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HARKAT SAW hiht Richard and one of his brothers had left the house to go to a nearby shop and were returning with bags full of shopping We’d shadowed the at some joke his brother had cracked, when Harkat put a hand on my shoulder and pointed to the skyline It tookthe roof of a large apart the boys below

"Is it Hooky?" Harkat asked

"I don’t know," I said, straining e I can’t see"

The brothers were approaching the et hoical place for the vampaneze to strike, so Harkat and I hurried after the boys, until ere only a fewback as they started down the alley Harkat produced his arrow gun (he’d reer) and loaded it I took a couple of throwing knives (courtesy of Vancha) from my belt, ready to back Harkat up if he missed

Richard and his brother were halfway down the alley when the vaold and silver hooks first - it was Hooky! - then his head came into view, masked by a balaclava as it had been before He would have seen us if he’d checked, but he had eyes only for the hue of the wall, then skulked along after the brothers, stealthy as a cat He presented a perfect target, and I was tempted to tell Harkat to shoot to kill But there were other fish in the vampaneze sea, and if we didn’t use this one as bait, we’d never catch the," I whispered "Below the knee That’ll slow hi his eyes off the va to leap I wanted to ask Harkat what he aiting for, but that would have distracted him Then, as Hooky crouched low to ju through the darkness It struck Hooky exactly where I’d suggested The vampaneze hoith pain and toppled clumsily from the wall Richard and his brother jus They stared at the person writhing on the floor, not sure whether to flee or go to his aid

"Get out of here!" I roared, stepping forward, covering my face with my hands so that Richard couldn’t identify me

"Run now if you want to live!" That decided thes, they bolted For a couple of hu how fast they could run

Hooky,at the arrow But Steve was a cunning designer and it wouldn’t coain, harder, and it snapped off in his hand, leaving the head e "Aiiiieeee!" Hooky screa the useless shaft at us

"Move in," I said to Harkat, deliberately louder than necessary "We’ll trap him and finish him off"

Hooky stiffened when he heard that, the whier he was in, he tried leaping back up on to the wall But his left leg was no good and he couldn’t , he pulled a knife out of his belt and propelled it towards us We had to duck sharply to avoid it, which gave Hooky the time he needed to turn and flee - exactly anted!

As we started after the vampaneze, Harkat phoned the others and told the It was his job to keep them informed of developments - I had to focus on Hooky and make sure we didn’t lose hiht when I reached the end of the alley, and for an awful ht he’d escaped But then I saw drops of blood on the pavement and followed the a loall I let hi house, before going after him It suited my purposes far better to have him up above the streets for the duration of the chase, illulow of street lamps, out of the way of police and soldiers

Hooky aiting for me on the roof He’d torn tiles loose and launched theed one, but had to use my hands to protect myself from the other It shattered over e The hook-handed va I was moer glowed red - it was an ordinary blue or green colour - but I’d no ti e I didn’t want to kill him before he’d had a chance to lead us back to his companions, but if I had to, I would

Before he could test me, Vancha and Steve appeared Steve fired an arrow at the va on purpose - and Vancha leapt on to the wall Hooky howled again, sent another few tiles flying towards us, then scrambled up the roof and down the other side

"Are you OK?" Vancha asked, stopping besideHe’s bleeding"

"I noticed"

There was a ser into it and sniffed It smelt of vampaneze blood, but I still asked Vancha to test it "It’s va it "Why wouldn’t it be?" I explained about Hooky’s eyes "Strange," he grunted, but said nome to my feet, he scuttled to the top of the roof, checked toin wait for us, then beckoned me to follow The chase was on!

While Vancha and I trailed the vampaneze across the rooftops, Harkat and Steve kept abreast of us on the ground, slowing only to negotiate their way around roadblocks or police patrols About five minutes into the chase, Mr Crepsley and Debbie connected with us, Debbie joining those below, the va to the roofs

We could have closed in on Hooky - he was having a hard ti, the pain and loss of blood - but we allowed him to remain ahead of us There was no way he could ditch us up here If we’d wanted to kill him, it would have been a simple matter to reel him in But we didn’t want to kill hirow suspicious," Vancha said after several uess so’s up Time to drive him to earth" Vancha e of the va star from the belts looped around his chest, ai off a chi, the varily shook a golden hook Vancha silenced him with another shuriken, which flew even closer to itsto his belly, Hooky slid to the edge of the roof, where he grabbed on to the guttering with his hooks, halting his fall He hung over open space a moment, checked the area underneath, jerked his hooks clear of the guttering and then dropped It was a four-storey fall, but that was nothing to a vao," Mr Crepsleyfor a nearby fire escape "Call the others and warn the into hi down the steps of the fire escape They were a block and a half behind us I told them to hold position until further notice While Mr Crepsley and I followed the vaht of hi sure he couldn’t take to the roofs again, narrowing his options so that he had to choose between the streets and the tunnels

After three , he chose the tunnels

We found a discardeddown into the darkness "This is it," I sighed nervously as we stood waiting for Vancha I hit the redial button on my mobile and summoned the others When they arrived, we paired off into our regular teams, and climbed down into the tunnels Each of us knee had to do and no words were exchanged

Vancha and Steve led the pursuit The rest of us trailed behind, covering adjacent tunnels, so Hooky couldn’t double back It wasn’t easy tracking Hooky down here The water in the tunnels had washed much of his blood away, and the darkness made it hard to see very far ahead But we’d becoht, dark spaces, and weup on the slightest identifying marks

Hooky led us deeper into the tunnels than we’d ever been Even the h, hadn’t delved this deeply into the underbelly of the city Was Hooky heading for his co to lose us?

"Wethe city limits," Harkat remarked as we rested a moment "The tunnels must run out soon, or else"