In my earpiece I could hear Nightingale calmly ordering units into position around the park, while maintaining his position behind me and working without a map. The mist was thickening, the trees that lined the path I was on were flattening out and fading.

Ten metres further down the path I risked a look and saw that Reynard and co had changed direction. Now they were heading downslope – to the east.

I turned off the path but stayed at a tangent so I wouldn’t be obviously following them. But I had to close the distance before they were swallowed up in the mist and darkness. I reported the change in direction.

‘You’re going to have to risk getting closer,’ said Nightingale.

I heard a snarl off to my left and I didn’t think it was a dog. I looked and thought I saw movement in the mist, man-shaped but loping like a big cat, picking up momentum as it ran after my targets. I was about to call it in when a long thin shape hissed over my shoulder and slammed into the running figure, which went tumbling with a yowling scream. A naked man ran past me and did a sort of hopping turn to face me. His long rangy body was smeared in blue paint and he held a pair of spears in his left hand. His hair was a spray of spiky black, and gold gleamed at his throat and wrists.

‘Did you see that?’ he shouted. ‘Tell me you saw that – that’s got to be a worth a song.’

He turned and ran off, shouting over his shoulder.

‘Or at least a memory.’ It sounded almost plaintive.

And then with just a few steps he was gone.

I checked Reynard and the others, but they were still walking calmly in the direction of Hyde Park Corner. Either they were the most focused people on Earth or that encounter had been a lot quieter than I thought it was.

‘Boss,’ I said into my Airwave. ‘It’s getting needlessly metaphysical out here.’

‘Ignore it,’ said Nightingale calmly. ‘There’s more than one conflict going on at the moment, but only one of them is your concern.’

I realised that despite having two of the busiest roads in London within a hundred metres, the rush hour had faded to nothing. From behind me I heard a stamping, grunting sound and a noise like pots and pans being rhythmically smacked together. A growl, a shout, a scream.

Stay on target, I thought.

‘They’re definitely heading for Hyde Park Corner,’ I said

Nightingale said that he and Guleed were going to get ahead of them and that I was going to be on my own, but I should be quite safe.

‘As long as you stay focused,’ he said.

Which was easier said than done because that’s when Early Tyburn returned.