“Does that mean Mars is definitely in the power supply nexus itself?” I asked.
Lucas nodded. “From what Sakshi has told me, Mars couldn’t do this from anywhere else.”
The door of Aerial two was open now, and the Beta Strike team were sliding down their evacuation chute. Aerial three and four had parked too, but nobody would leave those aircraft until the hangar doors were safely closed.
I glanced over my shoulder, and saw that Aerial five and six were inside the hangar and moving into position, while Aerial seven was still coming in through the hangar doors. As I faced Lucas again, the hangar lights flashed blindingly bright before everywhere was plunged into darkness.
“Waste it!” said Lucas. “The hangar power circuit has overloaded.”
The hangar area wasn’t completely dark. There was some light coming from the uncovered windows of Aerial one and two, and more scattered lights started appearing as Strike team members switched on their wristset lights. I belatedly remembered to turn my own light on as well.
Lucas tapped the crystal unit in his ear. “We’ll need the emergency lanterns set up and …”
His words were drowned out by a hideous rending sound of metal against metal. I turned and saw the dark shape of Aerial seven skid violently sideways and then crash onto one side. I was still trying to work out what had happened when Lucas started snapping out orders over the crystal comms.
“Alpha Strike team, grab the hangar fire extinguishers and get them to Aerial seven. The power failure must have sent the hangar doors into emergency closure mode. They caught Aerial seven’s tail section, and tipped it over. Spray the aircraft with foam as a precaution and then get everyone out. Beta Strike team, move to Aerial five and help the medical staff disembark. We may have casualties, so your priority is setting up their medical area.”
Figures ran past me, their wristset lights glowing. Two emergency lanterns suddenly flashed on next to Aerial seven, and I saw Adika wielding a massive fire extinguisher. I was trying to remember who’d been travelling in Aerial seven, but my brain was numb with shock.
“Emili, can you hear me?” asked Lucas. “What’s your status in there?”
There was no response, but the mention of Emili had started my brain working again. Lucas’s Tactical team members were in the last aircraft, along with Buzz, because they wouldn’t be needed until the mobile operations centre was ready.
I closed my eyes, and reached out with my thoughts towards the toppled aircraft. I was trained to skip at speed between the minds of my Strike team members. I wasn’t familiar enough with the minds of the Tactical team to do that, but I could work my way systematically through the minds in Aerial seven, checking for people who were injured. The lights were still on inside the aircraft, so I was hit by a succession of views of sprawling bodies and scattered possessions.
“Everyone’s dazed,” I said. “There’s someone with what feels like a fractured wrist. A man with a probable broken rib. A woman with an injury to the leg that seems to be severe muscle damage rather than a break. A semi-conscious man with a cut leg.” I paused. “You need to get to that man fast. He’s losing too much blood.”
There was a crackle from my ear crystal, and Emili’s voice gasped out words. “Who has the cut leg, Amber?”
“I don’t know,” I wailed. “I don’t know your minds well enough to …”
“Is he at the near end of the aircraft to us or further away?” asked Lucas.
“He’s the furthest person away from us. On his own.”
“He’s right at the back of the aircraft, Emili,” said Lucas.
“It’s Kareem!” Emili yelled the name at deafening volume. “We need to get a tourniquet on Kareem’s leg!”
“We’ve managed to force the door open and I’m inside,” said Adika. “Emili’s reached Kareem. Is anyone else in immediate danger, Amber?”
“Everyone else seems to just have bruises.” I was horribly aware that I wouldn’t know if anyone was dead, but I didn’t say that aloud. If I’d thought to count the number of minds as I checked them, then I’d know if everyone was all right. It was too late to do that now, because the familiar minds of Alpha team members were joining those in the aircraft.
I drifted randomly between minds for the next minute or two. Adika was checking the bloodstained tourniquet on Kareem’s leg. Rothan was reaching out a hand to touch Emili’s cheek. Eli was lifting Gideon up through the door that had been at the side of the aircraft but was now in the ceiling.
Finally satisfied that everyone was alive, I pulled back into my own head and opened my eyes. I was startled to see the hangar lights were coming back on. No, they weren’t back on at full power, so this must be some emergency lighting system.
I looked round and saw figures in Hive Defence uniforms were working on a control panel on the nearest wall. Several more were standing near Aerial seven and holding fire extinguishers. However confused they were by our arrival, these people knew how to deal with crashing aircraft and power failures.
“Everyone is out of Aerial seven, and casualties are in medical hands,” said Adika.
Melisande’s voice instantly spoke as if she’d been waiting to hear that news. “Tactical Commander Lucas, will your unit be able to continue to apprehend Mars?”
“I believe so, Gold Commander.” Lucas took a deep breath. “We have to go back to our original arrival plan now, everyone. We must set up our mobile operations centre and get to Mars before he causes more accidents with his power surges.”
The frantic activity of the last few minutes changed to our well-rehearsed arrival sequence. I checked the thoughts of a random maintenance worker as he left Aerial three, sharing his fear as he saw the toppled Aerial seven, and the heroic effort he made to concentrate on helping set up the mobile operations centre.
“Megan, are you in the medical area?” asked Lucas, on the crystal comms.
“Yes.”
“Status report on the casualties, please?”
“Jasmine is operating on Kareem to stop the bleeding. He’ll be fine, and all the other injuries are straightforward.”
I heard Lucas sigh in relief.
“I’m afraid that Buzz has a badly damaged hamstring though,” added Megan. “We’re still assessing the injury, and deciding whether to operate or use alternative treatments.”
Buzz joined in the conversation, her voice strained as if she was in pain. “I can’t walk at the moment, Lucas, but I could still do the nosy act in a powered chair.”
“No, you can’t,” said Lucas. “We need our nosy to be positioned next to the Power Controller, where everyone in the nexus can see them. You wouldn’t be able to get to the power control centre without using a lift, and I’m not sending anyone into a lift during these power surges. We’ll have to get one of the Strike team to play the part of the nosy.”
“There’s the minor flaw that the Strike team are all large, muscled men, and won’t fit into my nosy outfit,” said Buzz. “Couldn’t someone carry me and my chair up to …?”
“No!” Megan interrupted her. “I can’t allow you to leave our medical area in your current condition.”
Emili’s voice spoke over the comms. “Lucas, Kareem is obviously out of action, and Hallie is being treated for a broken wrist, but the rest of our team are heading to the mobile operations centre now. I’m staying here to change into Buzz’s outfit so I can play the part of the nosy.”
“Nobody is playing the part of the nosy,” said Lucas. “If neither Buzz nor the Strike team can do it, then we’ll abandon the idea.”
“We must have someone playing the nosy, Lucas,” said Emili. “If we don’t take control of the situation in the power supply nexus, then people will be frightened by the Strike team charging in to chase Mars. If there’s a panic, and people start crowding onto those spiral staircases to get away, there’ll be deaths from falls or being crushed.”
Lucas groaned.
“I can do this,” said Emili.
&
nbsp; Her words sounded determined, but there was a tremble in her voice that worried me. Emili had had a dreadful time when Rothan was injured, and now she’d just escaped from a wrecked aircraft. She was in no state to be playing the part of a nosy on an emergency run. She didn’t need to do it anyway, because there was a far better solution.
“No, I’ll play the nosy,” I said. “Buzz’s outfit will fit me at least as well as Emili.”
My words were followed by a stunned silence. Lucas was still standing next to me. He took the crystal unit from his ear, and gestured at me. I took my ear crystal out too.
“It will be impossibly hard for you trying to work near a nosy, Amber,” he said. “You can’t make things more difficult by playing the part yourself.”
I shrugged. “Whether I’m near the nosy, or playing the nosy myself, I’ll still be hit by the massed emotions of the people in the nexus.”
Lucas frowned as he thought that over.
“The plan was that I’d give the Strike team all the information I could before we sent in our nosy,” I continued arguing my case. “We knew I’d probably be unable to work after that. This way I can at least do something useful.”
Lucas groaned again. “If you insist, then you can wear the nosy outfit. We’ll assess the situation in the power supply nexus before making the final decision on whether to send you in or not.”
I put my ear crystal back in, and headed for the medical area before Lucas could change his mind. I found Buzz lying on a wheeled trolley, her face twisted with pain. The grey nosy mask and matching outfit were lying on the floor next to her.
“You can’t play the nosy, Amber,” she said. “You’ve got too strong a phobia of them.”
I picked up the grey outfit and started pulling it on over my clothes. “I used to be terrified of the Truesun. I faced that and I can face this.”
“You’re absolutely sure?”
“Yes.”
Buzz grabbed the sides of the trolley, took a deep breath, and pulled herself up into a sitting position. “In that case, you’ll need me to help with the mask.”
I sat on the floor so she could fit the mask over my head, seal it into place at the back, and adjust my neckline. “The acoustic distortion control is on the right side of your neck,” she said. “Are you comfortable?”
“Is anyone ever comfortable wearing these things?” I heard my words come out in an unrecognizably weird, throbbing voice. The acoustic distortion system in the mask was working beautifully.
“Not really. Good luck.”
I could see the Strike team members were already gathering by the aircraft hangar exit. As I walked towards them, I caught sight of my reflection in the glass of one of the aircraft windows, and stopped to stare at it.
The shape of the grey mask made my head look as if it bulged in strange places. Special filters turned what you could see of my eyes to a peculiar purple colour. Even the grey clothes had added layers of gauze that were weighted to make them shift in odd directions as I moved. The whole effect was that of something alien and frightening.
This was the image that had terrified me in childhood and all through Teen Level. I had become my own nightmare.
Chapter Thirty-nine
Adika’s heavily muscled arms swept me off my feet, and the Alpha and Beta Strike teams converged on us. Normally my Strike teams dressed in ordinary clothes over their mesh body armour so we could move unobtrusively around the Hive. Today most of them were a menacing sight in grey, heavy-duty combat armour. Adika, Eli, Matias, and Kaden wore blue hasty uniforms because they would be playing the role of the hasty guards in my nosy squad. Forge and Rothan had the red and black uniforms of those working for Power Services.
“Alpha Strike team is moving,” said Adika.
“Beta Strike team is moving,” said Forge.
Lucas’s voice spoke in my ear crystal. “Tactical ready.”
“Liaison ready,” said Nicole. “Tracking status green for both Strike teams.”
“We are green,” I said, and shuddered as I heard my words come out in the distorted voice of a nosy.
My combined Strike teams swept out of the aircraft hangar to an open area where the lights were on at full brightness. They ran on at full speed for three cors, and reached the security doors that guarded the way to the Green Zone power complex. Rothan entered a code, and the doors opened.
“We’re entering the power complex,” said Adika.
“Sakshi, can you hear me?” asked Lucas.
“Yes, I’m with Liaison.”
“Mars has been causing power surges on Industry 1. Does that tell us anything about his location in the power complex?”
“He must be in the power supply nexus itself, at the workstation controlling the power for Industry 1. The workstations controlling Industry 1 through 15 are normally on gallery 1.”
“Strike team, stay on your current level,” said Lucas. “Follow the green route for two more corridors, and then wait while Amber searches for Mars’s mind and confirms he’s on gallery 1.”
I was carried by a door marked “RESTRICTED ACCESS”, which would be the fuel rod storage area, and then we stopped. I closed my eyes, reached out past the tense thoughts of the Strike team, encountered scattered groups of minds in nearby offices, and then found what I was looking for. A tightly knit blur of thought that had to be the people in the power supply nexus.
Mars should be near the top of the nexus on gallery 1, so I started with the minds there, moving rapidly between them until something caught my attention.
… normal to have power surges after changing the fuel rod, but they should have stabilized by now. We can’t remove the depleted fuel rod until …
A red warning was flaring on the display screen by my right hand. Industry 1. Again! Waste it, what’s wrong with the operator at workstation 1. She’s already blown the power on …
“Workstation 1, why aren’t you dumping that excess power?” I snapped the words in frustration. “If you can’t distribute it properly yourself, then just dump it across Industry 2 to 4 and let their operators handle it.”
I was clearly in the mind of the Power Controller. An equally frustrated voice answered him. “Sir, I’ve been ordering power dumps but my controls aren’t responding.”
I turned to my deputy. “Get down there and take over that workstation yourself.”
“Yes, sir!” She sprinted for the nearest staircase.
I disentangled myself from the Power Controller’s mind and spoke myself. “There’s something odd.”
I shuddered again at the sound of the nosy voice. “Lucas, I’m going to have to turn off the acoustic distortion system on this mask. It’s too distracting. Remind me to turn it back on when I need it.”
“I will. What have you found that’s odd?”
I adjusted the distortion control on the right of my neck, and spoke in my normal voice. “We’re sure that Mars is male. The person at the workstation controlling the power on Industry 1 is female. She’s saying that she’s been ordering power dumps but her controls aren’t responding.”
“That sounds like someone’s controlling her workstation remotely,” said Sakshi. “It’s possible to use one workstation in the nexus to control another, but only a Power Controller would know how to do it.”
“I’ve already read the mind of the Power Controller,” I said. “He doesn’t understand what’s happening.”
“His deputy might be imprinted as a Power Controller as well,” said Lucas.
“His deputy is female.” I groaned. “I’ll have to work my way through everyone in the nexus.”
I skimmed lightly across minds that were jammed side-by-side and one on top of another. They were all worried about the power surges, so I was afraid I’d miss Mars among all the other stressed thoughts, but then I found him. A mind that burned bright with anger and violence.
“Target acquired,” I said. “Mars is on a gallery near the middle of the nexus. Probably somewhere between galler
y 4 and gallery 7. He can’t work out what’s gone wrong with his plan. The nexus core should have exploded by now. It was supposed to rip the heart out of Green Zone, the same way that Lottery ripped the heart out of his life.”
“What’s Mars planning to do next?” asked Lucas.
“He’s been overriding power dumps, concentrating all the power surges on Industry 1, but that hasn’t even sent the power buffering system into the danger zone. Mars has given up hope of using the power surges to cause an explosion, and is trying to work out another way to destroy the nexus. One option would be to …”
I broke off my sentence. “No, I can’t make sense of that thought train at all. It’s just a jumble of incomprehensible technical terms. Whatever Mars’s idea is, it involves leaving his workstation, and he knows that’s impossible during these power surges. The Power Controller would notice the unmanned workstation at once and order him back. Mars is going to wait until the power surges stop and the Power Controller orders the removal of the depleted fuel rod. A lot of people will be moving around the nexus during that procedure.”
“The power surges will diminish now that Mars isn’t deliberately encouraging them,” said Lucas, “but they won’t stop while the original full power fuel rod is in a deadly embrace with a low power fuel rod. We’ve got time to assess the situation properly before going for the strike. Why does Mars feel Lottery ripped the heart out of his life?”
I went deeper into Mars’s mind. Down near the subconscious, emotions seethed. He was brooding on the injustice that had changed him from being a defender of the nexus to being its destroyer.
“Mars cheated in the Lottery tests. No,” I corrected myself, “it wasn’t Mars that cheated. His uncle was involved in his testing process. How could that have happened? I thought Lottery candidates were allocated to centres a long distance from their home area to avoid relatives or friends being involved in their assessment.”