Broken Homes

long and two feet six inches high, and there’s normally an old carpet laid in the bottom to soak up the blood. It’s really very distinctive and makes them easy to recognise, especially when you’re kneeling in the middle of one with your hands on your head.
    The ring was in the old barn, which was much better maintained than the new concrete one and had racks of empty dog cages along each wall. That explained why it had been so securely locked.
    They had me and Lesley facing the barn door while behind us stood at least two of the combat trouser brigade – both armed with shotguns. Varvara Sidorovna knew our capabilities and wasn’t taking any chances. We’d been there long enough for my knees to start seizing up and for our guards to forget we were listening.
    ‘This is fucking stupid,’ said Max, who had repeated this statement at regular intervals since we’d arrived here. By a process of elimination I’d decided this was the round pink-faced guy, and we knew his name was Max because his partner had used it the last time he’d told him to shut the fuck up. I was pretty certain his partner was the squinty-eyed guy and I knew his name was Barry because Max had used it when he told him to fuck off.
    ‘Shut up,’ said Barry.
    ‘Well, it is fucking stupid,’ said Max. ‘We should be well out of here by now.’
    ‘Not until the Comrade Major says it’s time to go.’
    ‘Fuck the fucking Comrade Major,’ mumbled Max.
    ‘I wouldn’t try if I was you,’ said Barry. ‘She’ll freeze your balls off.’
    ‘Oh yeah,’ said Max. ‘Seriously frigid.’
    ‘Look,’ said Lesley. ‘It’s bad enough that you’re holding us prisoner, but can we at least dispense with the fucking sexism?’
    ‘You’re a mouthy cunt, aren’t you?’ said Barry.
    ‘What I am is a police officer,’ said Lesley. ‘And if anything happens to me or my partner here I personally guarantee that you won’t survive the subsequent arrest.’
    ‘What?’ asked Barry.
    ‘Damage us,’ I said, ‘and our colleagues will fuck you up big time.’
    ‘Shut up,’ said Max.
    ‘Yeah,’ said Barry. ‘Shut the fuck up.’
    ‘Not them, you dickhead,’ said Max. ‘You shut the fuck up as well.’
    My stomach was churning. I didn’t want to die in a dog fighting ring. In Essex, for god’s sake, what would my dad say? And my mum would be so pissed off with me. Better all-round if I avoided the whole dying thing altogether.
    ‘You know, after today you two are going to be disposable,’ said Lesley.
    ‘She’s right,’ I said. ‘We tracked you here through the van and we reported in before we came here.’
    ‘She gets you to top us,’ said Lesley. ‘And then she leaves you hanging out for the police.’
    My throat was dry and I had to cough before I could say, ‘That’s a bit too risky. More likely she zaps them and then burns down this place with them in it.’
    ‘People are always setting themselves on fire when they do arson,’ said Lesley. ‘They’ll think you murdered us and then did yourselves in by accident. Case closed, and the Comrade Major gets away scot free.’
    There was a long pause and then Max said, ‘We’re not listening to you, you know.’
    But I thought they might be.
    I think we might have been there for another hour after that. Barry was complaining that he wanted a slash, my knees were killing me and I had shooting pains in my shoulders from keeping my hands on my head. I did wonder, given how long Max and Barry had been standing there, whether they might be equally stiff and unresponsive.
    There was nothing in my forward field of view that I could grab with impello and the bloody Comrade Major Varvara Sidorovna had instructed Max and Barry to randomly move around behind my back and stay separated so that I couldn’t just blindly smack them down. Nothing I could do was going to be faster than their trigger fingers – however stiff they got.
    Still, when the barn doors opened in front of me I did my best to clear my mind and be ready for any opportunity.
    It was Varvara Sidorovna carrying, I couldn’t help noticing, two plastic jerry cans. Judging from the way they weighed on her shoulders they must have been nearly full and I didn’t think it was with water. By the time I’d registered that, she’d walked briskly out of our line of sight.
    ‘Okay,’ she said from behind us. ‘In a couple of minutes I want you two to shoot these two in the head and douse everything with petrol.’