The Delta Chain (53 page)

‘Our initial data leads us
to believe there have been at least fifty young people who have
been sacrificed to this experimentation over those years. The six
drowning victims discovered these past two years represent,
tragically, just a small percentage, the bodies of the others no
doubt lost in the oceans.

‘William Westmeyer and his
backers had a long association with the leader of that cult. As of
last night, the cult has been closed, its Australian and North
American premises placed under guard, its adult members placed
under arrest. We are now pursuing the backgrounds of the young
people taken by this cult. Their welfare is of paramount importance
to us, and is in the hands of the Department of Youth and Community
Services, and similar authorities in the United States.

‘Finally, I know there are
many questions concerning the deaths this week of local reporter
Melanie Cail and the Institute security chief Tony Collosimo. Once
again, these are part of the chain of events circling the
Institute
’
s criminal research. It appears
Melanie Cail was murdered with the intention of silencing her,
whilst also setting her up as a scapegoat for the security problems
harming the Institute
’
s reputation. Mr.
Collosimo, it would seem, was sacrificed as part of that
plan.

‘The Federal authorities
in the United States are now working in tandem with our State and
Federal agencies here in a continuing investigation. A further news
conference will be called later in the week.
’

There was an eruption of
talk from the news people as the conference ended and
O
’
Malley and his entourage left the
room.

When she stopped to think
about it, Kate felt quite strange about being an officially
recognised IT consultant to the Task Force. She
’
d been asked to attend the special debriefing organised by
O
’
Malley. If she was totally honest with
herself, she was chuffed that her initiative with the Landscan III
had linked the croc hunters to the Institute and brought about the
arrest of the hunters. The remains of their leader, the man she now
knew had been named Erickson, had been found on the
sub-level.

He was a hunter, a
mercenary and a psychopath. The man personally responsible for
Greg
’
s murder.

Wal Hester led her past the
heavily guarded rooms where the arrested members of the hunting
party, the sub-level techs, and Joseph Vender and his head Keepers,
were all being questioned by teams of interrogators.

Mayor Bingham had arranged for
the area to be used as a new HQ for the Task Force, ironically his
last act before being surprised by his own arrest.

Hester himself had led the
raid on the Keepers Of The Faith
’
s
community at midnight the evening before.
‘
We literally surrounded the place just as the entire group
was about to desert the compound,
’
he
’
d reported earlier.

Kate was about to switch off her
mobile to incoming calls. It beeped her, the signal that a message
had been received. Checking the small display window, she saw it
was from Betty Joel.

GOOD
GOIN
’
, GIRL. CALL ME, OK?

Kate smiled inwardly, pushing
the phone back down into her handbag.

She joined the others in the
briefing room.

Adam, now looking rested
and refreshed, nodded to her as she entered. O
’
Malley himself was more casual than usual, in an open neck
shirt, leaning back in the chair at the head of the
council
’
s conference table.

‘As you all know, we have
enough evidence, including the incriminating photo of
Westmeyer
’
s boat, the remains of the
sub-level and the testimony of young Daniel and Elizabeth, to get
the convictions we need. I
’
m only sorry
Westmeyer and Hunter are not alive to face the consequences of
their actions. Westmeyer was a bad example of a scientific
entrepreneur, supremely arrogant, convinced it was acceptable to
hire professional killers
–
mercenaries
–
and to consort with
a criminal religious cult, in order to pursue his grand vision at
breakneck speed. Hunter was no better.

‘The good news is we have
even more evidence. Erickson
’
s dead so
his crew are talking, hoping to strike deals. And Jackson Donnelly
doesn
’
t have the steel he liked to
project. He
’
s singing like the proverbial
bird. We fooled him into believing that just he and his sub-level
technicians were the only ones going down for the whole
thing.

‘With Westmeyer and Hunter
dead, we told him we just wouldn
’
t have
enough hard evidence on Erickson
’
s men or
on Asquith and his buddies. That they were all going to walk.
Donnelly didn
’
t like that. Not a bit.
There
’
s no love lost between him and
Asquith or with him and Erickson
’
s
hunters. In the end they always turn on one another,
don
’
t they?

‘Donnelly started crowing,
giving us plenty to stick on Asquith. He doesn
’
t want them going free while he rots.
’

‘Is he looking for a
deal?
’
Adam asked.

‘You bet. And
we
’
re dangling carrots in front of him
all over the place. But that
’
s all
he
’
s ever likely to get from prosecutors,
a free bloody carrot.
’
There was
laughter, a release of the built up anxieties, a sense that closure
was imminent.

‘Donnelly is telling us
all about the Nexus unit. An elite group with top-level clearance,
running secret research projects all over the place.
’

‘Will the U.S. government
really co-operate with us on that?
’
asked
Megan Shorter.

‘Absolutely,
’
said O
’
Malley. The
last thing they need over there are criminal power brokers like
Asquith within their own ranks. Asquith and his cronies will be
extradited back to the U.S where they
’
ll
face court martial, along with a guy called “Bulldog”
Frazer.
’

Adam
’
s gaze roamed the faces in the room, settling eventually on
that of Kate
’
s. Their eyes met and she
grinned. Elastic expression, mischievous wink. It
can
’
t have been long since
he
’
d seen that but it seemed ages,
months, even years. He hadn
’
t even known
her that long, not even months, certainly not years. But he knew it
was something he definitely wanted.

Adam was drawn again and again
to the photographs, collected from The Com, of young people raised
there over the years.

One of these was a perfect match
with the facial reconstruction that Dr. Mira Sukomoto had completed
on “the mermaid”.

Her name, at The Com, had been
Jade.

Adam picked up the phone
and dialled the Brisbane number for the doctor. He knew
she
’
d become emotionally attached to the
unknown girl to whom she
’
d given a
“face”. He knew Mira would want to know that with the help of her
“reconstruction,” they
’
d been able to
establish who the girl was, and where she was from.

Closure was important, even for
the investigators.

Chicago Tribune

April 3

First in a series of special
reports by Hank Mendelsohn

It wasn
’
t your normal religious sect, not that there is anything
“normal” about any of them. It was quiet, unassuming. Practically
invisible. Its members rarely ventured beyond the towering garden
walls of the cult
’
s two estates, one, a
compound of buildings, or “Com” as the cultists call it, in the
Northern New South Wales countryside of Australia. The other, a
similar compound, in a secluded spot near the Florida
Everglades.

They never promoted themselves,
never attracted police or media attention in any way. They did not
stockpile weapons nor make outrageous comments or threats.
Remarkably, it was their lack of controversy that made The Keepers
Of The Faith so sinister.

Behind their private compound
walls the Keepers and Carers (as the adults are called) raised,
educated and supervised groups of children. They had been doing
this for over twenty years. At times, there were as many as twenty
to thirty children on the two estates. Sometimes, these children
were moved back and forth between the two. They had been
“brainwashed” since they were babies to believe the world outside
was an evil place, despised by God, and that they had been “chosen”
to be raised free of that sin, to be the true children of God,
awaiting the return of Jesus Christ.

The eldest of these children,
now having reached their twenties, were under “training” to become
the next generation of Keepers(male) and Carers(female).

To the world at large it is a
cult peopled by “loonies” who criminally deprived these youngsters
of a normal upbringing. To the people of Christian faith around the
globe it is an abomination, a gruesome “twisting” of the scriptures
and of the name of Jesus Christ. It is the true work of the
devil.

Even more alarming: it is
now established by authorities that these children had been
kidnapped as babies, at random, over a period of years. They were
then taken from varied locations to one or other of the two Coms.
There, separated from their real parents, listed as missing or
believed to be dead, they
’
ve been raised
with new identities, their existence unknown to the outside
world.

It was some of these young
people who became the unidentifiable drowning victims, recently
washed up along the eastern Australian coastline, and two years
earlier, off the Florida coast.

The cruel kidnapping and
brainwashing of these children was the work of a delusional
religious zealot, an Australian of European parents named Joseph
Vender, who adopted the role of First Keeper. His adult helpers
were misfits or misguided unfortunates whom the charismatic Vender
enlisted on his travels.

Vender was financed by the
same renegade military research group responsible for controlling
the Westmeyer Research Institute. The drowning victims were young
men and women from the cult who
’
d been
supplied to Westmeyer for criminal recombinant blood gene
experimentation.

Now under the care of Youth
Services workers, these young people are being prepared for
integration into normal society. This reporter can verify that all
the young people have allowed blood samples and DNA tests to be
taken in an attempt by authorities to trace their birthrights.

Our blessing and our sincerest
hopes go with them.

After the meeting Kate
felt an overwhelming need to spend some time alone. Reflecting. It
was all over now. Greg
’
s killers had been
brought to justice. A greater conspiracy had been brought down in
the process. But something was not right with her. The dust was
settling but what lay beyond the dust? Despite extreme exhaustion,
it was something that had kept her awake for hours the previous
night.

She went down to the tourist
promenade along the main beachfront. It led to a quiet, sprawling
area of rock pools. Natural reserve fronted onto the ocean.
Northern Rocks was famous for its pelicans and this was a place the
big birds loved with its random pattern of rocky inlets. The storm
had passed the night before and in its wake everything felt fresh,
renewed. It was late in the day and the sinking sun cast a rich
crimson through the vast spaces of blue.

She saw Jean Farrow. The
older woman was sitting on an outcrop of rock, barefoot, knees
drawn up, a billowy summer dress spreading out around her like a
gypsy fan. She smiled warmly as Kate approached.
‘
I
’
m not the only one
seeking out nature, eh?
’

‘Not the only one.
’
Kate sat down near her, lifting her face to the
gentle breeze.

‘I guess
we
’
re in a similar place, mentally, you
and I,
’
Jean said,
‘
we both lost someone very close to us because of that
monster Joel Erickson. Now he
’
s dead so I
suppose we have a kind of ironic justice.
’

‘It closes a
chapter.
’

‘Yes. But where does it
leave us?
’

‘It
doesn
’
t seem enough.
’

A seagull swooped by, squawking,
as though trying to tell them something.

‘My son
would
’
ve loved this place,
’
Jean said.
‘
If I
wasn
’
t so emotionally tied to Florida I
think I
’
d like to live here.
’