Achilleus ran at Carl, easily dodging a halfhearted swing from his machete. He ducked in and butted Carl in the guts with the end of his club. As Carl doubled over, Achilleus brought his knee up and connected with his face. Now Carl was down. Achilleus kept going, and soon two more of Carl’s friends were also taken out.

This gave Pod confidence, and he and his gang charged forward with a shout. They grabbed a flimsy support holding up the roof of one of the shacks and pulled at it. It only took two or three heaves and the whole shack twisted and toppled sideways, spilling rainwater everywhere.

Pod’s team cheered.

“Stop it!” Maxie screamed, but her voice was lost in the chaos.

The camp had come fully alive, and kids poured out of the shacks like angry wasps. The entire palace squad was forced into the fight now, and a messy brawl developed in the square. Fists and sticks were flying. The kids were kicking, gouging, wrestling. Not many of the squatters were armed, and Achilleus and his fighters concentrated on those that were, trying to get their weapons off them without getting hurt.

Freak was pounding along the walkway by the lake. He could hear the distant sounds of fighting.

“Shit!”

He kept his eyes open for something he could use as a weapon. He had nothing with him.

“Stupid!”

Some kid he didn’t recognize stepped out of the café as he passed.

“Hey, what are you—”

Freak barged into him and sent him flying.

He raced on.

Blue was standing there, watching, not sure what to do.

“We’ve got to stop this,” said Maxie, shaking him.

“How?” said Blue.

“Take charge,” said Maxie. “Do something.”

Before they could say anything else, a group of squatters ran at them, and Blue was forced to hack away at them with his ax handle. A hail of shot and small rocks from Ollie’s squad rattled into the squatters’ legs, and they fell back, hobbling and swearing.

Pod and his boys were moving from shack to shack, pushing them over. A fat girl ran out of one, shrieking.

“What are you doing? What are you doing?” she shouted. “There’s kids in there!”

Pod wavered, and the wail of a distressed baby came clearly from inside the shack, which was rocking dangerously, ready to collapse. Pod’s team tried to steady it.

“Idiots!” Blue ran forward and ducked inside. He emerged a second later with a baby in his arms and almost chucked it at the girl. He was instantly back inside, and reemerged with a second baby. He turned and went back in as the girl yelled that that was all of them.

He didn’t hear, and the next moment the shack went down with a creaking, splintering sound. Pod and his team began to frantically pull aside sheets of plywood and corrugated metal, planks and boards, and bits of plastic.