جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 17

“Could we get the medicine tomorrow instead?”A boy's mother asked one of the medical volunteers. Leila put down the plate she was holding.“What medicine?”“We checked with his pharmacist. He needs it today, but the delivery can't get through.”The mother had been here before. Her son lived on the same street as the little girl who'd cried beside the police car, tripping over her shoelaces that night. Today the boy barely lifted his head from his mother's shoulder.“We can't decide that ourselves,” Leila told the volunteer.“Check the prescription and speak to the pharmacist again. I'll call the nearest clinic too.”“The roads there are blocked.”“Then we'll find a way around the blockade.”Empty water bottles were stacked inside the relief center. An old man who collected caps offered his bicycle, but Leila declined. Prescription medicines had storage requirements and handover procedures. Courage alone wasn't enough to transport them safely.“Can't we just set off and fetch it?” a f

“You're thinking of going back to that company?” Leila asked.Samira spread the interview information across their kitchen table.“I haven't said I'm starting tomorrow.”“They may have leaked information from the aid centre. Your name was on their risk list.”“I know. It's even more frightening when it's your own name.”Leila fell silent. Samira pushed the paper towards her without folding it.“Just let the choice be mine.”That day, Leila and Adèle followed the formal procedure for reviewing the sealed food centre's access records. Leila wanted to know where the keys had gone after they left her hands, and who had affixed the seal to the warehouse entrance, and when.“Wouldn't Officer Moreau just tell us if we asked?”Adèle shook her head.“If he handed over investigative material whenever he pleased, it would undermine our case as well. We need to obtain whatever the official process permits.”While they waited, Leila held a piece of a broken lock she had found outside the bakery. A

“Leila. I'm taking the job.”Samira put the contract on the table. Leila started reading at the bottom, then forced herself back to the first page.“How much?”“Less than before. But enough to pay rent this month.”“It's only for one month.”“One month is something.”“Have you forgotten they put you on a risk list?”“That's why I asked them about it in the interview.”“What did they say?”“That it wasn't an HR document. They say they're looking into it.”Leila pressed a palm to her forehead. The answer might be a lie. There was no way to prove it sitting at their kitchen table.“Let's keep looking for something else as well.”“I already have. Three places didn't like my foreign name. Another hasn't even paid last month's wages to people working through the night.”