“Right, but the orders are to bring her in alive,” Penny stated firmly. “I spoke to Victoria and Brand before I came over here. Victoria assured me that under no circumstance was Talia to be harmed. And Brand said that my uncle has given the same orders.”
“Yeah, Victoria said the same thing to us,” I said. “But it’s easy for Victoria to give that order. It’s not going to be so easy for the agents to follow it. Talia will fight them. If it comes down to a choice between her life and one of UNITED’s agents, she will choose her own. Every. Single. Time. If that happens, no one will care that Victoria Freaking Walburton wanted Talia alive.”
“You’re right,” Penny agreed sadly. “Which is why we need to find her first. It has to be someone she knows and trusts.”
I snorted derisively. “And then what? We bring her back here so they can execute her?”
“Victoria promised to keep Talia safe,” Miles reminded me.
“Yeah, but she’s one council member. And she did vote to execute a ton of people, including my girlfriend.” I held up a hand, anticipating Miles’s argument. “I know. Victoria has it in her head that she can save Talia from the blanket order. Forgive me if I don’t trust the word of a woman who would give such an order in the first place.”
“Uncle Ian won’t let anything happen to Talia,” Penny said quietly. “Don’t trust Victoria, that’s fine. Trust my uncle, though. He’s proven the lengths he is willing to go just to make Talia happy. Don’t for a second think he’ll sit by and let UNITED kill her.”
I did believe Ian Crane would do everything in his power to help Talia. But would it be enough? Like with Victoria, Crane was one individual. How was he going to protect my girlfriend from the rest of the council?
An awkward silence settled over the room. I assumed Penny and Miles were wondering the same thing, neither daring to say it aloud.
“Brand told me that UNITED has deployed teams to locate all of the pods,” Penny spoke up after several long moments. “Talia was smart, though. She programmed each one with a different final destination, and even mapped out really roundabout paths so that none traveled directly to the end coordinates. It’s quite remarkable, really.”
Shaking my head, I remarked, “No way that was Talia. She didn’t have the resources to pull off something like that. Not to mention, my girl is more brute force than quiet intellect. That deal with the pods had to be Anya’s doing.”
“So you don’t believe she was a hostage?” Penny asked.
I’d taken a sip of my coffee, and choked on the hot liquid at Penny’s ludicrous statement.
“Who told you that?” Miles asked, seeming just as surprised.
“Oh, well, no one. I just sort of assumed…” Penny trailed off. “I mean, why would Anya help Talia escape?”
I shrugged. This was something I’d been curious about as well.
While on my political goodwill mission, I’d had barely spoken to anyone outside of Penny, Victoria, and my protectors. The last time I’d seen Anya, she’d been incredibly grateful for our intervention at the auction. But was that gratitude enough for her risk everything to help Talia escape? Had the two been planning this for a while?
Somehow, I doubted that.
“Isn’t it obvious? Anya felt she owed Talia for saving her from that creepy slave auction,” Miles chimed in, licking the last remnants of his breakfast off of his fingers. “Not bad for fish food.”
“Maybe…” I hedged.
A kernel of uncertainty formed in the back of my mind. The feelings leaking off Anya when last we spoke were laced with something bitter. I’d gotten the distinct impression that, though grateful to her, Anya didn’t like my girlfriend much. But that might have changed over time. Last I’d heard Anya was Talia’s doctor on Vault. Maybe they’d become friends in that time together.
I shook away my misgivings before they could blossom into full-on suspicion. Anya was one of the good guys.
Miles leaned back in his chair, tossing the wadded up sandwich wrapper towards the wastebasket in the corner of the room. The makeshift ball dropped neatly into the center of the trashcan.
“Does it really matter why Anya helped Talia?” he asked. “She did. That’s the end of the story. Now we just need to find your girl.”
“I’m not actually sure that she did Talia any favors,” I replied, recalling Victoria’s news about Nightshade.
“No, probably not,” Miles conceded. “But it’s not like Anya knew Nightshade was after your girlfriend.”
“Of course not,” I agreed. “I just wish they’d both stopped to consider how much worse of a position this puts Talia in. I mean, okay, maybe before the escape, Victoria could have convinced the council to spare Tals. But now? Now they just have more ammunition against her.”
“Victoria promised you that as long as she was head of UNITED, Talia was safe,” Miles interjected.
“Right. But after this epic fiasco, don’t you think there is a very real chance Victoria may not be the head of the UNITED council much longer?” I pointed out. “I mean, I don’t think they’ll lock her away on Vault or anything. But I do think they might replace her. If so, Victoria won’t have the resources to protect Talia.”
I paused, wondering whether to voice my next thought out loud. I looked at both Penny and Miles.
You can trust them, I reassured myself. I took a deep breath.
”When Talia contacts me, I’m going to tell her to keep running.” My jaw clenched with resolve. “And then I’m going to join her. It’s the only option we have left.”
A full minute passed in tense silence.
“Look, Erik…” Miles began finally. The uncharacteristic use of my actual name told me that whatever Miles said next would be serious, and he wanted me to know it. “I’ve dealt with Nightshade before. They are seriously nasty people. If they’ve been hired to kidnap Talia, this is the safest place for her. She can’t fight them alone. I’m sorry, but not even your girlfriend is powerful enough for that.”
“She won’t be alone. She’ll have me,” I protested.
Miles shook his head. “You don’t get it, kid. The people they send after Talia will be seasoned bounty hunters. I guarantee they’ve done their homework on not just her, but everyone associated with her. Which includes you. They will know her weaknesses and won’t hesitate to exploit them. Which, again, includes you.
“And Nightshade won’t send just one or two or even ten hunters after her,” he continued, “they’ll send twice as many as they think they’ll need to subdue her. You being with her when that happens might slow them down—hell, it might even stop them the first time around. But they’ll just send more and more and more men, until they succeed. Nightshade is relentless, kid. And when they do manage to send enough hunters to subdue you—and it will be you they target—Talia will go with them gladly. Her antics at that TOXIC prison proved that her life matters a whole helluva lot less to her than yours does.”
I hated to think of Talia out there alone, facing an enemy she wasn’t even aware that she had. More than that, I hated knowing that Miles was right.
Not about Nightshade, necessarily. Miles might have experience with the ruthless mercenary organization, but I had experience with my girlfriend; Talia had a big heart, but she could also be ruthless when warranted. No, what worried me was that Miles was right about Talia valuing my life above her own. I was her greatest weakness. And she was mine.
When I didn’t respond to his lecture, Miles threw his hands up in the air, exasperated.
“Come on, girlie, talk some sense into him, will you?”
Penny’s hands were clasped tightly on top of the table. In her mind, thought bubbles formed and popped so quickly that it was impossible to know what she was really thinking. I tried to get a read on her emotions, but those were also all over the place.
After a long hesitation, Penny exhaled slowly.
“I don’t know much about Nightshade,” she began, twisting her hands nervously. “But
I do know that Talia loves you. She wants you safe, no matter the cost. Together, out there,” she gestured vaguely towards the world at large, “you are both in danger. So…I’m sorry, I agree with Miles. Joining Talia isn’t the best option. Not when you’re both being hunted by rogue mercenaries.”
Miles smiled smugly and Penny held up a finger, wiggling it back and forth as if to wipe the expression from his face. Her next words did just that.
“But, I don’t entirely trust Victoria,” Penny continued. “Not in this situation. She is a politician, responsible for a lot of different people. One girl’s life can’t be spared at the expense of so many others without repercussions. And if Victoria is removed as head of the council, her replacement is likely to demand Talia’s head. Literally. Regardless of the outcome of the vote, returning to the islands could be a death sentence for Tals.”
A single tear fell from the corner of Penny’s eye. She squeezed her lids shut, sending several more tears down her cheeks.
“I just can’t…” she began, a quiet sob cutting off her words.
“Aw, come on now, no crying.” Miles shifted uncomfortably in his chair. Her outpouring of emotions clearly made him extremely nervous. He handed Penny a clean napkin to wipe her tears.
She gave Miles a watery smile and sniffled a throaty, “Thank you.”
“So what do you suggest?” I demanded, working hard to keep the anger out of my tone. “Because I’m not leaving her out there to fend for herself.”
“Simmer down, kid. Can’t you see she’s upset?”
I ignored Miles’s chastisement, not caring whether he thought me insensitive.
“You both think I’m some skeleton key that automatically unlocks all of Talia’s vulnerabilities, that my presence will be her downfall. And you, at least,” I jabbed an accusatory finger in Penny’s direction, “doubt Victoria’s ability to protect Talia. So, truly, I want to know, what do you two suggest we do?”
Seething, I sat back in my chair, crossed my arms, and glared at my companions. I needed a plan of action, and they were just shooting me down without finding alternatives. It was maddening.
Penny sniffled again. Her eyes were bloodshot and tears were still flowing freely, but her voice was full of conviction when she spoke.
“We use UNITED’s resources to find Talia,” she said. “Then, once we locate her, we tell my uncle where she is. He has hundreds of soldiers, all loyal to him above UNITED. He can send them to get her, and then Uncle Ian can hide her. Like I said before, he is the person we need to trust right now.”
“Ian is on the council, though,” I pointed out. “Don’t you think it might cause a bit of a rift between your uncle and the other council members if he steals Talia right out from beneath UNITED?”
“I’m sure it will,” Penny agreed. “But he won’t care.”
I stared at her skeptically.
“Let’s let him decide if he’s willing to lose a couple friends for Talia’s sake, okay?” Penny’s confidence in uncle was unwavering. “After everything she did to help him, he’ll help us.”
I sighed. It wasn’t my favorite plan. Nonetheless, the lack of plausible alternatives made it the best possible course of action moving forward.
“Okay,” I agreed.
“Okay?” Miles and Penny repeated in unison. Both were shocked that I’d acquiesced so easily.
“Okay,” I said again. “For now, Penny’s plan is all we’ve got. So, for now, I’ll go along with it. But,” I glanced first at Penny, and then at Miles, daring them to refuse me, “weakness or not, if Crane can’t promise his men will reach Talia before UNITED’s agents, I am going to get her myself. She is my world. No matter what you two think, Talia and I are stronger together.”
Neither Penny nor Miles was prepared to argue with me, leading to another awkward silence. They both understood that doing so would be a waste of breath and energy, though I could tell they didn’t agree with my Plan B.
Miles’s communicator suddenly began to buzz, followed immediately by an alert from my apartment’s smart system. Penny jumped when her own communicator vibrated in her pocket an instant later.
Miles tapped his wrist unit. “You’d better get dressed, kid. We’re due upstairs for a briefing.”
Without a word to either of my companions, I headed to the bedroom I’d once shared with Talia.
The briefing about Talia’s escape was held in the auditorium, the only space on Eden large enough to accommodate so many agents. The entire council was present in one form or another; three of the members were physically in the auditorium, while the other seventeen appeared as holograms.
Victoria addressed the hundred or so agents who’d been pulled away from their usual posts to aid in the search for Talia. It was a dauntingly large task force, particularly since its purpose was to find a single person.
Then again, my girlfriend was a highly dangerous escaped convict.
The cynical part of my brain wondered why, if they planned on killing her anyway, UNITED was putting so much manpower into the search.
The rest of my gray matter understood that if someone out there wanted Talia alive badly enough to hire a group like Nightshade, UNITED would spare no expense to prevent that someone from exploiting her considerable power. Even worse, I had a bad feeling that the council wouldn’t hesitate to use that fact as further justification for executing Talia. After all, taking Talia out of the equation completely meant she couldn’t be used as a dangerous weapon against UNITED.
In a frightening epiphany, I wondered if the same argument could be used in favor of adding my and Penny’s names to the execution list. Maybe even the other seven that Nightshade was after, just to be thorough.
The idea sat like lead in my gut. The situation was becoming more complex, more dire, the longer I thought about it.
At the front of the auditorium, Victoria finished reciting Talia’s dossier, just to reiterate how skilled and lethal my girlfriend truly was. Next, the warden of Vault, a man named Cali, took center stage to fill everyone in on the details of the actual escape. Since Victoria had already told me everything the previous night, nothing he had to say was new.
“At this time, it is unclear whether Dr. Pritcher was a willing participant in the escape, or merely a pawn controlled by the inmate.” The warden paused for dramatic effect. “Natalia Lyons is an exceptionally strong Talent and extremely proficient when it comes to using her abilities.”
He paused and gestured to an assistant standing in the corner of the room. A map of the world appeared, with dozens of blinking red dots.
“My team has located all of the pods that were launched at the time of Inmate Lyons’ escape. So far, we’ve recovered nearly half of them,” Cali continued, motioning to the visual display. A large number of the dots turned blue. “Unfortunately, none of those appear to be the one the inmate used to leave Vault.”
My jaw clenched each time Cali referred to Talia as an inmate.
Both Penny and Miles quickly picked up on the reaction. Penny placed a hand over mine and patted absently. Miles, never one to show too much physical affection, gave me a sympathetic smile.
Instead of listening to Cali ramble on about their efforts to recover the remaining pods, I imagined all the different ways I’d love to make him apologize to Talia. Just as they were beginning to get particularly creative, the warden finished. I watched him leave the stage, shooting death glares with every step he took.
Warden Cali was officially on my shit list.
Victoria resumed the podium, and I returned my attention to the front, tuning in as she began giving instructions on how we were to proceed. The councilwoman called out the names of twenty agents, the task force’s team leaders, and announced that each already had the team’s assignment.
Unsurprisingly, Penny, Miles, Frederick, Henri, and I were conspicuously left off her list. Nonetheless, I was glad to see several familiar faces troop to the front of the room as team leaders: Janelle Longpre, Cadence Choi,
my brother Edmond, and Marcel, who’d been part of the rescue team that freed me from Tramblewood when TOXIC took me hostage.
All of them liked Talia, and would follow Victoria’s strict orders to bring her in alive and unharmed.
As each of the leaders took turns calling out the names of the agents on his or her team, I was surprised to learn that none of Talia’s closest friends had been selected to take part in the search at all.
After the roll call was completed, I turned to Penny.
“So, we’re just supposed to sit here on this damned island and twiddle our thumbs while my girlfriend is out there?” I asked angrily. In a much lower voice, I added, “And how are we going to make sure your uncle’s men find her before these jerkoffs?” I flung my arms wide to indicate all of the agents in the room, nearly knocking Miles’s head off in the process.
The older agent ducked nimbly out of the way to avoid injury.
“Jerkoffs? Hope I’m not included in that colorful description,” a voice said from behind me.
He’d approached so quietly I hadn’t heard him. I whipped around, confirming the owner of the voice.
“Hey Frederick,” I said, forcing a small smile for my old friend.
“Erik. Penny. Agent DeSanto,” he greeted each of them in turn, bending down to kiss Penny on the cheek before offering his hand to me. We shook, and then Frederick did the same with Miles.
The last time I’d seen Frederick was the night we returned from the auction in England. Along with Talia and me, Frederick had incurred repercussions for his role in freeing Anya from the Poachers. His hadn’t been severe by any stretch of the imagination; Victoria had simply relieved him of field duty and assigned him to her personal staff. She’d been using Frederick’s rare gift of remote viewing to track down the remaining members of Danbury McDonough’s inner circle, so UNITED could interrogate them about their involvement with the creation drug and the extent of TOXIC’s experimentations.