1 Chapter 1

It was the first week in December and for three weeks the temperature in the UK had plummeted so low that now the Regent's Canal had completely frozen over. The gloomy silence was fractured by the book and Bellow of a massive building works programme going on in King's Cross . Most days the sky played battlefield to giant industrial cranes but today visibility was limited to just twenty feet , it was just far enough to see across the canal , where it narrowed towards the gate then dropped eight feet and widened into a basin . The water hadn't been flowing for two weeks and the canal boats were stuck , moored in ice .

A group of six lads walked down towards the frozen canal. Mouse , nicknamed a year ago when he was the smallest member of the gang , before he grew into a lanky skulker , dragged his feet , kicking the loose stones as he sloped along the towpath , hands deep in the pockets of his black hoody . He was nervous today . A lot was expected of him.

Leon, the leader of the boys , moved back along the ranks until he came level with Mouse . Mouse lifted his chin in the direction of the new boy . ' I don't see you asking him to do it ?'

'That's cos he needs to wait his turn.'

The others sniggered and Mouse gathered phlegm and rolled it around his tongue before he spat the globule on to the path.

'Anyways—' Leon moved closer and moved alongside Mouse —'he don't know how it works with old man on the till. He don't know how to distract him.'

Mouse's eyes were furtive beneath the rim of his hoody . He shook his head . 'No, man , he knows me, he won't let me in the shop.'

'He will.' Leon put his arm around Mouse's shoulder . The other turned and grinned at one another.

He shrugged Leon off. ' I'm telling you he won't . I tried to buy something for my mum last week . He wouldn't even let me do that.'

' You scared of the old man?'

Mouse tried a laugh but it came out shrill and false in the frozen air.

'you need to stay clam. Stay cool.' Leon sucked in the air through the gap between his big front teeth. 'Be happy, don't worry .' As he talked he leant his weight on Mouse and they stepped closer to canal's edge. One of the boys picked up a stone from the twopath and threw it across the frozen water.

'Oi! Stop that!' The man stood at the other side of the canal and stared at them . Another stone skimmed over the top of the ice, leaving a frosted trail. 'What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?' he shouted again.

'what's it to you, old man?' Laughter rang out amongst from obscenities as one of the lads prised up a loose slab from the side of the twopath and launched it across the ice.

' I work here, that's what . It's dangerous. Now bugger off home.'

Mouse joined in the whistling and the jeering across the canal. When he turned his attention back to his mates he found them standing in his way, corralling him in,his back to the canal . A play-fight ensued between him and Leon . Mouse struggled to slip his wiry frame from Leon's firm grip and finished being tripped backwards the ice , dangling . He tried to laugh as he clung tight to Leon , who seemed about to haul him in but instead dropped him . Mouse bounced on his back and then slid across the surface. His friends whooped with delight as they watched him struggle to get to his knees , fall and slip sideways . He tried again, still managing to see the funny side of his predicament , inwardly so grateful that the ice had held his weight , but now all he wanted was to get off it fast . He steadied himself , turned over on to his knees and placed two hands down on the frozen surface and then stopped laughing. He scrambled to move away from that spot . His hands began to stick to the ice . His face was just an inch from the surface and his eyes slowly focused on the scene beneath his hands. He was winded, he couldn't scream , he couldn't talk . He heard the sound of his friends laughing at . The first thing he saw was the grinning mouth , the next her eyes , swollen lids opening just wide enough to stare back at him. There between his hand inches from his face a women stared at him through the frozen surface of the canal.

Mouse's scream was lost in the wail and boom coming from the building site nearby.