The four Russians moved along the canal leading to their hotel. Haut ordered a beer, feeling overly relaxed. The bar began to close up and Haut was asked to leave. He wanted to know the directions to his hotel, which he couldn’t recall the name of. Two of the staff took him outside, turned his coat collar up and pointed him towards the canal. Haut thanked them and staggered off, hands thrust into his coat pockets. He zigzagged to the canal, which was not well lit. A fog was moving in.

Haut stumbled on. A ship’s foghorn sounded somewhere out to sea. A small boat chugged along the canal and gave him some comfort. He looked back and stopped. Four shapes were following him. He got glimpses of them when they moved under streetlights. Three came close and surrounded him. Haut was pushed to the ground. He tried to fight back but was too drunk and was easily overwhelmed.

Suddenly, Cavalier and Jacinta, both in black tracksuits and sneakers, moved forward, having followed Haut at a distance. They swooped on the three attackers. Cavalier delivered a rabbit-killer chop to the back of the biggest thug’s neck, who had been about to pummel Haut. He collapsed. Two of the thugs were forced to leave Haut and face Jacinta, who let go a flurry of punches and kicks that felled them.

A fourth thug emerged from the shadows carrying a knife. Cavalier stepped in front of him, pulling a handgun from under his jacket.

‘Stay out of it!’ he warned.

The fourth thug hesitated. Cavalier aimed at his chest. The fourth took another step. Cavalier fired, hitting the man’s right wrist. The knife clattered to the cobblestones. The thug fell to his knees, screaming.

Jacinta stood over the fallen thugs, who hardly moved. One groaned but could not get to his feet. She moved closer and gave him a fearful kick to the behind, sprawling him flat again. Jacinta then moved close to the fourth thug, who was now on his back moaning. She ceremoniously picked up his knife, moved close and bent over him.

‘You are right-handed?’ she asked.

The fourth thug nodded. He blubbered, wondering what she might do. Jacinta bent to one knee, lifted his left arm over her thigh and pushed down hard. Snap! His arm broke at the elbow. The fourth thug collapsed from the shock and pain.

Jacinta stood and hissed at the barely conscious man, ‘Have fun wiping your arse!’

She and Cavalier turned their attention to Haut, lifted him to his feet and helped him along the canal the few hundred metres to his hotel.

*

The next morning Haut and Kisley walked the coastline littered with shipwrecks and World War Two submarine scraps, which formed a breakwater near the Blankenese Lighthouse.