This is part 3. See previous posts for parts 1 and 2.
Summer gave way to autumn. Mira spent the months maintaining social media accounts for Elliot and blogging about it. Then, one afternoon, he asked her to meet him at a commercial building on the edge of downtown. He was standing outside when she arrived.
"This is the subject you can't tell anyone about," said Elliot. "Understand?"
"It better not be a perv room," said Mira.
Passing through a heavy steel door, they found themselves in a beige hallway. Elliot led them twenty feet and stopped in front of an unmarked wooden door. He opened this door with a key from his pocket. Mira followed him into an office space. Lights came on as they entered the room.
A single desk and computer occupied one corner. The walls were covered with printed pictures connected to each other and note cards by yarn. A stool and cello rested in the room's center. "Here are all my secrets," said Elliot. "The things I'd rather keep private."
"So who are you stalking?" asked Mira, moving to study the pictures. "I better not see my face up here."
"Promise not to laugh," said Elliot.
"No way," said Mira.
"Have you heard of Hearken, the religious cult?" asked Elliot.
"No," said Mira.
"They're not well-known," said Elliot. "But they have power. Money. Influence. A few thousand fanatical followers."
"Okay," said Mira.
"I was raised in Hearken until the foster system got me at fourteen," said Elliot. "Once I made my money and the public eye found me, people from the cult tracked me down, demanding money. I turned them away but they just kept coming back, different people every time."
"What'd you do?" asked Mira.
"I hired a company to persuade Hearken to cease and desist," said Elliot. "I also started making this map of the cult's leadership structure and connections. If the law ever goes after them, I'll turn my information over."
"So what do you need me for?" asked Mira.
"Transcribing audio," said Elliot. "There's a few hundred hours' worth. I'd be doing it along with you. There's nobody else I can trust with this."
"I have to admit, this isn't what I expected," said Mira. "Pay the usual rate?"
"Not knowing what's on the recordings, I can't promise that you won't hear something upsetting," said Elliot. "That company I mentioned got an agent of theirs recruited into Hearken. We'll be transcribing the audio they captured while being accepted as a member. The agent is attempting to remain embedded until they're allowed into Neptune's inner circle, which may take years, if it ever happens at all."
"This must be costing you a fortune," said Mira.
"People who claim to hear divine extraterrestrials in radio static," said Elliot. "They have a militant wing and an unpredictable leader. Someone needs to keep an eye on them, even if it costs."
"And you also play the cello?" asked Mira. "What do you know about the leader?"
"His name is Clay Grover, but they call him Neptune," said Elliot. "He assumed the role when the former leader died ten years ago. That one was called Saturn. The biggest difference between the two is that Saturn was into collective punishment whereas Neptune shows his displeasure by micromanaging followers' lives."
"Creepy," said Mira.
"I've got a laptop all ready for you to work on and there's an Ikea desk in the closet that'll require assembly," said Elliot. "Any questions so far?"
"Only like a million," said Mira. "What was it like, growing up in a cult? Were your parents in it?"
"My parents were high up in the group," said Elliot. "Their marriage was arranged by Saturn but I don't remember them ever getting along with each other. They died together when their car was struck by a semi that had drifted over a highway median. It was summer, so I was at Hearken's summer camp and no one even told me about it until I got back to Light Village, where all of the higher-ups lived."
"That must've been hard," said Mira.
"Hearken tried to keep me," said Elliot. "Saturn tried to adopt me. But within a week of being back at the Village, sheriffs and a county worker came and brought me to a group home, and I was placed with foster parents just before school started that year."
"Did they teach you weird cult versions of school subjects?" asked Mira, trying to lighten the mood. "Some Mormons teach their kids a version of history where the Mormons are in the center of everything."
"Thankfully, no," said Elliot. "Not exactly, anyway. All the kids were home-schooled in one big group. But Hearken's whole thing is that it's science-based. Yes, they prophesy doom and believe in ETs, but for most school subjects, they just taught out of standard textbooks. When I started at regular school, I ended up being somewhat more advanced than the other students, though I learned quickly not to bring up the unconventional perspectives I'd been raised with."
"What kinds of stuff am I going to hear in the recordings?" asked Mira, feeling like this was getting too personal. "Do you know?"
"This is the second batch of recordings I've received back from this agent," said Elliot. "The first one was focused on their recruitment period. It included conversations with other recruits and audio of the group's regular ceremonies. This new batch should include more about the group's actual workings, both in a practical and a mystical sense."
"A mystical sense?" asked Mira.
"Neptune seeks divine guidance in mystical trances," said Elliot. "Hearken's adepts are encouraged to follow suit, with those in Neptune's inner circle given the final say over how the adepts' revelations are interpreted. Neophytes are discouraged from entering into their own mystical trances. They're expected to do chores and meditation exercises until selected by Neptune for adept initiation."
"Huh," said Mira.
"I've got all of the inner circle on these walls, if you want to take a look," said Elliot. "Hearken calls them ascendants. Twenty-one people, besides Neptune, presiding over three hundred adapts and three thousand neophytes. The recordings will probably be focused on them. Hopefully."
(Feature image from Pixabay.)
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