Page 44 of Dark Gambit: The Play

Sofia let out a breath. "When Valstar trained me for the missions, we got a little closer, and in my naïveté, I thought that he finally approved of me, but I was so damn wrong. I was worthless to him. If he expected me to get caught, he should have at least warned me so I could say goodbye to my family, but he's just the cold-hearted bastard I’ve always known he was." She shook her head. "He's much worse than that. He's a cold-blooded murderer of children. How old were Jade's sons?"

"I think they were adults, but I'm sure there were male children among the slaughtered too."

Vrog had said that he found the rings that the adult males had worn, and he counted all of them. He hadn't mentioned children, who probably hadn't been given rings yet, but since the remains had been incinerated, there was no way to know.

"It makes me so angry." Sofia crossed her arms over her chest. "I wish I could see Valstar just one more time so I could spit in his face."

31

SOFIA

Marcel's suspicion made sense, and it had Sofia seething with anger. The nerve of her damn grandfather. If not for everyone else she cared about in the compound, she would have led the attack against it herself.

Yeah, right.

She was just a human, completely helpless even in comparison to a Kra-ell child. They were so damn strong.

As Marcel opened the door to Leon's office, the first thing she noticed was the cat perched on the windowsill. It was orange colored and fat. The new carrier of her tracker, no doubt.

As they joined Leon, Eleanor, and Emmett at the conference table, Leon got to his feet. "Say hello to Cecilia." He lifted the cat into his arms. "She likes to be petted." He handed her to Sofia.

The cat settled into her arms as if she'd known her forever and started purring.

"I think she likes me." Sofia smoothed her hand over the cat's soft fur. "We didn't have any pets in the compound, but my roommate at the university had a cat. Her name was Hydra, and she was black and white and kind of skinny." Thinking about the friend she was probably never going to see again, Sofia teared up. Stroking Cecilia helped hold the tears at bay. "Is the tracker already inside of her?"

Leon nodded. "Anastasia is really fond of Cecilia, and she warned me that if anything happened to her because of the tracker, she wouldn't let me in her bed for at least a year." He smiled. "But that's an empty threat because my Ana wouldn't last two days without me."

The love in Leon's tone tugged at Sofia's heartstrings. She wanted Marcel to talk about her like that, but those kinds of warm feelings were a thing of the past. He was nice to her, but he still felt cold.

How could he have just turned off his feelings like that? Was he a machine?

He sat next to her and gave the cat a perfunctory pat on the head. "Why did you choose this cat if she's so dear to Anastasia? I've seen a couple of others roaming the grounds."

"One belongs to Riley, and she would have thrown a fit if anyone had even suggested using hers. Cecilia and Albert don't belong to anyone specific, but Albert is much more active. The tracker would have moved too erratically throughout the resort to look as if it was inside a person."

Sofia chuckled. "I didn't know that I moved as much as a lazy cat."

"Do you have the pendant?" Marcel asked.

"It's here." Leon pulled it out of his desk drawer. "I suggest that we take the cat and the pendant to the spot that Sofia previously used to communicate with Valstar, but she should rehearse what she's going to say first."

Evidently, someone had given Leon a full update about what had been discussed in the glass house, and it hadn't been Marcel. It had to be Tom or the mysterious boss who'd been listening through the doctor's tablet.

"She also needs an earpiece," Marcel said.

"Right." Leon pulled a small case out of his pocket and handed it to Sofia. "It might be a little tricky to use the earpiece from the pendant on top of those. You will have to hold it really close."

She opened the case and looked at the two earpieces inside. They looked like a regular pair of earphones, just a little bulkier. "How do they work?"

"It's really quite simple. They are built on the same principle as translating earbuds, but instead of the machine voice talking in a different language, it just repeats the words spoken into it, and it filters the compulsion sound waves. For it to work, it needs to fit very snugly, so none of those waves enter your ear. That's why it is made from a material that molds to the ear canal."

He took the case from her and took out the earpieces. "You put it in like this." He demonstrated. "To activate, you tap on it once, and to deactivate, tap twice. Put them in, and let's practice it."

"I'll take the cat." Eleanor lifted Cecilia off Sofia's lap. "Make sure that you don't have any cat hairs on your hands when you handle the earpieces. You want the seal to be really tight."

Sofia examined her hands. "I don't see any hairs, but maybe I should wash them first."

"That's a good idea. After you get the hang of using them, we will start coaching you on what you're going to say to your contact."