…The train finally pulled in. When they reached their stop, the station was eerie in the half-light of the autumn evening. Thu Thuy barely noticed the lights of the train blending into the background of city lights as it continued on its empty way. She 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, building up speed, down the ramp towards the underground walkway, the ghostly blue neon light and the rank smell of stale concrete.

‘Whee,’ Thu Thuy breathed, at the speed of it. They swung wide around a lone passenger walking up past them. Long pulled back now, scraping his sneakers along the concrete to brake for the turn into the tube.

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. The others were still clambering down at the end of the lane. They ran back the way they'd come, between the factories, across a street, up onto the railway line and on, along the railway bridge across the Maribyrnong River.

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. Tiger shook his head slowly, eyes fixed on the coat. The swing of it mocked him. He barely noticed when Sonny, the last figure, flashed a browneye. 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’…