Page 26 of Dark Chains: First Link
"Kolhood will probably demand the mansion be sealed again," Losham said. "He doesn't know what our father hid there, but he knows that he doesn't want me to find it. I'm surprised that he didn't demand to have his men do the excavation so he could get his hands on whatever treasure was found."
"He doesn't want to appear interested, but he has people watching the mansion and probably among the crews."
"I know." Losham put his cup down.
Once the chests with the five immortals in stasis were found, Dave would need to thrall those watchers and the excavation crew to forget what they saw. The question was how to get those chests off the island and the clan's compeller off his back.
Losham was squeezed from two sides, with the clan pulling his strings on one side and his brothers pressuring him on the other, waiting for their father to re-emerge from the harem, which was not going to happen.
Losham still didn't know how he would handle it when it became clear that Navuh was not coming back.
All he was doing was buying time and hoping his brothers would not only become accustomed to the new cooperative-style system but also realize that it was better than living under their father's yoke or killing each other in a quest for absolute power.
"Schedule the meeting for Monday," Losham said. "That gives me the weekend to prepare. It also gives Kolhood enough time to rally the other brothers, but he has probably already done that."
Rami refilled his cup from the French press. "Do you think he's trying to turn the younger brothers against you?"
"I know he is." Losham lifted his cup. "He's not missing a trick to gain influence."
"You make it sound like you and he are running for election."
"That's because we are. Our father ruled by a so-called divine right, which was not divine and was barely a right. Navuh was the son of a powerful god and a simple human woman, but he was blessed with an unparalleled power of compulsion that he dressed up in religious authority."
Rami nodded. "You have Dave."
"Dave is not nearly as strong as my father, and I don't have my father's charisma. What I have, however, are superior organizational and strategic skills that none of my brothers possess. I'm also not power hungry, and I'm willing to share the throne. The question is whether they are willing to do the same."
Losham probably didn't have anything of his father because Navuh hadn't sired him. It was probably some human worker who resembled Navuh. Losham wanted to believe that wasn't true, and that what the harem maid had told him about Areana and Navuh's exclusivity had been a recent development. Perhaps Navuh had sired children with the other harem ladies in the past, but then got tired of them and wanted only one.
On the other hand, did he really want Navuh's genes?
Navuh was powerful, but he was also unstable and prone to explosive temper tantrums. Losham enjoyed his analytical mind and inner calm, so perhaps it was better that Navuh wasn't his real father.
Rami didn't bother to challenge any of the statements because both were true.
Kolhood led the army, a position that was advantageous in the power struggle. He would not be content to be second to anyone for long.
The arrangement they had, an uneasy power-sharing where Losham handled politics and strategy while Kolhood commanded the military, would probably not last. It worked for now because the alternative was open conflict, and Kolhood still believed that Navuh's return was imminent. The moment that was no longer a factor, the clock would start ticking on Losham's life expectancy.
Losham picked up the newspaper again but didn't read it. His eyes moved over the headlines without processing them, his mind occupied by the realization that had been crystallizing over the past weeks, sharpened by his father's emails to the brothers and brought into focus by the collapse in the basement.
Navuh's endgame had never been preservation. It had been destruction.
The booby traps in the basement were not defensive measures designed to protect a treasure until it could be safely retrieved. They were designed to destroy whatever was in that chamber so none of the brothers could claim it. In a way, it made sense if none of them were actually his sons.
The email that Navuh had sent, triggered by whatever dead man's switch he'd built into the system, had been crafted to sow discord among the so-called brothers, to pit them against each other, and to ensure that no one ruled over the island in his absence. He preferred it all going to hell than someone else enjoying the fruits of his labor.
Navuh had been a force of nature that moved in one direction, consuming everything in its path, and when the path ended, he had rigged the road behind him to collapse.
The question was what Losham could build on the rubble.
The Brotherhood had over ten thousand warriors, supply chains that spanned the globe, networks that generated billions, and intelligence operations embedded in governments, corporations, and criminal organizations on nearly every continent. It was the most powerful non-state entity in the world. Under competent leadership, the Brotherhood could keep growing and working on destabilizing all state entities until it remained the only nucleus of power on Earth. But that required time and patience.
As long as the brothers believed that Navuh would return, as long as they measured every decision against what their father would have wanted, the Brotherhood would remain tethered to his vision. Navuh had wanted the world to kneel, and he would have burned it to ashes if that wasn't happening quickly enough.
The brothers needed to understand that when humanity finally fell into the chaos that the Brotherhood was patiently cultivating, there would be enough of the wreckage for each brother to rule over.
The problem was that they were too deeply indoctrinated, too committed to the theology of Mortdh and the divine mission that Navuh had manufactured to justify everything he did. They would resist any departure from orthodoxy.
