As it was, he hadn’t needed to speak to them to figure out what was going on. “How did he do it?” he said. Moving back from Sahara, he tossed her several small items from his desk, including a piece of lapis lazuli she must’ve been playing with absently as she worked on a report requested by the Es. “Throw them at me at the same time.”
She rolled her eyes but did as asked. Kaleb had no problem freezing the objects in the air, but he couldn’t reverse their trajectories all at once on their original flight paths—the objects all arrowed toward a central point. “He must be a telekinetic of some kind.” Except Tks could never keep their abilities under wraps—telekinesis had a way of making itself felt, especially telekinesis that vicious.
Plucking the items from the air, her bracelet making a gentle sound as the charms swung against one another, Sahara put them back on the desk. “Does it matter if you know the details?”
When he just looked at her, she laughed. “Right, of course it matters. You like to know everything.”
“I like to know the variables in play—and all possible threats.” He’d never disregarded Aden as others had; instead of basing his calculations about Aden’s level of power only on the Arrow’s official strength, Kaleb had considered the deep loyalty Aden seemed to engender in his men and women. The events today made it clear even that might have been an underestimation. “Aden could be a significant problem.”
“He’s focused on his own people,” Sahara reminded him, tugging him into the kitchen. “I have a feeling even if you handed him control of the PsyNet on a silver platter, he wouldn’t take it.”
“The irony is that if I had to hand off power for whatever reason, he’s the only one of the Ruling Coalition I’d trust to take the Net in the right direction.” Like the empaths, Aden had a core of honor that Kaleb had never developed.
Making a nutrient drink, Sahara passed it to him. “I would’ve thought you’d say Ivy.”
“Ivy Jane is an empath,” he said after drinking down half a glass. “She skews too much toward emotion.” Whereas Aden understood that the Net couldn’t totally discard the emotional discipline that had held it together for more than a hundred years.
Sahara nodded slowly. “Anthony?”
“He’s connected to Nikita.” While Kaleb could work with Nikita, he’d never trust her. “I can’t predict how that connection will alter his viewpoints.”
“I don’t know.” Sahara leaned with her elbows on the counter. “I have a feeling if change is to happen, it’ll occur in the other direction—Anthony Kyriakus does not budge from where he stands.”
“Neither,” Kaleb pointed out, “does Nikita Duncan.”
“Immovable force meets irresistible object?” Her eyes sparkled. “I wish I could be a fly on that wall.”
“Perhaps I’ll ’port us there in the depths of the night.” Finishing off the drink as Sahara laughed, he put down the glass and decided that he didn’t need to eliminate Aden from the equation. Sahara was right—the Arrow didn’t want to rule the world. He wanted only to make it safer for those under his command.
That was a goal Kaleb could understand and appreciate. Walking around the counter, he drew Sahara into his arms and took her laughing mouth with his own in a kiss that held his devotion. The drive to protect that which mattered was the core of everything—without it, he would be a nightmare and the Arrows pure darkness.
Chapter 73
THE CONSCIOUSLY DRAMATIC and bloody massacre had been meant to be a public declaration of the squad’s weakness, one that would spread fear throughout the world, for if the bogeymen of the Net weren’t safe, who was? But it had ended up a confirmation of Aden’s—thus the squad’s—power.
The catastrophic failure eliminated the group’s success with the Nikita Duncan strike. The world had already forgotten that in the face of Aden Kai’s impossible display. The only way to salvage anything from the situation was to kill him once and for all. No theatrics, no public spectacle, just a simple hit that proved the squad’s mortality.
If he’d been a valuable target before, he was even more so now: take down a man of such immense power and the shock wave would shatter the foundations of the world. And in the meantime, they’d go after his people. Not as much impact to kill an unknown Arrow, but kill two or three, and suddenly, the world would take notice.
Chapter 74
THE CRASH HAPPENED exactly five hours after Aden had used the mirror. Because of Vasic’s groundwork, it went like clockwork. For Aden and Zaira the crash coincided with the time of their normal sleep shift, so they just locked the cabin door and, stripping off, fell into bed, their minds and abilities shutting down.