The horror of what Lina had said hit Rita as the light streamed in through the hotel window. She had the jittery light headed feeling she always did on no sleep but it was combined with a panicky sense of dread in her stomach. She wondered how the shy kid she'd met at Alfonso's brother's house, the one who broke down at the news of Erica's murder, had even got into the Abundant Blessing Church of Christ's inner circle.

Maybe he just thought he was in that circle. He was probably just being used.

'I recognised the voice of the main guy, the Pastor,' Lina had said. 'Matteo said I'm not allowed to speak to any of them because I'm a girl. He doesn't come to the house, he talks to them on, like, an app. But...he's a policeman. He came to my school and gave a talk about drugs.'

Rita kept playing last night's conversation over in her mind and each time the concept filled her with even more fury. When members of the church came to Matteo's house, which they had been with ever growing frequency now Matteo was supposedly responsible enough to be left on his own while his dad worked or went out with friends, he had told Lina she had to stay in her room. The girl hadn't heard everything through the thin walls, but she'd heard enough.

A policeman leading a violent cult.

He had broken his oath to uphold the law and protect the public.

He hadn't 'just' been corrupt. His beliefs created a world of 'sinners' whose lives were worthless.

'When Dad's away, they take over the whole downstairs,' Lina had said, enraging Rita with the thought of their arrogance. 'They'll shout at me if I go and get something to drink or eat. And if Dad comes back early they just act all nicey nicey and apologise.'

'Do you know when they are going to set it off?' Rita had asked her. Lina had said no. What she'd heard was that the bomb would explode in a shopping centre, on a Sunday. Shopping on Sunday was a sin, they said, and 'the shops were full of sinners'. At this, Alfonso had erupted with fury.

'Shopping on Sunday is a sin, but a bomb that day is fine?' he had spluttered.

Rita wiped her eyes. She nudged him. He was lying there with his eyes open. 'Hey, amigo. You awake?'

'I haven't slept all night,' he muttered. 'Worst vacation ever.' He glanced towards Lina's adjoining room. They had managed to swap rooms last night to a 'family suite'. Wrangling it had been an achievement in itself; Rita hoped the girl had managed to sleep better than she had. Alfonso's hand found hers and she gripped onto it like a life raft. 'At least we're going to Scotland. At least we can decompress and spend some time in nature. I can get my head together from this craziness...' He breathed in heavily. 'How could my brother not know his own son is turning into a terrorist? How can he be so blind?'

'Alfonso,' she gulped. 'Nobody knows when, or where, this thing is going to go off except it's going to be a Sunday. That means we could have six months, or six days.' She held his hand tightly. The certain knowledge hit her that she would lose the £170 she had spent on her ticket, maybe even more. But she couldn't let this go. She especially couldn't let Lina go back to that house. 'It's 12.30, right? I don't think I can get on that train.'

Alfonso sat up in bed. He looked at her helplessly. 'Rita...surely the best thing for us is to just go...'

'I know, and it's what I wanted, but I lost a friend from college in the Madrid bombing.' A lump grew in Rita's throat. 'I have to get them to take this threat seriously. I've already told Jesùs and emailed the whole department. As soon as Lina wakes up, I'm going to take her to a police station -' Rita suddenly stopped talking, feeling like she was on the edge of a precipice. Because...

'Are you sure that's a good idea if this guy's an officer?' Alfonso said, mirroring her frantic thoughts.

He was right. If this man found out Lina had told, it would endanger her life. If he got wind of the investigation, he would do his best to compromise it, deflect attention from the cultists.

From himself.

Rita fought the urge to scream, to tear her hair out. Her breath came shallowly. 'Fuck, Alfonso.'

Her phone pinged on the table, interrupting her spiralling thoughts. Shakily, she picked it up and stared. Subeera had created a group chat with her and Heather called 'Hello'.

'Hey both. Just an update. I just sent in my resignation. I'm feeling so much better already. Wish me luck finding a job in this economy 😭😭😭'

'Come up here and work with me🥹' Heather wrote. 'Truly sorry to hear it. What a horrible situation. It's their loss though chick. If you rejoin in future any department would be lucky to have you. I have your back whatever you decide, you know that.'

Rita selected Subeera's name and messaged her privately. 'I need to see you today.'

'Go on then, I got nothing else going on🥹😅' Subeera replied. 'What's up?'

*

'Come on in.' Subeera let Rita and Lina into an open plan new build apartment with a mezzanine floor. There was a strong smell of Middle Eastern cooking. On the wall above the door was a rectangular silver plate with engraved Arabic calligraphy. A huge TV hung on the wall in front of a beige sofa with a rug draped over it.

'This is Lina,' Rita said. 'Alfonso's niece.'

'Hey, Lina,' Subeera said, a look of concerned confusion on her face. Lina looked around the apartment with red rimmed eyes, without speaking. She had hardly spoken on the train to Edmonton and gazed with a vacant expression at the shops and concrete blocks.

When Rita had asked her if she had got any sleep the previous night she'd just shrugged.

'Are you OK to tell Subeera what you told me?' Rita asked under her breath, putting a hand on her shoulder. Lina froze like a rabbit caught in headlights. After a minute she gave a small nod.

'Want some tea?' Subeera said, as they went to the kitchen. It looked newly refurbished and minimalist but lived in. The fridge had a fridge magnet on it saying 'Boycott Israeli Apartheid' in Palestinian flag colours and another fridge magnet saying 'I <3 Gaza'. There were herbs on the windowsill growing in plastic pots. A small plastic Spiderman was positioned pulling himself from the edge of one of the pots.

'I can make you fresh mint tea. Or I've got chamomile or - wanna know what they all are?

'I'll have mint,' Rita said, taking a breath. Pulling up a chair by a small wooden table by the window, she saw a plastic Scooby Doo with suction cup feet stuck to the wall by the curtain, with a tiny Palestinian flag in his mouth.

'Ha. Yeah. I got those when I was a kid,' Subeera laughed. Rita tried to tug it off the wall but the suction was too powerful. 'They came with me from Gaza. My mum got em at this big market she used to go to, like a year before we left.' She sighed. 'Back in the day when you could still take stuff in and out.'

Lowering herself into the chair beside Rita, Lina stared at Subeera like she was a celebrity. 'Oh wow. You're from Palestine. That's so cool.'

'Bless you, sweetheart,' Subeera said, seeming far more relaxed than when Rita last saw her. She dreaded shattering it. 'What kind of tea do you want?'

'Could I have chamomile, please,' Lina whispered. Rita thought the kid might be starting to relax. She hoped this would mean she would open up better than if she had taken her into a police station, where Lina would be taken to some stuffy, airless interview room where she'd be questioned by people she might not be able to trust, who might not believe her.

Or worse.

'Sure,' Subeera said, leaning over the table and picking a bunch of the herb. 'One sec.' Turning to Rita, she asked, 'I thought you were off to Scotland today?'

Rita took a deep breath, her heart pounding. 'I was supposed to, yes. We've checked out of the hotel. But let us say - at the least I'll have to change my ticket.' She looked at Lina, always mindful of not putting too much pressure on her. 'Something serious has happened, and what I've learned in the last day, I am hesitant to make a report to the police.'

'Hesitant?' Subeera asked uneasily, facing them both. 'That doesn't sound like you. What happened?'

'I need help finding Lina a safe place to stay,' Rita said, her stomach lurching. 'She can't go home.'

'Umm - well, I guess you can stay here for a night,' Subeera said awkwardly. 'I got family over for dinner later, but they're not staying. I'll get the spare room ready in a sec.'

'I didn't mean...' Rita's stomach plunged. Memories invaded her mind of when she thought she had found Pepelito a safe place to live, away from Javier Castella's ruthless gangsters. She would remember seeing Silvio's body on the path with all his poor sick and dying geese, for the rest of her life. And now Subeera, who'd been through so much as it was, was putting herself in the same kind of danger.

'Honestly. It's fine.' Subeera made a dismissive gesture. 'But like. Just so as I know. What am I actually dealing with here?'

Lina swallowed, entwining her fingers tightly. 'Oh. I um - sorry, I don't...'

Rita put a hand on the girl's back; she had been worried about this, that after all this she would be too afraid to talk. A lump was forming in her throat. White hot rage burned inside her at the child's fear, at the people who had made her feel like this. For a second she couldn't think. She'd already fucked up, she thought. She'd put her friends at risk and she'd already lost Lina's trust. Her heart pounded against the silence. She heard herself ask, 'What do you know about the Abundant Blessing Church of Christ?'

'That ain't a church,' Subeera said forcefully. 'That's a cult.'

'So it seems,' Rita said.

'They've got serious dough, if you look at all those fancy church buildings. All that American cash.' Subeera scoffed. 'They recruit a lot in jail. Loads of their members are ex cons - like, loads. I'm sure you don't need me telling you but they're proper, proper extreme.' She shuddered. 'Mum had a run in with them once. It properly shook her up.'

'Have they been violent before, to your knowledge?' Rita said. She watched Lina pick up the Spiderman figurine and turn it over in her hands, sit it down in the middle of the chamomile plant.

'Yep. I'm certain of it. Couple months ago -'

'Stop,' Lina suddenly cried out. 'Stop talking about it. Please.' She took a fast, shallow breath. Her whole body shook as Rita pulled her into a hug. 'My brother said I could never tell anyone. He said if I told anyone the Pastor would find out and he'd...'

'Told anyone what, lovely?' Subeera said. Lina shook her head, buried her face in Rita's shoulder.

With great power comes great responsibility, that was Spiderman's motto, wasn't it?

'Is there anyone working in counter terrorism that you trust,' Rita said under her breath, almost too quiet for her to hear it herself. She watched her friend's eyes widen in horror at the mention of the word. 'There is good reason to think the cult are planning to carry out an attack.'

'No - I was homicide like you. I never worked with CTU, I had nothing to do with them - with any of that. I - I'll have a think...I might know someone. My goodness, that's...'

'The Pastor is a cop,' Rita said in a low undertone. 'That's why I came to you.'

'Oh. Is he now?' Subeera gave a disgusted sigh, looking as resigned and exhausted as Rita felt. 'That does explain one or two things.'