by Sophie Davis
“What’s going on out there, Lyons?” Brand demanded.
“Exactly what it sounds like, Brand,” I shot back through the comm. “Backup has arrived. Theirs, not ours. But the situation’s been handled.”
The one guard still standing was not a guard at all, but rather a guy in a suit that screamed money. I recognized him. He, along with James, had been in Erik’s vision. His name alluded me, though. But I knew all I needed to know about him from the vision. He was a Poacher.
Wide-eyed, the guy looked like he might wet himself at any moment. Penny was closest to where he stood, frozen and terrified. She grabbed his arm and began dragging him forward with impressive strength for such a scrawny girl.
“Should we take him for leverage?” she asked. “In case this turns ugly?”
I was about to ask how much uglier this could get, before deciding better of it. Chances were, things were going to get a lot worse before we made it out of the auction house.
“No,” I decided. “Knock him out like the others and leave him, Penny. No hostages.”
I was already in a shitload of trouble with Victoria and the council. The last thing I needed was to show up with a Poacher in tow. That might bring the wrath of the entire organization down on UNITED. Hopefully a few dead and concussed guards would not.
“Wait!” Kenly yelled, startling all of us. All eyes turned towards her. “That guy, his sister, Libby, is a Talent. She’s horrid, but I promised him that we’d help her. We have to help her.”
Comprehension dawned. Libby must have been the one attempting to manipulate Kenly’s mind in Erik’s vision. She’d been the girl sitting on the arm of her father’s chair in the study. I so didn’t want to help that girl with anything. She was a flipping Poacher for heaven’s sake.
As if sensing my hesitation, Kenly rushed on.
“Jaylen was going to help us—me and James—escape, in exchange for taking Libby to the islands. Please, Talia. I…I promised.”
Her earnestness touched me. Kenly was obviously a better person than I. If that Libby chick played in my head the way she had in Kenly’s, I wouldn’t be upholding that promise now that the cavalry had arrived.
Or would I? Hadn’t I just disobeyed orders to repay Anya for helping me?
“Ahh, that explains it,” Riley declared. “We’ve been waiting since before the auction began for the two of you. About twenty minutes ago, your names were removed from the auction house program. That’s when we elected to pop round, to find you.”
Since I was already in a heap of trouble, I decided that another count of insubordination was inconsequential at this point.
“Okay, where is she?” I asked, my mind made up.
I glanced between Jaylen and Kenly, waiting impatiently for someone to answer me.
Jaylen couldn’t be bothered with me, instead focusing on Riley with an expression of awe. For a moment, I thought he might reach out and try to touch Riley’s face.
“You look just like Benji, my bodyguard,” Jaylen said.
“That’s the point, mate.” Riley grinned like fool. “Your sort knows my face well, I had to obscure my appearance. I reckon the best way to do that is by looking like one of your actual guards, now isn’t it?”
Apparently as eager to get moving as I was, Kenly ignored them and answered me.
“She’s already in a hovercar outside. She’s supposed to be drugged.”
Since I’d cut off mental communication with Erik after the Anya incident, I spoke to him through the comm unit.
“Erik, I need you to find a girl. She’s in a car, she should be unconscious.”
Masking irritation with me and fear for Anya with flippancy, Erik replied, “Drugged, you say? Just the way I like my women. Makes them less mouthy.”
I couldn’t help it, I smiled as everyone else laughed, the same thought floating through all of their heads: If Erik liked his girls less mouthy, he picked the wrong girlfriend.
“Of course you do,” I replied sarcastically. “But there’s a line of hovercars waiting to take the buyers home, by the rear exit,” I continued. “The girl should be in an SUV.”
Since Jaylen still seemed enraptured with Riley and his morphing prowess, I didn’t bother asking him for details. I simply read them from his mind. The guy was not the easiest mark, and it took some digging to find the information.
“The license tag is Y…four…W…three…G…hang on a sec.”
Mental walls were slammed down inside Jaylen’s head. He’d apparently caught on and understood I was reading his mind. I pushed against the barriers, which gave way quickly. The guy might be decent at building them, but he was horrible at keeping them in place.
“Six, one, one,” I finished. “Got that?”
Erik read the alphanumeric sequence back to me.
“Exactly.” I took another look inside Jaylen’s head and found his most recent memory of his sister. “In the backseat, there’s a blonde. She’s wearing white jeans and a blue silk blouse. She’s safe. I’ll see you soon.”
“Tals, be careful getting out of there. Try not to draw any attention. Victoria got wind of your deviation, and she’s on the warpath.”
Too late for that, I thought. Even if we did get out of here without attracting any more attention, the hallway littered with guards was a decent indicator that something was amiss.
Cringing, my teammates exchanged glances. They knew as well as I did that we were all in trouble. Great team leader, I am.
“Let’s go before someone else comes up here and realizes that all the guards are down,” Brand said, taking charge before turning to me. “Talia, take care of our friend here.”
He pointed to Jaylen.
Still focused on what I was going to say to Victoria, Brand’s orders barely registered as such and I complied without argument. I turned to face Jaylen and directed my will towards him. In a matter of seconds, his eyes rolled back into his head and he slumped against Penny.
“All done!” I declared.
With Brand and Angus taking the lead, our little liberation party exited the room.
In my ear, Henri spoke.
“Ernest is on the move. I think he’s leaving. What do you want me to do, Talia?”
Before I had the chance, Catherine responded.
“Stand down, Reich. The final Created was just sold. Time to clear out.”
I was positive the message I’d received, the one from the Unknown Sender, was from Ernest. He’d tried to outbid us for every Created that came up for auction, which meant his goal was the same as ours. But why? Why did he want the Created? And more importantly, who was he working with?
Brain-dead people don’t just start walking, talking, and functioning all by themselves. Someone, someone extremely proficient, had restarted his brain. And restored at least some of his memories. At least, enough that he recognized me.
I knew it was a risk, a big one. But I had to know.
“Henri?” It had been a long time since he and I communicated telepathically, but he’d always had weak defenses. I prayed that was still true. I didn’t want Catherine or her team hearing my orders.
“I’m here, Tal,” Henri sent back.
“Follow him.”
“You don’t have to ask me twice. I’m on it.”
I’d now succeeded in getting every single member of my taskforce to break the rules. Yeah, I was an awesome team leader.
WAITING FOR TALIA and the others to make their way out of the auction house was even worse than enduring the earlier elevator ride. I was antsy, my fingers twitching with the need to do something. Anything. Sitting in that damned hovercraft while Talia was fighting and being attacked made me feel damned useless. I hated feeling useless.
Talia’s orders to retrieve the girl from the SUV had momentarily brightened my spirits, since having a task kept my mind busy. But other agents were closer to the vehicle and in a better position to grab the girl undetected. Reluctantly, I agreed to let them handle it.
Truthfully, I was a little surprised that nobody balked about grabbing an unconscious girl and taking her with us. It would inevitably cause a host of problems. I wasn’t sure who exactly this Libby chick was, or how important she was to the Poachers, but she’d been in my vision. Her daddy, the big bad Duke, was going to want his precious little manipulator back. On the up side, if we could get Libby to talk, UNITED might learn a whole lot more about the Poachers. I prayed this was true, so Victoria wouldn’t march us off to a beheading station.
In my lap, my communicator buzzed for what seemed like the thousandth time since the mission began. Agent Canary, tattletale that she was, had reported Talia for ordering the purchase of Anya. Then, she’d reported Talia’s plan to rescue Kenly. Then she’d reported a commotion of sorts. Victoria wanted to know what the hell was going through my girlfriend’s head. Literally, she’d sent me the same message six times in a row: Erik. Look inside your girlfriend’s head. Immediately. Tell me what the hell she is thinking.
Swear words were rare for the councilwoman. She didn’t like to sully her mouth with such vulgarity. So I knew Talia had finally succeeded in pushing her to her limits. I also knew that there was nothing I could say to make the situation better. Much of it was entirely my fault. And I would tell Victoria that. Take the blame for Anya, at the very least. But explanations had to wait. Just then, all I cared about was Talia’s immediate safety. If her cover wasn’t blown yet, it was about to be. No way were all those unconscious guards going to go unnoticed for long.
“How long until they’re out, you think?” Miles asked, working his jaw back and forth.
The fight in the hallway where the Poachers had been keeping Kenly was broadcast via the comm units to every agent taking part in the mission. So it wasn’t a surprise that he, too, had realized shit was about to escalate.
“Five minutes, ten tops,” I replied. “Knowing Talia, closer to five.”
Miles smiled wryly. “That girl’s a firecracker, kid. How do you control her?”
My laugh was derisive.
“No one controls Talia. That’s why the council is so damn scared of her.”
“You aren’t wrong about that,” Miles replied.
“It’s also why the council needs her,” Janelle added.
Silently, I wondered whether her usefulness would trump their fear. It had to. If not, they weren’t going to have themselves a Created poster boy. At a minimum, I’d be bargaining for conjugal visits in exchange for my time.
Several minutes of tense silence passed, in which my communicator buzzed four more times. Victoria was like a dog with a bone. As a distraction, I glanced at the screen, just to see if her message had changed any. Maybe she’d even drop the f-bomb—that would give Talia great satisfaction while she twiddled her thumbs in containment.
My smile faded quickly, though, when I realized the most recent messages were not from Victoria. All six were lacking source identification. Which was downright odd. This was a UNITED-issued communicator, meaning no one had the frequency besides those within our organization. And all of those people were programmed into the device, so any comm came with a corresponding source name. Puzzled, I opened the most recent missive.
* We are coming for you, Erik. Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. We see all.*
What the….
Crazy thoughts flashed through my mind as I typed back.
*Who is this?*
When I hit send, a dispatch error popped up on the screen. I tried again. Another error: Message undeliverable.
“What’s wrong?” Janelle asked.
I looked up and found both Miles and Janelle watching me intently.
“Not sure. I just received a really weird message.”
I held up the communicator so that both agents could see the screen.
“How does this even happen?” I asked. “No one outside of UNITED has this frequency. And any time an agent sends me a comm, his or her name comes up. So, what’s going on?”
“It’s a hacker,” Miles said. “A good one, too. He’d have to be, to break through UNITED’s digital protections.”
“You mean like a Crypto?” I asked.
Miles shrugged.
“Could be. Not necessarily, though. You don’t have to be Talented to be a whiz with computers. Your stalker could be just an ordinary Joe.”
“Yeah, I guess…,” I replied, unconvinced.
Turning the communicator back around, I clicked through the other messages from the unknown sender. They were identical to the first one.
*We are coming for you, Erik. Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. We see all.*
Totally engrossed in the mystery, I reread the words over and over again. Something about the last part, the “We see all”, was troubling. Obviously, it was super creepy. But it was more than just the creep factor. I felt like it was a clue, an inside joke from the sender that I was supposed to understand, and then be terrified by.
“We are blown! Repeat, we are blown. Big time. Everyone out. Now!” Talia’s screams shoved the enigmatic messages off my radar.
“Affirmative, Lyons. The rest of the hostages are on their way to the safe house,” Catherine responded. “We will double-back as reinforcements.”
“Hurry!” Talia grunted.
It must’ve been really bad in there. She didn’t ask for help unless it was absolutely necessary. I fastened my safety harness and checked my weapons, fully expecting Miles to rev up the engine. When he didn’t, I turned to face him.
“Are you waiting for an invitation?” I demanded. “Come on.”
“She didn’t call for strike teams,” Miles said, though his knuckles were white on the hovercraft’s controls. He seemed as ready for this fight as I was.
“Are you friggin’ kidding me? What, you need it spelled out phonetically?” I asked Miles. Without waiting for a response, I hailed Talia on the comm unit. “Do you need air support?”
“What part of ‘our cover is blown’ was unclear?” she snapped. “Yes! We need backup!”
“Deploy strike teams now!” Brand bellowed.
“Is that enough, or do you want to wait for an engraved summons?” I snapped at Miles.
In response, Miles simply broke out in an ear-to-ear grin.
“I’m just playing by the rulebook, kid.”
I was about to literally shove the figurative book down Miles throat. Thankfully for all of us, I didn’t have to figure out exactly how one might accomplish such a feat. Miles had the hovercraft in the air and headed for the auction house within seconds.
Ours was not the first craft to reach Andrew’s Rock. Over the various comm units of people on the ground, I heard another pilot calling out over the hover’s loudspeaker.
“Put down your weapons immediately. This is an official raid.”
Through the windshield, I saw that his words had no effect on the Poacher guards. Some of the UNITED helicopters and hovercrafts were descending upon the expansive lawn in the rear of the auction house, while others were circling the manicured grass like vultures.
“Erik? Erik! I lost her! Please, find Kenly!”
The words were earsplitting screams inside my head. Talia must have expended considerable effort to bulldoze my mental barriers.
“I will find her, Tals. But you need to get on one of those hovers and go. Please, just get out of there,” I responded, already searching the melee below for signs of Kenly.
“There!” I shouted aloud. My sudden exclamation startled Miles so much, the hovercraft dipped sharply. “Sorry, man. Sorry. Touch down there.”
I pointed to a spot just ahead, where Kenly and the guy, James, were dodging bullets.
“I don’t know if I can touch down here, kid. If this hover is blown up, we’re going to be screwed,” Miles said, clearly unsure what to do.
“Don’t worry about it, just get me in as close as you can. I’ll get myself back to the safe house,” I reassured him. Miles would be a lot more help to the UNITED troops on the ground fr
om up in the air, and I knew it.
“Comm me if you’re in a bind, kid. I still don’t think I’ll be able to land, but I’ll…I don’t know, do something.”
I smiled at the older agent, genuinely appreciative for his concern.
“Thanks, man. But really, don’t worry about me. Just focus on your targets,” I replied.
As Miles began our rapid descent, I was already out of my seat and at the hover’s side exit. When the plane was closing in on the ground, he hit the door release button. As soon as there was just enough room for me to slide sideways through the opening doors, I jumped down to the grass not far below.
Kenly and James were only feet away, but they’d stopped moving when I landed in front of them. Terror blazed in Kenly’s brown eyes when she spotted me. I didn’t need to be a mind reader to know the thoughts running through her head. The last time we’d been this close to one another, I’d nearly killed her. She had every right to be scared.
For a long moment that seemed to last an hour, we just stood there, our gazes locked.
Just the sight of her started a slow simmer in my blood. Talia’s description of Kenly’s actions that night was accurate. She was more machine than human. As if her brain had been rewired. Kenly barely recognized Talia, until she had the knife pressed over my girlfriend’s heart. Still, whether Kenly had been in her right mind or not would have been little solace to me when I was standing over Talia’s grave.
But the girl standing before me now was little more than a frightened child. This Kenly wasn’t the monster I remembered from the Hamilton. This was the lost girl from my visions.
And just like that, the guilt I’d felt when viewing her swept through me once again. I was the sole reason she was here. I told her to run. I told her to go somewhere no one knew her. And she had. That was when the Poachers found Kenly. My fault. It was all my fault.
Beneath my wildly warring emotions lay a single truth: I didn’t entirely trust Kenly Baker. She might look like a nervous kid at the moment, but would that suddenly change? Would she abruptly morph back in to the bloodthirsty zombie from the Hamilton? Did she have some sort of trigger? If so, could it be remotely detonated?
