Page 37 of Dark Gambit: The Play

That shouldn't make him happy, but on a selfish level, it did. If she was confined to the village, she couldn't betray him, and if her feelings for him were real, maybe they could resurrect their relationship.

Was he once again letting his dormant romantic hijack his reason?

Sofia huffed out a breath. "I doubt that I can convince Valstar, let alone Igor, that it was just a big misunderstanding, and that you just returned the pendant to me, asked my forgiveness for mishandling the situation, and invited me to stay for another retreat. Neither of them is that gullible."

Julian lifted a finger. "Hold on, I'm getting instructions." He pulled out a pen and a tiny notebook from his shirt pocket and started writing down bullet points.

After several minutes of scribbling, he lifted his eyes to Sofia and smiled. "Here is how you are going to play this. We were afraid that you were a journalist snooping around the paranormal community we are building, but you managed to convince us that you weren't. We brought a truth-teller to test you, and you were sure that you were done for, but he couldn't tell when you were lying. He was probably a fake, or maybe he couldn't read you because your Kra-ell heritage protected you in some way. He verified that you were telling the truth."

"Is there someone like this in your community?" Sofia asked.

"There is," Marcel said.

"What do I tell him about handling the compulsion attempt on Emmett?"

"You told us that your father is a powerful compeller and your mother is a telepath, and that's the real reason you came to the retreat. You didn't understand why your parents had such incredible gifts, while you did not. You also told us that your father was against you coming because he read about Emmett's crookedness, and when you called him, he wanted to prove to you that he was right, but then Emmett's girlfriend intervened because she knew he would never admit that to anyone other than her. From what you have learned so far, we knew all about compulsion because we had several compellers in our community, including Emmett's girlfriend. The reason we were running the retreats was to collect more people with paranormal abilities and build a community of enhanced people. You suspect that we intend to crossbreed talents to produce an even stronger crop of paranormals, but you don't know that for a fact, and you want to stay on to investigate this for Igor, hoping that he can use the information to his advantage in some way."

Sofia pursed her lips. "It's a good story, but you’re forgetting one thing. Igor can make me tell him the truth."

Julian cast her a blindingly bright smile. "Don't worry about that. We’ve developed an earpiece that will filter out the compulsion. He can't compel you while you are wearing it."

25

SOFIA

That was good to know, but given that Eleanor and Emmett were both compellers, and she had no defense against them now that her mind was free from Igor's compulsion, they could and would force her to do whatever they wanted.

"What are you going to do to the compound?" Sofia asked again.

It was probably futile, but maybe she would be able to chip away at them until they told her their intentions. Not that she could do anything to prevent them from doing it, but she might be able to warn Igor.

"For now, we are just collecting information," Toven said. "We already know the general area, but knowing the exact location will save us trouble." He pulled out his phone and typed in something. "That's the area we were searching. Please point with your finger to where the compound is."

His tone was laced with coercion, and she found herself pointing to the spot despite a tremendous effort to resist.

"I detest compellers," she murmured under her breath.

Tom chuckled. "I get it, I really do, but we all have a job to do here, and it's saving people from unnecessary suffering, current and future."

"Right." Sofia grimaced. "Igor probably tells his victims the same thing."

Ignoring her muttering, Tom handed the phone to the doctor. "Find the location on the tablet. We need a larger map for Sofia to tell us how to get there."

"I don't know how to get there," she said.

"Nice try." Tom patted her shoulder. "I know that you do."

"Don't worry," Mia said. "I promise you that we will not do anything that will result in harming innocents. If we can't find a way to save them without incurring casualties, we will not even attempt it. I guess Igor does not murder or torture any of the people living inside the compound, just those he steals the females from."

"I haven't heard of him killing anyone." The torturing was a different story. Except, he didn't call it torture. He called it punishment.

Julian rose to his feet and brought the tablet to her. "This is a screenshot of the area." He handed her a stylus. "Please mark the spot with an X and draw the road leading to it."

"Do as Julian says," Tom said with compulsion lacing every word.

Her hand moved on its own, marking the spot and a squiggly line leading from the closest paved road to the compound. Since no one asked, she didn't mark the hidden entrances to the underground tunnels. There were four of them, but even though each tunnel was no longer than a hundred feet across, there was no other way to cross the rivers with a vehicle. There were no bridges, and swimming across the freezing water was not something any humans would want to attempt.

Igor had chosen an excellent strategic location for his compound. The place was hidden from above by a dense wood, and to get to it on the ground required precise knowledge of where it was and the entrances to the four separate tunnels.