"I don’t know if he has. He didn’t say." Rami hesitated. "There is something else that is not as it should be."
"Go on, Rami. Just say it."
"When the harem guards went looking for Lord Navuh, they checked the ladies' quarters, but they weren't in their rooms or any of the spaces they usually frequent. The guards searched everywhere they could think of, and the ladies were nowhere to be found."
Losham set down his coffee cup. "Is anything missing from their rooms?"
"Hakum says that all of their belongings are still there. He started talking nonsense about aliens beaming them up to their spaceship. Apparently, the alien abductions lore claims that thebest time to kidnap Earthlings is during the new moon, which is when the moon is almost invisible, like it was last night."
Losham shook his head. "Hakum needs his head checked."
The most likely explanation was that Navuh had finally snapped and killed all the harem ladies and was now hiding in his office.
The question was what he had done with the bodies. The easiest way to dispose of them would have been to throw them over the cliff. Navuh could have compelled the guards to do it and then promptly forget that they had even seen the carnage.
Why he would murder his entire harem was anybody's guess, but then madness did not follow logic.
Losham felt a slight pang of pain at the thought of his mother's life ending in such a cruel way. He didn't remember her or even know her name, but she had been part of Navuh's harem, one of his ladies, and it had given Losham a measure of comfort knowing that she was treated well, or so he hoped. Navuh liked to brag about all the luxuries he provided his ladies with.
He'd better go to the mansion and try to salvage the situation. If anyone could talk his father down from an episode of madness, it was he. Someone also needed to do damage control and find a cover story for what had happened to the ladies.
Navuh's reputation had to be protected, and a psychotic episode of such magnitude would ruin it.
Regrettably, an alien abduction story wasn't the solution.
19
DAVE
They sat in Navuh's office, all eight of them, and monitored the island through the wall of screens.
Eight bodies in one room should have felt crowded, but they weren't really separate anymore. They were Dave. One consciousness distributed across eight nervous systems, eight pairs of eyes all seeing the same thing from slightly different angles, eight brains processing information as one.
It was magnificent.
The largest of their bodies occupied Navuh's chair, leaning back in the expensive Italian leather while the others arranged themselves around the office. Some stood. Two sat next to the table with the chess set in the corner, others on the couch and two armchairs. One leaned against the wall near the hidden exit that they had discovered hours ago when they had first taken control of this space.
They had locked the office door from the inside, then explored every inch of Navuh's domain. There was a private bathroom, which was a plus since they were still biological beings withbiological needs. Hunger was one of those needs, and it would need to be addressed soon, but they had other matters to take care of, which were more urgent.
They had also discovered a concealed weapons cache and a safe that they could not crack because it required Lord Navuh’s thumbprint. Thankfully, the secret passage to Navuh's personal quarters hadn’t even been locked.
On the monitors, they watched the confusion of the household staff spread.
The servants were clustered in nervous groups, whispering, and in the hallway outside this very office, Hakum knocked on the locked door.
"My lord?" His voice came through both the door and the surveillance audio simultaneously. "My lord, are you in there? Please say something. We are all worried."
They remained silent, watching his face on the monitor. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and his lower lip trembled as he knocked again.
Perfect.
Through one pair of their eyes, they glanced at the small vial on Navuh's desk. The enhancement drug that Petrov and Dmitri were now manufacturing more of in the laboratory. They had compelled them both, leaving them to work and make what they needed. The drug helped with the jitters, the tremors that sometimes rippled through their separate bodies and collective consciousness when they pushed too hard and tried to control too many minds at once. It sharpened their thoughts, made the integration smoother, and kept the eight bodies from developing conflicting impulses.
They would need more. Much more. Especially if they were going to maintain control over the entire island.
Another knock at the door, more insistent this time. Hakum had gathered reinforcements—they could see them on the monitor. Two soldiers were flanking him.
"My lord, we're coming in," one of the guards said with a voice that sounded full of authority. "We are concerned for your safety."
