She hesitated. The officer pushed her in and shut the door. There was an overpowering smell of cheap beer and stale food. It was pitch black. The contrast with the outside couldn’t have been greater. Lindi turned round and tried to get past the man. He grabbed her arm and swung her back. She tripped and hit her head on the back wall. She was sweating profusely, her heart pounding. She filled her lungs, trying to regain her balance. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness. Two or three steps and the officer was in front of her. She felt his beery breath.

‘If you make this difficult, we are going to make it difficult for you.’ He was smiling. ‘Just do as I say and you will be back with your friends now-now’

‘I will be reporting this to your superiors,’ Lindi said, unconvinced, even as she spoke, that it would make any difference.

‘You can talk to anybody. We have a terrorist situation here and we have orders to be very strict.’

‘Do I look like a terrorist?’

‘I don’t know till I have searched you. Now, hold out your arms.’

He put his hands around her shoulders and round her armpits, allowing his thumbs to settle over her breasts. He was looking her in the eye. Lindi grabbed his wrists, but it made no difference. His arms were like a clamp.

‘We’re just doing our job,’ he said. ‘Sometimes we are supposed to ask the women to take their clothes off. I can do it now if I want to,’ he said, still staring at Lindi and moving his hands down her body. He ran his hands along the waistband of her knickers, which he could feel through her linen skirt. (What on earth had made her wear a skirt? She regretted the choice.) Then he pushed hard between her thighs, before carrying on down to her ankles.

‘Turn around.’ He was breathing harder. Lindi didn’t budge. He reached up, held Lindi by the hips. She tried, again, to get out of his grasp. It was useless. He forced her round and pushed her hard against the wall. Lindi tilted her head sideways – it was the only way she could breathe. He started running his hands up Lindi’s legs. This time he reached under her skirt.

‘No,’ she screamed, and started banging her fists against the timber wall.

‘No one is going to hear you. And no one is listening. You understand?’

He stood up, leaving his right hand between her legs. ‘Now I have some questions for you. So what are you doing with these people?’

‘I’m not with these people. I’m just travelling on the same bus,’ she screamed at him.