"Then why did they do it?"
"That's the question, isn't it?" Petrov's voice dropped. "Perhaps they didn't choose to cross the line."
A chill ran down Dimitri's spine. "What are you implying?"
"We know that Dave can compel immortals as well as humans. The Eight could have influenced the four's thought process."
"You think Dave made them attack us?"
"I think it's not only possible but probable." Petrov emptied what was left in his glass and immediately refilled it. "For reasons neither of us fully understands, the Eight have decided to make Mattie's safety a priority, and those four warriors were a threat to her."
"So, Dave wanted to eliminate the threat."
"Dave couldn't just kill them without justification. That would have caused even more problems than the problems the Eight have already caused by killing Tarik. But if the warriors attacked first, if they initiated violence against a protected asset, meaning you..." Petrov spread his hands. "Then Dave was just doing their job, defending the scientist who was crucial to their continued well-being. I'm not exactly clear on how the law works in this place, but I would assume that their act was justifiable under these circumstances."
If Petrov was right and Dave had compelled those warriors to attack so that the Eight would have an excuse to kill them, then the situation was far more complicated than Dimitri had realized.
"That's why Dave was close enough to respond so quickly," he said. "The Eight were either following us or following Tarik's friends. Waiting for the attack they knew was coming because they made it happen."
"It would explain a lot."
"But why?" Dimitri shook his head. "Why would Dave go to such lengths to protect Mattie? She's not critical to the enhancement project, and their explanation that she's important to me and therefore important to them doesn't really hold water."
Petrov grimaced. "Maybe Dave fell in love with her."
Dimitri shook his head. "Dave, in his transcended state, is not capable of love. The merging of the eight minds stripped away individual emotional responses. What Dave feels, if he feels anything at all, isn't love."
"Then what?" Petrov leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his large belly. "Why would Dave be so protective of a single human female?"
"I don't know." Dimitri stood and paced the narrow hallway, too agitated to sit still. "I'm not a psychologist. Maybe it's curiosity. Maybe it's some kind of imprinting. Maybe Dave sees Mattie as...I don't know, a project? Something interesting to observe and protect?"
"That's a lot of effort for mere curiosity."
"I didn't say that it made sense. Nothing about Dave makes sense. He's a new entity." Dimitri stopped pacing and turned to face Petrov. "But whatever the reason, the result is the same. Dave has decided that Mattie is under his protection. And apparently, the Eight are willing to manipulate and kill to maintain that protection."
"Which is good for Mattie."
Dimitri wasn't so sure. "What happens when Dave's interests conflict with ours? What happens when protecting Mattie means doing something we find unacceptable? We've created something much more dangerous than Frankenstein, Konstantin. A very effective, very dangerous monster. And now that monster has decided to play protector."
"We didn't create him," Petrov corrected. "Zhao did. And I don't think Dave is a monster."
Dimitri let out a breath and sat back down. "When I was first introduced to the Eight, I thought that they were an uncontrollable monstrosity. But Lord Navuh insisted we work on the drugs that maintained their enhancement and made their behavior more predictable. They were already mergingtheir consciousness back then, but they didn't develop their compulsion ability until recently, and that's on us. Our drugs did that."
27
LOSHAM
The request for an emergency council meeting had been hand-delivered by one of Kolhood's lieutenants.
The brothers wanted to discuss the recent murders committed by the enhanced soldiers and demanded that the Eight would not be in attendance, as they usually were during those meetings.
Losham had expected this. From the moment he'd received word of the four additional deaths at the harbor, he'd known the brothers would use the incident against him. What he hadn't expected was how quickly they would organize.
Kolhood was behind it, of course. He'd been waiting for an opportunity to strike, and Losham had handed him one on a silver platter. Five dead immortals in two days, all killed by the enhanced soldiers that Losham had championed as the future of the Brotherhood.
It was a political disaster.
Dressing for the meeting, he was tempted to put one of his father's elaborate robes over his reserved charcoal suit. If therewas anything that would symbolize his ascendancy to the throne, it would be that robe, but he didn't dare. It would be like an official declaration of war, and he wasn't ready for one.
