Defender

  “They are,” said Lucas. “Most people come out of Lottery and are assigned to work in their home zone, but the uncle must have been needed to fill a vacancy in a distant zone. By random chance, he ended up assessing his own nephew. The uncle should have reported the conflict of interest.”

  “Well, the uncle didn’t.” My voice was filled with Mars’s bitterness. “He adjusted several of Mars’s scores upwards.”

  There was a groan from Lucas. “Changing even a single test result would be enough to derail the Lottery assessment process.”

  “Mars came out of Lottery as a Level 4 Power Controller. He started work as a member of a Power Control team, expecting to gain experience, be promoted to deputy, and later become a Power Controller himself. Mars loved his work in the power supply nexus, but he kept making errors of judgement.”

  I paused. “Mars tried harder, did everything he could, but then he made an error that sent a huge power surge through a hydroponics unit. Several people were injured, and the unit was severely damaged.”

  Lucas sighed. “There’d be a thorough investigation after that.”

  “Yes.” My bitterness turned to mourning. “The tampering with Mars’s test scores was discovered. His level changed from 4 to 37, but the truly terrible thing was being taken away from the work he loved. He was used to the thrill of being part of the power heart that drives the Hive, but he was made to do tedious chores like changing faulty light units instead.”

  I was angry again now. “He complained about the unfairness, he’d known nothing about the cheating, but nobody would help him. They admitted that basic, repetitive work was wrong for him, but said his possible assignments were limited by his imprint.”

  “We have an identity for Mars,” said Nicole. “Gareth 2508-0717-241. He’s one of the temporary staff called in to assist during the fuel rod changeover. We can’t tell you which workstation he’s on, because people are continually moved around to allow the regular workers to deal with the more serious power surges. We’re sending you Gareth’s full records now, Lucas.”

  “Find the most recent image of Gareth that you can, and send it to everyone’s dataviews,” said Lucas.

  I was still caught up in past events, alternating between seeing them from Gareth’s viewpoint, and seeing them from my own. “Surely they could have retested Gareth. Removed his old imprint and given him a more suitable one.”

  “He’d had his old imprint for over two years before the problem was discovered,” said Lucas. “Removing it at that point would have removed many of his personal memories as well.”

  “He’d have been willing to take that risk,” I said.

  “Gah.” Lucas made a pained noise. “I’ve seen the changes that Gareth’s uncle made to his Lottery scores. They weren’t just adjusted to make him look more talented, but to hide some unstable personality traits. Removing Gareth’s imprint was ruled out as an option because it might have caused a mental breakdown. He was given a treatment plan instead, which included occasional temporary work that was more suited to his nature.”

  “Yes,” I said. “Gareth’s treatment plan included helping out in the Green Zone power supply nexus where he’d once worked, but that was only during the three-monthly fuel rod changeover, and he was only allowed to do the very simplest tasks.”

  “Gareth’s monthly assessment records show he was making gradual progress,” said Lucas. “In time, he’d probably have become content with his new life, but Jupiter intervened to encourage his anger and frustration. Does Gareth have any weapons on him, Amber?”

  “He’s got nothing but the uniform he’s wearing.”

  “Are there any heavy or sharp objects in reach?”

  “No.”

  Lucas was silent for a moment. “Do you still want to try playing the nosy, Amber? The Strike team know what Gareth looks like, so it may not be necessary.”

  “What Emili said was right. If the Strike team charge in and start chasing Mars without warning, then there’ll be panic and people will get hurt.”

  Lucas made the pained noise again. “Accepted. Our nosy squad should position themselves ready to enter the power control centre. Forge, move to one of the entrances to gallery 3. Rothan, move to gallery 8. The rest of the Alpha team cover the entrances to galleries 6 through 9. Beta team cover entrances to galleries 2 through 5.”

  He paused. “Nobody shows themselves until I say so. Gareth reacted to a threat from Fran by lashing out and killing her. If he feels in danger, he will kill again, and he has over one hundred and fifty potential victims in the nexus. I know that I don’t need to say this, but Gareth must not get anywhere near Amber.”

  “He won’t,” said Adika grimly.

  “Move to the external staircase and then split up to go to your individual positions,” said Lucas. “Amber, turn your mask’s acoustic distortion system back on now. You should be familiar with the scripts I worked out with Buzz. We’ll be roughly following the second one. Jupiter will have told Gareth that the nosies are fakes, not genuine telepaths at all. Encourage him to think that’s true, and you’re just bluffing.”

  I adjusted my distortion control. “Understood,” I said, in the throbbing tones of a nosy.

  Buzz’s voice spoke from my ear crystal. “I’m listening in, Amber. If you seem unsure what to say, I’ll suggest possible lines, but you can always stand in silence for a while. That’s a standard nosy tactic, intended to give the impression they’re reading someone’s mind.”

  Adika carried me up the stairs to our position outside the power control centre, and then put me on my own feet. He, Eli, Matias, and Kaden went into a protective formation around me, the four hasties guarding the grey-masked nosy.

  “Nosy squad ready,” said Adika.

  “Alpha team in position,” said Rothan. “I’m ready outside gallery 8.”

  “Beta team in position,” said Forge. “I’m outside gallery 3.”

  “Nosy squad can enter the power control centre,” said Lucas. “If Amber becomes distressed at any point, then get her out of there immediately.”

  Our formation walked into the power control centre. A man was staring at a display on the wall, heard our footsteps on the metal floor, and casually turned his head to look at us. His eyes widened in horror.

  “Nosy.” He hissed in disgust.

  Another man heard him, turned towards us, and repeated his word. “Nosy.”

  “Nosy. Nosy. Nosy.” The warning was echoed down the galleries of the power supply nexus. I felt the power workers responding with emotions of alarm and fear.

  The Power Controller swung his chair round to face me. “I’m Power Controller Sajjad. What are you doing here? I can’t have my staff distracted in the middle of a delicate operation.”

  I didn’t reply, just walked across to stand next to him. I risked a single glance down at the galleries, and saw a host of upturned faces looking at me. Some were filled with revulsion while others were simply startled. I heard the inevitable chanting start, softly at first but getting rapidly louder.

  “Two twos are four. Two threes are six. Two fours are eight.”

  As the chanting increased in volume, the level of emotion around me increased as well. Loathing. Anger. Disgust. I felt an instinctive urge to join in the chanting myself, but fought against it.

  “Stop that noise right now!” yelled the Power Controller. “Focus on your work.”

  “Rothan, Forge, make your entry while everyone’s distracted,” said Lucas. “You’re pretending to be two of the temporary staff, so act as if you’re perfectly at home in the nexus.”

  The chanting had stopped but raw emotions were still beating at me. I fought to keep my link to Gareth’s mind. He was startled by my arrival, but reassured himself that the nosies were all fakes. Jupiter had told him how Law Enforcement used the bluff of the nosy squads to deter people from committing crimes. She’d even explained how nosies were sent to arrest people known to be guilty to build up the myth that they were really
telepaths.

  Gareth hadn’t been sure whether to believe her or not at first, but then he’d tested it for himself, deliberately standing near a nosy squad and thinking of all the destruction he could cause in a power supply nexus. There’d been no reaction at all. He’d done that a dozen times since then so it became a private game. He’d stand among a crowd, pretending to be frightened but secretly laughing inside. Feeling comfortably superior to both the nosies who couldn’t read minds, and the gullible fools who believed they could.

  “Forge, go down the internal stairs to gallery 4 now,” said Lucas. “Rothan, go up to gallery 7. Circle around the gallery as if you’ve been told to head for a specific workstation. Tell us whether you see Gareth or not.”

  “What are you doing here?” repeated Sajjad.

  I finally turned to look at him. “Someone here is guilty. Someone here is planning to attack their ex-partner.”

  The tide of fear and loathing was still spreading through the crowded nexus, still building in magnitude. Lucas had called this process mass emotional contagion. It wasn’t affecting Gareth though. In fact, he was relaxing. He didn’t care if there was any truth in my accusation or not. It was nothing to do with him.

  “I admit that’s a serious issue,” said Sajjad, “but it can surely wait until my people have finished their work.”

  “This cannot wait,” I said. “Your people should continue working as normal while we are here.”

  “That’s easier said than done,” said Sajjad. “The presence of one of you … telepaths is disturbing.”

  “There is no reason for loyal members of the Hive to be disturbed by my presence.” I hesitated, unsure what to say next. I had hostile waves of emotion pounding at me, I was fighting to hold my link to Gareth’s mind, and I couldn’t remember my script.

  “We are here to protect the innocent,” Buzz’s voice prompted me. “Only the guilty have anything to fear.”

  “Gareth’s not here.” Forge’s voice whispered from my ear crystal.

  “Nor here,” said Rothan.

  I looked down at the galleries again, and repeated Buzz’s words. “We are here to protect the innocent. Only the guilty have anything to fear.”

  “Forge, check gallery 5,” said Lucas. “Rothan, check gallery 6. Amber, keep bluffing. We need you to hold Gareth’s attention just a little longer.”

  “Only the guilty have anything to fear,” I repeated desperately.

  “I can sense that the guilty person is very close to me,” prompted Buzz.

  I repeated her words and felt something strange happen. The massed pressure of hostility suddenly eased. The people working further down the nexus were reacting to what I’d said with relief. The nosy wasn’t here for them, didn’t care about them, and wouldn’t bother reading their minds.

  Being near a nosy, sensing the crowd’s reactions, was horribly difficult for me. I’d assumed that playing the part of the nosy myself would be even harder. I’d been both right and wrong about that. I wasn’t being randomly hit by the emotions of the crowd, they were actively directing their anger and disgust at me, but there was the extra factor that the crowd responded to my words. I had some control over this.

  The people further down the nexus were relieved, but those close to me were even more frightened than before. Sajjad started babbling nervous sentences. “It’s not me that you want. I’m very happily married. Well, reasonably happily married. Every couple has their …”

  “Not you.” I turned to look at the nearest power worker, and was shocked when she began screaming.

  “Get that thing away from me! I can feel it poking around inside my head!”

  This woman was obviously as scared of nosies as I’d been as a teen. Possibly even more scared. I was supposed to hold everyone’s attention while Forge and Rothan sneaked round the power supply nexus, but Gareth’s thoughts told me the screaming had taken the distraction too far.

  … are all torn between watching their workstations and listening to that fool having hysterics. Now’s my chance!

  He reached out a hand to stroke his workstation in a farewell caress, and then started walking towards the nearest staircase.

  “Gareth’s moving,” I shouted. “He’s going to take the easiest option to damage the nexus. He’ll climb the stairs to the power control centre and jump into the core.”

  My voice echoed round the power supply nexus, with the acoustic distortion adding a throbbing urgency to my words. Power supply workers were as protective of their precious nexus as my Strike team were of me. The assault of hostile emotions abruptly ceased as they reacted to my warning. I was no longer an unwelcome intruder here. Their nexus was in danger, and I was an ally helping them protect it.

  Gareth had got halfway to the staircase, but had stopped, stunned by my words. Jupiter had been wrong after all. The nosies really were telepaths and this one was reading his mind!

  “Strike time!” snapped Lucas’s voice in my ear crystal.

  I saw the view from Gareth’s eyes, as menacing figures in grey, heavy-duty combat armour rushed into the nexus. All the power workers were on their feet by now, and looking around in alarm. Gareth pushed his way past two of them, but saw an armoured figure was already blocking the nearest staircase.

  “I can see Gareth on gallery 6,” said Rothan’s voice. “He’s on the far side from me.”

  “I see him too,” said Forge. “Do I climb down to Gareth’s level?”

  “Forge, position yourself on the gallery directly above Gareth,” said Lucas. “Amber, we need those power workers sitting down at their stations again.”

  “My guards will deal with the threat to the nexus!” I shouted. “Return to your workstations and continue performing your duties for the Hive.”

  People were obeying my order, going back to their workstations. Gareth turned, hoping to get to another staircase, but there were armoured figures everywhere, inexorably closing in on him. I saw the desperation in his mind, and the abrupt change of plan.

  “Gareth knows he can’t reach the power control centre and jump into the core,” I called out. “He’s going to kill himself jumping off the gallery instead.”

  “Forge, grab him when he tries to jump!” ordered Lucas.

  “I’m not in position yet,” gasped Forge’s breathless voice.

  Gareth was heading for the gallery wall. I shouted again to try to delay him. “Gareth, you don’t need to do this. You can still choose life instead of death.”

  The thought in his head answered me. He’d made his choice when Jupiter first contacted him. He’d made it when he killed Fran. He’d made it when he rigged the power systems to create a deadly embrace. There was no point in his existence without the nexus.

  Gareth was about to vault over the gallery wall, when he saw Forge swing down from above to block his way forward. There were power workers standing at the workstations on either side of him, and armoured figures advancing from behind. For a second, he believed he was trapped, but then he thought of a way out.

  The thought was instantly followed by the action, so I had no time to shout a warning. Gareth hurled his whole weight against the young man standing next to him, seizing his shoulders and shoving him bodily over the gallery wall.

  There was a wild yell of terror from the man as he fell. Forge swung sideways to pull him back to safety, and that left Gareth the clear route he needed. In one swift movement, he pulled himself onto the gallery wall and dived downwards. I was startled that his last thoughts weren’t of anger but of love.

  I love you and I know you love me too. There is no point in my life without you. I planned that we would die together, but I die in your arms instead.

  Gareth welcomed the sight of the floor rushing towards him. Caught in his emotions, I felt the eagerness to die in the loving embrace of the power supply nexus too, but Lucas’s voice was shouting in my ear.

  “Amber, get back in your own mind now!”

  I pulled myself free before Gareth hit the
ground. I was myself again, but Gareth’s last thoughts were still echoing in my head. I found myself repeating them aloud.

  “Gareth loved the power supply nexus, and believed it loved him too. There was no point in his life without it. He wanted them both to die together, but he has died in its arms instead.”

  I’d forgotten where my physical body was, and the part I was supposed to be playing. I was horrified to hear my words come out in weirdly distorted, grieving tones. I realized that every power worker in the nexus was staring at me in disbelief. Waste it, had I wrecked everything?

  “Gareth loved the power supply nexus,” repeated Sajjad, in a stunned voice. “You’re talking about the man who worked here until he caused a serious accident. You said he was planning to attack an ex-partner. The power supply nexus was that ex-partner?”

  What I’d said about an attack on an ex-partner had just been a random, pre-prepared story intended to create a distraction while Forge and Rothan located Gareth’s position in the power supply nexus. Fiction had collided with reality though, and what Sajjad had said was perfectly true.

  “Yes,” I said.

  “Now I understand why you couldn’t wait until later to intervene.” Sajjad gave me a look of awe.

  I used the standard nosy lines again. “We protect the Hive. We protect the loyal members of the Hive.”

  “Well, it wasn’t planned to happen this way,” said Lucas’s calm voice in my ear, “but this has turned into the greatest nosy publicity exercise of all time. Everyone who witnessed it is going to be utterly convinced that nosies are genuine telepaths.”

  He paused. “Has someone checked that Gareth was killed in that fall? If he’s still alive, then he’ll need urgent medical attention.”

  “He’s very, very dead,” said the voice of one of the Beta team.

  “Forge, does the man you caught have any injuries?”

  “No, he’s just badly shaken,” said Forge.

  “In that case, our medical team should come and collect Gareth’s body,” said Lucas. “Gold Commander, what is the status of Operation Rainbow Cascade?”