That was odd. It wasn't time for their regular scheduled call, and even then, Number One usually submitted his report about the state of the excavation and any other relevant information to Onegus. He hadn't asked for Kian before.
"Patch him through and stay on the line."
"Of course," Onegus said.
A couple of clicks sounded, and then Onegus said, "K is on the line. Go ahead."
"Good morning," Number One said in his usual flat tone.
"Good evening," Kian said and waited.
"We have several things to report, and we'll start with the excavation. We were on site this morning and sampled the surface thoughts of the supervisor and some of the crew. Their progress is faster than what Losham estimated. The supervisor believes that they will reach the chamber in six to seven days."
"Six to seven days," Kian repeated.
He glanced at the calendar on his desk. If the excavation was nearing its end, the extraction team needed to be deployed in no more than five and remove the last layer themselves. The team was already back at Safe Harbor, and they were ready, but perhaps they should tell Losham to slow things down to give the team some more wiggle room. To start with, no more night shifts because they needed the basement to be clear for the operation.
"That's the supervisor's assessment," Number One said. "He might be overly optimistic. The crew members were more conservative with their estimates."
"How conservative?"
"One thought ten days, and the other nine."
That was far from decisive, but Kian couldn't tell Number One that he needed a more precise estimate. As far as the Eight were concerned, they were the ones who would extract the chests and load them onto a ship.
"The lack of certainty complicates things for you," he said instead. "You need to time your escape according to when the chests are excavated, and that requires finding a ship with a schedule that fits."
"We found a way that would allow more flexibility in that regard. The two don't have to be so tightly coordinated, and the removal of the chests from the island will be much easier than originally estimated."
Kian set his coffee mug down. "What's your plan?"
"Losham has approved the elimination of the other three senior brothers. Once that's done, no one on the island will have the standing or the will to ask what is being moved out of the basement. We will have an open corridor."
"How is he going to eliminate them?" Kian asked.
"A coordinated assault that will result in their simultaneous elimination without implicating Losham."
"That I want to hear."
Number One detailed the plan, and Kian had to agree that it was inventive and might even work, but it wasn't a slam dunk like the Eight believed.
The brothers might not take the bait during the council meeting despite the Eight gently nudging them in that direction.
A lot depended on Losham's acting skills. He would need to feign a carefully calibrated frustration about his brothers' continued demands to have proof that their father still lived. If he overacted his part, they would suspect him of planning something, and if he underacted, they might think that he wasn't serious about the suggestion.
But if he did it just right and they took the bait, it might actually work.
Kian loved the idea of one of the Eight waiting for the brothers at the edge of the cliff, wearing one of Navuh's fancy robes. The theatricality of it appealed to him even though he usually preferred to avoid drama.
His mother was going to love this.
Or maybe not.
It was hard to tell what Annani deemed acceptable and what not. In this case, though, when Khiann's successful extraction could be aided by the elimination of Losham's so-called brothers, she was probably going to be all for it. If not, he could tell her some of the details he'd learned about the three from Lokan. Their deaths would make the world a few shades lighter.
They wouldn't be missed.
It was an elegant solution, accomplishing in one gesture what a long campaign of attrition would have struggled to accomplish.It removed the senior brothers, reinforced the fiction of Navuh's presence in the harem, and consolidated Losham's grip on the island in one strike.
