Page 30 of Dark Gambit: The Play

"You were supposed to thrall them to forget the project and send them home," Turner said.

"There was no time."

"It doesn't have to be you," Kian said. "Leon can do that. In fact, it would be easier to explain why they are suddenly being sent on a paid vacation. He can tell them that you had an emergency and there is no one available to take your place. Case closed."

"That could work." Marcel sounded relieved. "Nevertheless, if we want to keep up the charade and have Sofia contact Igor with false information, we can't wait too long to have her do that. He might send people to retrieve her, if he hasn't done it already."

"I doubt it," Turner said. "Given the sophistication of the tracker compared to the communication device she was given, Igor wanted Sofia to get caught. In my opinion, he has people on standby in one of the nearby towns, and he's waiting for her to get moved. He won't do anything until that tracker leaves Safe Haven."

"Then maybe we should move it," Toven said. "We can set a trap for Igor's people and catch them. I'll be much less reluctant to force my way into the minds of those murderers than I am with Sofia."

Turner chuckled. "Sounds tempting, but we shouldn't do that until we know what we are dealing with. If Igor's force is superior to ours, our best tactic is to evade him at all costs. We will need to abandon Safe Haven and do our best to hide from him the same way we do with Navuh."

Toven groaned. "I hate this. I'd rather fight than hide."

The god had been hiding for thousands of years. Was he suddenly eager to fight because he had the clan's backing?

Kian would have loved to fight as well, but his number one priority was to keep his people safe, and his own wishes and desires were a distant second.

"We would all prefer to fight rather than hide," Kian said. "I want to find the bastard, free Jade and the other females, and dispose of Igor and his cronies, but the safety of my people comes first."

"Of course," Toven capitulated. "I'll call you after I get more information out of Sofia."

"I'd rather be part of the interrogation," Turner said. "Kian and I can't be there in person, but we can be via a video call."

"Why video?" Kian asked. "I don't want her to see us. The less we need to erase from her memories later, the better."

"What do you plan to do with Sofia?" Marcel asked.

"I don't know yet. It depends on her part in this. If she's just someone random that the compeller found and forced to do his bidding, we might be able to erase her memories of us and let her loose somewhere with a new identity and enough money to start a new life."

"She is not," Toven said. "Sofia is part of Igor's community. She told us that she made a monthly trek back home that was a nearly eight-hour drive. I assume that it was a mandatory trip to get the compulsion reinforced."

"That's what Navuh does with his warriors," Kian said.

"I wouldn't risk releasing her even if she was randomly picked," Turner said. "Igor might have implanted a deep-seated compulsion in her to react to a certain trigger and find her way back to him or let him know where she is. We can't allow that. Like it or not, we are stuck with her. The best thing we can do is fake her death and keep her with us for the rest of her life."

20

SOFIA

The smell of coffee woke Sofia up, or maybe it was the bed sinking under Marcel's weight.

She didn't need to open her eyes to know it was him.

His scent was so familiar by now that she couldn't mistake him for anyone else. Besides, she would have known it was him even if her nose was blocked up. Her body's reaction to his presence was predictable as well. She longed to reach for him, to pull him to her and press against him, but most of all, she wanted him to wrap his arms around her and tell her that everything would be okay, and that they belonged together.

But wishing wouldn't make it so, and it only made her feel sad for what could have been but probably would never be.

"Is it morning yet?" Reluctantly, she opened her eyes and pushed up against the pillows.

"It's after eight in the morning." He handed her the mug. "I wish we could let you sleep more, but we don't have time."

Why not?

What did they expect to learn from her?

If Tom compelled her to reveal the compound's location, she would have no choice but to tell them where it was, but she couldn't tell them anything useful about its defenses because she didn't know much about them.