Page 74 of Dark Horizon New Dawn

Kalugal tilted his head. "Have you ever tried to get into the mind of an animal?"

The god shook his head. "We have weapons that can neutralize an animal without killing it. Regrettably, we've left them behind."

Kalugal was very interested in those weapons, but given how the gods safeguarded their technology by making it impossible to reverse engineer, it wouldn't have done him much good to get his hands on one of them. Still, he would have liked to hold the weapon and get to use it at least once to get a feel for it.

"Would it be possible for me to play around with your toys?"

Negal cast a sidelong glance at Aru, who shook his head.

"Kian got to see how our tiny spy drones work," Aru said. "So, I can let you play around with one of those, but not our other tech."

"That's a shame. I'm an entrepreneur, and my main interest is in cutting-edge technology. Sometimes, seeing something extraordinary can spark ideas for new products."

Dagor nodded. "I get it. I have ideas for new products all of the time."

Kalugal's interest was piqued. "Perhaps we can get together once this is all over and play around with ideas."

Dagor smiled. "I would like that."

"We should get moving." Negal adjusted Sylvia on his back. "The longer we take, the longer Margo suffers."

Sylvia cast Kalugal a sidelong glance. "I was wondering about something. Kian keeps referring to me as a civilian, but you are a civilian too, and yet he has you going on one mission after another."

"I'm a civilian now, but I have military training, and I'm the only compeller the clan has who knows how to operate modern weapons." He chuckled. "Toven might be a powerful god, but he was never a fighter, and I doubt he can shoot a rifle."

"I see." Sylvia returned her gaze to the canopies. "That's another camera," she said quietly. "We are very close to the compound now, so I expect more of them. We should proceed at a slower pace."

Kalugal reached into his backpack and pulled out his weapon of choice. He didn't carry a semiautomatic like the others in his team.

His weapon was the megaphone.

Sylvia disabled eight more cameras before they reached the backyard fence.

Kalugal motioned for the others to crouch low and hide behind the fence while he peeked over the block wall and noted the positions of the guards.

There were two stationed next to the French doors, and one more was on the roof, but the guard was looking toward the front, not the back. There were probably many more at the front of the house, but hopefully, the megaphone would carry his voice to those guards as well.

"We are in position," Max said in his earpiece.

Kalugal waited until Max informed him that the Guardians were in position before lifting the megaphone to his mouth. "Lay down your weapons," he commanded in Spanish. "Kick them away from you, go down to your knees, and put your hands on your heads."

The two guards next to the French doors complied, their rifles clattering to the ground first and then their knees hitting the soil, followed by their hands going over their heads. The one on the roof took a little longer, but he too was on his knees within seconds.

Thankfully, he didn't fall off the roof. Not that Kalugal cared whether he lived or died, but in case those at the front had not been affected by his command, he didn't want them to be alerted by the guard's fall.

"We are moving in," Max said in his earpiece.

"Stay here," Negal told Sylvia. "The Guardians will come get you once we have the compound secure."

She nodded. "Good luck, Negal. Bring Margo safely to the ship."

As the gods and the Guardians rushed by him, Kalugal proceeded at an easy pace toward the first guard. "Keep your hands on your head, get up, and lead me to your boss, Julio Modana," he commanded the guy.

The strength of his compulsion had the human drooling and glassy-eyed, but he complied with the command and walked toward a pair of French doors.

As soon as the guard opened the doors, Kalugal lifted the megaphone to his lips and repeated the command for everyone to lay down their weapons and go down on their knees in case someone hadn't heard his first command.

All the Guardians and the gods were wearing the specialty earpieces that William had developed especially to filter out his compulsion, so he didn't have to worry about them dropping their weapons in response to his commands.

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