“Money makes the world go around,” Losham said.

“Indeed it does.” His assistant poured him a shot of whiskey and sat down in the other armchair.

The table between them was set up for a chess game, but they would not be playing tonight. He needed to think aloud, and Rami was an excellent sounding board.

Losham took a small sip and put his glass down. The Lagavulin was good, but it wasn’t on a par with what Losham was used to. A shame he’d had to give up the good stuff for the sake of appearances.

Navuh had demanded budget cuts, and one of the first things to go had been fine spirits. It wasn’t as if Losham couldn’t get whatever he wished, he was Navuh’s son and was exempt from many of the rules and limitations others in the organization were subject to, but he had to set a good example.

“The clubs are doing well,” he said.

“Yes, sir. We are opening another one in Copenhagen.”

“They could be made more profitable.”

Rami picked up his yellow pad. “How so, sir?”

“Paid services to club members. We are now providing them per request by collaborating with local escort services, but we could double and triple the clubs’ income by having our own in-house escorts, catering to the various tastes of our members.”

“An excellent idea, sir. I’ll contact the managers and tell them to start recruiting.” He scribbled on his yellow pad.

“The structure should be twenty and eighty. The girls get twenty percent, the house gets eighty.”

“Naturally, sir.” Rami added the numbers to his notes. “The escort services offer a better split, sir. It would make it difficult to lure service providers to our clubs.”

Losham took another sip and grimaced at the inferior taste. “We don’t have to lure them from other places. We could do what we do on the island.”

Rami lifted a brow. “They have nowhere to go on the island. It’s not the same in the big cities.”

The man was still so naive after all the years he’d worked for Losham.

“That’s why they will get twenty percent and not work for tips only like they do here. Don’t worry about that. It’s quite simple to get quality young flesh for low pay. Between threatening their families if they refuse to cooperate and offering them compensation that is more than they ever dreamed of making, they will do what they are told.”

Rami nodded. “What should I tell the club managers? How should they proceed?”

“We will take care of the supply for them. They will get the girls after they are already fully trained. In fact, we will need one more person on staff who will be in charge of managing them.”

“Any ideas where we could find the appropriate people for the job?”

Losham smiled. “We have plenty right here under our noses.”

Rami looked doubtful. “Lord Navuh will not agree to allocate warriors to civilian jobs.”

“That’s where you are wrong, Rami. Lord Navuh’s instructions are to make money generation a priority. The warriors’ thralling ability would come in very handy while managing a bunch of reluctant prostitutes.”

“Yes, sir.” Rami still sounded unconvinced.

“The world is changing, Rami, and we need to adapt. Sending our warriors to instigate conflicts and assist allies is getting more and more difficult given the surveillance cameras and drones and satellites. Besides, the new wars are not fought on the battlefield using swords or rifles, they are fought in dark rooms behind computer screens. Whoever controls the technology, controls the world.”

Rami shook his head. “Then we are in trouble. The clan is decades ahead of us when it comes to technology.”

Losham took another sip, then put the glass down. “True. But that doesn't mean we cannot catch up or perhaps surpass them. Even with the recent setback of losing our biggest client, we still command more resources and certainly more manpower. It will take years, maybe even decades, but with the right focus we can beat them at their own game.”

“We need better education for our men,” Rami said. “They are trained as soldiers, not software developers or even simple operators.”

“Precisely. That’s where we need to start.”

Rami tapped his pencil on his yellow pad. “The breeding program favored the strong and ruthless, not the smart. I’m not sure our men can rise to the task.”

Losham sighed. Since the very beginning, he’d been trying to tell Navuh that the program was producing inferior specimens and that better quality humans should have been used to breed the Dormants. But Navuh had been shortsighted and insisted that a mighty army which was easy to control was better than a smart army that wasn’t.

“That is true, Rami. But we have many men. I’m sure we can find a few who are more than goons with muscles. Look at you. You’re the product of the program, but you’re smart.”

Rami dipped his head, “Thank you, sir.”

“I hope Lord Navuh will reconsider the parameters of the program. All those influencers we get in here can be used for more than politics and information. They can help us breed a better stock.”

“So no more warriors?”

Losham laughed at Rami’s alarmed expression. “There is always a need for soldiers, Rami. All I’m suggesting is some diversification. We need both the brains and the muscles. Unfortunately, they don’t usually come in the same package.”