“THERE’S AN EXIT door at the end of the hallway with the Lady Lucinda room,” I said, pointing to the holographic blueprints projecting from the heli-hover’s dash. “We’ll be able to enter directly through that door and get the captives out without drawing attention.”

“Look, I know you have a friend in there—” Miles began.

Even in my enraged state, I knew hitting the control panel again was a bad idea. Metal groaned as my fist flew into the door instead, leaving a small dent in its wake.

“Erik,” Janelle soothed, “we have to be smart here. The strike teams are only for backup. We’re under strict orders—”

“Screw orders,” I growled. “I want Anya out of there now.”

“Our people bought her,” Janelle reasoned. “Which means she will be out soon. With us. Once the auction ends, Talia and the others can go pickup their…um…winnings? Regardless, it won’t be much longer now.”

A total of six UNITED agents were assembled in our helicopter, but only Miles and Janelle weighed in on my desired plan change. Everyone else was too nervous to cross me, worried speaking up might draw my ire in their direction.

Rescuing the captives now was risky, and, yes, maybe a little rash. But I wasn’t about to leave Anya there a second longer. That girl had been through hell because of me. Endured psychological torture because of me. Anya was the reason McDonough’s entire Created initiative or whatever was discovered. She was the one who’d tested Talia’s blood after the infusion from Donavon, and learned that she somehow had two Talent Signatures. From there, Anya had deduced that Talia was infected with the Creation drug, the only way a second Talent Signature could just suddenly appear. That key piece of information had blown open TOXIC’s operation. It was the driving force behind Talia, Cadence, and I running away from the agency and taking Alex with us.

Unwilling to leave my family behind to serve as whipping boys in my stead, I’d attempted to rescue them. The rescue, technically, was a success. It was the getaway that failed fantastically. I’d been captured and thrown in jail on trumped up charges of kidnapping and just about every other offense Danbury McDonough could imagine on short notice. Really, though, he just wanted me at his mercy, so his henchmen could extract their pound of flesh every time I refused to divulge Talia and Alex’s whereabouts. When that hadn’t yielded the desired results, McDonough had struck the lowest blow of all: imprisoning and torturing Anya to force me to talk.

Between the drugs I’d been given and my stint as a punching bag, the details were a little fuzzy. I remembered them bringing Anya into my cell at Tramblewood. I remembered her screaming and sobbing and begging. But not once had Anya begged me for help. Not once had she asked me to give in, to tell them what they wanted to know and save her. No, she’d begged me to stay strong, to keep my mouth shut, and never to lose sight of the bigger picture. She knew better than I did the importance of keeping Talia and Alex away from TOXIC.

After the battle in D.C., I’d, regrettably, given little thought to Anya and what had become of her. With TOXIC defeated and so many of the operatives on the lam, it seemed reasonable that she was too. I’d never imagined this fate for her. At that moment, I felt responsible for my ex-girlfriend, who’d thrown her allegiance with me and my current girlfriend, even knowing it was a death sentence.

“I don’t want to wait,” I snapped. “Anya…she doesn’t deserve this. You don’t understand.”

Janelle rested her hand on my shoulder.

“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 Canary, 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.