by Sophie Davis
“I understand better than you think, Erik. We all do. Talia just took a huge risk in there for Anya. Victoria is going to have her head for paying over a million globes for a girl who isn’t even Created. Do you understand that?”
She huffed in exasperation, her patience with what she perceived as a drama queen act waning. But when she spoke again, Janelle’s voice was calm.
“Please don’t make the situation worse. I am begging you. For Talia’s sake, please don’t make it any worse. When Talia’s ass is in the fire, you aren’t going to be able to help her if you’re on Victoria’s shit list too. The councilwoman loves you, and when you turn on that charm she is so found of, she’ll let your girlfriend go with a slap on the wrist. As long as you are still her favorite little Created.”
My anger receded from the wrathful zone, hovering closer to just truly pissed-off. Once again, I was between a rock and hard place. Choosing between Talia and Anya. At least this decision was not life-or-death, but it still sucked.
“Guys? We have another problem.”
Henri’s pronouncement broke the tense silence in the small craft.
“Are you serious? How many problems can there possibly be? What now?” I snapped in response.
Ignoring my less-than-congenial tone, Henri plunged forward.
“Kenly Baker and James Wellington were just removed from the auction list. They aren’t going to be sold.”
I expected Talia to jump in with a secondary plan. Other than her initial mini-breakdown upon first arriving at the auction, Talia was all business in there. She’d shoved her personal feelings aside, and taken every hiccup in stride. I was so proud of her. So when Brand, not Talia, started doling out orders, I was more than a little surprised. And not in a good way. Talia must have been pissed about my reaction to Anya. Awesome. Just awesome.
“Riley, you need to find them. Can you do that?” Brand asked.
“Way ahead of you, chief.” Riley spoke just above a whisper. “I’m on the upper levels. They’ll each be in one of the cubes. I think.”
“Discretely,” Brand added in a warning tone.
“You think?” I demanded. “Riley, you said you could handle this.”
Even as I uttered the words, I knew it was unfair to rip the kid’s head off. Truth be told, he was doing a great job. Nevertheless, this mission was going to hell in a hand-basket.
“Well, they should be up here,” Riley said. “But they may have been moved if they aren’t going up for auction. Give me ten minutes.”
“We don’t have ten minutes,” I groaned.
Leaning back in my seat, I let my head fall back and my eyes close. Stress and adrenaline were causing the synapses in my brain to fire too quickly. Coherent thought was impossible. My head throbbed and every inch of my body ached like I’d taken the worst beating of my life.
That’s when I saw her. Viewed her. Whatever.
Kenly. She was sitting in a darkened room with a guy I recognized from the last time I slipped into her reality. They were huddled together on a platform, kissing. Awkward. Not just because I didn’t want to watch them playing kissy face, but because I couldn’t imagine a less romantic setting than a Talent auction.
I focused on their surroundings to avoid watching their make-out session. The curtains covering the front wall of the room were slightly parted, exposing a sea of people several stories below. A trifold wallscreen showed the latest victim on the auction block.
“—time to start ferrying the captives—”
“She’s in a room somewhere above the auction, Riley,” I interrupted the speaker, whoever it was. “Your friend, James, is with her. She’s high up. Maybe four or five levels above the crowd. There is a floor-to-ceiling window in front of them, with red curtains. Does that help you?”
“Brilliant,” came Riley’s succinct reply.
Over the comm units, our forces were making plans. Penny, Frederick and the others who’d made purchases were going to start retrieving their items. This left Talia, Henri, Brand, and two members of Catherine’s teams to buy the remaining Created. They’d decided to speed up the timeline in case we needed to beat a hasty retreat once Riley found Kenly.
Few of the agents were happy about the turn of events, since this course of action meant more importance was being placed on Kenly’s safe rescue than that of the remaining Created. Had it not meant that Anya would be free from the Poachers sooner rather than later, I might have agreed. This was personal for Talia, rescuing Kenly was her true goal. Which didn’t quite lineup with UNITED’s. We needed all of the Created to avoid disaster down the road.
“Tals, are you sure about this?” I sent, fully expecting my girlfriend to come back with some snappy retort since she was not pleased with me. “Kenly is one person. This might mean abandoning a lot of Created.”
“I know,” she sent back. “It’s risky. But I can’t leave her. She’s the reason we came.”
I didn’t point out that Kenly was the reason Talia came, not UNITED.
“We don’t know why they took her name of the auction list. What if they plan on keeping her? That isn’t good for so many reasons and you know it. Or maybe she angered them to the point they’re going to kill her. Maybe that’s the encore for a party like this, I don’t know.”
Talia hesitated and I could feel the wheels in her head spinning. I tried to see past the shroud cloaking her deeper thoughts and feelings, but my girlfriend had her guard up and barriers firmly in place.
Then, one emotion shot to the surface: Fear. Talia was scared. For a moment my ego got the better of me and I actually thought my girlfriend was scared that Anya’s reappearance in our lives was going to drive a chasm between us, one we’d only started to fill in recently.
“Talia, I love you. You know that, right?” I asked.
“Huh? Yeah. I love you, too.”
She sounded distracted, not reassured.
“What’s wrong, Tals?”
Now I was scared. There was something she didn’t want to tell me, something she worried might be too much for me to handle.
“I found her,” Riley called triumphantly over the comm unit. “She’s on the fifth level of the auction house, on the west side.”
“We’ll meet you up there,” Brand replied.
“No, I’ll come to you guys. The elevators require a biometric scan, you won’t be able to come up on your own. Meet me in the west archway in ten.”
“We’ll be there.” Talia was the one who answered this time. “Penny and Frederick are bringing the first wave of people out now. Outside teams, be prepared for incoming hostages. Once they’re done with that, we can go for Kenly. We need them with us as backup.”
“Affirmative, Agent Lyons. We’ll put the victims on hovers out of here immediately. All teams are in position to strike on your command,” Miles replied.
A chorus of affirmation rang out from the other strike team leaders.
In my head, Talia spoke again.
“Nothing’s wrong. I mean…I don’t know. I’ll tell you about it as soon as we’re out of here, okay?”
I wanted to press her for details, yank the information out of her head if need be. Anything that scared Talia terrified me. But she had her game face back on and whatever was bothering her locked tightly away. In case we needed to fight, I didn’t want to waste the energy we’d both inevitably exert while wrestling over it. Beating down Talia’s resistance would leave both of us fatigued. So, reluctantly, I agreed to wait until later.
“Be safe,” I sent.
“Always,” she replied.
Via the drones circling Andrew’s Rock, disguised to look like birds and squirrels, my team watched for our fellow agents and the Created to exit the auction house.
Two and a half minutes later, Penny, in her ridiculous yellow dress, came striding across an expansive field in the back of the auction house with several Created in tow. Frederick was on her heels with three more of our brethren. Three minutes behind him, Catherine Can
ary, Jay Matthews, and their respective purchases exited the same way.
It was too risky to explain the situation to the nearly-rescued captives until they were safe on a UNITED transport hover. Since few, if any, were likely to have recognized Penny or Frederick, and even less likely to know the other agents, they believed they were marching towards a future equivalent to an animal in a zoo.
Only, not one of the new refugees exuded fear or disdain or even defiance. Most were calm and relaxed. Evidently, Penny was employing massive amounts of manipulation to ease their rattled nerves and minds. Combined with the morphing abilities she was sustaining to alter her appearance, the girl was nothing short of incredible. And that was not a compliment I gave out lightly. At least, no to anyone but Talia.
Even from above, Anya was easily identifiable. And I was relieved to find her physically unharmed. She was the only captive that had any clue she was being rescued, since Anya and Frederick were friends of a sort. Nervous and twitchy, her emerald eyes darted from side to side, as if expecting someone to grab her at any second. That gut-consuming acid in my stomach churned as guilt ate away at my insides. I’d have to find some way to make this up to her. Hopefully Talia would understand.
Our undercover agents deposited their charges into hoverlimos, all manned by UNITED guards. As soon as the doors were closed, the engines started and they took off. I held my breath until all three limos were airborne. The tension in my muscles eased further when each driver reported that they were safely off the property and headed towards the safe house.
Once there, the plan was for the new refugees to regroup and rest before leaving for the islands first thing tomorrow morning. There had been a lot of debate about whether to fly them directly to Vault for containment, bypassing the stopover at Walburton Manor. In the end, we’d decided to take this path to ease the transition. It was our hope that it would make it easier for them to enter containment willingly. Personally, I found that outcome less likely than Henri or Frederick suddenly developing an interest in chicks. Still, it was worth a shot. Besides, the less traumatized individuals might prove helpful in locating other Created. Possibly even choose to help UNITED as Talia, Penny, and I had done. Again, unlikely, but worth a shot.
“We’re heading up to retrieve Kenly now,” Talia said, via the comm system.
“Affirmative, Agent Lyons, we have secured the purchase of one more Created. We will continue our efforts down here,” Agent Gina Flores replied, her normally droll tone all business.
I listened through both the comm unit and Talia’s thoughts as my friends took the longest elevator ride in recorded history to the fifth floor of the auction house. Seriously, it was painful. And then, everything changed in the span of one single heartbeat.
“’EY, THERE! WHAT are yous doing up ‘ere? This floor is strictly prohibited to buyers!” a guard shouted.
I did a double-take, glancing from the unassuming boy standing beside me to his doppelganger at the other end of the hallway. Riley’s accuracy was eerily precise and creepily impressive.
The other guards standing sentinel in the curved hallway turned to stare at our group. Their brief disorientation over our unexpected appearance gave us the edge. Just as I was about to feign confusion and pretend our presence was a silly mistake or thrill-seeking adventure for bored rich people, Riley fired his tranquilizer gun. Pulling the trigger again and again without hesitation, he buried darts into the nearest four guards.
“So much for subtly,” Brand groaned, before launching into action.
Bullets or darts, I wasn’t certain which, flew from the guards’ weapons. Brand used impressive evasive maneuvers to avoid the projectiles. Producing a small handgun from a concealed ankle holster, Angus joined Riley in returning our attackers’ fire. Thankfully, he’d left his post as Henri’s supposed bodyguard to join our group in anticipation of a situation just like the one we were facing.
Having no physical weapon and limited range of mobility in my dress, I went for the obvious: my Talents. With a sweep of my hand, time seemed to standstill. Bullets and tranq darts alike froze in midair. In such a confined space, and with Brand standing so close to the opposition, I had no choice but to let the projectiles fall harmlessly to the floor. It was something of a waste, but better than hitting a member of my team.
One of the guards swore and, stupidly, turned his gun around so that the muzzle was staring him in the face. He peered inside the barrel, eyes narrowed as if the weapon had somehow betrayed him. Causing his weapon to fire at that precise moment did cross my mind. Instead, I used my telekinesis to yank not only his weapon free from his hand, but all of the guards’ weapons. Like rats in a maze, the remaining guards panicked and began running for the exits. The elevator behind me was, of course, blocked, but that didn’t stop them from charging forward in an attempt to barrel through our group. These were clearly not the brightest members of their set. A number of the guards fled in the opposite direction, so I assumed there was another elevator at the other end of the curved hallway.
They were fast but my team was faster. While Riley continued to pump tranquiller darts into the now-defenseless guards, I summoned their fallen weapons into Brand’s waiting hands. Neither Penny nor I were good shots, and we both had the advantage of telekinetic abilities. So I figured it was best to play to our strengths and leave the gunfight to the guys.
“Bloody brilliant!” Riley exclaimed, temporarily forgetting his role as disarmer and staring wide-eyed at me.
“Where is she?” I demanded over the screams of the scared guards.
“Just down the hall. This way.” Riley gestured me forward.
One of the guards had managed to wrestle the gun away from Angus, and the two were now engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Riley ran past them, with me hot on his heels. Since Angus wasn’t faring quite so well in his fist fight, I took a second to aid his efforts. Slamming his opponent into the wall hard enough to daze him, I then sent a gun flying through the air to land in Angus’ hand.
“This one, here,” Riley said, indicating a metal door, identical to all of the other metal doors in the hallway.
Without hesitation, I blasted the door off of its hinges and ran inside.
What the hell? The room was empty.
“Riley!” I shouted frantically into the comm unit. “She isn’t here!”
“I could have sworn…,” he began, and I could imagine him scratching his head unhelpfully. “I felt her. And James, too. I still feel them.”
Too caught up in using my powers, I hadn’t paused long enough to feel Kenly myself. Stupid mistake. Riley was good, but my ability to sense other Talents trumped his skills no question. And once I concentrated, I felt her too.
A wave of power hit me square in the chest, hard enough to make me gasp. What the hell did Mac do to her? I wondered. Being a natural-born, dual-Talent, Kenly had projected strength prior to becoming Created. But now her power was off the charts.
“She’s two doors down,” I wheezed, sucking in air and trying to catch my breath.
My teammates heard my declaration through the comm units, and another blast from the hallway told me that someone had found the correct door.
“Got it right this time, didn’t I?” I heard Riley say in my ear.
I rolled my eyes and didn’t bother to correct him. If the boy wanted credit for locating Kenly and James, he could have it.
I rushed back into the hallway, intent on getting to Kenly. I needed to see for myself that she was okay. Although, considering the circumstances, “okay” was more of relative term. Physically unharmed was more likely the best I could hope for.
Blowing passed Penny, who was helping Angus incapacitate the few remaining guards, I darted towards the open door, two down from the one I’d just exited. Riley and Brand were already inside and I had to peer around Penny’s boyfriend for my first good look at the girl who’d once been my mentee.
Riley and James—I recognized him from Erik’s vision—were exchanging ea
sy banter, as if this wasn’t a freedom rescue in a slavery situation. I only had eyes for Kenly. She appeared stunned, brown eyes wide and mouth agape, clearly unsure whether the scene before her was real or a mirage.
Like all the other female captives, Kenly wore a crimson gown that fit too snuggly against her skinny frame. Her hair was pinned up in an elaborate fashion that made me wonder if the Poachers employed professional stylists. The makeup on her pale face was garish, having obviously been applied by someone with a heavy hand and predilection for mascara and black eyeliner. But the most obscene parts of Kenly’s appearance were the shackles around her wrists and ankles.
Suddenly, my hands itched with the desire to choke the life from every single Poacher who’d ever lived.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Kenly said, her voice barely a whisper. “The Poachers are looking for you.”
Her words startled me and my rising fury retreated some. Me? True, I was Created, too. But I was nothing special, not anymore. Prior to Mac’s initiative to inject most of TOXIC with the Creation drug, my raw power and ability to manipulate even the most willful of minds had been considered exceptionally rare. But over the last year, TOXIC’s medical staff had drawn countless vials of my blood. They possessed the vital ingredient they needed to make more just like me. There was no telling how many powerful Mind Manipulators were roaming the world, high off of the same power that coursed through my veins. Honestly, they were probably all stronger than me, at this point.
I shook off her words. They weren’t important just then.
“Neither should you, Kenly,” I said sternly. “And you won’t be for much longer. We’re going a little off-book here, but we’re still going to get you out.” My next words were for Brand. “Unchain them, Brand.”
It was a nod to the severity of the situation that Brand simply rolled his eyes before complying with the order, as opposed to challenging my authority.
Shouts from the hallway drew my attention. In my ear, Penny was cursing and Angus was grunting. Reluctantly, I turned my back on Kenly to face the new threat on the other side of the open door.
