by I. T. Lucas
“Hello, cousin. Are all my phone calls going straight to voicemail?”
“Until we find a better solution, yes.”
“What if I give you my word that I will not attempt to compel you?”
Kian hesitated for a moment. “I’m not ready to trust you yet.”
Kalugal sighed dramatically. “That’s regrettable. Did you receive my wire transfer?”
“Yes, and the accounting department should have sent you a receipt. Donations to our charity organization are tax-deductible. I assume you are paying taxes?”
Kalugal chuckled. “That’s one of life’s certainties. Luckily, you and I don’t have to worry about the other one.”
“True. Is Jacki there?”
“Yes, I’m handing the phone over to her.”
“Hi, Kian.” She sounded upbeat.
“Good morning, Jacki. How is your stay with Kalugal so far?”
“Illuminating. We had a long and fascinating conversation yesterday about emerging technology and how it can affect personal freedoms. When I told Kalugal about the program Jin and I were in, and how the government is finding paranormal talents, he became very concerned. I hope that’s okay. I mean that I told him about it, not him being concerned.”
“It’s fine. I was going to tell him about it myself.”
“He says that he’s going to call you in a few minutes to talk about it.”
Kian was surprised that Kalugal hadn’t put the call on speakerphone, and that he was keeping his distance to give them some privacy. He could hear Kalugal, but his voice was muted as if he were on the other side of the room.
“Tell him that I’ll call him.”
“He asks that you wait ten minutes before calling. He has something that he has to do first.”
“No problem. Anything else you want to tell me?”
“No, that’s it. I convinced Kalugal to let me cook lunch and dinner for him and his two lieutenants. I don’t want to feel like a freeloader, especially since he is paying a fortune for my company.”
Kian stifled a chuckle.
Kalugal didn’t need a cook, he needed a mate, and he was paying for a chance at that.
“Whatever works for you, Jacki. We will talk again tomorrow.”
“Goodbye, Kian.”
He waited the ten minutes Kalugal had asked for and called back. “I assume you wanted to talk to me in private?”
“Indeed. I want to talk to you about the government’s paranormal talents program, and I didn’t know what you were comfortable discussing in front of Jacki.”
“What’s on your mind?”
“We can’t let the government continue with the program. We have to sabotage it somehow.”
That was unexpected. Kalugal still didn’t know about the connection between paranormal talents and Dormants, so that couldn’t be what he was so upset about.
“Why are you so concerned about it?”
“I’m surprised that you are not. If the government is collecting people with extra perception abilities, it means that the higher-ups are no longer denying the existence of paranormal phenomena. Reports of strange happenings will be taken seriously. A remote viewer can see your village or my father’s island and report it. A telepath can tune in to any immortal and learn of our existence. In the past, no one took those people seriously, and they were assumed to be either charlatans or mentally unstable. Now, those reports will get investigated.”
“I haven’t met a remote viewer that talented yet, and the chance that a strong telepath will cross paths with an immortal are slim to none. There aren’t that many of us.”
“Still, I believe that allowing it to continue is hazardous. You should have taken all the trainees with you instead of only four. That would have gotten the director in trouble, and the program might have been shut down already.”
“Or it could have triggered a massive manhunt.”
“What has been done to find the four you got? Was there a massive hunt for them?”
“Not really. In fact, I was surprised by how little has been done to look for the program’s escapees, but I think I have the answer to that. One of them was a mole.”
“How did you find out?”
“She stole a phone from a boy who befriended her and called the director. We were very careful with the three we helped escape with Jin, so she didn’t have much to report. But at least now I know why there was so little done to try to find them. The director just waited for his spy to call in.”
“Did you check them for trackers?”
“Of course. They were clean.”
“That doesn’t make sense. A lot of effort went into collecting these people. If I were the director of that program, I would have made sure that I could track them.”
“Don’t forget that they were kept in a secret facility and that their once a week outings were supervised. Not only that, with the exception of Jacki, they were all under compulsion not to interact with anyone outside the program. And according to her, she managed to hide her immunity. Jin was the only one she confided in.”
40
Kalugal
Kalugal smiled. Jacki was smart and resourceful. Hiding her immunity had been the right thing to do.
“I’m still suspicious. After all, we are dealing with the government, and they have access to the latest technology. They might have implanted the trainees with trackers that are undetectable by conventional means. What did you use to check them?”
“Bridget, the doctor you spoke with when Jin got sick, ran them through her medical equipment. I don’t remember what exactly she used. It was either an ultrasound or a CT scan.”
“Still, we can’t rule out the possibility of undetectable trackers. If you value your village’s secret location, which I know you do, don’t let any of them in there.”
“Too late. Jin is already here.”
“Did she transition?”
“Not yet.”
“Tell her and Arwel that I wish them good luck.”
“That’s nice of you.” Kian’s tone was mocking.
“I’m a nice guy. If anyone is the villain in this story, it’s you. I was just living my life, minding my own business, and then you decided to send a spy to tether me. What happened after that is on you.”
“I can’t argue with that. But that doesn’t make you a Boy Scout.”
Kalugal chuckled. “From what I’ve read, Boy Scouts are not all that nice either. The organization filed for bankruptcy because of all the sex abuse lawsuits it was slapped with. Perhaps you should include former scouts in your rehabilitation charity.”
“I wish I could help every victim, but regrettably, I can’t. I can’t even put a dent in the damn trafficking in my own city. We eradicate one cell, and another pops up someplace else. It’s incredibly frustrating.”
Kian was repeating the mistake of many other do-gooders. He was addressing the symptoms instead of the underlying disease.
In contrast, Kalugal’s plan was to cut off the rotten weeds at the roots by depriving them of nourishment, aka funds.
Once paper money was eradicated and all monetary transactions were made electronically, he could easily shut down the accounts of traffickers, terrorists, scammers, and all the other leeches that were feeding on the blood of innocents. He would starve them like the malignant parasites they were until they shriveled down, fell off, and died.
If he had access to the system that the government employed to flag trigger words, he could implement his plan much earlier. But that was most likely not doable. He would have to develop and fund a similar system on his own, and unless there was a significant breakthrough in technology that made it simpler and less costly to build, it would take him several more decades to achieve his utopian future.
Except, Kian would probably see Kalugal’s vision as dystopian rather than utopian because it would come at a stiff price in the form of reduced privacy and autonomy.
Whether the trade-off was worth it was a matter of opinion, and Kalugal wou
ld love to have a philosophical discussion about it with his cousin.
Naturally, he would present it as a hypothetical.
“We should meet, Kian. Or at least have a video conference. I’m at a disadvantage. I don’t even know what you look like. I was told that you have my portrait, and I’m very curious to find out how you got it.”
“We had a forensic artist draw it from someone’s memory of you.”
“My mother’s, I presume?”
“It was done long before we found out that Areana was even alive.”
“Who gave my description, then?”
“It was a member of the Brotherhood who crossed over to our side. He remembered you quite vividly.”
“You said that you started looking for me as a favor to my mother. Was that a lie, Kian?”
“I wasn’t looking for you when the portrait was drawn, and it was not commissioned by me. One of my men hired the forensic artist.”
“What possible reason could he have had for that? Did he have all of Navuh’s sons' portraits done?”
“No. We had the others. They were done by another member of the Brotherhood who crossed over to our side and who happens to be a talented artist. But he didn’t remember you well, and he lacked the skill to draw a portrait from someone else’s memory.”
His cousin seemed to be getting tangled in the web of his own lies.
“That still doesn’t compute, Kian. If you were missing one portrait, it would make sense for you to hire the forensic artist to draw mine. But you say that you didn’t and that one of your men commissioned it.”
Kian sighed. “At the time, I wasn’t interested in you because you ran away and were no longer part of the Brotherhood. I was only interested in the current leaders. My Guardian’s interest in you was personal. Evidently, you had induced his mate's transition without realizing it. She turned immortal and had no idea why or how.”
For a long moment, Kalugal processed that piece of information in stunned silence.
“That’s one hell of a coincidence, and how the hell did she know it was me?”
“She met one of your brothers by chance and recognized him from his portrait. He looks like you, even though you are not really related. Back then, I didn’t know that, of course. I thought that you were all half-brothers. Now I know that Navuh selects human males that look like him to work in the harem so he can claim the sons of the other immortal concubines as his. Long story short, his portrait triggered a distant memory, one thing led to another, and her mate commissioned the artist. She recognized you from the sketch.”
“I have to admit that I’m excited. It’s like finding out that I have a child I didn’t know about. Can I meet her?”
“I don’t think her mate would be okay with that.”
“When did it happen, and what’s her name? Maybe I remember her.”
“I doubt that you remember Eva. It was more than fifty years ago.”
Kalugal leaned back in his chair and grinned. “I remember her. Gorgeous lady. Brunettes are usually not my type, but she was stunning. She was also difficult to thrall. I should have suspected something.”
“She’s an incredible lady.”
To think that he had missed out on a chance of securing an immortal wife, or mate, which was apparently the proper term. Except, Eva hadn’t been right for him.
She was beautiful and smart, but something about her had been off-putting. Despite her outward femininity, she’d given out a masculine vibe. Then again, he hadn’t really known her. They’d hooked up for one night, and he had never seen her again.
Poor Eva. She must have been so confused when she’d realized that she wasn’t aging. He wondered what explanations she’d come up with for that.
Talking with her would be interesting.
“Perhaps a phone call with Eva could be arranged? With your immune on the line of course.”
41
Kian
On the one hand, Kian was glad that Eva had left an impression on Kalugal. On the other hand, her seduction might have been done with the help of thralling or getting her drunk, and that was unforgivable.
“I don’t think so. You took her virginity.”
“With her full consent. And that’s another reason I remember her so well. I’m not fond of deflowering virgins. She initiated the sex and didn’t tell me that she was a virgin. I wouldn’t have touched her if I had known. But with how bold she acted, I was sure that she was experienced.”
“She was drunk.”
“Wow, she really remembers a lot about that night, but not accurately. She said that she was a little tipsy, but she seemed in full control of her faculties. After discovering that she was a virgin, I admit that I thralled her to forget more than I usually do, but I did it for her sake. Those were different times, and good girls were supposed to wait for their wedding night. I figured that if she didn’t remember losing her virginity, she wouldn’t have to fess up to it.”
“You were a young man back then. You might have misjudged her intentions.”
“I didn’t. Eva was more than a full participant, and after the fact, I did the best I could for her.”
“You might have underestimated how drunk she was.”
“I did not. Eva doesn’t remember much from that night because of my thrall, not because of the alcohol. If you let me talk to her, I can jog her memory.”
“Or compel her to forget even more of that night.”
“Kian, would you please climb down from that branch? We have to start trusting each other, and I think that we've made good progress during our talks. We need to take it to the next step and meet in person. Our mothers are expecting it.” He chuckled. “At some point, Annani is going to put her foot down, and you will have to obey her wishes.”
Kian grimaced.
He’d heard Areana tell Kalugal about who was the real head of the clan, busting the bluff that it was him. “She usually asks nicely first.”
“I’m sure. But we both want to please our mothers regardless of who’s in charge. And I would also like to meet my brother.”
Kian had been expecting that request as well.
“He is back in Washington. For now, Lokan is straddling the fence, and it’s crucial that his involvement with us remain top secret. If your father finds out, he might kill him for treason.”
“I told you. I don’t have any contact with Navuh. Lokan’s secret is safe with me.”
“That might be true for you, but what about your men?”
“They have as much to lose as I do if they are discovered by Navuh, and if there was a traitor in their midst, my father would have known where to find me and would have sent for me a long time ago.”
“Are you willing to bet your brother’s life on that conviction? What if your father was content with you being away and just wanted to keep an eye on you?”
“Not likely. But I’ll restrict the knowledge of Lokan’s secret to my two lieutenants, whom I trust with my life. When we meet, I will need them to accompany me.”
Kian chuckled. “I see that your mind is set on a face-to-face meeting. What are you plotting, Kalugal?”
“You keep insulting me unjustly. If you wish, we can keep talking on the phone, but I don’t see why you are so afraid of me. You can bring your immune to the meetings. I've heard that he is a brilliant strategist, and you’ve told me that he is a champion chess player. I would like to meet him as well.”
“He is busy at the moment.”
“I would like to say that we have time, but we don’t. We need to brainstorm the government issue. Those paranormals that you left behind need to be freed, and the program needs to be shut down. I’ll gladly lend my unique abilities to the effort.”
That was an unexpected surprise, and a pleasant one.
Except, Kian still didn’t trust Kalugal’s motives.
“I’ll discuss it with Turner. I need to figure out a way for us to sit down together with proper safeguards in place.”
“Can
I at least talk with my brother? You can arrange for a three-way call like you did with my mother. Or you can give him my number and leave it up to him to decide whether he wants to take the risk to call me or not. He might want to meet me before our summit, which would really please my mother.”
A summit. Kian liked that term, but he didn’t like Kalugal going behind his back and asking Areana to request an audience with Annani on his behalf.
“Speaking of your mother. If you wanted to talk to mine, you should’ve cleared that with me first.”
“I wasn’t sure you would convey my wish to the goddess.”
“So you went over my head. That’s not the best way to build trust, cousin.”
“True that. From now on, all requests will be addressed to you first.”
“Good. I will ask Lokan if he wishes to talk to you, and if so, how he wants to go about it.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that.”
42
Annani
Annani lifted the cup of tea to her lips, smelled the aroma, grimaced, and put it back on the table.
Frowning, Alena sniffed at her own cup. “What’s the matter, did I get the recipe wrong?”
“No, it is the same as all the other times you tried to soothe me with it. I have grown tired of the taste and of the artificial calmness it brings about. It is not really soothing as much as it is numbing.”
“That’s not my experience. I find it mildly calming, like listening to classical music.”
“Maybe it affects you differently. You are naturally calm, while I am not. I wonder which of the herbs produces the effect. We should give Merlin the list of ingredients and have him analyze them.”
Unperturbed, Alena sipped slowly from her cup. “I find it odd that after drinking this tea for thousands of years, you are suddenly concerned with what’s in it.”
Crossing her legs, Annani put her hands on her knees. “It might have lost its effect on me, or maybe I am just too agitated for it to work. I am tired of sitting on the sidelines and witnessing my son and my nephew circling each other like a couple of stags. I should go there and force them to sit at the negotiations table. It is in everyone’s best interest for us to forge an alliance with Kalugal and his men.”