Page 40 of Claimed By the Wraiths

No flicker of irritation. No curiosity. No choice visible anywhere.

“Subject 31,” Vain said. “Bonded to his handler eighteen months ago.”

I kept my face still.

“The attachment is genuine,” he continued. “Protective response. Loyalty. Satisfaction. The biological infrastructure remains intact. We simply direct the target during formation.”

“You made him love whoever you assigned.”

“I gave the bond a destination.”

“He’s a slave.”

“He is content.”

“Those aren’t opposites.”

Something sharpened behind Vain’s eyes.

Good.

“One subject,” I said.

His expression barely changed.

“One success in eighteen months isn’t a program. It’s an anecdote.”

“Fourteen successful redirections.”

There it was.

“Across?”

“Four species.”

“Fourteen out of how many?”

“That depends on how you define a trial.”

“Convenient.”

He started walking again.

I followed.

“The Tsekai respond particularly well,” he said. “Pheromonal signaling gives us another conditioning vector. Tamzari require longer priming.”

“And Khavai?”

That made him glance at me.

I thought of Serak’s hands going black across a briefing-room table.

“Difficult,” Vain said. “Their shadow-response biology disrupts the priming sequence. Neurochemical synchronization destabilizes before attachment can be redirected.”

Failed.

So far, on Khavai, he had failed.