‘See, Saul,’ he whispered, ‘I’m not just going to kill you. Beforeyou die, Saul, I’m going to make you dance for me. You think you’reso special, don’t you? Well, I’m the Lord of the Dance, Saul, andbefore you die you’re going to dance for me. Why do you think I letyour pathetic little army fight to the last gasp?’ He indicated thedancefloor, where lacklustre little battles were still continuing,where the routed rats were being systematically destroyed as thedance continued.

‘You see, I wanted to explain to you, Saul. You see how I can makethe people dance and the spiders? See how I did that? Well, I canmake the rats dance, too, Saul. And you’re the famous half and half,aren’t you? Eh? The rat-boy? Eh? Well, I’m already playing for thepeople, Saul, so half of you is dancing, even if you can’t feel it.So when I start playing for the rats, Saul, then I’m playing for bothyour sides. See? See, you little fucker? I didn’t know what I’d foundwhen I checked your address book, tried to find you. Just turned upat the one with stuff scrawled next to it… and see what I found.Your friend Natasha, who showed me how to make my flute multiply…’

The Piper grinned and patted Saul’s face gently, then backed awaytowards the decks. Behind him stood Natasha, her clothes ruined, herface coated in blood as thick as oil.

The dancefloor still surged, but an odd calm had settled on thestage.

‘I’m going to play for both your halves, Saul,’ he said. ‘I’mgoing to make you dance.’

He looked up, raised his finger like a conductor and the musicchanged again.

The beat was sustained, the bassline unchanged, the static and thehesitant piano continued… but the flute soared.

Across the top of the mellifluous and pointillist flute lines thatseduced the dancers and the spiders, a third level of sound spranginto being. An unsettling, crawling democracy of semitones and minorchords, pauses punctuated by surreal bursts of noise, music to makethe skin crawl. Rat-music.

All across the dancefloor, the rats that had not fled or died weresuddenly still.

Out of the corner of his eye Saul saw King Rat stiffen, his eyesglaze and focus on something just out of sight. And as he saw that,Saul felt himself jerk upright, listened to the music, heard it witha wave of amazement, stared wide-eyed at the bursts of light aroundhim, saw through the speakers and the walls, felt his mind openup.

A long long way away he heard a high-pitched laugh, saw the Piperlying back, being borne around the room on the raised arms of thedancers, but that didn’t bother him now. The hands that held him weregone. Saul stood and paced to the centre of the stage. All he couldconcentrate on was the music.

There was something just out of his reach…

Just out of his reach… there was beautiful food…

He could smell it… he could taste it on the air, and sex, hefelt his cock stiffen, his mouth was watering, his feet propelledhim, he did not need to think of where to walk, the responsibilityhad been taken from him, he obeyed the music, two tunes at once, therat and the man, the mellow and the frenzied, spilling around eachother, filling his mind.

Beside him, he was dimly aware of King Rat, pacing from side toside, his feet ponderous but enthusiastic.

‘Dance!’ The command came from across the floor, where the Piperrode the arms of the crowd like a sportsman, a hero, a dictator.

Obedience came easily to Saul. He danced.

Hardstepping.

With the fighting stopped, everyone in the hall could dance, thepeople and the spiders and rats that were still alive, all moving intime, getting down as one, as the Piper laughed delightedly. Saul wasvaguely aware of being pleased, moving in a tight circle, eager forthe food and the sex and the music, proud to be part of this hall,this great gestalt.

The Piper had ridden the tops of the dancers all around the hallin his triumph, a lap of honour, and through a blissful haze Saul sawthe tall figure step smoothly back onto the stage.

Saul danced for joy, opened his arms wide. This was his epiphany,he was filled with music, two strains of music, his mind relaxed andfloating, his feet revelling in the dance, gazing up and around atthe bobbing bodies on all sides of him, the faces of the worshippers… Saul was ecstatic.

The Piper smiled, and Saul smiled back.

He was vaguely aware of words being spoken, felt his feet propelhim forward, across the big stage, towards the Piper, who waited forhim, something long and glinting in his hand.

‘… to me…’ Saul heard between beats. ‘… dance for me…come…’

He stepped forward, shifting in time to the two tunes he couldhear, eager to dance.

But something was wrong.

There was a disturbed moment. Saul hesitated.

The two flutelines were dissonant.

Saul put his foot on the stage and tried to dance, but a shadowhad crossed his mind.

The flutes jarred with each other. .

He was suddenly aware of their raucous discord. His hunger anddesire burned as strong as ever, but he could not see, he was blind,pulled in different directions, shaken by the aesthetic antiphase ofthe two flutes.

And as he listened, standing suddenly outside the music, lookingin, desperate to get back, he sensed the great cavity between theflutes.

And pushing its way through the gap, vibrating in his gut,ever-present, the foundation of the music, the beginning and theend-point of Jungle, there came the bass.

Saul stood poised, immobile, centre stage.

The flute and the bass surged inside him.

The flutelines swirled around him, inveigling their way past hisdefences, seducing him, urging him to dance, teasing his rat-mind andhis humanity in turn. But something inside him had hardened. Saul wasstraining for something else. He was listening for the bass.

The words of a hundred slogans raced through his mind, theendlessly sampled Hip Hop and Jungle paeans to the low end.

DJ! Where’s the bass?

Bass! How low can you go?

R-r-r-roll the bass…

Da bass too dark…

Here’s the bass.

Here’s how low the bass can go.

I… I’ll roll with the bass.

Because the bass too dark…

Because the bass is too dark for this, thought Saul suddenly, withshocking clarity, the bass is too dark to suffer this, theinsubordinate treble, fuck the treble, fuck the ephemera, fuck thehigh end, fuck the flute, and as he thought this the flutelines fadedin his mind, became nothing more than thin, clashing cacophonies,fuck the treble, he thought, because when you dance to Jungle whatyou follow is the bass…

Saul rediscovered himself. He knew who he was. He dancedagain.

This was different. He was fierce, swinging his arms and legs likeweapons. He danced with the bassline, rolled over the beats…ignored the flutes.

It was the bass that set the agenda. It was the bass that made thesong. It was the bass that united the Junglists, that cemented theircommunity, that built a room full of dancers, something far strongerthan this hive mind.

The Piper was still waiting for him. Saul saw a renewed smilespread across his face. He had seen Saul falter. You wanted me todance, didn’t you? thought Saul. Had to have me dance my way over toyou, waltz to my death… and now I’m dancing, you think your treblewon, don’t you?

Saul danced closer and closer to the Piper. The Piper held hisflute close, flush with his body like a Samurai sword. The Piper’sarms were tense.

Two flutes aren’t enough, thought Saul, giddy with power. Hedanced on, approaching his enemy. The Piper smiled and raised hisright hand, the hand holding the flute, held it high, quivering,ready to strike.

Saul came close enough to touch.

‘Now dance on the spot, ratling,’ said the Piper softly.

He swung the flute.

The strike was cocky, cavalier and ill-timed, the Piper waitingfor his prey to walk into the path of the wicked silver club.