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Late that afternoon, everyone except the handful of operational team members on duty gathered by the lifts to watch Forge, Penn, Amir, and Yosh go undercover. Amir was from Burgundy Zone, and Yosh from Orange Zone, so they could just wear their own old teen clothes. The confusingly sandy-haired Penn, and the even more disconcertingly blond Forge, had to hide the fact that they’d grown up in Blue Zone though, so they wore borrowed tops. Forge had one that proclaimed his support for the Red Zone running team, while Penn was apparently a fan of a famous Yellow Zone singer.
All four men were carrying a battered bag of their old teen clothes, as well as oddments of sports equipment. Forge clearly couldn’t take the competition surfboard that he’d used in his days with the Blue Zone surfing team, but he had his old red and blue training board tucked under his arm. Penn was holding a tennis racket, Amir a faded football, and Yosh was dragging along a bag of weights.
Buzz and the rest of the Beta team members were standing next to our undercover people. While the Beta team members were dressed in the standard blue uniforms of an ordinary Health and Safety patrol, Buzz had her hair rigidly neat and was wearing the blue onesuit of a more senior member of Law Enforcement.
Eli was in the front row of the watching crowd. “I wish you’d let me play the part of one of the hasty guards, Lucas,” he said plaintively. “I’d have enjoyed arresting Forge.”
“I told you that we need to keep the full Alpha Strike team available for emergency runs,” said Lucas.
“You wouldn’t have been arresting me anyway, Eli,” said Forge cheerfully. “Buzz is the senior official in charge of the hasties, so she’s the one arresting me.”
Rothan looked amused. “How do you feel about your girlfriend arresting you, Forge?”
“It’s more fun now than the first time it happened.” Forge winked at Buzz.
“The first time?” asked Eli nosily. “Does Buzz arrest you often?”
Forge laughed. “She’s only arrested me once before. That was nearly two years ago, just after the end of that massive Blue Zone power cut.”
“I didn’t really arrest Forge back then,” said Buzz. “I was just the person who decided what to do with him after he was caught crawling through the air vents.”
“I remember you were wearing an Emergency Services uniform rather than being dressed as a hasty that time,” said Forge. “The diagonal red and blue stripes of the uniform did amazing things for your figure.”
“I know this outfit doesn’t suit me nearly as well,” said Buzz sadly, “but it’s more appropriate for the part I’ll be playing.”
Adika gave a pointed sigh. “I took that whole arrest incident off your record for a reason, Forge.”
“I know you did,” said Forge, “and I appreciate the assistance, but I think I’m past the stage of being a greenie deputy Strike team leader who needs his dignity protected.”
Adika gave him an assessing look. “Agreed. You and Rothan are settling into your positions nicely.”
Forge turned to Lucas. “We’re ready to leave now.”
“We’re timing your arrival in Blue Zone for early evening, when most of the teens should be in their home corridors,” said Lucas. “Buzz and the hasty squad will escort our undercover people to their Teen Level rooms. At each of the four locations, Buzz will lecture the local teens about the need to avoid the appallingly badly-behaved newcomer.”
He grinned. “I think we’ll drive home the point about our undercover people having a horrendous past history by having them arrive in their new corridors wearing restraints.”
Yosh frowned at his bag of weights. “I hope we don’t have to travel all the way from here to Blue Zone wearing restraints.”
“I suggest Forge starts causing trouble when we arrive in Blue Zone, and we put the four of you in restraints then,” said Buzz.
“Am I supposed to cause any specific type of trouble?” asked Forge.
“You can cause whatever trouble you like,” said Buzz indulgently.
“Forge can cause whatever trouble he likes within reason,” said Lucas pointedly.
“One final thing,” said Adika. “Remember that going undercover like this means you’ve no telepath watching over you, no body armour, no weapons, and no teammates beside you to help when you’re in danger. You can use your crystal units during the journey, but you’ll have to hand them over before you reach your Teen Level rooms, and after that your only way of communicating with us will be your old teen dataviews. Be careful.”
“Yes,” I said. “Be extremely careful.”
Forge nodded briskly. Our four fake teens led the way into lift 2, and their official escorts followed.
“Beta Strike team is moving,” said Forge happily.
I watched in depression as the lift doors closed.
“I know you’re worried about us using this speed insertion tactic, Amber,” said Lucas. “It does have risks, but we need to get our men noticed by Blue Upway recruiters and invited into game groups quickly.”
“I understand the urgency.” I pointed at where Megan and Adika were heading for the park. “The four Strike team candidates are waiting in the park for me to do the standard check on their minds. Megan says she’s got the wives of the two who are married there as well, because they’re our preferred candidates for the deputy Liaison and Admin positions.”
Lucas and I followed Megan and Adika to the park door. I stopped to get the box of birdseed from a storage cupboard, before carrying on to the picnic tables. I saw birds flying to position themselves on nearby tree branches and laughed. They’d either recognized me or the box of birdseed.
I took the first handful of birdseed, threw it on the ground, and there was a rush of multicoloured wings as the birds flew down to feed. I felt their wave of pleasure hit me, and couldn’t help smiling. I saw Lucas was smiling too.
“There’s less noise from the expansion section now,” he said. “I hope that means they’ve done most of the major structural changes.”
I tossed more birdseed onto the ground, and spoke to the birds in a reassuring voice. “Don’t worry. However wonderful the new animal and bird area is, I promise I’ll still come and feed you.”
When the seed box was empty, I sat down at the nearest picnic table, and closed my eyes to look at the world with my telepathic sense. That generally bore a resemblance to one of the other five senses, most commonly sight, but now both sight and sound were mixed together.
The park around me was a black area filled with the glowing dots of animal and bird minds. A rustling like leaves blowing in the wind was the sound of their thoughts, while beneath my feet was the deep throbbing rhythm of the Hive mind. I studied that rhythm for a moment. I normally found it reassuring, but today it had a disturbingly harsh note.
I concentrated my attention on the park again. Scattered among the animal and bird minds, were the brighter beacons of human minds. Lucas was next to me, the sound of his thought trains, and the way they kept flaring into life at unpredictable intervals, reminding me of the fountains in the Orange Zone centre point shopping area.
I reluctantly tore myself away from the mesmerizing wonder of Lucas’s mind and reached out further. There were strangers in the expansion section, but there was no need for me to intrude on the privacy of workers who would be leaving within the next few days. In the opposite direction was the familiar mind of Megan. As usual, I avoided reading her thoughts, moving on to where Adika and Rothan were close together. I touched the unyielding contours of Adika’s mind, and shared his rueful amusement.
“When we were running the fitness tests, I felt as if I was giving orders to my father.”
Rothan laughed. “I felt as if I was giving orders to my grandfather.”
“Claire’s Strike team members were still surprisingly strong, and fast enough over longer distances,” said Adika. “Their main weakness is the sprints we need when Lucas calls the strike. How would you handle that issue?”
Rothan shook his head sadly. “Challenging me yet again? Aren’t you ever going to give me a moment’s peace?”
Adika slapped him on the back, glanced warily at where Megan was standing, and lowered his voice. “I have to keep pushing you, Rothan. Statistics show that the Strike team role with the highest risk of death is the Strike team leader. Our current contingency plan is to bring in someone experienced from outside the unit to replace me, but that would be a difficult adjustment for both the Strike team and Amber. You need to progress as fast as possible, so we can switch to the contingency plan of you taking over from me.”
“However fast I progress, the rule is that I need two years’ experience as a deputy before I can be considered for a Strike team leader position,” said Rothan.
“And we both know that Amber could and would override that rule if she and Lucas believed you were ready,” said Adika.
“Perhaps,” said Rothan, “but do me a favour and try not to get killed for a few years anyway. Now, I’m thinking that we should dodge the issue of sprint speed by using the new recruits on bodyguard duty.”
“And what happens if we need to evacuate Amber from a dangerous situation?”
“We make sure that we always have one of our existing men leading the bodyguards. In an evacuation situation, it’s the leader’s job to carry the telepath away at full speed. The rest of the team have to fight a rear-guard action, and Claire’s men would be ideal for that. They’ve decades of experience in every form of combat.”
“I agree,” said Adika. “We just need Amber’s approval and ...”
I left Adika, moved on to a group of four strange minds, and touched one at random.
... feels good to be wearing body armour again. I ...
... still stunned by the chance of serving another telepath. Nervous too. It would be a huge honour, but after so many years serving Claire ...
That thought train abruptly merged with one nearer the subconscious.
... last time I was in this park, our Strike team leader was scattering Claire’s ashes to release her spirit back to the Hive. Has all of you left this place to be reborn as a baby, Claire, or is part of you watching over us now? Do we have your consent for this or ...?
I, he, was swamped by a wave of emotion. I turned away from my old friends, pretending a sudden interest in a nearby tree as I fought off tears. Ridiculous to be feeling so guilty, and wondering if Claire would see me working for Amber as a betrayal. Claire was a Hiveist like me. She’d served the Hive to her dying breath, and would surely rejoice to think of her Strike team members helping a new telepath perform her duties.
Amber! The mention of my own name helped me escape from the churning emotions of my target. Reading this man’s mind had told me why I’d been disconcerted by the idea of having Claire’s men on my Strike team.
Claire had been a devoted Hiveist. I knew that she hadn’t insisted on everyone in her unit sharing her beliefs, because Gideon had told me how he and Claire enjoyed arguing about whether or not there was life after death. Strike team members were chosen to be both physically and mentally compatible with their telepath though, so Claire’s Strike team was bound to include a lot of Hiveists.
Claire’s unit had been based here for the last ten years of her life. How would her Hiveist Strike team members feel training daily in the park where her ashes had been scattered? I had some superstitious ideas about Claire’s presence lingering here myself, and I wasn’t sure I could cope with their thoughts about her as well.
I gave myself a moment longer to recover from the first encounter, before moving on to the next new mind.
... it’s no use. I can’t keep standing here thinking this and not saying the words aloud. I have to ...
“Am I the only one that’s wondering if there’s any truth in the alternative Lottery doctrine of Hiveism?” My current target asked the question that had been nagging at him ever since he got the message asking him to come here.
One of the two men facing him groaned. “It’s just like the old days, with Osric discussing some obscure bit of Hiveist doctrine that the rest of us have never heard about.”
“I admit this is a lesser-known area of doctrine,” said Osric. “It states that the spirit of a devout Hiveist may choose not to be immediately reborn as a new baby, but instead linger a while to inspire a suitable candidate in Lottery. It’s supposed to be the reason the verdicts of Lottery are so unpredictable. It’s not just the sheer complexity of the automated decision process. It’s the fact that some candidates are aided by the lingering guardian spirits of devout Hiveists. They enter the candidate to share the accumulated wisdom of their last lifetime, assisting them to serve the Hive beyond normal human abilities.”
My previous target had still been staring at the tree trunk. Now he turned to look at me, at Osric, with a shocked expression. “You’re suggesting that Claire could have remained here to act as Amber’s guardian spirit?”
Osric waved his hands. “I’m just raising the possibility. Claire knew the Hive would be in desperate trouble without her. Would she really choose to be reborn as a baby that wouldn’t be able to help the Hive for eighteen years? Isn’t it more likely that she’d linger to be the guardian spirit of the next telepath to come out of Lottery, especially when that telepath would be working here in her old unit?”
The part of me that was Amber was finding this hard to cope with. I moved mind again and found myself frowning.
... startling theory, but it does fit the facts. People say that Amber went through her training at staggering speed. Claire fought her way back from that first heart attack to keep serving the Hive for twelve more years. It would be typical of her to continue serving the Hive as Amber’s guardian spirit, and ...
I hastily moved on to the fourth mind, which was filled with laughter.
... always amazed by the ridiculous Hiveist theories. I can understand why they’re eagerly grabbing at this idea though. We’ve got the fundamental problem that we loved Claire, and we desperately want her permission to serve another telepath, but she isn’t here to give it. We need to focus on reality and ...
He spoke aloud in a grim voice. “You all know that I don’t believe in Hiveism, but I do believe in my duty to serve the Hive. We’ve been asked here because this Telepath Unit urgently needs help. Morton’s unit is going to shut down for several months after the New Year festival to allow him to have major surgery, so the remaining four Telepath Units will be under tremendous pressure.”
The other three gasped. “Are you sure about this, Vance?” asked Osric.
“My son moved to Morton’s unit last year, so I’m perfectly sure,” said Vance. “Amber’s unit can’t have been operational for much more than six months. They’ll still be building the experience of their Strike teams, and they need us to help bring their Alpha Strike team up to full strength.”
... time to hit the Hiveists with an argument that they can’t resist.
“If you want to be reassured that Claire would approve of us serving Amber, then there’s no need to resort to obscure Hiveist doctrines about guardian spirits. We have the equivalent of overhead signs on an express belt telling us that we’re going in the right direction. Stop and think about the fact this unit is called Light Angel.”
“That’s true,” said Osric sharply. “Claire would be bound to approve of us serving the Hive as part of a unit named after the light angel of the Light and Dark pageants.”
I skimmed back around the other three minds, and saw that Vance’s argument had worked. They were convinced Claire would be fiercely in favour of them joining my unit.
If there were still a few background thoughts about Claire’s benevolent spirit watching over our unit, then I could cope with them. It was the idea of Claire’s spirit actually entering into me that I’d found unnerving. Anyone who thought I was some sort of reborn Claire was going to be bitterly disappointed when I failed to live up to her legend.
I drifted on to find two other strange minds. These had to be Megan’s candidates for the deputy Liaison and Admin positions. I touched the first mind, and found the woman was sitting on a bench, watching her husband and his friends. I used the opportunity to consider the four men’s appearance. They’d come out of Lottery decades ago, selected to match Claire’s preferences not mine, but ...
Well, Rothan had said something about giving orders to his grandfather. That was a gross exaggeration of these men’s age, because they were only in their mid-forties. They had the same blue eyes and light brown hair as Rothan though, so really did look as if they could be older relatives of his. Megan’s message had said their names were Vance, Osric, Dex, and Kris. I still wasn’t sure which one was Dex and which was Kris, but that didn’t affect my decision.
I finally focused on the minds of the two women, Akiko and Nora, and rapidly decided there was no issue with either of them. When I pulled back into my own head and opened my eyes, I found Lucas was sitting opposite me, studying my face.
“You seemed worried at one point,” he said. “Is there a problem?”
“It was the Hiveism issue,” I said. “Claire was a Hiveist. Three of the four Strike team candidates Adika has chosen are Hiveists too, and they were discussing whether Claire’s spirit could have entered into me in Lottery.”
“We’d better get Adika to choose some non-Hiveist candidates then,” said Lucas. “It would be extremely disturbing for you to keep encountering thoughts about you being Claire incarnate.”
I shook my head. “Fortunately, the men have moved on from that idea to thinking Claire’s benevolent spirit may be watching over our unit in general, which I find rather reassuring. There’s no problem at all with the two wives being Hiveists, because I’ll rarely need to read their minds.”
“How do you think you’ll react when these men bodyguard you?” asked Lucas. “You’re used to having bodyguards who are your own age.”
“Adika often bodyguards me himself,” I said, “and the fact he’s almost twice my age has never been a problem. In some ways, it makes things simpler. The Strike team members who came out of Lottery with me are conscious of me being their telepath, but also aware that I’m a girl of their own age, and find me attractive to varying degrees. Adika is primarily aware of me as his telepath, and the focus of his duty to the Hive.”
Lucas blinked. “What you’re telling me is that you pick up the emotions of your bodyguards when they defend you. That means you aren’t reacting to their age or physical appearance at all, but to how they feel about you.”
“I suppose that’s what’s happening. Shall we go and tell the new arrivals that I’m happy to have them in my unit?”
“I think we should let the Strike team candidates do a trial run acting as your bodyguards before making a final decision,” said Lucas. “There are a couple of questions I’d like to ask before you confirm them as Strike team members anyway. Let’s go and talk to Adika about it.”
We stood up and walked through the park to where Adika and Rothan were standing. When Megan saw me, she came hurrying over to join us as well.
“Are you ready to check the minds of the Strike team candidates, Amber?” she asked.
“I’ve already checked the minds of all six candidates,” I said. “I just want to do a trial run with the four Strike team candidates acting as my bodyguards before ...”
My words were interrupted by an insistent chiming sound. Lucas took out his dataview and scowled at it.
“I’m sorry, but I need to answer this at once. It’s a priority call from Keith’s Tactical Commander.”
Lucas moved a few paces away to stand by a structural pillar, then tapped at his dataview. An image of Gaius appeared on the side of the pillar, and he started speaking at high speed. I couldn’t hear what was being said, but I saw Lucas’s face twist in distress. I instinctively linked to his mind to find out what was wrong, and was hit by a swirling cloud of pain, anger, and love.
“Keith was in one of those moods where it was impossible to reason with him,” said Gaius, in a despairing voice. “Keith dragged Beckett out of his apartment, yelled at him, and shoved him into the lift. He wouldn’t let Beckett arrange for an assisted journey, or even get his headset and glasses. All I could do was tell Beckett to head for Amber’s unit, and say that you and Megan would take care of him.”
“You mean that Beckett is trying to reach our unit during peak evening travel time on the belt system, and he doesn’t have either his noise-cancelling headset or his customized glasses with him?” Lucas’s voice was shaking.
Gaius grimaced. “Yes. Beckett took the lift down to Teen Level. I’ve tried calling his dataview since then, but he isn’t answering.”
“Beckett must be too deep in sensory overload to answer his dataview,” said Lucas. “Please tell me that Cee Cee is with him. If Keith’s thrown Beckett out of his unit without Cee Cee, then I’m going to ...”
“I’ve put up with some outrageous behaviour from Keith for the sake of the Hive,” said Gaius, “but there’s a breaking point for everyone. I wouldn’t have let Keith take Cee Cee away from Beckett.”
Lucas turned to me. “Amber, Keith’s furious with me for refusing to allow him to borrow Buzz. He’s found out about Beckett acting as coordinator for the pattern analysis of Blue Upway, and used that as an excuse to throw him out of his unit. Keith knows that hurting Beckett will hurt me, and ...”
“Yes,” I interrupted Lucas to save time. “The answer is yes to everything.”
I’d known Lucas had a deep respect and admiration for Gaius. I’d known that Gaius hadn’t just been Lucas’s team leader, but his mentor as well, and had chosen the clothes he should wear for his Tactical Commander position. Now I knew what Lucas had never put into words, even in his own mind.
Lucas’s father had abandoned him when he was six years old and left a void in his life. Gaius had filled that void, while Beckett and Cee Cee ... Well, Beckett wasn’t just the best pattern specialist in the Hive, but someone Lucas cared about deeply, and he was in trouble. I’d never heard Cee Cee mentioned before, but they must be in trouble too.
“Beckett and Cee Cee are welcome to join our unit,” I said. “We’ll take the Alpha Strike team to find them and bring them home.”
