Inescapable (Talented Saga #7) Read Free

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