Unforgettable (Talented Saga #6) (9 page)

“
AGENT
LYONS? CAN
I speak with you?”
Victoria called.

Our meeting ended after Victoria’s
ominous pronouncement. Once she uttered the words, there was no
going back—there was no denying the inevitable outcome for our kind
if the treaty failed to pass. The Talented were about to become
extinct, unless UNITED did something to sway public opinion back in
our favor. Every one of us understood that and the horrific
ramifications, so there was nothing left to say.

“
You, too, Agent Kelley,”
Victoria added.

Erik and I stood, preparing to join
the councilwoman at the front of the room.

“
I’ll meet you guys
upstairs for breakfast,” Penny said, heading for the door. As she
scurried to catch up with Henri and Frederick, she gave me a small,
sympathetic wave over her shoulder.

Wishing that I could bolt, too, I
watched her go longingly. Victoria and I butted heads when it came
to every little thing, and I didn’t relish the idea of being alone
with her. At least in a group setting, like the meeting, we were
both on our best behavior.

“
Let’s go see what she
wants,” Erik muttered, squeezing my fingers
reassuringly.

Not alone, I reminded myself. Erik was
here. Here to keep me grounded, from making a comment I’d later
regret.

Unable to resist, I poked at his
mental barriers, testing their strength after the beating we’d both
taken from all of the other minds in the room. The others had been
projecting so strongly that it had felt as though they were
cramming their emotions down my throat. It was undoubtedly even
more difficult for him to experience. But somehow, even with the
barrage, I hadn’t felt even a hint of what was going on with Erik,
the person whose mind I was most familiar with.

I felt the same thing when I search
for any cracks he might’ve left behind. Nothing. Physically Erik
was here. Mentally, he was, as usual, a million miles
away.

Although I debated pushing harder, and
really wanted to, I decided to give Erik the privacy he deserved.
When his gaze met mine, the bottomless pools of turquoise were
roiling with anger that contradicted his lopsided grin. That façade
made me want to scream at him, to demand that he let me in. To stop
pretending like everything was okay when it so clearly was not. But
I didn’t. I returned his smile with a fake one of my
own.

Victoria was deep in conversation with
one of her lackeys when we reached her. They were speaking
Portuguese, a language I spoke fluently. Or I thought I did,
anyway. Their word groupings and phrases made little sense to me,
in the context. Either they were talking in code, or Victoria was
ordering up a lavish breakfast for the short flight back to UNITED
headquarters in Bern, Switzerland.

When our fearless leader realized Erik
and I were standing there, and noticed the confused frown on my
face as I eavesdropped, she abruptly ended the conversation and
dismissed her companion with a flick of her wrist. Victoria arched
a perfectly groomed eyebrow while searching my face, silently
questioning how much I’d understood. The urge to greet her in
Portuguese was tempting. Though I hated to waste the opportunity to
irk her, between Erik’s clamshell act and my own sour mood, I
wasn’t up for our usual tete-a-tete today.

“
You wanted to see us?” I
said instead, in English.

“
Yes, I have a rather
delicate matter to discuss with you both,” she began, averting her
golden gaze.

“
Ominous,” I
replied.

A ghost of a smile touched Victoria’s
lips and she looked up from the electronic tablet she’d been
pretending to study.

“
Your ability to sum up a
situation so succinctly never ceases to amaze me, Agent
Lyons.”

“
Thank you,” I shot
back.

Okay, so maybe I was in
a
slightly
errant
mood.

“
Tals? Really?”
Erik mentally chastised me.

Thrilled beyond belief that he was
talking inside my head, I beamed like a fool. This prompted
Victoria’s eyes to narrow suspiciously. She hated when we used
nonverbal communication in her presence.

“
Our tip line received a
rather disconcerting call several hours ago,” Victoria said a
little too loudly, as if needing to be heard over the silent
conversation taking place between Erik and me.

“
Okay,” I said slowly,
drawing out the syllables.

The tip line received “rather
disconcerting” calls all the time. That was where UNITED received
all of the Created sightings. Victoria was being more evasive than
usual, and it was beginning to irritate me. It wasn’t like I was
the one who’d asked for her time, so I could fawn all over
her.

“
About the Created?” Erik
asked. Evidently he sensed my annoyance, and was attempting to draw
Victoria’s disapproving glare away from me.

It worked.

“
Yes and no.” Victoria
paused, weighing her next words carefully. “Have either of you
heard of the Poachers?”

My eyes went wide. Poachers. That was
what the agent in New York had called the phantom organization
hunting Created.

Victoria sighed.

“
I see you have. I was not
aware they were active in the States.”

“
I—we—only just heard of
them. In Manhattan, at that electrical fire you sent us to. One of
the other agents, Ray I think, he mentioned that—”

“
What about them?” the
councilwoman cut in.

“—
they were hunting
Created,” I finished.

“
We have one in custody,”
Erik added. “Ray said the man would be taken to Vault, along with
the Created found in what was left of that apartment
building.”

Agitated, Victoria began to tap her
nails on the desk.

“
Why wasn’t I informed
immediately?” she demanded.

Though she was still looking at us,
she seemed to be talking to herself.

“
It was in the report,” I
snapped, feeling defensive.

Erik shot me a warning look. I rolled
my eyes. Until Ray used it in New York, the term “Poacher” was
foreign to me. How was I supposed to know that the mere mention of
the organization warranted an immediate call to
Victoria?

“
Have you questioned the
man? The one you believe to be a Poacher?” Victoria
asked.

“
Not yet,” Erik answered
evenly, at the same time I said, “No one asked us to.”

Taking a deep breath, Victoria let her
eyelids fall shut and took a moment to regroup.

“
What’s the deal?”
I sent Erik.
“What am I
missing? I mean, I get it—vigilantes are awful. But this isn’t the
first time we’ve run across them.”

“
No clue.”
Erik said, his mental voice sounding just as
perplexed as I felt.

“
The Poachers have been
around for decades,” Victoria began when she opened her eyes again,
visibly calmer. “They do not simply hunt the Talented. They do not
kill our kind. What they do is much, much worse. They fancy
themselves dealers of rare goods. They deal in Talents. Chromes, as
they like—”

I held up my hand to cut her
off.

“
Wait. Just wait. Are you
trying to tell me that they…what exactly?
Sell
Talents?”

Beside me, Erik swore
loudly.

“
Yes,” Victoria said
stiffly. “They acquire—”

“
Kidnap,” I corrected
incredulously.

“
Kidnap,” Victoria agreed,
wrinkling her nose as if smelling something unpleasant.

I was right there with her. Kidnapping
Talents was a crock of shit and it stunk.

“
Most commonly, clients
hire them to locate and acquire a Talent with specific gifts,”
Victoria continued.

I wanted to correct her use of
“acquire” again, but was so freaking furious that I feared opening
my mouth would cause the string of expletives running through my
mind to pop out.

“
But that is not the only
way they do business,” Victoria was saying. “When the Poachers are
able to gather a large group of Talents, they…auction them
off.”

“
What?” Erik practically
shouted. “You cannot be serious?”

The venom in his voice caused Victoria
to retreat several steps involuntarily.

My stomach churned queasily. The only
thing more potent than my feeling of revulsion was the anger that
surged through me. I wanted to hit something or, better yet, snap
someone’s bones. Because he’d let his mental walls drop to talk to
me earlier, and was too outraged to remember they weren’t in place,
I felt Erik’s temper rising to match mine. Which was so not a good
thing.

Suddenly, we were each other’s fuel,
stoking the flames of an incredibly dangerous fire. Victoria was
speaking again, but I didn’t hear a word she said. All I could
think about was the vile, despicable human beings that were out
there right now, collecting Talents like normal people do antiques.
Images of the people I knew, my closest friends, being paraded
across a stage like prized ponies danced in my mind.

Somehow, one word Victoria said broke
through the haze. Kenly.

“—
the young man asked for
you by name, he—”

“
What did you say about
Kenly?” I demanded, abruptly cutting her off.

Instead of admonishing me for the
interruption, the councilwoman exhaled slowly and prepared to start
over. A trace of sympathy tinged her cool gaze.

“
A young man called the tip
line and asked for you by name, Talia. He said a mutual friend of
yours had been taken by the Poachers. A girl named
Kenly.”

“
No.” I shook my head
adamantly, my curls smacking me in the cheeks. “No, that can’t be
right. I mean…where? Where was she taken from?”

Had Kenly been in New York? Had the
Poachers snatched her from that filthy apartment in Spanish Harlem?
Had I arrived only minutes after she’d needed me?

It made sense. Alana Stillwater was
one of Kenly’s best friends from the McDonough School, and she’d
been in New York. But then, where was Kenly when Alana stormed the
UNITED building? As soon as Victoria was done with us, I was going
straight to Vault, to question the others we’d contained in
Manhattan. If Kenly had been—

“
London, apparently,”
Victoria said, silencing my plans.

“
What?” I asked. “London?
Like, in England? How the hell did she get there?”

I looked to Erik, not really expecting
him to have the answer but needing any reassurance he could offer.
He wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me flush against his
side.

“
It’s okay, Tals. We’ll
find her,”
he promised.

It was a promise Erik had
no business making, since he had no idea whether we really would.
Poachers, these scum-of-the-earth slave drivers, were uncharted
territory. We knew nothing about their organization. Finding Kenly,
when we didn’t even know where to
start
looking, was going to be
impossible.

Still, I appreciated that Erik always
knew exactly what I needed to hear. More than that, though, he
meant his words. Erik was no more knowledgeable than I about the
Poachers, and yet, he was ready to leave that very minute for
London. Ready to go on mission-impossible, simply because finding
Kenly was important to me.

“
How Kenly came to be in
London is something the council and I would love to know,” Victoria
replied. “We are closely monitoring all international travel. No
Created should be able to leave the States. Period. Unfortunately,
many have slipped through our fingers. And we would love to know
precisely how that is. Perhaps Ms. Baker can enlighten us, though
that is beside the point at this moment.”

“
You’re damn right it is,”
I said. “Right now, all that matters is getting Kenly back. I will
not let her be
sold
.”

Erik rubbed soothing circles on the
small of my back, trying to calm me. It was an exceptionally sweet
gesture, considering that he was just as livid as I was.

“
Not just Kenly, Agent
Lyons. The tipster indicated that the Poachers have taken a large
number of Created. Talented, too. But UNITED’s main concern right
now is the Created. We cannot allow them to fall into the hands of
private citizens.” Victoria paused long enough for her words to
sink in. “Which brings me to why I wanted to speak with you, Agent
Lyons. Because the young man asked for you by name, and you are the
most adept interrogator that we have, you are going to London to
question him. Find out what he knows, determine how much truth
there is to his claims, and report back immediately. From there,
the council can make an informed decision on how to move
forward.”

“
Is there really any
question about whether he is telling the truth?” Erik
asked.

Victoria hesitated just long enough to
spark suspicion. Finally, she sighed.