This, no doubt, was the call 33 had heard. Bored with his balanced diet of maize and maple peas, tired of the pecking order of the loft and the predictability of each day - the bird had wanted out: wanted up and away. A day of high life; of food that had to be chased a little, and tasted all the better for that; of the companionship of wild things. All this went through Cal's head, in a vague sort of way, while he watched the circling flocks.

It would be perfectly impossible, he knew, to locate an individual bird amongst these riotous thousands. He would have to trust that 33 would be content with his feast on the wing, and when he was, sated do as he was trained a do, and come home. Nevertheless, the sheer spectacle of, so many birds exercised a peculiar fascination, and crossing the bridge, Cal began to make his way towards the epicentre of this feathered cyclone.

II

THE PURSUERS

The woman at the window of the Hanover Hotel drew bade the grey curtain and looked own at the street below.

‘Is it possible... ?' she murmured to the shadows that held court in the comer of the room. There was no answer to her question forthcoming, nor did there need to be. Unlikely as it seemed the trail had incontestably led here, to, this dog-tired city, lying bruised and neglected beside a river that had once borne stave ships and, cotton ships and could now barely carry its own weight out to sea. To Liverpool.

‘Such a place,' she said. A minor dust-dervish had whipped itself up in the street outside, lifting antediluvian litter into the air.

‘Why are you so surprised?' said the man who half lay and half sat on the bed, pillows supporting his impressive frame, hands linked behind his heavy head. The face was wide, the features upon it almost too expressive, like those of an actor who'd made a career of crowd-pleasers, and grown expert in cheap effects. His mouth, which knew a thousand variations of the simile, found one that suited his leisurely mood, and said: They've led us quite a dance. But we're almost there. Don't you feel it? I do.'