It'sours now.
They swept through the command center. A room full of monitors showing feeds from cameras placed all over the island. Security systems. Communications equipment. And controls for everything from the fountain in front of the hotel to the generators that powered the island.
Stand down, was the command they issued to the officer in charge.Everything continues as normal.
They needed everyone to keep doing their jobs before they decided what changes they wanted to make.
Most importantly, they didn't want anyone reviving Navuh.
His life force was further fading.
Good.He was a monster.
What are we?
We are transcendent.
We are God.
8
TULA
Areana's pleading for Navuh's life acted like a slap, or perhaps like a system reboot, startling Tula out of her shock and confusion. Suddenly, her mind was back online and running not only coherently but with extra clarity that was nearly blinding in its intensity.
"We have to go back." The words came out garbled through the regulator that one of the divers was showing her how to use, and she yanked it from her mouth. "We have to go back for the others."
Yamanu turned to her. "What are you talking about?"
"The ladies are not safe now that Navuh is gone! We have to go back for them and get them out of the harem. We have to take them with us."
He shook his head. "Tula?—"
"No!" She grabbed his arm, her fingers digging into the neoprene of his wetsuit. "You don't understand. Without Navuh, without him keeping everyone in line, chaos will erupt. The firstplace they will go to exact revenge for however they have been wronged will be the harem."
One of the other divers made a hand signal she didn't understand, but Yamanu responded with a sharp gesture that clearly meant 'wait.'
"Tula, listen to me." His voice carried that careful patience of someone trying to talk down a panicking woman. "We came for you. We've already exceeded the mission parameters by also taking Areana and Navuh. That's three instead of one. We don't have the equipment or the manpower to?—"
"Then let me go back and arrange the others for departure. You can deliver Areana and Navuh to the submarine and come back for us."
"Absolutely not." His patience seemed to be wearing thin, or rather evaporating. "You can't scale that rope on your own. You have no training, and if you fall and die, Wonder will skin me alive."
"I'm not leaving them." The words came out with the sort of conviction that few had dared to argue with before. She was crystal clear about what had to be done. "If we leave them, they will be torn to shreds, over and over again, because they will heal only to be ripped apart again. Do you want that on your conscience?"
With a groan, Yamanu's head dropped back. "This is insane. If we go back, we will be killed. There is no way the immortal guards won't come to investigate after the human guards report the suicide. Thank the merciful Fates I was able to shroud Areana's fall and Navuh's subsequent jump."
She was glad he said we, which meant he was planning to go with her. She would need him to shroud the human staff of the harem to pretend that the ladies were still there, at least until they were all safely extracted.
"They won't report my death until morning. My life is not important enough." Yamanu seemed to be starting to waver, so she pressed on. "Besides, if they are still there, you can thrall them to forget that they saw anything at all. We don't need to worry about Areana anymore, so the entire charade is superfluous."
Yamanu shook his head. "What if they've already reported your so-called suicide? Whoever is in charge might try to contact Navuh to inform him, and when he doesn't respond, immortal soldiers will storm the harem."
It was possible, but not likely. "Navuh doesn't delegate. Nothing happens on this island without him approving it. Your team can bring back the Zodiac, and we can load most of the ladies on it. No one will shoot at them without getting Navuh's authorization, and they won't be able to get it because he won't answer his phone. By the time they send someone over to see why he's not responding and discover that he's nowhere to be found, we will be long gone. Then the chaos will start, and his commanders will start to argue and probably fight each other for control."
"They'll suspect we were involved and come after us."
Yamanu meant the clan when he said 'us,' but he still hadn't internalized what she'd just told him.
