The alley had been well chosen. It zigzagged from the city's street grid to end in a cul-de-sac hidden from anyone except building residents. They’d missed the ambush warning signs coming in here, too intent on running down the kid waving a shrapnel gun. The structures on either side were empty; once grand town houses now nothing but roofless soot-stained brick walls open to the electric sky. A large golden sunflower had been graffitied across one wall, the paint dripping in long streaks; the rest were bare.