‘I can’t force you, but I am going to highly recommend it. Given your age, your ethnicity and your appearance, I believe placing you in the general population would be a significant risk. You do understand that your safety cannot be assured if you do not agree to protection?’

Jax was under no illusions about how tough life without protection would be. He had no doubt that they would come for him. For his shoes, for his food or just for fun. But there was no point trying to run from it. He was here for the best part of a decade at least – he needed to accept that reality, adjust to his new world and get on with it. He couldn’t hide forever.

He also knew the protection wing was populated by rapists and paedophiles – the kinds of criminals other prisoners would knock around if they weren’t separated from the pack. He would be able to deal with the other residents – the Marshes, the bullies – but the thought of sharing a cell with a child abuser frightened the hell out of him. Not just because of the disgust he would feel, but because he didn’t know what he might be capable of doing to such a man, given half a chance.

‘I am only going to ask one more time,’ the officer said. ‘Would you like to be put into protective custody?’

Jax looked the man directly in the eyes and held his gaze – the first time he’d looked at anyone this way since getting on that bus that morning.

‘No.’

The older man pulled a card from a folder and drove a stamp onto it: ‘MAXIMUM SECURITY’.

‘Don’t say I didn’t try,’ he muttered as he filled in the rest of the card by hand.

Jax read the words as the man wrote them: ‘Jax Riley. D-Block. Cell No. 7. One-out. MIN: 60079.’ He made a duplicate of the first card before pushing them both across the desk.

‘One to be displayed outside your cell,’ the officer said. ‘The other to be kept on you at all times. Any questions?’

‘What does MIN stand for?’ Jax asked, finally stumped.

‘Master Index Number,’ the officer said. ‘And you’d better learn it fast because it is your new name. From here on in, you are no longer Riley Jax.’

Now he had truly lost everything.

ROGERS led Jax down another fluorescent-lit corridor, through a steel cage attached to the external wall of the block and into an open-air concrete courtyard that was hemmed in by brick buildings. He looked up at the sky. A cloudless night, the full moon was directly above. Midnight.