Page 2 of Dark Gambit: The Play

"That's possible, but we won't know until we can use compulsion on her ourselves."

"What about thralling? It works differently than compulsion, so Marcel or one of the other immortals can peek into her recent memories, and if need be, the Clan Mother can look into her long-term memories."

"I wouldn't get the Clan Mother involved in something like this." Kian took a swig from his beer. "It's not worth risking her. Marcel tried to get a peek into Sofia's mind before contacting Roni, and he encountered a wall. The compeller had somehow created a barrier in there."

"Interesting. I didn't know that could be done with compulsion. Did you check with Kalugal or Toven if they can do it?"

Kian shook his head. "I didn't, but I will. There is more, though. Sofia had a pendant with a transmitter hidden in it, which was how she communicated with the compeller, and it was on when things were going down in Emmett's office. Fortunately, Marcel is a former Guardian and a smart guy, and he realized the opportunity for feeding the other side misinformation. He acted as if he didn't know that the locket had a transmitter, and he pretended to think that Sofia was a journalist looking to write an unflattering story about Emmett. He kept up that charade until the pendant was locked in the safe, and Leon ran a bug detector over the girl."

Turner's pale blue eyes started glowing. "Excellent. We can use that transmitter to our advantage. First, though, you need the girl's mind unlocked, and you shouldn't wait to see if Kalugal can do it. Send in the big guns from the get-go."

"You mean Toven?"

"I was thinking of Annani, but since you are so adamant about not getting her involved, Toven will do, and he might be even better. I don't know it for a fact, but given that all the males in his family are or were compellers, I suspect that he might be a stronger compeller than the Clan Mother. Have him meet Sofia face-to-face, just not at Safe Haven, and not until she has been checked for trackers. She might have a tracker that was surgically implanted, and when it's not active, the regular bug detector won't catch it. You need to send Julian with an MRI machine or use one that's available locally. The compeller who sent Sofia might activate the tracker when he doesn't hear from her." Turner reached for his beer. "It's possible that he sent an amateur on purpose, hoping that she would get caught."

"Why would he do that?"

Turner got that distant look on his face that told Kian he was organizing his thoughts.

"He must be very confident in his compulsion hold on the girl because he's not afraid that she'll disclose anything that can lead us to him. He also assumes that since Safe Haven is a resort run by humans and hosts humans on a regular basis, it's not the headquarters of whatever he suspects is going on here. When his spy gets caught, he activates the tracker, hoping that she will lead him to us."

"I have to admit that didn't occur to me. Someone who murdered the males of an entire tribe to get the females probably has no qualms about sacrificing a human pawn."

Turner nodded. "It's a possibility, but we shouldn't discount her culpability in it just yet. We need to proceed with caution as if she is an efficient spy, and also as if she’s a sacrificial pawn."

"Of course. Could she have a communication device implanted in her body as well?"

Turner shrugged. "Everything is possible, but it's not likely. Two-way communication requires more power and a larger format. In either case, the MRI will find it, and Julian will remove it. We've been in this scenario before, and Julian knows what to do. After Sofia is certified clean of bugs and trackers, Toven can meet her somewhere outside of Safe Haven." Turner leaned down and pulled his laptop out of his satchel. "I'll get on finding a safe house for them right away. We can't waste any more time."

2

SOFIA

As Sofia nibbled at the food Marcel had brought, she was indifferent to the taste and texture of what was going into her mouth. Her stomach was too tense to feel hunger, but she knew that she needed to eat to keep up her strength, and she was anxious to be done so Marcel could call his compeller friend, a guy named Kalugal.

It wasn't a name she'd ever heard before, and she wondered what nationality Kalugal was. It wasn't one she'd encountered in all the languages she'd studied. Could it be Indian? She hadn't studied Hindi. Although she wanted to, it wasn't one of the languages that Igor was interested in, and now she might never get the chance to read theMahabharata, theRamayana, and theBhagavad Gitain the language they'd been written in.

As if that was a big concern given the trouble she was in.

She should be more worried about what was happening to her family and whether Igor had retaliated against them after her failure to deliver worthwhile information to him.

Whatever that might be.

The only thing he might find interesting was that he had a lot of competition he wasn't aware of. Who knew that humans could be compellers?

Eleanor and Emmett weren't strong enough to offer Igor a run for his money, but maybe Kalugal was?

Other pureblooded Kra-ell could compel as well, but comparing their abilities to Igor's was like comparing an ant to a rhino. Could a human like Kalugal or someone else be stronger than Igor?

Could he or she free the compound from Igor's oppressive rule?

But who was to say that the new compeller would be any better?

They could be worse. Much worse.

Igor mostly ignored the humans in his compound. As long as they did what they were told and didn't make trouble, they could live reasonably well. They had their own quarters, and no one bothered them there. Well, except for the breeding of hybrids that the young human females were subjected to.

Rape wasn't officially sanctioned, but no woman in her right mind dared to refuse an invitation to a pureblooded male's bed. The consequences of that would be dire for her and for her family.