Telepath

  “Elden might not be on the Ocean Path itself.” Rothan pointed at his dataview. “There’s a minor path that runs between the Western Coastal Way and the Ocean Path.”

  Lucas nodded. “Elden could have found an isolated place on that minor path to set up his nest.”

  “If we carry on towards the coast, we should soon reach the junction with the minor path,” said Rothan.

  We started moving again. About an hour later, we turned onto a narrow, overgrown path.

  “This is where we have to start cutting our way through,” said Rothan. “We’ve had an easy time so far, on routes that have a lot of traffic and are well maintained, but not many people use this path.”

  He took out what looked like a long curved knife. “Matias, come and take the lead with me. We’ll hack back the overhanging branches and brambles for the others to get through. It’s hard work, so we’ll all take turns to lead.”

  “Cutting the path will slow us down,” said Adika. “How long will it take us to reach Elden’s area?”

  Rothan shrugged. “My worry is whether we can get there at all. It rained a lot yesterday, and we’ve several water crossings to cope with. We can’t expect proper bridges on this path.”

  He turned and started slashing at branches and brambles. Matias joined him, and the rest of us followed them at a very slow walk.

  “Query,” said Lucas. “How long does it take the path to get this overgrown?”

  “It looks like a full season’s growth to me,” gasped a breathless Rothan. “Things don’t grow so fast in the winter, so it could be anything between six months and a year since anyone came through here.”

  “In which case,” said Lucas, “Elden must have come back to his nest by the shortest possible route, following the Ocean Path until he reached the junction with this minor path, and then cutting his way along it in the opposite direction to us.”

  “Pity,” said Adika. “It would have saved us effort if he’d cut the way through from our side.”

  “Yes,” said Lucas, “but more importantly it means Elden knows several routes between our Hive and the coast. That means he’s spent much more time here than we thought, and has explored this whole area. Be aware he’ll be familiar with the terrain, and know all the places to hide.”

  There was a grim silence after that. We moved on painfully slowly, with the Strike team taking turns to hack brambles, and eventually reached a wide stream. The churning water was brown with mud and nearly overflowing its banks. Adika and Rothan exchanged glances.

  “That’s not jumpable, and the water would sweep us off our feet if we tried wading it,” said Adika. “Time to try out the portable bridge.”

  I was startled. “We’ve got a bridge?”

  “This is going to be interesting,” said Lucas. “I vote we send Adika across the bridge first to check it’s safe.”

  Adika ignored him and studied the stream. “We’ll use the tree next to me, and the one opposite, as anchor points.”

  He took a gun shaped object from his backpack, attached the end of a reel of cord, and fired a spike at the tree on the opposite bank. Several of the Strike team took out short rods from their backpacks, and began extending them and snapping them together. I watched them for a moment, before guiltily remembering I should be doing my own job.

  I closed my eyes and searched. The mind I’d sensed was closer now and it … I gasped.

  “Something wrong, Amber?” asked Lucas.

  “I don’t know. I think this must be Elden’s mind, because I’ve never met anything like this.” I struggled to describe the telepathic view. “His mind is like a net. There are tiny dark patches, holes, everywhere.”

  “Imprint overload,” said Lucas. “They gave him more data than his brain could integrate. You must be seeing the effects of that.”

  “The surface of Elden’s mind ripples.” I tried to read the distant thoughts, but they were gibberish. “I don’t understand the words on the high levels. That’s what we expected. I’ll try the deeper levels.”

  “Be ready to pull out fast, Amber.” Lucas sounded worried. “If Elden’s in imprint overload, you may find it disturbing.”

  I traced my way warily down through the gibberish, to where emotions and images whirled in terrifying confusion. I hastily broke contact, and opened my eyes to find Lucas gazing intently into my face.

  “That was horrible,” I said. “Images melting into each other. A bit like someone having a nightmare, but Elden’s definitely awake.”

  Lucas frowned. “The imprint is breaking down, fragmenting his unconscious thoughts. Reality is mixing with nightmares. I’ve no idea what techniques Hive Genex used to keep Elden stable this long, but now he’s alone out here they’re breaking down.”

  I looked at him anxiously. “Lucas, if imprints can do that to someone, why does our Hive use them? Is it worth the risk?”

  “Your body could carry a small stone with no problems, Amber, but not a giant boulder. The mind has limits too. Our Hive keeps imprints to a safe size, and yes they’re worth it. Children go to school to learn the basics like reading and numbers. If your team members had to learn their imprinted knowledge in the same way, then they’d have to keep studying through Teen Level and after, until they were about twenty-five or twenty-six years old. They’d need yet more time to gain the knowledge necessary for higher positions. Your deputy team leaders would need to be thirty to thirty-five. Your team leaders nearly forty.”

  Lucas shrugged. “With the help of imprints, you have Strike team members who are eighteen. That’s a gain of at least seven productive years. Look at your team leaders. I had the minimum normal experience before I became your Tactical Commander. I’m twenty-one. Nicole bypassed the deputy experience requirement entirely. She’s nineteen. Megan and Adika had to wait a long time for their team leader openings so they’re …”

  Megan’s voice interrupted him over the sound link. “Careful, Lucas!”

  Lucas laughed. “They’re a little older. Think of the gain to the Hive in productivity. Because of my imprint, I’ve gained almost twenty years in my post.”

  I forced a smile, and nodded my acceptance, but I wasn’t totally convinced. As I approached Lottery, I’d been afraid of what being imprinted would do to me. After Lottery, I’d resented being forever excluded from that easy route to knowledge. Now I’d returned, full circle, to fear and suspicion of imprints.

  I’d learned from bitter personal experience how imprints could be used to influence emotions, even totally control someone. Our Hive didn’t do that, because it was wasteful to change people into blindly obedient automatons, incapable of independent decisions. What it did do was use the Lottery selection process to choose suitable people for a position, and then imprint them with carefully chosen information that would reinforce the attitudes it wanted. It wasn’t that the imprint forced people to believe one side of an argument, it just never told them the other side existed.

  I was glad I didn’t have an imprint. It worried me that Lucas did. I trusted his ability to think for himself, but if that brilliant mind broke under imprint overload … I shied away from that nightmare thought, telling myself it could never happen. Our Hive wasn’t a brutal, uncaring place like Hive Genex. Our Hive didn’t overload minds or try to steal telepaths.

  “The bridge is ready, Amber,” said Adika.

  I’d forgotten the bridge building. I turned to see a spider’s web of rods spanning the raging waters of the stream. Lucas looked at it suspiciously.

  “Can that take a man’s weight safely?”

  “The entire Strike team could stand on it at once,” said Adika. “Save your worries until we hit something too wide for the bridge, and have to cross using just ropes.”

  Forge shepherded me across the bridge, warning me not to look down through the apparently fragile mesh beneath my feet. Rothan followed, keeping an eye on Lucas. Adika waited until everyone was across before speaking.

  “Rafael, Caleb, stay here to dism
antle the bridge. Given the slowness of cutting a path, you’ll have no problem catching us up afterwards.”

  About half an hour later, we reached another stream, even wider than the first one. I liked sitting by streams in parks, listening to the friendly, soft sound of the water, but this stream didn’t sound or look at all friendly. It was ripping threateningly at its banks, and I saw a large branch being carried along with the torrent.

  Adika fired a rope across to a tree on the opposite bank. “The bridge should just about be long enough.”

  “It’s the river that worries me,” said Rothan.

  “What’s a river?” I asked.

  “A huge stream,” said Rothan. “The one here is wider than anything you’d get in a park, but it’s just a small stream in full spate after heavy rain. Further ahead, we hit a proper river, and there’s a waterfall marked on the map. That’s the main reason for the existence of this path. It crosses the river at a ford above the waterfall, and ramblers sometimes go there to admire the views.”

  Nicole spoke to us over the sound link. “We’ve accessed the Ramblers Association records, and found some images of the waterfall. Sending them to your dataviews now.”

  Everyone took out dataviews, unfolded them, and stared at the images. Infinite amounts of water cascading down a cliff face, and then swiftly swirling onwards between two slopes that were even steeper than the descent from table top. I’d seen waterfalls in parks, but nothing like this.

  “Waste it!” said Dhiren, in an awed voice. “That’s impressive.”

  “That’s … inconvenient,” said Adika aloud, though the thought in his head was far more strongly phrased.

  The Strike team went back to building their bridge, and I briefly closed my eyes for another check on my target. “Elden’s much closer now. I think I can give you a fairly accurate distance. Seven or eight cors ahead of us.”

  “Which is uncomfortably close to the waterfall.” Adika’s voice held a note of grim resignation. “Of course Elden would base himself by the river, so he’d have a constant supply of water and fish. If he’s on the far bank, then crossing the river using ropes will leave us wide open to attack. Rothan, am I right in assuming that wading across at the ford would be a bad idea after heavy rain?”

  “Suicidal,” said Rothan.

  Adika left the bridge builders to work on their own, and came over to where Lucas and I were sitting. “Lucas, now we’ve got Elden’s position and are sure of his identity, can we just wipe him out with an aerial attack?”

  Lucas pulled a face. “Hive Politics would prefer to submit Elden alive to Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement, but his dead body should provide more than enough evidence against Hive Genex. Would we end up with a body?”

  Adika groaned. “With so much tree cover here, we’d need to take out the whole area to get him. That wouldn’t leave much of a body, or anything else.”

  I closed my eyes. “I’ll see if I can get any clues from Elden. It’s frustrating not understanding the conscious levels though.”

  I reached out to Elden’s mind again, and went down to the lower levels where images flashed and emotions burned. “Elden’s cold and wet and wants to go home to his nest.” I saw a fleeting image. “The nest might be underground. It’s definitely somewhere dark and dry.”

  Adika sighed. “If Elden’s got an underground nest, then an aerial assault isn’t an option.”

  I concentrated on Elden’s sense of smell and touch. The now familiar forest scent of leaf mould. The sensation of damp clothes slapping against skin. The heavy weight on his hip. No smooth, supportive, slippery feel of … “Elden has a gun, but isn’t wearing body armour.”

  “Amber, you’re sure he doesn’t have body armour?” asked Adika.

  “Quite positive.”

  Adika smiled. “Excellent news!”

  “If he doesn’t have body armour, then we should try to get a shot at him before he knows we’re here,” said Lucas. “Ideally kill him, but aim to at least wound him. If he starts running, we can call in aircraft to take us across the river and help us chase him down. A wounded man shouldn’t get far.”

  The bridge was ready now, so we moved on. This time I made the mistake of looking down at the water beneath me, and saw it flinging itself over jagged rocks. Forge had to tug me forwards to reach the other side.

  “We’ll leave the bridge in place this time,” said Adika. “It won’t help us with the river ahead, and we want the option to move back at speed if necessary. Guns accessible. Crystal units to visual.”

  Everyone clipped their guns to their hips. The camera extensions unfolded for the first time since we’d come Outside.

  “Visual links green for all Strike team,” said Nicole.

  “Forge, Dhiren, Kaden, Rafael, Caleb will be on bodyguard duty,” said Adika. “Rothan and the rest are with me on Chase team. Amber, I’m assuming you won’t be able to help us with much information from Elden, but we daren’t leave you far behind us in this situation. Lucas, stay close to Amber and keep your head down.”

  Progress was very slow, because those cutting the path were trying to make as little noise as possible. Forge was carrying me, so I closed my eyes and tried to make sense of the bewildering mind of my target.

  “Elden’s head is like a kaleidoscope of images,” I said. “They’re disjointed. Flickering. Getting close now. One or two cors ahead and right a bit.”

  “Bodyguard team drop back and follow us in,” said Adika.

  We moved on a little further.

  “He’s one cor ahead, or a little less,” I said.

  “Across the river then.” Adika gave a rapid series of orders. “We’re coming up to the river edge now. The ford is directly ahead, and the river goes over the waterfall to our right. Bodyguard team stay in the trees. Chase team crawl from now on, fan out to the left and right and try to spot Elden. If you can get a clear shot, then go for it. Guns on kill. Stunning him is pointless, because he’d regain consciousness long before we got across that river.”

  I could hear the sound of fast flowing water ahead of me. A sudden clap of wings, loud as a drum roll, drowned it out for a moment. We’d been hearing this periodically for days as we startled birds along our path.

  “Waste those pigeons,” said Adika. “Freeze everyone. Amber, did that worry Elden?”

  “I don’t know.” I groaned my frustration. “He noticed it but I don’t know if he’s worried.” I sieved through images. “He’s high up, looking down at the water.”

  “If he was above the waterfall, then he’d be level with the water. He’s to our right then?” asked Adika.

  “No. He’s directly ahead.”

  “But …”

  I felt the roughness of bark under my target’s hands. “A tree! Elden’s up a tree!”

  Forge instantly dropped to the ground, taking me with him. A new image flashed in Elden’s mind. Men crawling through bushes. Others among trees. One man cradling the slight figure of a girl against him.

  “He can see us! He can see me!” I yelled.

  Bodies landed heavily on me. My bodyguards throwing themselves between me and danger. I kept focused on Elden’s mind. He mustn’t escape.

  “I have visual!” yelled Eli. “Partial shot. Do I take it?”

  “Eli, kill!” Adika ordered.

  The sharp note of a kill setting sounded as Eli fired, and I felt flaring pain. “You got his arm.”

  “Amber, get out of Elden’s head!” screamed Lucas from next to me. “You know you have to leave a target’s mind the instant the kill order is given.”

  I’d been stupidly over-eager to help, but I left Elden’s mind now. “Going circuit. Adika, Eli …”

  I saw the view of the target from Eli’s eyes. Elden was high in a tree on the opposite bank, a dark shape among yellow leaves, swinging round to shelter behind the tree trunk.

  Eli ran forward to the river edge to get another, clearer shot at him, and fired a fraction of a second before he was hit by a
hammer blow to the shoulder. His body armour protected him, but he was caught off balance, staggered and fell. I felt the cold of the racing water engulf him, carrying him on towards the waterfall.

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  “Eli’s hit! He’s in the river! Waste it, my leg!”

  I screamed in agony as I, as Eli, crashed down the face of the waterfall. I had to fight to force myself to stay with him despite the pain tearing through my, his, body. “Eli’s leg’s broken. He’s unconscious now, caught on some rocks. Cold. So terribly cold.”

  “There’s a path that cuts the corner to a view point,” said Rothan. “If we can get downstream of Eli …”

  “Rothan, go!” shouted Adika. “Amber, where’s Elden?”

  I left Eli and searched. “Elden’s running away from the river. He’s hit, shoulder and arm. Staggering through the trees. No threat to us.”

  “We’ve lost Eli’s visual link and tracking,” said Nicole. “His crystal unit must be smashed.”

  “Everyone after Rothan!” Adika ordered.

  Bodyguards tumbled off me. Forge went off at a frantic sprint, while Kaden grabbed me and carried me along with the main rush of the Strike team. The ground was rocky here, there were no bushes and the sparse trees were stunted. The path was so steep and muddy that we skidded and slid our way down it, but I didn’t care.

  “Nicole, we need air support now!” Adika gasped the words.

  “Aerial one and two are launching,” Nicole responded. “Aerial three is holding while medical staff board and will launch in three minutes.”

  I closed my eyes, hung on to Kaden, and searched for Eli again. There was agony from his leg, and a sick stabbing in his head and chest, but Eli himself was too far gone to be aware of it.

  “We’re downstream of Eli now,” I yelled. “He’s unconscious still. Alive. Just.”

  There was the sound of the gun that Adika had used to fire ropes across the streams. It fired a second time.

  “Eli’s been washed off the rocks,” I yelled again. “He’s coming towards us now!”