Telepath (Hive Mind Book 1) (27 page)

“Really? Forge looked as if
his mind was totally occupied with you.”

“Well, it wasn’t.”

“I need some reassurance. A
few sympathetic hugs would be nice, but I’m willing to consider most types of reassurance
within reason.”

“I hope the Strike team can’t
hear any of this conversation.” I risked looking at the images in Lucas’s head
again. “You’re being outrageous.”

“I enjoy being outrageous,”
said Lucas happily. “Ready for me to take the blindfold off?”

“I’m not sure.”

“I could be even more
outrageous, but I don’t want to risk upsetting you. Well, obviously you know
that.”

Of course I did. Lucas’s
teasing images were always heavily intermingled with thoughts analyzing my reactions.
At the slightest hint I wasn’t amused by his game, he would immediately stop.

“Actually,” I said, “your
mental images are nothing like as bad as the ones I see in the Strike team’s
minds. Eli has especially inventive ideas.”

Lucas laughed. I felt his
fingers touching my blindfold, and hastily closed my eyes before he removed it.

“The Strike team is made
up of eighteen-year-old males, bubbling with excess testosterone,” he said. “I
suppose the fantasies are bound to get a little extreme sometimes. Do they
bother you?”

I was safe inside the
protective darkness of my own eyelids. “They startled me to begin with, but
it’s not really personal even when the fantasies centre on me. I’m a girl
they’re guarding, so they think about me a lot. The Strike team try not to
daydream during runs, but things occasionally sneak through.”

“Ready to open your eyes?”
asked Lucas.

“Yes.”

I opened my eyes and
looked at Outside. It was almost disappointing. At first sight, it really was
just like the view in the park. At second sight, it was clear that this was a
very untidy park, but …

“Not such a nightmare as
you expected?” asked Lucas.

I pulled a face at him.
“Stop reading my body language.”

He seemed amused. “Why
shouldn’t I read your body language? You read my mind all the time. We’ll stay
here a while, see if you’re ready to see the night sky or if we just go to bed.
We could even combine the two.”

I glanced at the graphic
image in his head. “What would you do if I said yes to any of these suggestions?”

“Probably have a major argument
with Adika. I must admit I’d rather not have the Strike team watching our
intimate moments.”

“Where are the Strike team
anyway?” I looked round at trees and bushes.

“I think Adika is behind
that fallen tree,” said Lucas. “I could throw something at it if you like and
find out.”

“You mustn’t throw things
at Adika.”

“How are you feeling now?”

“Like a bit of a fraud.
After all the fuss I made, it’s not too bad out here.”

“Don’t get over confident.
You’ve only looked at a few trees so far. All your fears are centred on the Truesun,
so the daytime sky is the real issue. Even looking at the night sky may cause
you severe problems.”

I felt a surge of nerves
at the mention of the sky. I stood up. “Let’s try it.”

Lucas stood up too, and
waved at the fallen tree. “We can play at spotting the shaking bushes as the
Strike team follow us.”

I was much too tense to
laugh at the joke. I took tight hold of Lucas’s hand as we walked through the closely
packed trees. We were going to see the sky. Not the ceiling in a park, but the
real sky. We had to walk very slowly because the ground underfoot was a mess.

“You were right about
there not being much of a path,” I said.

“There are nice, smooth,
gravel paths in the country parks, but there’d be a risk of meeting other
people there so I brought us to a wilderness area.” Lucas stopped. “I get to
carry you again now. Do you want the blindfold, or would you rather just close
your eyes?”

“I’ll close my eyes.”

He lifted me up. “We’re
coming out of the trees now. There’s a clear area where you’ll see the sky. I
want you sitting down for this, so I’ve got another rug waiting for us.”

“You’ve put a lot of
thought and planning into this.”

“Thought, planning, and
also a heavy investment in rugs. Have I earned a reward?” He lowered me to the
ground.

“Possibly. I’ll think
about it.”

“I’ll sit down next to you
now, and put my arms round you,” said Lucas. “This is a necessary reassuring measure.
My enjoyment of it is purely coincidental.”

I gave a shaky laugh.

His arms went round me.
“Sky time.”

I opened my eyes. The sky
was deep, and black, and endless. I grabbed hold of Lucas. “It feels like I’m
falling up into the sky.”

“I won’t let you fall,”
said Lucas.

“It’s bigger than a beach.
That must sound stupid.”

“It’s not stupid at all.”

“The stars look nothing
like the ones in a park,” I said. “There’s so many of them, they aren’t evenly
spaced out, and some are a lot brighter than others.”

“Read me.”

Lucas wasn’t playing with
suggestive images this time, just thinking about the beauty of the stars. I
sheltered in his feelings, and the dark threatening sky above me changed. I
couldn’t fall down into it. I couldn’t fall up into it. It seemed safer now.

I didn’t speak for several
minutes. “Where’s the moon?”

“There are a few clouds in
the sky tonight. Those are composed of water vapour. The moon is currently hidden
by that cloud over there.” Lucas pointed upwards. “See that whiter, brighter
area? The moon will come out from behind the cloud in a few minutes.”

I watched the moon slowly appear
from behind the cloud. It was much bigger than I’d expected, but it didn’t feel
as if it was burning me. “The moon has dark bits on it.”

Lucas nodded. “That’s
because it has craters. Perhaps another time I’ll bring a telescope, and …”

His voice was drowned out
by a wild scream from among the trees, followed by the sound of someone
crashing through bushes. I instinctively reached out telepathically to find the
threat. There was a scattering of sharp, tiny minds of birds and small animals
in that direction, all disturbed by the scream. I searched further and found a huddle
of four human minds.

Adika was sprawled across
someone’s chest, his hand gagging their mouth.

Rothan was pinning down
the man’s flailing legs.

Forge was sitting beside
them, gasping in air after being kicked in the stomach.

Kaden was lying face down
in the dirt, his thoughts filled with childhood memories of Halloween tales. All
the stories told how the hunter of souls and his pack of demonic creatures patrolled
the darkness Outside, entrapping anyone unwary enough to venture there. They’d
be out there right now, watching us from among the unnaturally tall trees, and choosing
their moment to attack. Once they’d tasted our blood, we’d become like them,
cursed to always walk the darkness of Outside and …

I gasped in terror, but I
knew this was Kaden’s terror not mine. Stories of the hunter of souls roaming
the darkness Outside with his train of monsters had never scared me as a child.
All my fears of Outside were focused on the blindingly bright Truesun.

I fought my way free of
Kaden’s mind, and became aware of Lucas’s arms holding me. His voice was murmuring
reassurance in my ear.

“You’re safe, Amber.
You’re safe. You’re safe.”

I gradually relaxed. “I’m
all right.”

Lucas ended his litany of
comfort, reached a hand to adjust his ear crystal, and spoke in a hard voice
that I’d never heard him use before. “Would someone like to explain what
happened there?”

Adika’s voice answered,
coldly furious. “A small animal ran over Kaden’s foot and he panicked.”

“Do you think you could
keep the Strike team from screaming and running away in terror while I get
Amber back inside the Hive?” Lucas’s voice was bitterly sarcastic now.

“Nobody is going to scream
again.” Adika’s voice carried a threat of hideous consequences for anyone who
did.

I opened my mouth to say
that there was no need for me to go back inside the Hive yet, but decided there
was no point in arguing. Lucas would say that it was time to go back anyway.
He’d say we’d achieved the purpose of this trip. He’d say that I was getting
cold and tired. He’d be right.

Lucas released me while he
stood up, then reached to lift me up again, but I shook my head. “I can walk
this time.”

We walked back along the
path, moving carefully to avoid tripping over tree roots, and reached a
hatch-like, open door in the ground. We went through it, down a flight of
steps, and I saw half the Strike team waiting outside a lift. I didn’t know
what lecture Adika had been giving them over their ear crystals, but they were
grimly silent.

A minute or two later,
Adika and some more of the Strike team came down the flight of steps behind us.
Rothan, Forge, and Kaden were still missing, and it seemed a bad idea to ask
where they were. Adika ushered us all into the lift and started it moving. It
was a very short lift ride, and then we moved to ride a belt.

“Listen carefully to me, Amber,”
said Lucas. “This is very important. You’ll have a reaction after doing this. Going
out again will probably be harder than this time. I want you to go out at least
once more at night before you even think about trying it in daylight.”

When we arrived back at
the unit, Megan was waiting by the lifts. She looked me over anxiously before glaring
at Lucas.

“Amber’s shaking.”

I looked down at my hands.
Megan was right. I hadn’t realized it, but they were trembling. In fact, all of
me was trembling.

“The trip went very well,”
said Lucas, “but it was a strain. Amber needs to rest now.”

He ushered me off to my apartment,
and we went inside. “I’m staying the night,” he stated flatly. “Adika is in a
foul mood about Kaden’s panic attack. He needs some exciting gossip to distract
him.”

I looked down at my
quivering hands. “I hope Adika isn’t too hard on Kaden. The scream didn’t
really make things more difficult for me.”

“Leave Adika to worry
about Kaden,” said Lucas. “Would you like food, drink, or sleep?”

“A hot drink would be good.”

We both had hot drinks,
and the warmth of the liquid seemed to ease my shaking. Lucas escorted me to my
bedroom, and paused in the doorway.

“I’ll be in one of your
spare rooms. Just call me if you need me. I can leave a sound link open if you like.”

“An open sound link might
be nice.”

He adjusted the apartment
sound system controls. “There you are. Sleep well.”

Lucas headed off into the
far reaches of my apartment, and I stripped off my clothes and dumped them on
the floor. My body armour and crystal unit got better treatment, being hung up
and put away respectively. I set the lights down to low, turned on the sleep
field, and let its warm air engulf me.

“Goodnight, Lucas.”

“Goodnight,” said his
voice.

I woke, confused and disoriented
from a dream, then snapped back to reality. “Lucas!” I yelled.

His voice answered me,
blurred and sleepy. “Amber?”

“I think I need you.” I
rolled out of the sleep field.

“Are we wearing clothes?”

“We’re wearing clothes.” I
was already pulling on a robe. “I was dreaming.”

“Tell me.” As I heard the
words over the sound system, Lucas entered the room. “Get back in the sleep
field, relax, and try to remember everything you can.”

I did what he said, closing
my eyes, and trying to recapture the dream. “I was Outside in the darkness. I
was walking along the same path as last night, holding someone’s hand, but it
wasn’t you. There was a balloon, big, golden and burning, bouncing among the
tree branches. It was hunting me.”

I realized my voice was shaking.
“I know that sounds silly, but it was frightening.”

“You were holding
someone’s hand. Describe them.”

“It was a huge man. His
face was too high up to see.”

“Did the man speak?”

“Yes,” I admitted reluctantly.
“He said I was a good girl, just like in the Forge dream. I’m pretty sure it
was the same voice as in that dream too, huskier and deeper than Forge’s real
voice.”

“You were getting fragments
of an old memory,” said Lucas. “Your three-year-old self was walking with the
target. Your mind changed day to night to protect itself, and the balloon
represented the Truesun. Do you remember anything else at all?”

“Sorry, nothing.”

Lucas sat in silence for a
moment. The lights were still on low, but I could see him frowning. I wanted to
read his thoughts, but I couldn’t. I had to try to remember more of my dream.

Finally he spoke. “It’s a
bit of a risk, but I can try to improve your memory of the dream. I’ll need to
use hypnotics.”

“Try it.”

Lucas took out a closed dataview,
tapped it to make it unfold to full size and turn on, and then went across to
the wall display controls. “I’ll show you some images. I want you to watch them
and relax.”

The wall display lit up
with swirling colours. There was barely audible music too, just on the edge of
my hearing range.

“Watch the colours, Amber,”
said Lucas. “Relax. Let yourself drift with the music.”

I watched the colours change,
and waited for the dream to return.

“All done,” said Lucas
briskly.

The wall display had
vanished. I turned to look at Lucas. “That was like one of the Lottery tests,
where I thought that I’d fallen asleep but I hadn’t.”

He nodded. “Several
Lottery tests use hypnotics. I’ve talked you through the whole dream sequence.
No details of the target. The golden balloon holds central significance. Obvious
sun symbolism.” He paused. “It’s almost nine in the morning, but we didn’t get
back here until the middle of the night. Do you want to sleep some more?”

“I don’t think so.” I sat up,
and stepped off the sleep field to stand next to Lucas. “Thank you for helping me
last night. You asked me then if you’d earned a reward, and I think you have. First
kiss moment.”

I stepped towards Lucas
and lifted my face for the kiss, but he dodged backwards.

“Would love to,” he said,
“but can’t.”

I felt like I’d been walking
down a corridor, the floor solid beneath my feet, and then found myself falling
down a lift shaft. I was disoriented, hurt, and also angry. Waste it, this was
the second time Lucas had blocked things between us. I turned my back on him. Lucas
could read faces, and I didn’t want him reading mine just then.

His voice came from behind
me. “I just used hypnotics on you, Amber. You’ve been influenced to accept my
commands without question, so I can’t kiss you now. That kiss could lead to
other things, and tomorrow you might feel you’d done things you didn’t want to
do. Even your offer of a kiss may not actually have been made of your own independent
free will, but in an effort to please me.”

He paused. “Amber? You
understand that, don’t you? You need a couple of hours to be clear of the
hypnotic effects, or I’d be doing the same thing to you that the target did.”

I kept my face away from
him, and my voice carefully controlled. “Of course I understand.”

“Read me.”

“I’d like to get myself some
breakfast now.” My tone was polite dismissal.

“Message understood,” he
said. “I shall go to my own apartment, and bang my head against a wall.”

I listened to him leave,
and then stood still for a few minutes longer, nursing my hurt. Lucas made
endless sexual suggestions to me in the safety of his own head, but he didn’t
seem to want those thoughts to become physically real. I’d taken the first step
in Hive Futura. I’d taken the first step again just now. Lucas had turned me
down both times. Did he enjoy humiliating me? Despite what he said about
hypnotics, one kiss wouldn’t have mattered.

Or would it? Would it have
stopped at one kiss or gone a lot further? Had I given Lucas his signal at this
particular moment because I wanted to, or because I was affected by the
hypnotics? I thought it was my own choice, but Lucas couldn’t be sure of that.

I grudgingly decided I
should admire Lucas’s principles rather than be angry with him. I’d have to apologize
the next time I saw him.

I cursed imprints,
hypnotics, and Lottery, ordered breakfast from my kitchen unit, and was busy
not eating it when I noticed a package on a side-table. I went over to investigate,
and found the package was from my mother. I ripped it open, and laughed when I
found she’d sent me a glittering golden duck. I remembered Lucas mentioning the
pictures of golden ducks in the 500/5000 Level 1 shopping area, and how a craze
for duck toys was sweeping the Hive.

I picked up the duck, and
idly examined the ornate, silver and gold pattern on its side. There was an odd
sound in my head, like the clink of metal on metal, before a male voice started
talking. I knew that voice. It was the voice of the most important person in
the world, and he was telling me what I needed to do to please him.