The Circus has caught up to us now that we’re in December. 

Daisy is inside the Circus, behind a thick pane of glass, trying to connect with and help the resistance. She doesn’t have a plan, other than to connect with Smithers, her brother, and see how to help. Meanwhile, she observes the freaks, the system, the way everything works. She is figuring out where the weak point is, although she doesn’t know it.

Smithers, however, knows that Daisy will be their leader. She is the key to bringing the horrible structure of the Circus down around their ears. He’s been waiting for her. Because he knows that the mail system was hacked, he also knows that King is aware of Daisy’s arrival. This puts the entire resistance at risk, although Smithers is not at all certain that King realizes what he’s up against with Daisy.

Brutus has found Smithers, and is the key to bring him and Daisy together. Since we know Smithers winds up with Bert and M, it’s likely that Daisy sends him there. There needs to be a scene for that. Brutus will stay with Daisy, or at least stay in the Circus, until it’s all over. Brutus will be central to their ability to destry the systems that keep the Circus going. 

M, twelve years in the future, reads the diaries Daisy was able to send to Bert, and Bert’s notes, and is methodically working on an equation that will help solve the puzzle of how to bring the Circus down.

Read the full story here, and watch for more chapters to come, now and then, through the winter.