"Still, they will be severely crippled," Kian said. "But wouldn't the EMP trigger the booby-traps?"
The enthusiasm in the room chilled instantly as if he'd poured a bucket of cold water over them, and everyone, including Turner, turned to William.
"This is a viable concern," William said, and Kian's heart sank. "We do not know what triggers the booby-traps, so I can't answer this question with any level of certainty." William paused, his forehead furrowing. "In normal circumstances, it would be reasonable to assume that cutting the power would trigger the booby-trap. Even basic alarm systems are triggered by loss of power. But that doesn't track in this case because power interruptions on an island in the Indian Ocean are not rare occurrences. You have monsoons to contend with, as well as isolation and difficulties in maintaining the grid in a remote location with such an extreme exposure to salty air and moisture. Even assuming they have standby generators, I would rule out power failure as a trigger. In short, it's a risk, but it's moderate."
There were too many ifs and maybes for Kian's liking, but at least they had a semblance of a plan.
Leaning forward, he leveled his eyes at Turner. "Do you have access to an EMP device of that magnitude?"
"I can probably get one," Turner said. "The contractors I work with have access to things that aren't supposed to even exist, and they'll find it for me for the right price. I'll need forty-eight hours to arrange for the device, and the means to deploy it. Do I have a go-ahead, and what's my budget?"
"Go ahead." Kian didn't hesitate. "I don't care how much it costs. It wouldn't be more than the submarine we got to extract Tula, and this time the extraction involves my mother's truelove mate."
"It would be a major blow to the Brotherhood," Onegus said. "This could be much bigger than just extracting Khiann and the other four. We might be able to conquer the island."
It was tempting, but the Brotherhood still had thousands of soldiers who were all equipped with assault rifles that wouldn't be affected by the EMP.
"Too ambitious," Kian said.
"Do we have a current count of how many warriors we are talking about?" Turner asked.
"More than ten thousand, according to Lokan," Onegus said. "But we don't know how many are deployed around the world and how many remain on the island."
"That's not an infiltration target." Turner leaned back in his chair. "That's an invasion target. Even with their infrastructure down, this operation would be against fantastically bad odds."
"We don't have to fight the warriors." Kian rapped his fingers on the conference table. "Navuh has a secret escape submarine that no one on the island knows about. It's hidden in an underwater cove and was supposed to be a last resort means of escaping the island with Areana. For that purpose, both his harem residence and his mansion are connected to the cove with a tunnel that terminates on one side at his apartment at the harem and on the other at his mansion. If we can access that cove, we can access the tunnel and reach the enclosure in the mansion without anyone on the surface being any the wiser, provided that all the surveillance equipment is not operating, which the EMP will take care of for us."
"How large is that cove and the underwater access to it?" Turner asked.
Kian hadn't asked for specifics, but from what Areana and later Eluheed had told him, he deduced that it wasn't big. "It's just enough to fit a very small, four-person submarine. We will need to send divers."
Turner let out a breath. "Given that the entry point is underwater, we'd need to get close with a submarine and deploy a divers' team large enough to handle the enclosure and the digging out of the bodies, while also dealing with whatever resistance they encounter en route, while in the basement, and as they retreat."
"The extraction itself is the real challenge," William said. "We know that the enclosure is filled with sand, and we have a good idea of the state of bodies after five thousand years in stasis. They are as fragile as old paper. Navuh probably didn't risk moving them out of the chests and buried them in the sand inside them. We shouldn't attempt it either, which meanshauling five heavy chests, and encasing them in waterproof material for transport underwater."
Kian stifled a groan. This was shaping up to be the most difficult mission they had ever attempted, and he wasn't sure they could pull it off.
"First, we need to disable the booby-traps," Roni added. "Or none of the rest matters. Then we have to breach the enclosure, which, according to Navuh, is next to impossible. Even if we get the codes from Navuh, by whatever means, they will be useless because nothing will work after the EMP fries all electronics on the island."
"Not necessarily," William said. "The team can rig the enclosure with a laptop and battery power, which they will bring with them." He rubbed a hand over his chin. "I will probably need to be there. Troubleshooting remotely while running against the clock is not a good idea."
The room fell silent, with the others realizing the same thing Kian had a moment ago.
They had an outline, a framework of a plan. It could work, and it was better than anything Kian had hoped for when the meeting began, but it all hinged on getting more information out of Navuh.
"We need the technical specifications of the enclosure," Turner said, voicing what everyone was thinking. "And the exact type of booby-traps. What triggers them. How to disable them. The layout of the enclosure and how to breach it. Everything."
"Navuh won't give us any of that unless we agree to his terms," Onegus said.
Kian smiled grimly. "We're going to compel Losham to stop the breach attempts. Then we're going to detonate an EMP that will set the island back decades. Navuh's leverage that Losham will accidentally destroy Khiann will evaporate overnight. So, we'll have some time to let him stew."
"Making him stew is not going to work," Roni said. "Navuh has been playing these games for a very long time. He will just dig in and wait us out."
"Then we do to him what we have done to Igor. We drug him to weaken him, and my mother enters his mind to retrieve everything he's trying to hide. If need be, she can have Mia enhance her ability."
The others exchanged glances.
"Why not start with that?" Roni asked. "The Clan Mother can get the codes from Navuh."
