Saul turned slowly on one heel in a deliberate motion. He draggedhis feet, picking them up, dropping them, walking ponderously alongthe street. He looked down at his chest as he moved. Saul wasthinking.

He felt as if he had lost all capacity for urgency.

Saul wondered what he was trying to achieve. Was this revenge?Boredom? A dare?

He was becoming King Rat. Was he? Was that what he was doing? Hewas not sure at all. He had not asked the rats to follow him, but hewanted to see what he could do with them.

He was aware that he should fear the Piper, that he should think,form a plan, but he could not, not now. He felt untrustworthy,confused, full of betrayal. He would show King Rat. King Rat who hadnot chased him, not tried to stop him, not urged him to comeback.

He did not know what he was about to do, he did not know where hewould go, when he would return. But then the very emptiness he feltwas a liberation. For a long time he had felt full of guilt about hisfather, full of his father’s disappointment. Then he had been full ofKing Rat, full of trepidation and amazement.

Now he was empty, all of a sudden. He felt very alone. He feltlight, as if he might evade gravity with every step. As if he hadpissed after a day holding it in, or had put down a massive burden hehad forgotten he carried. He felt he could blow away in the wind, andhe had to keep moving. And each movement, for the first time he couldremember, the first time ever, was entirely his own.

There was a screaming from the alley just ahead of him, and heswore and rushed to the corner. He swung around the edge of brick andstared into the shadows. A few feet from the Edgware Road a youngwoman was lying in the delivery entrance of a shop. She had a dirtyface and dirty brown hair. She sat huddled in a greasy bluesleeping-bag, pulling it up tight around her. Her face was shotthrough with horror, her mouth stretched as if it would split hercheeks. Her voice had run dry. She did not see Saul. She could nottake her eyes from the wall before her.

A cascade of rats spewed and bubbled over the edge. The stream wasalmost soundless, marked only by a low white noise of scratching.

The sleeping-bag slipped slowly from the woman’s hands, and theystayed as they were, frozen, framing her face. Rats simmered aroundher, looked up at Saul, made sounds of supplication, sought approval.They parted as he strode towards the terror-stricken woman.

She did not look at him, still unable to look anywhere except atthe deluge of scuttling bodies. There were more rats there than Saulhad seen in the sewers. They had been joined by compatriots from thehouses around them. Saul glanced up at them, then turned to thewoman.

‘Hey, hey,’ he said gently, and kneeled before her. ‘Don’t panic,shhhhh…’

The woman’s eyes flickered briefly to him and she found hervoice.

‘Oh my God do you see them they’re coming for me JesusChrist…’

She spoke in a strangled screech. It sounded as if there were noair in her lungs, as if it were only fear that was giving her avoice.

Saul grabbed her face in both hands and forced her to look at him.Her eyes were green and open very wide.

‘Listen to me. You won’t understand this, but don’t worry. Shhh,shhh, these rats are mine. They won’t hurt you, do youunderstand?’

‘But the rats are here to get me and they’re going to get me and…’

‘Shut up!’ There was silence, for a second. ‘Now watch.’ Saul heldher head still and slowly moved his aside, until the woman could seethe rats which waited in the shadows and, as her eyes widened againand the muscles around her mouth went taut, Saul threw his head backbriefly and hissed, ‘Disappear!’

There was a flurry of feet and tails. The rats vanished.

The alley was silent.

Bewilderment crept into the creases on the woman’s face. Shelooked from side to side as Saul moved away from her. She craned herneck and peered nervously around her. Saul sank to his haunches nextto her, sat back against the door. He looked to his right and saw thelights of Edgware Road, only ten feet away. Again he thought: thesethings take place so close to the real city, and no one can see them.They take place ten feet away, somewhere in another world.

Next to him the woman turned. Her voice quivered.

‘How did you do that?’ She spoke too loudly still.

‘I told you,’ he said. ‘They’re my rats. They’ll do what I tellthem.’

‘Is it like a trick? Like trained rats? Don’t they scare you?’

As she spoke her eyes wavered from side to side. Her voice wasunnaturally loud and abrupt. Her panic was over too quickly. Shespoke to him as though she were a child. Saul suddenly understoodthat this woman was probably mentally ill.

Don’t treat her like a child, he thought warily. Don’t patronizeher.

‘The rats don’t scare me, no,’ he said carefully. ‘I understandthem.’

‘They frightened the shit out of me. I thought they were out toget me!’

‘Yeah, well I’m sorry about that. I didn’t know anyone was herewhen I sent them into the alley.’

‘It’s amazing that you can do that, I mean make rats do what youwant!’ She grinned quickly.

There was silence. Saul looked around him but the rats remainedhidden. He turned back to his companion. Her eyes were darting aroundlike flies.

‘What’s your name?’ he asked.

‘Deborah.’

‘I’m Saul.’ They smiled at each other. ‘Now that you know the ratsare mine,’ he said slowly, ‘would you still be scared of them?’

She looked at him questioningly. Saul sighed for a long time. Hedid not know what would happen next. He did not really know what hewas doing. He was enjoying his words, rolling every one around hismouth. It was the first time since meeting Kay that he had spoken toa human being. He revelled in every sentence. He did not want theconversation to end.

‘I mean, I could bring them out again.’

‘I don’t know, I mean, aren’t they dirty and stuff?’

‘Not my lot. And if I tell them not to, they won’t touch you.’

Deborah twisted her face up. She was grinning, a sickly frightenedgrin.

‘Oh you know I don’t know I mean I don’t know…’

‘Don’t be scared, now. Look. I’ll call them out, and show you theydo what I want.’ He turned his head slightly. He could smell therats. They waited just out of sight, quivering. ‘Heads up,’ he saidfirmly, ‘heads only.’

There was a stirring in the debris and a hundred little headspoked up, like seals in the waves, sleek skulls under greased-backfur.

Deborah shrieked and put her hand over her mouth. Her head shook,and Saul saw that she was laughing.

‘It’s amazing…’ she said through her fingers.

‘Down,’ said Saul, and the heads disappeared.

Deborah laughed delightedly.

‘How do you do it?’

‘They have to do what I say,’ said Saul. ‘I’m the boss, as far asthey’re concerned. I’m their prince.’ She looked at him inconsternation. Saul felt irresponsible. He wondered if he wasdamaging her further. What she needs is reality, he thought, but therealization came firmly to him that this was reality, whether anyoneliked it or not. And he wanted to keep talking to her.

‘Are you hungry, Deborah?’ She nodded. ‘Well, why don’t I get yousome food?’ He jumped up and crept into Edgware Road, returned someseconds later with two pastries, intricate things encrusted withpistachios and icing sugar, which he put in Deborah’s lap.

She bit into one, licked her lips. She was obviously hungry.

‘I was asleep,’ she said, honey muffling her voice. ‘I heard therats in my sleep and they woke me up. Oh, it’s OK. I’m glad I’mawake. I wasn’t sleeping very well, actually, I was dreaming horriblethings.’

‘Wasn’t waking to a plague of rats a horrible thing?’

She laughed jerkily.

‘Only at first,’ she said. ‘Now I know they do what you tell themI don’t mind so much. It’s very cold.’ She had finished the pastries.She had eaten very fast.