Losham snorted. Lokan didn't have friends. None of Navuh's sons did. They had allies and enemies, more of the latter and fewer of the former. Friendship was a luxury that had been beaten out of them early on.
And yet, Lokan called the compeller a friend, and the word had rung true.
It wasn't difficult to figure out who that friend was and where Lokan had deserted to. He hadn't left the Brotherhood for a better life, for a peaceful existence with his human lover, as Losham had thought.
Lokan had crossed over to Annani's clan.
Where else would he find a compeller with such power?
But that wasn't the most jarring realization.
Now that he had a moment to think, he was convinced that the only way they could have known about the booby traps was from Navuh.
His father had never told anyone what was inside the glass enclosure, and the construction crew who had built it had been dealt with once the work was complete.
There was no other way for the clan to find out about it. Even more troubling was the fact that they had called to prevent him from triggering the traps. Why would Annani's clan care what happened to whatever Navuh had hidden in that enclosure? What could possibly be valuable enough to risk exposing Lokan's affiliation with them and the fact that they had somehow kidnapped Navuh from the most secure location on the planet?
Had Navuh managed to steal Annani's precious tablet?
The tablet that Annani had supposedly stolen from her uncle Ekin, the one that she'd used to launch a civilization. That would certainly be valuable enough to warrant such desperation. The clan owed its technological superiority to that artifact. If Navuh had somehow gotten his hands on it...
But there were several problems with that hypothesis.
First, a small tablet didn't require a large glass enclosure. Whatever had been hidden inside of it wasn't something that could fit in a pocket.
Second, if Navuh had stolen Annani's tablet, he would have bragged about it. That wasn't speculation. Losham knew his father well enough to be certain of it. A prize like that would have been announced to the entire Brotherhood, held up as proof of his superiority, used as a rallying cry for the final victory over the hated Annani and her despised clan of immortals.
And third, the tablet was certainly hidden in the most secure location the clan possessed. Annani would have protected her most valuable asset with everything at her disposal.
So, what else could the clan want so desperately?
Losham stared at the stars, hoping the universe would supply an answer to the riddle, but obviously it didn't.
He finished his cigar and crushed the stub in the ashtray, then took a long drink of sherry. The alcohol warmed his chest, but it didn't offer any answers either.
The compeller and Lokan had both implied that there would be further contact, and Losham had no doubt they would follow through. Whatever they wanted from him, they would have to explain at least some of it to secure his cooperation.
Not that he had much choice in the matter. The compulsion had taken hold, and he would have to answer calls from that number and find a private place to talk.
He would obey because he had to.
But even if he could resist and could somehow throw off the compeller's influence, Losham knew he would still answer the phone because curiosity was eating at him.
What was Lokan doing with the clan?
How had he ended up allied with the Brotherhood's greatest enemy?
What had they offered him that was valuable enough to make him betray everything he'd been raised to believe?
And most importantly, did they have Navuh, and how did they get him?
It would explain how they knew about the traps and why they were reaching out to him now, after years of hostility.
Perhaps they thought that with Navuh gone, they could convince whoever was in charge to stop the millennia-old war?
How naive of them.
Didn't they know that the real reason had never been ideology?
