Saul saw the fat pillars of the Westway loom out at him again.

He turned right, skirting the great dark thoroughfare, wanderingslowly west. He did not know where to turn. He turned his eyes to theground, seeking a manhole. Perhaps he should hide himself from view,seek out King Rat again. He did not know if he could find his wayback through the sewers to the throne room. He did not want to seethe rats. They had unnerved him with their pleading. They wantedsomething of him.

A few late walkers passed him by. Saul wanted to stop, to sit andthink for a while, to eat. He was not tired. He thought suddenly ofthe policemen who had died in his flat, and he winced.

He was gravitating towards the tangled concrete of the Westway’smid-air junction, a confusion of sweeping curves which hung above theearth like an imminent threat. Below the skeins of steel and tarmacthe council had provided enclosures for basketball and football, aclimbing wall and chin-up bars. During the day the area was full ofthe shouts of young players oblivious to the concrete above andaround them, swooping in all directions with functional grandeur, afound stadium occluding direct light, obscuring the sky.

Saul wandered into the darkness between the pitches. He looked upat the underside of the Westway itself. The traffic above soundedvery far away.

He meandered into the passageways between chain-link fences andfootball fields. The wind was stilled under the roadway. He stood andlistened to it buffet the edges of the secluded ground.

There was another sound.

A faint, quick scampering echoed quietly between the pillars.

Saul turned and moved his head sharply as something circled him.He backed away. Panic bubbled up inside him. The Ratcatcher! hethought, and ran for the faint glow of the streetlamps.

He spun around on his heel, desperately looking for a way out ofthe darkness. Something flitted across his vision, a black body thatswung down from the shadows above him, from the crevices in theunderside of the Westway. It swung around him, too quick for his eyeto follow, free of gravity’s constraints, moving in all directionsthrough the air. Saul’s breath came fast as he turned and ran.

Something sailed out of the air above him and flew overhead in aperfect parabola, with a grace and speed that eclipsed any gymnast orcircus performer alive. The dark mass curved over the Earth and cameto rest, landing lightly twenty feet in front of him. The crouchingform sprang upright, splaying legs and arms suddenly like ajack-in-the-box.

A tall, fat man swayed before Saul, his arms and legs spread wideas if anticipating an embrace.

Saul braked and backed away, turning suddenly and running backinto the darkness from which he had come. He tried to remember tohide, to become a rat, but terror had frozen his cunning.

As he ducked behind a tennis court, the fleeting shape passed,flying over the net, and the man was there before him again, armsoutstretched. A thin cord suspended from somewhere above recoiledfrom the swing, and brushed against Saul as it returned along itsflight path.

Saul changed direction and disappeared behind a climbing frame. Heheard something hissing behind him. Saul gasped as he ran, hisrat-strength pushing him faster than he had ever moved before. Hisskin crawled with fear. Ahead of him he glimpsed threadbare trees.There was a thin gap between two of the wire fences, beyond which wasthe garden to a housing estate.

He raced for the slit and careered along it, making very littlesound, when something caught his ankle and he swung like a felledtree towards the concrete.

He was yanked away from the ground before he hit and he hung for amoment in the air. Thin ropes were stretched across his path, tied tothe chain links on either side. One had swept away his foot, andanother had caught him across the chest. He cursed frantically andstruggled to stand, tugging at the rope which had somehow entangleditself around his ankle. He ploughed forward and saw spindly shapesbefore him more ropes, a thicket of them across his path. How had henot seen them before?

He struggled to climb over them, but they confused him; some tiedso loosely they came away in his hand and wrapped themselves aroundhim, others so tight they vibrated like a bass string as theyrepulsed him. He fell again, caught in this cat’s cradle. He couldnot move. He hung suspended at a forty-five-degree angle, headdownwards, four feet from the ground.

Saul heard a footstep behind him. He jerked his head,disentangling himself frantically, swivelled in the midst of his meshto face the way he had come, his back to the morose shrubs he hadsought.

The man stood at the entrance to the little passageway.

Light from the far-off lamps struggled to illuminate him, glintingfaintly on his skin. He wore nothing but a pair of black cut-offshorts on his lanky legs. He seemed unaffected by the cold. The manhad very dark skin and a massive belly jutting over his belt, butarms and legs that were ridiculously long and thin, every musclestanding firm with every movement. His stomach was distended,globular but taut as a bubble. It hardly rippled as he moved slowlytowards Saul. Saul saw a thick coil of filthy white rope wound aroundhis left shoulder.

‘Don’t give me no more trouble, pickney, or me gwan mash youup.’

The voice was scratchy and sharp, vibrant with Caribbeanintonation. It sounded close in his ear, as King Rat’s did.

The man moved in little bursts. He paced quickly forward a fewfeet, then stopped to investigate Saul, moved forward again. As heapproached, he unwound the rope from his shoulder.

Saul shook violently to free himself from the tangles of rope,seemed only to pull them tighter around him. He began to screech.

The man was upon him, fetched him a vicious slap across the cheekthat stopped Saul’s cry instantly. His head rocked. He was dizzy andhis face throbbed.

‘He tell you to shut your mouth, bwoy!’ The man kissed histeeth.

Saul’s head wobbled forward and he blinked hard. The man wasbending over him. Saul was deeply afraid. He put up his hands, triedto push them through the ropes to ward off the attack he was sure wascoming. He thrashed in his bonds and opened his mouth to screamagain.

The man reached down as fast as a snake and pushed his fingersinto Saul’s mouth. Saul tried to bite down, but the man spread hisfingers and with inhuman strength forced Saul’s mouth open. Saul’scaptor tugged at the rope draped over his shoulder with his freehand. He wound it around Saul’s head once, twice, stuffed it into hismouth like a gag.

He muttered to himself in patois.

As he spoke, the man yanked the rope tight and wound it expertlyaround Saul’s head again, obscuring the lower half of his face. Saulmewed frantically from behind this mask as his eyes darted from sideto side.

The man pulled at Saul’s arms, twisting the rope around them andpulling tight, securing them behind Saul’s back. He tugged Saul freeof the little alley. Saul stumbled and ran forward till his feet werejerked out from under him and he fell. He had reached the end of therope which bound him. He slid back across the concrete. The man wasreeling him in.

Saul was pulled to his feet and turned to face his captor. Withhis mouth blocked, Saul breathed frantically through his nose,sputtering flecks of snot onto his bindings. Black eyes stared intohis own, which were wet with fear.

‘You come with me fe see ratty. There some bad obeah loosenow.’

He twirled the rope suddenly over Saul’s head like a film cowboy.The coils slid down through the air and wound around Saul’s body. Theman spun him on the spot, tightening the bonds, letting out slack toconstrict him like a top. He bent and ran the rope on down Saul’slegs, until his whole body was obscured in a shroud of grubby whitecord.