‘There is a very bad man in here. He will kill you. Leave rightnow.’

The guard’s eyes were blinking violently.

‘Do you understand?’ hissed Saul.

The guard nodded vehemently. He was looking around frantically forhis truncheon, deeply scared by the ease with which he had beendisarmed.

Saul released him and the man bolted. But as he reached the end ofthe little bus-street, the sound of the flute pierced the air aroundthem and he froze. Instantly Saul ran to him, slapped his face hardtwice, pushed him, but the man’s eyes were now ecstatic, fixed witha quizzical, overjoyed look over Saul’s, shoulder.

He moved suddenly, pushing Saul aside with a strength he shouldnot possess, and skipped like an excited child deep into the redmaze.

‘Oh fuck, no!’ breathed Saul, and overtook him, shoved him back,but the man kept moving, simply pushing past Saul without oncelooking at him. The flute was closer now, and Saul grabbed him in abear hug, held him, tried to block his ears, but the man, impossiblystrong, elbowed him in the groin and punched him expertly in thesolar plexus, knocking the wind out of Saul and doubling him over ina crippling reflex prison. He could only stare desperately, willinghimself to breathe, as the man disappeared.

Saul pulled himself up and hobbled after him.

In the heart of the bus maze was an empty space. It was a strangelittle room of red metal and glass, a monk’s hole barely six feetsquare. Saul found his way towards the centre, rounded a corner andwas there, at the outskirts of the square.

Before him stood the Piper, flute to his lips, staring at Saulover the shoulder of the guard, who pranced ridiculously to theshrillness of the flute.

Saul grabbed the man’s shoulders from behind, and hauled him awayfrom the Piper. But the guard spun around and Saul saw that a shardof glass was embedded deep in one of his eyes and thick blood hadwelled all over his face. Saul shrieked and the Piper’s playingstopped dead. The guard’s expression took on a puzzled cast; he shookhis head, raised his hand experimentally towards his face. Before hecould touch his eye, silver flashed behind him and he dropped like astone. A pool as dark and thick as tar began to spread very quicklyfrom his broken head.

Saul was quite still.

The Piper stood before him, wiping his flute clean.

‘I had to let you know, Saul, what I can do.’ He spoke quietly anddid not look up, like a teacher who is very disappointed but istrying not to shout. ‘You see, I feel that you don’t really believewhat I can do. I feel that you think because you won’t listen to me,no one else will. I wanted to show you quite how hard they listen,see? I wanted you to know. Before you die.’

Saul leapt straight up.

Even the Piper stared, momentarily stupid with amazement, as Saulgrabbed one of the surrounding buses’ big wing-mirrors, pivoted inhis flight, and swung his feet through the top front window. Then thePiper was there behind him, his flute thrust aggressively into hisbelt. No attempt to hide this time, Saul just hurled himself throughwindows again, leaping the gap to the next bus, bursting into its topdeck. He picked himself up and leapt again, refusing to hear hisscreaming limbs and skin. Again and again always followed, alwayshearing the Piper behind him, the two of them pushing through layerafter layer of glass, littering the ground below, a fantasticallyfast and violent passage through the air, Saul desperate reach theedge of the maze, eager to take this into opened ground.

And then there it was. As he girded himself to leap throughanother window, he realized that what he could see through it was notjust a bus two feet, beyond, that he was looking out at a window inthe garage wall itself, and through that at a house, a long way off.He smashed free of the last bus and leapt onto the window-ledge,halfway up the bricks. Between him and that house a gash was cutthrough London soil, a wide chasm filled with railway lines. Andbetween Saul and those railway lines was nothing but a high fence ofsteel slats and a long drop.

Saul could hear the Piper still following him, great heavy crashesand vibrations rocking the massed ranks of buses. Saul kicked out thefinal window. He braced himself, jumped out and clutched at the dullmetal barrier below. He landed across it, his weight shaking itviolently. He clung to it tight, let his balance adjust. Scuttled alittle forward, looked back at the ripped out window. The Piperappeared, looked out. He had stopped grinning. Saul fled down thesheer metal, his descent something between an exercise in ratagility, a controlled slide, and a fall.

He looked up momentarily and saw the Piper trying to follow. Butit was too far for him: he could not grasp that fence, he could notcrawl like a rat can crawl.

‘Fuck it!’ he screamed, and snatched his flute to his lips. And ashe played, all the birds began to return. They flocked once again tohis shoulders.

The railway lines curved out of sight in both directions. Abovehim Saul could see buildings which seemed to jut out over the valley,seemed to loom over him. He ran, following the tracks to the east. Hesnatched a glimpse behind him, and saw the birds settling on the darkfigure who stood in the window frame. Saul lurched hopelessly on, andnearly sobbed with delight when he heard a tight metallic snap, arestrained rattling, and he knew that a train was approaching. Helooked behind him and saw its lights.

He moved sideways a little, making room, running alongside thetracks. Come on! he willed it, as the two lights he could not helpbut think of as eyes slowly drew nearer. Above them he saw thescarecrow figure of the Piper approaching him.

But now the train was nearby and Saul was smiling as he ran, ashis sores and his ripped skin pulled against each other. Even as thePiper swung close enough for Saul to see his face, the tube trainhurtled past Saul and he accelerated as it slowed for a bend, and asit passed him he threw himself at the back the final carriage,grappling with it like a judo wrestle jostling for position,thrusting his fingers deep into crevices and under extrusions ofmetal.

He pulled himself to the top and spread his arm wide, clingingtight to the edges of the roof as train began to increase its speed.Saul swivelled on stomach until he faced backwards, stretched hisneck and looked up into the Piper’s enraged face, bobbed up and downin the air, contorted even as he continue to play, borne aloft by acanopy of dying birds in slit through the city, this roofless tunnel — but there was nothing the Piper could do to catch Saul now.

And as the train pulled away even faster, Saul saw him become aflying ragdoll, and then a speck, and then he couldn’t see him anymore, and he looked instead at the buildings around him.

He saw light and motion inside them, and he realized that peoplewere alive that night, making tea and writing reports and having sexand reading books and watching TV and fighting and expiring quietlyin bed, and that the city had not cared that he had been about todie, that he had discovered the secret of his ancestry, that amurderous force armed with a flute was preparing to kill the King ofthe Rats.

The buildings above him were beautiful and impassive. Saulrealized that he was very tired and bleeding and in shock, and thathe had seen two people die that night, killed by a power that didn’tcare if they lived or died. And he felt a disturbance in the airbehind him, and he put his head down and let his breath out in agreat sob as the approaching tunnel swept up rubbish and sucked it inbehind the train, as a sudden warm wind hit him like a boxer’s glove,and all the diffuse city light went out and he disappeared into theearth.