From Kid Alone : "The police Humvee came quietly along the road on overlarge tires and stopped alongside them. The window went down and Inspector's Dowell's face appeared, as before. "Why aren't you three in school?" Smudge and Felix looked modestly at the ground. "Doctor's note." "Study leave." Dowell looked at Garvie, who had said nothing. "You?" "Field trip." "To an industrial estate? Studying what?" "Police competency.

Anthropology, special option." Dowell's eyes locked on to Garvie's. His face changed color around the edges. "Tell you something, son," he said in a low growl. "I'm going to remember you." Garvie shrugged. "Yeah, well. I'm going to try to forget you.

" There was a moment when Dowell seemed to reach for the door handle, but his in-car radio came on, and he gave Garvie a last stare, wound up the window, and pulled away down the rutted driveway that led to the main road. "Got a death wish, have you?" Smudge said to Garvie. "The man's a nutter. Didn't you see his eyes? Didn'e(tm)t you hear what he said?" "He said he was going to remember me." "No, he didn't. He said he was going to make it his business to seek you out and hunt you down and crush you into tiny bits of human rubbish. For a bright boy, sometimes you really don'e(tm)t pay attention." "He's right, Garv," Felix said.

"Now he's clocked us. Best place for us is a long way from here." Garvie considered this. "Let's go," Smudge said. They turned to go out of the gate and Garvie turned the other way and began to walk back down the access road toward the cordoned-off storage facility. Smudge and Felix looked after him, baffled. "What are you doing? That's, like, the wrong way." "Should've realized earlier," Garvie said over his shoulder.

"How much they need my help.".