Page 51 of Dark Gambit Reliance

"I don't know. His other females are allowed to accept invitations from pureblooded males when they are not in their fertile cycle, and they do. But Jade doesn't. I never invited her, so I don't know for sure, but I never saw her with other males."

"If he allows the other females to have sex with other males, he probably allows her too. Besides, you just need to issue the invitation. She doesn't have to accept. Your job is only to deliver the message in a way that will seem as if you are offering sex. You are to invite her to hunt for Veskars on Friday at two in the afternoon, where the three rivers intersect."

"What are Veskars?" Pavel asked.

Toven smiled. "Magical rats on your home world that grant wishes to those who can catch them. They are very difficult to hunt. It's part of the sexual innuendo. Do you understand?"

"I do."

"Repeat the instructions."

Pavel parroted what Toven had told him.

"Good. I just need to do one more thing." Toven tried to reach into the guy's mind, but it was like trying to thrall another god. He had no access.

Damn. That wasn't good. The explosives were no good, and their entire plan resting on Jade's ability to eliminate Igor wasn't good either.

"You will deliver the message to Jade. You will not tell anyone, and you will not make a note or communicate in any form, verbal or nonverbal, that you were captured and interrogated. You will act as if nothing unusual has happened. Repeat what I told you to do."

After the pureblood repeated the instructions word for word, Toven shifted his gaze to Yamanu. "He's all yours."

36

KIAN

"Any news from the field?" Turner asked as he walked into Kian's office.

"Not yet."

"It's after four in the afternoon over there." He put his coffee cup down on Kian's desk. "Toven should be done."

"He'll call when they are on their way back."

The abduction of the guard had been scheduled for two in the afternoon, right at the start of their shift. At night, sound carried much farther, and they would've been forced to leave the van on the main road and traverse the dirt path on foot, which presented more problems than a daytime operation.

Ten more minutes of tense anticipation passed before the call finally came in.

"Toven." Kian activated the speaker. "Is everyone okay?"

"Good morning, Kian," Toven said with a condescending tone that reminded Kian of his mother. "Everyone is fine."

She would've sounded the same if he'd failed to precede his inquiry with a socially acceptable greeting.

Kian couldn't care less what most people thought about his manners or lack thereof, but Toven was a god, and he needed to be addressed with the same respect as Annani.

"Forgive my impatience. I've been worried."

"That's understandable. We are on our way back to St. Petersburg."

"How did it go?"

"The operation went without a hitch. The Guardians tranquilized the guards and brought the pureblood to the van. After I overrode Igor's compulsion, he confirmed everything that the two hybrids had told us. However, he added a crucial piece of information that only the purebloods are privy to, and it is a game changer. Igor has the entire compound rigged. If he's attacked, and he thinks that he's going to lose, he'll blow the place up along with everyone in it."

Turner released a breath. "That requires a change of plans."

Kian didn't buy that. "Despots don't go down with the sinking ship. He's either lying to the purebloods about the explosives, or he has an escape tunnel or some other means of getting out of there. He's also not going to escape alone. He needs his inner circle, and I bet they all know where that escape tunnel is."

"If there is one, it would be in the office building," Turner said. "That's where they spend most of their time. The question is, where's the exit point? My bet is that it's somewhere in their hunting grounds, which means that he must have a vehicle hidden nearby. If I were him, I would have a boat and a car or an amphibian stashed where I can get to them. When the rivers freeze, they turn into roads and can be driven over, but in the summer, he will need a boat. An amphibian combines the two, but it's a slow-moving vehicle. A helicopter would be better, but Sofia would have heard or seen it taking off or landing, and she didn't."