When she finally let go, Julian stepped forward and waited for the room to quiet down.
He looked at Arezoo and smiled. "Now it's official. Welcome to immortality, Arezoo."
32
LOSHAM
Losham had spent the morning cutting and pasting bits and pieces of the recording that the human with the wire had transmitted from the harem. His brothers had all heard the recording already, so there was no actual need for it, but he was going to use it to bait Kolhood.
He had the entire sequence mapped out in his head, the montage was queued up, Dave and Rami were in the adjacent bedroom, and his brothers were due to arrive any minute now.
Rami had left a tray with a thermal carafe of coffee and four cups for the meeting, but Losham didn't want to wait and poured himself a cup.
He was going to enjoy the performance he was about to deliver, but he couldn't let it show. He was going to savor it for years to come, though, remembering every detail of outmaneuvering the brutes.
He had two thousand years of experience manipulating their father, and his brothers were small fry compared to Navuh.
When Kolhood entered the office without knocking, and the two others followed, Losham didn't react to the blatant disrespect.
Let them think that he feared them.
Instead, he stood up and greeted them with a smile. "Brothers. So good of you to arrive in a timely manner." He made a show of lifting his hand to look at his latest model Patek Philippe watch. "Ten o'clock precisely."
Kolhood grimaced. "Losham."
He took the chair directly across from Losham, while the two others flanked him.
They were so predictable, arranging themselves in the same manner each time they were conferring. Hopefully, they would remain as predictable for the rest of the meeting.
Losham's plan depended on it.
"Please, help yourselves to some coffee. It's fresh."
None of the three reached for the carafe.
He sat down and flipped open his laptop. "I thought to open this meeting with a compilation of choice moments from the harem recording." He didn't wait for the brothers to respond before starting the audio file.
The voices that came out of the speakers belonged to the human gardener that Losham had sent into the harem with a wire hidden under his shirt, and the various harem staff members he'd interacted with. The man sounded friendly and deferential as he spoke with the chief gardener.
"What's the protocol when the ladies come out to the garden? How should I greet them?"
"You don't," the older human said. "You go down on your knees, lower your forehead to the ground, and stay like that until they pass you by. You don't look up, and you don't speak unless they speak to you, and if they speak to you, you keep your eyes on the ground unless they tell you to look up."
"Got it. I assume Lord Navuh doesn't want lowly humans like us to gaze upon his concubines."
"You assume correctly, and the same protocol goes for the lord. We are supposed to be invisible unless our betters want to acknowledge our presence. Nobody looks at the lord. You stay down until you are sure they can't see or hear you anymore or until you are told to rise."
"Understood," the new gardener said. "Do the lord and ladies come out to the gardens often?"
"The ladies used to come out daily, but recently they have been staying indoors."
"Too hot outside, eh?"
"It's not that." The chief gardener lowered his voice. "There was an incident."
"What sort of incident?"
"Not for me to say."
