Dark Spy’s Resolution Page 3

  Hopefully they would never get deployed, but when engaged in negotiations, it was advisable to have as much leverage as possible.

  Onegus could handle the evacuation, but Turner needed to take care of supplying the force and finding places for the evacuees that Arwel and Kian didn’t know about.

  After several back-and-forth texts with his subcontractors and friends, he texted Onegus the address of a cabin in Big Bear along with the code for the lock pad.

  He also added a note about sending Yamanu to the Bay Area.

  The chief might have thought of that already, but Turner didn’t leave anything to chance, and he wasn’t concerned with stepping on anyone’s toes either.

  When lives were at stake, everything else became irrelevant.

  Onegus texted back. Charlie is in the hangar, and I notified Yamanu. How many bedrooms are in that cabin? Other than Mey, Wendy, and Richard, we need room for the two Guardians watching over them and for Vlad and Ingrid, who happened to be in the keep.

  Turner shook his head. Sleeping arrangements were the least of his concerns at the moment.

  It has five bedrooms and three baths. I don’t know how many beds. They will have to figure it out. How many Guardians do you have stuck outside the village?

  As he waited for Onegus’s response, Turner shot a text to William. A mobile command van is on its way to the house. Get ready to transfer your equipment.

  In the meantime, the return text from Onegus had arrived. Fifteen.

  I want you to send them with Yamanu to the Bay Area. I also arranged for a mobile command center and attack drones to be delivered to the Guardians.

  Onegus texted back. I can send them to the airfield, but I’m worried about leaving the village with a skeleton force. I counted on them as backup.

  Turner typed. The village is securely locked. The more men we have around Kalugal’s compound, the better chance we have of defusing the situation before he learns anything from Arwel. And the stronger show of force we manage, the more willing Kalugal will be to negotiate.

  6

  Kalugal

  Kalugal rubbed the spot over his heart.

  His mother was worried about him, and she missed him.

  If only the fantastic tale Kian had been weaving was true, but he was most likely making the entire story up.

  Kalugal had no way of proving or disproving the information, but it made no sense for Kian to know all that. Areana was locked up in the harem and could tell her story to no one on the outside. And since no one ever left the harem, she couldn’t send a message out either.

  There were only two ways Kian could have obtained that information, and both were highly unlikely.

  One was that someone had managed to escape the harem and deliver Areana’s story to her sister. The other was that the clan had an extraordinarily talented remote viewer who could see what went on in the harem, and a powerful telepath who could converse remotely with Areana.

  “With all due respect, I find your story hard to believe. I admire your imagination, though. Are you in the film industry?”

  Kian chuckled. “Even if I was the creative type, which I’m not, I would never have come up with an unbelievable story like that. I would have thought of something that made more sense.”

  As Rufsur entered the room, Kalugal motioned for him to keep quiet and turned his chair around. “I’m sure that you can understand why I’m skeptical of your claims. What do you really want from me, Kian?”

  “I told you the truth. Your mother asked mine to locate you, but I didn’t want to approach you before investigating what you were up to. I don’t know whether you have contact with your father or not, and with him seeking my clan’s extinction, I’m not taking any chances.”

  “I’m curious to hear what you have learned.”

  Rufsur got up and waved his hand in front of Kalugal’s face to get his attention. “Several cars are parked on the street, and more are arriving,” he mouthed.

  So, the communications guy hadn’t been bluffing about that. Obviously, Kian’s intention was to keep Kalugal talking long enough for his warriors to surround the property, but it didn’t matter.

  Kalugal was ready for a prolonged siege.

  “I know that you made a fortune on the stock market, and I also know that you faked your own death and that of your entire platoon during WWII. You are very careful, never leaving the house without first shrouding yourself, and you keep a low profile. Still, that doesn’t tell me what you are up to.”

  It seemed that Kian had been observing him for a while now. The question was how.

  The compound’s sophisticated monitoring equipment hadn’t picked up any new signals from surveillance cameras, and what was there before belonged to their neighbors. It had to be boots on the ground.

  “How did you find me?”

  “It was purely coincidental. I like to believe that fate had something to do with it.”

  “Fate? You don’t strike me as the kind of guy who believes in a mystical higher power. Please don’t insult my intelligence, Kian. What do you want? And I mean other than buying time for your men to surround my property.”

  Kian chuckled. “Every word I said was true. But it’s also true that I was buying time for my men to get in position. I want you to release the warrior and the woman you’ve abducted.”

  “And why would I do that? Your men are of no consequence to me. I can compel them to do anything I want.”

  “You said that my clan is of no interest to you, and that you are neither my enemy nor my friend. I hold the same position. If you release my people, I’ll take it as a sign of good faith and remove the blockade. After that, you and I can continue our conversation and come to an agreement of peaceful coexistence, or maybe even cooperation.”

  “That’s what you want now. But what did you want before I took the warrior and his girlfriend?”

  “Precisely what I have already told you. Your mother wanted to find you, and my mother promised her help.”

  Kalugal turned back toward the monitor and checked the feed from the perimeter cameras. He counted seven vehicles parked along the street, which didn’t tell him much about the number of men surrounding his property. If there were three immortals in each car or less, he could compel them all. But if there were four in each, it would be a stretch for him.

  Kian didn’t know that, though.

  If the story he’d told was true, and Areana was indeed a goddess, then Kian must have assumed that Kalugal was as powerful as Navuh or more.

  Naturally, he was going to reinforce that misconception and keep on bluffing.

  Kian’s objective was to get the warrior out before Kalugal had a chance to interrogate him, but Kalugal had no intention of allowing that. He had to find out what Kian’s real agenda was, as well as every clan secret the captured warrior had ever been privy to.

  Knowledge equaled power.

  7

  Jin

  No more than an hour had passed since Kri had dragged Jin into the car and driven her away from the club, but it seemed like they had been in that freaking car forever.

  At some point, Kri had left the surface streets and had gotten on the freeway. She was obeying the speed limit, but they were getting further and further away from the city. By the time Magnus let them know where they were supposed to go, they could be all the way to Oregon for all she knew.

  Were they even heading north?

  Since Kri had turned the GPS off, Jin had no clue. Navigating by the stars had never been her strong suit. Heck, she could get lost leaving the mall.

  Besides, Jin had been busy listening to Kalugal talking to Kian. She could barely hear Kian because he was speaking into Kalugal’s ear using Arwel’s earpiece, but even if she missed parts of it, she could still figure out what he’d said by Kalugal’s responses.

  So far, the negotiations hadn’t started yet, and it seemed like Kian’s main objective was to keep Kalugal talking. As long as he was on the line, he couldn’
t interrogate Arwel.

  She’d also checked on Arwel and Jacki several times, but only for a couple of seconds to make sure that they were still in the cell together and neither was being tortured.

  As much as she would have liked to gaze at Arwel’s amazing eyes through Jacki’s, Jin decided that keeping tabs on the conversation between Kian and Kalugal was more important.

  “Turner gave me instructions.” Kri’s voice pulled Jin away from the tether. “We are going to the sanctuary.”

  “What’s that?”

  Kri glanced at her and smiled. “Annani’s place. You are about to meet the goddess. Are you excited?”

  Under different circumstances, Jin would have been thrilled, but meeting the goddess was not at the top of her priority list.

  “Where is it?”

  “No one other than her and her trusted servants know how to get there, but I know that it’s somewhere in Alaska.”

  Jin’s gut twisted in a knot. “How is Kian going to trade me if I’m so far away?”

  “I told you that he’s not going to do it. The most important thing right now is to get you to safety, and there is no safer place than the sanctuary. Kalugal can’t get information about its location from Arwel or anyone else because no one has it.”

  “Can I talk to Turner?”

  “Sure. He’s going to call you as soon as we are on the plane.” Kri turned on the GPS. “We are five minutes away from the airfield.”

  Looking down at her dirty T-shirt, Jin shook her head. “Is that a country airstrip?”

  “Yup.”

  “So, on top of everything else, I’m going to meet the goddess in a snot-covered T-shirt.”

  Kri glanced at Jin’s middle and grimaced. “I’m sure that Annani is not going to wait for us in the hangar. I can ask Alena to have someone prepare a change of clothes for you.”

  As the tears started leaking out of her eyes again, Jin whispered, “It’s such a silly thing to be concerned with at a time like this.”

  Reaching over the center console, Kri took her hand. “It’s going to be alright. Kian and Turner are going to negotiate Arwel and Jacki’s release.”

  “With what? They need something to bargain with, but they are sending their best chip to freaking Alaska.” She looked down at her shirt again. “I’m going to freeze.”

  In all the commotion, she’d left her coat at the club. Luckily, she still had her purse, but that was only because Kri had noticed it and shoved it into her hands before dragging her out of there.

  Jin had left her purse on top of the bar before ducking behind it to hide, but the coat must have slipped down to the floor and then got kicked somewhere by the panicked people who’d been trying to get away.

  “I’ll give you my jacket,” Kri offered. “You can take off the T-shirt, put the jacket on, and zip it all the way up.”

  “But then you’ll be cold.”

  “I’m an immortal and a Guardian. I’ll survive. You, on the other hand, are still a human and might get sick.” Kri cast Jin a crooked smile. “Arwel will kick my butt if I let that happen.”

  She shrugged the leather jacket off and handed it to Jin. “Do it now. I don’t want you getting out of the car without it.”

  Since there were no vehicles on the rural road Kri had turned onto, Jin pulled the T-shirt over her head, tossed it on the floor at her feet, and pulled Kri’s jacket on.

  “It’s so warm. Thank you.” She zipped it all the way up.

  “The airstrip is over there.” Kri pointed. “And our ride is already waiting for us. Turner is a freaking miracle worker.”

  It took another minute for Jin to see the lone aircraft waiting on what looked like just another country road. “I really don’t want to go. I want to stay here, close to Arwel.”

  Kri patted her arm. “You need to do what Turner tells you because he knows what he’s doing. He has a lot of experience in crisis management, while you have none.”

  8

  Turner

  Turner missed his yellow pad.

  Without it, he had to keep all the details in his head, which wasn’t a huge issue, but he didn't have the satisfaction of marking items as done.

  While Kalugal was on the line with Kian and could compel him to do anything he wanted, Turner couldn’t risk writing anything down.

  Regrettably, despite his new immortal physical strength, Kian could still overpower him with ease and take his notes. First of all, the guy was about half a foot taller. Also, he was Annani’s son. That alone made him more powerful than immortals with blood that had been diluted over many generations of breeding with humans.

  What Kian couldn’t do, though, was take the information from Turner’s head. He could try to beat it out of him, but Turner had been trained to withstand torture.

  He’d never been captured, so his training hadn’t been put to the test, but he was pretty sure that it would kick in when needed.

  Being stuck in the village was a sort of captivity, but he wasn’t helpless. Like a chess master, he was moving the pieces around while trying to anticipate his opponent’s moves.

  He shouldn’t be enjoying this so much, but it was incredible how much he’d managed to achieve in under half an hour. It was impressive, even in light of his usual high standards.

  There were two things that he still needed to do. One was to verify that Jin was in the air, and the other was to contact Lokan.

  Since Kian had asked him to contact Lokan, Turner didn’t need to be secretive about it and decided to call instead of texting. It was the middle of the night in Washington, and Lokan was probably asleep, so he might not hear the incoming text.

  When Lokan answered, he sounded alarmed and fully alert. “What’s going on?”

  “Your brother has Arwel and Jacki, and we need you to get on the plane and fly to San Francisco as soon as you can.”

  In the background, Turner heard Carol gasp. “I’m getting dressed,” she informed Lokan.

  “Wait. What exactly are you expecting me to do? Kalugal is not going to listen to me. He doesn’t even know me.”

  “He might, or he might not, but we need all the ammunition we can get. Besides, we are in this mess because your mother asked Kian to help you find your brother. You can’t stay home snuggled in your bed with your mate while we are dealing with him.”

  Lokan uttered a long-suffering sigh. “You’re right. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Damn. I have two important meetings scheduled for tomorrow that I will need to move.”

  The guy’s priorities were skewed.

  “You can claim to have fallen ill. That would reinforce your human cover.”

  Lokan huffed out a breath. “Where do you want me to go once I get there?”

  “I’ll let you know. Call me when you are about to land.”

  “It’s going to be early morning your time.”

  “I’m not going to sleep anytime soon.” Turner ended the call.

  A couple of moments later, he got the text he’d been waiting for from Kri. We are in the air.

  He was about to give Kian the thumbs up when another text came from Kri.

  Jin wants me to tell you that she is offering herself to be traded for Arwel and Jacki. She wants you to tell Kian.

  The girl was in love and not thinking straight. That’s the worst thing we can do. As long as Kalugal knows that he’s being watched, he is practically paralyzed. We will negotiate Arwel and Jacki’s release in exchange for the tether’s removal, not the tetherer herself.

  Kri texted back. She says that he will want to see proof of the tether’s removal.

  Turner frowned. I was under the impression that the tethered can be told what to pay attention to, and that once released, he can feel the difference. Kian told me that Edna even managed to detach the tether on her end.

  A long moment passed before the return text came in. Jin says that it’s impossible to demonstrate without removing the tether and reattaching it. She can remove it remotely, but she needs to t
ouch Kalugal again to reattach it to him.

  That was a complication he hadn’t foreseen.

  He texted back. We will try to work around it and tell Kalugal that he will feel the difference. Can Jin describe it to me?

  Jin says that from her side, releasing the tether feels like a mental weight was lifted. She says that you should call Edna and ask her how it felt to her.

  I’ll do that. Don’t fall asleep. After Kian tells Kalugal about the tether, he will want proof. I’ll call Jin and ask her to report what she sees.

  9

  Arwel

  “I’m cold.” Jacki pulled the blanket from the top bunk. “Do you want some?” She sat back down. “We can share.”

  “I’m not as sensitive to the cold as you are.”

  She wrapped the blanket around her shoulders. “Is it because you are immortal?”

  He nodded.

  “Can you tell me more? I mean things that are not top secret.”

  “Our very existence is a secret, but the cat is out of the bag on that.”

  Jacki put her feet up and tucked her legs under the blanket. “If I ever get out of here, no one is going to believe me anyway. It’s like those poor folks who report alien encounters. They are ridiculed and dismissed.” She cast him a sidelong glance. “Do you guys have anything to do with that?”

  He shook his head. “None of us have ever met an alien.”

  “Really? I thought that you and the others like you were aliens.”

  “Maybe our ancestors were. We are the descendants of the mythological gods. The result of them taking human partners.”

  “Like in the Bible? And the sons of the gods saw that the daughters of men were fair and took them as wives?”

  “Not only the sons of gods. The daughters did that as well. Except, they didn’t take them as wives or husbands because they were considered too lowly for that. They took them as lovers, or if they were really fond of them as concubines and paramours. The reason behind the practice was the gods’ low fertility rate and limited gene pool. Without the infusion of human genes, they would have died out. Even the gods couldn’t live forever.”