The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

Sleeper Suspicions

Naryan's brow was lifted in wry greeting as she handed Lash a tablet as soon as he and Vulcrum stepped back into the command center. Taking it from her, he looked at her with a questioning expression.

"What's this?"

"A list of requests from the liliths you've locked down, for a personal audience so they can ask you what they did to deserve being locked down," the Force Recon officer replied. And Lash shook his head when Vulcrum clapped a hand on his shoulder for a third time before moving down into the bullpen to start setting up the hypersonic drone to run the keys back to Antwerp.

Naryan frowned at the gesture, turning to watch Vulcrum descend into the bullpen. Then she was looking back at him.

"What was that for?"

Lash shrugged.

"My spymaster was lecturing me on the new dynamic I've established with the liliths currently on the base," he said, looking down at the tablet. And found himself not surprised that Dru's name was directly at the top of the list.

"He said that, contrary to their usual demand to be set free because they're liliths, that the new dynamic would have them ask to see me, so they could ask what they did wrong."

"Ash me out," Naryan said with a half laugh. "The vampire isn't wrong. That's exactly what happened."

"Yup. And he generally isn't."

"Isn't what?

"Wrong." Lash handed the tablet back to her. "They get to sit in their quarters until I'm satisfied they don't present a risk to the rest of our people here."

"Shadrak's ghost, Lash. What the ash happened down there??" Naryan asked, staring at him with questioning eyes. "I saw Fiadh head down the elevator. Did you guys Compel some bastard into giving something up that's incriminating some, or all of the liliths??"

"Kanter," Lash said, folding his arms as he let his eyes scan over the busy screens in the bullpen. A glance up to the war room yielded Kassidy and Darktower in there, heads together, as they continued hammering out their war plan.

"We were able to bypass his nanites by Compelling him while he was unconscious."

Naryan let a heavy breath whistle free at that, her eyes flying wide in surprise.

"Damn."

"Yeah. He gave us the rest of the rogue Qos Viran that have been acting as middlemen for the traitor councilor, along with their direct contacts, and a possible name for the councilor himself."

Lash looked back at her.

"The direct contacts are two Toreador High Lords."

"What?? But we have ... three Toreador liliths here," she finished a little weakly as the realization rippled through her of what those liliths could've been set up for.

"And one of those High Lords is none other than Giancarlo Giovanni himself," Lash grimly added.

"Ah, ash me," she husked. "Sofia. That's her Clan. A Clan that didn't want her back."

"Makes you wonder why, right? Did they want to hide from her the fact that they're working against Ventru? Or ...?

"Had turned her into some sort of weapon to be used against us," Naryan finished for him, shaking her head in disbelief. "That's some cold shit, man. To torch their own lilith in order to weaponize her."

Lash let a sigh of his own go.

"I don't have confirmation that that's the case. Just some premonition that suited some of the puzzle pieces and answered some of my questions I've had since the Salt Palace. And I'd like to think when Jeriko put all their heads back together again, she would've picked up sleeper programming at some level of their consciousness and reported it to us." His expression tightened.