Bigmac bounded over the rubble, an enraged skin- head skeleton.

'Get him!'

'You get him!'

The railing smacked into the side of the bull- dozer, and Bigmac leapt.

Even fighting mad, he was still Bigmac, and the driver was a large man. But what Bigmac had going for him was that he was, just for a few seconds, unstoppable. If the man had managed to get one good punch in that would have been it, but there seemed to be too many arms and legs in the way, and also Bigmac was trying to bite his ear.

Even so—

But a pair of headlights appeared near the gate and started to bounce up and down in a way that suggested a car being driven at high speed across rough ground.

The man holding Johnny let go and vanished into the fog. The other one thumped Bigmac hard in the stomach and followed him.

The car skidded to a halt and a fat vampire leapt out, shouting 'Make my night, make my night!'

Mr Atterbury unfolded himself a little more sedately from the driver's seat.

'It's all right, they're gone,' said Johnny. 'We'll never find them in this fog.'

There was the sound of an engine starting some- where in the distance, and then wheels skidded out on to the unseen road.

'But I got the number!' shouted Wobbler, hop- ping from foot to foot.' I dint have a pen so I huffed on the window and wrote it in the huff!'

'They were going to drive the bulldozer into the cemetery!' said Yo-less.

'Right in the huff, look!'

'Dear me, I expect a bit more than this of United Consolidated,' said Mr Atterbury. 'Hadn't we better see to your friend?'

Bigmac was kneeling on the ground, making small 'oof, oof noises.

'I'll have to keep huffing on it to keep them there, mind!'

'You all right, Bigmac?'

They knelt down beside him. He was wheezing with his asthma.

'I ... I really frightened him ... yeah?' he managed.

'Right, right,' said Johnny. 'Come on, we'll give you a hand up ..."

'I jus' saw them there—'

'How do you feel?'

'Jus' winded.'

'Hang on, I've got to go and huff on it again—'

'Help him into the car.'

"S'all right—'

'I'll drive him to the hospital, just in case.'

'No!'

Bigmac pushed them away, and rose unsteadily to his feet.

' 'm all right,' he said. 'Tough as old boots, me.'

Red and blue lights bloomed in the fog and a police siren dee-dahed once or twice and then stopped out of embarrassment.

'Ah,' said Mr Atterbury. 'I rather think my wife got a bit excited about things and phoned the police. Er... Bigmac, isn't it? Would you recognize those men if you saw them again?'

'Sure. One of 'em's got teethmarks in his ear.' Bigmac suddenly had the hunted look of one who has never quite seen eye to eye with the constabulary. 'But I ain't going in any police station. No way.'

Mr Atterbury straightened up as the police car crunched to a halt.

'I think it might be a good idea if I do most of the talking,' he said, when Sergeant Comely stepped out into the night. 'Ah, Ray,' he said. 'Glad you could drop by. Can I have a word?'

The boys stood in a huddle, watching as the men walked over to the bulldozer, and then in- spected the remains of the wall.

'We're going to be in trouble,' said Bigmac. 'Old Comely's probably going to do me for ear-biting. Or pinching the bulldozer. You wait.'

Wobbler tapped Johnny on the shoulder.

'You knew something was going to happen,' he said.

'Yes. Don't know how.'

They watched the policemen peer into Mr Atterbury's car for a moment.

'He's reading my huff,' said Wobbler. 'That was lateral thinking, that was.'

Then Comely went back to the police car. They heard him speaking into the radio.

'No! I say again. That's H for Hirsute, W for Wagner - Wagner! Wagner! No! W as in Westphalia, A for Aardvark—'

Mr Atterbury appeared from the direction of the bulldozer, waving a pair of pliers.

'I don't think it's going to move again tonight,' he said.

'What's going to happen?' said Johnny.

'Not sure. We can probably trace the van. I think I've persuaded Sergeant Comely that we ought to deal with this quietly, for now. He '11 take statements from you, though. That might be enough.'

'Were they from United Consolidated?'

The old man shrugged.

'Perhaps someone thought everything might be a lot simpler if the cemetery wasn't worth saving,' he said. 'Perhaps a couple of likely lads were slipped a handful of notes to do ... er ... a Halloween prank—'

There was a burst of noise from the police radio.

'We've stopped a van on the East Slate Road,' the sergeant called out. 'Sounds like our lads.'

'Well Done, Said PC Plonk,' said Yo-less, in a hollow voice. 'You Have Captured The Whole Gang! Good Work, Fumbling Four! And They All Went Home For Tea And Cakes.'

'It would help if you'd come along to the police station, Bigmac,' said Mr Atterbury.

'No way!'

'I'll come along with you. And one of your friends could come, too.'

'It'd really help,' said Johnny.

'I'll go with you,' said Yo-less.

'And then,' said Mr Atterbury, 'I'm going to take considerable pleasure in ringing up the chairman of United Consolidated. Considerable pleasure.'

It was ten minutes later. Bigmac had gone to the police station, accompanied by Yo-less and Mr Atterbury and an assurance that he wasn't going to be asked any questions about certain other minor matters relating to things like cars not being where the owners had expected them to be, and other things of that nature.

The sodium lights of Blackbury glowed in the fog, which was thinning out a bit now. They made the darkness beyond the carpet warehouse a lot deeper and much darker.

'Well, that's it, then,' said Wobbler. 'Game over. Let's go home.'

The fog was being torn apart by the wind. It was even possible to see the moon through the flying streamers.

'Come on,' he repeated.

'It's still not right,' said Johnny. 'It can't end like this.'

'Best ending,' said Wobbler. 'Just like Yo-less

said. Nasty men foiled. Kids save the day. Everyone gets a bun.'

The abandoned bulldozer seemed a lot bigger in this pale light.

The air had a fizz to it.

'Something's going to happen,' said Johnny, run- ning towards the cemetery.

'Now, look—'

'Come on!'

'No! Not in there!'

Johnny turned around.

'And you're pretending to be a vampire?'

'But—'

'Come on, the railings have been knocked down.'

'But it's nearly midnight! And there's dead people in there!'

'Well? We're all dead, sooner or later.'

'Yeah, but me, I'd like it to be later, thank you!'

Johnny could feel it all around him — a squashed feel to things, like the air gets before a thunder- storm. It cracked off the buckled gravestones and tingled on the dusty shrubberies.

The fog was pouring away now, as if it was trying to escape from something. The moon shone out of a damp blue-black sky, casting darker shadows on the ground.

North Drive and East Way ... they were still there, but they didn't look

the same now. They be- longed somewhere else — somewhere where people didn't take the roads of the dead and give them the names of the streets of the living ...

'Wobbler?' said Johnny, without looking around.

'Yeah?'

'You there?'

'Yeah.'

'Thanks.'

He could feel something lifting off him, like a heavy blanket. He was amazed his feet still touched the ground.

He ran along North Drive, to the little area where all the dead roads met.

There was someone already there.

She spun around with her arms out and her eyes blissfully shut, the gravel crunching under her feet, the moonlight glinting off her ancient hat. All alone, twirling and twirling, Mrs Tachyon danced in the night.