at the thought. There didn’t seem to be a way out, and although all he could think about was getting his brother back safely, he suddenly realized there were bigger considerations he couldn’t shy away from.
He chewed over it for a moment, then said, “We’ve got a small window before they figure out their fallback position, right?” He glanced over to Rydell. “They might even be wondering if you’ll keep quiet. As a trade-off for getting your green message out there.”
“They’d be wrong,” Rydell confirmed without hesitation.
“Either way, they won’t do anything yet. Not until they come up with another endgame that doesn’t leave them holding the bag. Which gives me a bit of time to try and get Danny back. Even if it means letting them put Father Jerome up on that stage. You can’t ask me to give up on him. Not when I’m so close.”
He looked around the room. The others glanced at each other, weighing his words.
He looked at Gracie. She held his gaze, then nodded warmly.
“The country’s already well on its way to buying it,” she finally said. “Tomorrow night will make it harder to come back from, sure, but . . . we can hold off till then. Besides, it seems to me that none of us would still be around if it wasn’t for Matt. We owe him that much.”
She glanced around, judging the others’ reactions. Rydell and Dalton each nodded their agreement. Her eyes ended up settling on Matt.
He smiled and gave her a small nod of appreciation.
“Okay, so how do we do it?” Gracie asked him.
“How do we do what?”
“Find your brother.” She caught his confused look and flashed him a slight grin. “What, did you think we were going to bail on you now?”
Matt glanced around the room again. Saw beaming support from everyone around him. Nodded to himself, accepting it. “We’ve got to assume they’re going to put a sign up over Father Jerome tomorrow, right?”
Gracie nodded. “No doubt about that.”
“Then that’s how we’ll do it.”
THEY STAYED UP most of the night, studying maps, plans, and photographs of the stadium pulled from the Internet, examining its layout and the spread of the surrounding area, trying to anticipate where Danny and the launch team were likely to be positioned.
By dawn, they felt they’d reached a consensus on how Drucker’s guys might try to stage it. They’d pretty much followed Rydell’s lead. Having the guy who’d been in charge of the sign’s technology gave them a nice head start, but there were still a lot of unknowns. Then as the first glints of sunlight broke through the darkness, the TV started showing cars and people already setting out on their pilgrimage, and they knew they had to get going too.
They loaded up the little gear they had into the back of the Lincoln. After they were done, Matt saw Gracie standing alone, down the walkway from their room, at the edge of the porch, staring out at the brightening sky. He ambled over and joined her.
“You okay?”
She studied him, then nodded. “Yeah.” She studied him for another beat, then looked away again. “It’s so weird. To think of how divided the country’s become. To think that people need to resort to . . .” She shook her head. “When did we become so hateful? So intolerant?”
“Probably around the same time some power-crazed douche bags decided it would help them win elections,” he quipped.
She smiled and let out a slight chuckle. “Now why doesn’t Brian Williams ever put it in those terms?”
Her expression darkened as an eclipse crossed over her face.
“What are you thinking about?” Matt asked.
“Father Jerome. He’s . . . you couldn’t ask for a more decent human being. To think of the hell they must have put him through . . .”
Matt nodded thoughtfully. “It’s not going to be easy for him. When this thing breaks.”
Gracie stared at him, and her face flooded with concern. “His whole belief system’s going to get wiped out.”
“I think it’s more than his belief system you need to worry about,” Matt said. “You’re going to need to get him into some kind of protective custody. They’ll rip him to shreds.”
Gracie shrank back, winded by the thought. “We’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t, aren’t we?”
Matt shrugged. “We don’t really have a choice. We have to do this.”
“You’re right.” Gracie relented, although it was clear from her haunted look that it wouldn’t be that simple.