Dorothy nodded. “I was not questioning your decision, Dionne.”
She leaned back. “Sorry, I know.”
“You look tired.”
Dionne gave a sad laugh. “I was going to say the same to you. How is the treatment going?”
“It is what it is.”
Dionne rolled her eyes. “Thanks for the update, Sister.”
“Do not worry about me. You have enough to be dealing with.”
“You know as well as I do,” said Dionne, “that is not how worry works.”
“Speaking of which, how is Zoya now?”
“She is fine.”
“Really?”
Dionne looked pointedly at the screen. “You, also, have enough things to be worrying about.”
Dorothy nodded. “Out of curiosity, how did Sister Joy catch this Mr Faser?”
Dionne puffed out her cheeks. “I’ve no idea. You know what she’s like. Give her the scent, let her loose, and she does what she does. Maybe it’s better we don’t ask?”
“But what if it comes back on us?”
“Are you worried about annoying a biker gang?”
“No.”
“Then we’re fine.”
“And Mr McGarry?”
Dionne leaned forward. She’d been debating not telling Dorothy the next bit. On one hand, it wasn’t as if she could do anything. On the other, she was still the head of the order.
“As I said, we got him into the cell with this Carlos Breida character. He hasn’t spoken to him yet, and Breida hasn’t responded to his presence.”
Dionne kept having a recurring nightmare in which she watched a big man in a leather mask bouncing up and down on Bunny.
“It’s possible that Bunny is just being cautious. The prison authorities – or whoever agreed the sweetheart deal where Breida has a private cell – are probably more than a little concerned about this development.”
“Yes,” said Dorothy. “Why do I sense that a ‘but’ is coming?”
Dionne nodded. “Zoya isn’t sure, but she thinks she might not be the only person who’s hacked into the camera that’s on their cell.”
“How can she know that?”
Dionne held up her hands. “She gave me a technical explanation, Sister, but I doubt it will make any more sense to you than it did to me. She’s keeping a close eye on it and I’ll keep you informed if there are any developments. In the meantime, it’s what – two in the morning there? Will you please get some sleep?”
Dorothy got as close as she ever came to a smile. “Is that an order, Sister Dionne?”
“Let’s call it a strong suggestion.”
Dorothy nodded. “I will if you will.”
Dionne put her hand on her heart as if she were giving the Pledge of Allegiance. “I’m off to bed as soon as this call is done, I promise.”
“Very well, then. God bless and sleep well.”
Dorothy, as she always did, terminated the call before Dionne could say anything else.
Dionne reached across to pick up the control from the coffee table to turn off the TV. She paused, mentally wrestled with herself for a moment, and then switched over to the live feed from the prison. The camera swapped to infra-red at night but there was nothing to see. All that was visible was the green, blurred image of two occupied bunks where Bunny and Carlos Breida were sleeping.
“Oh, Bunny,” she said to the feed, “I hope you know what the hell you’re doing, because I sure don’t.”
She watched for another couple of minutes and then switched off the screen. She paused, swore loudly and then turned it back on.
Damned insomnia. If she’d been sleeping better, then maybe she wouldn’t have been channel-surfing a couple of weeks ago and seen the thing. Once she had, though, it was impossible to get it out of her head.
Returning to her home state was an unnerving reminder of her old life. Since joining the Sisters, Dionne had travelled all over the world, but in that time she had pointedly stayed away from Nevada, Texas and most of the southern states, where her old life had been. Only Dorothy knew the truth of it and, as tough as she could be, she had never asked Dionne to come back here. Until now.
Dionne knew that in the twelve years since she had joined, she and the Sisters had done a lot of good work. She felt proud. They’d helped a lot of people. Still, it didn’t change what she had been and the shame about it. Even if it felt like a whole other person, the guilt didn’t leave you.
She’d come across channel 549 by total accident. During the day it was a fishing channel of all things. Dionne wasn’t aware Nevada was known for such endeavours, but she guessed that was what the modern media world was. There was an outlet to cater to every niche, however big or small. After 10pm, though, the bass fishermen disappeared and were replaced by six hours of programming for the Celestial Church of New Hope.
Their belief system was laid out over a thirty-minute infomercial that was repeated four times a night between other programming. Jesus was an alien – from a race called the Ofori, to be exact – sent to Earth to welcome mankind into a celestial partnership of love. It hadn’t gone well, hence the whole crucifixion thing. The resurrection had been the mothership bringing him home.
The aliens had determined that mankind was not ready and had left Earth alone for almost two thousand years. The Oforis had then sent a scout ship and attempted to re-establish contact. Unfortunately, their ship had been shot down over Roswell, New Mexico, and the envoys were being kept prisoner by the US military in Area 51. The Celestial Church of New Hope believed that the Oforis would return for a third and final time, to pick up their imprisoned brethren along with 144,000 of the most enlightened earthlings – as laid out in the Bible.
They believed Earth was doomed to an environmental disaster that cannot be stopped, and so the 144,000 would be given farms on Eden 2.0 – aka
