He is determined to cut through her grandstanding, crack her certainty, dynamite a hole in the new line of defence that Dr Salmon’s process appears to have gifted her. Forensically minded, he has, on a sheet of A4, arranged the victims in the order of their demise. Ending with the girl unplugged from her coma by a tearful mother and sister after a fortnight, it begins with the boy plugged into his headphones directly below the shelf where April’s backpack was stowed, killed at the instant of detonation.

Luke Fisher, he begins, massive head wounds, time of death 17.21.

Oh Jesus! she says, joining him on her feet, hand over her mouth to catch the oath. The effect is more instantaneous than he was expecting. Heartened, he continues.

Richard Abbot, catastrophic blood loss, time of death—

Stop! she says. Go back! Read the first one! Read the first one again!

Her hand removed from her mouth, he can see she is not in shock. She is grinning.

Luke Fisher—

17.21, she interrupts. Luke 17:21! Luke 17:21! Dr Logan—! Her eyes are shining, tears streaming down her face as she wags her finger at the wall.

He turns slowly, steps backs and takes in her pencil-work. April is rising on the balls of her feet, bobbing up and down like a child watching someone unwrap the perfect present.

This is… this is a miracle, isn’t it? You were here, she says. You saw! You know!

It’s… odd.

It’s not odd, she says, it’s perfection! It means – everything, everything, every part of it—

She doesn’t finish. Whatever conclusions she’s drawing, she is drawing them only for herself.

April—

You know what it says, Dr Logan? Luke 17:21? Why it’s on my wall?

No.

Because it’s the central truth. I woke up and I finally knew what it meant. Some translations say ‘in the midst’, but it’s not that at all.

What are you saying? What’s the central truth?

Luke 17:21!

Irritated almost beyond professionalism, I don’t know the Bible, April. What is the text of Luke 17:21?

She looks about to burst out of her skin with excitement.

The Kingdom of God is within you, Dr Logan. The Kingdom of God is within you!

‌Acts

Logan probes his rearmost molar with his tongue. It’s been giving him trouble for a couple of days now. Just here and there, an icy jab, like a tiny climber’s axe getting purchase on his jaw. Under the stalactite root, perhaps, in some unseen crevasse.

I must ring the dentist, he says, and only when the next thing happens does he realize he has said it aloud.

Knuckles rap on his window. It is the lay-by’s mobile snack vendor. Logan clicks a button and the glass slides down.

You want a coffee, Guv? Saw you sat there and figured you might want a coffee.