Lash grunted as Dru threw herself into his arms.
"I should kill you for putting me through that!" the Nosferatu lilith hoarsely whispered against his chest, making a soft sound of pleasure when his arms went around her to return the embrace.
"Makarov was a world eater, a specialist in penetrating governments and bringing them down from the inside," Lash revealed as he held Dru close, pausing to kiss the top of his head. "And his favorite weapons were sleeper agents."
"Which the captured liliths could've been made into while they were in those containment suits!" Dru breathed, leaning back to look into his eyes, her own wide with sudden realization.
"Precisely. While they weren't made specifically to target us, since that would mean they anticipated the rescue, the possibility of weaponized liliths was still there. Which is why I instructed both Kassidy and Kingsguard to harden the Silver Legion troops on base against pheromones. And Darktower to keep his nestari clear of any lilith."
"A plot worthy of the most devious of my clan," Dru conceded even as she wiggled herself back into him, relief radiating off her in waves. "I almost understand why you needed to confirm my loyalty." She kissed his throat.
"Almost."
Lash kissed the top of Dru's head once more before he pulled back.
"And now to confront Sofia," he grimly said.
"House Cogliano," Dru said, nodding. "That's Toreador. Clan Giovanni, if I'm not mistaken."
"You're not. And Makarov revealed Giancarlo Giovanni himself is one of the go-betweens between Romanescu's team of disruptors and Demaskieros."
"Shadrak's ghost!" she exclaimed in dismay. "Is that why Giovanni didn't take her back, I wonder? Because she's already weaponized?"
"Perhaps. She also shot me in my vision," Lash revealed, his expression dark. "So, this should be an interesting conversation." He looked down at her. "I'll dismiss the guard on your door and return your clearance to the command center on the way out." And he made to go.
Only to find Dru's hand back on his arm. Looking first at the hand, then at her with a brow raised in silent question, Lash found Dru with a hopeful smile on her beautiful face.
"Please, Lash. A moment or two longer. I really, really need some reassurance right now!"
Despite himself, Lash found a smile on his face. How could he not, after what he had just put her through.
"Okay," he said, and Dru's smile exploded into brilliance as she took him by the hand. "But only for a moment."
"I'll be quick, I promise," she said as she led him back to her bedroom.
In contrast to Dru, who had laid on her bed in her misery, wondering what had happened, Sofia was frantically pacing as she found herself filled to overflowing with nervous energy nearly an hour later.
"Mistress Sofia," one of her guards said via the intercom by the door. "Lord Commander Lash is requesting an audience."
That brought her to immediate halt to stand staring at the door, her heart pounding loudly in her ears. She swallowed harshly and tried to will her heart to slow. Then:
"Enter."
The door slid aside and the big vampire stepped in.
"Il mio bellissimo uomo," she breathed, her heart beating so hard, she could feel it in her throat trying to climb out, her eyes wide as she took in the darkly delicious vision that was the Ventru High Lord.
But, when she stepped forward to embrace him, she found his Shiva pointed at her face.
"I'll ask you to stay your place, if you would, mistress," the big vampire ground out as she stumbled to a halt.
"We've come into possession of intelligence that directly implicates the master of your clan, Giancarlo Giovanni, in the plot to destroy Clan Ventru through an unjust pogrom," Lash tightly reported without dropping his weapon one iota. "Are you aware of his duplicity?"
With her eyes locked onto Lash's, Sofia slowly sank to her knees.
"We suspected, amore mio," she hoarsely confessed. "But we couldn't prove anything. He had High Lady Beatrice Cogliano, my patroness and mistress of my House, assassinated for investigating the allegations we made against him. Her replacement, her cousin Guiseppe, suspected Giancarlo hated liliths, and so tried to evacuate me from the Cogliano estate I was based out of, before they attacked again and I too fell to assassins. But the slavers must've been told of our plan. They attacked before we could leave the castle."
Lash's expression tightened. What?? Cogliano suspected Giovanni's betrayal and said nothing??
"That would've been useful to know a week ago," he tautly growled.
Sofia's head immediately dropped.
"I am so sorry, amore mio," she hoarsely whispered. "I was desperate and afraid. My House was under siege and I was cut loose and left with no protection. I didn't want to jeopardize an alliance with you by bringing Giovanni's taint into your House with me."
- She is telling the truth, - Mordecai indicated. - Also, no sleeper programming detected. -
- Thank you, brother, - Lash replied. And, after a slight hesitation, let the Shiva drop.
"We captured another enemy asset," he gruffly said, the change in tone enough to get Sofia to lift her head. Where he saw tears were pouring down her face.
"An asset that used sleeper agents to bring down Great Houses and Dark Edge governments in the past."
Lash paused to take a knee in front her, smiling reassuringly as she reached out with a trembling hand to tenderly touch his face.
"He is Romanescu's comrade and as such had access to you and the others in their containment suits." He paused slightly as her fingers brushed over his lips. "I had to be sure, Sofia."
"I know," she quietly sobbed. "I'm not angry. I just don't want you to be disappointed in me, a vulnerability you have to compensate for."
"Rest easy, Sofia. You are neither."
"Thank you," she replied, the sobbing slowing. "May I apologize to you for not being completely honest with you?"
Lash's brow lifted.
"You just did," he pointed out.
Gracefully Sofia stood, carefully wiping her tears with a sleeve before taking his hand with hers.
"No, I mean properly apologize!" she said as she pulled him to his feet. Then she was gently pulling him back to her bedroom.
It was nearly an hour later that found a frowning Lash walking towards the knot of legionnaires standing guard in front of Gabriela's door. And for good reason: while Sofia had been peripherally involved with Toreader through Giovanni being one of their vassals, Gabriela and Isabella were Toreador directly. While it seemed counterintuitive to weaponize one's own liliths, if this war was being fought as much over tearing power away from the Conclaves, then they would want to rid their own clan of them first!
"Heard anything from inside?" he asked as he drew close.
"Nothing since she took a meal nearly three hours ago, Lord Commander," one of the legionnaires, a sergeant, reported.
Then they were all staring at the door as a loud crashing sound came from within. Drawing his Shiva, Lash looked at the sergeant.
"Emergency access, now!"
The door slid open and he darted in. Only to pull up short at what he saw. Blood everywhere, painting the walls and the ceiling of the initial living space, and pooled on the floor. And standing naked and trembling in the middle of that pool as blood poured out of multiple slashes, including a partially slit throat, was Gabriela.
As his eyes fell onto her, the Toreador lilith lifted a Shiva up with a shaking hand to point it at him, forcing Lash to aim back at her. Only to watch her put her weapon against her temple.
"I'm so sorry, Lash," she burbled out of a mouth filled with her own blood, her face a mask of fear.
"My mind is no longer my own!" And she pulled the trigger, instantly blowing out the other side of her head and splattering the wall beside her with her brains.
"Kadasa!" he snarled, holstering his weapon to dart forward at full speed to catch her limp body before it hit the floor. "Sergeant! I need an emergency trauma team and a fetal rescue kit in here now!!"
Kassidy folded her arms and pursed her lips as four of her legionnaires carefully lifted Gabriela's unmoving form into a body bag.
"It sounds like she knew she was compromised," the Silver Legion commander observed. "And took herself out before she could cause anybody else any harm." She then held up the remains of a small glass vial.
"We found this embedded in the wall, my lord. Some kind of trigger, you think?"
Ignoring Gabriela's blood staining his clothing, Lash carefully took it with his big fingers. He then peered at the vial with narrowed eyes, his mind clicking through possibilities.
- Can you scan this piece of glass in my hand, Mordecai? - he asked into the silence of his mind.
He was surprised when it took the powerful psylord almost a minute to answer.
- No, I cannot, - he admitted with a note of surprise in the psylord's mental voice. - I can see through your eyes that it exists, but that's it. It's completely inert and invisible to me! -
That wasn't good. If a psylord couldn't detect it, then that'd explain how Jeriko missed it while she was resequencing the imprisoned liliths. And it also meant that somebody meant to target psionics with it, using material a psionic couldn't see inside their new 'slave'. And he had a feeling it was White Flame tech.
Unfortunately, the vial also added an additional layer to the situation. While discovering his hunch that sleeper agents had been crafted by Romanescu and his dirty band of thieves was satisfying, finding out there was no real way of checking to see if any of the other former captives were similarly rigged, was not. Even Sofia, who he thought he had already cleared, would need to be checked again. And finally, what triggered the vial to likely empty its contents into a lilith brain with whatever message it was carrying, or with whatever substance was needed to activate something else dormant in the brain?
It was almost too much to think about.
"I'd wager good gold that it was, Colonel," he said, handing the piece back to her, which Kassidy promptly put into a small, clear evidence bag. "We'll need to figure out how to scan for them in case multiple liliths have had one put in their heads. Something that could pick up tissue being displaced ..."
Lash trailed off into silence as that triggered another thought, leaving Kassidy looking at him in curiosity. What they needed was an ultrasound scanner! It would not only pick up the tissues being pushed aside by the vial, but should pick up the vial itself.
"Hunter, do we have any ultrasound scanners in inventory?" he asked out loud, a smile touching his lips when Kassidy exclaimed right after in a loud whisper: "Shadrak's ghost, why didn't I think of that?!"
"Yes, Lord Commander. Four different sizes with adjustable intensities. Which one do you require?"
"The smallest. We're looking for a centimeter long glass vial embedded in a brain."
"I will have it sent via the internal logistics system to your location," the base AI indicated.
Lash nodded and stepped to a small door that was on the inner wall of the apartment's kitchen even as several small drones entered the apartment on silent air cushions to begin cleaning up Gabriela's blood.
"We've got your bots down here for cleanup," he then said as a soft hiss announced something arriving behind the small door. Flipping it open, he pulled out the hand-held ultrasound unit he found there.
"Make sure we keep several samples for a pharmacological scan."
"Acknowledged, Lord Commander," the AI replied. "Anything else, my lord?"
Lash looked down at the ultrasound scanner.
"Yes. Send Mistress Sofia to my location."