Losham nodded.
"The junior brothers are not called junior because they are younger than the senior brothers but because they are less capable. I expect their minds to be easily influenced by you. All you need is to gain access to them, and that can be arranged. I will convene a new council to discuss the deaths of the senior brothers." He smiled. "You won't even have to kill them. Compelling their compliance will be enough."
"Provided that they fall for it," Number One said. "They might be wary after the assassinations of the senior brothers."
"The juniors are not a threat at the level the seniors are. They have no power base. They will not be in a position to mount a real challenge for leadership, and they will fall into line."
19
DAVE
The collective held the plan Losham had just laid out and turned it over, eight minds passing it between them and examining it from every angle.
It was a workable plan, but it was not a good plan.
The split weakened them. The pairs were not strong enough to compel against resistance.
Three simultaneous assassinations with three pairs was doable, but there were so many variables that could go wrong. Even if they succeeded, it would be just the beginning of the story, not the end of it.
Losham would be left alone to deal with the aftermath, and he could not hold the island without them.
They had known that, but now it had hardened into a fact rather than a hypothesis. They would be off the island within a week, ten days at the most, and Losham would be left defenseless.
It mattered not because they cared for Losham, but because of what would happen to the island if Losham wasn't the one incharge. He was not a good male, but he was not cruel for the sake of some sadistic enjoyment either, and those shades of darkness made a difference in the lives of the people of this island.
Kolhood, Hocken, and Hazok were the other kind. The kind that derived their self-worth from the subjugation and torment of others. They reveled in it.
A ripple of revulsion coursed through the collective as they cataloged the vices of each brother. They were three different flavors of bad, and Kolhood was the most dangerous one and the one Losham feared most, but being dangerous didn't make him the worst of the three. Just the smartest.
Even Lord Navuh was not as dark as those three.
It was a strange thing to think, because Lord Navuh had run the most deadly and cruel army on Earth for a very long time and had personally directed atrocities at scale. But he hadn't enjoyed cruelty for its own sake. He had used it as a tool, applied it where it produced compliance, and withheld it where compliance did not require it. The senior brothers were not like that. They derived their sense of worth from how much suffering they could inflict on others.
Not all evil was created equal. It had degrees, and Losham was definitely the lesser evil.
Besides, Losham was under the clan's control, and they could steer him toward a better path.
The Eight didn't know how long the long-distance compulsion would hold Losham a slave to the clan's powerful compeller, but hopefully it would be a long time, and hopefully the clan cared enough about the people of this island to help them live better lives.
Perhaps the clan's compeller could push Losham toward freeing the women and children from the breeding enclosure when the political situation allowed for it.
They could impel him toward a great many small mercies.
Provided that he survived.
If he didn't survive, the island would descend into an even worse nightmare.
The problem was that the assassinations' success didn't guarantee the desired outcome. When the senior brothers were no more, the chaos of the junior brothers fighting over the spoils would devastate the island. That might be a worse outcome than the island ruled by the senior brothers, because they at least knew how to run the organization and ensure that people didn't starve to death.
The Eight needed Losham to survive as the ruler of this island, but he couldn't do that without them, and they had to leave.
These two needs clashed, and while Losham was talking about written messages and three pairs of assassins, the collective had been turning it over, looking for a third way.
The wire,Number Seven thought.
The wire,Number Two echoed.
The collective took it up.
