Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, death, child death, child abuse, and addiction.

Early the next morning, Cates and the others get into his truck to depart for the elite Eagle Mountain Club in Saddlestring. Soledad excuses himself to go back into the house. Cates recognizes the sharp sounds that follow a few minutes later—Soledad shooting Britney and Rob dead. When Soledad returns, he whispers to Cates that the couple needed to be killed. Cates keeps the murders a secret from LOR and Johnson.

LOR fills up the air compressor powering the mechanical bear—which Cates has named Zeus II—on the way to the club. Cates’s target is Judge Hewitt, who takes his morning walks on the grounds of the club. Since the club is deserted at this early hour, Cates rolls the truck silently into the woods circling the grounds. He drops off Johnson near the entrance so that she can hide in the bushes and alert them if she sees someone come in. On Soledad’s suggestion, Cates has taken away Johnson’s iPhone and given her a burner phone.

The pressure in the compressor is now 2,000 PSI, which can make for at least a couple of “bear bites.