Page 43 of Dark Island: Rescue

16

KIAN

Kian stood outside the administrative building for a long moment after ending the call, letting the warm ocean breeze wash over him. The sound of construction had finally ceased for the day, leaving only the distant crash of waves against the cliffs and the hum of generators.

Should he tell the others about Tula before getting confirmation?

They had enough on their plate with the human recruits and the exoskeletons that still weren't optimal and needed tweaking, the construction challenges, and every day there was a new near-disaster that needed to be addressed.

The problem was that he just kept thinking about Tula being pregnant and desperate, only a short distance away. As he opened the door and stepped back into the air-conditioned brightness of the conference room, the conversation stopped, and five pairs of eyesturned to him.

"Problems?" Kalugal asked.

"There are always problems." Kian walked over to his seat but remained standing, hands resting on the table. "I knew it had been too quiet lately and that a new disaster must be brewing on the horizon. I hate to be right once again."

Anandur frowned. "What is it this time?"

Kian was surprised Wonder hadn't told him about Tula yet.

"Esag had a vision, but it wasn't about Khiann as we hoped. He saw Tula, and she was pregnant. She also looked desperate. When my mother speaks to her sister, she will ask Areana to confirm, but in the meantime, we can start running hypothetical rescue scenarios."

Anandur straightened in his chair. "Does Wonder know?"

Kian nodded.

"When did she find out?"

Kian hadn't asked. "I don't know. I'm surprised she didn't tell you, but it is possible that my mother asked her not to."

Anandur shook his head. "Why would she do that? Wonder is probably distressed and needs my support."

"Is Navuh the father?" Jade asked.

Had he failed to tell Jade that Areana and Navuh were truelove mates? Maybe she didn't realize what that meant to immortals and gods.

"No. Navuh is Areana's truelove mate, and he doesn't stray from her bed. The father would be Tony, a bioinformatician that Navuh brought to the harem in hopes of producing smarter sons for him to adopt."

Kalugal smoothed his hand over his goatee. "I vaguely remember Tula from the few times I managed to sneak into the harem. Dark hair, pretty, fierce. She always stayed close to my mother and was protective of her. She wasn't happy about my visits, saying that it was dangerous."

"Are we extracting her?" Jade asked.

Always the pragmatist, she was even less attuned to the undercurrent of drama than Kian was.

"We're not doing anything before we get confirmation," he said. "For all we know, the vision could be of the future, or even the past. But if the situation is confirmed, my mother will want us to save Tula."

They all knew that what Annani wanted, Annani got, even if it required enormous resources. The only way she would relent was if Kian could demonstrate that a rescue endangered too many lives.

"Then we need to evaluate options," Kalugal said. "I assume Tula is hiding the pregnancy to avoid increased scrutiny, and that means time is of the essence. Did Esag see how far along she was?"

"Beginning pregnancy, but already noticeable if he was immediately made aware of it. The vision wasn't verbal, so it wasn't as if Tula told him."

"We can do what we did with Carol," Anandur said. "The staged suicide of throwing herself off the cliff while Yamanu provides a shroud to make the humans in the harem see just that."

Kian pulled out his chair and sat down. "Carol's extraction was years ago, and we don't know what security changes have been implemented since then. Also, therecent rebellion damaged infrastructure, and construction crews are swarming the island, which could work to our advantage."

Jade nodded. "More chaos, more strangers on the island, easier to infiltrate."

"Not really," Kian said. "I'm sure that every worker who sets foot on the island goes through the immortal detection process. Carol got in because females don't trigger the mechanism, and she was traveling with a human who was well-known and regarded on the island."