Ghassan continued, “They’ll torture us. They’ll ransack our homes, the shop, and the salon too.” He paused to let that sink in. “It would be unrealistic to expect anyone to withstand torture without talking. None of us is superhuman. We’re not trying to be heroes. We have to give them something.” Nodding to Bilal to take over, he took out a cigarette, lit it, and puffed away as Bilal began describing all we had done with the pipeline, the phthalates, the pump, the trees.

“You mean you’re the reason they abandoned that settlement?” Wadee exclaimed.

“Technically, I am,” I chimed in, wanting credit for my hard work filling the barrels and running the pump for hours every day. But Bilal shot me a terrible look.

“Ignore what she said. When you feel it’s time to confess, you tell them about the water pipeline, and that I alone did it. Nahr had no idea what was happening. None of you did at the time. If everyone confesses to hearing or finding out about it somehow, it will be convincing enough. But under no circumstances can any of you ever reveal the underground.”

Bilal took in a long breath. “I need to say that again. Give up anything you want. Make shit up if you have to. But never, ever the underground.”

We all nodded in agreement and proceeded to align our stories—specifically, how, when, and where each of us learned about poisoning the settlement’s water pipeline.

All of it was to fall on Bilal. “We have a plan,” he said. “It may or may not work. But in any case, use this information to give them something if you’re tortured.”

“Each of you will get a call about five hours in advance of anything happening. You have to make sure that you get a solid public alibi for the next few hours after you get the call,” Ghassan added.

“When is it happening?” It was the first thing Faisal had said.

“We can’t tell you that. Even the people executing the plan will not know until five hours in advance,” Bilal said.

Two elderly Egyptian women walk me down a dark corridor. They look familiar and I remember where I’ve seen them before. “No.” I tell them I don’t want to abort my child. But they just laugh and say, “We’ve already been paid.”