Page 5 of Dark Shaman: Eternal Hope (The Children Of The Gods #100)
NAVUH
N avuh stood before the reinforced glass and metal bars, studying the sand-filled enclosure in the basement with satisfaction.
Fifty tons of carefully leveled sand had been delivered to complete the climate-controlled environment needed to maintain perfect conditions. This was his insurance policy, though no one else knew what lay beneath the sand and what it insured against.
Out of all his possessions, this was probably the most valuable one, even though he might never trade it, but that was the nature of insurance policies.
The construction had been completed just before the rebellion, and he'd been concerned that the enhanced soldiers might discover it during their rampage, but if they had managed to get into the basement, he would have bigger problems to worry about than his insurance policy expiring.
Thankfully, that disaster had been averted, but the problem was far from solved. He still needed to deal with the enhanced soldiers, both those imprisoned on the island and those who were still at large, scattered around the world where he had dispatched them.
There were those who remained active in Iran, embedded within the Revolutionary Guard, while others were positioned near key government officials in Egypt, and still others were scattered across major cities in the United States.
Or rather, there had been that many. The clan had significantly reduced their numbers.
Turning around, Navuh headed back to his office, and as he climbed the stairs, his mind churned.
How had Annani's cursed offspring found his soldiers and eliminated them?
Was there an informant in his organization?
He had suspected Lokan, but he'd kept Lokan in the dark about the whole program, so he couldn't have been the snitch, and Navuh had no other suspects.
How had they known?
Sitting behind his desk, he drummed his fingers on its glossy surface, the rhythm matching his agitation. The placement of the enhanced soldiers had been known only to him and a select few commanders, whom he had no reason to mistrust.
The only explanation that made sense was that the clan had a seer.
Someone like Elias, who could glimpse possible futures but with more precision.
They had known precisely where to find the different cells and had not only taken them out simultaneously but had also been prepared to deal with the enhanced ones.
What kind of a seer could do that?
If the planned attacks had been successfully executed, it would have triggered World War III, and in the aftermath, humanity would have been so weakened that it would have been ripe for the taking.
The damn clan had prevented a global catastrophe without the world even knowing it had been threatened.
No matter. This was the nature of things. Not every plan came to fruition, and out of those, only a small fraction turned out the way he had envisioned them.
Plans always needed to be adjusted.
As his phone buzzed, and the display identified the caller as Losham, Navuh picked up the receiver. "Losham. What have you learned?"
"Good morning, my lord." Losham's voice was smooth, cultured.
Unlike Navuh's other adopted sons who were all military men, Losham was a strategist, a thinker.
He managed the Brotherhood's interests in the drug trade and human trafficking, distasteful to him but necessary under the circumstances.
The Brotherhood needed sources of income, and the traditional methods of earning it had been scarce as of late.
There was no shortage of conflicts in the world, but they were mostly localized, disorganized, and with no money to spare. The days of well-paid mercenary armies were gone, probably never to return.
"I have done as you have instructed," Losham said. "I've probed the cells of enhanced soldiers to see if they were aware of what transpired on the island, but they seem ignorant of recent events."
Navuh had ordered a communication blackout to test his hypothesis that the enhanced ones were communicating telepathically with each other.
"Or perhaps they're simply hiding their knowledge of it," Navuh said. "During the rebellion, they coordinated perfectly despite not using any communication channels we could detect. Zhao said something about hand signals, but that's nonsense. They couldn't have coordinated their attacks that way."
Losham was quiet for a moment. "Most telepaths can't project or receive thoughts over distances. They have to be close to each other. Perhaps that's the case with the enhanced ones as well. They can't project their thoughts to those who are outside the island."
"That's possible." Navuh leaned back in his chair.
"Several of the enhanced soldiers used the term transcendence, implying that they achieved a higher level of cognition.
Zhao said that he was altering their brain chemistry, and he might have triggered something he hadn't intended.
He broke something in their brains, and the side effect of that malfunction was opening their receiving channel to more information than nature designed. "
Once again, Losham took a moment before replying.
"Our brains limit what we can perceive, what we can access.
It's a survival mechanism. If we were aware of every electromagnetic wave, every quantum fluctuation, and every thought from every person around us, we'd go insane from the overload.
We wouldn't be able to function. If that limiting factor is artificially stretched out, all kinds of things can get through that otherwise would have been filtered out. "
"Precisely." Navuh swiveled his chair to face the window.
He could always count on Losham for fast thinking that was not confined to or limited by conventions. It was humbling to realize that this adopted son, who a human had fathered, was smarter than Navuh's own progeny.
Lokan and Kalugal were no fools, but they couldn't hold a candle to Losham.
"The enhanced soldiers' consciousness expanded beyond normal limitations," Losham continued. "They might have developed a shared awareness, a collective consciousness of sorts."
"That's what I'm thinking. It's like swimming in a sea of consciousness.
Most of us wear consciousness-proof diving suits that keep us separate, and the only way we can communicate with others in the ocean is with the aid of technology.
But the enhanced soldiers' suits stopped working properly, and they got immersed in that ocean, no longer separate. "
By that logic, Navuh's own compulsion ability was a malfunction. He'd never thought of it that way, but the fact that his father had been a powerful compeller and also insane added credence to the hypothesis.
His entire bloodline carried that seed of insanity along with varying degrees of compulsion ability.
Many cultures revered the insane as touched by gods. Perhaps they were onto something, and madness was just a different way of interfacing with reality.
But this was not the time for philosophy. This was the time for planning.
"The question is if we can replicate the positive effect without the negative side effects." Navuh turned his chair back. "An army of enhanced soldiers that doesn't require communication devices and can be instructed telepathically would be the next step in the evolution of warfare."
"The challenge would be control," Losham cautioned.
"I know. But now that we know what pitfalls to look out for, we can design a better product. Have you been able to locate a replacement for Zhao?"
"I have a few candidates," Losham said. "But none is as brilliant as Zhao, and all will be difficult to extract."
"Then assemble a team. Several brains to replace the one. A biochemist, a neurologist, a psychologist, a psychiatrist, and any other 'ist' you can think of. This is the future, Losham. I feel it in my gut."
"Yes, my lord. I shall get right on it. Have you given any thought to how the clan found out about our planned operations in Los Angeles? Someone knew where those soldiers were stationed, meaning that someone leaked that information."
"I think they have a seer."
"A seer, my lord?" Losham sounded incredulous. "Seers are never good enough to pinpoint locations. It must have been a leak or a betrayal."
Judging by how vague Elias's predictions were, Losham was right, but then some of them had been eerily accurate.
"Maybe they have someone who can tap into the shared consciousness of the enhanced soldiers," Navuh suggested. "They were in the same city, not on the other side of the world, so that's possible. And if that's true, we shouldn't have any enhanced ones anywhere near the clan."
"How can we know if it's true, my lord?"
"We can't." Navuh leaned forward. "But I'd rather err on the side of caution and move those cells out of California.
I don't think the clan has any presence in New York, and we should move the cells there and plan something big.
I'm curious to see if they will be able to sniff this one out as easily as the ones in their own backyard. "
"That's an excellent plan, my lord."
Of course, Losham would say that. He never contradicted Navuh, and not just because he was an accomplished politician who knew how to manipulate others, but because he had learned to trust Navuh's instincts.
After ending the call, Navuh stood and walked over to the window, looking out at the island that was slowly being rebuilt. Somewhere in the detention facility, thirty-nine enhanced soldiers sat in isolation, possibly still connected to each other despite the physical separation.
The rebellion had been a setback, but it had also been educational. He'd learned that consciousness might be more fluid than he'd imagined and that his soldiers could evolve beyond his control.
The enhanced ones had transcended most of their limitations, but they still failed because they'd tried to escape the fundamental truth of existence that all power came with a price.
They thought they could shortcut that process and achieve godhood through Zhao's drugs. But gods weren't made in laboratories. They were forged in the crucible of time, madness, and will.