Chapter 10 Losham
LOSHAM
Losham sat in his garden chair and looked at the bougainvillea growing along the far wall, its pink and purple colors vivid against the lush green background.
The air carried the heavy sweetness of frangipani mixed with the saltier undertone that the ocean breeze delivered, and the sun wasn't scorching yet.
It was an oasis of peace and tranquility on the island that was anything but.
Rami emerged from the house carrying a tray with a French press, a cup, and a stack of folded newspapers.
He set the tray on the side table. "Good morning, my lord."
"Rami, we've discussed this."
"Good morning, Losham." Rami corrected himself without missing a beat.
Losham waved his hand in the direction Rami had arrived from. "Go get yourself a cup and sit with me."
They went through the same ritual nearly every morning and evening, but Rami always brought just one cup or one wine glass and waited for an explicit invitation to join Losham.
It suited him well because sometimes he didn't want company, especially when the clan's compeller called him at night.
Rami returned with an additional mug, pulled the other chair closer, and sat.
The guy was the perfect companion, smart and loyal, and if he were a female, Losham would have gladly made Rami his partner in life.
But he needed a capable assistant more than he needed a life partner, and females couldn't be employed in such positions on the island.
He also wasn't attracted to males, which was fortunate because such proclivities went against Mortdh's teachings and carried the death penalty on the island.
Rami, on the other hand, was exclusively attracted to males, and Losham pitied him for his enforced celibacy.
He was most likely not the only one with such preferences, but seeking out others like him was just too dangerous on the island.
It had been so much easier for Rami when they had been living in California.
It had been easier for Losham as well.
The island was a pressure cooker that demanded that he constantly perform.
With his brothers, he had to be the smart but accommodating leader who could get along with every one of them, and with the clan's compeller on the phone, he had to perform compliance because he had no choice.
With Rami, he could be himself, drink his coffee and read the paper, and not worry about projecting an image.
The coffee was good. The beans had come from the same shipment as the newspaper, part of the regular supply run that kept the island provisioned with everything from ammunition to imported cheese.
The logistics of maintaining a self-contained military installation in the middle of the Indian Ocean were complicated, and Losham had gained a new appreciation for the complexity of it since he'd been tasked with it.
His next procurement should be several talented programmers to computerize that system and make it easier to maintain.
Losham unfolded the newspaper and scanned the headlines.
There was one active war going on, and several internal conflicts that had turned bloody.
All good news, the desired results of the Brotherhood's efforts.
The one troubling article involved a bank where the Brotherhood kept some of its money.
He made a mental note to transfer the funds elsewhere and, while he was at it, to siphon off some of it to his private stash.
Come to think of it, he could take it all and blame the loss on the bank folding.
Smiling at the fortunate turn of events, Losham sipped his coffee and turned to the business section, but his attention wavered.
There was a sensation in the back of his mind, a low-grade discomfort that had bothered him since he'd woken up, like a hint of a memory or a thread of thought that remained out of reach.
Something was off.
He picked up his phone and checked his emails. Three were from various department heads regarding nonurgent matters. One was from the harbor master confirming the next supply ship's arrival schedule. Two from his brothers.
The first was from Hazok, requesting an update on the excavation timeline. Losham typed a response that was noncommittal but made it clear that he was on top of things.
The second was from Kolhood.
Losham read it twice because Kolhood's messages were never just about what they said on the surface.
His brother was no simpleton, even though he sometimes sounded like one.
He hadn't been put in charge of the army just because he was Navuh's son and it had been his turn in the never-ending position rotation.
He'd earned the rank by cunning and outmaneuvering the other brothers who had vied for the position.
Kolhood was requesting a council meeting. The stated purpose was to "discuss the ongoing situation."
Losham sighed and set the phone on the table. "Kolhood wants another council meeting."
"When?"
"He didn't specify. He's leaving it to me, which is generous of him and means that he wants to appear collaborative rather than confrontational." Losham picked up his coffee and drank, watching the steam curl above the rim.
The council meetings were verbal sparring matches, and each one required more energy than the last. Kolhood was smart, ambitious, and impatient. The other two brothers took their cues from him, which was regrettable. Losham needed to get them on his side.
The good news was that they weren't trying to kill him yet, but that was a temporary situation.
"Kolhood will probably demand the mansion be sealed again," Losham said. "He doesn't know what our father hid there, but he knows that he doesn't want me to find it. I'm surprised that he didn't demand to have his men do the excavation so he could get his hands on whatever treasure was found."
"He doesn't want to appear interested, but he has people watching the mansion and probably among the crews."
"I know." Losham put his cup down.
Once the chests with the five immortals in stasis were found, Dave would need to thrall those watchers and the excavation crew to forget what they saw. The question was how to get those chests off the island and the clan's compeller off his back.
Losham was squeezed from two sides, with the clan pulling his strings on one side and his brothers pressuring him on the other, waiting for their father to re-emerge from the harem, which was not going to happen.
Losham still didn't know how he would handle it when it became clear that Navuh was not coming back.
All he was doing was buying time and hoping his brothers would not only become accustomed to the new cooperative-style system but also realize that it was better than living under their father's yoke or killing each other in a quest for absolute power.
"Schedule the meeting for Monday," Losham said. "That gives me the weekend to prepare. It also gives Kolhood enough time to rally the other brothers, but he has probably already done that."
Rami refilled his cup from the French press. "Do you think he's trying to turn the younger brothers against you?"
"I know he is." Losham lifted his cup. "He's not missing a trick to gain influence."
"You make it sound like you and he are running for election."
"That's because we are. Our father ruled by a so-called divine right, which was not divine and was barely a right. Navuh was the son of a powerful god and a simple human woman, but he was blessed with an unparalleled power of compulsion that he dressed up in religious authority."
Rami nodded. "You have Dave."
"Dave is not nearly as strong as my father, and I don't have my father's charisma.
What I have, however, are superior organizational and strategic skills that none of my brothers possess.
I'm also not power hungry, and I'm willing to share the throne.
The question is whether they are willing to do the same. "
Losham probably didn't have anything of his father because Navuh hadn't sired him.
It was probably some human worker who resembled Navuh.
Losham wanted to believe that wasn't true, and that what the harem maid had told him about Areana and Navuh's exclusivity had been a recent development.
Perhaps Navuh had sired children with the other harem ladies in the past, but then got tired of them and wanted only one.
On the other hand, did he really want Navuh's genes?
Navuh was powerful, but he was also unstable and prone to explosive temper tantrums. Losham enjoyed his analytical mind and inner calm, so perhaps it was better that Navuh wasn't his real father.
Rami didn't bother to challenge any of the statements because both were true.
Kolhood led the army, a position that was advantageous in the power struggle. He would not be content to be second to anyone for long.
The arrangement they had, an uneasy power-sharing where Losham handled politics and strategy while Kolhood commanded the military, would probably not last. It worked for now because the alternative was open conflict, and Kolhood still believed that Navuh's return was imminent.
The moment that was no longer a factor, the clock would start ticking on Losham's life expectancy.
Losham picked up the newspaper again but didn't read it.
His eyes moved over the headlines without processing them, his mind occupied by the realization that had been crystallizing over the past weeks, sharpened by his father's emails to the brothers and brought into focus by the collapse in the basement.
Navuh's endgame had never been preservation. It had been destruction.
The booby traps in the basement were not defensive measures designed to protect a treasure until it could be safely retrieved. They were designed to destroy whatever was in that chamber so none of the brothers could claim it. In a way, it made sense if none of them were actually his sons.
The email that Navuh had sent, triggered by whatever dead man's switch he'd built into the system, had been crafted to sow discord among the so-called brothers, to pit them against each other, and to ensure that no one ruled over the island in his absence.
He preferred it all going to hell than someone else enjoying the fruits of his labor.
Navuh had been a force of nature that moved in one direction, consuming everything in its path, and when the path ended, he had rigged the road behind him to collapse.
The question was what Losham could build on the rubble.
The Brotherhood had over ten thousand warriors, supply chains that spanned the globe, networks that generated billions, and intelligence operations embedded in governments, corporations, and criminal organizations on nearly every continent.
It was the most powerful non-state entity in the world.
Under competent leadership, the Brotherhood could keep growing and working on destabilizing all state entities until it remained the only nucleus of power on Earth. But that required time and patience.
As long as the brothers believed that Navuh would return, as long as they measured every decision against what their father would have wanted, the Brotherhood would remain tethered to his vision.
Navuh had wanted the world to kneel, and he would have burned it to ashes if that wasn't happening quickly enough.
The brothers needed to understand that when humanity finally fell into the chaos that the Brotherhood was patiently cultivating, there would be enough of the wreckage for each brother to rule over.
The problem was that they were too deeply indoctrinated, too committed to the theology of Mortdh and the divine mission that Navuh had manufactured to justify everything he did. They would resist any departure from orthodoxy.
Kolhood was not an ideologue, though. He was pragmatic and cared more about power than Navuh's manufactured religion. If Losham could get him on his side and agree to joint rulership, the others could be managed.
The problem was that Kolhood was the least susceptible to Dave's compulsion, and Losham needed to start planting in his brothers' minds the idea that Navuh was a hindrance rather than an asset.
Dave could still be helpful in that regard, even if his compulsion and thralling ability was not as effective on Kolhood as it was on the others. Dave could gather intelligence by reading the surface thoughts of Kolhood's supporters and perhaps even Kolhood himself.
The enhanced soldiers were the most valuable intelligence asset on the island, and Losham intended to maximize their utility.