“You’re sure about that?” I asked. “The imprint might be giving orders to my subconscious without my knowledge.”
“I’m sure, Amber.” Lucas leaned across and took my hand for a second. “The target wouldn’t want us to know about the imprint. If it was active, you’d never have told me about the dreams or the sunburn. Equally, if Forge was working for another Hive, he’d never have removed the birthmark that let him give you orders.”
I nodded. “All right. That means we just have to put the unit into lockdown while you remove my imprint.”
Lucas’s thoughts were too fast and too technical for me to understand the details, but the tone of them panicked me.
“You can’t remove imprints?”
“It’s not totally impossible,” said Lucas, “but it’s never easy. The larger the amount of imprinted data, the more difficult it is. The longer it’s been in place, the greater the resulting mental confusion, because personal memories are linked to the imprinted data. That means those memories are either removed along with the imprint, or become distorted. In your case, the imprint has never been activated, so your only personal memory directly linked to it is the repeating dream.”
“So what’s the problem removing it?”
“Imprints are controlled by two linked symbols,” said Lucas. “One at the start of the imprinted data thread, called the key symbol. One at the end, called the trigger symbol.”
He hesitated, struggling for a way to make this comprehensible without using technical terms. “Think of the key symbol as the key to a lock. It can be used to remove an imprint, by unlocking the start of the data thread so it can be unravelled.”
I remembered one of the activities I’d tried on Teen Level. “A thread? Like the thread you use in sewing or embroidery? If you make a mistake, put the stitches in the wrong place, you can unravel them and start again.”
“It’s a very different sort of thread,” said Lucas, “but yes, the analogy works. At the end of the data thread is the trigger symbol, the one used to activate the imprint. Normally, that activation is done immediately the imprint is complete, but in your case it wasn’t. The target has been trying to reach you to do it now.”
He paused. “The problem with removing the imprint is we know the key symbol for our Hive’s imprints, but not the key symbol for the one in your head. Without it, we can’t remove your imprint.”
I thought about that for a moment. “Hives trade people. Only rarely, but there’ll be a few people here who were imprinted by other Hives. One of those imprints could have the same key symbol as mine.”
“Hives trade people after Lottery but before imprinting,” said Lucas. “The new Hive imprints them on arrival.”
“But what about people who ask to move Hive?”
“If they’ve already been imprinted,” he said, “then their imprint is removed before they move.”
“You said that could cause mental confusion.”
Lucas waved his hands in a gesture of helplessness. “They’re warned about that. Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement insists on people having their imprints removed before they transfer Hive. If they were allowed to leave with all the data from their old Hive intact, then it would lead to people with valuable knowledge being offered huge rewards to change Hive. There’d be chaos.”
Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement’s rules seemed barbaric to me, but I had to focus on the imprint issue. “So you can’t remove my imprint without the key symbol, and you don’t know the key symbols that other Hives use?”
“Exactly,” said Lucas.
“But there’s got to be some way to remove the imprint without the key.”
“No!” Megan stood up.
Lucas glanced at her. “Let me handle this, Megan.”
“Amber’s health and wellbeing are my primary concern.”
“Mine too,” said Lucas. “Sit down, Megan.”
She shook her head. “Your role and priorities are different to mine.”
Lucas sighed. “We’re on the same side here, Megan. I’d never risk harming Amber. I’m not just professionally involved, but personally as well.”
Megan finally sat down again and Lucas turned back to me. “We can’t even find your imprint without the key symbol, Amber. It’s like a single grain of sand lost on the vast beach of data in your mind. We don’t know what we’re looking for. Even if we could locate it, trying to remove the imprint without the key would be like … Like removing some embroidery stitches by cutting a hole in the material. Like smashing down a door instead of opening it.”
He pulled an agonized face. “We’d have to wipe everything in that area of your mind, causing huge damage. You might not be a true telepath afterwards. You might not even be able to walk or talk. It’s not an option. Not under any circumstances.”
“It can’t be that bad,” I said. “People have traumatic memories removed all the time. Like the girl that Callum stabbed.”
“In cases like that, the traumatic memories are removed by rolling back time,” said Lucas. “The personal experience chain is unravelled to a point before the incident happened. Everything after that moment, traumatic or otherwise, is lost forever. You were imprinted when you were three years old, Amber. If we reset you to before that point, then you’d lose all your memories and personal development, and become a small child in an adult body. We have to be truly desperate before we try that.”
“We have to find the key to my imprint then,” I muttered. “What are these keys like?”
“Our Hive uses complex visual symbols for both the key and trigger,” said Lucas. “Audible sequences would also be possible.”
I took a deep breath. “I have to go Outside.”
“What?” Lucas gave a bewildered shake of his head. “Amber, we’ve already established that you can’t go Outside. Your fear of it isn’t natural or rational. You were imprinted as a terrified three-year-old, and your terror of Outside and the Truesun became part of that imprint.”
“I have to do this,” I said. “We know I was imprinted when I was Outside with the target. We need to bring back my memories of exactly what happened back then.”
“It’s not safe,” said Megan. “There could be serious trauma.”
I ignored her, keeping my eyes on Lucas. He was my unit Tactical Commander. He was the one I needed to convince. “Is it possible my memories would give you some clues about the key symbol for my imprint?”
“When our Hive imprints someone after Lottery,” said Lucas, “it’s done in carefully controlled conditions. The person is left with no memory of the key or trigger symbols. Your case is entirely different though.”
He pulled a face. “Your imprinting was an incompetent mess, Amber. The target must have broken every possible rule. I think he kept you awake and looking at him during the process, as the simplest way to imprint the fixation with his face and pleasing him. That would explain how your terror of being Outside got included in the imprint.”
Lucas hesitated for a second before speaking again. “If I’m right, and you were awake for the imprinting, then yes. It’s possible you’d have a memory of seeing or hearing the key symbol.”
“In that case, we have to try this,” I said. “I have to go Outside. I have to remember.”
“Megan’s perfectly right though,” said Lucas. “Deliberately awakening those memories is dangerous. We’ve no idea what makes someone into a telepath. It’s possible that causing massive trauma on either conscious or unconscious levels of your mind could damage your ability.”
“What else can we do?” I asked. “We can’t wait for the target to trigger my imprint and make me his personal slave.”
“We go into lockdown,” said Adika. “We keep you totally isolated so the target can’t reach you.”
“For how long?” I asked. “The target has already spent fifteen years hunting me. He’d spend another fifteen if necessary, and I’m no use to the Hive while I hide in my unit.”
I paused for a moment. “We h
ave to do something, and there are only two options. Either we reset me back to before I was imprinted, or we try to recover my memories of the key symbol.”
No one was saying anything. They knew I was right, but they hated the idea of me going Outside. I hated it even more than they did.
“I have to go Outside.” I kept repeating the same words in an attempt to convince myself I could actually do this. I knew it had to be me forcing myself to leave the Hive, because no one else would drag the precious telepath Outside against her will. “I’ll need you to help me. Make this as easy as possible for me.”
Lucas groaned, and I saw his thoughts accelerate as his head started assessing options. He started talking in speed speech. “Possible restore memories but danger reliving traumatic childhood experience.”
I focused on the pre-vocalized words in his mind, so I could see the full sentences and understand properly.
“We might be able to bring the old memories to the surface without you going Outside, Amber, but then you’d be hit with everything at once. Both the traumatic childhood experience, and the terror of being Outside. Your suggestion is probably best. We give you carefully graduated experiences of being Outside to reduce your fear to a level you can handle. Some of your old memories may surface naturally during that process. If not, we can move on to trying to restore them artificially.”
He paused. “The Truesun is the focus of your fear?”
I saw an image of the Truesun appear in his head, and instinctively pulled out of his thoughts. I tried to cover up my shudder by making it into a nod. “Yes, I’m very scared of that.”
“Then it’s logical to begin going Outside at night.”
“When the Truesun is turned off?” I asked.
“A slight technical quibble, the Truesun isn’t turned off at night, it’s on the other side of our planet. Be aware that the moon will be visible at night. Are you afraid of the moon in the same way as the Truesun?”
“I don’t think so,” I said. “I’ve been in parks at night when they were running a moons and stars programme. Moons are a lot less bright than suns. That’s the same Outside?”
Lucas nodded.
I moistened my lips. “We’ll make a start tonight then.”
“Not tonight,” said Lucas. “It’s inadvisable to rush this.”
“It has to be tonight, Lucas. We don’t know when the target will make his next move and … I have to do this before I lose my nerve.”
He sighed. “If you insist.”
I felt my stomach churn with tension. I was going Outside tonight!
Chapter Twenty-six
A few hours later, I stood in the midst of a battlefield, my armour covered with mud and blood, my exhausted men gathered around me.
“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead,” I heard myself shout in a very masculine voice.
“Do you always play the lead male role in bookettes?” asked Lucas.
I hadn’t noticed Lucas entering the room. I turned in surprise, and saw a quizzical look on his face. “Bookette stop.” The holo battlefield, the weary men, and my fake masculinity abruptly vanished, leaving me standing in a featureless room. “The bookette doesn’t have a female role at this point.”
“Why are you viewing a historical bookette anyway?” asked Lucas. “You were supposed to be resting before tonight’s trip.”
I pulled a face. “I tried to sleep but couldn’t. I kept worrying about going Outside. I needed a distraction, so I asked the bookette room for something involving people from different Hives speaking different languages. It came up with this, and it’s really confusing me. The relevant scene was right at the end, so I thought I’d play some of the earlier stuff to see if it helped me understand what was happening. It didn’t. You watch. Bookette restart first entry Catherine.”
Now I was a woman, standing in a large room with tapestries hanging on the wall. The bookette had me wearing a peculiar long dress, and I was accompanied by an older woman who seemed to be my bodyguard. Lucas had been automatically designated the part of Henry, and we stood facing each other, with the ancient dialogue appearing to come from our mouths. This was a top model bookette room, so its holos faked our mouth movements beautifully. I let the scene run for several minutes.
“Bookette pause,” I finally said. “So, what’s going on? Catherine is getting traded between Hives?”
Lucas/Henry smiled. “Effectively, yes.”
“But her imprint of her new Hive language is faulty.”
His smile widened. “The story is set prior to the availability of imprints. Catherine is learning the language the slow way.”
“Can I do that to help me read the target?”
“The slow way is extremely slow. Takes years. Impractical.”
I sighed. “This bookette is weird. Hive England and Hive France are fighting. Henry is king of England. What’s a king?”
“A leader. Decisions were made by a person, rather than by systems. In this bookette, Henry decides to make war on France to increase his personal power. You can see why we don’t let people make that sort of decision anymore.”
“So why is Catherine being traded? What job does Hive England need her to do?”
Lucas clearly loved this question. “Her job is to be queen of Hive England, sleep with Henry, and have a child to be the next leader. Shall we order the bookette room to expand this scene to include that point in their relationship?”
“No,” I said firmly.
“We could just let the bookette fake our actions, if you preferred not to actually …”
“Bookette stop. Lucas, quit giggling and behave!”
The room returned to being featureless, and regal Henry turned back into Lucas.
“Is it time for us to go now?” I asked.
Lucas nodded, and led the way out of the apartment. I was bone weary and a mass of nerves. I expected him to escort me to the lifts, but he headed for the park instead.
“We’re supposed to be going Outside, Lucas.”
“Preliminary phase,” he said.
I was too tired and nervous for his speed speech. “Sentences, Lucas. Full sentences. Lots of words.”
“You’re comfortable with parks, so we’ll go to the park first. Our park keeper has just got the moons and stars programme working. We’ll sit in the night-time park for a while, and then we’ll cover your eyes, take you to a Hive exit, and go Outside. When your eyes are uncovered, you should see a similar scene to that in the park. The idea is to ease the transition for you and make it less threatening.”
“That makes sense,” I admitted.
“Thank you,” he said.
Lucas’s voice sounded odd. I took a proper look at him, and realized he was exhausted. I linked into his thoughts for a second. He’d been frantically working out the best way to approach this, picking out suitable spots in the park and Outside, arranging for the moons and stars programme to be set up, choosing a nearby Hive exit to be used, and debating security arrangements with Adika.
Alongside all that, he’d been bouncing ideas to and fro with his team, trying to find a clue about what had happened fifteen years ago that would remove the need for me to do this. If we had some hard evidence against another Hive, then Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement would become an ally not a threat, but we didn’t. At the moment, all we had was the imprint in my head, and we couldn’t even prove that existed without the key symbol.
I felt guilty about the state Lucas was in, but I could hardly postpone our trip until tomorrow and tell him to go to bed. If I did that after all the preparation work they’d done, my own unit members would strangle me. Well, they wouldn’t actually strangle me, because I was an irreplaceable true telepath, but there would definitely be a few graphic thoughts floating around.
We entered the park. It had been run down and neglected while the unit was closed, but now our park keeper was bringing it back to life. Every day, new flowers, butterflies, an
d birds were appearing. At night, it had been pitch black after the suns were turned off, which was how Rothan had managed to fall into the lake, but now the suns were on at moon brightness, and the tiny lights of stars dotted the ceiling. Lucas led me into a grove of trees, and we sat down on the grass.
“I want you to lie back and relax,” he said. “Look up at the trees. You should just see dim light through the leaves, but no details of the sky. In a while, we’ll move you to somewhere Outside, where your view around and above will also be restricted by trees. What you’ll be able to see should seem like a slightly untidier version of this.”
That sounded well thought out and reassuring, but I’d still be Outside. I tried to fight off the tension, do what Lucas said, and relax. I lay back, staring up at the canopy of leaves with the faint light behind them. I gave a sudden gasp as I saw something dark flitter across above me.
“What’s that?”
Lucas laughed. “A passing bat. Learning its way round its new home, and looking for a feeding station with fruit. We stole a nocturnal animal shipment scheduled for another park. Telepath Unit priority.”
“I’m creating a lot of work, and keeping everyone up for half the night. I’m sorry to rush this, but waiting around would just make me more scared.”
“I understand,” said Lucas.
“Am I stupid attempting this?”
“No.” Lucas had been sitting beside me, but now he lay back and relaxed too. “Trying this scares me for lots of reasons, but you’re right. We have to do something, and we have to do it quickly. Our target has been in total control of the situation until now. He deliberately lured us to that park on Level 80. He took the child into the drainage system, and arranged the booby traps, to keep us there as long as possible. He was watching and waiting for us to return the second time, and the dart gun was designed to pin us down and keep us there again.”
“He did all those things just to make us spend time in that park?”