“What do you have for me?” Navuh asked without preamble, as soon as he’d cast the soundproofing shroud over his office.

Losham took out a printed page from his folder and handed it to Navuh. “I took the liberty of printing out the high points of what I’m about to suggest, just to keep myself organized.”

Mortdh forbid he should say anything about his father’s forgetfulness. Navuh hated reading memos or anything else for that matter. He wanted information delivered to him in the most concise and clear manner possible and not weighted down by too many details.

It worked well when there was only one item on the agenda, but what Losham had prepared was so huge in scope that his father might get lost in it. Besides, he needed to gauge Navuh’s response to the items on the list. If the leader barked about this or that item, Losham would downplay it and concentrate on the others.

Navuh glanced at the page for about a second before training his dark, intense gaze on Losham. “Proceed.”

Losham dipped his head. “As per our previous meeting, my lord, there are two main areas of concern which you wanted me to address. One is more immediate and has to do with finances, and the other is more long-term and has to do with a new direction for the Brotherhood. As you have wisely stated, the world has changed, and we have to adopt new ways of doing things. Wars are no longer fought with swords or guns, they are fought with technology, and the Brotherhood can’t persevere unless we master it.”

So far so good.

Navuh kept nodding sagely.

“I’ll address the finances first. As you have mentioned, the drug trade is not as profitable as it used to be and we are having problems with the gangs running it. I looked into it, and I think the gangs have outlived their usefulness. I suggest we cut them off and replace them with our own people.”

By the gleam in Navuh’s eyes, he liked the idea. “Go on.”

“On the other hand, we have all these warriors with no wars to fight. Even if we could instigate a few to keep them busy, we would run the risk of discovery because of the aerial surveillance. Between the satellites and the drones and all the phones with cameras, it is too easy to record something that shouldn’t be possible. What’s true for Annani’s clan is also true for us. It’s getting harder to hide.”

Navuh waved a hand. “We talked about it the other time.”

Not exactly, but the seed had been planted.

Losham bowed his head. “Your wisdom guided me on my quest for a solution, my lord.”

Navuh leaned back in his armchair and folded one side of his long robe over his knees. “Pour us a drink, Losham.” He motioned at the bottle and two glasses the servant had left on the side table.

“Of course, my lord.” Losham did so promptly and elegantly.

After Navuh took a sip, Losham continued. “I suggest that we leave the humans to fight their own wars. Instead of helping our protégés by supplying them with trained soldiers, we can help them by supplying them with superior technology.”

Navuh frowned. “We don’t have superior technology, and we can’t even buy it. It’s not for sale.”

“That’s true, my lord. I’ll address this problem next. It’s all connected.”

Navuh’s brows dipped in a scowl. “You’re trying my patience, Losham. Just tell me your plan. Don’t feed it to me in small bits as if it’s difficult for me to understand.”

This wasn’t good. He needed to get on with it.

“Money is the most powerful agent, and we need more of it to finance our own technological advancement. We can use the soldiers in the drug trade and grow it beyond the limited capability of the gangs. With central global planning and trained soldiers to do the work, we can double and triple what we make from it. That will give the warriors something to do while lining our coffers. Another source of profits is the chain of clubs I created. Those could become even more profitable by providing paid sexual services to the members. I’m thinking of employing similar recruiting tactics to those we use for the island, but with a twist to keep the females from running. Once we start generating the extra money, we will use it to fund our own technology.”

Losham paused to take a sip of the drink and catch his breath.

“Who is going to develop those technologies? It’s not like we have a lot of brains here,” Navuh said.

And whose fault was that?

But naturally, Losham didn’t dare remind his father of what he’d been saying for centuries. The breeding program had been shortsighted. By concentrating on producing strong warriors instead of smart ones, they had created a stupid army that was no longer good enough for modern times. They needed to start producing brains.

“For now we can hire talent, or kidnap it, or coerce it. But in the long term, we need a better breeding program. All those influencers we lure in here, some of them are very smart humans. We can use them to breed the Dormants and produce smarter offspring.”

Losham took another sip to fortify his courage for what he was about to suggest next. “We should test the children when they are still young to find the smart ones and educate them appropriately.”

Navuh nodded. “That’s a good idea. I don’t want the soldiers overly educated. Selecting the few who are smart enough to learn and segregating them is the right way to go. They shouldn’t get any military training and be kept locked up.”

“Wise suggestion, my lord. That way the smart males could breed with the smart females and produce more smart immortals.”

Losham held his breath as he waited for his meaning to sink in.

Navuh’s eyes narrowed into two slits. “Females? You want to educate the females? You’ve spent too much time in the West, Losham. Females are only good for one thing, and that’s breeding.”

“Perhaps we can use the young females just in the beginning, my lord. Not many of the children will be born smart, and I would hate to waste half of the potential. The females could do both. Learning and working do not preclude breeding.”

For a few moments, Navuh seethed in silence. It seemed that his hatred of females was stronger than his desire for a better future for the Brotherhood, and Losham was ready to concede defeat.

“Very well. I’ll humor you and let you test the females. But you’re going to be disappointed. They are mentally inferior, and their bodies are made for breeding. Even when they have brains that could learn, their hormones cloud that ability. As soon as they reach breeding age, their brains stop functioning properly.”

Losham bowed his head, doing his best not to shake it. His father was so full of contradictions. He wasn’t a stupid male, and he had a good grasp on modern science, and yet, despite all the evidence to the contrary, he still believed in the inferiority of female brains.

Such was the power of belief.

Navuh believed wholeheartedly in his own father’s teachings, and nothing could convince him that Mortdh had been wrong.

“The last item on the agenda is the clan. How do you want to proceed, my lord?” Losham asked.

Navuh put his glass on the table. “I gave it some thought and decided not to waste resources on a futile chase. Their downfall will come when the democracies they support collapse. That was the long-term plan all along.”

“Yes, my lord.”