Page 29 of Dark Gambit: The Play

"I haven't heard from them yet."

"Then come to bed. They will call you if they have something to report."

Kian had come home less than half an hour ago to take a quick shower and change into a fresh set of clothes. Sleep was not part of the plan.

It was already five in the morning, and there was still a lot to be done, but he planned to do it from his home office. Once things were on track, he would catch a little nap before starting his day.

He walked over to the bed and wrapped his arms around Syssi's warm body. "Go back to sleep, my love." He kissed her lips. "I'll be in my office."

"You need to get some sleep."

"I'll catch a short nap on the couch later. I’m expecting a call from Toven or Marcel any minute now."

She yawned. "Wake me up when you hear from them."

"I will." He kissed her again.

Kian had no intention of waking her up. She had work tomorrow and a baby to take care of. She needed her sleep.

He made himself a cup of coffee, took the mug to his office, sat on the couch, and propped his feet on the coffee table.

It had been a long while since he'd pulled an all-nighter, but it wasn't a big deal. Back in his bachelor days, he'd done so many of them that it was like slipping back into an old pair of pants that were a little too tight but still familiar.

The call from Toven came at seven minutes after five.

"Hold on. I'll get Turner on the line with us."

"Isn't it too late?" Toven asked. "Or rather too early?"

"He didn't go to sleep either." Kian called Turner. "You are on the line with Toven."

"Good evening," Toven said. "Mia, Marcel, and Julian are here as well."

"Good evening to you all. Did it work?" Turner echoed Syssi's question.

"It did, and it didn't," Toven said. "The more recent compulsions were not difficult to override, but the old ones that have probably been routinely reinforced are very difficult to overpower. With Mia's help, I can probably break through, but I don't want to push too hard and fry Sofia's mind. She was exhausted and got a severe headache just from the little I managed to get out of her. We had to take a break and let her rest."

That wasn't good.

Kian had been sure that Mia's help wouldn't be needed, and it was very disturbing that it was.

"What did you learn so far?"

"We have a name for the compeller. It's Igor, which is obviously not his original Kra-ell name, and it makes me wonder why he chose to adopt a human one. Did he have a shameful name like Emmett's? Perhaps he's a hybrid, and his father or mother wasn't happy about his arrival. Marcel suspects that he's half Kra-ell and half god."

Kian's blood chilled in his veins. "Why does Marcel suspect that?"

"Igor's power level. The Kra-ell are not long-lived enough to have their power grow that much. But since we don't know much about them, they might be naturally more gifted that way. Still, Marcel's hypothesis is a possibility, and until we know more, we shouldn't dismiss it."

"When are you going to continue the interrogation?"

"I want Sofia to get some sleep, but Marcel is impatient, and he wants to wake her up in a couple of hours."

Kian wanted to be done with it as well, but not if it meant causing damage to the girl. "We can wait an hour or two longer. I bet everyone is tired and wouldn't mind some shut-eye."

Crawling into bed with Syssi could be so lovely for an hour or two.

"I need to take care of the bioinformaticians," Marcel said. "I planned to do it today, but if we let Sofia sleep more than two hours, I won't make it back in time to open up the lab for them, and they'll wonder what happened."