Telepath (Hive Mind Book 1) (39 page)

Authors: Janet Edwards

BOOK: Telepath (Hive Mind Book 1)

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Chapter Forty

The warbling sound of the alarm cut
into my dreams. I groaned and rolled out of the sleep field.

“Unit emergency alert,”
said the computerized voice. “Unit emergency alert. We have an incident in
progress. Operational teams to stations. Strike team to lift 2.”

Adika’s voice cut in.
“Alpha team, you have the strike.”

I grabbed my body armour,
pulled it on, and wriggled to get it comfortable before finishing dressing.
Over the other side of the sleep field, Lucas was pulling on clothes while simultaneously
reading a scrolling display on the wall. I ignored the glowing text. Lucas
would brief us on the details later.

We left the apartment
together, grabbed a split-second hug and kiss, and then split up. Lucas
sprinted for his office, and I ran for lift 2. Adika, Rothan, and the Alpha Strike
team were in there already. Forge and the Beta Strike team were standing nearby,
and waved cheerfully at me. This wasn’t their strike, but Forge still wasn’t
satisfied with their emergency response speed, so he had them responding to
Alpha team alerts for extra practice. I didn’t see why he was complaining. They
were a lot faster than me. I’d have to sleep in the lift, wearing body armour
and full equipment, to get there ahead of either Strike team.

I skidded to a halt in the
lift, the doors closed behind me, and the lift started moving. I spotted a familiar
mind and figure among the Alpha team, and hugged him in delight.

“Eli! Welcome back to
active duty.”

He made the most of the
hug before releasing me and grinning. “I could have been back weeks ago,
instead of being stuck training with Forge and the Beta team greenies.”

“We had to be sure your
leg was properly healed,” said Rothan.

“We certainly did,” I
said. “We couldn’t take silly risks with someone as valuable as you, Eli.”

Eli flushed with pleasure
and embarrassment.

Adika decided we’d spent
enough time giving Eli his welcome back to full Alpha team duty, and started
the standard routine. “Strike team is moving.”

Lucas’s voice spoke in my
ear crystal. “Tactical ready.”

Nicole came next. “Liaison
ready. Tracking status green.” She sounded anxious, the way she always did.

I checked my dataview. “We
are green.”

The warm, relaxed voice of
Lucas started briefing us. “We have an emergency call about an incident,
strength six. Location is …”

Strength six meant someone
had already died. The atmosphere in the lift gained an extra degree of tension
as we braced ourselves for the chase. A wild bee was out there on a killing
spree. The Strike team were preparing themselves to use deadly force if necessary.
They’d been carefully selected by Lottery to be capable of taking instant decisions,
and using whatever level of violence was in the interests of the Hive.

I hadn’t been like them. I’d
been an ordinary girl and should have lived an ordinary life, but it had been a
long road from Carnival to Halloween. I wasn’t an ordinary girl any longer. I’d
read tame minds and wild minds. I’d shared their thoughts and felt their emotions.
I’d known the light and the darkness, and walked the thin line between mercy
and revenge.

The Hive hadn’t let me
meet any of the other true telepaths, and now I knew one of the reasons why. Morton,
Sapphire, Keith, or even Mira, would have told me the truth. That of all the
people in the Hive, only true telepaths were free from imprints and fears of
consequences. We would serve the Hive, as everyone did, but we would serve it
on our own terms. The Hive didn’t want us to know that, but we all learnt it
for ourselves in the end.

The lift doors opened, and
the Strike team clustered protectively round me as we headed out to defend our
Hive.

Message from Janet Edwards

Thank you for reading Telepath. Please
visit me online at my
website
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Best wishes from Janet Edwards

Books
by Janet Edwards

Set in the Hive Future

TELEPATH

Set in the Portal Future

The
prequel novellas:-

EARTH AND FIRE: An
Earth Girl Novella

FRONTIER: An Epsilon Sector
Novella

The
Earth Girl trilogy:-

EARTH GIRL

EARTH STAR

EARTH FLIGHT