Amber/Defender

## Amber's Articles

The following links will take you to additional articles about Amber.

**Following these links may result in reading spoilers**

* Amber Biography
* Perilous Summary
* Telepath Summary
* **Defender Summary**
* Hurricane Summary
* Borderline Summary
* Adversary Summary
* Amber's Unit

To update this list, click **Here**

## Defender

Defender starts out with Amber's unit being called out on an emergency run. They are all especially tense, since for the first time they are handling a case where someone has already died - a woman's body has been discovered in a warehouse by a hasty, together with a man they all assume to be the murderer.

Inside the warehouse, the man huddling in the dark turns out to be innocent - he had stumbled on the body when it was already cold. Once they hand him over to a team of psychologists, they secure the area and are shocked to discover that the dead woman is Fran, who used to be a team leader in Amber's until until she was fired (see Telepath for more details).

## Buzz

While the tactical team and liaison work on determining their next step, Amber and Megan have an argument because Megan keeps pushing for Amber to talk about things that Amber doesn't want to talk about. Megan's personality is all wrong to be a councilor for Amber, but it is not truly Megan's fault - Lottery has chosen an overprotective, very assertive personality and added to that with Megan's imprint. What has worked for other telepaths does not work well for Amber, in part because she can feel Megan's feelings and inner conflict over her on-off relationship with Adika, something other telepaths would not be able to.

As a result of their argument, Megan resigns, but Amber doesn't accept the resignation. Instead, Lucas suggests that they recruit someone else to counsel her, someone that Amber could be comfortable with. That person would be separate from the normal command structure, reporting to neither Megan or Lucas. Amber remembers Buzz whom she had met after her head injury while still living on teen level. Lucas conducts some research and discovers that Buzz is a borderline telepath and already working for Health and Safety. He sets up a meeting so Amber can decide if she wants to recruit Buzz.

During their meeting Buzz tells Amber some unsettling news, but Amber decides to give it a try anyway. Soon after, Buzz moves into the unit and becomes a regular in the series.

## Fran

Finding Fran's killer is turning out to be a complicated matter. Her body must have been moved after death, something that happens very rarely in the hive. One of the other storage complexes in the area, above the one where Fran was found, has reported problems with vandalism. They do a check run there but while they capture a dangerous target who had been planning to harm his supervisor, he turns out to be innocent int the matter of Fran - he had never seen her before.

After a memorable brainstorming session with the tactical team in which Amber takes part, they conclude that the murderer may know about telepaths and nosies, and work for law enforcement. The obvious place to check is the unit in Navy Zone where Fran had been working as deputy leader.

Lucas sets up a meeting with Fran's entire unit at their work place, so Amber can read their minds from a park above their meeting room. Adika insists that Rothan go with Lucas when he goes to speak to them. While there, the unit is set on fire. Between Rothan and Lucas, and digging from the part, they are able to get most people out with Amber guiding them from above. Several do die of the smoke inhalation, but far fewer than if Lucas and Rothan hadn't been there. Lucas has only minor injuries but suffers a crisis of confidence. Rothan is critically injured and nearly dies, his lung damage requires specialized medical treatment procured from a different hive.

The victims are evacuated to a Navy Zone hospital. When Fran's name turns up on the list of missing victims, they realize that the arsonist had entered the unit with her ID, and the target they seek is not a member of her unit. They identify him by comparing the style of arson with previous, rehabilitated cases. With Amber's help they find a message from Fran in which she gives important clues about a dangerous conspiracy. After her death, there are two more targets and one puppet-master they need to find and neutralize.

*See also: Fran*

## Fragmentation

During the initial run and then again when they finally confront the arsonist, Amber starts having fragmentation problems. As she reads more and more target minds, the issues get worse, to the point that she is acting way out of character, hitting Lucas and saying things she did not mean.

Fragmentation results when there are too many echos left in a telepath's mind after reading strong personalities. These echos must be chased away and her mind cleansed of their influence before they overwhelm her own personality.

Amber doesn't really understand what is happening, but the tactical team do and Lucas explains it to her. During the course of that conversation, Lucas explains that this should have started happening around Halloween, so the delay has them puzzled. Upon further reflection, Lucas realizes that Amber must have already dealt with the echos while they had been on their long trip outside, chasing down Elden. Once he realizes that, it suggests to him that Amber needs to get away from the hive. He takes the entire team, support staff and all, to Hive Futura. Outside, where she sees snow for the first time in her life, Amber finally cleanses her mind of the malignant echoes.

## Sapphire

The telepath Sapphire, makes contact with Amber for the first time Amber is stunned as her greatest desire is to talk to or meet the other telepaths. Sapphire admits that it is too early for her to call Amber, but that "Good Manners" dictate that she ask Amber's permission for her Beta strike team members to help guard the burn unit where the survivors of the fire are being treated. One of the survivors, Kirsten, is the daughter of Soren, one of Sapphire's strike team members. Soren as well as the rest of the Beta team want to help guard the unit so Sapphire calls Amber for permission.

Later in the story, after Amber's fragmentation problems become overwhelming, she contacts Sapphire to ask for advice on dealing with the echos.

Sapphire refuses to tell Amber how she and the other Telepaths deal with their echos, but does tell her

Amber comes to understand that every telepath must find their own method. To try the methods of previous telepaths will only delay a solution. Olivia had tried everything the others had done, but could find nothing that worked for her. Amber is terrified she will end up like tormented Olivia.

## Olivia

During the course of the investigation into what happened to Fran, they discover that there is a more involved plot intended to cause three huge disasters in the Hive. Someone calling herself "Jupiter" is masterminding these disasters. Mercury is to set a huge fire, Venus (Fran) is to stab one of the telepaths to death (Amber), and Mars is to cause a huge black out and possible explosion.

The arsonist, Mercury, is discovered by Amber as he is seeking to set fire to the Navy Zone causality unit. He is chased by Soren and they both fall to their deaths. Just before he died he was thinking of "bad manners", which unusual phrase causes Amber to guess the identity of the mysterious "Jupiter".

Amber calls Olivia via their secret communications and finds out just how bad being lost to fragmentation can be. She also discovers that it is one of the echo personalities that did the recruiting and organizing behind the attacks. Jupiter, in life, had been a reset specialist and feels that the only way to save Olivia is to reset her back to before she went through Lottery. She also thinks that she is strong enough to survive and to take over Olivia's life. She won't tell Amber anything about Mars' plan because she wants the disaster to happen.

## Light Angel

Gold Commander *Melisande* is introduced. Lucas has Gold Commander Melisande come to the unit so that Amber can read her mind to make absolutely sure she isn't working with their target. Melisande figures out what is going on and invites Amber to join their discussion. Lucas explains briefly that they have discovered a threat to Operation Rainbow Cascade, the hive-wide exchange of power rods that Melisande coordinates every 3 months. He hands over a plan of dealing with the danger. Melisande gives the mission the code name "Light Angel".

## Conclusion

Amber's entire unit flies to Hive Futura where Amber can deal with her echos and then the unit can prepare for their mission to save the hive from a terrible explosion and capture their last target.

They are successful, with the additional benefit of strengthening the Nosy Myth when Amber has to dress as a Nosy herself to successfully stop their target.

## See Also

* Operation Rainbow Cascade
* Light Angel Mission

## References

### Citations

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Edwards, Janet. Defender (Hive Mind Book 2) . Wallam-Crane Press. Kindle Edition.

### Bibliography

* Edwards, Janet. *Defender (Hive Mind 2)* (2017). Wallam-Crane Press. Kindle Edition