Telepath (Hive Mind Book 1) by Janet Edwards

if we miss finding
one of the wild bees?”
    He looked down at the
floor. “If the list of areas that need checking is too long, then we may not
get to one before the wild bee injures or kills someone. That means an emergency
response, to locate and apprehend the target before more people get hurt.”
    I shook my head in
disbelief. “I’ve never heard of a criminal hurting or killing anyone. The
nosies don’t let …”
    I broke off. The nosies
were fake. There were only five true telepaths. One of those five was me.
    Lucas lifted his head
again. “Liaison invents unfortunate accidents to cover up such incidents. That’s
better than having others tempted to copy the actions of a wild bee. Better
than having a hundred million people living in fear.”
    He paused for a moment.
“The faster any suspect areas are checked, the fewer emergency runs happen. Once
our unit is operational, we’ll be able to help ease the strain on the other
Telepath Units.”
    I glimpsed Morton’s name
flashing by on level three of Lucas’s express thoughts. He was thinking about
the other telepaths. Eager for more information about them, I chased after that
thought train.
    … hope I’m not imagining
seeing Morton and Sapphire’s strength in her. We mustn’t lose Amber. Olivia
collapsing under pressure was bad enough, but York …
    There was more information
in other linked thought levels, as well as emotional pain and far too much graphic
imagery. I hastily pulled out of Lucas’s mind, but I couldn’t unsee the things
I’d seen.
    “Megan’s right though,” I
said, trying to keep my voice under control. “This has taken a long time and
I’m getting tired.”
    Lucas stood up. “We’ll
continue this conversation another time then. You mustn’t overstrain yourself
reading new minds at this stage.”
    I didn’t trust myself to
answer that, so I kept silent as he walked out of the room, and then buried my
face in my hands. I’d thought the Hive had four other true telepaths, but the
truth was that there were five and should have been six.
    Olivia had come out of
Lottery eight years ago, collapsed under the strain of the work, and could barely
use her telepathy at all now. York had come out of Lottery thirty years ago, and
killed himself a few months later.
    This was what Megan had
been hiding from me. This was why I was smothered in luxuries, and why my every
whim would be granted without argument. True telepaths had to be kept as happy
as possible, because they could break under the strain of their work.

Chapter Seven
     
     
    I handed a glass of deep red juice
to Lucas. He accepted it without taking his eyes from his dataview display. I picked
up my own glass of melon juice, went to lounge on Lucas’s couch, and watched
the cascading thoughts in his head.
    I’d spent a lot of time in
Lucas’s apartment over the last week. I preferred it to my own for two reasons.
One was that it wasn’t so intimidatingly large and luxurious. The other was
that it had Lucas in it. I’d solemnly explained to Megan that studying Lucas’s
mind was excellent training for me as a telepath, far better than the exercises
I was doing with her. She’d politely accepted that verbally, while her mind was
filled with protective concern and lurid speculation about what else was going
on while the two of us were locked away together.
    I frowned as the colour, nature,
taste of Lucas’s mind abruptly darkened. Baffled, I tried to make sense of the words
gabbling away in his mind as he read the rapidly scrolling information, but they
were too technical for me.
    “What are you reading,
Lucas?” I asked.
    “The data feed from yesterday’s
Joint Tactical Meeting. That’s when the Tactical teams from all the Telepath
Units link up in a conference call to exchange ideas and data on problem areas.
My ex boss, Keith’s Tactical Commander, wants my opinion on the latest events
in Orange Zone.”
    “Around 600/2600 again?” I
knew Lucas was deeply worried