"But Richard's my friend," I pointed out. "I barely know the others."
"I do not think the vampaneze are aware of that," he said. "If they were, they would have targeted Richard first."
"We need to stake out all three," Vancha said. "Do we know where they live?"
"I can find out," Debbie said, wiping tears from her cheeks. Vancha tossed her a dirty scrap of cloth, which she accepted gratefully. "The student files are accessible by remote computer. I know the password. I'll go to an Internet cafe, tap into the files and get their addresses."
"What do we do when if they attack?" Steve asked.
"We do to them what they did to Tara," Debbie growled before any of the rest of us could answer.
"You think that's wise?" Steve responded. "We know there's more than one of them in operation, but I doubt they'll all turn out to kill a child. Wouldn't it be wiser to trace the attacker back to"
"Hold on," Debbie interrupted. "Are you saying we let them kill Richard or one of the others?"
"It makes sense. Our primary aim is to"
Debbie slapped his face before he got any further. "Animal!" she hissed.
Steve stared at her emotionlessly. "I am what I have to be," he said. "We won't stop the vampaneze by being civilized."
"You you " She couldn't think of anything dreadful enough to call him.
"He's got a point," Vancha interceded. Debbie turned on him, appalled. "Well, hehas," Vancha grumbled, dropping his gaze. "I don't like the idea of letting them kill another child, but if it means saving others "
"No," Debbie said. "No sacrifices. I won't allow it."
"Me neither," I said.
"Have you an alternative suggestion?" Steve asked.
"Injury," Mr Crepsley answered when the rest of us were silent. "We stake out the houses, wait for a vampaneze, then shoot him with an arrow before he strikes. But we do not kill him we target his legs or arms. Then we follow and, if we are lucky, he will lead us back to his companions."
"I dunno," Vancha muttered. "You, me and Darren can't use those guns it's not the vampire way which means we'll have to rely upon the aim of Steve, Harkat and Debbie."
"I won't miss," Steve vowed.
"I won't either," Debbie said.
"Nor me," Harkat added.
"Maybe you won't," Vancha agreed, "but if there are two or more of them, you won't have time to target a second the arrow guns are single-shooters."
"It is a risk we must take," Mr Crepsley said. "Now, Debbie, you should go to one of theseinferno net cafes and find the addresses as soon as possible, then get to bed and sleep. We must be ready for action when night comes."
Mr Crepsley and Debbie staked out the house of Derek Barry, the boy who sat in front of me in English. Vancha and Steve took responsibility for Gretchen Kelton (Gretch the Wretch, as Smickey Martin called her), who sat behind me. Harkat and I covered the Montrose household.
Friday was a dark, cold, wet night. Richard lived in a big house with his parents and several brothers and sisters. There were lots of upper windows the vampaneze could use to get in. We couldn't cover them all. But vampaneze almost never kill people in their homes it was how the myth that vampires can't cross a threshold without being invited started and although Debbie's neighbours had been killed in their apartments, all the others had been attacked in the open.
Nothing happened that night. Richard stayed indoors the whole time. I caught glimpses of him and his family through the curtains every now and then, and envied them their simple lives none of the Montroses would ever have to stake out a house, anticipating an attack by dark-souled monsters of the night.
When the family was all in bed and the lights went off, Harkat and I took to the roof of the building, where we remained the rest of the night, hidden in the shadows, keeping guard. We left with the rising sun and met the others back at the apartments. They'd had a quiet night too. Nobody had seen any vampaneze.
"The army are back," Vancha noted, referring to the soldiers who'd returned to guard the streets following the murder of Tara Williams. "We'll have to take care not to get in their way they could mistake us for the killers and open fire."
After Debbie had gone to bed, the rest of us discussed our post-weekend plans. Although Mr Crepsley, Vancha and I had agreed to leave on Monday if we hadn't run down the vampaneze, I thought we should reconsider things had changed with the murder of Tara and the threat to Richard.
The vampires were having none of it. "A vow's a vow," Vancha insisted. "We set a deadline and must stick to it. If we postpone leaving once, we'll postpone again."
"Vancha is right," Mr Crepsley agreed. "Whether we sight our opponents or not, on Monday we leave. It will not be pleasant, but our quest takes priority. We must do what is best for the clan."
I had to go along with them. Indecision is the source of chaos, as Paris Skyle used to say. This wasn't the time to risk a rift with my two closest allies.
As things worked out, I needn't have worried, because late that Saturday, with heavy clouds masking an almost full moon, the vampaneze finally struck and all bloody hell broke loose!
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
HARKAT SAWhim first. It was a quarter past eight. 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 them every step of the way. Richard was laughing at some joke his brother had cracked, when Harkat put a hand on my shoulder and pointed to the skyline. It took me no more than a second to spot the figure crossing the roof of a large apartment store, trailing the boys below.
"Is it Hooky?" Harkat asked.
"I don't know," I said, straining my eyes. "He's not close enough to the edge. I can't see."
The brothers were approaching the mouth of an alley that they had to walk through to get home. That was the logical place for the vampaneze to strike, so Harkat and I hurried after the boys, until we were only a few metres behind when they turned off the main street. We hung back as they started down the alley. Harkat produced his arrow gun (he'd removed the trigger-guard, to accommodate his large finger) 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 vampaneze appeared. I saw his gold and silver hooks first itwas 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 humans.
Hooky advanced to the edge 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 them. "His left leg," I whispered. "Below the knee. That'll slow him down."
Harkat nodded without taking his eyes off the vampaneze. I could see Hooky preparing to leap. I wanted to ask Harkat what he was waiting for, but that would have distracted him. Then, as Hooky crouched low to jump, Harkat squeezed the trigger and sent his arrow flying through the darkness. It struck Hooky exactly where I'd suggested. The vampaneze howled with pain and toppled clumsily from the wall. Richard and his brother jumped and dropped their bags. 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 them. Leaving the bags, they bolted. For a couple of humans, it was amazing how fast they could run.
Hooky, meanwhile, was back on his feet. "My leg!" he roared, tugging at the arrow. But Steve was a cunning designer and it wouldn't come loose. Hooky pulled again, harder, and it snapped off in his hand, leaving the head embedded in the muscles of his lower leg. "Aiiiieeee!" Hooky screamed, throwing 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 whimpers dying on his lips. Realizing the danger he was in, he tried leaping back up on to the wall. But his left leg was no good and he couldn't manage the jump. Cursing, 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 what we wanted!
As we started after the vampaneze, Harkat phoned the others and told them what was happening. It was his job to keep them informed of developments I had to focus on Hooky and make sure we didn't lose him.
He'd disappeared from sight when I reached the end of the alley, and for an awful moment I thought he'd escaped. But then I saw drops of blood on the pavement and followed them to the mouth of another alley, where I found him scaling a low wall. I let him get up, and then on to the roof of a neighbouring house, before going after him. It suited my purposes far better to have him up above the streets for the duration of the chase, illuminated by the glow of street lamps, out of the way of police and soldiers.
Hooky was waiting for me on the roof. He'd torn tiles loose and launched them at me, howling like a rabid dog. I dodged one, but had to use my hands to protect myself from the other. It shattered over my knuckles, but caused no real damage. The hook-handed vampaneze advanced, snarling. I was momentarily confused when I noticed that one of his eyes no longer glowed red it was an ordinary blue or green colour but I'd no time to mull it over. Bringing my knives up, I prepared to meet the killer's challenge. 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 vampaneze missing 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 beside me.
"Yes. We got him in the leg. He's bleeding."
"I noticed."
There was a small pool of blood nearby. I dipped a finger into it and sniffed. It smelt of vampaneze blood, but I still asked Vancha to test it. "It's vampaneze," he said, tasting it. "Why wouldn't it be?" I explained about Hooky's eyes. "Strange," he grunted, but said no more. Helping me to my feet, he scuttled to the top of the roof, checked to make sure Hooky wasn't lying in 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 vampire taking to the roofs.
We could have closed in on Hooky he was having a hard time, slowed by his injured leg, 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 him yet!
"We mustn't let him grow suspicious," Vancha said after several minutes of silence. "If we hang back too long, he'll guess something's up. Time to drive him to earth." Vancha moved ahead of us, until he was within shuriken-throwing range of the vampaneze. He took a throwing star from the belts looped around his chest, aimed carefully and sent it skimming off a chimney just above Hooky's head.
Whirling, the vampaneze shouted something unintelligible back at us and angrily shook a golden hook. Vancha silenced him with another shuriken, which flew even closer to its mark than the first. Dropping to 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 vampaneze.
"Here we go," Mr Crepsley muttered, making for a nearby fire escape. "Call the others and warn them we do not want them running into him on the streets."
I did that while jogging 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 vampaneze on the ground, Vancha kept sight of him from the rooftops, making 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 minutes of frenzied running, he chose the tunnels.
We found a discarded manhole cover and a trail of blood leading down 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 knew what we 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 become accustomed to these tight, dark spaces, and we moved quickly and efficiently, keeping close, picking up on the slightest identifying marks.
Hooky led us deeper into the tunnels than we'd ever been. Even the mad vampaneze, Murlough, hadn't delved this deeply into the underbelly of the city. Was Hooky heading for his companions and help, or simply trying to lose us?
"We must be nearing the city limits," Harkat remarked as we rested a moment. "The tunnels must run out soon, or else "
"What?" I asked when he didn't continue.
"They could open up," he said. "Perhaps he is making a break for freedom. If he reaches open countryside and has a clear run, he can flit to safety."
"Won't his wounds stop him doing that?" I asked.
"Perhaps. But if he is desperate enough perhaps not."
We resumed the chase and caught up with Vancha and Steve. Harkat told Vancha what he thought Hooky was planning. Vancha replied that he'd already thought of that, and was gradually closing in on the fleeing vampaneze if Hooky angled for the surface, Vancha would head him off and make an end of him.
But, to our surprise, instead of heading upwards, the vampaneze led us ever further down. I'd no idea the tunnels ran this deep, and couldn't imagine what they were for they were modern in design, and showed no signs of having been used. As I was pondering it, Vancha came to a standstill and I almost walked into him.
"What is it?" I asked.
"He's stopped," Vancha whispered. "There's a room or cave up ahead and he's come to a halt."
"Waiting for us, to make a final stand?" I suggested.
"Perhaps," Vancha replied uneasily. "He's lost a lot of blood and the pace of the chase must be sapping his energy. But why stop now? Why here?" He shook his head. "I don't like it."
As Mr Crepsley and Debbie arrived, Steve unstrapped his arrow gun and loaded it by torchlight.
"Careful!" I hissed. "He'll see the light."
Steve shrugged. "So? He knows we're here. We might as well operate by light as in darkness."
That made sense, so we all lit the torches we'd brought, keeping the lights dim so as not to create too many distracting shadows.
"Do we go after him," Steve asked, "or stay here and wait for him to attack?"
"We go in," Mr Crepsley answered after the briefest of pauses.
"Aye," Vancha said. "In."
I studied Debbie. She was trembling and looked ready to collapse. "You can wait out here if you like," I told her.
"No," she said. "I'm coming." She stopped trembling. "For Tara."
"Steve and Debbie will keep to the back," Vancha said, loosening a few of his shurikens. "Larten and I will lead. Darren and Harkat in the middle." Everybody nodded obediently. "If he's alone, I'll take him," Vancha went on. "An even fight, one-on-one. If he hascompany" he grinned humourlessly "it's everyone for themselves."
One final check to make sure we were ready and he advanced, Mr Crepsley to his right, Harkat and I close behind, Steve and Debbie bringing up the rear.
We found ourselves in a large, domed room, modern like the tunnels. A handful of candles jutted from the walls, casting a gloomy, flickering light. There was another way into the room directly across from us, but it was barred by a heavy, round, metal door, like those used for walk-in safes in banks. Hooky had squatted a few metres in front of the door. His knees were drawn up to cover his face, and his hands were busy trying to pry the arrow head from his leg.
We fanned out, Vancha in front, the rest of us forming a protective semi-circle behind him. "The game's over," Vancha said, holding back, examining the shadows for traces of other vampaneze.
"Think so?" Hooky snorted and looked up at us with his one red eye and one blue-green. "Ithink it's only beginning." The vampaneze clashed his hooks together. Once. Twice. Three times.
And someone dropped from the ceiling.
The someone landed beside Hooky. Stood and faced us. His face was purple and his eyes were blood-red a vampaneze. Someone else dropped. Another. More. I felt sick inside as I watched vampaneze drop. There were human vampets among them too, dressed in brown shirts and black trousers, with skinned heads, a tattooed 'V above either ear, and red circles painted around their eyes, carrying rifles, pistols and crossbows.
I counted nine vampaneze and fourteen vampets, not including Hooky. We'd walked into a trap, and as I stared around at the armed, grim-faced warriors, I knew we'd need all the luck of the vampires just to scrape out of this alive.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
AS POORas the odds were, they were about to get even worse. As we stood awaiting the onslaught, the huge door behind Hooky opened and four more vampaneze stepped through to join the others. That made it twenty-eight to six. We hadn't a hope.
"Not so pleased with yourselves now, are you?" Hooky jeered, hobbling forward a few gleeful paces.
"I don't know about that," Vancha sniffed. "This just means more of you for us to kill."
Hooky's smile vanished. "Are you arrogant or ignorant?" he snapped.
"Neither," Vancha said, gazing calmly at our foes. "I'm a vampire."
"You really think you stand a chance against us?" Hooky sneered.
"Yes," Vancha answered softly. "Were we fighting honest, noble vampaneze, I'd think otherwise. But a vampaneze who sends armed humans to fight his battles is a coward, without honour. I have nothing to fear from such pitiable beasts."
"Be careful what you say," the vampaneze to the left of Hooky growled. "We don't take kindly to insults."
"We'rethe ones who've been insulted," Vancha replied. "There's honour in dying at the hands of a worthy foe. If you'd sent your best warriors against us and killed us, we'd have died with smiles on our lips. But to send these these " He spat into the dust of the floor. "There's no word low enough to describe them."
The vampets bristled at that, but the vampaneze looked uneasy, almost ashamed, and I realized they were no fonder of the vampets than we were. Vancha noticed this too and slowly loosened his belts of shurikens. "Drop your arrow guns," he said to Steve, Harkat and Debbie. They stared at him dumbly. "Do it!" he insisted gruffly and they complied. Vancha held up his bare hands. "We've put our long-range weapons aside. Will you order your pets to do the same and engage us honourably or will you have us shot down in cold blood like the curs I think you are?"
"Shoot them!" Hooky screamed, his voice laced with hatred. "Shoot them all!"
The vampets raised their weapons and took aim.
"No!" the vampaneze to Hooky's left bellowed and the vampets paused. "By all the shadows of the night, I say no!"
Hooky whirled on him. "Are you crazy?"
"Beware," the vampaneze warned him. "If you cross me on this, I'll kill you where you stand."
Hooky stepped back, stunned. The vampaneze faced the vampets. "Drop your guns," he commanded. "We'll fight with our traditional weapons. Withhonour ."
The vampets obeyed the order. Vancha turned and winked at us while they were laying their weapons aside. Then he faced the vampaneze again. "Before we start," he said, "I'd like to know what manner of creature this thing with the hooks is."
"I'm a vampaneze!" Hooky replied indignantly.
"Really?" Vancha smirked. "I've never seen one with mismatched eyes before."
Hooky's eyes twitched exploratively. "Damn!" he shouted. "It must have slipped out when I fell."
"What slipped out?" Vancha asked.
"A contact lens," I answered softly. "He's wearing red contact lenses."
"No I'm not!" Hooky yelled. "That's a lie! Tell them, Bargen. My eyes are as red as yours and my skin's as purple."
The vampaneze to Hooky's left shuffled his feet with embarrassment. "Heis a vampaneze," he said, "but he's only been recently blooded. He wanted to look like the rest of us, so he wears contacts and " Bargen coughed into a fist. "He paints his face and body purple."
"Traitor!" Hooky howled.
Bargen looked up at him, disgusted, then spat into the dust of the floor as Vancha had moments before.
"What has the world come to when the vampaneze blood maniacs like this and recruit humans to fight for them?"
Vancha asked quietly and there was no mockery in his voice it was a genuine, puzzled query.
"Times change," Bargen answered. "We don't like the changes, but we accept them. Our Lord has said it must be so."
"This is what the great Lord of the Vampaneze has brought to his people?" Vancha barked. "Human thugs and crazy, hook-handed monsters?"
"I'm not crazy!" Hooky shouted. "Except crazy with rage!" He pointed at me and snarled. "And it's allhis fault."
Vancha turned and stared at me, as did everybody else in the room.
"Darren?" Mr Crepsley asked quietly.
"I don't know what he's talking about," I said.
"Liar!" Hooky laughed and started dancing. "Liar, liar, pants on fire!"
"Do you know thiscreature !" Mr Crepsley enquired.
"No," I insisted. "The first time I saw him was when he attacked me in the alley. I never"
"Lies!" Hooky screamed, then stopped dancing and glared at me. "Pretend all you like, man, but you know who I am. And you know what you did to drive me to this." He held up his arms, so the hooks glinted in the light of the candles.
"Honestly," I swore, "I haven't a clue what you're on about."
"No?" he sneered. "It's easy to lie to a mask. Let's seeif you can stick to your lie when faced with" he removed the balaclava with one quick sweep of his left hooks, revealing his face "this!"
It was a round, heavy, bearded face, smeared with purple paint. For a few seconds I couldn't place it. Then, putting it together with the missing hands, and the familiarity of the voice that I'd previously noted, I nailed him. "Reggie Veggie?" I gasped.
"Don't call me that!" he shrieked. "It'sR.V . and it stands for Righteous Vampaneze!"
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. R.V. was a man I'd run into not long after joining the Cirque Du Freak, an eco-warrior who'd devoted his life to the protection of the countryside. We'd been friends until he found me killing animals to feed the Little People. He set out to free the Wolf Man he thought we were mistreating him but the savage beast bit his arms off. The last time I'd seen him, he'd been fleeing into the night, screaming loudly, "My hands! My hands!"
Now he was here. With the vampaneze. And I began to understand why I'd been set up and who was behind it. "Yousent those forms to Mahler's!" I accused him.
He grinned slyly, then shook his head. "With hands like these?" He waved the hooks at me. "They're good for chopping and slicing and gutting, but not for writing. I played my part to get you down here, but it was one with a lot more cunning than me who dreamt the plan up."
"I don't understand," Vancha interrupted. "Who is this lunatic?"
"It's a long story," I said. "I'll tell you later."
"Optimistic to the last," Vancha chuckled.
I stepped closer to R.V., ignoring the threat of the vampaneze and vampets, until I was only a metre or so away. I studied his face silently. He fidgeted but didn't back off. "What happened to you?" I asked, appalled. "You loved life. You were gentle and kind. You were a vegetarian!"
"Not any more," R.V. chuckled. "I eat plenty of meat now and I like itbloody !" His smile faded. "Youhappened to me, you and your band of freaks. You ruined my life, man. I wandered the world, alone, frightened, defenceless, until the vampaneze took me in. They gave me strength. They equipped me with new hands. In turn, I helped give themyou ."
I shook my head sadly. "You're wrong. They haven't made you strong. They've turned you into an abomination."
His face darkened. "Take that back! Take that back or I'll"
"Before this goes any further," Vancha interrupted dryly, "could I ask one more question? It's my final one." R.V. stared at him in silence. "Ifyou didn't set us up, who did?" R.V. said nothing. Nor did the other vampaneze. "Come on!" Vancha shouted. "Don't be shy. Who's the clever boy?"
The silence held a few moments more. Then, from behind us, somebody said in a soft, wicked voice, "Iam."
I whirled around to see who'd spoken. So did Vancha, Harkat and Mr Crepsley. But Debbie didn't whirl, because she was standing still, a knife pressed to the soft flesh of her throat. And Steve Leopard didn't whirl either, because he was standing beside her holding the knife !
We gawped wordlessly at the pair. I blinked twice, slowly, thinking maybe that would restore sanity to the world. But it didn't. Steve was still there, holding his knife on Debbie, grinning darkly.
"Take off your gloves," Mr Crepsley said, his voice strained. "Take them off and show us your hands."
Steve smiled knowingly, then put the fingertips of his left hand which was wrapped around Debbie's throat to his mouth, gripped the ends of the glove with his teeth, and pulled his hand free. The first thing my eyes went to was the cross carved into the flesh of his palm, the cross he'd made the night he vowed to track me down and kill me. Then my eyes slid from his palm to the end of his fingers, and I understood why Mr Crepsley had asked him to remove the glove.
There were five small scars running along his fingertips the sign that he was a creature of the night. But Steve hadn't been blooded by a vampire. He'd been blooded by one of the others.He was a half-vampaneze !
CHAPTER TWENTY
AS THEinitial shock faded, a cold, dark hatred grew in the pit of my stomach. I forgot about the vampaneze and vampets and focused entirely on Steve. My best friend. The boy whose life I'd saved. The man I'd welcomed back with open arms. I'd vouched for him. Trusted him. Included him in our plans.
And all along he'd been plotting against us.
I would have gone for him there and then, and ripped him to pieces, except he was using Debbie as a shield. Fast as I was, I wouldn't be able to stop him slashing the knife across her throat. If I attacked, Debbie would die.
"I knew we could not trust him," Mr Crepsley said, looking only slightly less wrathful than I felt. "Blood does not change. I should have killed him years ago."
"Don't be a sore loser," Steve laughed, pulling Debbie even tighter in to him.
"It was all a ploy, wasn't it?" Vancha noted. "The hooked one's attack and your rescue of Darren was staged."
"Of course," Steve smirked. "I knew where they were all along.I suckered them in, sending R.V. to this city to spread panic among the humans, knowing it would draw Creepy Crepsley back."
"How did you know?" Mr Crepsley asked, astonished.
"Research," Steve said. "I found out all I could about you. I made you my life's work. It wasn't easy, but I traced you in the end. Found your birth certificate. Connected you to this place. I teamed up with my good friends, the vampaneze, during the course of my travels. They didn't reject me like you did. Through them I learnt that one of their brethren poor, deranged Murlough had gone missing here some years ago. Knowing what I did about you and your movements, it wasn't difficult to join the dots.