Once Kian stepped inside and the outer door closed behind him, there was a pause before the interior door opened, which was a deliberate security measure. If Navuh managed to overpower a visitor or the doctor and pushed through the inner door behind them, he would be trapped in the antechamber.
Kian took a deep breath, then another, calming the storm raging inside him. If he walked in there angry, Navuh would exploit it. The guy was a master manipulator who had perfected hiscraft over the millennia. He knew how to read people, find weaknesses, and twist their emotions against them to use as leverage.
As the interior door clicked and swung inward, Kian stepped through and found Bridget waiting for him outside her office.
"Good afternoon, Kian."
"Same to you, doctor. How is our guest behaving?"
"Better than expected." Bridget crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the doorframe. "He's learned that being polite works better than being a demanding jerk. He says 'please' and 'thank you' now. It's almost charming in a deeply unsettling way." Bridget smiled. "He's like a child learning that he gets treated better when he attempts civilized behavior. Positive reinforcement works wonders."
Kian didn't like this development. Navuh was a cruel tyrant and a manipulative bastard. "In his case, I'm all in for negative reinforcement."
"There is also that. He knows that I can activate his wrist cuff with a voice command and that the Guardians monitoring the surveillance feed can trigger it remotely."
Kian had given instructions to slap a cuff on Navuh as soon as he had regained minimal movement ability. The guy was healing faster than Bridget had anticipated, and Kian didn't want any surprises.
"What's his physical status?" he asked.
"Improving." Bridget pulled up something on her tablet and turned it so he could see. "He has command of his hands and arms, but they're still weak. He can feed himself, which is a bigimprovement and which he rightfully considers a major victory. His legs have some sensation returning, but he can't move them yet."
"When can we transfer him to a cell?"
"Not until he can relieve himself without help, and that will take a while."
"That's a shame."
"Tell me about it." She sighed. "I want to go home."
While Bridget took care of Navuh, she and Turner were staying in Turner's old condo. It was a nice place and newly remodeled, but after living in the village, no one wanted to spend too much time in the urban sprawl.
Kian motioned at the door to Navuh's room. "Can you open it for me? I need to speak with him."
Bridget arched a brow. "Where are your bodyguards?"
"In the penthouse with my mother. I want to speak to Navuh alone."
"The Guardians are watching the feed, and I don't recommend telling them to turn it off."
"That's fine. I just don't want anyone in the room with us. He will be less guarded with only me there, and the cuff responds to my voice commands just as well as it does to yours, so I'm not defenseless. Besides, Navuh is an immortal like me. He's not a powerful Kra-ell like Igor."
Bridget studied him for a moment. "He could have been enhanced with the same drugs he used on his soldiers, but I ran tests, and he wasn't."
It hadn't occurred to Kian that Navuh could have done such a thing because the guy was too smart to play around with dangerous drugs on himself.
As the door opened with a pneumatic hiss, Kian stepped inside and looked at his adversary with what he hoped was an impassive expression.
"Good afternoon, Navuh." He pulled out the single chair in the room and sat down. "I see that you are doing well."
The guy was propped up at an angle that let him survey the room like a king.
"As well as can be expected." Navuh's voice was smooth, almost pleasant. "To what do I owe the honor of your solo visit?"
The guy didn't miss much. "I came for a chat."
"By all means." Navuh spread his hands in a gesture of magnanimity, though the movement was stiff, limited. "I'm looking forward to chatting with you."
Kian chuckled. "I doubt that."
