Chapter 25 Kian
KIAN
Kian looked up at the camera above the clinic's front door, and as a soft click announced the lock disengaging, the outer door swung open, revealing the small antechamber.
It was barely large enough for a gurney and two people standing side by side, but even that had eaten too much of the small waiting room.
The space hadn't been originally designed with prisoners in mind, and even now it was used mainly for civilian purposes, but Kian wasn't taking chances with Navuh.
He was the most valuable prisoner the clan had ever held.
Once Kian stepped inside and the outer door closed behind him, there was a pause before the interior door opened, which was a deliberate security measure. If Navuh managed to overpower a visitor or the doctor and pushed through the inner door behind them, he would be trapped in the antechamber.
Kian took a deep breath, then another, calming the storm raging inside him.
If he walked in there angry, Navuh would exploit it.
The guy was a master manipulator who had perfected his craft over the millennia.
He knew how to read people, find weaknesses, and twist their emotions against them to use as leverage.
As the interior door clicked and swung inward, Kian stepped through and found Bridget waiting for him outside her office.
"Good afternoon, Kian."
"Same to you, doctor. How is our guest behaving?"
"Better than expected." Bridget crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the doorframe.
"He's learned that being polite works better than being a demanding jerk.
He says 'please' and 'thank you' now. It's almost charming in a deeply unsettling way.
" Bridget smiled. "He's like a child learning that he gets treated better when he attempts civilized behavior. Positive reinforcement works wonders."
Kian didn't like this development. Navuh was a cruel tyrant and a manipulative bastard. "In his case, I'm all in for negative reinforcement."
"There is also that. He knows that I can activate his wrist cuff with a voice command and that the Guardians monitoring the surveillance feed can trigger it remotely."
Kian had given instructions to slap a cuff on Navuh as soon as he had regained minimal movement ability. The guy was healing faster than Bridget had anticipated, and Kian didn't want any surprises.
"What's his physical status?" he asked.
"Improving." Bridget pulled up something on her tablet and turned it so he could see.
"He has command of his hands and arms, but they're still weak.
He can feed himself, which is a big improvement and which he rightfully considers a major victory.
His legs have some sensation returning, but he can't move them yet. "
"When can we transfer him to a cell?"
"Not until he can relieve himself without help, and that will take a while."
"That's a shame."
"Tell me about it." She sighed. "I want to go home."
While Bridget took care of Navuh, she and Turner were staying in Turner's old condo. It was a nice place and newly remodeled, but after living in the village, no one wanted to spend too much time in the urban sprawl.
Kian motioned at the door to Navuh's room. "Can you open it for me? I need to speak with him."
Bridget arched a brow. "Where are your bodyguards?"
"In the penthouse with my mother. I want to speak to Navuh alone."
"The Guardians are watching the feed, and I don't recommend telling them to turn it off."
"That's fine. I just don't want anyone in the room with us. He will be less guarded with only me there, and the cuff responds to my voice commands just as well as it does to yours, so I'm not defenseless. Besides, Navuh is an immortal like me. He's not a powerful Kra-ell like Igor."
Bridget studied him for a moment. "He could have been enhanced with the same drugs he used on his soldiers, but I ran tests, and he wasn't."
It hadn't occurred to Kian that Navuh could have done such a thing because the guy was too smart to play around with dangerous drugs on himself.
As the door opened with a pneumatic hiss, Kian stepped inside and looked at his adversary with what he hoped was an impassive expression.
"Good afternoon, Navuh." He pulled out the single chair in the room and sat down. "I see that you are doing well."
The guy was propped up at an angle that let him survey the room like a king.
"As well as can be expected." Navuh's voice was smooth, almost pleasant. "To what do I owe the honor of your solo visit?"
The guy didn't miss much. "I came for a chat."
"By all means." Navuh spread his hands in a gesture of magnanimity, though the movement was stiff, limited. "I'm looking forward to chatting with you."
Kian chuckled. "I doubt that."
"Oh, I am. Sincerely. I'm bored, and you seem like an intelligent fellow, which means you are capable of engaging me in a stimulating conversation."
Kian smiled. "I can, and I will. I'm sure you will find what I have to say very stimulating, just not in the way you hope."
Navuh's amused expression didn't falter. "I can't wait to hear it."
"It's about the bargain you offered."
"Oh?" Navuh arched a brow. "Is Annani ready to discuss terms?"
"No." Kian leaned forward in his chair. "Your leverage is gone. We know where Khiann is."
Navuh's expression flickered with surprise, but he quickly masked it with his usual sarcasm.
"Do you, now?" Navuh's voice remained steady. "And where is that?"
"In the basement of your mansion on the island."
Navuh must have been ready for that because his expression didn't change. "And how did you arrive at this remarkable conclusion?"
"Tamira and Elias figured it out."
Navuh knew the shaman as Elias, and Kian saw no reason to reveal that his real name was Eluheed and why he had used an alias.
"The shaman." Navuh's lip curled. "Not many people manage to play me, but he did. I should have disposed of him when I had the chance."
"Didn't he provide you with valuable information?"
"His visions were more trouble than they were worth because he saw more than I wanted him to see."
"His visions didn't show him anything about Khiann," Kian said.
"He had no idea who I was talking about, but when I told him and Tamira that we are looking for Khiann and his four immortal companions, who we believe are in stasis, Tamira remembered something important.
She said that when the harem was flooded, and people were rushing to evacuate the lower levels and lives were at stake, you sent guards down, but instead of saving the servants who were trapped down there, the guards emerged with five heavy chests.
Then, when Areana and the harem ladies were moved to your mansion, you built a new glass enclosure in your mansion's basement, filled it with sand, and outfitted it with a separate climate-controlled system.
You recreated desert conditions, which are perfect for preserving bodies in stasis. "
"Or for preserving other things. You are grasping at straws, Kian. I've never mentioned any companions. The bargain I offered was Khiann for my freedom. Not Khiann plus four others. Where did you even come up with that?"
Kian wasn't about to reveal that he was basing that number on a drawing of a four-year-old child and his own daughter's drawing of five stars.
He ignored the comment. "I think that those five chests contained Khiann and his companions. You moved them from the harem to your mansion when the flooding made the original location unsafe and built that elaborate enclosure to ensure their continued preservation."
Navuh shrugged. "Supposition and conjecture. It's a theory. You can't prove it or disprove it."
"I agree that the evidence is circumstantial, and I don't have all the pieces of the puzzle, but I have enough to deduce the picture.
The biggest piece is that you offered to trade Khiann's location for your freedom.
You knew your father hadn't killed Khiann because he had gotten to the caravan too late.
You found Khiann and his companions buried in the sand, dug them out, and kept them as an insurance policy in case you were ever captured by the clan. "
Navuh's expression remained carefully blank. It was the face of a man who was calculating, reassessing, searching for the angle that would give him back the advantage.
Kian knew that face. He'd worn it himself often enough in negotiations.
"Interesting theory," Navuh said finally. "But theories are not the same as facts. I know the location where Khiann is buried, but that doesn't mean I have him in my basement."
"I think you do. You would not have left them in the desert and risked something happening to them.
You would have made sure that they were safe and close enough for you to check on them and make sure they were not dying.
Bodies in stasis become skeletal, and you couldn't tell the immortals apart from the god, so you kept all five to be safe. "
Navuh's smile returned, but it was different now. Sharper. More dangerous.
"Let's entertain the fantasy you have created for a moment and assume that they are in the basement of my mansion, on my island, surrounded by thousands of my warriors. How exactly would you plan to get Khiann and the others out?"
"That's none of your concern."
"Perhaps not because I don't give a damn about what happens to you and your dear Guardians, but it should concern you. You would need my help to get them out."
He wasn't wrong, but Kian wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of agreeing with him. Especially since he hadn't admitted yet that Khiann was in the glass enclosure.
"We'll find a way," Kian said.
"Such confidence," Navuh said. "It will be your undoing one day. Pride has destroyed greater men than you."
"True, and so has arrogance. I guess we are both at fault."
He'd wanted to strip Navuh of his leverage, to make him understand that his position was weaker than he believed, and he might have accomplished that, at least partially, but Navuh's reaction troubled him.
The guy had been surprised but not devastated. He'd recovered too quickly, shifted too smoothly into that calculating expression that suggested he was far from defeated.
What was Navuh still hiding, and more importantly, how was Kian going to get him to reveal that?