'I believe you. Marwin said there's a new centre once. It's got to be better to train there.'

Ida believes there's a new centre over there. She believes such a lot. Anyway, it's just because he gave her that horrid cap.

Maria knows what a new leisure centre should look like. She saw one once in Warsaw when she went there with her mum and dad.

'I know there isn't a new gym there, silly cap-man. It's a lie. I know that. And if there's no new centre there I'll tell on you to my mum and dad.'

It's a nice day in June, sunny and warm. A Thursday. Two little whores are walking ahead of him on the path through the park. The brunette is everyone's whore. The slightly plump blonde is his own whore, nobody else's. Whores whores whores. Long hair, thin jackets, tight trousers. He shouldn't have wanked.

The slightly plump blonde whore turns to look at him.

'We've got to go home soon. It's time to eat. Mum and Marwin and me. I'm really hungry, I get that hungry after training, every time.'

He smiles. It's what they like. He reaches for the cap on her head, pulls gently at the visor.

'Listen, it will be super-quick. I promised, didn't I? We're practically there. Then you can check it out, see if you like it. If you want to do your training there. It smells new, know what I mean? You know what new places smell like, don't you?'

They step inside. He's slept there the last three nights. Breaking in was no trouble, he did the lock easily. A shared basement with storage pens, one for each flat. Lousy pickings, though. Cardboard boxes full of household kit and books, that sort of crap. Prams, IKEA shelving, a standard lamp or two. Fuck all. Except for the kid's bike, black with five gears, in Flat 33's pen at the far end. He'd flogged it but only got Z50 smackers. A whole block, and no goods except a fucking kid's bike.