Chapter 13 Lokan
LOKAN
The silence on the line stretched for what felt like an eternity after Losham asked his question.
"Which is?"
Lokan looked at Kian, his eyebrows raised in a silent question.
Should he tell Losham what they were looking for?
Revealing it would give Losham leverage, knowledge he could potentially use against them.
But without telling him something, how could they ensure he handled the excavation with the care it required?
Kian held up a hand. "I'll take it from here. You're looking for bodies of immortals in stasis, probably inside coffins that look like large chests. They're members of our clan, and we want them back."
"That's highly unlikely," Losham said, sounding calm, collected, and skeptical. "I would have known if the Brotherhood brought back clan members in coffins. There was no reason for my father to keep it from me or the rest of the Brotherhood's command."
"His reasons for hiding the bodies are none of your concern," Kian said flatly. "They are important to us. That's all you need to know. They are not important to the Brotherhood."
"If they were so unimportant, he wouldn't hide them in a specially constructed enclosure rigged with booby traps."
"Navuh planned to use them as leverage against the clan, and for some reason, he didn't think any of his commanders needed to know about it.
" Kian managed to sound almost indifferent.
"The point is, we want them back. We don't leave our people behind.
Not the live ones, not the dead ones, and not those in stasis. We always bring our people home."
The words hung in the air, laden with unspoken criticism. Doomers were taught to fight to the death, not allowing themselves to be captured. If they were taken, they were written off, abandoned, as good as dead to the Brotherhood.
The clan valued every life.
"How sentimental," Losham said, but there was something beneath the sarcasm. Curiosity, perhaps. "The mighty clan, whose numbers are so small that they can't afford to lose anyone."
"Our numbers might be low, but that's not why we do it, and you are well aware of that," Kian said.
"But that's irrelevant. Here is what you are going to do.
You are going to oversee the excavation personally.
You are going to ensure the debris is removed carefully, by hand if necessary.
And when you find those chests, you are not going to open them.
You are going to wait for further instructions. "
"Says who? I don't even know who you are."
"And you will continue not knowing." Toven leaned toward the phone.
"Let me repeat so you will understand and comply.
You will handle the debris removal with extreme care," he said, his voice resonating with power even through the phone line.
"You will prioritize the search for coffin-like containers.
When you find them, you will not open them or allow anyone else to open them.
You will wait for our instructions. Say you understand. "
There was a long pause. Lokan could almost feel Losham's resistance through the phone, but the command was too strong for him to resist for long.
"I understand," Losham said.
"Good." Toven leaned back, his and Mia's work done for the moment.
"I want to talk to Lokan," Losham said.
Kian gave Lokan a nod.
"I'm here," Lokan said.
"What happened to the concubines?" Losham asked.
Lokan understood what Losham was really asking. It wasn't about all the concubines. It was about the nameless, faceless female who had given birth to Losham. The mother he'd never known.
"They're all here, safe and happy," Lokan said. "Free."
"Are you telling the truth?"
"I have no reason to lie." Lokan paused, casting a glance at Kian, who was circling his finger to indicate that Lokan should wrap up the call.
"I'll tell you more in future calls. I will even inquire as to which one is your mother.
It shouldn't be difficult to figure out since you were the firstborn.
We'll call you every morning and evening, your time, to check on your progress.
If you have questions, you can ask them then. "
That promise would guarantee that Losham would answer the phone even if he found a way to subvert the compulsion.
Losham chuckled. "You know me well, Lokan."
"I do."
"Until tomorrow, then."
"Until tomorrow."
Lokan ended the call and set the phone on the conference table.
"You handled that well," Kian said.
Lokan slumped back in his chair. "I feel like I'm playing chess blindfolded against someone who can see the entire board."
"Losham doesn't see the entire board either. He's operating with incomplete information, just like we are." Kian picked up his coffee, took a sip, grimaced, and set it down again. "It's a complicated dance that both sides are performing blindfolded."
To Lokan, it was more than a dance, more than rescuing Khiann and his companions from the island. The future of the Brotherhood was on the line, and none of the solutions that kept circling in his mind were good.
Every path seemed to lead somewhere terrible.
If Losham managed to hold on to power, which the clan might be able to help him with, the Brotherhood would continue its work under new management. Losham was smarter than Navuh, more subtle, potentially more dangerous in the long run. He wouldn't make the same mistakes his father had made.
If Losham fell, which would happen if he didn't get help, the other brothers would tear each other apart fighting for control. The island would descend into chaos, and a succession war would leave bodies piled in the streets and blood soaking into the sand. Everyone there would suffer.
If Navuh returned...no. That wasn't an option. Lokan refused to even consider it.
But what was the alternative?
The ultimate solution was to conquer the island and for him to rule it and turn it into a normal community instead of the hellhole it was now.
The question was how.
His mind drifted to the force the clan was building on Safe Harbor. The human warriors were training with the exoskeletons that gave ordinary humans the strength and speed to fight immortals on equal footing, but there weren't enough of them.
To take the island, to truly liberate it, they would need thousands of those warriors. Tens of thousands, perhaps. An army large enough to overwhelm the Brotherhood's forces, to crush any resistance, and to establish control over every inch of that cursed piece of land.
And then what?
Even if they somehow assembled such an army, and even if they somehow won the battle, what happened then?
The island's immortal population had been raised on hatred and violence.
They'd been brainwashed from birth to despise the clan and to regard humans as little more than livestock, to see Mortdh's way as the only way.
It wasn't possible to just flip a switch and turn them into peaceful citizens.
Only a powerful compeller could do that, and the clan didn't have anyone who could simultaneously influence thousands of minds.
Was Igor that powerful?
It was a ludicrous thought to even consider the former Kra-ell leader for the job, and he wasn't, but what about Igor's daughter?
Drova was still a kid, but one day she might be just as formidable, if not more so, than her father, and she was a decent person. The problem was that they didn't have time for her to grow up.
What if the clan's forces swept across the island, defeating the Brotherhood's army, capturing or killing those who refused to surrender? What if, when the dust settled, he was the only authority figure left standing?
He could rebuild the island. Transform it from a fortress of oppression into something better. The paradise it could be.
The Dormants could be freed. The breeding program could be abolished. The humans who served as little more than slaves could be given real lives, real choices. And the immortals...they could learn. It would take time, generations perhaps, but they could learn that there was another way to live.
It was a fantasy. A dream so big it bordered on delusional.
But it was also the only solution that actually solved the problem and didn't just slap a Band-Aid over it.
"What's going through your mind?" Kian asked.
"Sorry." Lokan shook his head, trying to dispel the vision that had taken hold of his imagination. "I was trying to work through the implications of all this."
"And? What conclusions have you reached?"
"I've been thinking about the endgame. Not just how to get Khiann back, but what happens after. What happens to the island, to the Brotherhood, to all the people trapped there?"
Kian nodded. "Go on."
"Every scenario I can think of ends badly.
If we help Losham stay in power, the Brotherhood continues to thrive, which means we would be contributing to the destruction of free society.
If he falls, there's a succession war that kills thousands, and any one of the other brothers would be even worse.
If we allow Navuh to return, things continue as usual, and we live with eternal guilt for not seizing the opportunity to make the world a better place.
" Lokan shook his head. "None of those are acceptable options. "
"What do you suggest?" Toven asked.
Lokan took a deep breath. "The only solution that actually solves the problem is conquest. Taking the island by force, removing the Brotherhood's leadership, and rebuilding from the ground up."
He expected Kian to dismiss the idea, pointing out all the obvious flaws like the impossibility of assembling a large enough force, the logistics of invading a fortified island, and the challenge of holding territory against an entrenched enemy.
"It would require an army," Kian said after a long moment. "A real army with thousands of warriors that we don't have."
"Thousands of warriors equipped with exoskeletons and trained to fight immortals. It's not impossible, but it would take years to build that kind of force."
"In that time frame, we can build an army of warrior robots," Toven said. "The technology is there, and I have the means to finance it."
That was news to Lokan. "You are that rich?"
"Richer." Toven smiled. "But we are just letting ourselves get carried away. All those things are many years away, while we need to deal with the current situation now."
"I don't blame you for thinking big." Kian leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. "I've spent most of my life thinking small.
Protecting the clan, hiding from the Brotherhood, surviving.
It's what we've always done. It's what we've had to do.
Safe Harbor was thinking big. The problem is that nothing gets built overnight.
One day we might be ready to take on that island, and cure that disease once and for all, but in the meantime, we will need to continue patching it with Band-Aids. "
Lokan nodded. "War is inevitable."
"I don't want it," Kian said. "No sane person does. But if the alternative is allowing the Brotherhood to continue indefinitely enslaving humans and Dormants and wreaking havoc on the world, war might be the lesser evil."