CHERUB: The Recruit (30 page)

‘What about right here, right now?’ James said. ‘Without all your pals backing you up?’

‘If you want to start it, hippy boy, we’ll finish it.’

The kids standing around them in the queue were excited about a punch-up. Normally James wouldn’t start a fight where everyone could see, but he was trying to get suspended so it didn’t matter. James waited while the queue shuffled forward.

‘Chickened out, did you?’ Gareth asked.

James flicked Gareth off. He was waiting until they were level with the baked beans. When they got there, he hit Gareth in the stomach, grabbed him behind the neck and dipped his face in the beans. Gareth screamed, hot orange sauce burning his face. Stuart whacked James over the head with his lunch tray. James doubled Stuart up with an elbow and followed with some punches that took him down. Gareth was blind, screaming, and wiping his face with his sweatshirt. James battered Stuart until he got dragged off by a couple of teachers. Two hundred sets of eyes were on James as the teachers dragged him off, kicking and shouting.

*

Joanna thought James getting suspended was superb. James was lying face down on her bed after a bath. Joanna rubbed his wet hair with a towel.

‘You’re so bad,’ Joanna purred. ‘And you don’t even care.’

She threw the towel on the floor and kissed the back of James’ neck.

‘We’ll run away to Scotland and get married when we’re sixteen,’ Joanna said. ‘Then we’ll go all over the country robbing banks. We’ll live big with all the money we steal. Flash restaurants, big sports cars.’

‘You’ve put a lot of thought into this,’ James said, grinning. ‘I’ve only known you for a week.’

‘Then you’ll get shot by the police in a robbery.’

‘You’re so full of shit.’ James giggled.

‘Don’t worry, Ross. You’ll recover, but you’ll have to do five hard years in prison. You’ll kiss my photo every day. I’ll go to America and ride a Harley Davidson across the country. When you get out, you’ll be all beefy from lifting weights, and have tattoos all over you. When the prison gates open I’ll be waiting on my Harley. We’ll kiss. You’ll climb on the back and we’ll ride off into the sunset.’

‘I’m not so sure about getting shot and going to prison,’ James said. ‘Why can’t
you
get shot and I’ll ride the Harley across America?’

‘You want me to be all muscled and covered with tattoos?’ Joanna asked.

James rolled over and kissed Joanna on the cheek.

‘Ring Ewart,’ Amy said when James got back to the hut. ‘He’s pissed at you.’

James went out to the Land Cruiser and made the call.

‘Hello James, nice time with your girlfriend?’ Ewart asked bitterly.

‘What did I do?’ James asked.

‘Your headmistress blew her stack over your antics in the canteen. She rang one of your supposed old schools; luckily she got the number from the fake file and the call went through to CHERUB, but if she’d got the school’s real number and they told her they’d never heard of you it would have made a right mess.’

‘Is the headmistress really mad?’ James asked.

‘I called her back pretending to be one of your old teachers and I think I smoothed things over. I said you were mischievous but basically harmless.’

‘You said I was allowed to get suspended.’

‘Yes,’ Ewart said. ‘But I didn’t expect you to dunk a kid’s head in a vat of baked beans. He’s apparently got a nasty burn on his nose.’

‘Sorry,’ James said, trying not to laugh.

‘Sorry solves nothing,’ Ewart shouted. ‘What time did you get back to Fort Harmony?’

‘Just now. About half seven.’

‘Have you seen Clark and Sebastian today?’

‘No.’

‘Why not?’

‘You know why, I was with Joanna.’

‘The mission is about Sebastian and Clark, not your little girlfriend. I’ve told Cathy to ground you for getting suspended from school. You can’t leave Fort Harmony for a week.’

‘But what about Joanna?’ James asked.

‘Tough,’ Ewart said. ‘Focus on your mission. You mess up like this again and I’ll have you back at CHERUB scrubbing toilets on your hands and knees.’

‘I’ve got to see Joanna, please,’ James begged.

‘Don’t wind me up, James, I’m in no mood. There’s two things for you to keep an eye out for. In your photos of Bungle’s shack there’s a white folder with a RKM logo on the side. It’s on the bottom of the bookshelf under the window. Try and get a look at it. It looks like a computer manual, but Bungle doesn’t have a computer. It might give us a clue what they’re up to. Second, look out for a red van. Amy spotted Fire and World getting out of it, but couldn’t get the whole number plate. Got all that?’

‘Yes, Ewart,’ James said miserably.

‘Start using your brain, James.’

James heard the line go dead. He punched the dashboard, ran back to his bed and yelled into his pillow.

‘What happened?’ Amy asked.

‘Leave me alone,’ James said.

‘It can’t be so bad, Ross. You got out of school.’

‘He said I can’t go down to the village and see Joanna.’

‘You know we’ll only be here for a few weeks,’ Amy said. ‘I wouldn’t get too fond of her.’

James got off his bed, put his boots on and walked out into the dark.

He lay in the long grass down the bottom of the hill and didn’t care that his clothes got soaked. He thought about sneaking down to the village to see Joanna, but he wasn’t brave enough to mess with Ewart. If Ewart sent him back to campus in disgrace he’d never get another decent mission.

James wanted to go back to the hut, but Amy would be there with a lecture waiting. He thought about finding Sebastian and Clark, but he didn’t want to spend all night shooting the local wildlife. So he stayed where he was, sulking.

*

James heard an animal or something running through the grass around him. He looked up and saw it was two radio-controlled cars. Electric ones. The only noise was rustling as they brushed the grass. He spotted the chromed radio control aerials reflecting moonlight. World and Scargill had them. After a couple of quick circuits they picked the cars up, pulled up their sweatshirt hoods and jogged away.

James decided it was too risky to follow. He crawled through the mud towards where Scargill and World had been standing and almost fell into a hole. It was one of the old tunnels. James grabbed his mobile and called Amy.

‘Where are you?’ Amy asked.

‘Down near the road, something weird is going on.’

James explained everything.

‘The tunnel has a door with a padlock on it,’ James said. ‘I don’t have my lock gun.’

‘I’ll be five minutes,’ Amy said. ‘Do nothing. If they come back, say you were just exploring.’

Amy ran down to James, keeping herself low to the ground. She shone a torch into the hole and quickly shut it off again.

‘They could be back any minute,’ Amy said. ‘You any good with the lock gun?’

‘OK,’ James said.

‘Got your camera?’

‘Yes.’

‘Go have a look,’ Amy said. ‘Take as many pictures as you can and get out fast.’

‘Will you keep look-out?’ James asked.

‘No. If they catch you, say the lock was left off and you just walked inside. Me sitting out here looks suspicious. I’ll keep back unless something starts getting heavy.’

James took Amy’s torch and lock gun and dropped into the hole. There was a deep puddle in the bottom. The padlock was easy. Inside was three metres of wood-lined tunnel with a low room at the end. James crawled down and started taking pictures. There wasn’t much to see. Shelves of radio-controlled cars and spares, and a workbench with an orange plastic tub underneath. James opened every drawer and took pictures inside.

James turned to leave, half-convinced someone would be behind him. Nobody was. He scrambled back down the tunnel, shut the padlock and ran uphill to Amy.

‘Sweet,’ Amy said. ‘See anything?’

‘Toy cars and junk. Hard to see with the torch.’

‘The flash on the camera will pick up more than you saw in the dark,’ Amy said. ‘Maybe something will turn up on the photos.’

‘There must be stuff worth hiding in there,’ James said. ‘Otherwise they wouldn’t bother keeping it secret.’

‘I’m gonna stick around and see if they come back,’ Amy said. ‘You go up to the hut and ring Ewart. Arrange to meet him somewhere. He’ll want to look at the pictures straight away.’

*

After he’d met Ewart, James went back to the hut and fell asleep. He got the best sleep he’d had in ages, without Amy there snoring.

Amy shook James awake at 2 a.m. She looked happy.

‘It’s all going down, James. Fire came to the workshop. You were nearly caught, only missed him by about three minutes. He took a big backpack of stuff out and walked off. I followed him up the hill to Green Brooke. You’ll never guess what the radio-controlled cars are for.’

‘What?’ James asked.

‘They have a storage tray. They load them up with stuff and push them through a tiny gap in the security fence around Green Brooke. They drive the cars inside the fence and drop the cargo at the back of the conference hall. The cars are too small and fast to get detected by the security cameras and alarms.’

‘Couldn’t they book a room and bring the stuff into the hotel?’ James asked.

‘Every guest brings luggage into Green Brooke hotel,’ Amy said. ‘But the conference hall is under police guard until Petrocon starts. Everyone gets searched on the way in. There’s X-ray machines. All your bags get turned out, they pat you down and go in your pockets.’

‘So,’ James said. ‘They’re smuggling a bomb into the conference hall, bit by bit, on the back of radio-controlled cars. There must be someone working on the inside screwing all the pieces together.’

‘Must be. I spoke to Ewart. They’re sending people down to look at the stuff the cars dropped, but they won’t take it away. They want to see who comes and picks it up.’

James laughed. ‘They’re gonna lock those guys up and throw away the key.’

‘Poor Scargill,’ Amy said.

‘You don’t actually
like
that freak, do you?’ James asked.

Amy shrugged. ‘I feel sorry for him. He’s just a lonely kid trying to impress his big brothers. The tough guys in prison will eat him for breakfast.’

‘You
do
like him,’ James laughed. ‘He’s the world’s biggest nerd.’

‘You’re such a twelve-year-old sometimes, James,’ Amy said. ‘You’ve never even had a conversation with Scargill. There’s more to a guy than looking good and having big muscles.’

‘Marry him and get it over with,’ James said. ‘So what happens next?’

‘Nothing changes. We keep our ears to the ground and see what comes up. Ewart wants you to concentrate on Bungle and Eleanor. We know they’re involved, but there’s still no proof.’

Amy shook James awake. It was still dark.

‘Get dressed now,’ Amy snapped. ‘I just had Ewart on the phone. He’s coming to get us.’

James rubbed his eyes. Amy was on one leg, stepping into a pair of ripped jeans.

‘What’s going on?’

‘I have no idea,’ Amy said. ‘Ewart said our lives are in danger if we don’t get out fast.’

James put on jeans and trainers. He grabbed his jacket and dashed after Amy. Cathy woke up and asked what was going on. She didn’t get an answer. They ran to the bottom of the hill where the BMW was waiting.

‘Both of you in the back,’ Ewart said.

The tyres squealed. Ewart was in a major hurry about something. He threw some medical supplies at Amy.

‘Give James four tablets and two shots in the arm. You OK with injections, Amy?’

‘In theory,’ Amy said.

Branches thrashed the side of the car as it sped down an unlit country lane.

‘What’s wrong with me?’ James asked nervously.

‘Get your coat off,’ Amy said.

She squeezed four pills out of their blisters and handed them to James. James looked at the box. It was an antibiotic called Ciprofloxacin.

‘I need water to swallow them,’ James said.

‘None here,’ Ewart said. ‘Forgot. Ball up some spit. The faster they’re in your system the better.’

James’ mouth was dry from running. It took a while to get the tablets down.

‘I can’t hold the needle still while the car’s moving,’ Amy said.

Ewart stamped the brakes and pulled into the side of the lane. Amy roughly stabbed James with the first needle. It hurt like hell.

‘Have you ever done that before?’ James asked.

Amy didn’t answer and punched him with the second jab. Ewart hit the accelerator.

‘Will you tell me what the hell is going on?’ James shouted.

‘It wasn’t a bomb they were building,’ Ewart said. ‘It was a bio-weapon. The radio-controlled cars were carrying cylinders of bacteria.’