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feel what the problem was now: handcuffs. Cold and heavy and not a chance of wriggling out of them with my big hands. But no matter.
    Seriously, this was no bad turn of events. I had no clue how I’d gone from the Alma to here, but it was all to the good. I was being taken to Graven.
    To Kelly.
    ‘Miserable fucker,’ Sid was saying to me. ‘I’ll get you answering me in a minute. You just wait.’
    He drove on for another few minutes. It was dark outside. Dux and Gnash were peering down at me, their obscured heads bobbing with the contours of the road. And it was quite a bumpy road. Like a farm track.
    ‘Here’ll do.’
    The car stopped and the three neds got out. I was invited to join them, and I did. No point in kicking up a fuss here. A fuss could be kicked up when the time came. And by then I’d have talked my way out of these cuffs.
    It was no farm track. The road was asphalt but fallen into disrepair. There were buildings all around, all of them industrial and derelict. This was the old Billings Estate, on the edge of Makin. Some of the girls had plied their trade up here before coming to Destiny. You could see why. A girl and a punter could get up to anything inside those rusted hulks of former factories and warehouses, and respectable society need never know.
    I’m no fool.
    I know that an Uzi and a derelict estate don’t add up to a bright future.

11.

Don’t panic.
    You can deal with neds.
    ‘What’s you got?’ said Sid, the leader. He was ten or so yards off, his homies flanking him like bodyguards, Uzi trained at my knees.
    ‘Nothing,’ I said. Truthfully. ‘But you know that, right? You frisked me already, right?’
    They looked at each other, hissing quiet blame.
    ‘Look, you might as well get on with it. No one’s here to stop you. Gimme what I got coming, eh.’
    ‘Hold your horses, nigger,’ said Sid.
    ‘What did you call me?’
    ‘Yeah, but... I mean, I thought it was OK to—’
    ‘You wanna say that word to me again, white boy?’
    ‘I don’t mean it like that! I’m saying it in the good way. You know, the way you’re allowed to say it. Like NWA - niggers with, erm...’
    I turned and started walking towards the nearest building - an old metal castings plant, I think.
    ‘Oi! Where’s you—?’
    ‘You wanna do it inside,’ I said. ‘Out here in the open, you never know who’s watching.’
    I carried on in there, smirking a bit. I couldn’t believe what twats these were. If that’s the level Graven was operating at, I’d been overestimating him. He still had my Kelly, though. As long as he did, I’d tread careful.
    They followed, bickering.
    I marched on, walking faster all the while. If they didn’t keep up, I was going to walk on through the building and out the other side. Probably find some kind of rusted old machine edge around here to break these cuffs. Then they’d have some explaining to do when they got back to Graven.
    ‘Mate!’ one of them shouted. ‘We... we ain’t gonna kill you. We just wanted to shit you up, like. ’Cos of you roughing up Dux, in the abbey.’
    ‘You’re not gonna shoot me?’
    ‘I don’t think so, no. It’s Dux - he can’t fight his own battles.’
    ‘Oi!’ shouted Dux. ‘That ain’t true!’
    ‘Yes it is! You said he was a massive cage fighter!’
    ‘I... I just said...’
    ‘And you never told me he was a brother! I ain’t pluggin’ no br—’
    Sid stopped there because I was coming right at him, slowing up not a bit as I bore down on his ass, as he would put it. A change of tactics, this was, in light of how useless these lads were turning out to be. Why break off my cuffs when I could get them to do it with a bit of intimidation? He jumped out of the way but I kept after him, surging on at a steady pace.
    ‘Oi!,’ he was whining, ‘I’m your mate! It’s me who saved your life here!’
    ‘Take these cuffs off, then.’
    ‘Alright! Just stand still, OK? Right, that’s good. Dux - get his cuffs off.’
    He