It happened on the way home from Aikido. An off-white van much like Norman’s pulled up alongside her as she cycled and Charlotte’s head appeared in the window. “Katie! Get in. Quickly.”

Katie jammed on the brakes. The van did the same and the side door slid open. She threw in her bike and jumped in after it. The door slid shut and the van drove on. The whole thing had taken ten seconds.

Ten seconds wasn’t fast enough, though. Libby, the driver, cursed and jammed her foot to the floor. “Hold on, back there. This is going to be rough,” she called. She spun the wheel hard over and sent Katie rolling.

“Steve, we need a pick-up. Point 5,” she said into her radio.
“Two minutes,” came a crackly reply a moment later as Libby sped on.
“They’re still on us,” said Charlotte, “go left here. All Saints Road.”
As they swung hard into the street and accelerated, everything happened at once: the radio screamed “GO BACK!”, Libby said “Oh God, no” and Katie screamed in pain, clutching her abdomen.

“Shit.”