The Piper looked up, caught Saul’s eye, and looked briefly at thespiders approaching him.

‘Shall I show you my new party trick?’ he said. His voice soundedclose and intimate in Saul’s ear, whispered through the Jungle andthe flute.

The Piper flickered his eyes briefly at the decks.

Something changed in the flute.

The samples were looped and laid one on top of the other, and ashe listened Saul realized that one of the layers was soaring,changing, becoming staccato and breathless. Anansi was suddenlysilent.

As it reached the Piper’s feet, the tide of spiders stoppeddead.

He’s changing the music! He’s changing his choice! thought Saul.He’s going for the spiders instead!

But the dancers kept dancing, even as the spiders began to movetogether, incredibly, undulating with the beat. The circle of spidersaround the Piper’s feet expanded, gave him space.

Still the dancers did not stop dancing. The spiders coating thebodies of the dancers dripped off them and scuttled onto the stage.Natasha and Fabian were uncovered, their skin covered in tiny weltsand sores, dead spiders dropping from their clothes and mouths. Theyresumed their war against the rats.

The Piper began to leap, higher and higher, from one foot to theother, without taking his eyes from Saul’s. Saul looked down at thePiper’s feet. As he jumped, a little group of spiders would danceout, in time to the music, and stand below him, arranging themselvesinto the shape of the underside of each shoe. They would waitpatiently as he plunged through the air and destroyed them exactly,the carnage of each step pre-empted by the spiders themselves,queuing up to die.

‘You see, Saul?’ whispered the Piper across the slick, stainedstage. ‘That’s the joy of Jungle. All those layers… I can play myflute as many times as I want, all at once…’

The dancers kept dancing, and the spiders still waited to die.

Anansi sat up, his eyes glazed with delight at the spider music inWind City. An idiot’s grin spread across his face. His left arm wasmissing at the shoulder, his side awash with blood, his shoulder amass of ruined flesh and bone.

The Piper watched Saul’s face.

‘Yes, cruel, I know, to pull the legs off spiders, but this onehad caused me no end of trouble.’

He pushed Anansi’s head back to the stage.

Saul’s shout was drowned in the Drum and Bass and flute. Hestruggled violently, but was held fast by the dancers. He could feelthem move slightly with the beat as they leant on him.

The Piper leapt up, pulled his legs up hard and stamped down withall his strength.

Bones crunched and split in Anansi’s head.

Saul collapsed with a howl.

The wood of the stage heaved and buckled. Something burst throughthe boards in front of the Piper. Saul caught a momentary glimpse ofa back, of wiry arms snapping out like whipcord and grasping thePiper’s ankles, then tugging sharply and disappearing back under thestage.

The Piper was gone. The music still blared, Saul was stillpinioned, the rats still fought and bit and scratched, the dancersstill fought back and massacred rats and danced, but the Piper wasgone.

Saul could feel the vibrations of some huge battle being wagedunder him. He tugged at the arms holding him. They were obscenelystrong but quite still. They held him tight but did not punish himfor his pointless struggles.

The wood under his stomach lurched as something was thrust againstit. A little to one side of him he heard a systematic pounding,something slammed again and again into the wood. Splinters of woodthat fringed the hole in the stage spilled gently into the darknessbelow.

Spiders poured into the hole, and Saul saw the back of a nearbydancer lowering himself into the dark.

Saul pounded suddenly at the wood under his body, thrust hisfingers into the tiny gap between two planks, ignoring the skin heleft behind. He had no leverage, this was the wrong angle, butadrenaline gave him strength, and he tugged and ripped at the boardsbeneath him. His fingers shoved into the small cavity and scrabbledfor purchase. He was straining, shoving upwards, feeling the boardresist, then relax as old nails sprang from their moorings and theboard went flying away.

He stuck his head into the darkness.

There, rolling in the dirt, his eyes frenzied and livid, his veinsbulging with fury, was the Piper. And clinging to him like a limpet,the heel of his right hand shoved hard into the Piper’s mouth, histeeth bared and snapping at any of the Piper’s limbs in reach, hisclaws scratching, his old coat wrapping around the two bodies like aliving thing, was King Rat.

His hand streamed with blood from where the Piper gnawed at him,but he would not release the Piper’s mouth. He swarmed with spiders.Behind him the dim shape of a dancer, bent double under the stage,flailed at him with his arms. King Rat rolled from side to side toavoid him, desperate to stay out of reach.

King Rat stared up at Saul. His eyes begged for help.

Saul saw the dancer’s arms wind around King Rat’s neck, begin tobend inexorably backwards.

He tugged desperately at the hands holding him, straining againstthem with all his strength, arching his back. They pushed him down sohe suddenly acquiesced, rolling slightly and squeezing himselfthrough the thin slit in the wood, being shoved through to freedom bythose trying to constrain him, until he dropped suddenly and landedacross the Piper’s feet.

He yelled with triumph, and turned.

‘Help me,’ hissed King Rat between clenched teeth. His head waspulled back at a grotesque angle, his arms were losing their grip onthe Piper, his hand having to strain harder and harder to block thePiper’s mouth. The man behind him was slowly defeating him, madepreternaturally strong by the music which surrounded them.

Saul stormed through swathes of dancing spiders and punched hardat the face of the man holding King Rat.

He saw that it was Fabian just as his fist connected.

Saul had hit him hard, with all his rat-strength, and Fabian’shead rolled on his shoulders dangerously fast, teeth splintered inhis mouth, but he retained his grip on King Rat, and continued topull.

The Piper was pulling free, his teeth ripping at King Rat’s hand,a growl of triumph bubbling bloodily out from behind it.

‘Help me,’ repeated King Rat. Desperately Saul grabbed at Fabian,shoved him this way and that, with all his strength, but the flutehad entered Fabian’s soul and nothing would move him. If that punchdid not do the job, Saul knew he would have to kill Fabian to get himoff.

‘Help me,’ said King Rat once more.

But Saul had hesitated too long and Fabian pulled King Rat free ofthe Piper.

‘Yes!’ The Piper was standing before Saul, filthy, scratched andquivering, spilling spiders in all directions. He grabbed Saul’scollar, heaved him with those insanely strong arms, sent him flyingthrough the hole in the stage back out into the heat and noise andblood of the club.

Saul landed awkwardly, skidded across the splintered wood.

The Piper rose behind him, dragging King Rat by the hair.

Wind City was looping, again and again. Saul was sure it coveredthe whole DAT, perhaps an hour long.

‘You lose!’ the Piper shouted to Saul. ‘You and your daddy anduncle spider and the birdman, you lose, because I can play my fluteas often as I want now. Your friend showed me how, Saul…’ He wavedhis hands at the walls where the spiders were dancing in littlecircles. He gesticulated at the dancefloor where the dancers jumpedup and down to Wind City, drenched in blood, stamping on dyingrats.

He released King Rat into the arms of the dancers on the stage.King Rat sagged with weakness and defeat.

Saul was exhausted. He felt more hands grab him. The Pipersauntered towards him and crouched in front of him, just out ofreach.