“Damn straight by yourself, Isabelle,” Kathryn said. “I don’t want you covering my ass if your heart isn’t in this.” She looked around at the others, who were nodding that they sided with her.
“But…”
“There are no buts, Isabelle. If we can’t depend on you, you’re no good to us. You stay behind,” Nikki agreed.
Isabelle fled the room in tears.
Her fellow Sisters looked at one another.
“Were we too hard on her?” Alexis asked.
Kathryn snapped to attention. Always the most verbal of the group, she pierced Alexis with her gaze. “You want to partner up with her, she’s all yours. I hate to remind you of this, Alexis, but you were in prison once. Do you want to go back because Isabelle does something stupid because she’s not watching and doing what she’s supposed to be doing?”
“Good God, no. It’s just that this is the first time one of us isn’t 100 percent for the mission. I’m okay with it. Isabelle is entitled to her opinion and that’s her right and she has to live with it,” Alexis said.
Nikki turned thoughtful. “We did cut off our earlier discussion on how those people work. Let’s download some of the videos on the Net showing how these folks brainwash their ‘disciples’ and keep their womenfolk in line. Hearing us talking about the evils of the HOE isn’t the same as watching them practice what they preach. After Isabelle sees it, she might change her mind. Trust me, we’ll know if she’s 100 percent or she’s faking it. Let’s vote on it.”
Five hands shot in the air.
“All right, Kathryn, the job is yours. I have to go back online now and contact Avery. Someone call Pearl to make sure she’s okay.” Nikki looked around. “I guess no one got a call from Myra or Charles, huh?”
They all shook their heads from side to side.
Nikki shrugged and climbed the three steps to the platform where the bank of computers waited for her.
Sometimes life was a bitch!
Chapter 6
Kathryn started to pace, a sure sign of her agitation. It was clear that the issue with Isabelle was bothering her, perhaps more so than it did the others. While Kathryn wasn’t exactly a hothead, she was clearly outspoken, sometimes to the point where the others cringed.
But, as Yoko said, coming to Kathryn’s defense, Kathryn only said aloud what the others were thinking. Then Yoko reminded them all of the first days of forming the Sisterhood and how Kathryn was on her case twenty-four/seven, and how it all worked out in the end.
The others watched out of the corners of their eyes as Kathryn got more and more agitated by the moment. Finally, she whirled around, and shouted, “Annie, call Pearl and tell her to ditch the bus! Tell her to get off the road. They’re going to come back for her. They can’t let her get away. One of those girls had a GPS under her collar. I’ll bet you my sunflower bikini that that GPS is now on her bus. Now, Annie, God dammit! Put her on speakerphone.”
Nikki stopped what she was doing. The other Sisters heard her say, “Avery, I have to put you on hold for a moment.” She looked at Kathryn and mouthed, “What?” Kathryn just shrugged.
Annie was already pressing the number that would connect her with Pearl. She didn’t bother with a greeting but simply said, “Pearl, ditch the bus, take your gear, and get out of there. Stay off the main road if you can. Kathryn thinks those people planted a GPS tracker on the bus. Don’t leave anything incriminating behind. Help is on the way. I can’t give you a specific time frame, but they’ll find you as long as you have your handheld GPS. Move, Pearl!”
The Sisters leaned forward, the better to hear the voice on the other end of the satellite phone. “I’m one step ahead of you. I had a bad feeling, so I ditched the bus thirty minutes ago, Annie. I tossed the distributor cap and I have everything I need. I’m moving. There isn’t much traffic on this back road. My story will be, I’m hiking and had a falling-out with my friend, and I’m off on my own. What do you think is going to go down?”
Annie looked directly at Kathryn, then at the others. She nodded at Kathryn to indicate she should talk.
“This is Kathryn, Pearl. Just a gut feeling, but over the years I have learned to pay attention to gut feelings. You need to stay out of sight if possible until we can get help to you. Worst-case scenario is those people file a complaint with the cops, who go looking for you. From what I read, there are a lot of polygamists in law enforcement, even a judge or two. The children on the bus and the men who showed up to take them would have given an accurate description of you by now. And remember who you really are.” Kathryn looked over at Nikki, who was talking a mile a minute to Charles’s second-in-command. She kept nodding as she spoke.
Pearl’s voice came through loud and clear, almost as if she were in the next room. “I don’t exactly look like the person who was driving the bus. My new name is Rosa Sanchez, and I look like a Rosa Sanchez. How will I know it will be your people if someone should accost me?” Kathryn looked over at Nikki, who whispered, “By her new name.”
“They’ll call you Rosa or Miz Sanchez. It’s high noon, your time. Can you take the heat?”
“Not really. I can’t be sure, but the temperature seems to be around a hundred. If not, it certainly feels like it. I have water. I’m going to look for some cover. I’ll stay as close to the road as I feel comfortable with. Any suggestions?”
Yoko flapped her arms up and down. She shrugged her tiny shoulders. “She’s between a rock and a hard place right now. Just tell her to stay alert and to drink plenty of water.” She looked over at Nikki, her gaze quizzical.
It was Nikki’s turn to speak on Annie’s phone. “It’s Nikki, Pearl. Ninety minutes, and that’s being optimistic. Can you handle it?”
“I can. I will. If I’m caught, I’ll leave the tracker so your people will find it. From there you’ll have to find the nearest police or sheriff’s department. If, and I say if, that’s where they take me.”
Annie reared up. “They won’t be taking you anywhere near either place. They’re going to take you back to that Heaven on Earth place and make you one of their slaves.”
The Sisters as one gasped aloud. They all started talking on top of one another. “Yes, it could happen.”
“No, it couldn’t happen.”
“Well, maybe it could happen.”
Then, “Cross your fingers and hope for the best.”
The connection broken, they turned once more to Nikki for their latest update.
Annie’s cell phone rang. “Change of plans, Nellie. We’re leaving the mountain. These are now your new orders, so listen up…”
Nikki handed Alexis a sheet of paper. Alexis scanned the sheet, and ran to fetch her Red Bag.
Kathryn picked up the sheet and read it aloud. “We’re leaving here, one by one in crop dusters! That’s how we’re going to get to Utah? It’ll take us a week to get there. We’ll be so windblown we won’t know what our names are when we finally land!”
Annie blanched. “Those little paper planes that look so…so rickety?”
Nikki nodded. “If you can come up with a better plan, let’s hear it. Avery said it’s the best he can do on such short notice.”
Annie snorted. “I suppose if one is looking for adventure, one might surmise that flying in a crop duster is it.” Ever the fashion guru, her next question came as no surprise to any of the Sisters. “What’s the attire?”
“Camo, goggles, and one of those leather helmets the flyers used to wear,” Yoko giggled.
Kathryn