“Yes. She did. And so will you. You’ll have all this help along the way, too. Did you see all the people who came out for you today?”
“Yes,” she said, and smiled. I could see it, under the cold pack. “It was awesome. Like a pageant. Like a Bible story.”
“Or a superhero movie,” I said. “Except not. Much less fighting. We decided it wouldn’t work, and that we had to find another way.”
“How?” she asked. “How did you think to do all that?”
“Ah,” I said. “That was Hayden. And Victoria. They made the plan. Do you want to hear it?”
“Yes,” she said. “Please.”
“Well,” I told her, “it was like this.”
We’d come up with it during dinner the night before, when Daisy had been all but dancing in her need to drive up to Mount Zion right the hell now with her foot pressed all the way to the floor. And probably landing in the river again, which was why I planned to drive instead.
We hadn’t left, though, until two in the morning. That was Hayden. He said, “You need the media. We need this on film, and they’ll need lead time. And light.”
“Why?” Daisy asked. “I’ve always done these kinds of things in the middle of the night. Actually, at three or four in the morning. That’s when people are least alert, when you can get in and out quickly. What you don’t need is light. Or people who’ve already woken up, either.”
“I thought you were a nurse,” Hayden said. “Not a commando.”
“I’m both,” Daisy said, and I had to concede that it was true. She wasn’t going to be a commando by herself anymore, though. If she made any more of those dark-of-night visits to the shed, I was going with her.
“I’m skimming right over that,” Hayden said, “even though I’m now seriously intrigued. It’s private property. We can’t actually burst in there and take Frankie by force, even if you knew exactly where she was. It’s not an action movie. Unfortunately, because I’d love to see Luke and Kane and Gray doing that. Oh, and Drew. You don’t mind if I call you Drew, do you? You don’t insist on the title?”
“No,” Drew said, clearly having a hard time not smiling despite the tension. “Cheers for including me in the cast.”
“And where will you be in all this?” Victoria asked. “Isn’t there always a clever fella? Comic relief? The brains of the operation?”
“I’ll be directing from behind the scenes,” Hayden said. “With a headset on, looking at the drone footage. But we’re not doing it, remember? We have to get in there legally, or get Frankie out legally, so she can press charges, and so she has proof to do it. For that, we need pressure. We need the media, and we need a crowd to get the media. It has to be a story.” He thought a minute, then told Drew, “You’re good.”
“Thank you,” he said gravely.
“No,” Hayden said. “I mean you’re leverage. We need more leverage, though. Community pressure, that’s the idea. The community coming out to demand the release of a beautiful young woman who tried to escape the cult, but was grabbed again just as she was on the verge of starting her new life. It helps that she’s so young and he’s so much older, but this Prophet guy didn’t get where he is by backing down, so it’s got to be overwhelming pressure.”
“He still won’t care,” Daisy said. “I want this to work, but I can’t pretend it will. We can show up with the media, I guess, if we can get somebody to come, but he’s seen the media before, and they’ve seen him. He knows there’s massive disapproval of what he’s doing. That’s just more fuel for his fire. The disapproval is proof of how ungodly the world is, the need to seal yourself away from its corrupting influence. No. We have to go in there and grab her. Who’s he going to call? The police? Let him. Let him call, and explain to them why Frankie’s there, and the condition she’s in.”
“Is she likely to be that bad?” Drew asked, and he wasn’t smiling now.
“Yes,” Daisy said. “She is.”
Victoria said, “There’s a better way. A faster way. And not that you all aren’t seriously large and scary, but there are dozens of men living out there, right? Farmers, with farm implements. Fighting your way in isn’t