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Megan murmured some soothing words to Wesley, and then we all rejoined the bodyguards in the corridor.
“You don’t have to read Gregas’s mind, Amber,” said Megan. “You’ve seen enough to make it clear we’ll need to reset Wesley’s memories, so we’ll have to do the same for your brother.”
“It isn’t at all clear that we’ll need to reset Wesley’s memories,” I said. “All that he and the Captain saw was a man carrying a hammer in a maintenance crawl way. They only ran away from him because they were afraid of being caught trespassing. If we tell them the man was a maintenance worker using a hammer to do some repair work, then they’ll believe us.”
“That’s true,” said Buzz, “but what you saw in Wesley’s mind suggests that Gregas had a greater interaction with the wild bee. It would be deeply troubling, perhaps even dangerous, for you to share your brother’s experience of a traumatic event. Is it really worth taking so large a risk to save his memory of the last couple of days?”
“Our memories are an integral part of our personalities,” I said. “I can’t let Gregas’s memories be tampered with unless I’m absolutely sure it’s necessary. Besides, the next time Gregas and Wesley meet their group leader, he’s bound to mention the wild bee and ask if they got away safely.”
“Gregas and Wesley aren’t likely to meet the Captain again,” said Megan. “We can reset their minds to soon after they entered the air vents, and then tell them they went trespassing in a maintenance area and had a serious fall that caused head injuries and memory loss. They won’t want to play Blue Upway again after that.”
“We can’t assume that,” I said. “Having a serious accident would be enough to prevent any teen with basic common sense from playing Blue Upway again, but neither my brother nor Wesley has any common sense at all.”
Megan developed the thoughtful expression of someone remembering their own time on Teen Level. “And even the most sensible teens can be influenced into doing foolish things. You’re right that we have to assume Wesley and Gregas will meet the Captain again. That means we’ll need to locate the Captain and remove his memory of the encounter too.”
“You’re suggesting doing all this to save me from the stress of reading Gregas’s mind,” I said, “but there’s a big flaw in your logic. If I don’t read Gregas’s thoughts, and you remove the memories of what happened from everyone involved, it will only make me suffer worse and never-ending stress. Lucas must surely have worked that out.”
“Yes, I’ve worked that out,” said Lucas. “We can remove all knowledge of Gregas’s encounter with a wild bee from his mind, Wesley’s mind, the Captain’s mind, and in theory from the minds of everyone in our unit. What we can’t do is remove it from Amber’s mind, because tampering with the mind of a telepath can damage their abilities.”
He paused. “If Amber doesn’t read Gregas’s mind now, then she’ll spend the rest of her life wondering exactly what happened to him. Every time she’s on an emergency run where a wild bee encounters a bystander, she’ll be imagining those events happening to Gregas.”
Buzz gave him a startled look. “Lucas is right. It’s better to live with one unpleasant truth than a thousand nightmare possibilities, so I agree that Amber has to read Gregas’s mind.”
Megan sighed and led the way on to the next holding cell. Adika and the bodyguards waited outside again as the rest of us went through the door. The room was identical to the last one, except for the crucial point that the boy on the couch wasn’t Wesley but Gregas.
My brother looked curiously vulnerable lying there with his eyes closed. A forgotten childhood memory awakened of my first sight of newborn Gregas, and how he’d kept impatiently kicking off the tiny socks he was wearing.
Megan repeated the same words as before, with just the name changed. “Gregas, I want you to think about what happened when you went into the air vents. There’s no need for you to be afraid. You’re in a perfectly safe place with me, just thinking through past events.”
Lucas dragged a chair nearer to me, and I sat down. I’d hesitated before reading Wesley’s mind, and studied its shape and texture. I just closed my eyes and dived straight into Gregas’s thoughts though, eager to get the ordeal over with as fast as possible. I found Gregas reliving a memory sequence, its events both identical and glaringly different to those I’d seen in Wesley’s mind.
“The game group is entering the air vent inspection hatch,” I said. “Gregas isn’t fantasizing, so I’m seeing the Captain go in first, then Wesley, and finally Gregas. They’re crawling on through the air vent now. Gregas keeps stopping to peer into side turnings and inspect the alcoves with the ladders running up and down. He gets left behind and has to chase after the others.”
I shook my head. “Everything seems very unfamiliar to Gregas. He may have been somewhere with a game group before, but not in a maintenance area. He’s torn between fear and enjoyment. The maintenance mesh is uncomfortable beneath his hands and knees, and the air blowing through the vent is cold. Gregas is thinking that he should wear thicker clothes next time he does this.”
“That’s a surprisingly practical reaction,” said Lucas.
“Gregas can be very practical about some things,” I said. “Free food, for example.”
Lucas laughed.
“There’s some conversation that wasn’t in Wesley’s memories,” I added. “The Captain seems to be feeling guilty about taking Wesley and Gregas into the vent system. He’s doing his best to help them cope by explaining things. Telling them that you need a special tool to open an air vent cover from the inside, and warning them that some air vents have dangers like sudden drops.”
“If the Captain is feeling guilty about this, why has he taken Gregas and Wesley into the maintenance areas at all?” asked Lucas.
I shrugged. “He said something about the Game Commander offering bonus points for taking low-ranked players in there.”
Lucas made a despairing sound. “So that’s why we’re getting this rush of game players in maintenance areas.”
“I think the group must be getting close to where they meet the wild bee,” I said. “The emotional overtones of the memory sequence are changing like they did with Wesley. Gregas is clearly anticipating what’s about to happen next, but there’s an oddity. With Wesley, the emotions shifted from glorious adventure to something ominous. With Gregas, the shift is from curiosity to tense excitement, and ...”
I broke off that sentence and started another. “The Captain has just whispered that he can see someone further down the air vent. Gregas can’t see anything ahead because both the Captain and Wesley are in the way. Now the wild bee must be coming towards them, because there’s the same sound of a strange male voice shouting as before, and the Captain is yelling orders about climbing a ladder.”
I paused. “There’s a lot of clanging going on. Now the Captain’s out of view up the ladder, but Gregas can hear his voice calling down to Wesley, swearing at him and telling him to move. Wesley’s climbing the ladder now, and Gregas gets his first view of the wild bee.”
I gasped. “I’ve got this strong visual image. A man in torn party clothes, with blood on his face and carrying a hammer. It’s frozen there in Gregas’s mind as if time halted for a while.”
“That’s unfortunate,” said Lucas. “The sight of the wild bee made such a strong impression on Gregas that he’s never going to believe the man was a maintenance worker.”
“Time is moving again,” I said sharply. “The man’s too close to the ladder. Gregas knows he won’t be able to reach it without being grabbed. Gregas turns and crawls back along the air vent. He can hear the man chasing after him. He needs to find another ladder. He needs to find another ladder. He needs to find another ladder.”
I could hear my own voice rising in hysteria, and Buzz spoke sharply. “Amber, you should stop this now.”
“I can’t stop now!” I shouted. “I can see the next ladder. I mean, Gregas can see the next ladder. He’s reached the ladder now, he’s climbing it, but the man’s following him. The sound of his movements and his breathing is getting closer.”
** Insight**
He wants to kill me. He’s got longer arms than me, so he’s climbing faster. He’s going to catch me before I reach the top of this ladder, then he’s going to kill me. I have to ...
“My brother just had an insight into the mind of the wild bee!” I said in disbelief. “Gregas knows the man wants to kill him, but he isn’t trying to get away any longer. He isn’t climbing. He isn’t even thinking. I don’t understand ...”
There weren’t any thoughts in Gregas’s head at all now. It was his body that was doing the thinking as he wrapped his arms around the sides of the ladder and gripped the rungs tightly. He glanced down at the man who was right behind him now, saw the hand reaching towards him, and made one sharp motion with his right leg.
“Waste that!” I said.
“What happened, Amber?” asked Lucas.
“My baby brother just kicked a wild bee in the head and made him fall off the ladder,” I said incredulously. “Gregas is climbing again now. He’s made it to the top of the ladder, and got across to a larger maintenance crawl way.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “Gregas was panicking earlier, but now his mind is calm and focused. He takes one rapid look back down the ladder, but there’s no sign of the wild bee following him. He needs to find the rest of his group, and that means heading west. He checks the maintenance codes on the wall, and goes west along the maintenance crawl way, hoping to meet the ladder that the Captain and Wesley climbed. Yes, he can see Wesley ahead of him!”
I paused. “Gregas just had a moment of tense excitement. That’s the emotion that was puzzling me earlier. It was coming from this point in the memory sequence. Now Gregas reaches Wesley. He hugs him and asks where the Captain has gone. Wesley still looks terrified. He points down the crawl way, and Gregas yells at him to get moving.”
“Gregas is handling this surprisingly well,” said Lucas thoughtfully.
“He was, but he’s getting worried now,” I said. “Gregas and Wesley are going down the crawl way, but there’s no sign of the Captain. Gregas can’t remember the way back to the air vent inspection hatch, and Wesley’s no help at all. Gregas knows they won’t be able to get out of any other air vents because they don’t have one of the special tools to open them from inside. He ...”
I heard a clanging sound, and was swept up by Gregas’s alarmed reaction. “There’s the sound of someone climbing a ladder. It’s coming from below and getting closer. It could be the man with the hammer. Gregas is whispering to Wesley, trying to get him moving to safety, but then he sees someone getting off a ladder and entering the crawl way.”
I gasped. “It isn’t the wild bee, and it isn’t just one person coming. There’s two of them. No, three of them. All coming towards Gregas and Wesley. Gregas has worked out they must belong to Law Enforcement. He’s telling Wesley that they have to give themselves up, but they mustn’t say anything at all about what happened. Gregas doesn’t know how badly he hurt the man with the hammer, and he’s thinking they’re both going to get in a huge amount of trouble.”
I left Gregas’s mind, and opened my eyes. “The three people coming towards Gregas and Wesley were obviously members of Mira’s Strike team, so we know what happened after that.”
I sat back in my chair and pulled a stunned face. “What happened to Gregas wasn’t nearly as bad as I feared. As you said, Lucas, Gregas handled things surprisingly well, but ...”
I gave a despairing shake of my head. “Gregas had an insight into the mind of the wild bee. My brother is a borderline telepath!”
