"It's a solid plan," he said. "Losham is a smart guy."
The moment of silence that followed made him second-guess his assumption that it had been Losham's plan.
"Losham didn't come up with it, did he?"
"The simultaneous assassination idea was his. We came up with the plan to make it look as if Lord Navuh did it."
"I'm impressed. The Eight of you are even smarter than Losham."
That also made them incredibly dangerous.
"We are Eight," Number One said. "Eight minds working together as one gives us a clear advantage over most people."
Kian closed his eyes for a moment and thought about whether bringing these soldiers into the fold would be beneficial to the clan or detrimental. He had to be very careful with them.
"When is this going down?" he asked.
"Losham will call a council meeting for Friday. If everything goes as planned, the trap will be set for Saturday. But it might take place a day or two later. It depends on when the brothers decide to go."
"That's fast. It's usually not smart to rush things, unless it's absolutely necessary."
"We believe it is necessary because we are about to leave," Number One said. "It's important for us to secure Losham'sposition first. Once we are gone, he won't be able to defend himself against his brothers. Without us, he's not going to last more than a week, and the island will descend into chaos, which will endanger the women and children in the enclosure and everyone else on the island who isn't a fighter. They will become collateral damage."
Number One had delivered the factual assessment in his usual flat tone, as if he was describing the weather, but it was clear that he and the others cared about what would happen to the island inhabitants after they left.
It was a point in their favor, but Kian still didn't trust them enough to leave the chests' extraction to them. Too much was at stake, and even though the enhanced soldiers didn't know who was inside one of those chests and how important he was to the clan, they knew that the immortals in the chests were valuable and that the clan wanted them. They could use that to extort the clan.
"You said that after the brothers are gone, no one would ask what was being moved out of the basement," Kian said. "Walk me through that."
"Losham would be the only authority on the island, and the spies in the excavation crews have no one to report to. The junior brothers will be cowed, at least at the start, and Losham can order the chests to be loaded onto a ship, and no one will challenge the order. They can be carried out of the basement openly and loaded on the first departing ship. We could even do that ourselves if necessary."
On the face of things, it was a much better operation than what Turner and Onegus had been working on for weeks. It was cleaner and posed no risk to the Guardians or to the fragilebodies of the immortals in the chests. It also surrendered control of the chests to the eight enhanced soldiers, and Kian couldn't allow that.
The Eight would continue to operate under the assumption that they were tasked with removing the chests and loading them onto a ship, while the Guardian team continued with the secret operation of infiltrating the island through Navuh's secret cove and his tunnel that led directly to the basement, where the chests were located.
"That simplifies things considerably," he said. "You are right about this providing you with more flexibility. You don't need to time the extraction precisely to when the chests are taken out of their chamber. It also means that you can evacuate many more women and children from the breeding enclosure. Losham will authorize their release, and there will be no one to contest it."
There was a pause on Number One's end.
"This is not as simple as that because the army is still an obstacle," he said, "and releasing the women from the enclosure is highly irregular. Even the regular commanders will question that. Losham needs time to consolidate his power over the army."
They were right, but it didn't make it any easier to digest. "That's a shame. But at least you'll be able to take more than you thought you could."
There was another pause. "The situation in the enclosure is more complicated than we originally assumed."
"In what way?"
"We always assumed that some of the women might be loyal to the Brotherhood and spy for them. People will do a lot of shady things for small perks. But it's worse. Turns out that a new organization has sprouted in the enclosure. An organized group of women who refer to themselves as the Sacred Mothers. They are organized into circles led by senior members called Venerable Mothers, and the entire order is led by a woman who calls herself the First Mother. The woman I spoke with about this estimates that about twenty percent of the adult women have joined the order."
"What's the order about?" Kian took another sip of his coffee before setting down the cup.
"They have reframed their experience in the enclosure as a sacred duty. They believe that the women who carry the immortal genes were chosen by Mortdh and blessed to produce warriors for his army. They deem the work of bearing and surrendering the male children to fight for Mortdh's cause, and the female children to join their ranks, a holy act. They are joyful when they conceive, they are joyful when their sons are taken at thirteen, and they rejoice when their daughters are taken to the breeding building for the first time. They consider the other women who do not share their conviction to be lost souls to be pitied, and they actively recruit. The order is growing rapidly."
It shouldn't have surprised Kian that something like this would evolve in the enclosure. More surprising was the fact it hadn't happened centuries ago. Navuh probably hadn't bothered with brainwashing the Dormants to the extent he'd brainwashed the warriors. They were helpless, and it didn't matter whether they believed in the cause or not. Their only task was to bear as many children as they could. Still, the women developed their owncult and did their own brainwashing, probably because the one calling herself First Mother was a charismatic leader.
"It's a cult," he said.
"Is there a difference between an order and a cult?" Number One asked.
