Page 42 of Dark Gambit: The Play

Sofia snorted. "That doesn't work all that well for humans, who are much less hotheaded than the Kra-ell. Democracy is not suitable for everyone." She leaned back. "Besides, Jade found a way to teach the children about the old ways of female rule with her stories, so the concept would not be completely foreign to people. I wonder if she did that to prepare the next generation for her own rule."

"How did she manage to do that under Igor's nose?"

"She used Eleanor's tactic to circumvent Igor's compulsion. She uses fables and fantasies to plant the seeds of ideas in the children's minds."

"That's gutsy of her. How come he didn't forbid it?"

"Most people think about those stories as just that. They don't think about the hidden meanings." She gave him a tentative smile. "It's like what Da Vinci did with his paintings. He couldn't speak out about the church's narrative, so he hid his message in his paintings." She chuckled. "I didn't notice anything unusual about The Last Supper until I read theDa VinciCode. After that, it became glaringly obvious to me that the apostle on the right was a woman. There are only two people without beards in the picture, and the other one has really big hands. Her hands are small, and they are demurely clasped in front of her."

"I get what you're trying to say. We've all seen that picture countless times, but until someone pointed the anomaly out to us, our eyes glossed over it."

29

VROG

Vrog's heart was pounding as he took the steps up to Kian's office two at a time, but it wasn't due to exertion. Emmett had only shared with him and Aliyah the bare minimum of details about Jade's situation, and he was eager to learn more.

"Good morning, Vrog." Kian motioned to the conference table. "Please, take a seat."

"Good morning." Vrog nodded his head in Turner's direction.

The guy's presence at the meeting meant that things were getting serious and that Kian was considering helping Jade, but Turner might not be the best person for the job. Vrog had heard about his hostage retrieval operations, and the guy was supposedly the best in his field, but he was used to rescuing humans from other humans.

The Kra-ell were a much more formidable adversary.

Kian put a bottle of water next to each of them and sat down. "You are probably wondering why I invited you to join us this morning."

"I assume that it has something to do with Jade. Did you find out anything more about where she's being held?"

"We know the exact location, but we don't know much about what we are dealing with. I hope that you can help us with that."

Vrog's heart sank. He wasn't a warrior, and he knew nothing about strategy. He'd hoped that Kian had a plan. "I only have experience with Jade's tribe and how she ran things. It was also a long time ago. I wouldn't know the first thing about the security measures her captors employ."

"Since we assume that they all came on the same ship, we can also assume that they received similar training, which they maintained after getting shipwrecked." Kian leaned back in his chair. "Let me bring you up to speed about what we've learned so far."

When he was done, Vrog's fangs were fully elongated, and he suspected that his eyes were glowing blood red. Nevertheless, he was a civilized male, and he kept his tone level when he was finally able to respond. "What do you need from me?"

"I need to know about the training regimen of pureblooded and hybrid Kra-ell in Jade's tribe. Did all of them train? Just the warriors? What weapons did they train with?"

"All the pureblooded males trained. Their job was to protect the tribe. The females trained as well, but it was more of a sport than warrior training. Their job was to lead and produce the next generation. The hybrids were different. Jade chose only those who had the aptitude for combat to train as warriors. I was smart and good with numbers, so she put me in charge of supervising the tribe's investments in various businesses. Others had different jobs. The hybrid females were treated almost the same as the pureblooded ones, just with no authority. Nevertheless, all the hybrids were regarded as second-class tribe members, including the females."

"What about technology?" Turner asked. "How advanced were they?"

"Jade was very technologically savvy. She used what she knew to make money for the tribe."

Turner looked at Kian. "She or one of the others in her original group must have had engineering or scientific training. Using technology is simple. Building it requires learned skills."

"True." Kian took a sip from his bottle. "If I were stranded on an alien planet, and my ship was destroyed, I would become a caveman and a hunter. I wouldn't know how to build any technologically advanced things. The clan had knowledge thanks to Ekin's tablet that Annani appropriated, but we didn't know what to do with it until our people learned the basics of engineering from humans." He looked at Vrog. "Do you know who the tech person was?"

"I guess it was Voltav. Jade always took him with her on her business trips, and now that I think about it, I didn't see him training as often as the others. Jade herself was pretty knowledgeable, though. I don't know if she arrived with the knowledge or learned it from Voltav and human sources."

"What about weapons?" Kian asked.

"We had semi-automatic pistols and semi-automatic combat shotguns, but the purebloods preferred mode of fighting was hand-to-hand. They also trained with swords and other cold weapons, and they did some target practice with the guns, but not often."

"Sofia reported the same thing." Kian pushed the bottle away. "We have an advantage in that regard. The problem is that Igor's compound is full of innocents, including children, and we can't just bomb the place. So far, the noise cannon seems like the best option, but that's problematic as well because of the humans, and especially the children."

"A noise cannon?" Vrog asked.