Thundershook his head at her then turned to Pope and asked, “Did you come up with a battle plan already?”
Pope nodded, then sighed, “They think they will set fire to the woods and burn us out if we don’t hand over Digger.”
Daisy came out from behind the table Torin had put her behind.“They are gonna try to burn you out anyway.Even if you give Digger back, they will light the woods up.Then they will stand back and watch it all burn.”
Scarlette smiled then turned to Pope to ask, “You got any laundry soap?”
Pope frowned at her in confusion.“What?You want to wash clothes now?”
Scarlette shook her head. “What happens when you spill laundry soap over wet ground?”
Bishop laughed.“Damn girl, I like how you think.”He turned to his brother.“Well, do ya?We’re gonna need at least ten gallons.”
Pope crossed his arm over his chest and asked, “And just how are you gonna get it into the woods?You can’t just put all that soap in the underground lake, you know.”
Daisy shook her head.“You don’t need to put it in the lake.All you have to do is run a hose out into the woods.They’re probably watching the front gate.If you go out the back door you can run a hose into the woods.Then the soap will hit that water and go where it goes.They won’t even know it's there until they go deeper into the trees to set the fires.”
Scarlette sat back in her chair and added, “So if the soap runs enough, they will slip and slide all over before they know it’s too late to escape the mud.Not only that but the soap will make the mud slippery.It will irritate them more than anything but it will give us more time to set up our defenses.”
Cardinal smirked and looked at his brothers.“Damn, I like this idea.”Shrugging he added, “At least the soap won’t wreck the trees.You might have bubbles for a while, but that won’t harm anything.”
Pope looked at Torin then glanced at every face in the room.“That water has been flowing since last night, the trees should be soaked by now.There might even be standing water by this time. Are you sure you want to use laundry soap?Oil might make things more slippery.”
Bishop shook his head.“Oil might also hurt the trees and the ground.Soap might be messy but it isn’t going to hurt anything long term.”
Pope nodded.“Ok, let’s do this then.We have to move quickly and quietly.“We’ll have to distract the assholes out front and get the hose deep into the trees.”He looked over at Fox and asked, “You still got cameras there?”
Fox nodded.“Yeah, we still have eyes there.”
“Alright,” Pope said.“You watch the cameras and we’ll deal with the front gate.”He looked over at Torin.“Get everything set up and get the soap started.”
Daisy took a step toward Pope.“If my dad’s out there he’ll try to make a deal with you.He’ll probably demand you turn my brother over first then he’ll pretend to leave but he won’t do that.Once he gets Digger back, he’ll still try to set the trees on fire.If you dare fight back he’ll start shooting.With Satan out there watching them, the Demons will have to try to kill whoever fights back.”
“Your dad would break his word?”Cardinal asked quietly.
Daisy scoffed then looked at him.“Without batting an eye.He would look you in the eye or shake your hand then stab you in the back.That’s just how he does business.But he would need to get Digger back first.Those two have so many secrets that he has to protect him.”She shrugged.“Digger has plenty of secrets too.”
“Would he ever go against your dad?”Cardinal wanted to know.
Daisy just stared at him then she sighed hard.Lifting her hand to rub her temples she closed her eyes and replied, “I don’t know.Maybe if you can show him that dad might turn his back on him, then maybe?But I have no idea what you would say to convince Digger of that.”
Hacksaw smiled.“We’re pretty smooth.We can convince Eskimos to buy ice if we need to.But you have to tell us what we can use.Do you know some secrets we can toss at them?”
Daisy paused at this idea then she finally smiled.“I might know one or two,”
Bishop leaned forward in his chair.“I might know one or two myself.”
Pope and Cardinal looked over at their brother in shock.
“What?”Pope shook his head at him.“You holding out on us, brother?”
Bishop shook his head.“Naw, I ain’t holding out on you, big brother.I didn’t even remember I knew something until now really.I’ve been hearing things, you know?Just rumors but you know what they say about rumors?There’s always a little bit of truth in them and a whole lot of exaggeration, right?”
“What have you heard?”Daisy asked him.
Bishop leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest.“Heard about this drug operation your dad plans to start.Rumor has it that he recently acquired a farm for next to nothing.”
Daisy hesitated then she nodded.“Yeah, he got it for the price of human lives.He waited until midnight then he blocked the doors, before he poured gasoline all around the house and lit the match.He didn’t even give that farmer a chance to get his family out as the house burned too fast.”Tears filled her eyes as she looked angry.“He then picked it up at auction for almost nothing.”
