Page 47 of Xel: Broken Bond
Rohinavon looked relieved, and I wasn’t sure whether it was because she thought her plan could work, or simply because no one had been too offended by what she’d suggested.
“One of the major problems right at the start,” she went on, “is that we’d need as many incubators as we have male children. They have to stay in the incubators for six months. When they’re so young, they’re not able to regulate their own temperature, they can barely move, their skin needs to stay moist and they need to be fed roughly once every hour. That’s why…” She gestured to her own pouch. I hadn’t noticed when I’d looked, but presumably, she had some sort of teats tucked away in there for the baby to feed from.
“But incubators cost a lot of money. And we’d need about ten of them, at a minimum, and it’s not just a case of ordering them in one big batch. That would raise too many alarm bells about why the heck anyone suddenly needs that many. The incubators last for years, and most of the freighters would only need to buy one every now and then, if one of their old ones starts malfunctioning.
“The other thing we’d have to do would be to pay for the babies we kidnap. Their mothers give them to the freighters expecting to receive a payment of twenty thousand credits from the Eumadians once the shipment is delivered. So to avoidsuspicion, we’d have to pay that money so no one comes looking for the missing children. So that’s two hundred thousand credits for ten babies. Four hundred thousand for twenty babies. Plus the incubators would be another… maybe eighty thousand credits. And then we’d have to pay for nannies, and accommodation, and food, and clothing… If the Alliance agreed to this, it would mean fully funding forty children for twenty years.”
Given the complexity of the whole plan, I was impressed with the amount of thought she’d put into it. There were a multitude of difficulties, but she wasn’t shying away from any of them. And that was likely a good strategy. It would be better to not start at all than to get everything set up and then realise it wouldn’t be sustainable.
“I know all of that is an absolutelymassiveask,” Rohinavon admitted, her enthusiasm dimming a bit. “And I honestly don’t expect anyone to take it seriously. It’s too risky, too expensive, and as I said at the start, it would be averylong range plan that wouldn’t see any results for a minimum of twenty years. But if you want to know what I really want, then that’s it.”
Aiden nodded. He was sitting with his chin resting on his hands, his eyes narrowed, his forehead furrowed in thought. “It’s a big plan,” he agreed. Then he glanced at Kade, with a wistfulness that surprised me. “And yet, it’s also the best plan anyone has ever come up with to take down the Vangravian-Eumadian slave trade. There have been numerous articles on the grid about it over the years, but the general consensus in the Alliance was that there’s nothing we can do about it. And there are plenty of people in powerful positions who are very unhappy about that.
“But there’s one other thing you haven’t mentioned yet. If this was going to have any hope of success, we’d need some heavy duty security. The premise of the plan would be that we don’tget caught – at least not until wewantto get caught. But that means a team of soldiers assigned to guard duty for upwards of twenty years, and a very limited number of soldiers rotating through that system in order to minimise the number of people who know about it. The money and logistics, I could feasibly see a way through, but having that many soldiers cooling their heels for two decades…” He trailed off, an odd expression coming over his face. “They’d have to be capable of fighting, just in case we got found out, but the chances of them actually doing so would be relatively low.” He seemed to be talking more to himself than us. “So maybe some people who were already semi-retired…” He looked up at Rohinavon with a grin. “I think I know just the right person to help us with that.”
“Are you serious?” Rohinavon asked. “I would be the first to admit that this is an absolutely outrageous plan. It would cost a fortune and there are far too many moving pieces to ever make it work. And where would you find all the other people we’d need? Families to raise the children, and teachers, and doctors…”
“Let me discuss it with the Parliament,” Aiden said, sounding far calmer than I’d expected. “If they say no, then the various difficulties are moot. But if they approve it, then they’ll provide the money to pay for any staff we need. But what about this smuggler friend of yours? Are you still able to contact him?”
“Why?” Rohinavon asked, her tone turning defensive. “I’m not letting you arrest him on smuggling charges.”
“No, no, not at all,” Aiden said gently. “My point is that he already knows what’s going on with you and your son. So he could be the one to help us waylay one of the shipments of children. And now that I think of it, maybe he could help us get the incubators we’d need as well.” His brow furrowed, a sly look twisting his lips. “Do you happen to know how attached he is to his ship?”
“He’s not going to let you take his ship,” Rohinavon scoffed. “He needs it to make a living.”
“True. But does it have to be that exact ship, or will any equivalent one do?”
Rohinavon stared at him blankly, and I would have had to admit that I was as confused as she was. “I have no idea,” she answered finally. “You’d have to ask him.”
“Fair enough. And one final question, the answer to which might be far more important than you realise.” He levelled a stern look at her. “Do you have a weapon on you?” I’d mentioned to him when he’d arrived that I was fairly sure Rohinavon was armed, just so that he didn’t end up being taken by surprise if anything went sideways.
Once again, Rohinavon tensed. “I’m not giving you my weapon.”
“I don’t want you to give it to me. I just want to know whether you’ve got one, and what it is.”
Rohinavon regarded the four of us with a suspicious glare. Then she stood up and retreated a few steps away – presumably so that no one could grab the weapon out of her hand. Then finally, she reached into the pouch on her left hip – the opposite side from where her son was nestled – and pulled out…
“Holy fucking shit,” Aiden breathed, as we all got a look at the pulse projector in her hand. They operated sort of like a laser gun, but with far more power. One shot would be enough to completely liquify the average person. “Well, that’s…” He trailed off, then shook his head. “No, that’s good. That’s actually a good thing,” he decided. I failed to see how this could possibly be good, but Aiden seemed fairly convinced. “What that means is that this smuggler friend of yours can legitimately claim – just in case anyone asks – that you held him at gunpoint and forced him to take you away from Vangal. Which makes the rest of the plan I’m thinking about make a lot more sense.” I knew withoutasking that he wasn’t going to tell us what that plan was. Not yet, at least.
“But let me talk to the Parliament first,” Aiden concluded. “There’s no point dragging this guy into things any further if we’re not going to be able to make a go of it. And I’ll talk to my contact about security. The other major hurdle would be finding fathers for the girls. That raises a whole pile of ethical questions and I think I’d have to talk to some of the other dimari owners to get a feel for-”
“I could be the father of the first child,” Xel suddenly volunteered, and that, more than the rest of this crazy plan, made my jaw drop.
“Excuse me?” I asked. “Seriously?”
Xel turned to Rohinavon. “I’m assuming you would only need a sperm sample, not an actual copulation. Given that you’d want to choose the sex of the child, you’d need to go through genetic screening.”
“Yes, of course,” Rohinavon agreed.
Xel shrugged. “Then it’s easy.”
“It might be possible for me to help as well,” Kade said, though his tone was far more diffident than Xel’s. “Though I would need to discuss it with Aiden first.”
Now it was Aiden’s turn to look surprised. “Right. Um… okay, then. Looks like we have some serious planning to do.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
XEL