Diana Racine 02 - Goddess of the Moon

the airstrip ?” he asked Seth.
    “I doubt it. T wo pilots are on call, and one or the other will make the round-trip when summoned. There’s always a small plane here and a helo in case of emergency. My father and I are the only people who fly. He rarely does any more. ” He waved his hand at Lucier. “ Follow me.”
    Seth drove one of the carts with Maia and their children. Phillip still sniffled, but he clung to his mother like a little boy terrified to let go. Lucier and Diana hopped in the back of the other cart. Cal drove with Anat and her baby in front. If one didn’t know the situation, they looked like three couples with the ir kids out for a night time drive around the golf course.
    H ow many more planes were at the disposal of Crane Corporation and Compton International ? Was there a contingency plan to evacuate everyone if the need arose , a nd if so, where would they go? He only hoped Diana , the children, and those at risk were out of there before he found out.

Chapter Fifty- Six
    E scape

    S teel grunted along holding the arm he wrenched in his persistent effort to loosen the back of the headboard. H is shoulder was killing him, the foot he used as a battering ram to break the door lock didn’t feel much better, and his wrist might be broken . He put the pain aside, driven by so much rage for the damn cop. With no idea where the son of a bitch had gone , he decided to wake Slater for the verbal lashing he’d get for letting his prisoner subdue him ―with a l emon meringue pie, for chrissakes . The more he thought about it, the madder he got.
    The villas were empty unless one or the other boss men showed up. Slater came less often and usually alone, but he stayed longer ― three or four days. Steel wasn’t exactly sure of Slater’s position. He wasn’t a Crane in name or by marriage , b ut he acted like it. Steel didn’t like the man’s attitude, as if everyone in the room had just crawled up to vertical from all fours except him. Most of the women at the compound would do anything for him, though Steel couldn’t understand why. It was as if the man had some kind of magnetic hold on them. A s a guard , Steel’s job description fell short of thinking. He did what he was told, and he’d screwed up royally.
    * * * * *
    L ucier held Diana’s hand in the back seat of the golf cart while Cal followed Seth onto a bumpy path shrouded with an ov erhang of trees. “Are there any accessible phones anywhere, Cal?”
    “ All the links to the outside are coded. That’s the one thing I haven’t been able to crack.”
    “What about in the airstrip? There has to be communication equipment .”
    “Same,” Cal said. “ Locked and inaccessible. Believe me, whenever I had the chance, I tried.”
    Damn . These people had thought of everything. With an endless source of money, t hey’d constructed buildings that blended into their surroundings , hiding it from the world .
    Seven or eight minutes later , they came to an airfield carved out of the mountains. A large camouflage-painted hangar sat at one end o f a runway lined with recessed lights that rivaled any Lucier had seen. A helicopter sat to the right on a helipad with a removable cover , and a turbo prop took up one space inside the two-plane hangar. Lucier knew little about planes , though h e’d flown both in a similar plane and a chopper to survey hurricane damage. This one seated maybe a dozen people.
    Seth drove the cart to the right of the hangar and jum ped out . He waved everyone to follow. “The re’s always more than enough fuel to get us back to New Orleans , but we’d better hurry. They’ll know the kids are gone first . They ’ll check for the rest of us . ”
    Cal parked beside Seth’s cart. Diana helped Maia with the children, and Lucier followed Seth into the hangar with the others close behind. Seth rolled a stair tru ck to the entry door of the plane. “ I need to get the key to open the door, and we’ll be out of here within ten minutes. He separated one key from his ring. In the far corner of the hanger, he slipped the key into a locked cabinet and opened the door . He searched frantically inside.
    “Shit ,” Seth said . “ The key’s always here .”
    “Is this what you’re looking for?”
    Seth swung around. “Edward.”
    Slater eased from behind the plane, holding the door key in the air. Steel stood beside him , glaring at Lucier with a triumphant sneer. Dried meringue stuck to the side of Steel’s