Page 51 of The House Guest

‘Yes,’ Wanda said. ‘Though I have to wear a mask when I’m on-screen. And hide my location, of course.’ She leaned forward. ‘If they find me, they’ll kill me.’

‘Tell him what you’ve found out about the cult we’re looking for,’ Callum said.

‘Yes, of course,’ Wanda said. ‘I have to tell you, the group we’re dealing with is one of the most clandestine of all. They’re not a legal entity, unlike many cults. They don’t have business accounts and they haven’t set themselves up as a recognised religion. Nobody knows where their headquarters is, if they even have one. They don’t even appear to have a name, which may be a deliberate ploy. If people can’t name them, how can anyone prove they exist? But exist they do.’

‘What about former members?’ I asked.

‘There are no former members,’ replied Wanda. ‘Once you’re in, you’re in. For life. That’s how many cults are exposed. Members leave or escape. They talk. But there are no whistle-blowers here.’

That sent a chill through me. No one ever left or escaped?

‘I have to stress,’ Wanda went on, ‘that what we know is extremely sketchy, based on rumour and a lot of conjecture. We don’t even know how these rumours started, and how much of it is misinformation put out there by this nameless organisation.’

‘So how do you know they really exist?’

‘Because there are enough tales of encounters with the group to make a pattern. Enough people who changed and became more successful, people who have mysteriously transformed their lives and who appear to have a cloak of protection around them. Enough people who seem to have mysterious friends in high places.’

‘Like this model Callum told me about?’

‘Jade Thomson? Yes.’ The name didn’t mean anything to me. ‘Except she has recently gone AWOL. According to her agency, she’s on a sabbatical. But there are many other examples. Names you’d recognise.’

Callum spoke up. ‘I say we grab one of them. Make them talk to us.’

‘That would be extremely foolish. Like I said, they have a cloak of protection. We wouldn’t get near them. And from what I’ve heard, they have sworn an oath to never talk, no matter what.’

I put my head in my hands. ‘This is mad. It’s like the friggingMatrixor something.’

‘It’s nothing that far-fetched, Adam,’ said Wanda. ‘Everyone knows about Freemasons. We’ve all heard of the old boys’ network. We’reallpart of a network of some kind or another. It’s just that, here, we are dealing with one that pretends not to exist.’

‘They must have a leader,’ I said. ‘Someone who founded the whole thing. Do you know who it is? Are there any rumours?’

‘Elvis,’ she said, deadpan, then exploded with laughter. ‘Sorry, man. I can’t help fucking with you. No, nobody knows who he or she is. There aren’t even any vaguely credible rumours. But whoever they are, I bet you one thing: it’s the kind of person you’d pass on the street without noticing.’

There was a silence. The dog had fallen quiet and all I could hear was the hum of Wanda’s computers.

‘So what can we do?’ I asked.

‘We’re going to find them,’ she replied. ‘Like I said, we all have networks. I have one too. I have dozens of people helping me all over the country. Citizen journalists. Young people who are as determined to expose the truth as I am. Have faith.’

‘I’ll try.’

‘Do you have any protection?’ she asked. ‘A gun?’

‘Back in Cali,’ Callum replied. ‘They wouldn’t let me bring it on the plane.’

Wanda turned to me. ‘What about you? You ever used a gun?’

A gun?I shook my head. ‘I’m English.’

She laughed and slapped her thighs. ‘Follow me.’

She led us back along the hallway and down some steps into a basement. We reached another door, this one made of solid metal. Wanda produced her bunch of keys again and unlocked it. She pushed it open and flicked on a light.

‘What the hell?’ I said, as Callum made a delighted noise.

We stepped into the room, which was more of a vault. Or an armoury. There were racks of guns lining three walls. Handguns. Semi-automatics. Rifles and shotguns. In contrast to the rest of the cabin, everything was illuminated by bright fluorescent lights.

‘I have to be ready,’ Wanda said. ‘For when they come.’

---