His feet touched the concrete with a tiny pat.

‘You damn good now, you know, pickney. Not easy keep track of you,these days.’

‘Why did you bother? Daddy send you?’ Saul’s voice waswithering.

Anansi laughed without sound. He smiled lazily, predatory — thebig spider-man.

‘Come now. Me want fe talk.’ Anansi pointed with a long finger,straight up. Then hand over hand he seemed to fall up the rope, whichwas tugged peremptorily from view.

Saul slid silently to the corner of the building and gripped it onboth sides. He hauled himself away from the earth.

Anansi was waiting. He sat cross-legged on the flat roof. Hismouth worked as if he were preparing to say something unpleasant. Henodded a greeting to Saul and indicated with a nod that he should sitopposite him.

Instead, Saul interlaced his fingers behind his head and turnedaway. He looked out over Brixton.

There were noises all around them from the streets.

‘Mr Rattymon going crazy waiting for you now.’ Anansi spokequietly.

‘Motherfucker shouldn’t have used me as bait, then,’ said Saulevenly. ‘Rapist motherfucker shouldn’t have killed my dad.’

‘Rattymon you dad.’

Saul did not answer. He waited.

Anansi spoke again.

‘Loplop come back and him crazy mad at you. Him want you dead fetrue.’

Saul turned, incredulous.

‘What the fuck has he got to be angry with me for?’

‘You make him deaf, you know, and you done also make him madagain, mad in him head.’

‘Oh for fuck’s sake,’ spat Saul. ‘We were both about to be killed.He was about to kill me and get fucking taken apart himself. I thinkthe fucking Piper’s done playing with us, you know? I think he justwants us all dead now, all the kings. Loplop would’ve fucking died, Isaved his life…’

‘Yeah, man, but him save you. Could’ve watch while the Pipermandone kill you, but him try to save you, and you fuck up him ear…’

‘That’s a load of crap, Anansi. Loplop tried to save me becauseyou all… you all… know the Piper can’t hold me, and you all knowI’m the only thing that can stop him.’

There was a long silence.

‘Well, Loplop him mad, anyway. Don’t be getting too close to himnow.’

‘Fine,’ said Saul.

Again, a long pause.

‘What do you want, Anansi? And what do you know about Fabian?’

Anansi sucked his teeth in disgust.

‘You still green, bwoy, fe true. You sure got all the rats demupon you side, but you don’t know what fe do with them. Ratseverywhere, bwoy. Spiders everywhere. Them you eyes, the rats. Mylickle spiders tell me what the Badman do with you friends. You ain’tnever ask. You not care till now.’

‘Friends?’

Anansi screwed up his face and looked at Saul disdainfully.

‘Him have kill the fat bwoy.’ Saul’s hands fluttered about hisface. His mouth stayed shut, but it quivered. ‘Him have take theblack bwoy and the lickle DJ woman.’

‘Natasha,’ breathed Saul. ‘What does he want with her…? Howdoes he know who they are…? How is he getting inside me?’ Saulgrabbed his head with both hands, began to thump himself in despair.Kay, he thought, Natasha, he hit himself more, what washappening?

Anansi was on him. Strong hands gripped his wrists.

‘Stop now!’ Anansi was horrified.

Animals do not hurt themselves, Saul realized. There was stillhuman inside him, then. He shook himself and stopped.

‘We have to get them back. We have to find them’

‘How, bwoy? Be real.’

Saul’s head spun. ‘What did he do to Kay?’ Anansi pursed his lips.‘Him took the bwoy apart.’

They ran for a while, then there was a short scurrying climb, andthey stood on Brixton Rec, the sports centre. They could hear thefaint thump of MTV from the weights room below. Saul stood at thevery edge of the roof, a little way forward from Anansi. He pushedhis hands in his pockets.

‘You could have told me, you know…’ he said. He heard himself,and hated his plaintive tone. He half turned, glanced at Anansi, whostood quite still, his arms folded over his bare chest.

Anansi sucked his teeth in contempt.

‘Cha, bwoy, you still full to the brim with rubbish. You talkabout how the Rattymon him you father? What for me want tell youthat?’

Saul looked at him. Anansi was insistent.

‘What for me want tell you? Hmmm? Listen, bwoy, pickney, hear menow. Me one bigass spider, understand? The Rattymon, him a rat.Loplop him the bird, the Bird Superior. Now you, you some strangehalf ting, fe true, but what for we gwan tell you ting like that? Metell you just what me want you fe know. Always, there you have apromise. No more hypocrisy now, you see, bwoy? No need. Animal likeme no need for such ting. You leave that behind. You can trust me tobe just so trustworthy, never no more, but never no less.Y’understand?’

Saul said nothing. He watched a train arrive at Brixton stationand trundle away again.

‘Was Loplop going to tell the Piper where I was? Were you allgoing to come for him when he tried to take me?’ he askedfinally.

Anansi shrugged, almost imperceptibly.

They sidled along the side of the railway, the British Rail linewhich rose above the market and the streets. They slid along withoutspeaking, heading for Camberwell. Saul appreciated the company, herealized, though it was hardly what he had hoped for when setting outthis evening.

‘How could he find my friends?’ said Saul. They sat on theclimbing frame in a nondescript schoolyard.

‘Him search all you books an tings. Him find some address tings fesure.’

Of course, thought Saul. My fault.

He was numbed. If he was still human, he realized, he would be inshock. But he was not, not any more; he was half rat, and he feltinured.

Anansi was very silent. He made no attempt to persuade Saul toreturn to King Rat, or to do anything, for that matter.

Saul looked at him curiously.

‘Does King Rat know you’re here?’ he asked.

Anansi nodded.

‘Has he asked you to say anything? Get me back?’

Anansi shrugged. ‘Him want you back, sure. You useful, y’know? Buthim know you can’t be told nothing you don’t want. You know what himwant. If you want come back, you will come.’

‘Do you… do you understand why I won’t come back to him?’

Anansi looked at his eyes. Gently, he shook his head.

‘No, bwoy, not at all. You can survive better with him, with us,fe true. And you are rat. You should go back. But I know you don’tthink like that. I don’t know what you are, bwoy. You can’t be rat,you can’t be man. I don’t understand you at all, but that’s alright,because I know now that I will never understand you, nor will you me.We are not the same.’

In the small hours, after they had eaten, they stood together atan entrance to the sewers. Anansi looked behind him, planning hisroute up the side of the warehouse beside them. He looked back atSaul.

Saul stuck out his hand. Anansi grasped it.

‘You are the only hope, bwoy. Come back to us.’

Saul shook his head, twisted, uncomfortable before the suddenintensity.

Anansi nodded and dropped his hand.

‘See you around.’

He turned and slung one of his ropes over an overhang, disappearedat speed over the vertical bricks.

Saul watched him go. He turned and examined where he was. Thegrille in a yard littered with hulking pieces of machinery. Theyloomed solemnly in the dark, looking vaguely pathetic. There were noroads visible from here, and Saul enjoyed the moment of solitude.Then he reached down without looking and pulled the grille from theearth.

He hesitated.

He knew there was little point searching for Natasha and Fabian.The city was so large, the Piper’s powers so prodigious, it would notbe hard for him to hide two humans. But he knew also that he couldnot bear to leave them in his power. He knew he had to search, ifonly to prove that he was still half human. Because he was disquietedby his passivity, his acceptance, the speed with which he hadconceptualized their absence as inevitable, as done, as a done thing.He was becoming dulled. Kay’s death was utterly unreal to him, butthat was a human reaction. More disturbing to him was his reaction tothe Piper’s abduction of his two closest friends.