Page 23 of Dark Chains: First Link
"That's what I told them." Kian set his mug down. "But Dimitri's argument is compelling. Eliminating the breeding program will be a major blow to the Brotherhood."
"He's not wrong about the strategic value," Turner said. "Ending the breeding program would be the single most damaging thing we can do to the Brotherhood short of destroying the island itself. But the operational reality is what it is. We don't have the numbers to take that island, and there is no way we can just evacuate two thousand people without engaging the entire Brotherhood."
"He asked if we could save at least some of them," Onegus said. "Kian told him maybe."
Toven leaned back in his chair. "Maybe is a commitment disguised as a hedge."
"I know," Kian said. "But I didn't want to just shoot it down and crush their hopes. Some is better than none."
"Fair enough." Toven picked up one of the sandwiches. "Since these eight soldiers can thrall their way out of the island, I guess adding a few more people to the eleven involved is not going to overly complicate matters."
Kian looked at Turner. "What can we realistically do?"
Turner flipped to a new page on his yellow pad and drew a vertical line down the middle. On the left side, he wrotepriorities. On the right,assets.
"Before we discuss the Dormants' enclosure, or even assisting our new friends, we need to address the fact that we still havea primary objective on that island that takes precedence over everything else."
"Khiann," Toven said.
"Khiann and the four others in stasis," Kian confirmed. "Losham's engineer found a solution to retrofit the basement so the excavations can continue, but it will take about three days, and only after that is done, can the crews return to their work. Our extraction plan, as it currently stands, involves deploying an EMP to disable the island's electronics and sending in our team to recover the chests during the chaos. It's risky, it's messy, and there's significant potential for collateral damage."
Turner wrote EMP plan on the left side and circled it.
"But now we have a new variable." He wrote Enhanced Soldiers under assets. "Eight soldiers with the ability to thrall other immortals and possibly other talents we are not aware of. We know that they can communicate telepathically with one another, which is a tremendous advantage in any sort of operation."
"Volkov said that they have access to most of the island," Onegus added. "That's a great advantage as well."
"It is." Turner put his pen down. "But here is the problem. They might be ready to board a ship in a matter of days, but we can't have them doing that. Once they escape, the island will enter a lockdown, and security will be heightened. It wouldn't matter if we proceed with the EMP plan, but I was hoping to avoid it. Now that we are no longer dealing with booby traps, we can use more conventional methods to achieve our objectives. Disabling the cameras and alarm in the cove and the tunnel isnot complicated, and it might be enough for what we need. That way, no one would even know we were involved."
Kian frowned. "Even if we pull off a flawless operation somehow, they will know that the chests are missing."
Turner smiled. "Will they?"
"You lost me." Kian leaned back in his chair. "How would they not?"
"Losham's brothers assume that he is searching for treasure. They don't know anything about the chests. When the crews reach the hidden chamber under the mansion's basement and find it empty, the assumption will be one of two things. One, that Navuh has played an elaborate hoax on them in order to flush out a traitor. Or two, that Losham got the treasure and kept it for himself. We, of course, can compel Losham to say that there was nothing there."
Kian tried to find fault in Turner's assessment, but it was solid.
"What about the digging crews?" Toven asked. "They will know what they found, and I'm sure that Kolhood and the others have spies among them."
"We need to get to the chest before they finish digging and finish it ourselves," Turner said. "That will require exact timing and compelling Losham to clear the basement of any personnel either right when we are ready to go or as a matter of protocol every night. Once we have the chests, we will cover the chamber with debris so it will look as if it wasn't breached yet. Once they get to it, there will be nothing there."
Kian shook his head. "I don't see how we can time it so perfectly. We rely on Losham's oral reports, which are just estimates."
Turner smiled. "That's where our new friends might come in. They can thrall the crews to report to them the actual progress while reporting a more prolonged schedule to everyone else. That way, we will be there in time to get the chests out while Losham's brothers are still under the impression that it would take days to breach the chamber."
"I don't like it," Kian said. "I don't trust those soldiers, and I don't want to tell them our plan."
The knowing smile on Turner's face meant that he was already a step ahead of everyone else. "These soldiers already know about the chests because they have access to Losham's head. They know everything that he does. Instead of telling them our plan, we will provide another reason for what we will ask of them."
"Like what?" Lokan asked.
"In theory, the enhanced soldiers could thrall the excavation crews into loading the chests onto a ship. We will make them think that this is our plan."
The room was quiet as the implications settled.
"Why not do that?" Toven asked. "That's a much better alternative. No EMP, no collateral damage, no risk to civilian aircraft, and no Guardian casualties. The chests go onto a ship under the Brotherhood's own logistics chain, transported to a port where we pick them up. The entire operation can be executed without the Brotherhood even realizing that whatever was in the hidden chamber is gone."
