Dark Spy’s Resolution Page 9

  Jin shook it. “Mey told me a lot about you. I just wish we’d met under more pleasant circumstances.”

  “Oh, sweetheart.” Alena pulled her into her arms and hugged her fiercely. “Everything is going to be fine. The Fates work in mysterious ways, but so far, they have been kind to us. I’m sure they had a good reason for allowing this to happen.”

  “Like what?”

  Alena let go of her. “I guess we will find out soon enough. Let me take you to your room.” She looked at Kri. “I figured that you would want to be near your charge, so I put you in a two-bedroom suite.”

  “That’s perfect. Thank you.”

  Apparently Jin wasn’t going to meet the goddess tonight. On the one hand it was a little disappointing, but on the other hand, it would be better to meet Annani when she wasn’t as tired, and her brain was functioning properly.

  There was just one more thing Jin needed to do, and that was to let Mey know that she’d landed in the sanctuary. Since it was four in the morning in Los Angeles, a text would be better than a phone call. After all, they had talked only a few hours ago, covering everything that had happened, and she had nothing new to report other than her safe arrival.

  I’m in the sanctuary, and I met Alena. I’ll get to meet the goddess tomorrow.

  Mey replied almost immediately, which meant that she couldn’t sleep. Give Alena and Annani my best regards.

  Any pointers on how to talk to a freaking goddess?

  Just be yourself. Annani is friendly, and once you get over the glowing skin, it will be like talking to a girlfriend, but one who happens to be a queen.

  25

  Kalugal

  Kalugal had spent the night sitting in his armchair and thinking.

  He might have dozed off a couple of times, but for no longer than several minutes at a time. His mind was too troubled for a peaceful sleep.

  It had been ages since he’d been so perturbed by anything. Since escaping his father’s control, his life had been uneventful.

  Even boring.

  He’d been busy amassing his fortune, which had been exciting at the beginning, but had quickly become just another routine. There was no challenge to it, and the money was just a means to an end. However, for the longest time, he couldn’t decide what that elusive end was.

  Freeing his mother could have been a worthy goal, but she didn’t want to be freed. For better or worse, she loved Navuh.

  It was one of the few things that grated on Kalugal’s psyche and soured his mood whenever he thought about it. There was no solution that would make him and his mother happy at the same time.

  Unless his father miraculously changed his entire outlook on the world, Kalugal was never going to see Areana, because to do so he would have to conquer the island and take Navuh down, which he’d promised his mother never to do.

  During the negotiations with Kian, Kalugal had kept his cool, not letting his cousin know how tantalizing the prospect of talking to Areana was to him, but the truth was that it was on an almost equal footing with wanting the damn tether gone.

  Perhaps since he’d last seen her, his mother had grown disillusioned with her mate and was willing to leave him?

  That would be a game-changer for Kalugal.

  He would divert his efforts from gaining global control to first taking over the island and getting his mother out.

  His world domination plans could wait a few years longer.

  Or maybe not.

  If the Chinese beat him to it, which they were actively pursuing, wresting control from them would be a much tougher mission than gaining it before they managed to spread their tentacles over the entire world.

  Kalugal might not be the most benevolent ruler imaginable, but he would be better than them. He at least would give humans the illusion of democracy and personal freedom. Under his control, most of humanity wouldn’t even know about the puppet master who was running the show, and their elected officials would want to keep it that way.

  The Chinese wouldn’t bother with such niceties.

  As a knock on the door interrupted his thoughts, Kalugal glanced at his watch. At five in the morning, only one person could be standing behind the door to his private suite.

  “Come in, Rufsur.”

  His second-in-command walked in and closed the door behind him. “Did you spend all night sitting in this armchair?”

  “Most of it. What brings you here so early in the morning?”

  “I couldn’t sleep, and I figured that you’d be awake too. We need a strategy.”

  Kalugal shook his head. “Have you forgotten that none of what is said in front of me is private?”

  “I thought you would figure a way around it.”

  “If you and I could have learned Braille overnight, we could have done it that way. But neither of us is that talented.”

  “True. But it could be a long-term solution.”

  “It could. Right now, I’m more concerned with finding a way to confirm the tether’s removal without demanding the spy be delivered to me.”

  Rufsur sat in the other armchair and crossed his legs at the ankles. “There is no other way. Besides, if she is here, it doesn’t matter that she has you tethered. She can’t tell anyone what she sees and hears.”

  “That’s what Kian wants me to believe. What if she can? They might have staged the entire thing to create the perfect setup for a Trojan horse maneuver.”

  Rufsur arched a brow. “Do you really believe that?”

  “No, but it’s possible.”

  It all depended on the kind of man his cousin was. If he was indeed such a caring ruler who would do anything to free his people, he wouldn’t sacrifice the spy. He must realize that the easiest way to get rid of her tether and the risk she represented would be to kill her.

  But if his posturing was just for show, Kian might have orchestrated the entire thing to get the spy into the bunker. And if she was also very beautiful, he might have hoped that Kalugal would want to keep her at least for a little while.

  Except, she wasn’t even close.

  All he could remember from their first encounter was that she was Asian, or maybe of mixed heritage, had a nice figure, and was pleasant-looking but not strikingly beautiful. Then again, her heavy makeup had been designed to obscure her features and not to make her look pretty. Perhaps she was beautiful under all that gunk.

  He wondered if that was true of the immune as well. She was a feisty one, and he liked that in a woman.

  “How are our guests doing?”

  “The immune is snoring in the bed, and the warrior is lying on the couch, awake and looking worried.”

  “So, they really aren’t a couple.”

  “They are not, but they seem to be either close friends or just at the beginning of their relationship. Until she fell asleep, they were whispering in each other’s ears and it looked pretty damn intimate.”

  “Do you have it on tape?”

  “Naturally. Do you want to listen to the recording?”

  Kalugal shook his head. “Kian might view it as a breach of our agreement.” He pushed to his feet. “I need a good cup of coffee before I call him.”

  “What are you going to offer him?”

  “The better question is what is he going to offer me.”

  26

  Kian

  Syssi opened the sliding door and walked out, huddling inside her thick night robe. “Did you get any sleep at all?”

  Kian extinguished his cigarillo and pushed to his feet. “You shouldn’t be outside. It’s too cold.” He wrapped his arm around her and led her back inside. “And to answer your question, I slept for about two hours. That’s enough to keep me going.”

  Leaning her head against his arm, she sighed. “Any news from the front, so to speak?”

  He walked over to the couch, sat down, and pulled her onto his lap. “The Guardians are still surrounding the complex. Magnus had them take turns sleeping for a couple of hours each, so they are good to go
. Yamanu thralled the neighbors to have an irresistible urge for a day trip, and some are leaving already. That’s about it. I know that Jin has arrived safely at her destination, but I don’t know where it is, and I’m not asking.”

  He had a feeling that Turner had sent her to the sanctuary. That would have been Kian’s first choice because even he didn’t know how to get there. But on the flip side, he could call his mother and ask her to send one of her Odus to pick him up, which he might do if Kalugal compelled him to do that.

  It was better that he didn’t know for sure that Jin was there. If Kalugal compelled him to reveal her location, he could truthfully answer that he didn’t know where she was.

  “What about Turner? Did he go to sleep?”

  Sweet Syssi. Always thinking about everyone else.

  “He stayed in the war room, so I don’t know. He might have caught a catnap on the couch in my office.” Kian leaned and kissed her soft lips. “Now that you have all the updates, how about you go back to bed? You need your rest.” He put his hand on her rounded belly.

  Syssi smiled. “I've heard of eating for two, but not sleeping for two. Since I turned, four hours is enough for me.”

  He arched a brow. “Could’ve fooled me. You never want to get out of bed before seven in the morning.”

  “That’s because I like to cuddle and make love to you when I wake up, and after that, I’m too languid to get up.”

  “I love our mornings.” He kissed her again. “And our evenings.” Another kiss. “And our nights. But I don’t like everything in between because you are not there with me.”

  Syssi rested her head against his chest. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

  “My heart is fond of you twenty-four-seven.”

  “Mine too.” She pushed up from his lap. “Would you like some coffee? I can make us cappuccinos.”

  “I can do that. I want you to go back to bed. All this stress is not good for the baby.”

  Syssi snorted. “She’d better get used to it. If she wants to hang around her daddy, stress is going to be an integral part of her life.”

  “That doesn’t make me happy.”

  “I know, my love. I’m sure you didn’t have it easy growing up as Annani’s son. You told me that she’d never coddled you and expected you to shoulder many responsibilities from a young age.”

  “That is true. But I want my daughter to have a normal, carefree childhood.”

  Syssi lifted a brow. “Did you suffer so greatly growing up?”

  “I can’t say that I did. I was quite proud to be entrusted with important tasks as a boy. But it wasn’t a normal childhood.”

  “What is normal?” She walked over to the cappuccino machine and turned it on. “Normalcy is subjective. What’s normal for a child in urban suburbia is not normal for a child growing up in the jungle. The parents’ job is to teach their children survival skills that are appropriate for their environment. Our Allegra will have to learn to function in stressful situations and make hard decisions.”

  “That doesn’t make me happy either. I don’t want her to take over my job.”

  Syssi chuckled. “You are immortal, my love. You can keep your job indefinitely. But maybe she could assist you and ease your burden. Wouldn’t it be nice to work together with your daughter?”

  “How about we let her decide what she wants to do with her life?”

  “Of course. But first, we need to give her all the tools we are able to and let her try things out, so she can choose wisely.” Syssi handed him a cappuccino. “Besides, we have time to figure it all out.”

  He was about to answer that they needed to have a plan when his phone rang. Pulling it out of his pocket, he looked at the display.

  “It’s Kalugal.” He hadn’t expected the guy to call him this early, and talking to him without Turner right there next to him was dangerous.

  He let the call go to voicemail.

  “I have to leave.”

  Syssi nodded. “Call Turner and make sure that he is still in the war room. I’ll bring you both breakfast.”

  “You are the best.” He pulled her in for a quick kiss.

  27

  Kalugal

  “Voicemail.” Kalugal disconnected and put his phone down. “Kian is either sleeping or decided not to answer.”

  “It’s early.” Rufsur rose to his feet and walked over to the wet bar. “Do you want coffee?” He dropped a fresh packet in the coffeemaker.

  “Yes.”

  “Did you eat anything?” Rufsur poured water into the machine and turned it on.

  Kalugal shook his head. “I was too preoccupied to think of food, but now that you mention it, I’m hungry.”

  “Do you want breakfast brought over here, or do you want to go to the dining room?”

  “I’d rather eat here. Kian is going to call me back soon.”

  “You didn’t leave a message. He might not.”

  “He will. I’m sure he wasn’t sleeping. He might have been in the bathroom, but what’s more likely is that he didn’t have his immune lieutenant next to him. Kian wouldn’t risk talking to me without safeguards.”

  “I’ll get you a tray.”

  “Thank you.”

  Rufsur could have called for one of the other men to bring the food in, but it wasn’t in his nature. He liked doing things himself, mostly because he didn’t trust anyone to do it as well as he could or as quickly.

  If Kalugal’s force ever grew substantially, Rufsur would no longer be the right man for the position of second-in-command. He was loyal to a fault, and Kalugal enjoyed his company, but leadership required the ability to delegate, and Rufsur had a problem with that.

  Not that his friend had anything to worry about. Kalugal didn’t plan on recruiting more men. The only way to get more immortal warriors was to steal them from his father, but that was too complicated and the quality of the men would be questionable. Kalugal didn’t need a bunch of brainless yes-men. When he’d planned his escape during WWII, he’d carefully selected the warriors, handpicking them one at a time.

  Regrettably he and his men didn’t have access to Dormants or immortal females, so increasing their ranks the natural way was not going to happen either.

  When the coffeemaker finished brewing, Kalugal poured himself a cup and went back to his armchair. The phone call he was waiting for came in a few minutes later.

  Leaning back, he answered. “Good morning, cousin. Did you have a good night's sleep?”

  “It was probably as good as yours.”

  Kalugal smiled. Talking with Kian was like playing a game of chess. “Did you decide on how you would like to proceed?”

  “I believe that when we decided to break for the night, the ball was in your court.”

  “You are mistaken. You were supposed to check with your spy about her ability to provide conclusive proof of the tether’s removal.”

  “It’s not even six in the morning, and I haven’t had a chance to talk to Jin yet. You called, so I assumed that you had come up with something.”

  He was right of course, and Kalugal had come up with the only viable solution, but he hadn’t wanted to open with that.

  “My solution is simple. You hand over the spy, and I hand over the warrior and the immune. We can do a middle of the road exchange.”

  Kian chuckled. “Nice try. I’m not handing her over.”

  “Then we are stuck. I doubt she can prove the removal of something I didn’t feel her attaching. I still don’t feel anything different. For all I know, the reading of the note I wrote could have been done by telepathy, and she might have access to me and my men anytime she wants.”

  “If that was the case, she wouldn’t have to touch you. Why would we go to all the effort of getting her to you if that wasn’t necessary?”

  “She might need to touch a person to create the telepathic connection with him or her, but there is no tether and nothing to remove. Once it’s done, it’s there forever.”

  Ki
an sighed. “I understand your concern but think about it logically. If the connection was permanent, do you think I would have allowed her to do that to my Guardian? Or to the immune?”

  “If you trust the spy, then why not?”

  “They wouldn’t have agreed to that. No one wants to be an open book to someone else, not even a loved one. It’s crippling.”

  “That had occurred to me. If not for the spy’s accurate description of the cell your people were originally in, I would have doubted her connection to them. In fact, I’m going to have my men check the two for hidden recording devices. Since it doesn’t involve questioning, you can’t view it as a breach of our agreement.”

  “It depends on how your men conduct the search. If you subject my people to anything humiliating or painful, I will consider it a breach. Do you have a female in your bunker who can search the immune?”

  Unless Kian was one hell of an actor, his concern sounded genuine.

  “I don’t. But the woman doesn’t need to be fully nude for the search. I can allow her to keep her underwear on.”

  “No patting down,” Kian growled.

  “There is no need. She can’t record any visuals with clothes covering the camera. But her hair is a different story. My man will have to comb through it.”

  “That’s acceptable.”

  “When will you talk to your spy?”

  “Soon.”

  “Make it so. The neighbors are probably starting to wake up, and when they see all the cars parked along the street, they will call the police.”

  “Your neighbors are leaving their homes as we speak. I have a powerful thraller who is urging every human in your neighborhood to go on a day trip.”

  Kalugal doubted that was true. Even the most powerful thrallers couldn’t cover an entire neighborhood. Kian’s guy was probably going from house to house and convincing the closest neighbors to leave. Still, that might be enough for what Kian and his Guardians needed.