| |
––––––––
“Going circuit.” I left Alvin’s mind and stared at the right-hand list of names on the screen of my dataview. I began chanting each name in turn, briefly linking to the person’s thoughts to check they were safe, and then tapping their name to send it to the bottom of the list.
“Adika.” I sprinted out of the lift onto a broad platform, blinked at the brightness of the lights, and took the metal walkway heading straight ahead. Thankfully these were safer walkways than many, with metal mesh sides that reached to above head height. We could safely stun our target without worrying about him falling to his death or ...
“Rothan.” The medical staff were studying the view of the Captain’s arm from my camera. I hoped they wouldn’t ask me to ...
“Eli.” I stood impatiently next to the light controls. Adika had said I should wait for sixty seconds before moving, in case they needed any lights adjusting, but ...
“Jalen.” I was climbing my ladder at top speed, but I knew I was still lagging behind the others. I wasn’t as experienced, as fast, or as strong as them, and I couldn’t use the excuse that I’d only just been moved from the Beta team to the Alpha team to defend myself. Strike team members should never make excuses for ...
“Dhiren.” Rothan and Rafael were busy giving medical treatment to the Captain, while Caleb and I were on guard duty. There were five standard routes our target could use to reach this tank – three walkways and two ladders – but it might be possible to ...
“Kaden.” I could see Alvin ahead of me, but he was out of my reach on a walkway that crossed the sheer drop between two other tanks. The mesh sides of the walkway blocked me from shooting him and ...
“Warwick.” I arrived at the top of my ladder, stepped forward onto a tank, and saw Alvin running along a walkway. I’d never attracted Adika’s attention for being especially good or bad at anything, but my best skill was marksmanship. I finally had the chance to impress him.
Alvin reached the end of the walkway and stepped clear of its protective mesh sides. I had my gun aimed ready to shoot him on stun, but he seemed to vanish at the crucial moment. I sprinted forward to the edge of my tank and peered downwards. Alvin was standing on a small platform that was plummeting towards floor level. There was far too much equipment between us for me to get a successful shot at him.
“Target is using some sort of small lift to reach floor level,” I, Warwick, said.
“What?” yelled Adika on the crystal comms. “How? The plans don’t show any lifts by the tanks.”
“It’s probably one of the hoist arrangements used to lift heavy tools and materials up to the top of the tanks,” said Nicole. “They aren’t intended for human use, but a small man could ride one.”
“Level Zero.” Adika’s tone of voice made the words into an obscenity. “Lucas, we’re all stuck up on the walkways. It will take us time to catch up with Alvin.”
“We have a target breakaway,” said Lucas calmly. “Amber, abandon circuit and link to Alvin again.”
Adika was giving a torrent of orders to his men. I pulled out of Warwick’s frustrated mind and searched for Alvin again.
“Target is at floor level now,” I said. “He’s one cor west of me and running further west.”
... find somewhere safe to hide. Have to find somewhere safe to hide. Have to ...
Alvin’s thoughts were looping in fear. I couldn’t learn anything useful from them, so I focused on the view from his eyes. He could see the open inspection hatch ahead of him now. A moment later, he dropped down into the darkness.
“Alvin has reached the inspection hatch he used earlier, and entered a maintenance crawl way,” I said. “He’s two cors west of me now but is moving back east. There’s plenty of headroom, and Alvin regularly uses this route to reach air vents, so he’s moving quickly. I think there used to be motion-activated lighting in there, but he’s disabled it so people wouldn’t see the betraying glimmer of light coming from their air vents.”
“I’ll be at the inspection hatch in thirty seconds,” panted Adika. “Eli, there’s another inspection hatch to the east. Get there to block Alvin’s escape route and ...”
“On my way,” said Eli’s voice.
There was a long pause with only the sound of laboured breathing on the comms. Alvin was gasping for breath too.
“Alvin is just north of my position now,” I said, “and ...”
I broke off my sentence. The blur of fear in Alvin’s mind had suddenly vanished, and the thought trains were moving logically again.
The head of Hive Politics is at work now. No one will think of looking for me inside his apartment. I just need to put the air vent cover back in place behind me and ...
“Alvin’s heading for this apartment,” I cried. “He’s been in here before. He’s made an entrance through an air vent in the bookette room.”
“Bodyguard formation two attack, three defence!” screamed Matias.
He tugged me out of my chair, thrust me against the wall, then plastered his body against mine so Alvin’s knife would have to go through him to reach me.
I opened my eyes. I was Amber, seeing two of my other bodyguards sprint out of the door, before slamming it shut behind them. I was Alvin kneeling in the darkness, using the tool that would open the air vent from his side.
“Alvin’s got the air vent open,” I reported. “He’s coming through it now, and dropping to the floor.”
“Amber, get out of Alvin’s mind now!” ordered Lucas. “Bodyguard team, deadly force authorized.”
Alvin saw two men hurtle through the doorway of the bookette room, their guns aimed at him.
No chance. No chance. No chance at all.
“Don’t shoot!” I shouted. “Don’t shoot. Alvin’s surrendering.”
The part of me that was Alvin dropped the knife, fell to my knees, and started crying. Hands were grabbing me, putting something around my wrists, and tying them together behind my back. I didn’t know what they’d do to me. I didn’t care what they’d do to me. My whole life had been destroyed, and the worst thing was that I knew I was the one who’d destroyed it.
“Target secure,” chorused the two bodyguards in unison.
I pulled away from the despairing Alvin, and became wholly Amber again. The warm intimacy of Matias’s body against mine was broken as he stepped away, and Nicole’s voice spoke on the crystal comms.
“If the immediate danger is over, I’d better warn you that we’re now the lead news story on Hive channel 1.”
