GODDESS OF THE MOON (A Diana Racine Psychic Suspense) (55 page)

L
ast Try, Do or Die

C
ompton and Slater left the two women in the suite, assuring
them
they’d return after
their
meeting
to discuss the new problem
. Diana lifted the whimpering Maia to her feet
to
direct her to one of the cushioned chairs.
A
t her touch,
a vision filled her head.

Maia with children clutching at her.

Fear as thick as morning fog.

What
did
that
mean
?

“Diana?

Diana felt
a tug
on her arm.

“Diana?”

Maia’s voice broke through
her
haze. “
Wh
…
wh
at?”

“Are you all right?”

Was she? “Yes, yes. I’m fine.” Diana had
experienced
telepathic
moments hundreds
, no thousands,
of times in her life
, but
she needed to put this one out of her mind
.
Not now
.
Concentrate on
get
ting
out of here.
T
he red light
twinkled
in the vent
. “
Are
there
hidden
microphone
s
?”

“
Only
video
unless they’ve changed
the equipment
.”

Diana hoped she was right
. “Who’s in charge, Maia?”

Maia took her time. “Phillip Crane pulls the strings, but he lets my father think he’s the boss. He’s a wise old man from a long line of wise old men. Nothing goes on without his approval.
Then there’s
Cybele
a
nd her devious daughters.
N
ow, because I screwed up, no one will ever know
about this place and what they’re doing
.”

“Don’t be too sure. Ernie
was
working with the FBI to find
the compound
. They will.”

“
You heard my father.
It’ll be too late for me and for Anat and Cal. And for your policeman,” she said apologetically. “They can’t let him go.”

Hearing the truth was much worse than thinking it. “I know. How will your father explain your disappearance?”

“I thought you were the psychic.”

Diana
managed a
weak
smile
. “I thought so too, but Edward Slater fooled me com
pletely. Good thing I retired.”

“Edward surprised me too. As for my disappearance
…
” Maia drew a deep breath and let it out in a long
, hissing
stream. Her gaze connected with Diana’s. “Oh, I’ll
go on
an extended vacation, I guess. Maybe I’ll be hypothetically kidnapped by terrorists while
troubleshooting
Compton business
in the Middle East
. I’d be the perfect target, wouldn’t I? Daughter of a rich American held for ransom. Only they’ll never find me. Silas could
arrange
that, in theory anyway. He’ll be heartbroken for
the world
to see. He may even arrange for my body to be found. He’d enjoy the theater.” Maia lifted her manicured fingers and massaged her temples. “I can’t believe what he’s done.
He murdered my mother, Diana.”

Diana sat on the arm o
f Maia’s chair. “I’m so sorry.”

“
We
didn’t start out like this. Even though
Dione and I
hated Selene,
we
believed
they
were building a new world, where love and learning formed the basis for a
n
advanced
society. I thought of the Satan aspect more as a metaphor
to
lift the constrictions that religion burdened
on
the individual
and
free us of our inhibitions.
Dione and I thought it was over the top, but we
never believed
we
practic
ed
a philosophy
of evil.

“
Not until the kidnappings.

“
Then I saw what my father allowed Nona and Brigid to become.
His own daughters.
His and Selene’s.”

Diana got off the arm of the chair and crouched in front of Maia. “Those two girls are Silas’s daughters?
Your sisters?”
Maia nodded,
and
Diana rose and
pace
d
the room.
“Some psychic I am. I felt the evil, even saw it, but―” She couldn’t go on.
This was more perverse than
a charred, skeletal hand prophesied. Silas
Compton was a monster, and puppeteer Phillip Crane pulled the strings. T
o what ends would they go
to advance their nightmarish ambitions
?
Diana had encountered the dark side many times in her life, but neve
r to these unfathomable depths.

“Is there another compound? Somewhere they
’d
go if they had to abandon this place?”

“
Not that I
know. Why, do you think there is?”

“They knew when Ernie and I disappeared the feds would keep looking until they found us. So, yeah, there’s a
nother place, an escape route.
One buried even deeper
in red tape
than this one.
”

Maia bit her bottom lip. She wiped
away
a tear.
“Oh, my
G
od.
What have they done? What have I done?”

Diana wondered why Maia Compton never asked herself these questions before. She
’d
ignored all the signs. But this wasn’t the time to add more guilt to her mountin
g list of regrets.

“Forget the self-incrimination for now.” Maia sniffled and wiped her eyes. “How did you get free to come here?”

Maia told Diana what she, Anat, and Cal had done so far. “When Seth wakes, he’ll be furious.
How could we
think
he’d
go against his father
?
He’s been conditioned to obey. But
―
”

“But what?”

“Something he said
―l
ike
no evil
existed here
until the kidnappings. I think he’s
wrestling with his conscience.”

“
We can only hope
he’s com
e
to his senses. Not that it will do us any good
tonight
.”

“
What if they’ve
found Anat and Cal and locked them in isolation
?
” Maia got up, walked to the window, and drew back the drapes. “
I
t’s
so
black out
side
.
A big endless nowhere.”

“Where are we?”

“Exactly?
I don’t know. Seth knows, but he would never say.”

Didn’t anyone ever question anything?
Then she thought how she was raised to do what her father ordered.
Maybe we are
n’t
so different after all
.
“We’ve got to get out of here
.
”

“I’ve given it my best shot. Besides, even if we could get out this window, it’d be on TV.” Maia nodded at the vent.

“I tried disabling it, but
―
”
She studied the vent. “
D
a
mn, why didn’t I think of
this
before? I must have still been woozy from the drugs.
”

“What?”

“
Listen up
.” She explained what she wanted Maia to do
,
t
hen
yanked the
chenille
lap blanket from the
upholstered
club
chair.
In the bathroom, she flattened it on the vanity and squirted toothpaste around the
top
edge until she emptied the tube
. She
carried it behind her back into the bedroom. Maia had moved the desk chair under the vent to the side. Diana got on the chair and pasted the
blanket
over
the vent.

Please stick
, Diana prayed,
at least long enough to do what we need to do.
Both gave thumbs up when
the
fabric
held. They needed to work fast before it fell off
.

Maia scurried
behind
the door with the chair in tow, and Diana moved to the bedside table. Hopefully the guard wasn’t glued to the screen. Diana lifted the lamp and crashed it to the floor. Maia
drew
a deep breath, raised the heavy chair over her head, and waited. She was taller with a better chance of succeeding. The key turned in the latch, and when the guard
hurried inside to see what happened
, Maia slammed the chair down on his head. He hit the floor like a felled tree.
Timber
.

Diana
grabbed his keys and frisked him for
a weapon and found one
. This was the second time in her life she held a gun, and all within a few months. She tucked it into the waistband of her skirt.

“Okay, girlfriend,” Diana said. “You
’re more familiar with
this place than I
am
. Let’s get the hell out of here before someone figures out what we’ve done.”

O
ut of the Mouths of Babes

L
ucier didn’t play golf, so he
marveled at the barely audible sound of
the little electric vehicle. Another one sat at the end of the building. He
saw no cars
and
guessed the carts
provided
the preferred mode of transportation around the compound. Anna pointed him in the direction of what she
claimed
was the guest house. He hoped she wasn’t double-crossing him because he wouldn’t know until it was too late.

“
S
low down
before
th
e
intersection
,” she said
,
“
or they
might
spot you
.”

Her warning offered Lucier a measure of relief. If she was
setting him up, she would have told him to barrel straight
through
.

“Where now?” he asked.

“I’ll tell you, but you’d better tie me up or handcuff me, or else they’ll know I helped
you
.
This way,
i
f you don’t succeed, I can say you forced me with Steel’s gun.”

“Steel?”

“
He
’s the guy you handcuffed to the bed. I don’t know if it’s his first name or his last.”

“
You knew I wouldn’t hurt you if you
refused to help me
. So why did you?”

Anna thought for a long moment. “This place used to be
a
paradise,
but things changed.
Steele came, others too
.
They all look like
the villains from comic books
.
T
onight, when Steele said he’d kill you and Miss Racine
,
that’s not Paradise anymore.
”
She pulled her legs into a yoga position and grew pensive. “But what really changed my mind were the new babies. They
’re not
our
s
, which meant they belong to people outside the compound.
T
hat mean
s
they were stolen
, and that’s wrong
.
My friends and I
―
we’re afraid
now.
That’s why I’m helping.”