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Megan, Lucas, and I went back into the room where Gregas was lying on a couch. Megan towed the technical display across to a corner of the room, removed the metal blobs from Gregas’s forehead, and then whispered something in his ear.
“I’ve got Gregas counting down to waking up from the hypnotics,” she said before leaving the room.
Lucas and I sat down in a couple of chairs to wait. It was another minute before Gregas’s eyes opened. He stared up at the ceiling with a confused expression on his face, then sat up and looked around the room. When he saw Lucas and me, he gave a despairing groan.
“When Wesley and I got dragged across the Hive to Orange Zone, I guessed we were being brought to your unit.”
I smiled. “Good morning, Gregas. It’s nice to see you too.”
He frowned. “It’s morning already? What happened when Wesley and I got here? I remember some sort of doctor talking to us but then ... I must have fallen asleep.”
“We let you rest until now because Amber was busy,” said Lucas.
“Busy sorting out the problems you’ve caused,” I added gloomily.
“Don’t do it, Amber,” said Gregas sharply.
“Don’t do what?” I asked.
“Don’t give me a long lecture about getting arrested.”
“I wasn’t going to lecture you about getting arrested,” I said. “Given your situation at the time, getting arrested was your safest option. It meant that you had a lot of highly trained people to protect you if the man on the ladder recovered from his fall and came after you again.”
“Recovered from his fall,” Gregas repeated my words nervously. “You know about me knocking him off the ladder. I suppose the Security Unit that arrested Wesley and me brought in a nosy to read our minds.”
I didn’t trust myself to say a word at this point, so I just nodded.
Gregas made a retching noise. “I was afraid they’d bring in a nosy, but ... I didn’t hurt the man too badly, did I?”
“No, the man was arrested too, and only had a few bumps and bruises.”
Gregas gave a sigh of relief. “That’s all right then.”
“It’s far from all right. I said that I wasn’t going to lecture you about getting arrested. I’m not going to lecture you about knocking that man off the ladder either. If you hadn’t done that, then he’d have hurt you, and possibly hurt Wesley too.”
“That man really was dangerous then?” asked Gregas anxiously. “I know this will sound as silly as Wesley’s boasting stories, but ... When I was climbing the ladder, I had a sudden overwhelming feeling that the man chasing me was dangerous. That’s why I kicked him in the head like that. I felt sure that he was going to kill me if he caught me.”
“The man was an extremely dangerous enemy agent,” I said. “You were perfectly right to defend yourself.”
“An enemy agent!” Gregas blinked. “What was he doing in our Hive?”
Lucas took out his dataview. “Most of the details are classified, but we can play you a Hive Channel 1 news report about an incident that our unit handled yesterday.”
Lucas projected the news report onto the white wall of the room. Gregas watched the incomprehensibly black images at the start of the news report with a confused look on his face. Then he heard the voice gabbling about being attacked, and gasped. His forehead creased in concentration as he listened to Lucas’s call, and watched the shadowy figures of red group coming down their ropes. When the report ended, Lucas put away his dataview.
“A game group was in a maintenance area, got in the way of an enemy agent, and one of them was stabbed,” Gregas said tensely. “You showed me that news report because the same thing happened to my game group, but we were lucky and got away unhurt.”
“That’s right,” said Lucas.
“Why was an enemy agent wearing torn party clothes?” asked Gregas.
“That’s classified information,” said Lucas. “We’ve been able to tell you this much because we know we can trust you with Hive secrets. It’s best for Wesley and your game group leader to believe you were just chased by a maintenance worker though.”
“I agree,” said Gregas. “Wesley can’t resist gossiping about anything exciting, and I’ve no idea if our game group leader is trustworthy because I’ve only met him twice.”
“That’s settled then,” I said. “Now, please don’t interpret this as me lecturing you, but you made a bad mistake when you gave a false name and identity code to the people who arrested you.”
“I gave a false name and identity code because I didn’t want you dragged into the situation,” said Gregas.
“That’s exactly what I’m complaining about,” I said. “I’m your sister, Gregas. If you get in trouble, then I want to be able to help you. Promise me that if this sort of thing ever happens again, you’ll give your proper name and identity code at once. Lying about them meant there was a long delay before I found out you’d been arrested, and that caused major problems.”
“You’re right,” said Gregas. “If you’d got involved earlier than I wouldn’t have had a nosy rummaging around my brain.”
I was grateful when Lucas replied to that for me. “The delay has caused other problems as well.”
“What problems?” asked Gregas warily.
“Wesley didn’t show up for his weekly visit home yesterday,” I said, “so his parents discovered he was missing.”
“Oops,” said Gregas.
“This morning, Wesley’s parents discovered you were missing too, and told our parents,” I continued.
Gregas made a despairing sound. “When Mother and Father find out I was arrested, they’ll lecture me for the rest of my life.”
“They aren’t going to find out about you being arrested,” I said quickly. “My Liaison team leader has arranged a cover story to keep what happened a secret from them. She’ll be here in a minute to take you next door to join Wesley. She’ll then explain the cover story to both of you. I’m afraid it’s heavily based on some of Wesley’s past problems, so you’ll have to admit to having done some rather silly things.”
“Well, I suppose it’s true that I haven’t been entirely sensible.”
I desperately wanted to say that Gregas hadn’t been remotely sensible, but heroically kept quiet.
“You’ll also have to watch some educational bookettes on seagulls,” added Lucas.
“Educational bookettes on seagulls?” Gregas stared at him. “Why?”
Lucas stood up. “I haven’t had time to read the full details of the cover story myself yet, but the bit about the seagulls caught my attention. Our Liaison team leader will explain everything to you. All four parents are panicking, so Amber and I need to go and talk to them now. We’ll say we’ve discovered where you and Wesley are, and tell them the cover story.”
I followed Lucas out of the room, and we both spent a few minutes studying the script that Liaison had sent us. Finally, Adika and my other bodyguards escorted us to the lifts.
“I hate lying to my parents,” I said, during the brief lift ride up to our unit.
“I know,” said Lucas. “You could just let me go and tell Nicole’s cover story to your parents. I could say that you were busy with a serious Hive emergency.”
The lift doors opened, and we walked out. “My parents think that Gregas being missing is the biggest possible Hive emergency,” I said gloomily. “Besides, it’s unfair to make you do all my lying for me.”
I was relieved that Adika didn’t insist on following us down the corridor towards the community rooms. Lucas paused outside one of the doors, opened it, and I saw Emili was sitting inside with my parents. The two strangers with them were obviously Wesley’s parents.
The instant they saw me, all four parents stood up, and my mother gave me a desperate pleading look. “Amber?”
I stopped feeling guilty about lying to my parents. I’d tell whatever lies were needed to take that frantic expression from my mother’s face and make her happy again.
“We’ve found Gregas and Wesley,” I said. “They’d had a slight accident, and were at a medical facility, but checks showed that they only had minor bruising. They’re being discharged right now, and it didn’t seem sensible for me to insist on them travelling the extra distance to get here, so they’ll be going straight back to their rooms on Teen Level.”
There was a sigh of relief from all four parents. “Does that mean we can call them now?” asked my father.
“You can’t call them just yet because they’d left their dataviews back in their rooms,” I said. “They’ve got strict orders to call you the moment they get back there, but it may not be for quite a while because they’re in Green Zone.”
“What are they doing in Green Zone, and why would they go somewhere without their dataviews?” asked Wesley’s mother, in a bewildered voice.
“It’s a long story,” I said.
Emili moved a tray of drinks and nibbles from a nearby couch to a table by the wall. “You and Lucas had better sit down and explain it.”
Everyone sat down, and I took a deep breath. “This all started because Gregas and Wesley were having problems budgeting their teen living allowances.”
Wesley’s parents gave the resigned nods of people who knew all about Wesley’s budgeting problems, but my father frowned.
“Gregas has been complaining about the pathetic teen living allowance ever since he moved to Teen Level, but every teen does that. I didn’t realize he had real problems.”
“I was told that Wesley has been having budgeting problems all the time,” I said. “Gregas was managing well until he made the classic mistake of buying something much too expensive the moment he got his allowance.”
I shrugged. “A few days ago, Gregas and Wesley reached the point where they couldn’t afford to buy meals. The sensible thing would have been to go to their community centre, admit what had happened, and ask for emergency support. Gregas and Wesley didn’t want to do that though, because it would have meant attending a mandatory course on budgeting, and having a budget supervisor approve all their purchases for the next three months.”
I waved my hands in despair. “They came up with an alternative plan of signing up for a residential activity course that would give them free food for a week or two. The only residential courses are those that have to be held at a special location in the Hive, and they’re usually booked up for months in advance, but there’d been a last-minute cancellation on one course that left two places available. This course was restricted to teens from Burgundy Zone, so Gregas and Wesley signed up giving false names and identity codes.”
Wesley’s parents groaned. “Not again,” muttered Wesley’s father.
I was tempted to ask what he meant by that, but decided I’d better keep telling the cover story. “This course was about the care of seagulls, so had to be held at the Teen Level beach.”
“Seagulls?” repeated Wesley’s mother in disbelief. “But Wesley’s scared of birds.”
“Yes. That was the fatal flaw in their plan. Gregas and Wesley were worried that something on their dataviews would give away their real identity. They decided to leave their proper ones in their rooms, and just take an old damaged dataview with them on the course. They were planning to use the damaged dataview to send last-minute excuses about missing home visits and activity sessions. They don’t seem to have thought through the fact that all their incoming messages would be going to the dataviews they’d left in their rooms.”
“Gregas never thinks things through,” said my mother sadly.
“The course began with a set of lectures on caring for seagulls, so that went smoothly,” I continued. “Then the practical sessions started, and Gregas and Wesley were given the job of capturing a seagull with an injured wing so it could be treated.”
“That was bound to go badly,” said Wesley’s father.
“It went disastrously badly,” I said. “The seagull was sitting on a cliff ledge at just above head height. The boys decided that Wesley should climb up to the ledge, and frighten the seagull into jumping off, while Gregas would catch it and put it in a cage. Unfortunately, Wesley was far more scared of the seagull than the seagull was of Wesley.”
I sighed. “When Wesley tried shooing the seagull off the ledge, the seagull pecked at him. Wesley panicked, fell off the ledge, and landed on top of Gregas. The Seagull Care Specialist who was running the course sent the two of them off to a medical facility for checks. As I said before, those showed the boys only had minor bruising, but they were kept in overnight because Wesley had a panic attack.”
“I suppose the seagull incident and the panic attack made Wesley forget that he was supposed to be visiting home,” said Wesley’s mother.
I’d entirely forgotten that bit of my script. “Exactly,” I said gratefully. “Wesley forgot about calling you to cancel his visit, and the medical facility’s message didn’t reach you because the boys had given false names and identity details.”
“So they’re both on their way back to their rooms now?” asked my mother.
“I’m not sure whether they’ll be heading back yet,” I said evasively. “Gregas and Wesley needed to collect their belongings from the Teen Level beach accommodation area before going back home to Blue Zone, and the Seagull Care Specialist wanted to talk to them as well. She’s a bit annoyed about what happened.”
“I’m not surprised,” said my father grimly. “Lying about your identity code on a course application is a serious breach of Hive rules. I suppose that will be going on the boys’ records.”
I rubbed my forehead nervously. Nicole had invented this story to cover up issues like joining an illegal Teen Game, trespassing in maintenance areas, kicking people off ladders, and getting arrested. She’d had to include a mention of false names and identity codes to explain why Gregas and Wesley had left their dataviews behind, and why the medical facility hadn’t tried to contact the parents of such young teens involved in an accident. False names had seemed such a minor issue compared to the rest, that I hadn’t thought to ask about this detail, and wasn’t sure what to say.
“I’m confident that our Liaison team leader can make sure nothing goes on the boys’ records about this incident,” said Lucas smoothly. “My impression is that the Seagull Care Specialist was only really concerned about the wellbeing of the seagull, and that wasn’t harmed at all. Amber can arrange for Gregas and Wesley to be supplied with enough food to last them until their next allowance payment arrives, so we should be able to forget about the whole thing.”
“That’s wonderful.” Wesley’s mother gave me an appreciative look. “The boys are so fortunate to have you helping them, Amber.”
“I’m not sure she should be helping them quite this much,” said my father. “If Gregas starts thinking he can lie about his identity without any consequences, it could have a terrible effect on his Lottery result.”
I rubbed my forehead again.
“There’s no need to worry about that,” said Lucas. “We’ve already discussed this issue with Gregas. He understands that he must never lie about his identity in future.”
Wesley’s mother nodded. “And we’ll make sure that Wesley understands he can’t expect Gregas’s sister to get him out of trouble again.”
“If Wesley is capable of understanding anything at all,” said his father bitterly, “which I sometimes doubt. The boy lives in a total fantasy world. We shouldn’t have let him play so many bookettes as a child, or ...”
My mother interrupted him and frowned anxiously at me. “What’s the matter with your face, Amber?”
I realized I’d rubbed my face too many times, and removed the makeup that Buzz and Megan had carefully applied.
“It’s just a slight bruise,” I said hastily.
“That’s more than a slight bruise. It looks like you’re getting a black eye. How ...?” My mother abruptly broke off her sentence and started a new one. “Did that happen when you were chasing the enemy agent yesterday?”
Wesley’s mother gasped. “That news report on Hive Channel 1! It was this Security Unit that was chasing the enemy agent!”
My mother was still frowning at my face. “I thought you had bodyguards to prevent you from getting hurt, Amber.”
“She does, but things didn’t entirely go to plan,” said Lucas.
“Clearly not,” said my mother reproachfully. “So that’s why Amber had so many bodyguards on the shopping trip, and Adika was staying so close to her all the time. He was making sure that she didn’t get hurt again.”
“That’s right.” Lucas stood up. “I’m afraid that Amber and I need to check on some security issues now, but you’re all welcome to stay here as long as you wish. Emili will arrange for whatever more food and drink you’d like.”
“No, no.” Wesley’s mother hurriedly stood up. “I hadn’t realized that your unit was involved in something as important as catching an enemy agent, though I should have because Security Units obviously do catch enemy agents, but I was so worried about Wesley vanishing that I wasn’t thinking about anything else, and you were being so kind that I quite forgot that you’re both Level 1, and ...”
“Thank you for your help,” Wesley’s father interrupted her increasingly incoherent sentence and stood up as well. “We’d better get back home to Blue Zone now. I’d like us to be at our apartment when Wesley calls, so we can have a private chat.”
“That’s a good point,” said my father. “We’d like to have a private chat with Gregas too. We’ll travel back to Blue Zone with you.”
A moment later, everyone was walking towards the lifts. Wesley’s parents went straight into lift 3, while my parents paused to say goodbye to me.
“I’m sorry that the shopping trip didn’t work out as planned,” I said.
My mother shook her head. “That wasn’t your fault, Amber. You’ve been a great help today. I was so worried when I heard Gregas was missing, that I didn’t stop to think before demanding your unit’s help. I hope that doesn’t cause you any problems.”
“You mustn’t worry about that,” I said. “I can never predict when there’ll be an emergency needing my attention. That means I can’t spend as much time with you as I’d like, but I’ll always be here when you need me.”
My mother gave me a quick hug, and then she and my father went into the lift. Once the doors had closed on them, I gave a deep sigh of relief.
“I think that worked. Gregas is still going to be in trouble with my parents about giving a false identity code, but not nearly as much trouble as he’d have been in if they knew the real story.”
I turned to Emili. “I’m so grateful to you, Nicole, Buzz, and everyone else that helped with this. It’s not part of your job to deal with my family problems, but you did it anyway.”
“It is part of our job to deal with your family problems,” said Emili. “The Hive understands how vital support networks are to telepaths, so we’ll do everything we can to help you maintain your relationship with your family.”
I remembered how Mira’s support group on Teen Level had been brought to her unit to support her again in her new life as a telepath, and her unit had a hydroponics area to help her hide her real work from her family. Yes, the Hive understood how vital support networks were to telepaths.
Lucas smiled at me. “Shall we go back to our apartment, have something to eat, and then rest for a while?”
“Yes. I’m feeling ridiculously tired, and I didn’t even do any shopping.”
“Shopping would have been far less stressful,” said Lucas.
We walked down the corridor to our apartment. When we arrived in the living room, I heard a chiming sound from Lucas’s pocket. He took out his dataview, studied the screen, and groaned.
“Is there another problem with Gregas?” I asked anxiously.
“No. I’ve just got a message from Gold Commander Melisande. She wants me to call her as soon as possible.”
