Page 26 of Dark Gambit Reliance

"We can launch a rocket into the office building," he said. "There might be some unintended collateral damage, and innocents might be killed along with Igor and his inner circle, but it will be effective."

Turner shrugged. "That's up to you. My prime objective when designing this mission was to minimize casualties. A successful shroud would have done that."

"I'm not sure about that." Kian puffed on his cigar. "Who knows what Igor would do when under siege? You assume that he will try to run, and Jade will just take over without a struggle. What if he decides to launch an attack of his own?"

Turner arched a brow. "With what? He has no rocket launchers."

"He might. The hybrid guards might not be privy to everything he has. What if he salvaged some end-of-days alien weapon like Mortdh used on the gods' assembly? If we take down the office building with him in it, he won't have time to launch it."

"I agree with Kian," Toven said. "We will still need to shroud the area, though. Otherwise, after we blow up the office building the Russian army will show up, and they don't lack weapons."

"Indeed." Turner lifted his cigar. "In either case, the mission requires major prep work. To release Jade from Igor's compulsion, we need to get to the hunting grounds unnoticed, and to do that, we need an amphibian vehicle. The good thing about Russia is that you can get anything you want if you can pay for it. My contractor has secured the vessel for our use. The supplier only rents it per month, so we will have to pay for a month even if we use it for only a couple of days. Then there is the insane deposit he demands, but if we return the amphibian in the same condition we got it, the supplier will refund it."

Kian grimaced. "How much?"

"The deposit is three million dollars. But the monthly rental is only two hundred thousand dollars."

"Only?" Kian emptied what was left in the miniature bottle down his throat. "Those Kra-ell will owe us big time."

"They might be able to pay you back," Turner said. "Igor stole all of the money that Jade's tribe had in the bank. He probably did the same to the other tribes he attacked. We just need to find where he hid that money and recompense ourselves from their accounts."

19

TOVEN

"How many people can the amphibian carry?" Kian asked.

Toven had wondered the same thing.

"The one we are getting can carry forty. I figured it will be enough for what we need. We are not deploying the entire force via the river. When we get the boat, we will need to test if it can navigate the rivers that crisscross the hunting grounds. Since it's a Russian Navy vehicle, I also asked for Russian uniforms in case we are discovered. The Guardians will have to pretend to be Russian soldiers on patrol. Igor's guards wouldn't dare attack them."

Kian chuckled. "Excellent plan, save for one small detail. We don't have anyone fluent in Russian except for Morris, and he's our pilot. We need him and Charlie to fly the rest of the team in when the time comes."

Immortals had an easy time learning new languages, but they learned mostly by spending time in different countries and absorbing them during their visits. For some reason, Russia had never been a popular destination.

"I'm fluent," Toven reminded them. "But you have nothing to worry about when I'm there because I can shroud the amphibian."

"They won't have you with them when they test whether the river is navigable. The Guardians can manage the humans, but as the test Turner conducted with Vrog and Aliya demonstrated, they can't thrall the hybrids, let alone the purebloods."

"There is a simple solution for that," Turner said. "They can thrall a real Russian to be their spokesman. If Igor's patrol finds them, the human in the Russian Navy uniform will tell them that they are running a drill."

Kian nodded. "Sometimes, by overthinking a problem, we don't see the simplest solutions. Do you have another one for how Mia will travel over the rough terrain?"

"I'll carry her on my back," Toven said. "I will need a harness, though, so my hands are free."

"I don't want you to carry me," Mia protested.

Toven took her hand. "That's the only way, love. It's either my back or you stay behind." He smiled. "You know that carrying you is not an effort for me. I can run for miles with you strapped to my back, even with all the Kevlar you'll have on you."

He wasn't taking any chances with her. Mia would be covered in Kevlar from head to toe.

She sighed. "I'd rather ride on your back than stay behind. I'll just pretend that I'm your secret weapon."

"It's not a pretense. Youaremy secret weapon."

"I can get a harness," Turner said. "One of those that are used for parachuting practice should work with only minor modifications."

"So, what happens after we free Jade from Igor's compulsion?" Mia asked.

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