"Two days. Possibly three. I'm diverting construction crews from other projects to build the supports. The upside is that proper structural support will silence my brothers' objections to the danger posed by continued debris removal. Kolhood has been using the collapse as ammunition against me. Once the engineers sign off on the support system, his argument loses its teeth. Everything will proceed safely and professionally, and there will be no grounds for him to demand that I stop."
"That's actually good thinking," Lokan said.
"Thank you, brother. I'm delighted that you approve." The sarcasm was razor-thin but unmistakable. "It would be even better if I knew whether to expect more surprises from our father. Have you asked Navuh about secondary booby traps?"
The question was directed at the room, but it landed in Kian's lap since it was his decision whether to confirm Losham's suspicions that they had Navuh. Losham had asked the same thing yesterday, and Kian had deflected, but he couldn't keepdeflecting forever without either confirming or denying that they had Navuh, and each nonanswer was itself an answer.
"We're not in a position to discuss that," Kian said.
"Which tells me everything I need to know." Losham's voice was dry. "You have him, and either he won't tell you, or you haven't asked."
Kian said nothing.
"I'll take that as confirmation. For what it's worth, I doubt he would tell you the truth even if you tried to torture it out of him. If there are more traps, he'll let us find them the hard way because as long as we are preoccupied with that and fighting each other, he can still dream of one day resuming his role as the head of the Brotherhood."
The assessment was brutal and accurate.
Kian hadn't asked Navuh about additional traps, and he wasn't going to. There was no point. Navuh would either lie outright or tell them a version of the truth designed to manipulate them.
He wasn't willing to put his mother through another conversation with the bastard. The last attempt at compulsion had failed and left her shaken. She didn't need more emotional turmoil.
"Anything else pertaining to the debris removal that might be of interest to us?" Toven asked.
"No."
"Anything else on the island that we should be aware of?"
"Except for my brothers circling like vultures around my head while I'm trying to keep twenty balls up in the air?"
"Yes, other than that."
"No."
Toven looked at Kian to see if there was anything he wanted to add. Kian shook his head.
"Then this concludes our call for today," Toven said. "We will contact you tomorrow at the same time, and you will answer our call."
"Speaking of the timing, I would appreciate it if you moved it thirty minutes earlier. I'd rather be in bed by midnight."
Toven glanced at Kian, who shrugged. Half an hour made no difference on their end.
"Eleven-thirty," Toven confirmed.
"How generous of you." The line went dead.
After a moment of silence, Onegus let out a breath. "Yesterday, he was falling apart. Today, he's negotiating and doing much better. The man is resilient."
Losham was about Kian's age, even a little older, so he had seen as much as Kian had, maybe more, and he'd survived despite never being a fighter in the true sense of the word. In today's world, that wasn't a problem, but to survive back when every man needed to fight just to stay alive and keep his family from being killed or worse required skill and resilience.
They should not underestimate Losham.
"Two days for the supports," he said. "Then however long the debris removal takes with the new crews. Thinking that they will be done in two weeks is overly optimistic. We're looking at a month at least."
"Could be worse," Onegus offered.
"Could be better," Kian said.
32
