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 from 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?

The thought instantly made ice form in my veins. Ernest. Ernest Tate’s brain had also been rewired, only to a much greater extent than Kenly’s. And he had that tattoo, the symbol from TOXIC’s research facility. What did that mean?

Doesn’t matter right now, I chastised myself, fighting to ignore the sudden flurry of endless questions.

Talia asked me to find Kenly. I promised I would. That was the only thing I needed to worry about—keeping my promise to Talia. No matter what, I would make sure the girl made it to safety.

“Come on, Kenly!” I shouted, trying to convey a calmness in my voice while still being heard over the roar around us. “Let’s get you out of here!”

I beckoned her forward.

As if her feet were stuck to the grass, she remained motionless.

Glancing over her shoulder, I caught sight of the mayhem overtaking the lawn. If Kenly didn’t get her ass in gear immediately, we’d both be dead. Miles and my hovercraft were back in the air, raining fire on the Poachers. Our only chance was to reach the transport hovers that were waiting on the other side of the line of limos. I told Kenly as much, hoping that would spark a reaction. Still, she just stared.

Trying a different tactic, I reminded her that I wasn’t here alone.

“Penny, Brand, and that other guy are clearing a path for us through the fighting. We need to go!”

Hopefully the names of her rescuers would put the girl at ease, enough to come with me. If she didn’t move on her own soon, I was going to force her. But that was a last resort. Kenly’s brain had been manipulated enough already, she didn’t need me to go messing with her head.

“What about Talia?” Kenly finally shouted back. “We have to go back for her. She’s with that Angus guy and they are really outnumbered.”

“Not anymore,” I said in my most soothing voice. “She’s got plenty of backup. Our strike teams are here, with more on the way. Talia asked me to make sure you get to the hovers.” I turned to James, hoping he could see that standing here like morons was idiotic. “You, too, man. Come on, we’ve got to move!”

After several more seconds of internal debate, Kenly finally nodded. Without waiting for additional confirmation, I took off for the line of vehicles. Together, Kenly and James ran to join me.

“Talia says you can’t use your Talents, is that true?” I asked as we sprinted towards safety.

My heart went out to Kenly the instant Talia relayed that particular message to everyone. Love her or hate her, being stripped of power was the worst possible punishment a Talent could endure. I knew this from personal experience. When he wasn’t pumping me full of the Creation drug, Director McDonough gave me a suppressant to make sure I couldn’t use mine. It was agony, worse than losing a limb. My body had physically ached with the intense pressure of keeping it all within me.

It was James who answered me.

“Yeah. They injected us with a suppressant.”

Those bastards really were cruel.

“Here, take these,” I said, slowing my stride just enough to hand James the assault rifle in my hands.

From behind my back, I pulled a handgun and gave it to Kenly. She looked startled, amazed even, that I’d allow her to have a weapon. Truthfully, I’d surprised myself with the impromptu offering, as well. But from peeking into her mind, I was certain she wouldn’t shoot me. At least, not just yet. She needed me to survive, to escape, and she knew it.

“Thanks, mate,” James said, nodding in acknowledgement.

Grabbing two throwing knives from my belt, I picked up the pace once more and prayed my charges could keep up. Naturally, my prayers went unanswered. Kenly let out a sudden scream from behind me. I turned just in time to see her somersaulting across the lawn.

Seriously? She was just as clumsy as Talia.

James was kneeling by her side, gently probing the back of Kenly’s head for damage.

“Is she okay?” I called, anxiously surveying the area for incoming threats.

“She’s alright!” James yelled back.

“Kenly, do you think you can run for just a little bit longer?” I asked, already envisioning having to carry her the rest of the way. Though she wasn’t a miniature person like Talia, she was skinny, at least. I’d be able to do it if necessary.

“Yeah!” Kenly called. “I’ve got this.”

“Great.” One crisis averted. “I’m thinking it’s probably best if we don’t go for the hoverplane.”

The area surrounding the transport hovers was rampant with the Poachers’ guards, keen to cut off our exit. No way was I taking Kenly the Clumsy through there.

“All those guards are still over with the vehicles,” I pointed out. “There’s absolutely no reason for us to grapple with them.” A hundred yards ahead, I spotted a lone UNITED helicopter. “Just head for that.”

Gesturing towards the craft with one hand, I flipped my comm unit back on with the other. When it crackled back to life, I radioed the pilot to warn him we were headed his way and needed to beat a hasty retreat.

“Affirmative,” came the man’s one word reply.

“Let’s go!” I called, beseeching them to get moving.

James had Kenly back on her feet, and they began running again when I did. We were close enough to feel the wind from the choppers’ blades when Kenly suddenly stopped again. I swore and doubled back. Talia owed me big time for this.

“Kenly, what’s wrong?” James asked her, yelling to be heard about the smack of the propellers.

Studying Kenly to identify the problem, I realized that her gaze wasn’t on me, James, or our rescue vehicle. Turning back to the madness behind us, I followed Kenly’s line of sight. A small girl, the tiny one from my vision, was tearing across the lawn like an itty-bitty missile with limbs. Her gun was raised and pointed directly at James. I started towards him, intending to push him out of harm’s way. But Kenly was closer. She stepped between James and the bullet. In that instant my respect for her increased ten-fold.

Luck must have been on our side, because the bullet never came. The girl was out of ammunition. I nearly laughed with relief. At last, something was going our way.

I reached for Kenly, planning to drag her the short distance to the chopper. Naturally, instead of running from the rabid-looking threat, she rushed forward to meet the girl head-on.

Watching a girl fight is never as awesome as it sounds in theory.

Although, watching Talia exchange blows was a sight to behold. She made it look like art, an intricately choreographed dance that was captivating for her audience.

Kenly and her opponent were not nearly so graceful. There was a lot of hair-pulling and poorly timed punches. For several moments, I just gaped at the absurd spectacle in front of me. I was impressed by Kenly’s ability to hold her own, she’d obviously learned something from Talia. Still, the fight was dirty and ugly.

Since time was of the essence, I started towards the duo to break them apart. James was right there beside me. Unfortunately, we’d both been stunned immobile for too long. The tiny poacher produced a dagger, seemingly out of her ass, and plunged it into Kenly’s calf without hesitation. Kenly howled.

This was getting out of hand. Enough was enough.

“Kenly, duck!” I shouted, my own knife ready to find a home in the poacher’s throat.

That was when I saw Talia standing on the immense lawn, fifty yards away. Her tranq gun was already raised, finger on the trigger. She fired. The dart landed dead center in the poacher’s forehead. Damn, my girlfriend had great aim. Or exceptional luck. Probably the latter. For all the time she spent at the firing range, Talia only hit the broadside of a barn every two out of ten rounds.

James held Kenly in his arms, blood streaming from her leg, and was carrying her like a child to our getaway chopper. He had the both of them on the helicopter in no time. I met Talia’s gaze and she nodded for me to go with them. I hesitated, desperately wanting her to come with us. Though exhaustion hung around her like a cloud, the fierce determination in her eyes told me not to argue. Sending her a burst of love and strength, I nodded and jumped through the open doors. An instant later, we were airborne.

I sagged onto the bench-style seat as the helicopter rose higher and higher. Across from me, James had Kenly’s head cradled in his lap. She writhed and moaned in pain.

James looked up at me.

“Do you have something to give her? For the pain?”

Even if I carried painkillers around in my pocket—which I definitely did not—they would take too long to kick in. Kenly needed that dagger out of her leg. There was no telling what, if anything, the blade had been laced with. And I wasn’t going to wait around to find out. With the way she was simultaneously shivering and sweating, I wasn’t sure we could put it off until we reached Walburton Manor. I sighed deeply, and then went over to kneel beside them.

“Look at me, Kenly,” I ordered.

Her head snapped in my direction, her gaze unfocused.

“What are you doing, mate?” James asked uneasily.

Kenly started giggling. Great, she was going into shock.

“Just helping her relax,” I told James, my focus never leaving Kenly.

I’d seen Talia do this a number of time. I myself had only ever done it once, for Talia. Then, I’d absorbed her pain, breathed it into my body to numb hers. I did the same for Kenly, sending her a heavy dose of manipulation to ease her into unconsciousness. That way, once she was out, there wouldn’t be any pain to siphon.

Interestingly, Kenly’s mind was exceedingly active, which made it extremely hard to put her under. Seriously, millions of thought bubbles burst one after another, giving me way too much insight into the inner workings of a teenage girl’s brain. At one point, I got the truly disturbing impression of James’s soft lips on mine. That was when I upped the manipulation, not overly concerned with the overload of power frying her brain any longer. Truthfully, I wasn’t sure there was a Talent alive with enough power to fry a brain like Kenly’s.

“How does she function with so much nonsense constantly running through her head?” I grumbled the rhetorical question.

To Kenly, I sent, “Turn off the inner monologue and go to sleep.”

Mercifully, she obeyed.

“Whoa,” I groaned, sitting back on my heels. “Her brain is broken or something. That shit is not normal.”

“What did you do to her?” James asked, his tone a mix of anger and suspicion.

“Nothing, I just manipulated her,” I said.

“That’s not right, mate. That can really mess up her mind, you know. Turn it to complete rubbish.”

“I know,” I agreed. “Luckily, it didn’t. And now I can get that dagger out and patch her up without her feeling all of that pain.”

“There’s a med kit under the seat!” the pilot called helpfully.

“Now he tells me,” I mumbled.

From there, I made quick work of removing the dagger and bandaging Kenly’s leg. As I worked, I reached out to Talia, checking to see if her mind was open. It was. To my immense relief, she was already on a hoverplane headed for Walburton Manor. Even though I wanted to, I didn’t try to talk to her. She was deep in thought, a small part of her worried about facing Victoria. But there was something else even more troublesome bothering her.

It just isn’t possible, kept floating through her mind. I had no clue what she was thinking about. After using so much energy to knock out Kenly, delving deeper into Talia’s head would be too wearing. We both needed to have a modicum of energy left for the angry barrage we’d undoubtedly face the moment we got back to the safe house. I’d see Talia soon, I’d just ask her about it then.

As we were began our descent to Walburton Manor, my communicator buzzed. Again.

Dreading what I’d see, I glanced at the screen, unsure whether I wanted the message to be from my new lurker or Victoria. After I read the text, anonymous messages from bat-shit-crazy stalkers would’ve been preferable to the irate councilwoman. Because Victoria was beyond pissed. Off-her-rocker, foaming-at-the-mouth, head-ready-to-explode, pissed.

*Agents Lyons, Kelley, and Kraft, report to the conference room of Walburton Manor. IMMEDIATELY. The council is waiting.*

The comm wasn’t too bad, in and of itself—she’d refrained from profanity, after all. The all caps, though, spoke volumes. Even more ominous were those last four words: The council is waiting. And not in the ‘hey, let’s have a friendly chat’ sense. Including the other night, I’d only faced the entire UNITED council a few times. They were an imposing bunch, and only convened as a group when something serious was happening.

Given both the magnitude and sensitivity of this mission, it made sense that certain members of the council would want to be debriefed about the actual events on Andrew’s Rock. But the entire council?

Shit.

My only hope was that between Talia’s innate ability to weasel her way out of sticky situations, Frederick’s diplomacy and bargaining skills, and Victoria’s love for me, we might be able to walk away from this with only a stiff reprimand.

And hell was just a tropical location with throngs of bikini-clad Talia clones, eager to serve me fruity drinks.