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Lucas pulled off his red-eyed helm and cloak, and tossed them on a nearby couch. “Emili, send messages to Forge and our other three men on Teen Level. Ask them to confirm they’re safe.”
There was a tense pause. “Our target’s holding Forge hostage,” I muttered. “He must have known Forge when he was on Teen Level, and recognized him despite his disguise. How could he do that when Forge looks so incredibly different with blond hair?”
“We’ve got confirmation messages from everyone except Forge,” reported Emili.
Lucas tapped at his dataview and spoke into it. “Buzz, have you talked to Forge recently?”
“Not since this morning,” said Buzz, in an irritated voice. “He said he’d be in his room at eight o’clock, and would call me so we can chat while we eat dinner, but he’s late.”
“Waste that,” said Lucas.
“Is something wrong?” asked Buzz.
Lucas groaned. “The Blue Upway Game Commander has taken Forge hostage.”
“I’m on my way,” she snapped.
Lucas tapped his dataview, and the alarm sound warbled from the speakers in the ceiling of the Tactical office. When he spoke into his dataview this time, his voice echoed from above.
“We have an incident in progress. We need everyone on the crystal comms right away. Operational teams to stations.”
The Tactical team members were putting crystal units into their ears. I was pointlessly checking my pockets, when Gideon passed me an ear crystal. Emili slapped a red button on the wall, and the main screen flashed up a message. “Crystal Comms Protocols Active.”
Adika’s voice spoke in my ear crystal. “Why aren’t you calling for a Strike team, Lucas?”
“Because we already have three men positioned in Blue Zone,” said Lucas.
“We have four men in Blue Zone,” corrected Adika.
“No, we don’t,” said Lucas. “Forge has been taken hostage.”
“Waste that! What happened?” demanded Adika. “Is this Keith playing tricks again?”
“I don’t think Keith can be responsible for this,” said Lucas. “I’ll be briefing everyone in a minute. Nicole, are you on the crystal comms yet?”
“Yes,” said Nicole’s voice.
“Call the dataviews of Penn, Amir, and Yosh, and patch them into our crystal comms,” said Lucas. “Tell them to go to Level 20, find the nearest armoury, and get fully equipped including dressing in hasty uniforms.”
Lucas moved to the control bank labelled “Tactical Command”, pulled up two chairs, and I went to sit down next to him. There was something wet running down my cheeks. I realized that I was crying and angrily wiped the back of my hand across my eyes. I couldn’t waste time crying. I had to focus on helping Forge.
A moment later, Buzz hurried into the room. She already had a crystal unit in her right ear, and didn’t hesitate before sitting at a spare desk and tapping at the controls. I guessed that she regularly sat there when I was out on a run with the Strike team.
“Crystal comms checklist now,” said Lucas.
“All Strike team members in unit are ready on comms,” said Adika.
“Tactical team are ready on comms,” said Lucas.
“Liaison team are ready on comms,” said Nicole’s voice. “We also have Penn, Amir, and Yosh patched to comms.”
I was confused by this variation on the start of run checklist, but assumed I should join in at my usual point. “Amber on comms.”
“Briefing now,” said Lucas. “The Game Commander of Blue Upway sent a message to Halloween a few minutes ago, and I called him back. We confirmed he was in the strip of Blue Zone between 6500 and 6599 during that call. The Game Commander had recognized Forge as the old Blue Upway Champion, and guessed he’d returned to Teen Level to work against him. He’s taken Forge hostage and is threatening to kill him.”
“How could this Game Commander manage to capture Forge?” asked Adika. “I know Forge didn’t have a gun or body armour, but ...”
“Forge is trained to be deadly in unarmed combat,” interrupted Lucas. “It would be extremely difficult for even an armed man to take him prisoner. I believe Forge was subdued by something like a sedative and couldn’t defend himself.”
He tapped at the control bank in front of him. “Penn, Amir, and Yosh, what is your current status?”
The main screen changed to the setting that normally showed the mosaic of images from crystal unit cameras. Red words appeared at the top of the screen. “Focus Blue Zone.” Since we only had three men in Blue Zone, there were only three images in the mosaic, and they were totally black, with glowing names above them.
I saw Amir’s name flash brighter as his breathless voice spoke on the crystal comms. “Amir here. Four minutes from nearest armoury.”
Penn’s name flashed next. “Penn here. Three minutes from armoury.”
There was a long pause. “Yosh, can we have your status, please?” asked Lucas.
Yosh’s name finally flashed brightly. “Yosh here,” he said, in a frustrated voice. “Lucas, I’m at the armoury but I’ve just been arrested by a hasty patrol. I’m giving the leader my dataview. Please tell him I’m not a stray teen breaking into their armoury.”
There was an odd crackling noise before a stranger spoke. “Who am I talking to?”
“I’m Tactical Commander Lucas of the Light Angel unit.”
“That’s a grandiose claim,” said the stranger.
“Our unit confirmation code is nine yellow east,” said Lucas wearily. “Authentication phrase is no darkness without light.”
“Waste it! How was I supposed to ...?”
There was another odd crackling sound, and the stranger’s voice was replaced by Yosh. “Completing arming now.”
“Ordering unit confirmation code change,” said Nicole’s voice.
“As soon as they’re fully equipped, Penn, Amir, and Yosh are to meet up at a bank of lifts in area 220/6900 of Level 20,” said Lucas. “They will then set crystal units to visual, get a lift straight down to Teen Level, and go to Forge’s undercover room. They should be prepared for the situation where our target is in that room and holding Forge prisoner, but I expect they’ll find the room empty.”
I spoke on the crystal comms myself. “Forge will probably have used the same door code as when he lived on Teen Level before. That’s 12121.”
“Penn, you’re in charge of the Blue Zone group,” said Adika.
There was a tense wait before three images appeared on the main screen. They all showed the interior of a lift.
“Tracking and visual links green for Blue Zone group,” said Nicole.
“We’re heading down to Teen Level now,” said Penn.
Lucas adjusted a control, and the image from Penn’s camera took over most of the main screen. It just showed closed lift doors for what seemed like a ridiculously long time, then the doors opened, and the image showed Penn was leading the way down a corridor. I saw a couple of startled teens turn to stare toward the camera, and then the main screen showed a view of a teen room door. What was presumably Penn’s hand reached out to enter the door code, and it opened. There was a rush of activity, followed by depressed sighs.
“Forge isn’t here,” said Penn. “We’ve checked the shower cubicle and every space big enough to hold a rabbit.”
“Penn, please turn slowly around on the spot,” said Lucas. “I want to get a good look at everything in the room.”
I watched Penn’s camera slowly pan around.
“No sign of a fight,” said Lucas, “and Forge’s Halloween mask is on the shelf above the sleep field.”
“Should we check nearby rooms to make sure Forge isn’t being held a prisoner in one of them?” asked Penn.
I was still staring at the image on the main screen. I had a nagging feeling there was something wrong with it, but I couldn’t work out what it was.
“Even if we knew Forge was being held prisoner in this area, which we don’t, it would be a bad idea for you to go randomly searching for him,” said Lucas. “We have to assume he’s drugged, tied up, and completely unable to defend himself. Strike team imprints include the details on hostage scenarios, so think through the statistics. If you found where Forge was being held, and went blundering in to rescue him, then you could trigger our target into killing him.”
Penn gave a depressed grunt.
I’d finally worked out what was wrong with the image on the main screen. “Something is missing from that room, Lucas. I can’t see Forge’s surfboard.”
“Surfboard!” repeated Lucas sharply. “You’re right, Amber. You’re absolutely right.”
He was silent for ten seconds before speaking in a sharply decisive voice. “Blue Zone group should position themselves in the strip of Blue Zone between 6500 and 6599, and await further orders. Amber and I are now leaving the crystal comms to go to a meeting room to call someone. Emili will take control of the situation, and should message my dataview if there are any developments.”
“Forge is being held hostage, and you’re wandering off to chat to someone?” Adika sounded outraged.
I saw Buzz turn to stare at Lucas. “We mustn’t interfere, Adika. Lucas has just worked out what’s happening.”
“Yes, I’ve just worked out what’s happening, and I need to find out some extra information.” Lucas stood up and waved at Emili to take his place at the Tactical Command control bank. “Amber and I could be away for some time, but nobody is to take any action at all until we come back.”
