Page 38 of Dark Gambit: The Play

Julian looked at the map and frowned. "I don't see any bridges marked over these rivers."

Sofia shrugged. "Not everything is marked on maps."

Let them try to find the entrances to the tunnels. It would take them days even with the map.

When Julian's tablet made a whoosh sound, Sofia knew that he'd sent the picture to his boss, the one who had been listening and probably watching everything through the tablet's camera and microphone.

"We should head back," Julian said.

Toven rose to his feet, and the rest followed, except for Mia of course.

"How does it feel to be free of the compulsion?" He offered her his hand,

"Am I free?" Sofia took his hand reluctantly.

"You are freer than you were before. I apologize for having to compel you to tell us what we need to know, and I can add my promise to Mia's that we will not harm any innocents in your community."

"Why should I believe you?"

He shrugged. "You don't know us, so you have no reason to. But we have no reason to make promises to you either. We can force you to cooperate with us whether you want to or not."

That was true.

"Goodbye, Sofia." Mia extended her hand. "I hope to see you again when you join our community. I'm certain you will like it much more than your old one."

"I will just be exchanging one prison for another. At least in my old one, I was allowed to attend university and have the illusion of freedom."

26

KIAN

When Sofia had left with Marcel and two of the Guardians, Julian turned the tablet's screen on.

"Good job, Toven," Kian said. "You managed to free Sofia's mind without turning it into mush."

Toven took Mia's hand. "I couldn't have done it without Mia's power. It was such a wonderful experience working with her. She somehow turned my power from a sledgehammer into a cozy blanket. From now on, I will only compel with her by my side."

A fetching blush crept up Mia's delicate face. "I didn't feel anything. I truly don't know what I am contributing, if anything."

"But you can observe the results," Toven said. "When I first compelled Sofia, I managed to penetrate only the most recent layer, and I caused her a bad headache. When you enhanced my power, I managed to free her from Igor's compulsion, and she felt no discomfort whatsoever."

"Mia is a valuable addition to our arsenal," Turner said. "But the bottom line is that we can't take on Igor's compound with the force we have. If we want to strike a preemptive blow and eliminate the threat of him before it manifests, we need to think creatively."

"Turner summed it up succinctly." Kian uncapped his bottle of water and took a sip. "Igor has about a hundred trained male warriors, and we know that the Kra-ell females are formidable as well. We are talking about a hundred and fifty purebloods and hybrids, each of which is three or four times stronger than a Guardian. But even if we were equally matched in strength, we don't have that many Guardians. If I pull everyone who ever served on the force from all three of our locations, that's only ninety-four."

"They seem to have less advanced weaponry than we do, and they mainly train to fight hand-to-hand." Turner leaned back in his chair. "Also, they might be susceptible to Merlin's sleeping potion. The weak solution he prepared for the children in Vrog's school knocked Vrog out just enough for Richard to take him down. If he prepares a stronger solution, we can test it on Vrog and Emmett and dial it in for quick results. The problem is that we don't have a pureblood to test it on."

"What about attacking from the air?" Julian suggested. "We could use precisely calibrated missiles to target Igor's office and take him out. We can get Sofia to draw us a plan of the compound."

Turner shook his head. "Sofia doesn't know enough. We need to get our hands on one of the pureblooded males. We can do that by kidnapping one or two of them while they go on a hunt, or we can try to move Sofia out of Safe Haven along with the cat that has her implant and see if anyone follows her. I have a hunch that we will catch a pureblood, maybe even Valstar. If the communicator in the pendant is as basic as Marcel thinks, its range can't be too great, and someone needs to be nearby to forward the signal all the way to Karelia."

"We should plan on both," Kian said. "Whichever comes to fruition first will be the one we will execute."

Turner nodded. "Agreed."

"Can you get your local guy to snoop around over the next week?" Kian asked.

The contractor was supposed to end his operations on Friday, local time, which was two hours ago. He was probably still in the area.