"I'll do it," Amanda volunteered.

Zephyr immediately shook her head. "No way. I wasn't telling youabout this so you could run off on the mission. I just thought youshould try leading a mission from behind the scenes."

"Come on, Zephyr, please. It can't be that hard to impersonate aslave," she begged. "I'm going crazy in this bunker. I want to dosomething."

"You aren't Wren, you're just akid! What if I send you out there and you get killed?" Zephyrdemanded, crossing her arms.

The expression on her face wasprotective, and Amanda frowned. She didn't want to be protected. Forthe first time in her life, something interesting had happened, andshe didn't want to just sit back and watch from behind the scenes.

Maybe it was naive of her, but shewanted to do something helpful, and out of everyone in the rebellion,who else could be more suited to this task? After all, she had beenripped from her home, much like any slaves would be. Pulling off thefacade of a scared, confused person wouldn't take much effort.

"I know I'm not Wren, but this issimple enough, isn't it?" She pointed to the folder with theinformation on the mission. "Look, all I have to do is gather intelon these slavers and make contact with the informant. In fact, ifAjax meets the informant, I can just gather the intel. Please."

Zephyr frowned. "It's dangerous. Idon't want you risking your life for this. Not yet."

"You mean not ever. I know you.Even if you're older now, you still care too much to let me risk mylife, especially now. But it's not your decision. Risking my life ismy choice," Amanda said. She leaned back in the chair, causing thefront legs to lift into the air.

"Fine. You can go," Zephyr relented. "But, youhave to promise you won't make any unnecessarily risky decisions."

Amanda grinned. "Promise." Athrill of excitement coursed through her. She was finally going toget out of HQ and do something.

***

The easiest part was getting intothe line of slaves headed for auction. The hardest part was lettingthem touch her. Guards constantly poked and prodded her forward, evenwhen she was moving at a perfectly normal pace, and they forced herto change into a tight fitting, white outfit. It hugged her body likea second skin, and the tag in the back constantly rubbed her skin,creating an itch she didn't dare scratch.

Surprisingly, they never forced herinto handcuffs or any sort of restraints. Despite this, no one triedto escape. It was like they'd all been broken before they even gotcaught, and seeing them so helpless caused her anger to spike. Buyingand selling people was despicable, and she looked forward to bringingdown the illegal slave ring.

Akram condones this. Someonewho gave no value to human life and didn't care what happened to thepeople under them didn't deserve the kind of power that Akram held.No wonder Wren started a rebellion.

The guards forced her into a vanwith a group of others, and she settled into the back to wait. In thesilence, she had plenty of time to think, and she wondered what lifewas like for the slaves. Although it wasn't completely certain whatthe owners would do if they bought her, she wouldn't be surprised ifa good chunk of the buyers had their slaves for more than justcleaning. If someone tries something on me, I'll send themflying.

Someone pushed her out of the truck,and they were led into a warehouse to a long row of tiny cells. "Getinside," an angry voice commanded.

She stepped into a cell and sat downon the little straw pile in the corner. The door slammed behind her,and the lock clicked. Still, the guard didn't leave. Her eyesnarrowed. She didn't like the hungry look in his eyes. Crossing herarms, she raised an eyebrow at the guard. "Don't you have someother innocent people to hassle?"

He nearly growled at her, and wasabout to open the door again when another guard grabbed his arm. "Nodamaged goods. You know what Miss Lexi will do if we ruin even onesale," the new guard said.

The other man shook his companion'sarm off and sneered at her. "Just wait," he warned. "If youdon't sell, they'll let us do whatever we want to you."

Sounds fun. Come back when your threats mean something. Shealmost said it out loud, but if she did, it would only draw moreattention. Fading into the background was the only way she would getany good information. Miss Lexi, huh. I'll bet you run thisplace, don't you?

***

It was three hours before they beganunlocking cells. During that time, Amanda listened to the guards,hoping for more information on Miss Lexi. Mention of her was scarce,but it was quite clear that everyone feared her.

She could hear the announcers whenthe auction finally started, and the sound of the bidding grated onher ears. How can they so easily buy and sell humans? Didthey accept this so easily when Akram took over?

Soon the guards started pullingpeople out of their cells one at a time. When they came back in, theyeach had a tag around their necks, marking them as someone else'sproperty.

They came for her half an hour intothe auction, dragging her from the cell and propelling her out ontothe stage. The sunlight blinded her as she emerged from the darknessof the warehouse she'd been held in. Slowly, her eyes adjusted, andshe took a step forward. The announcer grabbed her arm and pulled herto the middle of the stage.

"Here we have a young woman in herthirties. As you can tell, she's strong, and capable." Theannouncer reached up and pulled Amanda's ponytail out, causing herhair to tumble down her back, just past her shoulders. "She'd bequite a beauty, too, if you cleaned her up some," the man added."Let's start the bidding with 30,000 dollars."

She ignored the proceedings fromthere, and scanned the crowd for Ajax. Her eyes halted on a man inthe middle of the crowd. Next to him were two bodyguards and anotherman, this one younger. The older man she recognized from the filesshe'd been reading up on in her spare time. Mersor.

The younger man, however, she didn'tknow. Nor did she know why he was staring at her with such an oddlook. His face was painted with a look midway between surprise andhorror, and his mouth hung slightly open. The older man was busybidding, and apparently hadn't noticed the look, but Amanda did.

The young man's horror stricken lookmade her wonder if she knew him from somewhere, or was supposed toknow him. She frowned at him. He didn't look familiar. In fact, toanyone else, he would have been another face in the crowd. The mostsignificant thing about him was probably his wild blond hair and hisathletic build.

His eyes met hers, and she foundherself staring into irises with such a deep brown color that it gaveher a sudden craving for chocolate.

 "Sold!"