GODDESS OF THE MOON (A Diana Racine Psychic Suspense) (38 page)

Lucier s
coffed. “It’s too far-fetched.
Those four women co
uldn’t produce that many babies, and wouldn’t they all be cousins or something?
”

“
Cousins removed
with c
arefully distant inbreeding. Then h
e employs surrogates
, offers them money and a good life, and implants his daughters
’
eggs
. Why not?
Tell me what’s wrong with the premise?
T
hink what’s happened over the last week or two.
Remember, money is no object.
Crane has geneticists in one of his companies. Scientists can be bought just like anyone else, especially if they can work on special projects. I’m hypothesizing.
Tie
it all together and it’s diabolically plausible.
”

“
A
real
stretch
, Diana
.
Even if you’re right,
why Satan?”

She plopped down into her chair at the table.
“I don’t know.
Something to bind them,
a
powerful
feeling of belonging.
That’s what most religions offer. Maybe
at first
he explained it as
their personal
religion, without the demon aspect.
I
n the end,
the men
rationaliz
e
d
to embrace guiltless hedonism and
all the money they could ever want
.”

Lucier lifted his water glass and took a sip, his eyes focused on Diana. “
H
e raised his daughters to seduce from birth
,
with Cybele as teacher. Even at sixty, she’s competition to her daughters.
I never had Jason check her history, but I bet her roots are similar to Crane’s, and
their
small family affair
turned
global.”

“
N
ow
they’ve
taken a different path
―a
futuristic one
,” Diana said.
“
Maia and Dione went along because they didn’t have a choice
.
Cults don’t give you choices, and that’s what this is. They’ve been brainwashed
to become
willing members
, everything within the group, with no repercussions to outsiders.
”
S
he stopped, and both said the next sentence together
…

“Until the kidnapped babies.”

“Maia bucked the system,” Diana said, “now Dione Compton is scared because she’s contemplating following in Maia’s footsteps and going against everything she’s been conditioned to believe. Whatever rituals the group participated in, whatever practices they followed, until those babies, they never broke the law.”

“The root of all evil,” Lucier said. “Then pleasure.”

“Not so simple. To embrace Satanism, you first must deny God.”

“Jesus,” Lucier said.

“Him too.”

Neither seemed interested in their food any longer
. What if her hypothesis w
as
correct? The thought frightened her, and for the first time since the Seaver baby disappeared, she understood why she
’
d interest Crane and Compton.
Her genes.
The unique gift for which she had
been either blessed or cursed.

“
T
he captain
would
laugh me out of the office.”

Diana
nodded in
silent
agree
ment
.
Who would believe such a radical idea?

“
As far-fetched
as I think your theory is,
I can’t ignore
it
,
”
Lucier admitted.
“Now to figure out what to do.”

They cleared the table
,
took the dishes to the kitchen. Lucier’s attention wandered to the coffee table. “Pretty flowers,” he
said. “Where did you get them?”

Diana glanced across the room.
How would Lucier interpret Slater’s visit? He was already suspicious where Slater was concerned. Besides, nothing happened but a mystical conversation.
“One of the neighbors brought them from her garden. Wasn’t that nice
?
”

The Seed of a Plan

S
eth
escorted
Maia up the elevator to the fourth floor.
Anat’s building was one of two multi-storied structures in the compound, and she was the only occupant in it. He unlocked the door, and they stepped inside Anat’s suite, outfitted with everything one needed for a comfortable imprisonment. Sofas covered in chintz, bookcases overflowing with reading matter, a complicated-looking sound system playing Mozart, and an in-house gym. Anat Crane lay stretched on a chaise on a large balcony, her arm curled around a beautiful toddler on her lap. She read to the child from a large picture book. Both
acknowledged
their guests
with a smile
.

Maia’s half-sister was even more breathtakingly beautiful than she remembered. She saw her last a little more than a year ago.
Anat
favored Selene, only her features were softer, where Selene’s were angular and sharp. She inherited the
knockout
body, though. Long and lean
,
with curves in all the right places, skin gleaming like burnished bronze from the sun.

Anat emerged from the womb with a streak of independence and defiance not acceptable to the group. She fought everything from the time she
learned to
speak. No one, not even Silas, could
tame
her
mind
. Gifted with an intelligence far exceeding those around her, she met every persuasion with a cogent and logical antithesis. Religion in general sapped the individual of reason, she said, and offering oneself to Satan to rationalize sexual pleasure was the height of perversion. No matter what indoctrination techniques they used, Anat resisted. She even drew some of the younger ones to her side, but she was quickly plucked from their presence. When she was no longer controllable, she was
separated
―a
euphemism at the compound for luxuriously imprisoned, but only if you were a Compton, Crane, or from one of the main families. Other less important members
in the group’s tentacle-expanding assemblage
received a month at
camp
.
Just the threat of ostracism and the tactics used to bring one back into the fold sque
lched any potential uprisings.

Maia breathed a sigh of relief. Anat was too smart not to play along, as long as it served her purpose. She
understood
control because she’d been taught by the best.

Wearing shorts and a tank top,
Anat
swung her long legs off the chaise and placed the child in a playpen. The little girl picked up a book and opened it, pointing at the pictures and cooing words that were almost intelligible, never once with a whine on her lips. Anat patted her daughter’s hair, then walked slowly toward Maia
and threw
her arms around her.

Maia
kissed her and
whispered in her ear, “How are you?”

Anat glanced at Seth and whispered back, “Bored, except for Chloe.
Even though they forced the pregnancy, I
can’t imagine life without her.
S
he’s my beacon of light.”

Maia stood back and studied her half
-
sister, ran her fingers through Anat’s long sable hair. “You’re beautiful,” she said, then
walked out to the balcony and
crouched in front of the toddler, who lifted big blue eyes and grinned wide enough to show the few teeth poking through he
r gums. “She’s a beauty, Anat.”

“Smart, too.” Anat turned to Seth. “Can we have some time alone, please
?
I haven’t seen Maia in a
while, and I’d like to speak to her without you looking over our shoulders and listening to everything we say.”

Seth shook his head. “You know I can’t.”

“Please, Seth,” Maia said. “Don’t be the obedient soldier for once.”

“Maia, I
―
”

She locked gazes with Seth
. “Please.”

He bit his bottom
lip. “Okay.
F
or a while.”

He left. Maia heard the key turn in the lock.

“Come onto the balcony,” Anat whispered in Maia’s ear and tugged her outside,
closing the
sliding glass door
behind her
. “The
re might be
hidden microphones
, but
I haven’t found them
. S
till
, you can’t be too careful. No camera, though. I’ve checked thoroughly.
T
he
y hide
cameras
in the compound
so they don’t
intimidate the children
. They’re afraid a Big Brother attitude
might spawn another me.” Anat grinned and walked to the balcony railing. She pointed to the vast forest. “
A
long-range
camera could be
aimed at the balcony.” She waved
,
taunting the possibility. They settled into two chairs. “I play their game as best I can, Maia
, and g
ive them
as much trouble as I can too.”

“Even if there is a mike,
there’s
no one
for you
to talk to.”

Anat shrugged.
“People visit. They
need
an okay from the boss, and they can only stay an hour, but they visit. Sometimes we write notes, like when I want something I’m not supposed to have.”

“Like what?”

“Later. There are those here who help me
when
I ask
. I don’t do it often, because
I don’t want to get anyone in trouble. They let me keep Chloe because I swore I’d jump off the balcony if they didn’t. Silas would never allow that. Nor would Selene, even though she doesn’t understand how she produced such a genetic malfunction. Of course, I’d never jump because I’d be leaving my child to be raised like we were. That’s unacceptable.”

The large balcony jutted out twelve feet over a steep canyon of
jagged
rocks and white water rapids.
A
panorama of lush verdant hills and trees surrounded the compound. If
there was a way down,
Anat
w
ould have found
it
.

“What do you do all day?” Maia asked.

“Read, study,
exercise,
listen to music.
I paint and write short stories too. I keep busy, and sometimes I don’t know where the day goes. And most importantly, I play with Chloe.” Anat looked at Maia. “Why are you here? Did you come
to
―
”

“No,” Maia said, shaking her head. “No more children.”
The reality of Anat’s words settled hard in Maia’s mind. Was this going to be her life too? Confined to living life in a vacuum? Anat had made the best of it. Could she?

Anat got up and leaned over the railing. Her voice brought Maia back from a place she didn’t want to be.
“Then?
No, don’t tell me. You
finally
spoke up and they shipped you off. It
’
d have to be you. Everyone else is incapable of making decisions for
themselves
.” She looked off.
“Except Cal.
You know, Cal Easley. H
is
suite
is
on the other side of the compound.
U
nlike me, he
can roam freely
. They don’t think he has the guts to cause an uprising.”

“How is he?”

“I see him at meetings they make us attend
,
and sometimes he visits. He
works out and
looks
good
. When I knew they were going to force me to
have a child
, I said I’d
mate
with Cal, but I guess they thought any offspring of ours would be worse th
an the two of us put together.
” She gazed at Chloe.
“
Cal’s
gay
, you know.”