Page 61 of Killing Mind

‘We take the person out of the cult and then the cult out of the person.’

‘Is that the company strapline?’ Kim asked, unable to help herself. She could see it now on glossy brochures.

‘No, it’s what we do,’ he repeated without humour.

‘So, you’re saying you snatch someone and keep them until you think they’re ready to go home?’

He nodded. ‘There’s no point otherwise. What’s your favourite food?’ he asked, surprising her but she decided to play along, and although she didn’t really have a favourite food she did enjoy the occasional pizza.

She answered him.

‘If I took you away from the pizza shop and told you never to eat another pizza you’d completely ignore me and go get one. If I get the chance to show you the fat content and additives and explain the effect it’s having on your body, you might think twice. It’s not as simple as me getting you away from the pizza shop, that doesn’t change your mind-set. Few people are kept in a cult against their will. They want to be there. They’ve been persuaded.’

‘And you dissuade them?’

He took a sip of coffee. ‘There’s a technique used by cults called freezing…’

‘Yeah, thawing and refreezing Myles told me about that.’

‘In effect, we use the same technique to undo the damage.’

Kim pictured a piece of meat. ‘But surely once something has been thawed you can’t refreeze it again. It’s not safe.’

‘It is if you change its structural composition. If a chicken is frozen you can defrost it, cook it and refreeze it again. It has been changed.’

‘But it’s still the same chicken,’ Kim said, wondering how many times the mind could take being frozen and thawed.

He held her gaze but said nothing.

‘And you’re an expert on this?’

‘Yes,’ he said, simply.

‘Why?’

‘Because I am.’

‘So, how long does the process take?’

‘It varies.’

‘From what to what?’ she asked.

‘Five days is the shortest. Thirteen days is the longest.’

‘Sammy Brown?’

‘Thirteen.’

So, she’d been his biggest challenge yet.

‘Let me get this right. You can undo months of brainwashing in less than two weeks?’

‘First of all, cults don’t brainwash, that’s a term when a victim knows they’re in the hands of the enemy. Thought reform is a type of influence and persuasion which is like gaining weight. It happens gradually and like weight the slower it goes on the harder it is to lose.’

‘Thought reform?’ she asked. It wasn’t a term she’d heard before.

He studied her for a minute before necking his coffee.