Inescapable (Talented Saga #7) (3 page)

“
It appears we are lacking
accommodations for twenty-five thousand Talents,” the Japanese
councilman said quietly, his higher reasoning ability having
calculated the figures as quickly as her communicator. “However, we
have yet to factor in any available space on the
islands.”

All eyes turned to Victoria. Though the
capacity of the Isle should have been the council’s first talking
point, she’d purposefully held off. Victoria had been hoping to
avoid the discussion that the totals now necessitated.

“
The Isle of Exile has
space for fifteen thousand refugees,” Victoria said, directing her
response to Michael. “That figure includes the new accommodations
on the uninhabited islands, Hope and Newhaven, as well as the tent
encampments we voted to erect at the last meeting.”

“
Oh, the Isle has room for
more than that,” Amberly interjected knowingly.

And so it begins,
Victoria thought. This was the moment she’d been
dreading since Amberly first presented Proposition 2690—the
Portuguese councilwoman’s solution to the shortage of refugee
housing options.

Victoria schooled her expression into a
blank mask, steeling herself for the argument looming on the
horizon.

“
Or, rather, the Isle can
make room for more,” Amberly baited.

Curious mutterings rippled around the
conference table. Instead of elaborating, Amberly looked to the
head of the table and smiled thinly at Victoria.

Resigned to being the messenger—the
messenger that at least half of the council would undoubtedly want
to shoot after reading Proposition 2690—Victoria tapped a sequence
of keys on the tabletop comm system.

“
Councilwoman Azevedo has
made a formal proposition that she wishes to put before the
council,” Victoria began. “I have just sent a copy to each of your
communicators. Take a moment to read through the document, and then
we will discuss.”

Victoria knew the precise instant that the
fastest readers at the table finished wading through the
boilerplate legalese at the beginning of the proposal and reached
the merits of Amberly’s scheme; the moment was marked with shocked
gasps, indignant scoffs, and Michael uttering a quiet prayer in
Japanese.

Sensing that the time had come to plead her
case, Amberly stood, effectively drawing the council’s undivided
attention.

“
As you all are aware,
UNITED devotes an entire island of the Isle of Exile to housing
criminals—Vault,” she began. “Currently, there are forty-five
hundred detainees on Vault. Each and every one of these Talents was
found guilty of breaking our laws. Even with all of us welcoming as
many refugees as our countries can accommodate, there are roughly
ten thousand that we do not have places for. Those ten thousand
are
innocent
men,
women, and children. By downsizing Vault’s population, we can
provide homes for almost half of those guiltless
Talents.”

The room was so quiet in the wake of her
words; it was as though a vacuum had sucked all of the sound out of
it. Though some of the council members’ feelings about Amberly’s
words were evident on their faces, others were impossible for
Victoria to get a read on. The fact she couldn’t tell what many
were thinking was unnerving.

If only my pesky little
manipulator was here,
Victoria thought,
then nearly laughed at the irony. Because Talia Lyons was one of
the prisoners in question. She was on Level Five of
Vault.

The councilwoman from South Africa was the
first to break the silence.

“
By this term,
‘downsizing,’ we are to understand that you are advocating for the
execution of all prisoners?” Charlene asked, shaking her head
incredulously. “Surely you are not serious about this, Amberly. We
cannot even consider such an extreme measure.”

“
I am quite serious,”
Amberly replied calmly. “Executing convicted criminals—some of whom
are exceptionally dangerous—to make room for innocent citizens is
not extreme at all. It is the logical resolution to our problem.
The
only
resolution.”

“
Victoria,” Barbar
implored, an apprehensive glint in his eyes. “I do appreciate
UNITED’s desire to have a plan in place. Pledging accommodations
for the refugees in our home territories makes sense. This,
however,” he gestured dismissively to the proposal on his comm
screen, “is not a decision the council needs to make today. If the
vote goes against the Talented,
then
we can revisit Councilwoman
Azevedo’s proposition. But certainly not before then. This is far
too radical to decide on without definitive cause.”

“
The vote is in only four
days,” Amberly snapped irritably. “When might we have time to
discuss this again?”

“
The treaty allows a
three-day grace period for those with abilities to relocate,”
Barbar countered. “If the need arises, we can vote on whether to
execute the prisoners during that window of time.”

Though she’d been reticent to speak up,
wanting to instead gauge the council’s attitude towards Amberly’s
proposition, Victoria knew she needed to interject before they
launched into another pointless debate.

“
Should the treaty fail to
pass, UNITED needs to announce the names of the lottery winners
immediately,” Victoria interceded. “The
full
list of names. We will then
need to organize the relocations and provide travel accommodations
without delay. In this scenario—and I pray we don’t live to see
such horrific circumstances—UNITED’s resources will be stretched
extremely thin. This council will not have the luxury of debating
Proposition 2690 at that time; we will all be tremendously occupied
with the fallout and keeping the peace. Executing over four
thousand people would also require time for preparations—it is not
as if they will instantaneously disappear. Therefore, as much as it
pains me to even consider such drastic measures, the council does
need to reach a decision on this today.”

An eerie silence fell over the room. Every
pair of eyes, save one, returned to the proposition document,
reading it again with more attention to the details. Amberly’s gaze
was focused intently on Victoria, her arrogant smile tugging the
corners of her mouth upwards.

She’s enjoying this,
Victoria thought, swallowing her disgust before
it showed on her face.

“
Is there not another
solution?” Michael finally asked. “Perhaps we could house more
Talents on the residential islands? The suites are quite large;
couldn’t we put more people in each of them, beyond the standard
capacity?”

Several council members quickly chimed in
with their approval.

“
I agree with Michael,
Madame Chair—there simply must be other options on the Isle,” the
Columbian delegate spoke up. “These refugees don’t need every
creature comfort, they will be grateful for a place to lay their
head and a warm meal. This is simply an interim solution of course,
but it is far preferable to the alternative.”

Victoria smiled sadly. “Housing more Talents
than the standard capacity of our residential floors has already
been accounted for in the numbers. The cryptos used a myriad of
factors to calculate the number of available spots on the Isle of
Exile, including your proposed solution. Essentially, no one will
have his or her own bedroom, let alone an entire apartment. Myself
included. The islands will truly be at maximum capacity with
another fifteen thousand citizens.”

Michael shook his head grimly. “I see.”

“
Then let us vote on
Proposition 2690,” Amberly said loudly. Her smoky gaze made a quick
trip around the conference table, conviction emanating from her
like a particularly pungent perfume. “It will reduce the number of
those homeless innocents to just over four thousand.”

“
I do not believe we have
finished discussion of this matter, Councilwoman Azevedo,” Michael
said.

“
All this council does is
talk. It is time we take action!” Alexi snapped, pounding his meaty
fist on the table in front of him. The gesture lacked the punch it
otherwise might have packed, since he was present only in
holographic form. “I second the motion.”

Charlene shook her head. “We cannot make a
decision of this magnitude rashly. You are asking this council to
sanction the deaths of over four thousand people—”

“
Criminals
. They are convicted
criminals, Charlene,” Amberly interrupted.

“
Be that as it may, they
are people. I, for one, am not comfortable authorizing their
executions until we have discussed all other possibilities,”
Charlene fired back, quickly becoming as annoyed as Amberly.
“Surely all five thousand of those people aren’t violent offenders.
All five thousand do not deserve to die for their
mistakes.”

“
Further discussion is
pointless, a waste of our valuable time,” Alois Neumann
interjected, waving his hand in the air dismissively. “In four
days, the Joint Nations will vote in favor of renewing the
Coexistence Treaty, just as they have done many times before.
Failure might have been a concern a month ago, but our offensive
actions have successfully combated the damage inflicted by the
Created.”

“
What is your point,
Alois?” Ian demanded, drumming his fingers irritably on the
table.

“
That our decision will not
matter,” Alois replied simply, as though the answer was obvious.
“That more talking will do nothing but cause arguments between us.
The minutes for these meetings are classified, so no one outside of
this room will ever even know we considered executing prisoners.
Let us vote now, and then we can all go about our daily business.
Amberly has made a motion, Alexi has seconded it; the formalities
are complete. Madame Councilwoman, will you kindly call for the
vote?”

Victoria rubbed her temples
wearily. Tempers were running hot, and patience was running short.
The meeting had already taken up more time in Victoria’s day than
she had to spare. Still, she did not think a vote was a good idea
quite yet. Because Alois was wrong. The council’s decision on
whether or not to execute the prisoners
did
matter. There was a fourteen
percent chance that it would matter a great deal.

“
What other alternatives,
Michael?” Amberly demanded. “Where, besides Vault, can we place
that many refugees? We are not magicians. We cannot conjure a new
island overnight.” Amberly threw her arms up dramatically. “To me,
it is simple: Innocents versus criminals. There is not room for
both.”

“
Not all of their crimes
are severe,” Michael pointed out.

“
And the refugees haven’t
committed any crimes at all,” Amberly countered, smoky gray eyes
flashing dangerously.

“
What about only executing
the dangerous prisoners, those with talents capable of causing
grave harm?” Charlene asked, directing her question towards
Victoria. “How many additional refugees would we be able to take if
we limit the proposed action to those on Levels Four and
Five?”

“
Twenty-eight hundred,”
Victoria rattled off the number from memory.

“
That number is paltry
compared to the five thousand spaces for innocents that would be
freed up by executing all of the prisoners,” Amberly snapped, her
accent thickening with every increment of anger. “Innocents. In the
eyes of the law, and of each of your government’s justice workers,
they have committed no crimes and broken no laws. The nearly five
thousand refugees we’re discussing are decent, hardworking
individuals. They do not deserve to be left to intolerant jackals
like the Poachers, not to mention the hate groups who will be out
in droves for Talented blood. Honestly Charlene, can you sit there
and say that convicted criminals have more of a right to clothing,
food, shelter, and safety? Because, to me, your hesitancy on this
issue says you do place more value on our prisoners’ lives than
those of the refugees.”

Amberly leaned forward and stared
unflinchingly around the long, oval table, meeting each set of eyes
in turn.

Crane trained his midnight eyes on
Victoria’s gold ones, his lips pursed in a grim expression.
Victoria knew they were thinking the same thing: Amberly’s
passionate arguments and careful word choice were helping many of
the council members overcome their moral dilemmas.

The problem was, for the very first time in
her life, Victoria Walburton did not know what the “right” decision
was. She herself was uncertain. Though she’d made countless tough
calls throughout her tenure as head of the UNITED council, Victoria
had never once looked back and regretted those decisions. This
time, Victoria knew she would regret whatever action UNITED took.
Protecting some Talented came at the expense of destroying others.
It was a no-win scenario.

“
These are dark days for
this organization, for the Talented, for the norms, and for the
world as a whole,” Crane was saying. “The Joint Nations are about
to vote on whether to banish an entire race of people. Now, you,
Councilwoman Azevedo, are asking us, the very people tasked with
protecting that race, to vote on k—”

Amberly leapt to her feet. “I am asking this
council to vote to save innocent lives!” she roared. The claws
literally came out, sprouting from Amberly’s nail beds with violent
force. She raked them down the table, leaving deep groves in the
wood. The Portuguese councilwoman turned the full force of her
wrath on Ian Crane. Almond-shaped eyes narrowed to slits, glowing
yellow irises peeking out from between heavily shadowed lids.