Page 47 of Dark Gambit: The Play

Sofia closed her eyes and prayed to the Mother of All Life for the earpieces to work. If they didn't, the charade would end in a moment.

"Good afternoon, Sofia," the robotic voice said. "Valstar informs me that you managed to wiggle out of the situation you were in and even gain a foot up. Is that true?"

"Yes. I pulled out the best acting of my life. After they heard my sad story about my supernaturally talented parents and how desperate I was to have a useful talent like theirs, they felt sorry for me and invited me to join their paranormal community. I suspect that their goal is to crossbreed the various talents and produce even more enhanced humans. Not only that, but they also seem to have lots of money, so they must have rich backers. I would love to stay on and continue the investigation, sir. I don't know if any of this information will be beneficial to you, but in the long run, a new breed of enhanced humans might pose a problem. They have compellers, telepaths, empaths, remote viewers, and all kinds of other talents that are great for spying."

"Indeed. That was good investigative work, Sofia. Keep me informed."

Sofia's knees nearly buckled from the relief. "I will, but it's not safe for me to call every day. I managed to get away today, but I have a feeling that they will be watching me closely from now on. I can't do it anywhere near the lodge because I think they are monitoring outgoing signals. Every time I need to call, I go on a run or a walk of at least three miles. The exercise excuse worked before when I wasn't a suspect, but if I keep doing this every day, eventually, they are going to appoint a guard to accompany me, and I won't be able to communicate at all."

"Call whenever you can. The information you collect about those paranormal talents is important. Who else other than Emmett's girlfriend is a compeller?"

"I met a guy named Tom and another one called Malcolm, but they told me they have more. Not everyone is in Safe Haven. They have other locations."

She purposefully avoided mentioning that Emmett was a compeller. It just seemed like something Igor shouldn't know. The other names were meaningless to him, but he knew who Emmett was.

"Are they strong compellers?" he asked.

"No, sir. They must be very weak. Emmett's girlfriend and Tom tried to compel me to tell them the truth about my so-called father, but they weren't able to break through the shields you've built for me. I stuck to my story."

"Good job, Sofia. Find out what you can about their other locations and about the kinds of talents they have and the talents they intend to breed."

"Yes, sir."

34

MARCEL

Sofia ended the call and pumped her fist in the air. "I did it!" She turned in a circle, leaned toward Marcel, and kissed the cat on the head.

Reaching for the pendant, he double-checked that the transmission had been terminated and ran a compact handheld device over it to make absolutely sure that it wasn't transmitting.

Sofia gave him a hurt look, but that hadn't been avoidable. He still didn't trust her a hundred percent.

His Russian was so-so, but it had been good enough for him to understand the conversation and approve of Sofia's act, but he might have missed some nuances of meaning that might have clued Igor in. Later, when they returned to Leon's office, he would listen to the translation of the recording that the earpiece had made.

Leon had been listening to it all along, and so had Eleanor through her translating earpiece, but neither of them spoke Russian with any fluency. Perhaps they should ask Morris to listen to it just in case the three of them had missed something.

"Good job." Eleanor clapped Sofia on the back. "That was your best performance yet. Do you think Igor bought it?"

"He had to. He used compulsion to get me to tell him the truth, and he's never had trouble compelling me before. I just hope he's not aware of the translating earpieces trick."

"He's not," Marcel said. "We developed the technology in-house."

Sofia took off the pendant and handed it to him. "Please, lock it back in the safe. I don't want it anywhere near me."

He put it in his pocket. "Let's head back. I'm sure you're hungry after all the excitement."

"What now?" She fell in step with him. "What am I supposed to do here?"

"There is one more thing." Eleanor handed her the cat.

When she cast Marcel a sidelong smirk, he wondered what she was plotting. With her gaunt face and small, dark eyes, that smirk looked evil.

"How do you feel about Marcel?" She shocked Sofia and him with the question. "And you have to tell us the truth."

"That's not fair," he murmured.

Eleanor shrugged. "All is fair in love and war. Or is it the other way around? War and love? I will have to look it up." She leveled her intense eyes at Sofia. "Talk, girl."