Many of the people running towards him still paid no heed to his truck, however, in their desire to flee whatever had happened at Costco, forcing him to slow down some. By the time he made South Bradford Street, the crowds were thinning out, with most people having already escaped the scene. He rolled down his window and listened for gunfire, but heard only screams and cries and the growing wail of sirens.

Kipper threw the pick-up onto the footpath and into the parking lot at the northern end of the giant wholesale warehouse. Immediately he saw bodies, a lot of them lying still, and people who were so badly wounded they could not flee. But no shooting. Costco warehouse staff were everywhere, easily identifiable by their brightly coloured vests, many of them tending to the injured. Of the army, who were supposed to have provided a security detail, there was no sign. Nor of the cops and other emergency services, although he could hear them on approach.

Kip turned off the engine and stepped down warily. His senses seemed to be unnaturally alive, and even though this part of the city was a grey industrial area, he could never recall seeing colours so vibrant as the red and blue of the giant Costco sign high up on the building. His hearing too was amped up, with every cry and moan disturbingly clear. Small stones crunched on the tarmac beneath his feet; the engine block of the F-100 ticked loudly as it cooled down. And he gagged as the smell of violent death flooded his nostrils.

Barney Tench’s car, an old mud-splattered Chevy CIO, came flying up the road and screeched to a halt under the tree at the entrance to the lot. The squeal of his tyres caused some people to jump and shy away a few steps. Barney climbed out and raised one massive hand, pointing towards the warehouse. Kipper saw Heather standing there, a small, forlorn figure in blue jeans and a Minneapolis Twins sweater. Even from a distance, Kip could see she was shaking violently. The two men hurried over to her, picking their way through the carnage.

‘Heather! Yo, Heather!’ Tench called out.

She didn’t seem to hear him at first, but her slack features became animated when she finally recognised her colleagues. She immediately burst into tears as Kipper folded the quivering young woman up in his arms.

‘It’s all right, kid. Everything’s gonna be fine. It’s all right.’

He didn’t attempt to question her for at least two minutes. Barney stood by and occasionally patted her shoulder, but obviously felt the need to be doing more.

‘Kip, I’m gonna see if I can scare up somebody from the company,’ he suggested. ‘See if they can tell me what happened.’

‘Good idea,’ agreed Kipper. ‘I’ll be here. You got the cops and the ambulance, right?’

‘Done deal.’

In fact the first squad cars were already screaming to a halt at the edge of the lot, disgorging officers who emerged with guns at the ready, but unsure of where to aim them. Barney kept his hands held up in clear view and walked carefully over towards them.

‘Can you tell me what happened, Heather? Can you do that yet, darlin’?’ asked Kip.

A small, tentative nod was all he got in reply. Her whole body was still shaking uncontrollably. As she pushed away from him, she rubbed at her arms, folded them, and started rubbing again. ‘There was m-maybe a thousand people here, when I got in at six,’ she began, unsteadily. ‘They all had transit passes and ration vouchers, just like we planned.’

Heather stared around the car park as if seeing it for the first time. Her face contorted and Kip was sure she was about to start crying again, but she got it under control. Her voice was small and seemed forever on the edge of breaking into a thousand little shards.

‘Th… they were just fine, everyone waiting their turn, until these three pick-ups arrived.’ She pointed with a shaky hand at a couple of abandoned trucks a hundred yards away. Kipper could only see two of them, but didn’t interrupt her. ‘A-about a dozen guys,’ she stammered. ‘All armed, and they like, just pushed in.’

Kipper shook his head. ‘What about the army, the cops – where were they? There was supposed to be a platoon of soldiers here to help out.’

Heather volleyed back his headshake with one of her own, throwing in a nervous, exaggerated shrug for good measure. ‘I don’t know. But these guys, like I said, they just started pushing their way to the front, and some people are yelling at them, some are just getting out of the way. And this one guy, some big guy in a lumber-jacket, a big red lumber-jacket, he just steps in front of them and puts his hand up like a traffic cop or something.’

‘Okay,’ said Kipper. ‘Go on,’ he added in a quiet voice.

‘Well, one of these jerks, from the pick-ups, he had like an axe handle or something, and he just butt-swipes this dude with it. Totally wipes him out. He goes down and then the shooting starts.’

‘The pick-up truck guys, the looters, they started shooting people?’ asked Kipper, his voice rising.

‘Nope. They got shot. Or at least the one with the axe handle did. He dropped the lumberjack dude, looked like he was about to start pounding on him with that club, next thing you know, somebody blew him away. Two or three shots – I’m not sure. But there’s blood everywhere, people screaming and then the real shooting started.’

Kipper felt as though he was going to vomit. There had to be more than a dozen lifeless bodies lying around in the parking lot. There’d probably be more in the streets beyond. Where the fuck were the army guys? They were supposed to have been here-they’d insisted on it, in fact.

‘How about you, Heather?’ he asked her. ‘Are you okay? You got a little blood on you, darlin’. You’re not hurt, are you?’

‘I don’t know where all the guns came from,’ she said, ignoring his concern. ‘But once they were out, it was like everyone was armed. Everyone was shooting. I’ve never seen anything like it. There was a little girl… standing just near me… She was screaming and crying for… for her mom… and…’ The young woman broke down completely now, as the morning’s blood and horror overwhelmed her.

Barney reappeared with a police officer, an older-looking man with sergeant’s stripes. ‘You in charge here, sir?’ the policeman asked, almost accusingly.

‘What? Yes, no… well, I…’ Kipper pulled himself together. ‘My name’s Kipper,’ he said. ‘James Kipper, city engineer. We were starting our food aid program here this morning. The city’s running the program, with help from Costco, here at least, but the army were meant to be doing the site management and security. So, no, I’m not in charge. Nobody was, by the look of things.’

The cop took in the scene with unalloyed disgust on his face. ‘You know, the fucking city could have just used us. This wouldn’t have happened on my watch, I tell you.’

More cops were arriving and the first of the paramedics were charging around, doing triage.