Heres the end of that rewritten chapter
'Your stupidity might have cost two men their lives.' My tone is cold. Icy. 'Whose fault is that going to be? A conspiracy by Muslims to raise the price of oil?'
'You?' Tyrell says, more quietly this time, as if he doesn't really mean it. 'Lecturing me about stupidity?'
His words still have the power to hurt me. I try and fail to let them wash over me. I think of Lou. I'm glad she's on guard duty, that she didn't have to hear this. I love her so much and I was so stupid. So stupid. I don't know what to do to make it right. I don't know how I could have hurt her so badly.
And fear creeps up my back. Nausea rises inside me. Because Tyrell is telling the truth. Whatever else he is, he's not a liar. He didn't harm Danny and Hassan. He certainly didn't shoot them. But someone knows what's happened.
There's a sound behind us. It's a couple of new recruits coming back from a food raid and guard duty at the weapons store. I turn around and see Liam with his arm round Nta's tiny waist. She must have told him. For a second they look like any other teenage couple. Afshah, a thin girl wearing a bright pink hijab, grins shyly as she carries a bag of looted goods to the table. She's sixteen. I never had a future, not really. But the same cannot be said for these children, whose lives were stolen from them. A pair of men from Marbury Defence Brigade who helped in the prison breakout follow, their faces pinched and anxious. Patricia, the former dinner lady who produces most of our videos, follows behind them. I get up to search the women, half asleep, while Avi goes to the men.
'Are you OK?' I ask the girls as I look through their trouser pockets. It's freezing so I try not to take too long.
'It was OK,' Afshah says. 'I want to do some fighting soon. We thought the fash had seen us. I want to -'
Nta's eyes are wide.
'My mum got sent away,' she says as she puts her civvy clothes on. 'They found her. Not Dillingdon. Somewhere else.'
She looks at me before bursting into tears. 'I don't even know where. I wasn't there, I wish I'd brought my gun and -'
'Come here,' I say, opening my arms. She collapses into them, sobbing.
'Thanks, Tal,' she gasps. It's been a long time since I hugged anyone. 'I don't know where. I don't even know. I only saw her three - three months ago.'
'We are going to win this war, mate,' I say as I stroke the girl's hair. I think guiltily of the tubs of fertiliser in the weapons store two miles away waiting for me to do something with them. The targets we haven't even begun looking at. Tomorrow. It has to be. She lets go of me; the nausea returns. When was the last time we checked? Does this person have access to the weapons store? Could they find out where it is?
'Would you girls be able to come somewhere tomorrow night to help me with something?'
Both the young women nod. I was going to do this with Danny. Or Lou. Sometimes I ask myself whether this is the equality we are fighting for. Now teenage girls can die in asymmetric warfare as surely as adult men. 'Yeah. Sure. Tomorrow?'
'Oi, Tal. You done in there?' a male voice says, the Marbury DB soldier. I think his name's Steve.
'Am now.' I step out of the changing room. Afshah and Nta follow me.
'Well, we need to talk. Three of our lads vanished tonight, on the way to meet yours. There ain't no nice way to put it. We got spies on our hands. Spies, plural.'