Chapter 16 Kian #2
He hated operating based on visions. Even Syssi's foretellings, which had proven remarkably accurate, were frustratingly vague about timeframes. Was Tula pregnant now? Would she be pregnant soon? Had she been pregnant in the past and lost the child?
"How did the vision come about?" Kalugal asked, pulling him out of his thoughts. Kian realized that he had forgotten to mention that. "Esag was carving a figurine of Wonder, but kept getting Tula instead. That's when the vision found him."
"He knew Tula?" Kalugal asked.
Kian nodded. "As a child, but he recognized her as an adult. She looks a lot like Wonder, just smaller, and with blue eyes instead of green."
Kalugal leaned back. "Then it's not random. Tula, consciously or not, connected with someone she knew would help."
"That's speculation."
"Is it?" Kalugal arched a brow. "I think Tula reached out, consciously or not, in her desperate need, and was somehow connected to the only person she knew who was open to receive her call."
Kian wanted to dismiss that as mumbo jumbo, but Kalugal's words resonated with him.
"You might be right," he said. "But we still need confirmation before acting."
"I agree." Kalugal smiled, looking satisfied that Kian hadn't tried to refute his hypothesizing. "But we should be ready to move quickly once we have it."
"How quickly?" Phinas asked. "Realistically, how fast could we mount an extraction once we have everything we need?"
Kian considered. "If we had all the resources in place? Forty-eight hours from confirmation to execution. But we don't have the resources in place. The submarine alone—"
"Forget the submarine," Kalugal interrupted. "We're thinking too rigidly. Carol's extraction worked, so we're trying to replicate it. But circumstances have changed. We have advantages now that we didn't have then."
"Such as?"
"Proximity, for one. We're close enough to provide rapid support if needed. We also have better intelligence about the island's current state."
"That's useful," Jade said. "But information isn't the same as access, especially stealth access. We don't want Tula's disappearance linked to us. We are not ready to take the Brotherhood head-on yet, and we need to protect Areana."
Kalugal turned to face her. "We know that supply boats arrive almost daily, and construction crews are brought in and sent away regularly. There are plenty of opportunities in that."
Kian scoffed. "We covered that. You and Lokan both have said that every person stepping foot on the island is checked."
"Who said anything about setting foot on the island? We can stay on the boat, be the operating crew."
That was an angle Kian hadn't considered. "Okay, but how will Tula get to the boat?"
Kalugal shrugged. "I don't have all the answers. Figure it out."
Kian shook his head. "Are you joining Anandur's comedy club?"
"I might." Kalugal grinned. "Here is another one. The rebellion did more damage than they're publicly admitting. The harem was flooded. It has been repaired, but the foundation is compromised. Another earthquake, even a minor one, could cause serious problems."
"Can we trigger an earthquake?" Anandur asked.
Everyone looked at him.
"What? That's a legitimate question."
"No," Kian said. "We cannot trigger an earthquake."
"But we could take advantage of one if it happened naturally," Phinas said.
Kian glared at him. "One more clown for Anandur's club."
"We need something that would provide cover for an extraction," Jade said.
"We could trigger explosions on another part of the island to divert everyone's attention from the harem.
We can drop a couple of paragliders on the ground for Tula and her partner, and they can paraglide to a boat we will have parked some distance away from the island.
" She turned to Phinas. "What's the range of those things? "
Phinas pursed his lips. "They can glide all the way to this island if they know what they are doing and the air current is favorable."
Kian rubbed his temples. The possibilities were multiplying faster than he could properly evaluate them. And all of this assumed Tula was actually pregnant and wanted to leave.
"The problem is delivering the equipment. There is a difference between delivering a tiny communication device with a drone the size of a dragonfly, and two massive gliders."
Kalugal returned to smoothing his hand over his goatee, something he usually did when deep thinking.
"We can't deliver the paraglider, but we can deliver instructions on how to build them.
It shouldn't be too difficult, even with limited resources.
All they need is a durable synthetic fabric that resists tearing for the wing and high-strength synthetic fibers.
" The spark in his eyes indicated that he was getting excited by his own idea.
"That way, no one could be blamed other than the people who escaped. "
Kian shook his head. "They would be shot out of the air before they made it fifty yards from the island."
Kalugal deflated. "Right. I forgot about that."