"The human male I selected for the task entered the harem yesterday afternoon wearing the wire and asking the staff all the questions I told him to ask. Your compulsion held, and the staff confirmed every element of the story. The lord is sequestered in his apartment, and only the ladies are allowed to see him. I forwarded four hours of recordings to my brothers, and they had no choice but to accept that I have been telling them the truth."
Number One inclined his head. "That's good."
"Indeed. The wire stopped working at approximately three in the morning, which was the upper limit of how long we expected the device to function. It died exactly on schedule. The human is now permanently assigned to the harem's gardening staff, where he'll continue to live under your compulsion. If and when your compulsion begins to fray, no one outside the harem will learn the truth because the device is no longer transmitting."
Number Three moved his hand a fraction to the left, but his expression didn't change.
"Number Three. You have a thought you would like to share with me?"
There was a split-second hesitation before Number Three replied, "The compulsion will not fray anytime soon. It will hold for months, perhaps even longer."
"That's reassuring. Thank you." Losham returned his gaze to Number One. "My brothers are appeased for now, but they won't stay pacified for long. We have a short window of opportunity, and we need to use it."
Number One waited, his expression as impassive as always, but there was curiosity in his eyes, and it was reflected in the eyes of the other seven.
"I thought about ways to solve the situation, and the only sure way for us to stay in power is to assassinate all three of my senior brothers."
There was a slight widening of Number One's eyes, and a marked alertness in the eyes of the other seven.
After perhaps four seconds, Number One's eyes refocused on him.
"All three. Kolhood, Hocken, and Hazok."
"Yes, and it has to be done simultaneously. If you kill one and the others learn of it, they will reinforce their guard and come after us. You'll need to split into pairs. Three pairs will go after my brothers, and one will stay with me for my protection."
"The split will weaken our compulsion ability," Number One said. "You understand that."
"I do."
"Each pair will be limited to its immediate target and perhaps two or three guards. If there are more, we will have to fight our way out."
"I know. You are stronger than other immortals, as you have demonstrated before. I trust in your ability to succeed in this critical mission." Losham leaned forward. "You must know that once the ruse is exposed and my brothers come for me, they will first eliminate you. You are strong, but you'll be overpowered. This has to be done to ensure your survival, as much as mine."
The Eight did the slow consultation thing again. Losham let them.
"We can't get close to your brothers, especially if there are only two of us with limited compulsion ability," Number One said. "And to do that with all three simultaneously is impossible."
Losham had expected the rebuttal. "I have a solution for that. I'll send each of them a written message, and it will be hand-delivered. The premise will be that the message contains sensitive information that I want delivered in person, by atrusted courier, to be read in their presence and then destroyed. The trusted couriers will be you."
Again, the prolonged silence indicated that the Eight were discussing the idea in their hive mind.
"That could work," Number One said after a long moment. "Each one of the brothers is suspicious of the others. Each of them will assume the message contains information that the other two haven't been given. They will want to read it, and hopefully they will want to do that in private, so they will clear their immediate perimeter to do so, leaving no more than one or two trusted guards."
"Precisely," Losham said. "The coordination needs to be perfect, but that shouldn't be a problem because you are all connected and know what your individual parts are doing."
Number One nodded. "It's an excellent plan, but it doesn't solve what will happen after the assassinations. The army might rebel, and the junior brothers will lead the rebellion."
"I've thought about this as well." Losham leaned back in his chair. "The senior commanders will fall in line because you covered them with your compulsion rounds. They believe that I have my father's blessing, and they believe that the chain of command runs through me because you've reinforced it repeatedly. It would have been better to stage unfortunate accidents for my brothers, but we are running out of time, and accidents require waiting for the right opportunity. The best we can do is convince everyone that the brothers died in an internal feud. The senior commanders will accept my version of events because they have been compelled to find my version credible by default."
Number One's expression didn't change, but Losham could see the doubt in his eyes, and the same was true for the other seven.
"The rank and file aren't covered," Number One said. "There are too many of them, and we can only compel so many minds in a given window of time. The junior brothers are also a problem. Not all of them were accessible to us, not in a way that met the criteria of our supposed inspections, and some of them are senior commanders in the army. They will not accept your explanation."
Losham nodded. "Then we might need to eliminate them as well and count on the other commanders to hold the line."
That was the least thought-out portion of the plan, and Losham expected Dave to push back.
"With the three senior brothers dead, the junior brothers will move into the vacuum," Number One said. "There are eight of them, and we might be able to take them all out, or not. This is the weak link in your plan."
