…The train finally pulled in. Thu Thuy would have run ahead to get home, but Long insisted the board would be quicker. ‘We'll drop you at your corner. It'll take a second.’

She sat on the board and they set off fast on the far side of the empty bench seats.

‘Whee,’ Thu Thuy breathed, at the speed of it.

Long saw them first. A large group of guys, big, in big jackets and tattered jeans. Their big black boots rocked in and out as he edged the board slowly past. Their shaved heads loomed huge above his bent body. They made obscene gestures, their arms, their fingers and tongues grotesque in the blue shadows. Skinheads. Neo-Nazi skinheads. Long leaned instinctively over Thu Thuy. He was very cold…

…Hando, Davey and Gabriel slid down a drainpipe onto a bin in a lane abutting the hill.

Tiger, Luc and Kha came out onto the roof and looked across the factory clerestories. In the distance, seven figures straggled along the railway bridge. The eighth one in the long coat strode out erect. A siren screamed. It dragged his attention down to the street. He yelled at Luc over his shoulder. ‘Cops. Tell the others.’

‘But the skinheads,’ Luc argued.

‘Go!’ Tiger peered through the pulsing black spots at the distant figures and shook his head slowly. ‘Fuckin next time’…