After several months of waiting, things were moving fast. The FBI started planning a massive raid against the castle, and they would arrest everyone who wasn't actively restrained in any visible way. But Nora still worried. From what she had seen, only a few of them would still be in restraints! What about the rest of them?
Bryan tried to calm Nora down and tell her that those who were there against their will would be released after interrogations, but Nora didn't believe that. She wanted to give them a chance to surrender without having done violence against the FBI. She suspected that most of them were trained to obey, and if any of the leaders told the guards to attack, they would. And many of them would die, or at least be injured, armed with spears against guns. But how would she manage to warn them? She had no way to contact Audrey, or any of the others! And she didn't want to jeopardize the raid. She did still want the castle cult to be destroyed. She just didn't want the innocent to be punished alongside the perpetrators! From what little she had observed about the changes in Audrey, they were all going to be hostile to any new people breaking down their door.
What she needed was a way to talk to Audrey, let her know when the raid was coming and make her gather all those who didn't want to fight so they would be out of harm's way. But how would she do that without getting herself captured? She knew where the castle was now, but it was really far away from anything, and even if she walked from the nearest town, she wouldn't get anywhere near before the FBI would come. They were planning to come via the air, as well as on a train.
When she mentioned this to Bryan, he first tried to reassure her. He had full confidence in the FBI and didn't want to risk anyone else getting away. But when Nora pressed him further, he agreed that he was worried that the leaders would use the people in there as hostages or send them out to fight for them, but he didn't want to think about those scenarios. But once he admitted that, he also admitted that he had contacted one of the agents in the group assigned to this raid and that she had agreed to act as a go-between, if Nora was serious about wanting to go there early and warn them.
In the end, Nora didn't have to sneak around, trying to find a way to get there on her own. The agent Bryan contacted had raised her valid concerns in one of the meetings, and the leader had listened to her, when he hadn't listened to Nora. A few hours later, Nora had gotten a week off work for "Assisting in a Police investigation" and got a meeting with the head of the operation.
"The thing is, Miss Brock, we are quite concerned about the hostages," he said. "But we also have no way of knowing what sort of welcome we will receive, until we get there. You claim that they all have spears and knives, but can you be sure that the leaders don't have anything more modern hidden away in case of an event like this?"
Nora couldn't be sure about that. Nor did she think Audrey could be sure of that, since it was limited where she could go.
"I can't guarantee that, but I also know that most of them aren't there by choice. I just want to make sure that those who are forced to be there aren't just trading one prison for another. Even those who are now so-called free."
"If we find what we suspect in the water, that will go a long way towards clearing those who are without restraints from any charges. But if any of them use their spears against us, drugged or not, we have to take them in. Do you understand that?"
"Yes. But that is why I want to try to make contact with my friend, to see if she can do anything to prevent exactly that scenario."
"We have an idea of how you can potentially do that, but it involves a high level of personal risk. I cannot ask you to do such a thing, but if you are insistent on trying, we may be persuaded to help it along."
Nora understood what he was saying. Officially, the FBI could not allow a civilian such as herself to put herself in danger by doing something like this. But unofficially, they wanted to avoid a massacre just as much as she did.
"What do you have in mind?" she asked, trying to not show how scared she was at the prospect.
"Have you ever jumped out of a helicopter?" the man asked with a grin. Nora gaped at him.
-
Nora regretted her decision the moment she saw the tiny helicopter the FBI led her to. But not enough to back out. She needed to do this. For Audrey. And for Rita. She doubted either of them would be the ones to take up spears and fight, but she still wanted to warn them. And she could admit that a part of her just wanted to be an active part of rescuing her friend. She had been working towards this for over 5 years now, she wanted to see it through to the end.
She didn't actually have to jump out of the helicopter, it was so small it wasn't hard to land it. Inside was her and a pilot and he seemed totally focused on navigating, not chatting with his slightly nervous passenger. It landed briefly to drop her off, with a small backpack of food and communication devices she could use even out here. Around her wrist was a panic button, that she could press for 10 seconds, and the FBI would come as soon as possible. If she didn't press it, they would be there the next day. They had promised to do a fly-over right before, to give her and Audrey time to gather the people up and warn them. The timing of that could be crucial. Too early and they risked some of them getting away, or that they had time to prepare a defense of the castle. Too late and many of them would react violently on instinct.
Just as Audrey had said, the sheep pens were outside the walls. In the dark light just before morning she was able to sneak over to them, always staying out of sight from the men on the wall. They didn't seem to pay too much attention to their surroundings though. They didn't expect anyone to actually be out there, they watched more to see anyone trying to escape from the inside. They mostly talked quietly among themselves. Nora managed to hide under a pile of animal fodder on the outskirts of the sheep pens, but she had given up hopes of sneaking inside once she got a good look at the place. It really was a castle, with a solid wall. How had no one noticed this before? Sure, it was remote, but occasionally someone would fly over here, wouldn't they?
Now all she had to do was wait for Audrey to come out for her daily inspection. She had mentioned that that was one of the things she did every day.