Page 79 of Dark Shaman: Eternal Hope
Eluheed pulled his hand back, the connection severing. "I saw a tall, blonde girl with glasses. Seemed to me like she was a fellow bioinformatician. You were in love with her, but she was too young, a prodigy. Her name was Kaia."
Tony's face had gone pale. "That's not possible. I didn't tell anyone about her."
"Oh, who cares about Tony's old flame?" Tula snapped, her patience clearly wearing thin. "We have bigger problems than his former lovers."
"We were never lovers," Tony said defensively. "We were friends. Colleagues."
"It doesn't matter either way," Tula said. "What matters is whether this submarine actually exists, and since Elias proved that he can look into your mind, I believe that what he saw in Navuh's was real as well. How do we get to it?"
Tamira leaned forward. "The submarine is in a tunnel that connects Navuh's bedroom in the mansion to his quarters here in the harem, and I know how to get in, but there are surveillance cameras in the tunnel. The moment we enter, he'll know."
"What kind of cameras?" Tony asked. "How many? What's the setup?"
"We don't know," Eluheed admitted. "Do you know anything about surveillance?"
Tony was quiet for a moment. "Hassan has the architectural plans. They would show the electrical systems, and hopefully, include the surveillance network."
"Can you access them?" Tamira asked.
Eluheed nodded. "Hassan and I are on friendly terms." He turned to Tony. "We can go together, and one of us will distract him while the other will go over the plans."
"Or you can touch him," Tony suggested. "He doesn't need to know why you're doing that. You might invent some skin condition that you suspect he has."
Eluheed was impressed with Tony's improvisation. It would have never occurred to him to fake a skin condition to extract avision, but then he'd been raised to live truthfully, so things of that nature weren't instinctual for him.
"I don't control what I see, so chances are that I won't get anything useful. The vision might be about Hassan's old flame, or his life outside the island. The only types of visions I routinely get are of betrayals. For some reason, the universe is generous in showing me those."
"You never know what you'll learn from touching him," Tony said. "And while you keep him busy pretending to ruminate over his skin condition, I will find the surveillance plans."
"That sounds like a good plan," Tula said. "Is there anything I can do?" She turned to Tamira. "By the way. How did you find the secret tunnel access in Areana's room?"
"I confronted her about it," Tamira said. "We all suspected that Navuh had a secret tunnel he was using to travel between the mansion and the harem, and since we never saw him enter or leave, we guessed that it was in his and Areana's quarters in the harem. I told her that all of us need to know where it is in case of an emergency, and she showed me."
"When was that?" Tula asked.
"Yesterday. She promised to show it to all the ladies, so you are probably next."
Tula shook her head. "After everything I sacrificed for her, she should have shown me that a long time ago."
Eluheed wondered what Tula had sacrificed for Areana, but he didn't dare to ask.
"The cameras are just one problem," he said, changing the subject back to what they should be talking about. "None of usknow how to operate a submarine, so that also might prove a problem."
Tony waved a hand in dismissal. "That shouldn't be too difficult. I drove all kinds of vehicles when I was still free, and it's mostly intuitive. I just hope that Navuh left the keys inside."
"Keys?" Tamira asked.
"It's a figure of speech. The submarine is most likely locked, and a key is needed to enter, either an actual key or a code. We will need to figure out which one it is and disable or bypass it."
Tula let out a breath. "That's not the kind of information you can find in Hassan's office. How will you know?"
Tony shrugged. "No clue. We will tackle each problem when we get to it."
"That's not a plan. That's suicide," Tula nearly shrieked, but then slumped her shoulders. "We are all going to die. Navuh will find out and execute all of us."
"He won't," Eluheed said. "I had a vision about Tamira free and reunited with her son in New York. And if she survives, chances are that the rest of us will as well."
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