Prey

*"You are not supposed to be here..."*WARNING: This article contains major spoilers. If you do not wish to know vital information on plot / character elements in QIA, you may want to avoid reading beyond this warning. We hold no responsibility for any negative effects these facts may have on your enjoyment of the series should you continue.

## Prey

Cover image for Season 3, Episode 15: Prey, showing a window in Saint Stephen's church in Bath

### Writer

Jonathan Thornton

*Prey* is the fifteenth episode of the third season of QIA.

## Summary

A new infraction - and its perpetrator - may lead to the most important mission the QIA has ever faced - but Sarah cannot know about it.

## Blurb

"This woman is a murderer, a quantum terrorist and a known fugitive, and this could be our chance to take her in." - Enora Gallou

The worst fears of the London Hub are now upon them, as a horrific new infraction involving the deaths of almost forty people, including eighteen children, seems to be the work of QIA Agent Sarah Cunnington's evil future self. While the team strategise on how to prevent it and bring in the greatest threat the QIA has ever faced, they also need to keep it a secret from Sarah. Meanwhile, the zealous Linearist movement increase their own pressure on the agency, and desperate measures must be taken to lure out another enemy...

## Synopsis

In a flash-forward to a mission, Hafiz is confronted by Fran Grenouille.

Five days earlier, Kara Mildner, now in London, along with Enora and Zoey, meets with Cameron Campbell, Matthew Cross and Lucas Grant, the latter two being of the Linearists. After the meeting, at which Cross demands an end to the Void, Campbell is furious with Zoey for taking the QIA's side.

Carlos again meets with Claudia, who tells him that she and her boss, Arvin Costlemach, wants Ethan's quantum tracking device, and that Costlemach is coming to London.

The team begin strategsing for an awful new infraction, involving a bomb in a church that will kill nearly fifty people including eighteen children. However, an added complication is that the perpetrator appears to be Fran - Sarah's future self. Enora stresses that Sarah cannot know, and so instead sets Sarah off on a different mission - to find Wiktoria Szymczak, whom she had learned was - a year ago - in the employ of Lucita Cadamon, who was herself at that time employed by Brent Hall.

Campbell meets with Amber Harvey, the Prime Minister, to insist that she disbands the London Hub, but Amber demands proof that the QIA are a threat. To get proof, Campbell contacts Donna Kent and begins making arrangements.

When Sarah arrives unexpectedly for the weekly briefing with Hall, Will Bradley - who has been posing as her boyfriend, Ryan Mitchell - panics, but Hall sends him away before she and Tom enter. In the meeting, Sarah demands that he give her information on Wiktoria and Lucita, but Hall points them in the direction of Lucita's secret daughter, Bella Romero. Afterwards, having discerned that she knows the truth now, Hall orders Will to tell Sarah the truth about who he really is.

While Carlos uses Brianne Lake's affections towards him to attempt to steal the quantum tracking device, Campbell meets with Cross and suggests a big anti-QIA rally.

Will, as ordered, confesses to Sarah, and tells her that Hall's agenda is to prevent her from becoming Fran. Angrily, she throws him out. Meanwhile, Kara meets with Hall and tells him that, as he has failed to provide enough actionable intelligence in the last five months, she intends to take him to Geneva, which upsets Enora, who knew nothing of this.

Campbell is paid a secret visit by Fran, revealing that the two are working together.

On the mission, the team (minus Sarah, Tom and Carlos) deploy devices that will be used to send Fran's bomb back through time to wherever she had come from. Back in London, Carlos tries - and fails - to steal the device for Claudia and Costlemach. On the day of the bombing, the team wait for Fran to show up, but just as she does, Ethan is attacked by a masked man (whom he later realises was himself, from the future) while a woman enters the church. Hafiz realises that the devices they deployed are not in the right position, and so to ensure the bomb is sent back, and thereby save the lives of everyone in the church, she has to throw it into the crowd, causing a mass panic. However, the mission is a success and the bomb disappears before it can cause any damage.

In Valencia, Sarah and Tom, with Carlos as the getaway driver, stage a robbery of Bella Romero's home, but they are interrupted by her adoptive father and during the struggle Sarah shoots Bella with prohiberzin while getting shot by a real bullet herself. Consequently, Tom and Sarah are forced to take the unconscious Bella back to London with them.

The following morning, during the Linearist rally, Hafiz spots all too late that the bomb they sent through time from Bath came, via Fran, directly from the rally, meaning that seconds later it reappears, blowing up the steps to the cathedral and killing twenty-three people including Cross and Grant.

## Credits

### Starring

Sarah Cunnington

Tasneem Hafiz

Ethan Taylor

Tom Burt

Iulya Dalca

Carlos Sánchez

Zoey Hallett

### Also Starring

Enora Gallou

Anna Vogel

### Special Guest Stars

Will Bradley

and Brent Hall

### Guest Stars

Cameron Campbell

Brianne Lake

Claudia Horne

Matthew Cross

Kara Mildner

and Amber Harvey

## Jumps

24th December 2022, Bath *(Tasneem Hafiz, Iulya Dalca, Ethan Taylor, Zoey Hallett)*

## Trivia

*Prey* is the first in a trilogy of episodes, which continues in "Predator" and culminates in "Power", though the consequences of this episode - specifically the bombing of St Paul's - will have profound consequences for the rest of the season.

This episode marks the first appearances of Amber Harvey, Matthew Cross, Lucas Grant and Bella Romero, the latter two being uncredited. Also appearing, uncredited, in this episode are Hafþór Ivarsson, Bridget Stanton (as Ingvild Sjældne) and Manuel Ortega Ruiz.

*Prey* also marks the deaths of Cross, Grant and twenty-one others.

## Availability

Episode 15 is available for purchase on Amazon. It will also be included in the Season Three, Part II box set.