I lost breath yelling something but I couldn’t have caught him anyway. He made it to the hedge as I was still skeetering down the slope. He opened his bag, pulled out a camera and started taking flash pictures. The sudden, flaring lights panicked the people behind the hedge. I heard screams and curses. Greenway raced along, stopping and shooting. I pounded after him. Three men came from behind the hedge; Greenway ducked back and they reached me first.

‘It’s all right,’ I gasped. ‘Don’t… ‘

Two of them came at me; I balked and made them collide. One recovered and threw a punch which I side-stepped. I pushed him back.

‘Hardy!’ Greenway’s yell was desperate, panicked. The third man was rushing him, reaching for the camera. Instinctively, I lunged forward and tripped him. Greenway dodged and headed back up the hill, feet digging in, well-balanced and surging.

‘Hey!’ I yelled. I lost balance on the uneven ground.

The man I’d pushed loomed over me; he chopped down on my neck in a perfect rabbit punch. I felt it all along my spine and down to my legs. I flopped flat, as breath and vision and everything else left me.

3

The sun was shining in my eyes and it was only a couple of metres away. I twisted my head and that hurt more than the burning sun. I tried to lift my arm to block out the light; my shoulder was stiff and painful but I got my hand across my face.

‘He’s all right,’ a voice said.

‘Who’s all right?’ I said.

‘You are.’ This was another voice. ‘Do you know where you are?’

‘Hospital grounds.’

‘You’re inside the hospital. You’ve been unconscious.’