Chapter 27 · The Black Market Opens

"Your sister's in the third cage from the left."

Theo didn't turn. He kept his eyes on the auctioneer's podium, where a woman in a council uniform was unlocking a steel case. Inside, rows of brass keys glinted under the market's harsh white lights.

"You're lying," he said.

"Am I?" The fixer beside him—squat, bald, smelled like burnt rubber—tapped his phone screen. "Take a look."

Theo looked. The photo showed a girl, maybe nineteen, zip-tied to a chair in a shipping container. Blonde hair, green jacket. Same jacket he'd bought her for her birthday.

"She walked into the wrong stall," the fixer said. "Asked too many questions about sealed keys. My boss doesn't like questions."

"What do you want?"

"You go through with the deal. You hand over the black key record like we agreed. We get paid, you get paid, and she walks out before the auction ends."

Theo's hand twitched toward the knife in his coat. "And if I don't?"

"Then she's lot seventeen. Premium stock. Somebody's going to pay real good for a girl who knows how to read seal-marks."

The auctioneer's voice crackled over the speakers. "Lot four. Eleven unregistered blanks. Do I hear five hundred?"