Losham arched a brow. There were no marks on the young human. If he had been beaten only a day before, he would have worn the evidence of it today.
Petrov cleared his throat. "If I may, Lord Losham."
Losham turned to him with a faint smile. "By all means."
"The warriors who attacked were associates of Tarik. They had a grudge, and they acted on it. They weren't trying to kill Dimitri right away. They were toying with him, pushing him around, and enjoying seeing his terror. That's why it seemed as if he was able to defend himself against them."
"There were witnesses who reported that Dimitri was fighting with immortal strength and speed." Losham kept his gaze on Petrov while watching Dimitri in his peripheral vision.
Petrov waved a dismissive hand. "The witnesses were simple men, and they were not close enough to see what was actually happening. Workers don't understand combat dynamics. What they saw was a man desperate to protect the woman he loves, fueled by adrenaline and terror. Adrenaline does incredible things to the human body. There are documented cases of humans displaying extraordinary physical feats under extreme stress."
"Lifting vehicles off trapped children," Losham said dryly. "Yes, I've heard those stories."
"It's not just stories. It's documented neurochemistry. The fight-or-flight response floods the body with cortisol and adrenaline, temporarily overriding pain signals and increasing muscular output. Combined with the fact that the warriors were toying with him rather than trying to kill him right away, the result could easily look like supernatural ability to an untrained observer."
It was a competent explanation. Well-rehearsed, scientifically grounded, and almost plausible.
Losham didn't buy a word of it.
He shifted his attention to Dimitri, meeting his eyes directly and testing whether the human's mind would yield to thralling.
He reached out with his mind, pushing gently against the edges of Dimitri's thoughts, and met a wall.
It wasn't the panicked resistance of someone who knew they were being probed, and it wasn't the practiced shields of a trained operative. It was just a blank, smooth surface that his mental touch slid off of, like water off polished stone. A natural barrier, dense and impenetrable.
Losham withdrew without showing his surprise.
Natural mental barriers weren't unheard of, especially in certain human populations. The Russians seemed particularly prone to them, probably due to some combination of genetics, temperament, and the cultural conditioning of growing up in a society where trusting authority was a survival liability. The smarter the human, the more likely they were to possess such defenses. And Dimitri Volkov was very smart.
The barrier didn't prove anything. It also didn't disprove anything, which was the problem.
"Dr.Volkov," Losham said, leaning forward. "I'll ask you directly, and I would appreciate a direct answer. Have you been experimenting with the enhancement drugs? Modifying the formula for human use?"
Dimitri met his gaze without flinching. "No."
"You're certain."
"I am. The enhancement compounds were designed for immortal physiology. Adapting them for humans would be an entirely different research track, one that I haven't pursued because it wasn't part of my mandate."
His face was calm. His voice was steady, and his body language was relaxed but attentive. It was the posture of a man telling the truth.
But Losham had centuries of experience reading people's most subtle tells.
There was a micro-tension in the scientist's jaw. A fractional stillness in the eyes that suggested conscious control rather than natural ease. It was the difference between a man who had nothing to hide and a man who was very good at hiding things.
Losham had seen thousands of liars in his long life. The bad ones fidgeted, avoided eye contact, and talked too much, but the good ones did exactly what Dimitri was doing. They became more controlled, not less, stripping away tells instead of adding them and creating a performance so smooth that only someone who'd spent centuries studying human deception would notice.
It was possible that the young human was telling the truth because he had no reason to be trained in such expert deception, but some were just born with the skill or developed it as a survival mechanism.
Losham was inclined toward the latter, but inclination wasn't evidence.
He decided to shift tactics.
"Let me pose a theoretical question," he said, settling back in his chair. "If someone wanted to adapt the enhancement formula for human use, could it be done?"
A subtle change flickered across Dimitri's face. Not quite relief, more like a recalibration, the way a chess player's expression shifted when the game moved in a direction he was prepared for.
"Theoretically?" Dimitri uncrossed his arms and rubbed the back of his neck. "It's possible but would be extraordinarily difficult. The enhancement compounds interact with immortal cellular structures in ways that human biology doesn't support. The binding proteins are different, the metabolic pathways are different, the cellular regeneration mechanisms that prevent the compounds from causing permanent damage are different."
