Class A (5 page)

‘Point taken,’ James said. ‘I’ll speak to him.’

*

James hated the row of plastic seats outside the Chairman’s office. If you had to see him for something good, Dr
McAfferty
– usually known as Mac – let you straight in. When you were in trouble, he kept you hanging outside in suspense. James sat between Gabrielle and Bruce. He was combed and deodorised, in his neatest set of CHERUB uniform: polished boots, army-green trousers and a navy T-shirt with the CHERUB logo embroidered on the front. The other two wore the same, except they were only entitled to wear grey T-shirts. Bruce had four red lines down his face where Kerry had clawed him.

Kerry might have forgiven Bruce, but Gabrielle wasn’t talking to him. James felt like he was on a tightrope. Every time he said something to one of them, the other one huffed as if he was siding against them. James realised it was easiest if he kept quiet.

They waited a good half hour before Mac finally leaned out of his doorway. He was in his sixties, with a neat grey beard and a Scottish accent.

‘Come on then,’ Mac said wearily. ‘Let’s sort you three out.’

James led the way towards Mac’s mahogany desk.

‘No, no, come and look at this,’ Mac said, heading towards an architectural model standing on a table by the window.

The kids stepped up to the model of a crescent-shaped building. It was a metre long, made entirely out of white plastic, with polystyrene trees and tiny white figures walking along paths outside.

‘What is it?’ James asked.

‘It’s our new mission preparation building,’ Mac said enthusiastically. ‘We’re turning those shabby offices on the eighth floor into extra living space and building this beauty to replace them. Over five thousand square metres of office space. Every big mission will have its own office, with new computers and equipment. We’ll have encrypted satellite links to our mission controllers all over the world, as well as to British Intelligence headquarters and the CIA and DOHS in America. This model just arrived from the architect’s office. Isn’t it fantastic?’

The kids nodded. Even if they’d hated it, they wouldn’t have wanted to get on Mac’s bad side by saying so. Mac treated CHERUB campus like his own personal Lego set. He was always having something built or knocked down.

‘It’s an eco-building,’ Mac enthused, lifting the plastic roof off so the kids could see the offices filled with miniature furniture inside. ‘Special glass retains the heat, so it stays warm in the winter. Solar panels on the roof power fans and heat the water.’

‘When’s it being built?’ Bruce asked.

‘It’s already being made in prefabricated sections in a factory in Austria,’ Mac said. ‘That way we can minimise the number of construction workers we have to let loose on campus. Once the concrete base is poured, the whole lot is bolted together in a few weeks. Fitting out the interior should be completed early in the New Year. You wouldn’t believe the amount of arm twisting I’ve had to do to secure the funding.’

‘It’s really cool,’ James said, hoping his enthusiasm would translate into a lighter punishment.

‘Anyway, I suppose I have to sort you three hooligans out,’ Mac said. He clearly would have preferred to go on about his new building for the rest of the afternoon. ‘Plant your bums at my desk.’

The three kids sat in the leather chairs opposite Mac. Mac leaned over his desk, interlocked his fingers and stared at them.

‘I’ve already spoken to Kerry,’ he said. ‘So what have you lot got to say for yourselves?’

‘It’s well unfair that me and Gabrielle got sent home,’ James said. ‘We were the ones who tried to break the fight up.’

He noticed Lauren and her best friend, Bethany, with their noses squished against the outside of the window behind Mac’s desk.

‘As I understand from Meryl Spencer,’ Mac said, ‘the four of you came back from a training exercise, went into your room and began taunting one another and bickering. Is that true?’

The kids gave a mix of shrugs and nods. Outside, Lauren and Bethany were sticking their tongues out and mouthing rude words.

‘As far as I’m concerned, that makes all four of you responsible for what happened,’ Mac said. ‘Gentle ribbing leads to teasing, which leads to nastiness and, as in this instance, it sometimes leads to violence and an eight-thousand-pound bill for an air ambulance. While each of you is serving your punishment, I want you to reflect that you’d all be enjoying another two weeks of holiday if you’d had the sense to behave decently towards one another instead of winding each other up. Is that understood?’

The three kids nodded. James hated how Mac’s way of twisting the facts around made him feel partly responsible for Kerry getting hurt. What made him even more annoyed was Lauren sticking a sheet of paper up to the window that said
 
JAMES SUCKS
 
in giant black letters. Gabrielle couldn’t stop herself smirking.

‘By way of punishments, I want the three of you to report to the head gardener after you finish lessons every afternoon. We don’t have enough staff to give the lawns the attention they deserve in the summer, but you guys putting in two hours’ mowing a day for the next month will certainly help.’

James groaned to himself. With extra fitness training in the mornings and mowing in the evenings, the next month was turning into a nightmare.

‘Any questions?’ Mac asked.

The kids shook their heads and stood up to leave.

‘And James,’ Mac said.

James turned back. ‘What?’

Mac raised a picture frame off his desk and turned it towards James. It showed Mac, standing with his wife, his six grown-up children and an ocean of little grandkids.

‘James, would you kindly inform your sister that the glass in this picture frame gives me a very good reflection of everything that’s going on outside my window. I want to see Lauren and Bethany in this office and you can tell them that they’ll be joining you on gardening duty for the rest of the week.’

5. SLEEP

TWO WEEKS LATER

James got up at 5.30 a.m., despite his whole body begging him to stay under the duvet. He put on his running kit and headed to the athletics track as the sun rose over campus. It took him an hour to run twenty-five laps: a distance of ten kilometres. He showered, then traded some homework with
Shakeel
over breakfast. Lessons went from 8.30 until 2.00, with half an hour for lunch. After lessons, there was Karate practice topped off with forty-five minutes’ circuit training. Boiling hot, James downed half a litre of orange juice and collected one of the ride-on mowers from the gardeners’ storeroom. It wasn’t hard driving the mower, but the sun was on him the whole time and the grass pollen made his eyes itch.

It was 6.15 p.m. by the time James got his first chance to relax. Dinner was a social event, with everyone mucking about and catching up on gossip. Most cherubs had done their homework before dinner and had the evening to themselves, but the mowing meant James hadn’t even got started. Homework was supposed to be two hours a day. Some teachers were decent. Others piled on so much work it took heaps longer.

When James got back to his room it was gone 7.00. He sat at his desk, spread out his textbooks and opened his homework diary. In the two weeks he’d been back on campus, James had acquired a backlog of homework that sucked up every second of his free time.

It was a warm evening, so James left his window open. A breeze clattered into the plastic slats of his blind. James’ eyes were gluey and the words in his textbook drifted out of shape. His head slumped on the desk and he dozed off before he’d written a word.

*

Kyle lived across the hall. He was nearly fifteen, but he wasn’t much bigger than James.

‘
Wakey wakey
,’ Kyle said, flicking James’ ear.

James’ head shot up from his desk. He opened his eyes, inhaled deeply and looked at his watch. It was gone ten o’clock.

‘OHHHHHH crap,’ James said, startled. ‘If I don’t get this history report done by tomorrow, I’m dead meat. It’s a two-thousand-word essay and I haven’t even read the chapters in the textbook.’

‘Get a deferral,’ Kyle said.

‘I’ve had a deferral, Kyle. And I’ve had a deferral of the deferral. I’ve got extra laps to run before school and mowing after. There aren’t enough hours in the day. I spent all day Sunday doing homework and I still keep getting further behind.’

‘You should speak to your handler.’

‘I tried,’ James said. ‘You know what Meryl said?’

‘What?’

‘She said, if I was so snowed under with work, how come I had time to spend sitting in her office whinging.’

Kyle laughed.

‘I swear, they’re trying to kill me,’ James moaned.

‘No,’ Kyle said. ‘They’re trying to instil a sense of discipline in you. After a month of being worked like a dog, maybe you’ll think twice about ignoring the rules next time. It’s your own stupid fault. All you had to do on holiday was keep in half reasonable shape and study the briefing for the hostage training. Everybody warned you. Me, Kerry, Meryl, Amy. But you always reckon you know better.’

James angrily swept his arm across his desk, shooting his books and pens on to the floor.

‘Good idea,’ Kyle grinned. ‘That’ll solve your problems.’

‘Spare me another lecture,’ James shouted. ‘I’m so knackered I can hardly keep my eyes open and I’m sick of everyone saying I told you so.’

‘What’s that report you’re doing?’ Kyle asked.

‘Two thousand words on the foundation of the British Intelligence Service and its role in the First World War.’

‘Interesting stuff,’ Kyle said.

‘I’d rather eat a bowl of snot,’ James said.

‘I might just be able to help you out, kiddo. I did that course two years ago. I’ve got my old notes and an essay in my room.’

‘Cheers, Kyle,’ James grinned. ‘You’re a lifesaver.’

‘Ten quid,’ Kyle said.

‘
What?
’ James gasped. ‘Some friend you are, trying to make money out of me when I’m at my lowest ebb.’

‘This essay is a beauty, James. Grade A material. The girl I nicked it off is now studying history at Harvard University in the States.’

‘Fiver,’ James said. He reckoned the essay was easily worth a fiver. He’d have to swap bits around and rewrite in his own handwriting, but that would take about an hour, whereas doing the essay from scratch was a whole night’s work.

‘You’re bleeding me dry,’ Kyle said, twisting his mouth as if he couldn’t make up his mind. ‘But I’m a little low on funds. You can have it for a fiver, if you give us the money right now.’

James went in his desk and got a fiver out of his cash box. Kyle stuffed it in his pocket.

‘This better be a good essay,’ James said.

‘Anyway,’ Kyle said, ‘I didn’t come here to help with your homework. I’m the senior agent on a big mission that’s coming up. We need three other kids. Me and
Ewart
Asker discussed it and you’re on the team if you want the gig.’

James wasn’t that enthusiastic.

‘I don’t want to work with
Ewart
as my mission controller again. He’s a psychopath.’

‘
Ewart
raves about you,’ Kyle said. ‘He thinks you did a great job on that anti-terrorist mission. Plus, this is a big team.
Ewart’s
wife will be there as well. She keeps him under her thumb.’

‘Who else is going?’ James asked.

‘Me, of course,’ Kyle said. ‘And Kerry. She’s walking with a stick, but they reckon she’ll be healed up before blast-off. There’s a vacancy for another girl. It was going to be Gabrielle, but she’s being held back for something in South Africa.’

‘Nicole
Eddison
,’ James said.

‘Who?’ Kyle asked.

‘You know her,’ James said. ‘She was on my basic training and quit after one day. She got her grey shirt at the second attempt. I think she’s done a couple of missions, but nothing major.’

‘I think I know who you mean,’ Kyle said. ‘Is it that girl with the huge chest you’re always going on about?’

‘She is
 
so
 
stacked,’ James grinned.

‘James,’ Kyle said, indignantly, ‘you can’t pick a girl for a mission because she has big breasts.’

‘Why not?’

‘Well, for starters, it’s unbelievably sexist.’

‘Come on, Kyle. Nicole’s a really good laugh. She’s in my Russian class and she’s always getting chucked out for messing around. And as long as Kerry doesn’t find out and kick my butt, who cares if it’s sexist or not?’

‘I’ll ask
Ewart
to put her name on the list of candidates,’ Kyle said, reluctantly. ‘But he’ll only pick her based on merit. The first mission briefing is tomorrow. There’s tons of background studying to do.’

‘Oh, great,’ James said. ‘When am I gonna get time to do that?’

‘Didn’t I mention?’ Kyle said innocently. ‘It’s been arranged with Meryl. You still have to do morning laps, but we’ve cut out some of your lessons and Mac has agreed to knock the mowing on the head.’