The Fifth Gospel by Grubb Michelle

Author:Grubb, Michelle [Grubb, Michelle]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781626394681
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2016-01-18T06:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

It wasn’t a shock to see everyone dressed so normally, except for Dee. Flic never contemplated the day she would see Dee Macintosh in anything other than designer suits and dresses. In the space of a day, everything had changed.

Dee advanced toward her with outstretched arms. “Oh, Flic, how are you today, my love?”

She allowed the hug from Dee to last an appropriate time before she squared her shoulders and asked, “Do we have some answers on yesterday?”

Dee nodded. “Not exactly, but let me introduce you.”

The man standing to the rear of the room was a French police officer. She didn’t catch his name, but she thought it sounded roughly like the designer Pierre Cardin. The person who sparked her interest the most was Agent Bethan Stark from MI5.

“MI5?” Flic couldn’t help but sound surprised. “Someone taking a pop at me is hardly a matter of national security.”

Agent Stark smiled, barely committing an emotion either way. “We hope not, but your book has stirred a rather large pot. We’re currently monitoring the toes upon which you might have trodden.”

Flic raised her eyebrows. Were Agent Stark’s qualifications in international relations or Shakespeare?

“We need to show you something,” said Dee. She ushered Flic to a laptop set up in the adjacent room. “Your sales figures, last updated at midnight GMT.”

The figures were nearly double the previous figures Flic had seen two days ago.

Dee pointed to another. “Hits on your website.” The figure was in the millions.

“And the social media supplier has had to suspend your account due to the sheer volume of interest generated globally. Their server can’t keep up. In its absence, the public have created their own pages. Some are following you, hating you, loving you, inciting violence, the list is endless. Others are attacking the church, some are defending it, some are homophobic, and some are pro choice. The dominant positive theme that is associated with you all over the world, however, is ‘Love is love.’”

Flic wondered if she had begun something she had no idea how to end, or more unnerving, had she started something she had little control over. “I presume the authorities are shutting down the dangerous sites? I mean, surely recruiting extremists to bomb the Vatican or kidnap the pope is inciting violence?”

“Yes,” said Anna. “But they’re understandably struggling to keep up with them all. As soon as one’s shut down, another dozen pop up in its place.”

“Fucking hell. What have we done?” Flic couldn’t stomach the screens and what they stood for. She turned away. “I can’t hide forever though, can I?”

She caught Dee and Anna exchange glances. “What?”

“We weren’t sure if you’d want to go on,” said Dee.

Neither was Flic. “It’s not so much that I want to go on, it’s more that I can’t accept quitting.” She searched Anna’s face for answers. “Is continuing the right thing to do?”

Dee went to speak, obviously worried about what Anna might say, but Anna jumped in first. “As long as we can get your

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