The Company was bringing in more money than ever before and empty bellies were being filled. There was work for those who wanted it and education for the rest. From cleaners to coders, designers to project managers, sales associates to call-centre personnel, The Company offered jobs from entry level to professional. And if you didn’t have the skills but showed the promise, the business would take you under its wing and train you up while paying your wage and rent. They hired in their own image. Instead of seeking outside investment, they pumped money into the area and kept it circulating.

The city was starting to flourish in ways it hadn’t done in years. The future looked hopeful, with one serious exception.

Jia had let the Nowak problem fester for too long. The Brotherhood was trying to push the streets towards chaos again. While The Company had brought money and opportunities to people, the world outside it hadn’t changed. The white structures that maintained control still existed. The city was still an enclave, and Nowak and his men knew how to take advantage of the tensions this caused. They had slowly been pouring oil on the fire that was lit the night of the drive-by club shooting. Nowak understood animal rage, how to draw it out, how to feed it. The most primal of all human urges, he planned to use it to tear the city apart.

Over the past six months, Jia had received several calls from community leaders asking for her help. The police were losing control of the city and had no way to bring things back into line. Maybe if they had brought Akbar Khan’s killer to justice, things would have been different, but they had failed to find anything to link Nowak to the murder. Jia had listened to Mark Briscoe, still cautious about his intentions and undecided about her desire to work with him.

But when Idris had brought news of shopkeepers being targeted by Brotherhood gang members and being ‘invited’ to pay protection money, she knew the time for caution was over. The line had been crossed. The realisation of where that line was, had surprised her. She’d leaned back in her father’s chair as Idris paced up and down, turning the thought over in her head, wondering if circumstances had changed her, or simply revealed what she had always been. ‘Protection racketeering is what got my mother killed,’ her cousin said. He was angrier than Jia had ever seen him. His eyes were stone cold, his voice resolute. ‘We have to stop him. Nowak is salting our wounds. My father may be silent but we will never recover from what happened to our family. We will never flourish.’