Page 1 of Dark Gambit: The Play

1

KIAN

"It's never boring in the immortals' village." Turner strode into Kian's office. "Not a week goes by without some emergency popping up."

It certainly felt like it, but as Syssi kept reminding Kian, they'd had many weeks of relative calm. Besides, compared to what Turner was dealing with day in and day out, the clan lived in a utopia.

Rescuing hostages from drug cartels and militias was one of the most adrenaline-inducing occupations Kian could imagine, especially since Turner was doing that as a private operator and didn't have an army at his disposal. His teams were comprised of former Special Forces personnel, but his incredible success rate was mainly attributable to his seemingly paranormal ability to execute Mission Impossible-style operations.

"Look who's talking." He chuckled. "I wouldn't trade jobs with you no matter what you paid me. I bet you don't get a single boring moment."

"You'd be surprised." Turner put his briefcase on the conference table. "Recon is seldom exciting. It's long days of sitting and watching mundane everyday activities for the chance of catching something useful. Then there is the planning stage, which I happen to enjoy. I'm in the zone when I visualize the operation unfolding. The mockups and the staging before the action are a little more exciting, and then there is the rescue mission itself, which is high-octane action. For me, however, the most exciting part is saving lives."

He was so full of shit.

Turner loved the impossible stunts only he could pull off, and the sense of satisfaction he got from that probably equaled the gratification he derived from saving the lives of the hostages his team retrieved.

"I assume that you being here means you are not currently in the midst of what you call high-octane activity, or you wouldn't be back home at such a reasonable hour."

He also wouldn't have time for this latest emergency. Turner usually tried to make himself available whenever Kian needed him, but there had been occasions when Turner had declined, and he hadn't pressed the issue.

Kian had managed the clan's defense long before Turner had joined it, and if need be, he could make do without his help.

"You assume correctly." Turner leaned back in his chair. “So, what do you need my advice on? Does it have to do with Jade?"

"It might. I'll give you a quick recap of the latest developments in Safe Haven." Kian pulled two beers out of the mini fridge and handed one to Turner. "As you know, the first paranormal retreat started this week, and one of its attendees befriended Marcel. He's the guy who figured out that the numbers in Jade's fable represent coordinates."

"I remember. He's William's replacement at the new lab, supervising the team of bioinformaticians who are working on deciphering Okidu's journals."

"Correct." Kian uncapped his beer. "The young lady's name is Sofia, and she's a linguist from Finland. As the two got closer, something about her bothered Marcel, and he asked Roni to investigate her past more thoroughly. When Roni didn't find any red flags, Marcel continued seeing her. She asked him to help her arrange a face-to-face meeting with Emmett, which wasn't suspicious either because many of the retreat attendees worship the guy like the guru he pretends to be. When she was alone with Emmett, Sofia made up a story of an argument she'd had with her father, and she beseeched Emmett for his help. Emmett agreed to talk with her father, and when she made the call, the guy on the other end of the line turned out to be a powerful compeller and nearly got Emmett to reveal his real name. Thankfully, Eleanor was monitoring the meeting from the adjacent room, and when she realized that something was wrong, she rushed in and disconnected the call."

Turner frowned. "How did she know that something was off? Did she sense the compulsion?"

"Eleanor is immune to compulsion, so she couldn't have felt anything even if she was with them in the room. As it happened, she was watching the interaction through a computer screen, but since Emmett is her mate, she realized that he was being coerced to reveal things he would have never admitted voluntarily. The compeller's first question had Emmett admit that he was a crook who had in the past manipulated his followers into giving him all of their possessions."

"The Fates must have been looking out for us." Turner lifted the bottle to his lips and took a long sip. "That was a very close call."

Turner was the most logic-driven person Kian knew, and to hear him invoke the Fates was like hearing an atheist thanking God.

"When did you become a believer in divine intervention?"

"It was just a figure of speech." Turner pushed the beer bottle away. "I assume that the compeller who tried to coerce Emmett was Jade's captor, and if Eleanor wasn't there to stop him, he would have discovered what Emmett knew about immortals, and that would have been the worst security breach in the clan's history. That being said, if the compeller had gotten ahold of Marcel or Leon, who know much more than Emmett, it would have been an even worse disaster. Thankfully, neither of them is a head Guardian, so they couldn't have revealed the location of the village, but they still know enough to cause irreparable damage to the clan."

The possible implications had occurred to Kian, but he was also aware of his paranoid tendencies to blow things out of proportion. Hearing the same sentiment voiced by someone as dispassionate and rational as Turner sent a chill coursing through his blood.

Suddenly, the security measures that had been implemented following the compeller's phone call didn't seem enough.

"All incoming landline communications are now rerouted through the voice changer, so that risk has been mitigated. I told Marcel to thrall the team of bioinformaticians to forget what they'd been working on and send them on a mandatory vacation. I also instructed him to cut the connection between the servers there and those in the village. The Guardian security force is on high alert, and I'm sending reinforcements tonight."

"What about the linguist?" Turner asked. "Did they interrogate her?"

"I was just getting to that part." Kian grimaced. "Turns out that Sofia has been compelled to keep quiet. She couldn't say anything about the compeller or even what she was supposed to find out. Eleanor tried to override the compulsion, but she was unsuccessful. Kalugal is going to try later tonight after the girl wakes up."

Turner frowned. "Did they knock her out or drug her?"

"There was no need. Sofia is human, and she was so distraught that when Eleanor took her to the bunker and locked her in one of the bedrooms, she fell asleep from exhaustion. The girl is clearly an amateur who has been forced to do something she has no training or aptitude for."

Turner looked doubtful. "She could also be a great actress."