Telepath (Hive Mind Book 1) (33 page)

I laughed.

“Warmer now? Relaxing?”
asked Lucas.

“Yes. Surprisingly this heat
sack works. The tent floor isn’t like a sleep field, or even a couch, but it’s
a bit soft.”

“Another benefit of modern
tents over the ones that Rothan favours. Able to read me again now?”

“Yes.” I reached out to Lucas’s
familiar mind. “I know it’s stupid, but when I’m scared I tend to huddle away
inside my own head.”

“I understand. I’ve been
working very hard at using all the words in sentences. Are you relaxed enough
for me to share your heat sack?”

“This isn’t a good time to
…”

“I merely wish to share your
heat sack. Nothing more.” Lucas gave me a look of wounded innocence. “Respectfully
point out that wearing body armour severely limits my actions.”

“Doesn’t limit your thoughts,”
I grumbled. “Nothing has ever limited your thoughts. Even the first time I met
you.”

I shuffled over in the
heat sack, and Lucas wriggled in next to me.

“Query? My thoughts the first
time you read me?” he asked.

“On the deep levels you
were lusting after my legs, and thinking the Lottery information on my preferred
partners meant you didn’t stand a chance of getting into bed with me.”

He gave a shout of
laughter. “And you still hired me!”

“I found it quite
flattering actually. Remember that I’d spent the whole of Teen Level fixated on
Forge and he’d never looked at me. You were the first young man whose thoughts
I’d read, and you found me attractive. It was a huge boost to my ego.”

I paused to grin at him. “It’s
the only reason you got your job. You clearly weren’t intelligent enough to be
a Tactical Commander, and …”

Lucas’s kiss silenced me
for a moment. “Back then I’d no idea that you could read deep levels of the
mind,” he said. “I was startled when I found out. I tried to impose control of
my thoughts, but decided it was effectively impossible.”

“That’s true. When I read
someone, I automatically try to translate their thoughts into words, but the
deeper levels are often just a blur of images and emotion. When you deliberately
tease me with suggestive ideas, it’s on a higher level controlled by your
conscious mind. Very different.”

“Fascinating. I wish that I
could experience it myself.”

We were silent for a few
minutes. I felt myself gradually relax as I shared Lucas’s reassuring warmth in
the heat sack. His thoughts were all about me. A mixture of intellectual curiosity
about telepathy, and non-intellectual enjoyment of our closeness.

“This tent material is highly
protective,” he said, after a while. “Removing our body armour would be a
minimal risk.”

I sighed. “We’d better be
good. Adika would …”

The words triggered a
memory. My imprint was gone, but I would never forget my repeating dream and
how Elden had told me I was a good girl. I broke off, crawled out of the heat
sack, and started stripping.

Lucas raised an eyebrow.
“We aren’t being good?”

“Lucas, I’m not a good
girl!”

His thoughts went into a
super speed burst of analysis, then he laughed, and got out of the heat sack to
undress as well. We were both extremely bad after that, and lost ourselves in a
tidal wave of feedback, before we finally put our body armour back on.

I lay in Lucas’s arms afterwards,
feeling relaxed, secure and comfortable. It must be late at night now, and I
was terribly tired, but I couldn’t possibly sleep. Not here, not Outside, not
when the Truesun would be rising in a few hours.

I slept.

I woke up, and was instantly aware
that Lucas’s warmth was missing. I looked round in bereft panic, searching with
both eyes and mind, and then felt foolish. Lucas wasn’t
sharing the heat sack with me any longer, but
he was literally still within arm’s reach, sorting through the heap of
equipment at the back of the tent, the odd lighting creating weird shadows as
he moved.

He turned to look at me. “Ah,
you’re awake. Are you hungry? Thirsty? We have protein bars, fruit strips,
crunch cakes, and melon juice.”

I sat up and rubbed my
face. “Megan sent melon juice?”

Lucas took the top off a
small container and handed it to me. I sipped it cautiously. Yes, it was melon
juice.

“It’s ridiculous sending
this specially. I could survive without …” I broke off. “It’s not dawn yet, is
it?”

“It’s still fully dark at
the moment, but it will be dawn soon. Once you’re dressed, I’ll open the tent
flap.”

I crawled out of the heat
sack, shivered as an icy draught hit me, groped for my clothes and jacket, and
put them on. I was feeling cold, sluggish, and scared, but I had to go through
with this. It was vitally important to catch Elden. Not just for the benefit of
my Hive, and the unknown number of other telepaths that Elden had imprinted,
but for my own peace of mind. If Elden escaped, then I’d always have a nagging
fear that he’d return and find a new way to kidnap me.

“I’m ready,” I said.

Either Lucas understood
the tent flap fastenings better now, or it was easier to open than to close it.
I looked out into the darkness, and couldn’t see the moon, let alone the Truesun.
Lucas went out, waited for me to follow, then let the tent flap fall closed
behind us.

The light from inside the
tent was blotted out now, and I could barely make out the shadowy shapes of other
tents near ours. I hesitated, and Lucas took my hand to guide me to sit on a
rug. “Where is everyone?” I asked.

Lucas wrapped a heat sack
round my shoulders. “The Strike team are on guard duty in the trees. Are you sufficiently
relaxed to try reading some of their minds? None of the Telepath Unit Tactical
teams have any data on how well a true telepath can work Outside.”

Something in his thoughts
grabbed my attention. “If we go hunting Elden, you’re planning to come with us.”

“Yes. Even if your initial
issues with the Truesun are resolved, you may develop problems later, and
reading Elden’s mind could be very disturbing for you. You must have expert
support with you, which means either myself or Megan. My role includes accompanying
the Strike team on occasion. Megan’s does not.”

This wasn’t really a
surprise. I’d suspected Lucas would insist on coming along, but I’d been trying
to avoid thinking about it. “You’re only supposed to join us on routine trips.”

He grinned at me. “You
can’t expect me to stay back at the unit while you go wandering round Outside
in the company of twenty-one other men.”

I checked Lucas’s thoughts,
and was relieved to see he was joking. I hoped that was a sign he was gaining
confidence in himself and our relationship.

“I’ll try reading a few
minds,” I said.

I closed my eyes and
reached out with my mind to find the Strike team. They were posted round the
camp on guard duty, thinking about the cold night air, the discomfort of hiding
in thick undergrowth, and the talks Rothan had been giving them. He’d told them
all about the camping trips he’d gone on as a child. Shown them images of himself
with his family. Reassured them that he’d never seen any sign of the hunter of
souls when he was Outside at night.

Rothan’s stories had helped
the rest of the Strike team, but they were still very nervous of the darkness,
and desperately eager for the Truesun to rise. I was the exact opposite, comfortable
with the night but dreading daylight.

I drifted on and found
Rothan’s mind. Untroubled by any fear of Outside, his thoughts oozed delight on
every level.

“Adika’s told the Strike
team about the promotions then,” I said.

“Rothan gets Alpha team?”

“Yes.”

“The noble hero, Rothan,
has proved his worth and can now claim Emili. That’ll be a huge relief to the poor
girl.”

I laughed.

“Second deputy.” Lucas’s
mind played with probabilities. “Forge has consistently been getting noticed. He
gets Beta team. Correct?”

“Correct.”

Thinking of Forge made me automatically
link to his mind. He was much further away than I’d expected, fighting his way
through bushes with Adika and Kaden. Forge was pleased about his promotion to
deputy team leader, but the top levels of his mind were worrying about why they
were roaming through the wilderness.

Adika had said they needed
to try following some paths, to test whether it was possible to travel Outside
at night without lights, but Forge believed they were doing more than that. He
was sure that Adika had brought Kaden along to see if he could handle being
under pressure Outside at night.

Forge hoped he’d been
brought along to help Adika if Kaden had another panic attack, but he was
nervous that Adika was testing him too. He’d tried to hide his fears of the
darkness Outside, but if Adika had spotted them …

I left Forge’s anxious
mind and dipped into Kaden’s thoughts. He was burning with adrenaline, desperate
to grab this unexpected last chance to stay with the Strike team, resolved not
to show weakness whatever happened.

I moved on into Adika’s
mind, and found he was testing himself as well as Kaden, pushing both of them
to the limit by roaming random paths in the darkness. He’d had to leave Rothan
in charge of guarding me, so he’d taken Forge along as his second most reliable
man. If he panicked, then Forge would have to take charge of the situation.

There was a sudden burst
of high-pitched, inhuman screaming nearby. Adika’s mind tensed in response and
his hand went to his gun. The minds of the rest of the Strike team were flaring
in fear too, filling with tales of the unspeakable horrors lurking beyond the
safety of the Hive.

I grabbed for my ear
crystal, turned it on, and opened my mouth to say that the screaming was
nothing to worry about, but I found Rothan was already talking.

“It sounds like a fox is
hunting out there. You’ll remember me telling you about foxes. They aren’t a threat
to us, but they’ll eat small mammals.”

The Strike team calmed
down again, and I heard Adika’s voice. “I’m convinced that you’re right about
it being impossible to travel at night, Rothan. We’ve completely lost the path
we were following, and we’re now trying to head back to camp.”

I checked Adika’s mind,
and saw he was satisfied with his own and Kaden’s reaction to the screaming. I turned
off my ear crystal again, and reached out further with my thoughts. “Lots of
animals out there. It’s like a vast park.”

“You can read animal minds
too?” asked Lucas. “Are they less well defined than human minds?”

“It depends. They don’t worry
about nothing the way humans do. They can have very sharp and well defined
thoughts when they’re hungry, frightened, or hunting food. They’re blissfully
happy when they’re eating.”

“Is that why you like
feeding the birds and animals in the park?”

I smiled. “Yes. I get a
whole wave of happiness coming from them.”

“And why you try to help the
people around you be happy too, especially your Strike team?”

I pulled a face. “Yes.
Adika thinks I’m too kind, but maybe the truth is that I’m dreadfully selfish.
I’d rather not be hit by unhappiness every time I’m checking the Strike team’s
minds. Either way, most of the time I can’t do anything to help them. People
are very complicated. They can be unhappy because they don’t have something,
but know they’ll be even more unhappy if they get it.”

There was a moment of
silence before Lucas spoke again. “Are the number of animal minds going to make
it difficult for you to find Elden?”

“I don’t think so. They’re
a very different shape, colour, brightness from humans.”

I could sense the huge mass
of human minds beneath us that was the Hive. A blurred, amorphous hum of
thought. The closest of the minds were the familiar ones of people in my Telepath
Unit. I caught Megan worrying about how I’d react to daylight. She was jealous
of my intimacy with Lucas, and brooding yet again on how she’d rejected Adika.
She knew she needed to make up her mind one way or the other, give Adika a
clear decision instead of constantly varying the signals she gave him, but …

I realized I’d got sucked
into someone else’s emotions and problems yet again. I wondered if I’d ever stop
making that mistake when reading minds, and forced myself to pull out of
Megan’s head.

“I’ve found our unit. It’s
much easier to reach out through the emptiness, than through corridors crammed
with people. My range should be further than it is inside the Hive. Is that
enough information for you?”

“It’s very helpful and encouraging,”
said Lucas. “Would you like some food now?”

I opened my eyes. “I’ll
have a fruit strip.”

Lucas munched a couple of
crunch cakes, while I nibbled half-heartedly at my fruit strip and looked
nervously at the sky. It might be my imagination but it seemed a little brighter.
“Is it nearly dawn now?”

“Yes. The Truesun will
rise in the east.” Lucas pointed directly ahead of us. “There are no corridor
signs to tell us directions here, but I’m told that east is that way.”

I dropped my fruit strip
and focused on why I was out here. Elden had made me his puppet, and I was
going to overcome my fear and make him my prisoner. “If I can learn to cope with
the Truesun, what are your plans for hunting Elden?”

“We’ll head out towards
the coast, blending in with the groups from the Ramblers Association as you
suggested. Rothan says that it’s vitally important for ramblers to help each
other with problems, because there’s no emergency assistance from the Hive when
they’re out in the wilderness. That means they’re very friendly to each other,
totally ignoring level distinctions when they’re Outside. We may attract more
attention than we’d like from them, but we can let Rothan do most of the
talking.”

My eyes were fixed on the
eastern sky. It was looking brighter now.

Lucas was still talking. “At
intervals, we’ll stop and let you scan the surrounding area with your mind,
looking for Elden. We can put up a tent for you if it helps. I’m hoping it
takes days rather than weeks for you to spot him, and then … It’ll be like a standard
chase, but in highly unusual conditions, and with the added problem that you
won’t be able to read Elden’s plans in his head.”

“I’m not sure how I’ll pick
him out from among the ramblers,” I said. “Elden’s mind won’t be anything like
my usual targets. He’s a dutiful, tame bee, just one that’s following the
orders of a different Hive. I suppose we’ll just have to chase down anyone with
unreadable thoughts and see if they look like an older version of Forge.”

“I think you’ll find Elden’s
mind very distinctive,” said Lucas. “Hive Genex must have imprinted him with a
huge amount of information from several unrelated professions like data systems
expert, imprint specialist, and mechanic. On top of that, he’d need a complete
imprint of our language, and oddments like techniques for evading our drone
patrols and information on booby traps.”

Something had been
worrying me. I had no choice but to hunt down Elden, but … “Elden must be
imprinted with how to detect a true telepath as a child as well. Will our Hive
be able to learn the secret from him if we catch him?”

Lucas shook his head. “Elden’s
imprint must be dangerously large just to cover the essential information. I
can’t believe he’s been imprinted with expertise in brainwave analysis as well.
It would be a totally unnecessary extra burden. Elden must have a way of communicating
with Hive Genex to get an aircraft to come and collect him. He could use the
same method to transmit data to be analyzed by their own experts.”

I wondered what sort of
life I’d have had if my Hive had been able to detect telepaths at age three. I felt
a traitorous moment of relief that my Hive wouldn’t be able to get that
knowledge from Elden. Future true telepaths would still be allowed a normal
childhood.

“I suspect Elden is hovering
on the edge of being imprint overloaded,” continued Lucas. “You may see signs
of that when you read him.”

“There’s a limit to how
much data you can imprint then?” I asked.

“The limit isn’t so much
on the amount of data you can imprint,” said Lucas, “as on the ability of the receiving
mind to handle it. Above a certain point, the mind either ends up unable to
access large blocks of the information, or it overloads trying to maintain all
the links. Our Hive is careful to keep imprint sizes well inside safety
margins. It also avoids the potential issues that can arise with the layering
effects of multiple imprints, by only ever giving one imprint at eighteen years
old.”

He paused. “That means children
have to spend some time in school, learning the basics before they go to Teen
Level, but school would be necessary anyway. It doesn’t just teach children reading
and chanting tables, but their duties and obligations to the Hive.”

By now I was well aware
the main purpose of school was socially conditioning children to become dutiful
tame bees to serve the Hive. I wasn’t entirely happy about that. On the other
hand, I knew exactly how much damage wild bees could do.

I could see the eastern
sky was a lot brighter now. “The Truesun is about to rise, isn’t it?”

Lucas took my hand. “There’ll
be some interesting colours in the sky. Don’t worry. It’s not the world
catching on fire or anything. Read me.”