"You are asking me to help you dismantle everything I have spent my life building in exchange for some comforts. I don't think it's an equal exchange."
"We are offering you your life, Navuh," Annani said. "Do you assign so little value to it?"
Did they think him a fool?
Annani was supposed to not underestimate him, but she was doing so blatantly and foolishly. How did she expect him to take her seriously after this silly game she and her son were playing?
He turned to look at her. "I value my life greatly. But I know that your threats are empty. Areana told me about your secret communications over the past two years and the lengths to which you were willing to go to save her. She will never forgiveyou if you put me in stasis, which means that you will never do that."
The expression on Annani's face told him everything he needed to know. She looked like a thief caught with her hand in the treasure chest.
"I admit that threatening you with stasis is not realistic, but I can have you spend the rest of your life in a small apartment in our dungeon. It is well-appointed and comfortable enough for me to have my sister live there with you, but while she will be able to come and go, you will be confined to those six hundred or so square feet, with no windows, and no contact with the outside world."
He heard the truth in her tone and saw it in her eyes. "What do you want to know?"
"Everything about the island's operations," Kian said. "Command structure, the names of those in charge, security protocols, the status of your enhancement project, and how many enhanced soldiers you've created. I want to know what their capabilities are and how to best neutralize them. In addition, I want to know everything about your global network, financial and political, your contacts in the drug cartels, and your weapons suppliers."
They were asking for the keys to his kingdom, the accumulated work of five thousand years. Everything he had built with painstaking planning and attention to detail. In exchange, they offered him a gilded cage and the occasional visit with sons who despised him and wouldn't want to see him even if he promised them coffers full of gold.
It was not a good deal, and he wasn't going to take it.
They also didn't know about the tremendous leverage he possessed, but given the lousy deal they were offering him, he wasn't ready to reveal that. He would only use his ace after he had exhausted all of his other negotiation tools.
"Do you really think that I have all of that information stored in my head? I would need access to my laptop, but it is either in the harem or one of my sons has it. Good thing that the encryption is impenetrable."
"There is no such thing," Kian said. "We have people who can crack any protective barriers. Don't you have remote access to your information?"
A spark of an idea ignited in Navuh's mind, but as he examined it more closely, he realized that there was nothing to it. They would never allow him near a computer with access to the outside world.
"Why would I? I never leave the island, and remote access is never secure. I need that laptop. Maybe you can arrange another rescue mission to retrieve it."
Kian exchanged another glance with Annani. "Let's start with what you don't need your laptop for. The enhancement project. What is the status on that?"
Navuh allowed himself a moment of internal calculation. How much could he reveal without compromising the Brotherhood? How much had Areana told them?
She didn't know much, but it was enough to provide them with a good picture. Besides, they had the shaman, and he knew precisely what was going on with that.
"The project had mixed results," he said. "The enhancement came at a great cost. We lost many of the volunteers, and those who survived suffer from mental issues. As you surely know, the enhanced soldiers rebelled and destroyed half the island. Their rebellion was quashed, and I was tempted to abandon the project, but I decided to give it another try and brought in new scientists from Russia to design new protocols." He leveled his gaze at Kian. "But I'm sure you already know all that from interrogating the shaman. I foolishly allowed him access to the program because of his ability to see future betrayals."
Given Kian's surprised expression, that was news to him.
Was the guy an amateur?
The first thing he should have done was to interrogate everyone he had brought from the island. He might have assumed that the ladies knew nothing because they were just concubines, locked away and isolated, and the men who shared their confinement were the same, but didn't he know that assumption was the mother of all failures?
"I have a meeting with Elias tomorrow, so I will ask him about his impressions of the enhancement program, but since I'm here with you right now, why won't you tell me how many you have created?"
"I created many, but only eight are still alive. The others were terminated because they were too unstable and dangerous."
"Where are the eight now?" Annani asked.
"Hopefully still in the laboratory. Releasing them would be a grave mistake."
"What a shit show," Kian murmured under his breath. "I'm starting to think that we will have no choice but to conquer that damn island just so we can retrieve your laptop and contain the ticking bomb you've created."
Navuh would have shrugged if he could. "I agree. I didn't plan on jumping off the cliff after my mate and abandoning my work, and I fear what will happen on the island without me."
Frustration was building in Kian's expression, a suspicion that Navuh was being deliberately evasive. Which, of course, he was, but not in regard to the eight enhanced soldiers.
