"Indeed."
"Wonder is so excited. She and Tula will probably want to live close to each other, but since there are no available houses in this section of the village, that is not possible unless Wonder and Anandur want to move to another section."
"I'll leave those matters to Ingrid to resolve."
Kian shifted his position, apparently impatient to get to the real reason for his visit. He had not come here to give her updates about what was happening on the Doomers' island or the housing accommodations for the newcomers.
"What about Navuh and Areana?" she asked after Ogidu had served them tea, and they were each holding a cup.
"The apartment in the keep's dungeon is being retrofitted with additional security measures," Kian said. "The clinic in the keep as well. Everything will be ready by the time Navuh and Areana arrive." He took a sip from his tea and then put it down on the coffee table. "I've spoken with Kalugal about building a house forthem in the village, and he's happy to do so for Areana, but he doesn't want Navuh anywhere near him."
"I see." Annani kept her voice neutral despite being upset about her nephew's response.
"I'll come up with another solution," Kian said. "But you cannot tell Areana about the house in the village for them or what I plan to do with Navuh."
"I gave her my word, Kian."
"I know, but your word was contingent on Navuh's cooperation," Kian said. "We need leverage, Mother. If he believes he has a path to a comfortable life, he won't talk. He needs to believe that I intend to put him in stasis, or at best, leave him and Areana in the dungeon apartment under constant guard. If he believes that, he might be willing to negotiate better terms for him and Areana. We need him to give us information on the island's defenses, his long-term plans, the enhanced soldiers program, and all the other schemes the Brotherhood is involved in. This is of crucial importance to us."
Annani closed her eyes. She understood that they needed to know everything Navuh knew, and that the only way to extract that information was through leverage.
"I understand, but I do not like this," she said. "I don't want Areana to suffer needlessly."
"Neither do I." Kian lifted his cup again. "But we have to prioritize the safety of our people and possibly the whole of humanity. If Navuh's cooperation gives us the information we need to prevent future attacks, which will no doubt save countless lives, then we have to do whatever is necessary to secure his cooperation."
Annani was no stranger to difficult choices, to sacrificing personal desires for the greater good, but this was about her sister, and everything in her rebelled against causing Areana any more grief.
Still, Kian was right.
"I want to be at the keep when Areana arrives," she said. "Perhaps we could meet in the penthouse? I know you do not want me anywhere near the dungeon, although I have visited it often enough."
"That shouldn't be a problem, provided that Areana is willing to leave Navuh's side to see you." He leveled his eyes at her. "I don't want you anywhere near him."
"That is fine. Areana will want to see me," Annani said with more confidence than she felt.
A critically wounded truelove mate trumped a sister any day. If Khiann was fighting for his life, Annani would not leave his side, even to see a sister she had not seen in five thousand years.
"What are you going to do with the other prisoners currently held in the dungeon? Where will they go?"
Kian's expression grew carefully blank. "They've been mostly cleared out, and we are in the process of clearing the remaining ones. I don't want anyone in the dungeon when Navuh arrives."
"Cleared?" Annani tilted her head. "What does that mean exactly?"
"Do you really want to know?"
"Actually, I do."
She was never one to shy away from uncomfortable subjects.
Kian studied her for a moment, then nodded. "As you know, we captured several enhanced Doomers when we raided their cells to prevent the terror attacks they planned to commit in Los Angeles. We also had regular Doomers from the same cells who answered to the enhanced ones. And there were the prisoners from that pedophile ring we broke up—some Doomers, but mostly humans."
"That sounds like a very full dungeon."
"It was. Those who deserved death received it," Kian said matter-of-factly. "Those Doomers who might be salvageable were put in stasis and stored in the crypt."
It had been her wish to keep their enemies in stasis instead of executing them. She dreamt, perhaps naively, that one day they might be safely rehabilitated.
Some viewed it as mercy. Others as a weakness. She saw it as preventing the extinction of their kind. There were not many descendants of the gods left on Earth. In her long-term view, it was better to preserve even the rotten apples than to one day have none.
