Page 95 of Dark Shaman: Love Found
"You can join the ladies in the basement," Navuh said. "I may need your abilities again as this situation develops."
This was what Eluheed had been hoping for. He would get to be with Tamira and hold her tightly so she wouldn't succumb to panic.
"Yes, my lord."
"Go," Navuh said, waving him off and turning back to his screens. "My men will escort you down. And, shaman? If you have any visions, any insights that might help end this quickly, come up and tell me immediately."
"Of course, my lord."
31
NAVUH
Navuh descended the private staircase from his office, the spiraling steps taking him directly from the second floor to his war room inside the bunker. There was a hidden door on the first floor, but it was hardly ever used, and the truth was that until today, he'd only used the bunker for war exercises that simulated the island being attacked.
That had never happened, and he'd never expected a mutiny either.
Not like this.
He'd expected one of his sons, real or adopted, to try to take over the island or just betray him out of spite. But that sort of thing wouldn't have devolved into an all-out war.
Still, the bunker was there, the steel-reinforced concrete designed to withstand even missile strikes.
As he entered, the heavy door sealed behind him with a pneumatic hiss. Inside, his generals were assembled aroundthe massive tactical table, their faces illuminated by the blue glow of dozens of screens showing surveillance feeds from across the island. Everyone in the room was one of his adopted sons, though none dared call him Father. They were his by claim, not by blood, but they didn't know that. It was a fiction he'd maintained for millennia to obscure the true parentage of his actual offspring.
"Report." Navuh took his position at the head of the table.
"It was a well-coordinated and well-thought-out attack," Hakum said. "The armory is lost, and the secondary explosions from the stockpiled munitions are setting buildings on fire."
Navuh shifted his gaze to the screen showing the armory—or what remained of it. The structure was a skeleton of twisted metal and flame, explosions still rippling through the ruins as cached ammunition cooked off in the heat. The pillar of black smoke rising from it could probably be seen from orbit, let alone from all the surrounding islands.
"That's not just destruction," he said, his voice deadly quiet. "They're announcing to the world that this is not just a luxury sex resort. We will have to deploy people to all the neighboring islands with a cover story."
"That will be a problem because the planes and the fuel depot are gone," Vakon said. "Thankfully, they didn't know about the emergency storage, or they would have set fire to those as well."
They also didn't know about his other means to leave the island, but he wasn't going to mention that unless he neededto evacuate, and that wasn't going to happen. He would quash this rebellion long before they got anywhere close to him.
He turned his attention to the main tactical display, watching the pulsing red dots that indicated active combat zones. There were far too many of them, spread across the island like a plague. His enhanced soldiers, his greatest achievement and hope for the future, had not only rebelled but had somehow convinced hundreds, perhaps thousands, of his regular forces to join them.
"How many?" he asked. He could count the combat zones, but that wouldn't tell him how many combatants were in each.
"We estimate at least eight hundred hostiles," Hakum said. "Possibly more. It's difficult to get accurate numbers because they're all wearing the same uniforms."
Navuh drummed his fingers against the table's surface. "We can't tell friend from foe until they start shooting."
He studied the patterns of movement on the screens, trying to discern some logic in the chaos. The rebels were executing a coordinated strategy. The destruction of the armory and fuel depot wasn't random violence—it was tactical. They'd eliminated his heavy weapons advantage and also created massive distractions.
"They're going for the mansion," he said, the realization crystallizing in his mind. "Everything else is meant as a diversion."
His generals exchanged glances, and Navuh could read their thoughts. They were wondering if their lord was seeing threats that weren't there, if paranoia was clouding his judgment.
Fools.
They didn't understand that paranoia was another word for pattern recognition, and that none of them were smart enough to see it.
Hakum shifted in his chair. "My lord, the mansion is heavily fortified. We have over five hundred soldiers in defensive positions."
"If the enhanced ones leave the fighting to their cohorts and gather to attack this position en masse, they'll shred our defenses here like paper." Navuh pulled up one of the old feeds on the main screen. "Watch this. Tell me what you see."
