"Holt doesn't trust anyone. Especially not someone who walked away. He'd kill me the second he saw me." "Not if you bring him something he wants." Sihaya said. Rook frowned.
"Like what?" She and I exchanged a glance. We'd thought about it on the ride out here. But saying it out loud made it real. "Me." She said.
Rook nearly choked on his coffee. "You out of your mind?" "You want me to hand you over to Holt?" "Not exactly." Sihaya said calmly. "Just enough to make him believe you captured me.
That gets you close to him. Close enough to gather information. Maybe even pull some of his men to our side." "And then what?" Rook shot back. "How do you plan on getting out alive?"
"That's where I come in." I said. "While you're inside, I'll be positioned close enough to cover you when things go bad." "When doesn't it?" Rook Vatcher muttered dryly. "Not with Varick Holt in the picture." I answered.
Rook went quiet after that. Staring out the window at the peaceful valley he'd been trying to call home. When he finally spoke, his voice carried a weight to it. "Cairo saved my life twice when we rode with Holt." He said. "I owe him.
And I owe his sister seeing Holt pay for what he did." Sihaya stepped forward. "So." "Will you help us?" Rook nodded once.
"I'll help. But we do it my way, my plan. He leaned forward slightly, eyes sharp again. Holt's smart, suspicious. If we're going to fool him, we've got to be smarter.
What do you have in mind? I asked. A hard smile crept across his face. Holt's got a weakness, revenge. If he thinks I'm bringing him Cairo's sister to settle a score, he won't kill her right away.
He'll want to savor it, show it off. He paused. That buys us time. It was a solid plan, but it meant putting Sihaya right in the middle of Holt's camp. Every instinct I had pushed against it.
There's got to be another way, I said. There isn't, Sihaya replied, her voice firm as iron. This is our best chance to save those families and make Holt pay for what he did to my brother. I looked at her and saw that same unbreakable resolve that had carried her this far. She wasn't backing down.
And deep down, I knew she was right. All right, I said at last. But we do this smart, careful. First sign something goes wrong, we pull out. Agreed, she said.
Rook gave a short nod. Then we start planning. If this is going to work, we need to think through every way it can fall apart. The next 2 days were nothing but planning. Rook knew Holt's operation better than anyone, and he walked us through every detail.
How the camp was laid out, their routines, the personalities of Holt's top men. Holt's main camp sits in Dead Horse Canyon, Rook said, sketching out a rough map on a piece of paper. About 30 men total, but they're not all there at once. Half of them are usually out on jobs or scouting. What about guards?