Chapter 21 Mattie
MATTIE
Dimitri shook his head. "That's not much of a plan."
Mattie had to agree.
The Eight either didn't know how they were going to pull it off, or they weren't ready to share what they knew.
Number One shifted in his chair. "We discovered that Losham is secretly communicating with the clan."
That was a bombshell revelation. Was Losham betraying the Brotherhood and collaborating with the clan? Why would he do that?
Why would the other immortals listen to what he had to say?
From what Dave had told them, the two factions of immortals were at war with each other. The clan didn't have the numbers that the Brotherhood had, but it had a technological advantage, and it used that advantage to hide from Navuh and his army.
The most important piece of information that Dave had shared was that the clan were do-gooders, which meant that they were directly opposed to everything the Brotherhood did.
Not that she knew for sure what they were into, but they didn't need a ten-thousand-strong army of immortals just to defend their island, and they didn't need enhanced soldiers for that either.
These immortals had aspirations of world domination, and given what Dave had said about the clan, those other immortals would do anything to prevent that.
"Did Losham share with you what he's negotiating with them?" Dimitri asked.
"No. But we don't need him to tell us to know what's in his head."
Dave was being deliberately vague, but Dimitri was smart enough not to press. It wouldn't work anyway. The Eight would reveal what they wanted to reveal when they wanted to do that, and not a moment earlier, no matter how much Dimitri, Petrov, or she applied pressure on them to talk.
"Do you want to share with us what you have learned?" Petrov asked. "Or do you enjoy dangling bits of information before our noses to get us hungry for more?"
Apparently, Petrov did not see merit in her and Dimitri's subtle approach.
"They have Navuh," Number One said. "They didn't confirm it, but it makes sense since they knew about the booby traps before they were set off. No one other than Navuh knew about those."
Mattie forgot to breathe for a couple of moments. "Lord Navuh is supposed to be in the harem. I assume that's not true?"
"Correct," Number One said.
"When did you find out?" Dimitri asked.
"Almost right away. We felt him disappear.
We didn't know whether he was dead or just left, but his absence created a void.
His compulsion cloud lifted from the island, and in some way that we don't understand, it freed us.
We were able to compel our guards to let us go.
" Eight pairs of eyes shifted to Petrov and then back to Dimitri.
"We took control of your minds as well because we needed you to keep providing the drugs for us.
But we loosened our hold on you when we realized that you were not going to do anything stupid like trying to sabotage the program.
You need your minds unencumbered by compulsion to think creatively.
When you were compelled to do your work, all you could do was continue to manufacture the same formula. "
Dimitri chuckled. "And I thought that I was developing immunity to your compulsion. Silly me."
"Not silly at all," Number One said. "You were always more difficult to compel and thrall than Doctor Petrov." The eight pairs of eyes shifted to the older guy. "You are no less brilliant than Dimitri, but you are perpetually compromised by the alcohol you consume."
Petrov shrugged. "I'm willing to be a little less brilliant to enjoy my vodka."
"How did they get him?" Dimitri asked. "I wasn't aware of an attack on the island."
Mattie tensed.
Dimitri had suspected that Dave was responsible for Navuh's disappearance, as in killing the lord of this island and conspiring with Losham to cover it up. Was it smart to give voice to his suspicion and shed doubt on Dave's claim that the clan had Navuh?
"We don't know," Dave said. "It is a mystery that we are still trying to solve."
"What if he is still in the harem and playing games with you all?
" Petrov suggested. "He could have called someone in the clan and told them about the booby traps for some reason.
Or they might have a spy in the harem who has a way to communicate with the outside world.
That's a much more logical explanation than the clan arriving with a spaceship and beaming him up. "
That actually got a smile out of all eight parts of Dave.
"We know for sure that he is not in the harem because Losham and I went there using Navuh's private tunnel.
Navuh is gone, and so are all his harem ladies.
Losham's theory was that his father killed all the concubines in a fit of rage, throwing them off the cliff that is part of the harem grounds, and then, filled with remorse, jumped after them.
The problem is that none of the servants know what happened.
They were probably thralled or compelled to forget. "
If the clan were indeed do-gooders, like Dave had called them, then Mattie was glad the ladies had been liberated.
But Losham's suspicion about their fate made more sense.
She hadn't had much contact with Navuh, but from the little she'd seen, she'd gotten the impression that he was terrifyingly intense.
He was exactly the type of guy who could do a thing like that.
"Hakum, Navuh's former secretary, came up with the alien abduction theory," Number One continued.
"How else would they have gotten Navuh and his concubines out?" Dimitri muttered under his breath. "Unless they have an aircraft that can evade the island's radar and a powerful compeller to make the harem servants forget what they saw."
"That's another theory," Number One said.
"Losham says that it is possible the clan have developed a craft with a cloaking device.
As I mentioned before, they have always been at the forefront of technological innovation.
That's how they managed to survive throughout the millennia despite their small numbers and the Brotherhood's constant efforts to eradicate them. "
It served Navuh right to get captured by his enemies.
The monster who ruled this island and built an empire on trafficking and violence, who commanded an army of immortal warriors through the force of his compulsion, the one whose recorded voice still echoed through the loudspeakers five times a day, demanding devotion from his followers, was now a prisoner, just like her.
"And as for the compeller," Number One continued.
"They have one that is powerful enough to control Losham over the phone.
They have been directing him to excavate the collapsed chamber in the mansion's basement with care.
They claim that Navuh hid five of their people in stasis down there, and they want them back.
They must have been important people, or Navuh wouldn't have bothered to safeguard them in a specially built enclosure and booby-trap his own basement so no one could get to them.
Losham was curious to find out what his father had been hiding in there, and he triggered the booby traps. "
So, it hadn't been a gas explosion after all.
The immortals in stasis were valuable alright, but not to Navuh. They were valuable to his enemies, and he had guarded them like a treasure to negotiate for something he couldn't gain by brute strength alone.
Was it their technology? The very same that they had used to abduct Navuh and the harem ladies?
Having an undetectable plane would give the Brotherhood a great advantage in whatever wars they were waging.
Dimitri had sunk onto his stool. "So, the clan is controlling Losham."
"Yes," Number One said. "They call him, and he has to answer because he is compelled to do so."
"Losham doesn't know that you know this, right?" Petrov asked.
"Correct."
Mattie was surprised that Dave was sharing all this with them, but then he was probably going to compel the three of them to keep it a secret.
"Does anyone else on the island know?" Dimitri asked.
"No. Losham has not shared this suspicion with anyone because it is crucial for him to maintain the illusion that Navuh is in the harem.
The moment his brothers realize that Navuh is gone, they will eliminate Losham.
It is also possible that the clan is monitoring the island via satellite surveillance. "
Mattie sat perfectly still, her injured hand forgotten on its pillow, her book abandoned, her mind racing with a growing sense that the picture was much larger than she had imagined.
She had spent seven months on this island believing that the world had forgotten her.
That beyond the ocean, there was nothing and no one who could help.
That escape, if it came, would be a desperate scramble into an indifferent world where she and Dimitri and Petrov would have to build everything from nothing.
But there were people out there who were well organized and powerful enough to capture Navuh on his own fortress of an island, and to have done that in a way that had left no trace.
No wonder Hakum believed Navuh had been abducted by aliens. The whole thing seemed like it was taken from a science fiction novel.
"This changes everything," she murmured. "We can actually pull it off."
"We might," Number One hedged. "I assume that the clan has the infrastructure to resettle large numbers of people, but I cannot assume that they will be willing to do so.
I believe they will, but that's not a certainty.
If we can establish contact, we could negotiate with them to provide what we cannot.
" He turned to Petrov. "We will be counting on you and Dimitri to continue producing our enhancement drugs. "
She hadn't thought of that, but it was a crucial component of their plan. She'd just assumed that Dave could compel a laboratory staff to let Dimitri and Petrov work there.