After Elder Tanner is briefed on the little-girl-rescue situation (he's finally feeling well enough to be mobile), the posse goes to a bar called "The Steamer" to meet with Dr. Nathan Chilling, an older man with very limp mad-scientist hair (The Steamer is like a sauna inside, but this has the benefit of purifying the air as well as hiding the patrons from each other). He is clearly besotted with the girl, and talks about how Hellstromme is doing terrible things to her, and she's so sad. He is, however, able to provide information on the various ways into the secret lab and the hazards to be found there. They arrange that on the day they mean to do the deed, the group will drop him a blank postcard and he'll flee to Corrine, where they will meet him and hand over the girl (he then plans to flee with her).

After he is gone and they get out of the steam, there is a long period of planning. They go scout the grounds of Hellstromme Manor, and Cady's penetrating gaze spell is put to good use. They determine that there are surprisingly few guards, and that the easiest way to get in will be rope ladder over the wall and in through the hangar elevator at night. They plan to get out through the escape hatch, which is rumored to be trapped from the outside.

"None of the other scientists we've met have had enough soft-heartedness to sell all their stuff to save a little girl."
"You're right, that's insane!"
"Maybe he's not a very good scientist."
"Perhaps he's just a second-rate mind." -exchange between Cady and Dr. Vorpwhistle.

Tobey applies her Solomon's choice power to the problem, and gets back that they shouldn't save the girl, because people will die, and they shouldn't leave the girl, because Hellstromme will learn things man was not meant to know. The implied third choice is to go assassinate the girl, but it isn't so spelled out.

They then go back and shop, picking up some sleeping gas from Smith and Robards, a rope ladder, and some horses. Then they sleep until nightfall, and put their plan into action. It goes smoothly to the elevator, and they set the floor selector to four (the biological studies floor). It stops at level 2 (the lounge) and three of Hellstromme's X-Squad guards try to detain them, but using the sleeping gas they quickly prevail. One guard nearly makes it to the emergency telegraph, and another manages to give Dr. Vorpwhistle a graze, but no real harm is done. They loot the sleeping guards a bit, and head down the stairs to level four. Everything is assisted by Dr. Hellstromme's insistence on labeling everything around the lab to prevent confusion.

There they find a large space with a lot of strange equipment pushed against the walls, including tables, empty cages, and so on. In the center of the room is a cell-sized cage with a bed, chair, and girl (on the bed, in a fetal position) surrounded by four tables on which there are notebooks and samples and so on. They ignore the girl for a bit as Vorpwhistle reviews the notebooks.

In doing so, he learns that the girl thinks everything is disgusting, dirty, impure. Also that when one scientist entered the cage, she listed all the bad things he had done, declare him disgusting, and burnt him to a crisp with a rod of fire generated from her hands. Finally, he learns some physical facts, like her body is consistent with that of a freshly-dead girl of around twelve years of age. Aside from the moving around, and the glowing eyes. Her name is Dinah.

They then talk to her, and after getting her to get off the bed, they learn that she's angry, that they're disgusting, that the world is disgusting, and that Elder Tanner is especially disgusting because he is awful flesh wrapped around a tiny spark of something worthwhile. She apparently left her home (Vorpwhistle asks where that was, and when she pronounces the name he finds it overwhelming) because not enough was being done about bad things happening... but when she arrived she was horrified at how crude and dirty things were.

"There's now no doubt this was stuff man was not meant to know."

At this point the prevailing theory is that she's some sort of angel type thing. They can't really think how to kill one of those, but the best bet seems to be an unholy weapon (inverting the procedure for whacking evil demony things). Luckily Tobey has one of those - her machete.

"We're here to deal with the problem. We were sent by God... I think..." - Elder Tanner's less than stirring comment

Unfortunately at this point more guards arrive, somehow fortified against the sleeping gas. Hellstromme himself is with them (staying sheltered in the stairs until the posse is disarmed). They disarm the group and take their equipment, leaving only clothes and attitudes. Hellstromme has them thrown into individual cages, and then after a brief debate about what the girl is (Hellstromme isn't sure, but is sure that angel is just a way of avoiding the issue) he decides to ignore them and examine their equipment.

LB: There's some initial discussion as to whether Cady's oath lets her decide to not rescue the girl when Solomon's Choice says it's a bad idea. To clarify, Cady doesn't take orders from God. She's willing to take advice.

LB: Elder Tanner left a sealed letter with his father to be delivered to the Black Chaplains in case things went horribly awry. From the fact that his dad didn't immediately leap upon him and say "what do you mean you're going to assassinate Dr. Hellstromme's captive little girl?" we presume he didn't read it immediately. This mystifies Dr. Vorpwhistle.