London—was spinning faster and faster. Cars
dangled by their hinges, before shooting free like debris evicted
from a funnel cloud.
Beside me Talia swore. Penny gasped, a
hand flying to cover her parted lips. I reached for Talia,
threading our fingers together with a reassuring squeeze. Pained
purple eyes glanced up at me, unable to watch the
destruction.
“ This all happened in the
last twenty-four hours. Forty-three people are confirmed dead thus
far,” Victoria announced somberly. “The Created must be stopped. I
cannot stress this enough.”
She pounded her fist on the table in a
rare loss of control before continuing.
“ Their antics are becoming
bolder and more lethal by the day. UNITED is losing support from
many of the nations we have previously called allies. And the
timing could not be worse.”
She paused to take a breath and
regroup.
One of the UNITED agents took the
opportunity to ask a question.
“ Why are they acting out
like this? We have three Created talents in this room right now.
None of them are blowing things up. So what’s wrong with the rest
of them?”
The question-asker was tall with
disproportionately large ears and a comically large nose. I was
pretty sure his name was Ryke.
Though I hadn’t gotten to know many of
the others on the taskforce, Talia had, and she kept me filled in
on who they were. She liked the guy well enough, so I supposed I
did, too. However, the open hostility in his narrowed gaze,
directed at us, was making me reevaluate my position. It was as if
he thought we were the ones responsible for the destruction of
those landmarks. As if the chaos in the world was directly
attributable to the three of us. I wanted to punch that look off
his face, break his ridiculous nose. But that wouldn’t exactly help
our position.
Victoria let out a weary sigh. And
just like that, like a pregnant woman on steroids with
flip-flopping emotions, I was suddenly filled with empathy for the
councilwoman. She carried the fate of the Talented, Created
included, on her shoulders. The burden was obviously taking a toll.
Victoria was starting to show her cracks.
“ We won’t know until we
have them in containment, Ryke. It could be they were given too
much of the drug and have gone mad. They may be following orders
they were given before we disbanded TOXIC. Or, it could be as
simple as because they can. The only thing we can be certain of is
that they need to be caught. Now.”
“ We’re doing the best we
can,” the dour Gina said. “We always seem to be a step behind
them.”
“ Exactly,” Victoria
replied. “Thus far we have only been sending teams to apprehend the
Created once an incident has occurred. Starting today, we will be
responding to every tip and sighting we receive. Incidents like
this one,” she gestured to the wallscreen behind her, which was
frozen on the Eye and a blue car hurtling through open air, “will
not happen again. Do you all understand?”
The others in the room began shifting
uneasily in their seats, murmuring contrite responses to Victoria’s
rhetorical question. Victoria’s golden eyes landed on each of us in
turn, her underlings, as if she could make us understand the
severity of the situation with her gaze alone.
“ Good,” Victoria said after
several moments of tense silence.
Quiet mumblings began to move through
the room like a wave, as the group prepared for an imminent
dismissal. Even Penny looked like she was ready to spring to her
feet. Only Talia and I stayed still, save the brief worried glance
we shared. We’d both been to enough tactical meetings and had spent
enough time around Victoria to know that she had not flown out to
the islands at dawn just to show us this and issue a reprimand.
Sure, the destruction of European landmarks was a horrible tragedy.
But it wasn’t exceptional considering the state of world—similar
catastrophes had been occurring for weeks now. The newscast she’d
just shown us was an appetizer, a
dangled by their hinges, before shooting free like debris evicted
from a funnel cloud.
Beside me Talia swore. Penny gasped, a
hand flying to cover her parted lips. I reached for Talia,
threading our fingers together with a reassuring squeeze. Pained
purple eyes glanced up at me, unable to watch the
destruction.
“ This all happened in the
last twenty-four hours. Forty-three people are confirmed dead thus
far,” Victoria announced somberly. “The Created must be stopped. I
cannot stress this enough.”
She pounded her fist on the table in a
rare loss of control before continuing.
“ Their antics are becoming
bolder and more lethal by the day. UNITED is losing support from
many of the nations we have previously called allies. And the
timing could not be worse.”
She paused to take a breath and
regroup.
One of the UNITED agents took the
opportunity to ask a question.
“ Why are they acting out
like this? We have three Created talents in this room right now.
None of them are blowing things up. So what’s wrong with the rest
of them?”
The question-asker was tall with
disproportionately large ears and a comically large nose. I was
pretty sure his name was Ryke.
Though I hadn’t gotten to know many of
the others on the taskforce, Talia had, and she kept me filled in
on who they were. She liked the guy well enough, so I supposed I
did, too. However, the open hostility in his narrowed gaze,
directed at us, was making me reevaluate my position. It was as if
he thought we were the ones responsible for the destruction of
those landmarks. As if the chaos in the world was directly
attributable to the three of us. I wanted to punch that look off
his face, break his ridiculous nose. But that wouldn’t exactly help
our position.
Victoria let out a weary sigh. And
just like that, like a pregnant woman on steroids with
flip-flopping emotions, I was suddenly filled with empathy for the
councilwoman. She carried the fate of the Talented, Created
included, on her shoulders. The burden was obviously taking a toll.
Victoria was starting to show her cracks.
“ We won’t know until we
have them in containment, Ryke. It could be they were given too
much of the drug and have gone mad. They may be following orders
they were given before we disbanded TOXIC. Or, it could be as
simple as because they can. The only thing we can be certain of is
that they need to be caught. Now.”
“ We’re doing the best we
can,” the dour Gina said. “We always seem to be a step behind
them.”
“ Exactly,” Victoria
replied. “Thus far we have only been sending teams to apprehend the
Created once an incident has occurred. Starting today, we will be
responding to every tip and sighting we receive. Incidents like
this one,” she gestured to the wallscreen behind her, which was
frozen on the Eye and a blue car hurtling through open air, “will
not happen again. Do you all understand?”
The others in the room began shifting
uneasily in their seats, murmuring contrite responses to Victoria’s
rhetorical question. Victoria’s golden eyes landed on each of us in
turn, her underlings, as if she could make us understand the
severity of the situation with her gaze alone.
“ Good,” Victoria said after
several moments of tense silence.
Quiet mumblings began to move through
the room like a wave, as the group prepared for an imminent
dismissal. Even Penny looked like she was ready to spring to her
feet. Only Talia and I stayed still, save the brief worried glance
we shared. We’d both been to enough tactical meetings and had spent
enough time around Victoria to know that she had not flown out to
the islands at dawn just to show us this and issue a reprimand.
Sure, the destruction of European landmarks was a horrible tragedy.
But it wasn’t exceptional considering the state of world—similar
catastrophes had been occurring for weeks now. The newscast she’d
just shown us was an appetizer, a
Similar Books
