Luis heaved Sermon off the ledge, saving him from the fall, mocking him with laughter all the same. Sermon had been trying to dangle onto a lower balcony when the taser's bolt speared him between his shoulder blades. Now he was being dragged away from Kasia. They would both be singing without backup.

Kasia stuck to the ground as if mummified. Gemma plucked the fizzing round from her sternum and pulled her up to kneel.

“When I first met you I had you down as the single mother who plods along with her head down, maybe breaking a rule here, smoking a fag there...” Gemma removed her shades, revealing narrowed and suspicious eyes.

“Now I see you shaking hands with a wanted revolutionary, holding a missing child in your hand like a fashion accessory. Were you having me on Katarzyna?”

“No...”

“Your survival depends on you giving me more than yes or no. Talk more.”

Kasia had been given no time to prepare. She knelt on the concrete and mumbled a brief account of the event.

“Have you had a drink or smoke?” Gemma lifted Kasia’s head, forcing her to make eye contact.

“I had one drink, but I never finished-”

“Put this in your mouth and blow,” she gripped Kasia’s shoulder and forced a thin flute in her mouth. Kasia gagged. A green LED beeped.

“No nicotine or alcohol!” Gemma slipped the flute out, “whatever you were drinking, you’ve been duped with a zero-percenter. If I were you I’d enjoy the real thing before they ban that too.”

Kasia slouched back down. The detective juggled her hat in her hand. Its badge showed her fractured reflection. She flipped it back on her head and sighed at the distant skyscrapers.

“I wish I’d been there instead of you.”

“I’m sorry… M’am.”

“I’m sure you are.” Gemma made a wry face. Her eyes narrowed further.

“You feel right, don’t you? Saving someone always justifies the road we take to them. We police don’t get much of a chance these days, all being online.”

“Please M’am..." Kasia had to bite her lip to stop it wobbling, "are you going to arrest me? I know you aren’t happy but... we waited for days and you never came! We had to do something and the Reds showed up without us knowing! We just wanted Joey back.”

Gemma flipped her glasses over her eyes, “What’s the new Captain called?”

“He didn’t say.”

“Interesting. He told the cameras he was called Faizan Varma and you were stood right next to him. What did he say?”

“He said orders and, stuff like that…”

“At the end. When he shook your hand. What did he say to you specifically?”

“Take Joey back.”

“I was watching Katarzyna. He told you more than that.”

Kasia’s chest began rising and plummeting, “I don’t remember…”

“Remember.”

“He-”

“Will you take up his offer?”

“No!”

“So he did invite you to join up,” Gemma tapped notes on her phone. Kasia wanted to jump off the roof and chance it. She eyed the nearest ledge.

“Sermon looks ready to convert,” said Gemma “how did he persuade you?”

“He didn’t! I swear!”

“When did he become a Revolutionary?”

“No! He didn’t!”

“Tell me what he sells.”

“I don’t know! We don’t talk!”

“You don’t talk but he called you sister on his last video why?”

Kasia couldn't take any more. She bolted away on all fours. Gemma did something she couldn’t begin to understand, but seconds later the world spiralled around her in a blur of skyscraper ads. Firm hands rolled her flat over the floor.

Then force. A knee pressed into her neck. Cold metal rested on her temple and crackled. Gemma screamed in her ear.

“Come on put some effort in! It’s a long way up the river if I send you there and I’ve seen what happens to girls like Eva. The kind everyone finds pretty. The kind wealthy lurkers snap up fast. You’d think they pay their new girls well but they don’t. Hurts profit margins - the only thing those guys are scrutinised for. So, Katarzyna, be a good mum and squeal for me.”

Kasia surrendered, and did her time on the rack. Gemma extracted so much from her she felt like a traitor to the revolution before she could even ask to join. Control of her thoughts and body lay beyond her reach. She felt like a child; vulnerable and pathetic.

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Gemma stood back, satisfied. She had met plenty of newly emboldened civilians. Knocking them down early prevented them signing a Faustian bargain.

“Katarzyna… can I call you Kasia?”

Kasia let herself be picked up and nodded. Sobbing.

“You’ve been a real help Kasia, dziękuję. If you want to stay out of danger I recommend you leave this all behind,” Gemma headed for the stairs. She paused at the edge, her back to Kasia.

“I don’t have a child myself. I’m glad you respect yours. I can tell your not a criminal Kasia and I’m letting you off but the next person won’t. Police, revolutionaries… terrorists? Or do you see them as vigilantes? Whatever… if you want to keep your daughter safe, stay away from all three of us.”

“I will...”

“This will get worse my friend!” Gemma called from the stairs, “if you don’t keep your head down you’ll lose it.”

Kasia became aware she had been holding her breath. Her chest exploded for air. She fell to a squat and hugged her knees, blowing into her hands to calm herself.

“Do say hi to your new captain for me. I look forward to crossing paths with him.”

It was clear Luis already had the details and was playing him for pleasure's sake. Sermon pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned. He watched the two detectives slink away, toking from two highly expensive and highly illegal vapes, with their tiny drone hovering behind them. The squad car drove itself over the road to pick them up, and they were off.

Kasia stormed downstairs. He rushed to intercept her on the balcony.

“Sista-”

“Don’t call me that.”

“What happened? She get anythin’ on us?”

“She got my star sign let alone anything else. Is she even Blue? Am I gonna wake up with a mask staring at me!?”

“Of course not love! Vijis wouldn’t go outta their way ‘ere.”

“Right because I’m too small fry ain’t I!? Little Katarzyna with her one-trick career and her one-room flat!”

“That’s not how I meant it but... honestly mate, to them yea. And that keeps you safe.”

“Fucking great!” Kasia shook with anger, “please excuse me while I protect my child with my unstoppable insignificance. And when you start polishing Red boots with your tongue you keep me the fuck out of it.”

Sermon laughed with disbelief and sneered.

“Fine Kash! Go back to your call centre, bendin’ over for manager’s who don’t give a shit about ya! You think that Leah girl’s ever gonna meet you in public!? When you gonna hang out with real mates!? When you gonna get a partner!?”

“We’re in the 80’s mate there's no such fucking thing anymore!”

“Have you even had someone call you love!?”

“Fuck off! Have you!?”

Sermon searched for an example, and went for a different tactic.

“Your fam’s 'ere Kash. You’re always tryin’ to be some kinda single player boss bitch; you’re climbin’ the wrong ladder!”

“If we were family you wouldn’t have put me online with a Red -”

“If those Reds hadn’t shown up we’d be dead!” Sermon’s voice boomed across the estate. His face contorted with fury.

Neighbours were filming from afar. He calmed himself.

“We saved three kids lives. No matter how important you think you oughta be, you’ll never be bigger than that. Maybe there ain’t a hero in ya, maybe you’re not sister material either! Fuckin’ right you ain’t comin’ with me to no revolution.”

He marched off. Kasia didn’t want to follow him but she still felt scorned. Her body and soul screamed at her, overwhelmed with threats and insults and pains. She fell against the wall and whimpered, forcing her tears back before she could make a scene. As soon as she regained control, she returned home.

Imany crept away from the door and perched on her bed. Her fingers ran over her husband's photo.

Rhys would have straightened Sermon out long ago, but tonight she sympathised with him. The lengths he had taken for the rescue, the way he carried himself against the doubters and the idle all around him. He was, in his naive way, as fired up as she and her husband had been. For that he was cursed, and one day, would be undone.

What about Kasia? Clinging to a sinking ship and refusing any life raft. She hid behind principles but Imany knew those principles were fear’s bluff. Fear of rejection, insignificance, humiliation. Fear not only of losing, but of being caught trying to win. Another anxious girl drowning under the abuses society sold to her as benefits. A society saying ‘be yourself’ and ‘work hard’ with no true rewards for either. A culture that stole a few meaningful choices and replaced them with a million empty ones, and called it opportunity.

Eva would face the same and more, a commodity who could have as much connection as she wanted as long as the data kept flowing, and that meant the sin of intimacy was out. They’d both drift along the edge, grandmas at 34, in time drifting apart. In their own way, they would be undone too.

Imany tucked herself under her bed sheet, resting in a foetal position. She wanted to connect with someone - someone from before her current life. It had been so long since she and her band mates had spoken yet their 25th anniversary approached. It was the perfect time for a face to face reunion.

She went to message them, but thought better of it.

“Moja piękna…” Kasia smiled apologetically to Eva, who having heard the shouting was cradling herself on the bunk. A plush doll sat with her.

“You got my Pikachu out!” Kasia sat nearby but gave her space, “I remember the day I brought you home. I placed you two together in the cot and you were even tinier than him.”

Eva kept her head on her knees and looked away, gently rocking. Kasia held the doll up, “Pika pi Eva-chan!? Your mother is verry verry sorry. She thunderstruck! Dōzo.”

Eva suppressed a giggle and grabbed the Pikachu, quickly leaning against her mother, who quickly returned the gesture.

“Are you not talking with Uncle Serms any more?”

“I dunno Evie. He’s up to some sketchy shit.”

“He’s always had dodgy shit going on and it was never a problem before,” Eva huffed, “he’s still a part of Revolution Szymanska.”

“We still making one of our own are we?” Kasia sighed. They sat in silence for a minute until Eva yawned, alerting Kasia to the time. She helped Eva up to the top bunk and tucked her in.

“Evie… you know I love you, right?”

“Yea I know,” Eva turned over, “goodnight mama.”

Kasia withdrew to the lower bunk, drawing the sheet along to close herself in. She lay still and awake. Her old Pikachu kept staring at her.

She grabbed it, wrung its neck around, and smeared its face against the wall. When that didn’t help she stuffed it through the gap to die under the bed frame.

The highs of today were gone. She considered scrolling her phone but couldn’t find the will. Which of those friends would she meet in real life? Who among them had she heard talk, or laugh? How many of them even used real photos of themselves? Imany always scorned friends - ‘a parody of something everyone’s too scared to have’ - but anything else was too much of a risk.

Kasia needed something to release her emotions on. Instinct led her finger to the lines on her arm. Then she remembered her new toy, resting under her pillow in its boxy sheath.

She denied herself. If she caved in and did it, it would feel as if Eva had been partly to blame - a thing Kasia swore to never allow. She was too mindful of her own mother, who had so often turn her personal abuses into Kasia’s burden.

Feeling calmer, she instead imagined a life in the revolution. She belonged, contributed, and got back. Ollie was replaced by Varma, Leah by Sermon. Natasha existed somewhere beneath Kasia's boot. Her other allies had no faces yet, but they would. For the time being, they treated her well.

The fantasy began to take shape.