Ashford is split between wealthy Harlow Heights, the struggling Rook Estate and a vast commercial port where legal and illegal cargo move side by side. On Rook, legitimate work is scarce, so crews, lenders and quiet fixers fill the gap.
A poor kid from the Rook Estate, raised on hand-me-downs and skipped meals. He is quick with his hands, knows every back alley in Ashford, and has no interest in becoming what the estate expects him to be.
Traits
Inventory
Garage owner and Tavis's reluctant mentor
Youth centre volunteer and Tavis's oldest friend
Small-time car thief and Tavis's mate
Leader of the Rook Boys crew
Runner for the Rook Boys
Scrapyard owner and quiet fixer
Port clerk with a gambling habit
Wealthy businessman with quiet interests in the port
Loan shark holding Tavis's debt
Detective investigating the estate crews
Tavis's home: a concrete block of flats on the Rook Estate with a broken lift, a stairwell that smells of damp, and a courtyard where kids watch for police vans.
A half-empty street market of closing stalls and cheap goods. It is where the estate buys food, trades gossip, and quietly moves things that fell off the back of a lorry.
A scruffy repair shop on the estate edge. Half its work is legitimate servicing, and the other half is re-plating cars that arrived without keys.
A tired community building with peeling paint and a leaking roof. Funding ran out years ago, but local volunteers keep the doors open for the estate's kids.
A vast working port of container stacks, cranes and customs gates. Legitimate trade by day, and a lot of unlogged cargo moving through at night.
A row of rented lock-ups between the estate and the docks. Some hold legal stock, others hold whatever a crew needs kept out of sight.
A Rook pub with sticky carpets and cheap lager. Crews settle arguments in the back room, and everyone pretends not to notice.
The wealthy side of Ashford: gated drives, clean pavements and private security. People here own the city without ever setting foot on the estate.
The city's main police hub, all glass and fluorescent light. Detectives here run long investigations into the estate's crews and the port's quiet shipments.
A sprawling yard of crushed cars and stacked metal on the industrial edge of Rook. Cars come in whole and leave as cubes, or sometimes they never leave at all.
