"Five of them are abroad and on their way back as we speak. Three are here." Losham let out an exasperated breath. "They're not as sophisticated as we are, and that's not because they are younger." He looked at Hocken. "Most of them are older than you. They are likely to cause problems, and I'd appreciate your help in managing them."
"We'll handle it." Kolhood rose to his feet. "All of them are military, and they answer to me." He moved toward the door, pausing briefly to study one of Dave's bodies.
The enhanced soldier stared back without expression and without reaction—a silent sentry.
When the brothers had filed out of the conference room and their footsteps on the hallway floor faded, Losham allowed himself to exhale.
"That went better than expected," Number One said.
Losham flinched, startled by the sudden shift from perfect silence to speech.
"Did it? I just agreed to share power with three brothers who would happily slit my throat if they thought they could get away with it."
"You agreed to form a council. That's not the same as sharing power." Number One stepped away from the wall and approached the table. "You don't need to tell them anything of importance."
"That's true. I can have them voting on nonsense until they get tired of it."
The real problem was time. How long could he maintain the fiction that Navuh was still on the island?
His brothers would not wait forever for their father to emerge from the harem. Eventually, they would demand proof and risk their father's wrath by forcing their way into the protected enclave of the underground pyramid.
11
KIAN
The office was quiet at six in the morning, the kind of stillness that only existed before the world woke up and started making demands. Kian sat behind his desk, nursing a cup of coffee that had gone lukewarm, while he thought of yesterday's conversation with Navuh.
The bastard was playing them. Kian was certain of it. Every word out of Navuh's mouth was calculated, every revelation designed to push them toward a specific outcome that served his interests.
His number one objective was his freedom, but he might be after revenge as well.
A knock at the door pulled him from his thoughts.
"Come in."
Lokan entered, looking more alert than anyone had a right to be at this hour. He carried a thermos in one hand and two ceramic cups in the other.
"Carol insisted," he said, setting the thermos and cups on Kian's desk. "I told her that you had a coffeemaker in the office, but she said that having it and using it are not the same thing."
Kian glanced at his cup and thought of the coffeemaker in Shai's office, with its carafe half-full of dark liquid that had been sitting there since yesterday. "She's not wrong."
Lokan poured coffee into both cups and slid one across the desk to Kian. "She's not happy about the dream-walking situation, but if it's the only option, she says she will try to be supportive."
"I appreciate that." Kian took a sip of the fresh brew and had to admit it was significantly better than what was in the other cup. "How are you holding up?"
"I'm fine." Lokan settled into the chair across from the desk, wrapping his hands around his own cup. "I'm nervous about talking to Losham. He's a clever bastard, and I need to be careful not to reveal too much."
"That's why I asked you to come earlier than the others." Kian set his cup down and leaned forward. "You know him better than any of us, and I need to understand who we're dealing with. Tell me about him."
Lokan was quiet for a moment, his eyes distant. "The best way to describe Losham is that he's to Navuh what Turner is to you. He's a strategist. A planner. The one who thinks ten moves ahead while everyone else is stuck on yesterday's news." Lokan took a sip of his coffee. "Half the brilliant schemes attributed to Navuh were Losham's ideas. As the oldest son, he had a long time to learn how to navigate our father's moods and stay in his good graces, for the most part."
"Navuh doesn't strike me as the type to share credit."
"He's not. That's exactly my point. Losham fed him ideas in ways that made Navuh think they were his own. Subtle suggestions, carefully planted seeds. By the time Navuh announced a new initiative, he believed he'd conceived it himself." Lokan smiled. "It's a delicate art, manipulating a powerful and paranoid demigod with compulsion abilities."
"Losham is smart," Kian said. "I knew that. What else?"
"Opportunistic. Calculated. Patient." Lokan ticked off the qualities on his fingers. "He doesn't act impulsively. Every move he makes is part of a larger plan, even if the plan isn't immediately apparent. And he's not senselessly violent or cruel, which sets him apart from most of our brothers."
