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There was more than the usual amount of tidying up to do after the emergency run. Alvin had to be handed over to a team of forensic psychologists for treatment, and we needed to deal with the three bystanders as well. Lucas said we could just let the Lieutenant go, but the boy who was terrified of the dark was so traumatized that he needed a standard psychological team to come and take him for therapy.
I had serious reservations about tampering with someone’s memories, but I could see that it might be the best option in the boy’s case. If his memory was reset a few hours, unravelling his personal experience chain to before he went into Level Zero, then he could be spared months or even years of nightmares.
The injured Captain was the biggest problem. Red group had to finish giving him the blood transfusion before they could carry him across the aerial walkways to meet a medical team.
While they were doing that, my bodyguards escorted me to meet the rest of the Strike team in a nearby lift. Liaison had sent everyone a recording of the Hive channel 1 news coverage, so we all watched that on our dataviews. The game group had been too busy running away from Alvin for the Captain to take any pictures of him, so the coverage began with several seconds of almost purely black images taken on top of the tank, while the Captain gabbled about them being attacked.
After that, came a recording of Lucas’s call, and then a sequence showing a shadowy red group descending on ropes, while a presenter gushed about the heroism of Hive Security. Finally, a Health and Safety representative gave a stern warning about the perils of trespassing in forbidden areas, and the recording ended.
There was a long silence before Adika spoke in apocalyptic tones. “This run was a humiliating disaster. Everything possible went wrong.”
I caught myself linking to Adika’s mind, but stopped, and firmly pulled down the curtain on my telepathic senses. It would be a huge mistake to read Adika’s thoughts when he was in this mood.
“It isn’t true that everything possible went wrong,” said Lucas’s voice on the crystal comms. “The precious surfboard was completely undamaged.”
“This is no time for jokes,” snapped Adika.
“I’m not entirely joking,” said Lucas. “I’ve called Senior Ambassador Elliott to break the news that he’s had someone spying on him and entering his apartment while he was out. He just commented that was very obsessive behaviour, and checked that the person wouldn’t have been able to access the reinforced central area of his apartment.”
I’d shaken off Alvin’s viewpoint of events, so reacted to that as myself. “What?” I asked incredulously. “Senior Ambassador Elliott didn’t care about having someone roaming around the rest of his apartment?”
“I suspect he’s had trouble with obsessive people before, and is resigned to this sort of thing happening occasionally,” said Lucas. “The man’s extremely good looking and charismatic. I can understand Lottery selecting people with those characteristics for senior positions in Hive Politics – they’re bound to be an advantage in negotiations with other Hives – but good looks and charisma can attract some unwanted attention.”
“We’re fortunate that Senior Ambassador Elliott isn’t making a fuss about this,” said Adika, “though I think he should fire his bodyguards for not checking the bookette room air vent was secure.”
“That air vent was perfectly secure until last month,” I said. “It took Alvin hours to cut his way through the reinforced bars protecting it.”
“I carry out daily security checks of your apartment,” said Adika.
I frowned. I hadn’t known Adika did security checks that often. When Lucas and I were out, Hannah sneaked into our apartment to clean up my mess. I supposed that Adika must be doing the same thing, and hoped it was after Hannah had done the cleaning. I had a bad habit of leaving clothes lying on the bedroom floor.
“Senior Ambassador Elliott’s calm reaction doesn’t change the fact that was a disastrous run,” continued Adika.
“I agree the run went badly,” said Lucas. “It’s deeply embarrassing having to go public with an enemy agent story to cover up an incident. Telepath Units have to keep that explanation for a last resort, because using it too often makes it look as if enemy agents are constantly strolling around the Hive.”
He paused. “I’m just pointing out that it could have been far worse. Senior Ambassador Elliott isn’t complaining about us catching the wild bee inside his apartment. We had to use the enemy agent story, but we made it appear that Hive Security was devastatingly efficient, only delaying catching the enemy agent to ensure the safety of some irresponsible teens trespassing in Level Zero. My comments about nosies also supported the myth that they’re genuine telepaths checking for criminal thoughts.”
Adika clearly didn’t find this comforting. “Going public with an enemy agent story is a serious failing, but nothing in comparison to letting a target reach the telepath’s location. I spent ten years as a Strike team member in Mira’s Telepath Unit, and seven years as a deputy Strike team leader in Morton’s Telepath Unit. I’ve never known an emergency run go this horribly wrong.”
“You’re exaggerating, Adika,” said Lucas. “I only came out of Lottery three years ago, and I can think of a dozen runs that were far worse.”
“That’s because you spent those three years working for Keith,” said Adika, in a withering tone. “Everyone knows that Keith’s intermittent telepathy and personality problems combine to make a lot of his emergency runs descend into chaos.”
“This is my fault,” I said miserably. “I didn’t warn you that Alvin was heading for my location until far too late. All his thought levels kept repeating the same words over and over again; that he needed to find a safe place to hide. I didn’t realize until the last moment that he wasn’t thinking about finding a safe place in general, but about hiding in the apartment of the head of Hive Politics.”
“This wasn’t your fault, Amber,” said Lucas hastily.
“Absolutely not your fault,” said Adika. “Chase team allowed a target to break away and reach our telepath’s location. We were in the last resort situation of her bodyguards capturing the target. Total incompetence.”
He sighed. “Lucas, does your Tactical team have a holo recreation of what happened during the target breakaway?”
“Yes,” said Lucas. “The location was so complicated, with all the tanks and aerial walkways, that Hallie had a real-time holo recreation running in the Tactical office.”
“I’d like Hallie to send me that holo recreation,” said Adika. “I’ll watch it as soon as we get back, then the Alpha Strike team will meet in the gym to have a detailed discussion of what went wrong.”
The Strike team members exchanged apprehensive looks. We all knew that when Adika said they were going to have a detailed discussion, he actually meant he was going to yell at them.
“I assume that Tobias is still listening to the crystal comms,” added Adika, in a menacing voice. “Although he wasn’t on this run, I particularly want him to be present during our discussion.”
“Remember that we’re having a team leader meeting immediately after the run,” said Lucas mildly.
Adika snorted. “When the team leader meeting finishes, I’ll meet with the Alpha Strike team. Rothan, why is that blood transfusion taking so long?”
“The blood transfusion has now completed,” said Rothan. “We’ve handed our patient over to the medical team, and are precisely ten seconds away from joining you in the lift.”
“Really?” asked Adika suspiciously. He started counting down from ten, and opened the lift doors as he reached zero.
“Really.” Rothan led red group into the lift.
Adika gave him a frustrated look, and closed the doors again. We had a short lift ride, and then a tensely silent trip on an express belt, followed by another lift ride up to our unit. When the doors opened, I saw Lucas standing at the front of the crowd waiting to welcome us back. He stepped forward to put an arm around me, and gazed anxiously down at my face.
“If you’re too tired for a team leader meeting, Amber, then ...”
I interrupted him. “We’ll go ahead with the meeting. I know you wouldn’t have suggested holding it straight after our run unless it was vitally important.”
I hesitated, unsure whether to ask Lucas what the meeting was about or read his thoughts, but was distracted by the sight of Zak appearing from the crowd and hurrying towards Rafael. I watched uneasily as the two of them had a rapid whispered exchange and looked across at Adika. They surely weren’t planning to ...
I winced as I saw the two of them embrace and share a passionate kiss.
