Moriarty left her desk in search of the project supervisor and found her sitting in her office, reading the local newspaper. She looked up from her broadsheet as Moriarty appeared at the door and offered a mild smile.
"The cultures have been separated and the discs are now in the freezer," Moriarty announced, seething to be reporting to a mere graduate student.
"Good. Has every disc been labelled with the entry time?"
"Yes."
"Then I'll see you on Monday, Kerry." The supervisor returned to her paper while Moriarty collected her coat from her chair and left the laboratory, stepping out into the warmth of early June.
It was more than six months since the Dionysus Project ended with Dean's abrupt departure, taken away on the day Moriarty decided to break her vow and enjoy his wonderful body. Her contract was terminated as soon as the Corporation bureaucrats sifted through her files to find the letters from the prison service outlining the terms and the date of Dean's release. She could not explain why she had not read these documents, or the fifteen page report of the prison visitors who recommended that Dean be released at the earliest opportunity. Patterson was furious, partly because Fleming was equally livid that Dean had escaped their custody. Patterson, the corporate player, was able to deflect the greater part of blame onto Moriarty and within days she was gone.
Moriarty soon discovered that her doctorate carried less weight than she hoped in the scientific community of southern California. She was reduced to working as a laboratory assistant on a standard research project, designing a new form of sleeping draught for dogs. Her boss was five years younger and yet to complete her PhD, which accounted for the unconventional lack of titles on the staff page of the project handbook. Moriarty was exploring her options, but there were few vacancies at this time of the academic year, and she would have to wait until the autumn to see whether any of the major laboratories were hiring researchers for projects. Her brisk departure from the Genesis Corporation had discouraged Moriarty from considering reviving the Dionysus Project in a new guise.
It was after six when Moriarty climbed the stairs of her apartment block. She was opening her door when the mobile leapt in her pocket. It was her old college friend, Helen, with news of a friend of a friend due to marry in two months who wanted to begin her celebrations with a special treat.
"I've got us five tickets for the hottest show in town." She paused for a dramatic moment before pronouncing the word with a loud whisper. "Fabian." Moriarty almost dropped the phone. "Kel, are you still there?"
"Yes, I was just opening my door," she replied as she stumbled into her dishevelled apartment.
"It cost me an arm, a leg and my good name. The show starts at eight. It goes on for two hours. Can you believe it? I've never seen him live, but Sally says he really is hung like a horse. God, I'm a bit wet already."
"I'm not sure I can come. I have a lot of work ..."
"Kel, it's Friday night. There's no way you're going to work tomorrow. I'll pick you up in an hour. We need to be there early if we want to sit near the stage."
Moriarty and her companions arrived just before seven, but the club was already crowded with more than three hundred women sitting at tables and gathering along the sides of the hall. The noise from the horde of excitable women was intense, and the opening of the show was still an hour away. There were women wearing nothing but thongs and tight tops amidst the respectable women enjoying a furtive night of sexual fantasy. The other girls complemented Sara, a friend of the bride, on her contacts in securing such a choice location.
"My sister knows the guy who owns the club." She leant low to whisper more good news. "He's promised us a backstage visit after the show." The women at the table all shrieked with delight, except Moriarty.
The show began with the lights dimming to a thunderstorm of hysterical shouting. A blast of music and then two women dressed as nurses appeared, marching across the stage in tandem to squat on the edge of the stage. The underwear, Moriarty was not surprised to see, was pink. The two women marched around the stage as the music built to a crescendo and then there was darkness for a moment before a spotlight fell on Dean, dressed only in shorts, in the centre of the stage. Moriarty recognised the crimson colour of his scanty clothing. The noise was deafening, and his mellow smile only heightened his reception. He stepped forward and a calming hand gesture brought a semblance of calm to the hall.
"Good evening ladies." Another chorus of shouts and another mild smile. Eventually the noise subsided. "Thank you so much for coming to join me tonight." There were more shouts and a few declarations of love as he introduced his assistants, Cindy and Candy, who both greeted him with a passionate kiss that raised the noise level to new heights, and then he disappeared once more into the darkness at the back of the stage.
The show involved four separate performances. Firstly, Dean was brought, bound in cuffs, onto the stage. There were some theatrical scenes of mild abuse with canes before he was tied between two poles, his body splayed for the entertainment of his eager audience. After more counterfeit caning and a drum roll Dean was stripped of his tiny costume. It was nearly five minutes before the audience had returned to their seats. The first session ended with Dean mounting one of the nurses close to the edge of the stage and riding her for nearly ten minutes. Then, to more screams, he was dragged from view.