Page 13 of Dark Chains: First Link
"Noted," K said, and nothing in his tone indicated whether Dimitri had passed the test or not. "What else are you offering?"
"Intelligence about the Brotherhood's operations, infrastructure, and military capabilities. The Eight enhanced soldiers can share what they know, and that's a lot. They have been assisting Losham. That's how they knew about your contact with him."
"Then they must know that we can get whatever intelligence we want from Losham," K said. "We don't need the soldiers for that. Anything else?"
Dimitri looked at Mattie.
She was sitting very still on the bed beside Number One, her eyes locked on the phone and her mouth tight. She was waiting for him to tell K about the women in the enclosure
He had promised her.
He had fought her on it, debated it, pointed out the impossibility of it, but in the end, he had promised.
"There's one more thing," Dimitri said. "In fact, that's the biggest item on my list, and I ask that you hear me out before you respond."
"That sounds ominous, but go ahead," K said.
"I don't know if you are aware of this, but the Brotherhood has a breeding program to produce immortal soldiers. They keep females who carry the immortal gene in a separate compound on the island and use them to produce children. The boys are taken when they reach puberty, transitioned into immortals, and inducted into the Brotherhood's army. The girls remain in the enclosure and enter the same breeding program as their mothers. It's been going on for thousands of years."
"We are well aware of that," K said, and there was a note of sadness in his voice, a softening in the gruffness that encouraged Dimitri to continue.
"We want to liberate them," he said. "The women and the children."
The silence that followed stretched for long seconds, and Dimitri had to fight the impulse to fill it with justifications and explanations and all the arguments that they had rehearsed.
He didn't.
He let the silence do its work, because silence after a statement like that was the prelude either to an agreement or to a refusal, and talking over it wouldn't change the outcome.
"How many people are we talking about?" K asked in the same sad, soft tone.
"Approximately two thousand. About twelve hundred women and eight hundred children."
"That's impossible."
Dimitri had expected that, had prepared for it, had told Mattie a dozen times that this was the most likely response, but the response still felt like a punch to the gut.
"What you're describing is no longer an escape and rescue operation," K continued. "It's a full-scale war declaration on a fortified island with over ten thousand immortal warriors. It would be a bloodbath. I'm sorry, but we can't do that."
Dimitri's heart sank. "Can't or won't?" he asked, and he was surprised by how steady his voice was.
"Can't," K said. "If I had the resources to take on that island while sparing the lives of innocents, I would have done it a long time ago and freed those women along with all the other people they keep there against their wishes."
K sounded genuine. He wasn't negotiating, using stated impossibility as a bargaining position to extract better terms. He was stating facts.
Dimitri swallowed. "Can you at least help save some of them?"
"Maybe."
Maybe was better than a no.
Dimitri glanced at Mattie and winced.
Her face was pale, her jaw tight, and her eyes were bright with the sheen of tears.
Summoning every argument that Mattie had presented over the past few days, Dimitri turned his attention back to K.
"I understand the limitations but consider this. Every male child born to those women is a soldier for the Brotherhood's army. The breeding program is the engine that powers the Brotherhood's growth. It's how they expand their capabilities. Eliminating that program would deal a heavy blow to your enemy."
