would such a dangerous chemical be kept at the sea farm?”

  “It’s used to give severely injured or sick animals a rapid, peaceful death,” said Nicole.

  Adika said a single, highly obscene word.

  “Amber is listening to the crystal comms,” said Megan meaningfully.

  “I apologize for using offensive language,” said Adika, “but the idea of our target treating one of my men like a sick animal that has to be …”

  I hastily interrupted him. “I’m not worried about people using strong words in an extreme situation like this.”

  “Nicole, the sea farm must surely keep detailed records of stocks of such a dangerous chemical,” said Lucas. “Do we know how our target got hold of a supply?”

  “Yes,” said Nicole. “Four bottles of this chemical had been ordered as part of a shipment of veterinary supplies from the Hive. The crates of supplies were brought to the sea farm by a transport aircraft on the day before Hazel’s murder, and then taken to the main veterinary centre in High Fold. When the crates were unpacked, there were only three bottles of this chemical.”

  She paused. “At first, people weren’t sure if too few bottles had been packed at the Hive, or one had gone missing. Once Hazel died though, it was clear the bottle had been stolen.”

  “Would all of this chemical have been used in poisoning Hazel and Zak,” asked Lucas, “or will the target still have a supply left?”

  “Just give us a moment to ask the experts about that,” said Nicole.

  There was a short wait before she spoke again. “Unfortunately, it’s likely the target still has half of the bottle left.”

  Lucas groaned. “So we need to be prepared for further poisoning attacks. Can you collate some information on our two murder victims, Hazel and Treeve, as well as the Admiral’s wife, Tressa?”

  “I’m looking up information on Tressa right now,” said Nicole briskly. “Unfortunately, the sea farm systems are mostly limited to basics like birth dates, marriage dates, work assignments, and housing allocations.”

  If Nicole was looking up information on the sea farm systems, this was my chance to find out more about Celandine as well. I sat down on a crate, took out my dataview, saw an unfamiliar symbol on the screen, and tapped on it.

  I was bewildered by the display that appeared, but just needed to reach out to Nicole’s mind for a moment to learn how to search for references to a person. Information on Celandine flooded my dataview screen, but none of it made any sense.
Morton had said that his wife died nearly four decades ago. She couldn’t be attending a school, working in one of the glasshouses, or being treated for a fever today.

  There was more than one person called Tressa at the sea farm, and there must be several different Celandines too. I limited my search to the birth date I’d seen in the records from Morton’s unit, but now all the information vanished. I tried again with a range of birth dates spanning ten years, but still there was nothing.

  I frowned, closed my dataview, and put it in my pocket. According to the records of Morton’s unit, Celandine had been among a group of suspects that the sea farm sent to the Hive. According to the sea farm records, Celandine had never existed. Someone had erased every reference to Celandine from the sea farm records, and the reason for that was obvious.

  The Hive must have learned Morton was responsible for Celandine’s death, but telepaths were so rare, so precious, so irreplaceable that he hadn’t been held accountable for his actions. Instead, the Hive had protected him from the consequences. Someone had been sent to the sea farm to blot out every record of Celandine’s existence. Only a single list of suspects in the records of Morton’s own unit had been forgotten.

  I was still thinking that discovery through when Lucas entered the apartment. I saw him turn off the crystal unit in his ear, and then point at mine.

  I turned off my crystal unit too. “Why are we turning off the comms?”

  “So I can talk to you in private while I change my clothes. You’ve remembered your gun?”

  “I’m wearing it under my jacket.”

  Lucas stripped off the clothes he was wearing, opened a crate, and took out his outdoor clothing. “I’ll be wearing my gun too,” he said grimly. “We’re heading into an unpredictable situation. If things become violent, the first thing you have to do is pull up the hood of your combat armour to protect your head.”

  I reached my right hand over my shoulder to check the position of the ridge of material that was my combat armour hood.

  “My Tactical team has prepared a detailed evacuation plan,” continued Lucas. “Making the broadcast at the seawall will put me at the centre of any mass violence, and I may have to join in the fighting. You’ve refused to evacuate from a danger area before when I was in trouble, but you mustn’t do that this time.”