Page 2

"To be more. To help bring Lord Navuh's vision to life. To honor Mortdh with the deaths of his enemies. Mark my words. Your time will come." He bared his fangs at them. "You are all dead already."

Kian kept his expression neutral despite the flare of anger. Mere months ago, he would have laughed off the delusions of grandeur, but now he was taking them more seriously.

After his impassioned monologue, the Doomer's twitching and jerking intensified, so much so that his wrists started bleeding from how forcefully he was tugging on his restraints. When his eyes rolled back in his head, and drool slithered down his jaw, it was clear that the session was over.

They weren't going to extract anything more from him.

Kian stood, motioning for Toven to follow him out.

It occurred to him that the enhancement operation had been ongoing for a long time, and yet he hadn't heard about it from Lokan. Kian had already suspected that Navuh was keeping Lokan in the dark, but that proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Lokan needed to jump ship yesterday. They had known this day was coming and had prepared for it, but Lokan had always maintained that he would know when the time was right.

Evidently, he didn't have a clue, and what's more, the information that Lokan had been supplying to Kian about the Brotherhood had been misleading.

It was one of the reasons he'd been complacent and hadn't suspected what Navuh was building.

Kian had been sure that Navuh was working on creating a smart army of immortals, which wouldn't be ready for a while because the children born from his new breeding program needed to grow up first. But clearly that hadn't been the only thing Navuh had been working on.

Far from it.

"Lokan and Carol are in danger," he told Toven when they were alone in the corridor. "They need to leave China right now."

Toven nodded. "I agree."

"I'm going to call Kalugal first. Perhaps he's heard from his brother recently." Kian selected Kalugal's number.

"Hello, cousin," Kalugal answered. "I'm making final arrangements for the trip to Egypt. We should be ready to leave on Tuesday."

"That's not what I'm calling about. Toven and I just finished interrogating one of the Doomers we caught in the raids, and we learned that your father has abducted a chemist to the island who's creating enhancement drugs for the Brotherhood.

This has been going on for about a year and a half, and yet Lokan remains unaware.

Navuh is definitely keeping him in the dark on purpose and instructing his adopted sons not to share anything with him.

There is no longer doubt in my mind that he suspects Lokan. "

"He needs to evacuate immediately," Kalugal said.

"My thoughts exactly. I called you first to check if you've heard from him recently."

"I haven't," Kalugal said. "I don't call Lokan because I don't want to risk compromising him, and he rarely calls."

Kian nodded. "Same here. I just wanted to share with you what I found out, so if he contacts you, you'd know what's going on. I will send the pre-agreed signal to Carol just in case their communications are compromised."

Both Lokan and Carol had clan phones, but when they were in company, it was better to send an encrypted signal that didn't reveal the sender's identity.

"Thank you. Let me know if you need anything from me. The trip to Egypt can wait."

"They have a pre-agreed route that will make following them difficult. Lokan and Carol know what to do."

After ending the call, Kian pulled out Carol's contact, chose the application that would deliver the message anonymously, and typed the single emoji they'd agreed on during the cruise, when they'd planned for just such a scenario.

It was a sailboat, and it meant dropping everything and activating emergency protocols.

When his phone rang only a few moments later, Kian was surprised to see the call was from Lokan.

"That was fast," he answered. "I just sent Carol the pre-agreed signal a moment ago. I didn't want to call in case you were compromised in any way."

"We are not, and she's already packing. What triggered this?"

"There have been several developments that made me wonder if your father was keeping you in the dark on purpose, but now I'm convinced of it.

Turns out that Navuh has been enhancing warriors for over a year and a half, and you had no clue.

He's creating a chemically augmented army of stronger and faster Doomers. "

"No one told me anything." Lokan sounded grim. "I have a couple of trusted sources, and now I worry that they have been compromised."

It was a valid concern and proof that one should never rely solely on snitches. "They were probably scared to share what they knew," Kian said. "Navuh also planned a massive terror attack on Los Angeles." He gave Lokan a succinct version of the events.

"Fuck." Lokan rarely cursed, but this development deserved it. "Bombing a Lasusa concert full of kids? My father has lost the last shreds of his humanity."

If Navuh ever had them, he'd lost them a very long time ago, but Kian didn't say that. "You need to get going," he told Lokan instead.

"We're moving now."

"Be careful."

"Always."

As Lokan ended the call, Kian slipped his phone into his pocket and let out a breath.

A brilliant scientist creating monster Doomers, Navuh establishing nests of vipers all over the world, and now Kian's most valuable intelligence asset was running for his life.

What else could go wrong?

Theo walked over to where Kian was standing with Toven. "Julian called. He wants more blood samples from all the enhanced Doomers. He thinks he might be able to create a counteragent, something to neutralize the enhancements and ease their suffering."

Kian didn't care about their pain, but he wanted them to be more coherent so Toven could get more reliable information out of them.

"Get Julian what he needs." He turned to Toven. "Shall we?"

The god nodded.

Inside the elevator, Kian leaned against the wall. "We're about to face an enemy unlike anything we've dealt with before. Stronger, faster, able to operate without rest."

Even the Kra-ell couldn't match that because they needed sleep even more than immortals, and they didn't heal as fast.

"You need a cyborg army," Toven said. "And the sooner the better."

Kian shook his head. "I never intended for the new version of Odus to be anything other than butlers and gardeners."

"I know." Toven regarded him with a small smile playing on his lips. "But you can't count only on the exoskeletons to give you an edge. You need more Guardians, and there are no more to be had. You have no choice. Be thankful that the option even exists."

"I know." He let out a breath. "And I am."

The problem was that the Odus wouldn't be ready anytime soon. They didn't even have a working prototype yet.

The only way to stop the enhancement program from expanding was to extract Dr. Zhao from the island, alive or dead, and destroy the laboratory, but assaulting the Brotherhood's island stronghold would be suicide.

Besides, Zhao wasn't the only scientist in the world who could manufacture those kinds of drugs, so even if he were eliminated, Navuh would get someone else to take his place.

All that remained for Kian to do was beseech the Fates and hope for the best.

That wasn't a strategy, though.

When he and Toven joined Anandur and Brundar in the SUV, Kian's phone buzzed with a text message, and as he pulled it out of his pocket, he smiled when he saw it was from Syssi.

Allegra is asking when Daddy's coming home. She won't have dinner without you .

Such a simple message, but it grounded him. This was why they fought—for the chance to have everyday moments, family dinners, and children who could ask innocent questions without knowing how close they'd come to losing everything.

He texted back; I'm on my way.