Under the Beetle's Cellar

Crime reporter Molly Cates matches wits with Samuel Mordecai, the tyrannical leader of a cult of religious fanatics that has seized a school bus driver and eleven children and has been holding them for forty-six days underground at their fortified compound.

a cult of secretive and dangerous religious extremists calling themselves the Hearth Nazarenes, Vietnam vet Walter Demming, an Austin, Texas school bus driver, and eleven of his young charges have been held underground in the cult's highly-fortified compound for forty-six days. The team of federal negotiators assigned to the case makes little progress, and little by little all hope of rescuing the hostages ebbs away.

Under The Beetle's Cellar

Two years prior to the school bus hijacking, Molly Cates, crime reporter for the Lone Star Monthly, had the bad luck to interview the leader of the fanatical cult, Samuel Mordecai -- an interview straight from the lower reaches of Hell. Mordecai was fascinatingly charismatic, and Molly left the interview having felt trapped, abused and mesmerized by a madman who kept her literally pinned to her chair while he ranted on about his apocalyptic visions for the demise of mankind.

The experience left Molly feeling haunted, but as