Unforgettable (Talented Saga #6) (30 page)

“
Bidder 3519, do I have
five and half?” Ernest Tate was bidder 3519, a fact evidenced by
his image, which kept flashing on the trifold wallscreen behind the
stage. “Marvelous,” the auctioneer cooed excitedly. “And six and a
half from 2641. Now seven from 3519. Bid is back to you 2641.
Brilliant, just brilliant. Seven and a half.” The auctioneer smiled
expectantly at a specific point in the crowd. “Do I hear 800,000
Globes 3519?”

“
How much higher do I go,
Tal?”
Penny sent.

Even though I had nothing more than a
clear view of the back of Penny’s head, I could imagine her
worrying her lower lip, thumbs poised over her communicator to
place another bid.

“
As high as you need
to,”
I sent back.
“We aren’t leaving her here.”

Our budget was endless, but Victoria
and the council had not envisioned the bids going so high so fast.
Buying only the Created was already suspicious, should anyone look
too closely at our collective purchase histories, but paying such
exorbitant rates for each one was definitely going to draw
attention. And yet, seeing a sixteen-year-old girl shackled to a
freaking platform, mascara rivers running down her cheeks as she
shook with silent sobs, I didn’t give a damn. She deserved better.
And while I may not have agreed with containment one hundred
percent, nothing could be worse than the humiliation taking place
before my eyes. I’d bankrupt UNITED sooner than leave Francie
Owens, or anyone else, behind.

Ernest flashed on the wallscreen
again. He scratched the back of his neck, just below the collar of
his shirt, exposing a small flash of black ink. A tattoo, maybe? I
squinted for a better look, as if that would help the fact I was at
an inconvenient vantage point.

“
Henri, get in closer to
Ernest. Look at the back of his neck, I think there’s a tattoo or
something. Ernest didn’t have anything there before, so I want to
know what it is,” I said over the comm unit.

“
On it,” Henri replied
immediately.

“
Lyons,” Catherine snapped
in my ear. “Off-plan.”

Because she was right, sending Henri
to spy on Ernest was not part of the mission, I had no better reply
then, “I’ll deal with Victoria if it becomes an issue,
Catherine.”

On screen, Ernest shook his head,
indicating that he was not going to place another bid.

“
Any further bids? No?
Final call for bids on this item…,” the auctioneer paused for
dramatic effect. Hearing no further bids, she cried, “Sold! For
750,000 Globes to bidder 2641. Bidder number 2641, you may claim
your purchase in the Lady Lucinda suite at your
leisure.”

Bingo. We had a location.

“
Riley? Did you hear that?”
I asked.

“
Yes, ma’am. The Lady
Lucinda suite. I’m headed there now. What am I supposed to do once
I get there?” he replied.

“
Nothing,” Brand cut
in.

I shot a glare towards the front of
the arena, knowing full-well Brand couldn’t see me.

“
Monitor the area. I want
details on the layout of the surrounding hallways. Points of
ingress and egress. Proximity to an exit,” I doled out the orders
before Brand had a chance to usurp my authority again.

Was it his fault that my annoyance
turned to appreciation and bounced back again on a whim? Absolutely
not. But that didn’t change the fact that, right now, I was calling
the shots.

“
Yes, ma’am,” Riley
repeated.

And I decided I liked being called
“ma’am”.

“
That’s my girl, using big
words and taking charge,”
Erik teased
mentally.

I smiled. He’d been quiet for a while
and I’d begun to worry he was no longer with me. Erik had his own
assignment to worry about, but having him inside my head, knowing
he was with me, always made life better.

“
Thanks,”
I sent back.
“For a
minute there, I thought you’d abandoned me.”

“
Never,”
Erik replied, the one word carrying more weight
than it should have.

The image on the wallscreen changed
from Francie to an older man in his thirties. Both relieved and
dismayed that he was unfamiliar, I listened while the auctioneer
began her spiel for the second time. The relief came from knowing
that I wouldn’t have to watch the Poachers parade another
acquaintance of mine in front of the cameras. But it also meant,
this poor man was unlikely to receive the benefit of UNITED’s aid.
Sure enough, an instant later, the auctioneer confirmed that the
man on the screen was not Created.

Heart heavy, I turned to
Frederick.

“
Make a low, perfunctory,
bid, will you?”

“
Sure thing,
Talia.”

Dutifully, Frederick typed a string of
numbers into his communicator and hit send. His bid appeared on the
screen just above the previous one. Unlike Francie, for whom the
bids had poured in high and fast, the same could not be said from
the current Talent. There was interest, but very little compared to
Francie.

Victoria was right to be worried. The
attendees’ primary interest was the Created. However, it was
unclear whether that was because they knew their true worth lay in
the drug pumping through their veins or simply because they were
rare.

“
How far do you want me to
take this?” Frederick asked.

“
Um, just make another bid
or two. If you end up winning, well, oops.”

I grinned, envisioning
Victoria’s pinched expression when I told her we
accidently
bought
Talents, too. Since yelling and screaming were too commonplace for
the councilwoman, the repercussions would come in the form of a
firm lecture laced with prickly barbs meant to scratch my ego.
Nothing new. Nothing I couldn’t handle, if it meant saving some
extra lives.

“
Tal? I’m in position,”
Henri said. “I can see what you were talking about—it’s definitely
a tattoo. It sort of looks like an eye or something. It’s hard to
tell, but I don’t want to get much closer in case he knows my
face.”

My breath caught.

“
An eye? Are you sure?” I
asked Henri.

“
Almost positive,” he
replied.

Well, shit. That was so not
good.

“
Are you thinking what I’m
thinking?”
Erik asked.

“
It might be a
coincidence,”
I hedged, praying that might
be true.

To Henri, I said, “Can you get a
picture?”

“
Um, yeah, give me a
second,” Henri answered. “Okay, got it. Sending the image to your
communicator now. Oh, great,” he added. “The guy next to Tate
thinks I’m checking him out.”

“
So? You check out dudes
all the time. What’s the problem?” Erik teased, speaking through
the comm units.

Frederick snickered and I smiled. The
two guys had been a couple for as long as I’d known them, and Henri
only had eyes for his boyfriend. To him, monogamy meant more than
just being physical with one person. It meant never letting his
gaze roam. I respected that a lot. He was definitely a good
influence on Erik, too.

“
Too much chatter,”
Catherine intoned. “Cease.”

She had a point. Comm units were not
for idle chitchat during mission. Nevertheless, the commentary
helped ease tension, in my opinion. And right now we needed any
levity we could muster.

My communicator beeped, signaling the
incoming image file from Henri. All traces of humor vanished the
moment it downloaded on my screen. Three interlocking circles
formed a black triangle on Ernest’s neck, with an eye peering out
from the center.

Beside me, Fredrick sucked in air,
apparently reaching the same conclusion I had.

“
Does it mean anything to
you?” Henri asked.

I hesitated. The symbol was one I
recognized, though the meaning behind it was a mystery. I’d seen
the eye symbol before, on a TOXIC research facility. Erik,
Frederick, and I had been among a handful of agents sent to raid
the facility after UNITED found its coordinates in a recovered data
file on TOXIC’s servers.

Unfortunately, someone had beaten us
there. Computers had been wiped, records destroyed, and any
lingering vials of the drug—had they been there in the first
place—were gone. The most disturbing part, however, was what, or
rather whom, had been left behind: Created castoffs. Children,
ranging in age from five to eighteen, were locked in rooms on one
of the lower levels. Many of them half-crazy from the drug. Of all
the horrific things I’d seen in my life, it topped my list. These
were the children Cadence Choi spent her day helping, with the hope
that one day they’d be able to move beyond the trauma they’d
endured.

“
Um, no, not really,” I
mumbled, suddenly aware that everyone was waiting for me to say
something. “We’ll discuss this later. Just don’t let Ernest out of
your sight. And keep an eye out for other people we know in the
crowd. Look around, see if you recognize anyone else. That goes for
all of you.”

“
That’s the same symbol
from the facility outside of Manassas,” Fredrick said, speaking
directly into my ear instead of using the comm. He obviously didn’t
want to be overheard and I didn’t blame him. This mission was
turning out to be trickier than we’d thought, this wrinkle was not
something we could afford to dwell on right then. Ernest and his
tattoo were important, but they didn’t change the mission. If
anything, they made reaching our goal that much more imperative. So
far, he’d only bid on the Created, just like us.

Before responding to Frederick, I
muted my comm unit.

“
I know. I’m sending it to
Victoria now. There’s nothing more we can….”

My voice trailed off, index finger
frozen over the send button.

“
No, no, no, no…,” I
whispered, unaware that I was even speaking aloud until Frederick
jabbed me.

Though I was vaguely aware of him
asking what was wrong, I didn’t answer. The rest of the team didn’t
know either, since I’d turned my microphone off, and I was thankful
for small favors.

While we’d been busy ogling Ernest’s
ink, the auction had continued without us. On the screen was
another familiar face from my past. A curtain of blue-black hair
hung down over too-thin shoulders. Skin, tanned and healthy the
last time I saw her, now appeared ashen, as if denied sunlight for
weeks. Her emerald eyes had lost some of their sparkle, a thin
layer of dust clouding the brilliant gems beneath. Unlike Francie
Owens, the girl on the wallscreen shed no tears. Her expression was
cold and hard. Much as I hated to admit the truth, even in chains
Anya Pritcher was stunningly beautiful. Defiance looked good on
her. Not for the first time, I realized that my boyfriend had a
type: prideful.

Erik. Oh crap. Mental barriers slammed
into place. Erik would know I was blocking him. If he was watching
the auction on his own comm unit, he would know why. But he
shouldn’t have to see this. Erik had suffered enough. Witnessing
the humiliation of a girl he’d once cared about, once been intimate
with, was not right.

“
Buy her,” I demanded of
Frederick. “Buy her
now
. I don’t give a damn whether she’s been infected or not.
Just get her.”

Panic over this new development made
my brain fuzzy. Frederick said something, but his words were
incomprehensible over the buzzing in my head. Pounding, like a fist
on a door, made me wince. Erik. He was literally beating on my
mental walls, demanding to be let in.

Frederick’s bid appeared onscreen,
only to be trumped by another immediately. Before I ordered him to
bid again, his fingers were flying across his communicator’s
keyboard.

The pounding in my head increased
tenfold. Erik knew. Whether from the comm unit or from Henri or
Frederick, both of whom knew Anya, Erik knew what I was trying to
hide. Reluctantly, I lowered the barriers.

“
How the hell did they get
her?”
Erik demanded, his words as sharp
and deadly as daggers.

At a loss for words, let alone
explanations, I sent calming thoughts his way. Knowing Erik as well
as I did, a slew of inanimate objects was feeling his wrath as we
spoke.

“
I know you don’t like her,
Tals, I get it, okay? But right now you need to put the bullshit
aside and—”

“
We’re already bidding,
Erik. We’ll get her,”
I interjected, not
bothering to correct his assumption. Though his words did
sting.

True, there was no love lost between
Anya and me. My jealousy over her past relationship with Erik had
been amplified by the Creation drug until it was a raging beast. It
had nearly cost me our relationship, and was still a bit of a sore
spot between us. She had slept with Erik and that irked me to no
end. It was reason enough for me to hate her on principle. All the
naked things Erik did with me, he’d done with her while I was still
chasing Donavon around like a moron.