I limped back towards the SUV and found Rozalia lying face down some metres away, her legs and arms sprawled out around her. She wasn’t moving.

‘Jerry.’

I looked around and saw Yuichi, who’d dragged himself over to the side of a building, propping himself up against the wall. One of his legs was twisted in a way that was deeply unnatural, the blue denim of his jeans dark with blood.

I hurried over to Rozalia. At first I was terribly afraid she might be dead, but as I kneeled by her she suddenly shifted and coughed, and I felt a wash of desperate relief. I took hold of her shoulders, helping her onto her side just as carefully as I could.

Her eyes flickered open, and she stared up at me. ‘Casey,’ she whispered.

‘It’s me, Jerry. Casey’s not here. I don’t know where he is.’

‘Oskar . . . ?’

I shook my head. ‘Can you move? Get up?’

She licked her lips. ‘Think so. Maybe.’

I got an arm around her shoulder and helped her up, pausing only once when she yelped with pain. She leaned heavily on me as I helped her over towards Yuichi, seating her beside him.

Finally, I collapsed onto the pavement, worn-out and aching.

‘You know what this means, right, Jerry?’ said Yuichi. ‘Neither of us are going anywhere fast. You need to go and find Casey.’

I shook my head. ‘I need to get you somewhere safe first.’

Rozalia shook her head. ‘Listen to him. Casey must have been watching when he hit the detonator. He could be getting ready to pick us off with a rifle and a sniper sight. There is nowhere safe you can take us.’

‘I—’

‘No, Jerry,’ she gritted. ‘Get the fuck out of sight now, while you can. If there’s another stage around here somewhere, find it first and then come back for us.’

I glanced at the windows and rooftops around us. Casey must have been hiding somewhere up high and watching us, I figured. I knew Rozalia was right, but I still felt that I would be committing some terrible betrayal by simply leaving them both here like this, entirely vulnerable should any bee-brains happen upon them.

I pulled myself back up and hunted around until I had gathered all but one of our rifles. Where the last might have gone, I had no idea. Presumably the force of the explosion had flung it somewhere far away, and the air was still too thick with dust for me to be able to see where it might have landed. Of the three left, one was clearly too badly damaged to be operational, so I discarded it. I checked over the two remaining rifles, then pulled one over my shoulder by its strap before handing the other to Rozalia.

‘I’ll be back,’ I said to them both.

Yuichi nodded tightly. ‘Good luck, Jerry.’