Twisted Sisters (The Orion Circle Book 2) by Kimber Leigh Wheaton Page A

“What an awful way to die.”
    “It gets worse.” I lace my fingers with Kacie’s when she reaches for my hand. “The professor first seduced another woman from the sorority and used her as an accomplice. That’s how he was able to orchestrate the whole sordid thing. He used mind control techniques you only hear about in conspiracy theories and horror movies. The poor woman was warped completely to his will.”
    Blake leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “He didn’t kill her too?”
    “No. And I couldn’t find anything about her identity either. I called Rebecca and passed everything on, then gave in and took a pain pill. Slept like the dead.”
    “Am I the only one who’s never heard of MKUltra?” Kacie asks.
    Raven shakes her head. “Nope. No idea what he’s talking about.”
    “MKUltra was a conspiracy theory until documents were released in the eighties,” Carl says, practically bouncing in his excitement. “The CIA, DOD, and other government agencies subjected unsuspecting US citizens to mind control experiments starting sometime in the 1950s. One of the favored methods was dosing a person with LSD and studying their reactions to it. They also used sensory deprivation, hypnosis, mental torture, all sorts of ugly things in an attempt to gain control of another human being. They believed that by dosing someone with LSD and altering their reality, they could alter their entire perception. Weird shit, if you ask me. These tests went on up until the early seventies. It’s possible the professor was involved in some way. The government routinely employed psychiatrists for the project.”
    “Wow, just wow,” Raven says, her eyes wide. “Are you sure this isn’t just a conspiracy theory? It seems absurd that the government could use us as test subjects without our consent.”
    “The fifties were a different time,” Mr. Kincaid adds. “The cold war, the threat of nuclear annihilation, and the red scare created an air of desperation. The US was anxious to stay one step ahead of the Soviets any way possible. Things were sanctioned that should never have been considered in the first place.”
    “Okay, so this professor used a combination of the MKUltra techniques to seduce the girl, then decided to use her to help him run some sick experiment at the sorority house?” Kacie’s body stiffens beside me as she speaks. Her hand clutches my arm. “How could someone be so… so…” Her voice trembles, and I pull her tight enough to send a sharp pain shooting through my side.
    Raven finishes Kacie’s sentence. “Despicable? Contemptible?”
    “You know, I originally managed to get by on the assumption that the girl he seduced was weak.” Rebecca’s voice is soft, forlorn. “But she was just like me. I-I figured out who she was based on sorority photos, school records, and court records‌—‌illegally obtained.” She glances at Mr. Kincaid. “Sorry.”
    “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear it,” he replies, his mouth set in a grim line.
    “Anyway, her name was, or rather is, Angela Baxter. She was an honor student, top in her class, pre-med, active in both high school and college. When she met Professor Rosenthal, she was a sophomore…” Rebecca trails off, staring at her laptop like it might hold the answer she seeks. “It makes no sense. Why would a smart girl like that fall for tricks and seduction? We‌—‌I mean she‌—‌should have known better.”
    “Wait a minute,” Raven says, a look of shock on her face. “This woman is still alive?”
    “Yeah, she was placed in a psych ward for ten years after she testified at the trial,” Rebecca says, twirling a strand of brown hair around her finger. “When she was released, she never married, had kids or a career. Just a string of odd jobs. Her life was ruined… she was destroyed.”
    “What happened to the loony professor?” Blake asks, poking at Rebecca with his foot.
    Her head snaps up, and she glares at him. At least