Early Thursday morning in Toledo, Holly drives Kate through a string of radio appearances while Corrie keeps the schedule running with impressive efficiency. Kate uses each interview to argue that the threat against her event is bogus and that officials canceled her anyway to silence her, turning the setback into a free-speech issue. Back at the hotel, Corrie lines up more interviews for the drive to Buckeye City and keeps pressing the tour forward.

While Kate continues taking calls, Holly reviews Jerome’s research on militant activist churches connected to the Army of God. Following the leads, Holly discovers that the Wisconsin church Real Christ Holy was funded by Harold Stewart and linked to a prior fake-acid attack at a Florida clinic. A news photo and the details of that case make Holly realize that Corrie’s Reno attacker may not have been a woman at all, but Christopher Stewart in disguise; Corrie remembers the Bible-based taunt and the red wig but cannot positively identify him from the photograph.

On the drive to Buckeye City, Holly has a new idea and calls Jerome from a roadside stop to ask for help. When the group reaches the Garden City Plaza, Holly wishes she could retreat to her apartment and admits to herself that, although she still admires Kate’s courage and skill, she no longer likes her much and feels reduced to serving as hired protection. Outside the hotel, supporters and anti-abortion protesters are already gathered, underscoring the danger surrounding Kate’s appearance.

Later that afternoon, Christopher Stewart arrives in Buckeye City carrying two suitcases and following Deacon Fallowes’s instruction to leave as little digital trace as possible. He sees Kate, Corrie, and Holly at the hotel, checks in under the alias William Ferguson, and reflects on his childhood as Chris and Chrissy, his mother’s private acceptance, his father’s refusal to face it, and Deacon Fallowes’s religious reframing of his identity as something God could use. After resting briefly, Christopher resolves to scout the Mingo Auditorium because he believes only a bullet will stop Kate.

At the same time, Trig, living publicly as Don Gibson at the Mingo, struggles to focus on ordinary work while thinking about his murder spree, Alan Duffrey, and the symbolic importance of ending things at the Holman Rink. When Corrie calls to discuss logistics for Kate’s talk, Trig smoothly invents an insurance problem and persuades her to come alone to the auditorium at noon through the service entrance, after arranging for the place to be empty. By the chapter’s end, both Christopher and Trig are moving into position, and Corrie has unknowingly stepped into a trap.