“Could Willow find out psychically?” suggested Brendan. Alex bit back the automatic Ask her yourself. It wasn’t needed; Brendan caught himself. “I mean...could you?” he asked Willow awkwardly. “If we found out who had the information, then you’d just have to hold their hand, right?”

Willow’s forehead creased. “Maybe, but like I said before, it’s not instantaneous. Getting that level of specific detail would take me a while. I mean, a few minutes of really concentrating, at least.”

“Yes, for me too.” Seb stroked his stubbled jaw. “And even then, you don’t always get what you’re looking for.”

“Don’t you?” Willow’s voice held mild surprise.

“I don’t, no,” he clarified, glancing down at her. “I get many images, but only what’s on their minds. And sometimes not very specific. I hardly ever get names, things like that.”

Alex could see how interested both Seb and Willow were by the fact that their psychic skills seemed to vary – if nobody else had been around, he knew they’d have spent the next hour discussing it in great detail.

Meanwhile, Kara had pulled a face at “not very specific”. “Alex, what do you think? Is it worth a try?”

He brought his attention back to the plan as he considered. In the wake of the security breach Luis had caused, he’d bet money that only the Church preacher knew all the details they needed – and the man would have been taken into the angels’ confidence enough to know that Willow Fields the terrorist was psychic, and worked by holding people’s hands. Trying to manoeuvre the guy into a scenario where either Willow or Seb could grasp his hand and concentrate for several minutes was far too likely to raise suspicions; all the Church high-ups would be on red alert now for anything strange.

“No, we can’t risk them figuring out what we’re up to,” he said finally. He glanced at Seb, knowing it was a long shot even as he asked. “Could you sense anything if you went into the cathedral? Willow can’t go in there with all the angels around, but you’d be okay if you changed your aura.”

Seb’s eyebrows shot up. “You mean get security details, just from being there?” He shook his head. “I can try, but I don’t think it will work – I think all I’ll see is that it’s a dangerous place.”

That wouldn’t be much of a newsflash. Alex sighed. “Okay, so we can’t count on that. Kara, how easy will it be to break into the offices?”

“Not easy at all, but it sounds like it’s our only hope.” Kara’s face held a wry expression, as if she wasn’t surprised the half-angels weren’t turning out to be more useful. She picked up a pencil and started sketching on a spare piece of paper.