Defender

  “Joint attack,” Lucas repeated my words urgently. “Any more details on this joint attack?”

  “Mercury’s mission is to light a fire, the greatest of all fires, which will rage through Purple Zone. The only information on Mars’s mission is that Mars expects to die carrying it out. That doesn’t make sense to Mercury. He wants to savour the sight of his fires burning, not to die in them.”

  The thought train I’d been following had ended now. I skimmed through Mercury’s mind looking for another that was relevant. “Mercury is worried that Law Enforcement will find out Venus’s information before the joint attack. Even if the data cube was destroyed in the Security Unit fire, the person who had it could still be alive. They may know some of the information.”

  I shook my head and corrected myself. “No, Mercury’s absolutely certain they’ll know all of the information. If anyone gave a mysterious data cube to Mercury, he’d instantly check to see what secrets were on it.”

  “Fran talked about her own mission,” said Lucas, “but not those of Mercury or Mars. I think she’d discovered their missions were to attack the Hive itself rather than telepaths, and that’s why she turned against the group. If Fran had contacted Nicole or me back then, she’d be alive right now, but it was too shameful for her to admit she’d been involved in a plot to harm the Hive. She tried to identify the other conspirators in a desperate attempt to prove her loyalty.”

  He sighed. “You still can’t see anything else about Mars’s mission, Amber?”

  “Nothing at all,” I said. “Mercury’s thoughts are focused on his own fire. He thinks both Mars and his mission are far more trouble than they’re worth.”

  “The joint attack must have been planned to include simultaneous attacks by Venus, Mercury, and Mars,” said Lucas. “Jupiter could attack too, but she appears to be playing the role of puppet master here rather than taking an active part herself.”

  “I’ve found something else,” I said sharply. “Mercury asked Jupiter to move the joint attack to an earlier date, but Jupiter said Mars had to attack a week from today. Both the day and time were crucial. She told Mercury that all the Security Unit survivors are in the Fire Casualty Centre and they are being questioned. She ordered him to burn the place before they talk.”

  “Jupiter knows too much,” said Lucas. “She can’t be getting information from Fran any longer, so she must have access to Law Enforcement systems herself.”

  “Mercury is feeling pressured now,” I reported. “He can’t work out how to burn the Fire Casualty Centre. He’s tried every possible way to approach it, but they’re all too heavily guarded. He can’t get close to a wall let alone an entrance. There are hasties patrolling the levels above and below. He can’t find any weak spots at all.”

  “Congratulations on setting up flawless defences, Gideon,” said Lucas.

  “Thank you,” said Gideon’s voice.

  I was still chasing round thought levels. “Mercury found an entry point into the air vents. He tried to use it to reach the Fire Casualty Centre, but even the vents were blocked or guarded. Mercury gave up that approach, but he’s left the vent cover off in case he needs to run.”

  “Can you tell us where that entry point is?” asked Lucas.

  “No, I just got a flicker of an image. There’s a ladder going up.”

  “Does the ladder go down as well?”

  “Yes, but Mercury is only interested in going up. He seems to feel that height is an advantage.”

  “When we trigger Mercury into running, he’ll head up,” said Lucas. “His air vent entry point has to be nearby if he’s seeing it as his escape route. Gideon, transmit us the details of your best ambush location above us.”

  “Our best ambush location is a park on Level 3,” said Gideon. “Sending details to your dataviews now. Controlling a target’s flight all the way from Level 25 to Level 3 won’t be easy, but this is an ideal place to ambush a firebug. The park is being extended, and work on the new area has got as far as ripping out everything on Level 4 through Level 1, so there’ll be virtually nothing to burn.”

  “We’re evacuating all maintenance workers from that area now,” said Nicole.

  “Eli, you’re in charge of Bodyguard team,” said Adika. “Chase team, we’re heading out now. Red group will go with me, taking another lift to the ambush area. Everyone else will head into the air vents.”

  The lift doors opened and shut. There’d just be my five bodyguards and Lucas with me in the lift now.

  “Mercury is getting restless,” I said. “He’s thinking of doing another lap of the area. There has to be a way to set that Fire Casualty Centre on fire. The survivors must …”

  I broke off my sentence. Mercury’s mind was flaring red with alarm. I saw the view from his eyes, the single massive blond man sprinting through the crowd towards him, a fleeting glimpse of the large group of other blond men starting to move as well, and then I, Mercury, was turning to run at full speed.

  “Mercury’s running!” I shouted. “Sapphire’s Beta team are chasing him.”

  Chapter Twenty-five

  “Waste that!” said Lucas. “How did Sapphire’s Beta team spot our firebug?”

  There was a despairing groan from Adika. “They’re worried about a possible attack on Soren’s daughter. They must have noticed us stop, suspected Amber had picked up a target, and started monitoring our comms to find out what was happening. The continuous data exchange between the Tactical teams uses a dedicated secure connection. They could have …”

  Nicole interrupted him. “Yes, they’ve linked into our comms via the secure connection. They masked their identity as one of our own Beta team. Do we cut the link?”

  “They’re listening to us now? No, don’t cut the link.” Lucas’s voice changed to be harshly imperative. “Sapphire Beta team, pull back, pull back! You’re risking your own lives and those of others by chasing our target.”

  This situation hadn’t been covered in my training. “Do I keep relaying information from Mercury?” I asked in confusion.

  “Amber, keep relaying information,” said Lucas. “Sapphire Beta team, break off pursuit. Kareem, get Penelope on our comms.”

  “Mercury has entered the vent system,” I said. “He’s ripped off his monster costume and is heading up the ladder.”

  “Everyone get to your ambush positions!” Adika sounded ready to explode with anger. “Murray, Soren, someone on Sapphire’s Beta team talk to us!”

  There was no response.

  “Forge, where are you?” asked Lucas.

  “I saw Sapphire’s mob start running, and chased after them. I’m right behind them now.” Forge’s voice was breathless. “Do I pull back?”

  “Forge, stay with them,” said Lucas. “Kareem, we urgently need Penelope. If you can’t contact her, then get Sapphire’s deputy Tactical team leader instead.”

  “I’m talking to Penelope now,” said Kareem.

  My mind was with Mercury, seeing the view from his eyes as he climbed a dimly lit, infinitely long ladder. Well, it wasn’t actually infinitely long, but there’d be about seventy-five levels above Mercury, and another seventy-five below him. In my opinion, that was close enough to infinite. It was the sort of ladder that I’d never dare to climb myself because of my fear of heights, but I was feeling Mercury’s emotions not my own, and he was focused on escaping his pursuers.

  “Mercury’s still climbing the ladder in the vent system,” I reported. “He can hear people behind him. They’re gaining ground on him because he’s loaded down with the backpack full of canisters.”

  An unfamiliar female voice spoke from my ear crystal. This had to be Sapphire’s Tactical Commander, Penelope.

  “Beta team, what’s happening out there?” she demanded, in glacial tones. “Why are you chasing Amber’s target? Murray, answer me this second or you’ll spend the rest of your life scrubbing slime vats!”

  “We aren’t chasing Amber’s target, Penelope,” replied a male voice.
“We’re chasing Soren. He suddenly ran off after Amber’s target, and he’s ignoring my orders to stop. We’re trying to catch him up and restrain him.”

  Penelope made an exasperated noise. “Lucas, do you want our Beta team to disengage or continue pursuit?”

  “Forge, what’s your status now?” asked Lucas.

  “I’m inside the vent system. Sapphire’s Beta team are all climbing the ladder chasing after Soren and Mercury. I’m at the back of the line. I’m a specialist climber, so I could go a lot faster if people would get out of my way.”

  “Sapphire Beta team, disengage pursuit!” ordered Lucas.

  My mind was with Mercury. He glanced down at the line of shadowy figures on the ladder chasing him. The leading man was getting much too close. Mercury reached into his backpack to pull out a canister and light the fuse.

  “Take cover!” I screamed. “Fire bomb coming down at you!”

  I saw the view through Mercury’s eyes. The figures frantically wedging themselves into side passages as the sheet of flame plunged down at them. Mercury frowned and started climbing again.

  “Forge, are you all right?” I yelled, and instinctively linked to his mind. I found Forge was crammed into a narrow maintenance crawl way with three other men, watching a mass of flames fall past them.

  “I’m fine, but that was far too close.” Forge’s voice was slightly higher pitched than usual.

  “Sapphire Beta team remain where you are,” said Lucas. “Forge, what’s Soren doing?”

  Forge stuck his head warily out of the crawl way to peer upwards. I saw his glimpse of a figure above him. “Soren’s climbing the ladder again. Do I follow him?”

  “Yes, follow him,” ordered Lucas. “Amber, can you check Soren’s mind and give us some clue how to stop him.”

  I left Forge’s thoughts, and reached up past the huddled glows of minds in side passages, to the still moving, red-hued one that had to be Soren. He was hearing Murray’s voice shouting at him through the crystal unit in his ear. He was thinking …

  I recoiled from the pain in Soren’s mind. “No force in the Hive will stop Soren now. He was monitoring our comms, looking at the man who’d started the fire in the Security Unit, at the moment he got the message that his daughter had died. He will kill Mercury at any cost.”

  Lucas groaned. “Amber, go back to Mercury’s mind, and warn of any more fire bombs.”

  I found Mercury’s mind again. He was climbing upwards, thoughts seething with frustration.

  … should have all been turned into human candles, but they were warned in time to get out of the way …

  … one of the real telepaths must be around. Venus was right. They should all be killed. Ruining my pleasure in …

  … will have my victory a week from now. The greatest fire of all …

  Part of me shared Mercury’s excitement as he imagined lighting his great fire, while the rest of me was still flinching from the pain in Soren’s mind. He’d got the message that Kirsten had been given the treatment, he’d dared to hope that she’d survive, but then …

  I was Soren, racked with pain over my daughter’s death, remembering the day she was born, and how I’d held the tiny, perfect baby in my arms. I was Mercury, savouring the power of fire, and dreaming of lighting the greatest fire of all. I was Amber, troubled by a stabbing headache.

  “Soren, listen to me,” said Penelope, in a compelling voice. “Mercury is part of a group of conspirators. Amber’s unit need him alive to help them catch the others or many more people will die. More daughters, more sons, more …”

  There was an odd, echoing sound, and Mercury’s foot lit up with pain. He gasped, and clung to the ladder.

  “Soren shot Mercury in the foot,” I shouted.

  “Amber, leave Mercury and get back into your own head,” ordered Lucas. “Forge, take cover. If Mercury falls …”

  I was pulling out of Mercury’s mind when agony hit me again, this time engulfing my left side and chest. I convulsed, lost my hold on the ladder, and started tumbling downwards helplessly. I was probably already dying of my wounds, but a fall of eighty levels meant certain death anyway. I wouldn’t light the greatest of fires after all. How could fate be guilty of such unfairness, such injustice, such extremely bad manners?

  I was Amber, not Mercury. I tore myself free of the thoughts that were flaring in death and screamed a warning to Forge. “Mercury’s falling! He’s been shot again.”

  My thoughts were with Forge, and instantly I was Forge. I was looking up at where Soren was clinging to the ladder above me with one hand, while holding his gun in the other. The tumbling figure of Mercury hit Soren hard. Now both of them were falling towards me.

  There was no time to reach a side passage. Only one option then. I clipped my belt to the ladder, gripped a rung with my right hand, and flung myself to the side, plastering my back against the wall and hoping both the falling men would miss me.

  One figure tumbled past without touching me, and then the flailing leg of the other hit my left shoulder like a hammer blow. I lost my grip on the ladder, but my belt held me in place long enough for me to grab hold of another rung. I looked down at where Soren and Mercury were plummeting to their deaths.

  “Forge?” Lucas’s voice asked urgently.

  “I’m a bit battered but still hanging onto the ladder,” said Forge. “Soren and Mercury are both falling faster than an express lift and … Gah! I think Mercury’s backpack exploded. Liaison had better get fire containment to check what happened down there.”

  “Working on that,” said Nicole.

  “Amber?” Lucas’s voice was even more urgent now. “Amber, come back to yourself!”

  I retreated into my own mind, opened my eyes, and found Lucas was crouching next to me. “What were you doing?” he demanded. “You know it’s dangerous to stay in the head of a target that’s under attack.”

  My forehead was throbbing with pain. My mind was spinning with Soren’s thoughts, Mercury’s thoughts, Forge’s thoughts. I slapped Lucas’s face, sending him sprawling onto the floor, and leaned forward to spit my anger at him.

  “You think it’s easy to pull away from thoughts that are lost in despair or overwhelmed by agony? It isn’t. They suck you in and won’t let you escape.”

  I saw the appalled expression on Lucas’s face, and became aware of my bodyguards watching us in stunned silence.

  “I’m sorry,” I wailed. “I didn’t mean to hit you, I didn’t mean to yell, but my head hurts.”

  The faces around me blurred and then everything went dark.

  Chapter Twenty-six

  The first thing I was aware of was that my head had stopped hurting. The second was that I was lying on something hard and lumpy. The third was that I was horribly cold.

  I opened my eyes and saw dizzyingly tall trees reaching up towards an impossibly high, grey-painted ceiling. No, that wasn’t a ceiling, but a cloudy sky. I was stretched out on ground that was covered in coarse grass, and weirdly I was wrapped in several silver Carnival cloaks. Despite the cloaks, I was still cold, because the ground was freezing and there was an icy wind.

  “I’m Outside.” I sat up.

  Lucas’s voice spoke. “That’s right. You said that your head hurt and then you passed out. We’d normally have rushed you back to our unit, but that was half the Hive away. We were considering taking you to a park, because we knew you felt comfortable in parks, when Buzz joined in the discussion. She said your headache was a symptom of telepathic overload, and getting you to a park would be good, but taking you Outside would be much better.”

  I turned and saw Lucas was sitting next to me. He had a cloak draped over his shoulders as well, but his was in the black and red of a Halloween costume rather than Carnival. He smiled at me and continued talking.

  “Buzz hasn’t been counselling you for long, but she’s a borderline telepath and seemed sure of what she was saying, so we brought you up to the nearest Hive exit. The second we got you Outside, yo
u relaxed, as if the pain in your head was easing. A little later, you moved from unconsciousness into natural sleep. I felt it was best to let you wake up in your own time.”

  I shivered, and tugged the cloaks tighter around me. “Why is it so much colder than the last time we were Outside?”

  “That’s because it was early autumn last time we were out here, but now winter is starting. There are four seasons during the year: spring, summer, autumn, and winter. You may find it helps to think of them as related to the four Hive festivals. Carnival is in spring. Valentine in summer. Halloween in autumn. New Year in winter.”

  My thoughts drifted for a moment. New Year was the festival for families, and had always been very important to me. I’d never paid any attention to Valentine, because that was for lovers, and I hadn’t been part of an established couple when I was on Teen Level. Now I was with Lucas, next Valentine festival could be very different.

  “The weather Outside changes with the seasons,” continued Lucas.

  I dragged my thoughts back to the present. “And the weather in winter is colder than autumn?”

  “Yes.”

  I noticed a red mark on Lucas’s left cheek, and a memory surfaced. “I’m sorry I hit you,” I said guiltily.

  Lucas put an arm round me, and pulled me against his warmth. “I’m not sure it was you that hit me. If it was, then I deserved it. You suffered severe problems after the run where we found Fran’s body. You appeared to have no ill effects at all after the next run where we caught Ashton, but I knew that didn’t necessarily indicate an improvement in your condition, since there was a key difference between the two runs.”