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“Why can’t you just lift something better from the commissary?” Jared asks.
I don’t tell him there is nothing better. Instead, I say, “Wow, Jared, I don’t know, maybe because that’s stealing?”
“Whatever, plenty of people steal stuff.” Jared begins listing all of his friends and the amazing things they’ve gotten to eat recently.
There’s a knock at the door.
“I bet Struz forgot his keys,” Jared says, bouncing up from the floor.
“I can assure you if Victor Le says he had filet mignon last night, he either has cattle in his backyard or he’s lying,” I call after him.
I hear my brother say something muffled, and then there’s a slam as someone kicks open the front door.
I have a split second to consider a strategy, but I don’t know what I’m up against, so I jump up and step into the hall.
In my doorway is the outline of a man, standing behind my brother. Based on his height and build, I know it’s not Struz.
It feels like all the air has been sucked out of the room. I have absolutely nothing to defend myself with, and this guy has my brother.
But when he uses his foot to kick the door shut and the light adjusts in the room, I realize it’s Taylor Barclay.
“What’s the matter, Tenner? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he says with a smile.
He’s got one hand on Jared’s shoulder. I don’t like that.
Barclay must see the shift in my position. “Why don’t you head upstairs, kid?”
Jared looks at me, and I nod. The last thing I want is him getting dragged into whatever has Barclay showing up at my door. We both watch him as he leaves the room.
“Tenner, relax.” He raises his empty hands and smiles. “Just here to talk. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
His smile is disarming. It’s light and casual, like we’re long-lost friends and he’s happy to see me.
“So you come to my home and scare my brother?”
Barclay shrugs. “I knocked.”
“What do you want?” I ask, because let’s face it, he wants something.
His smile disappears and his eyebrows draw together, a flicker of annoyance on his face. “I need your help. I need you to come with me.”
He pulls a quantum charger from his pocket—I’d recognize one of those anywhere—and I shake my head. I remember how much it burned the last time he dragged me through a portal, and that thought sparks one that’s worse—all our missing people. What if that’s why Barclay is here? What if I’m next?
“I’m not going anywhere.” I bite my bottom lip and debate what to do next.
“We don’t have time to argue right now,” he says. “I’ll explain everything once we’re out of here.”
In hand-to-hand combat, I don’t stand a chance with Barclay unless I can take him by complete surprise and knock him out. I’m sure he has a gun on him, and I don’t. He also has a quantum charger and as a result he has access to anywhere—any universe. I can’t possibly keep him away from us.
Which means I need to hear him out.
“If you want me to go somewhere with you, you can explain it right now,” I say, pulling back. “I’m not about to just blindly follow you through a portal.”
“Fine, you want to have a chat, Tenner? Why don’t you have a seat,” he says as he sits down on our taupe couch with that stupid, arrogant smirk on his face.
I move into the living room and sit down on the couch as far as I can physically get from him. “So what is it?”
“We have a problem.”
“We?” I ask. Because there’s Barclay, and then there’s me. There’s no we at all.
He turns his blue eyes to me and stares for a second. Then he says, “It’s Ben.”
Barclay sits up straighter. “Have you seen him?”
I swallow. Hard. “No, he’s back in his home world.”
Barclay nods. “If you have—”
“I haven’t,” I insist, and I hate the fact that I’ve had to say it again.
He nods. “A couple months ago, I stumbled on a case. It’s big, Tenner,” he says, rubbing his hands together. “People from different universes are disappearing. They’re being kidnapped.”
Kidnapped. As in abducted.
He has my full attention now. I can feel my pulse all over my body, even in the tips of my fingers.
“Everything I’ve uncovered points to a complex organization, one that’s avoided getting caught for a long time,” Barclay continues. “Someone has set up the ultimate human-trafficking ring. They’re going into different universes, kidnapping people, and then selling them into slavery on other earths.”
“Human trafficking? Like sex slaves?”
“It’s bigger than that,” Barclay says with a grimace. “Think about the overall picture. Stealing people from other universes, especially universes that don’t have interverse travel capabilities. No one’s going to come looking for them, and they don’t have anywhere to go. No escape.
“And if there’s no fear of getting caught, someone could turn a huge profit by selling house slaves to the wealthy in every different world. Slaves for cheap labor, slaves that could be soldiers in a war you’re waging, and yes, slaves for sex, too.”
No one’s going to come looking for them, and they don’t have anywhere to go.
I can’t help be stuck on that. I see what he’s saying—that makes it the perfect crime—but there’s something in my brain that’s having trouble computing. How selfish and depraved does a person have to be to put something like this together? I wonder if they watch people and pick them out with a purpose, or if they just grab them at random and figure it out later.
I think of Renee Adams, and I wonder what kind of slave she is right now. The thought makes me want to throw up.
“So that’s what’s happening here—why we have so many missing people?” I ask, even though I already know the answer.
“What?” Barclay asks, before he nods and says, “Oh. Yeah. Any world that has low technology capabilities would be a huge target. A world that’s just gone through a disaster or a war, or any kind of devastating event, of course would become a likely target. More people can be abducted in a shorter period of time before authorities catch on.”
Something