*
Two floors down James was sitting on the sofa in Kerry Chang’s room. He’d only been back on campus for two hours, during which time he’d managed a late lunch, a shower and a change into shorts and a CHERUB T-shirt.
Kerry smiled as she came out of her bathroom, towelling her long black hair, dressed in a matching white bra and knickers.
‘Third time lucky for us,’ James said. ‘That’s what I reckon.’
Kerry threw the towel back inside her bathroom as she sat on her bed. ‘So you never got up to anything on your mission?’
‘Nah,’ James shook his head. ‘Well, there was this girl Ashley, but she was just someone I made friends with and she was religious so I wouldn’t have got anywhere even if I’d wanted to.’
Kerry laughed and rubbed a hand against her duvet. ‘Why are you hiding over there on the sofa?’
James grinned as he stood up. ‘I feel like a drug addict. I’ve been cold turkey on Kerry Chang for almost two years, but now I’m about to start injecting again.’
Kerry burst out laughing. ‘So you’re saying I’m like a cheap fix?’
‘No,’ James grinned. ‘I’m saying you’re irresistible and highly addictive.’
‘Remember when we used to wrestle?’ Kerry said. ‘You used to get pissed off because I always won.’
‘I remember no such thing,’ James smirked. ‘Besides, back then I was only a few centimetres taller. Now I’m all butch and manly.’
Kerry thought this was hilarious. ‘Tell you what, big man,’ she grinned. ‘If you can pin me, you can do anything you like to me.’
James’ eyes boggled. ‘Does that include naked stuff?’
‘You’ve got to pin me first,’ Kerry said. ‘And of course, you’ve got to do whatever I want if you lose.’
‘You mean I’ll be your love slave?’ James checked.
Kerry smiled. ‘Is it a bet, or not?’
James had forgotten how playful Kerry could be and she looked really sexy, dressed just in her underwear.
‘Sure,’ James said. He was proud of his upper body so he ripped off his T-shirt and hurled it up in the air. ‘I won’t be needing that again for a couple of hours.’
Kerry got off her bed and dropped into a fighting stance, with James looming over her.
‘You really mean anything?’ James asked.
Kerry blew a kiss. ‘I’ll belong to you.’
‘Jesus Christ,’ James said excitably. He charged forward, trying to get Kerry around the waist. But she spun out of the way, hooked her foot around James’ trailing leg and tripped him over. Almost before James knew it, Kerry sat across his back with his neck in an agonising choke hold.
‘Same old, same old,’ Kerry said cheerfully. ‘All that bulk, but you still move like a geriatric snail.’
‘Christ,’ James gasped, as Kerry tightened the hold. ‘I can’t breathe.’
‘Do you know how much you hurt me when you dumped me?’ Kerry asked. ‘If you break my heart again James, I’ll break you.’
James had watched Kerry batter a man with a baseball bat while they were on work experience, so he knew what she was capable of.
‘I’m sorry,’ James whimpered. ‘For god’s sake. This really hurts.’
‘We might break up or fall out,’ Kerry continued. ‘That’s acceptable, but if you cheat on me again, you’re a dead man. So decide now whether you want to go out with me, but those are my terms.’
‘I’m more mature now,’ James whined. ‘Come on, let me go.’
‘Promise,’ Kerry said. ‘Or get the hell out of my room.’
‘OK, I promise,’ James said, then whooshed with relief as Kerry let his neck go. ‘Jesus, I’d forgotten how fast you are.’
Kerry laughed as she kissed the back of James’ neck and stood up. He rolled over and caught his breath as she stood astride him. James wondered if he was nuts to start going out with Kerry again, but as he looked up at smooth legs and swaying black hair he wanted her more than anything else in the world.
*
It was quarter past eight when Dante dragged a small mattress into his eighth-floor bedroom. His five-year-old sister Holly trailed behind. She had long red hair, wore CHERUB uniform and held a duvet which was bundled up so high that she could barely see over it.
‘How many nights can I stay in your room?’ Holly asked excitably, as Dante dropped the mattress on his floor.
‘You are such a worrier,’ Dante soothed. ‘Why don’t we just see how it goes? I expect you’ll want to go back with your friends in the junior block in a few days.’
‘If I have a bed in your room, and a bed in the junior block I can just sleep in whichever one I like,’ Holly suggested. ‘And you could come and sleep in my room sometimes.’
Dante smiled. ‘We’re going to the summer hostel in a few days, anyway.’
Holly threw her duvet out over the mattress, and grabbed the pyjamas that had been rolled inside as Dante lobbed a pillow at her head.
‘Oi!’ Holly giggled. ‘You hooligan.’
‘Do you need help getting undressed?’ Dante asked.
Holly looked at her brother like he was a Martian. ‘I’m five,’ she said indignantly.
‘Sorry,’ Dante said. ‘I haven’t seen you properly for ages. Last summer you got your giant head stuck every time you tried taking your shirt off.’
To prove her point, Holly deftly pulled off her T-shirt, then dropped her shorts and showed Dante the back of her leg. ‘See my bruises?’ she said proudly. ‘I got them at skiing.’
‘I’ve never been skiing,’ Dante said. ‘I’d probably be useless and crash.’
Holly laughed, making a noise like an explosion. ‘I could teach you,’ she said. ‘I’m the second best skier out of all the girls who hadn’t been before.’
Once Holly had her pyjamas on she went into the bathroom to brush her teeth. Dante had spent all the time since he arrived with Holly, so he used the break to grab his dirty laundry and dump it into his washing basket. Then he unpacked his PSP and some of his other things, until Holly came out and stood in front of him with her mouth open.
‘Clean?’ Holly asked, as she blew toothpasty breath over him.
Dante realised that this must be something the carers in the junior block did to make sure all the little kids were brushing properly. ‘Looks good to me,’ he smiled. ‘Come and sit on the bed for a minute. Let me show you this.’
As Holly jumped on the bed, Dante unrolled the photograph from the Brigands’ barbecue and pointed to the boy standing in the centre of the picture. ‘Do you know who that is?’ he asked.
Holly shook her head, but then put a hand over her mouth. ‘Was that you?’
‘Yep,’ Dante said, before pointing his finger up at Scotty. ‘And that’s your daddy.’
Holly had seen a couple of blurry police surveillance photographs of her father and nodded.
‘That’s your sister Lizzie sulking, your brother Jordan pulling a silly face and that’s our mum,’ Dante said. ‘And what do you think that tiny lump she’s holding is?’
Holly moved her head closer to the picture. ‘Me,’ she said, before smiling and resting her head on Dante’s shoulder. ‘But now it’s you and me and we both live at CHERUB.’
Dante gave his little sister a squeeze and kissed the top of her head.
‘I’m getting in bed,’ Holly yawned, almost headbutting Dante as she shot up and dived excitedly on to her mattress. ‘It’s really cool having my big brother back. We can do everything together when we get to the summer hostel.’
Dante flipped out his main light and lay across his bed watching Holly going to sleep. Every so often she’d open one eye and then giggle naughtily when Dante poked his tongue out at her. The photo lay on the bed and Dante couldn’t not look at the Führer. His mind drifted back to the night before and he tried figuring out why he hadn’t pulled the trigger.
Seeing the Führer’s flabby body through the crosshairs had transformed him from
the figure of doom who chased Dante through his nightmares into a middle-aged man who was only breathing because Dante had spared his life.
The mission had gone wrong and the Führer wasn’t behind bars. Maybe people like Chloe Blake and Ross Johnson would find a way to bring the Führer to justice. Maybe he’d rot in jail, maybe he’d meet a violent end at the hands of another biker, or maybe the Führer would die blissfully happy at the age of a hundred and five.
Dante thought about this and was shocked to realise that he no longer cared. As he watched Holly sleep, Dante understood that revenge wouldn’t have brought his family back. He hadn’t gone to the Führer’s house to kill him, he’d gone to say goodbye to his past.
EPILOGUE
The 2008 Rebel Tea Party marked the beginning of a major war, both within the Brigands and with rival gangs such as the Bitch Slappers, Satan’s Prodigy and Vengeful Bastards.
One of the first casualties was London chapter president SEALCLUBBER, who was found murdered in his London home. RALPH DONNINGTON (AKA THE FÜHRER) was questioned in connection with the killing and later replaced Sealclubber as the Brigands’ National President.
The Dutch Brigand and explosives expert JONAS HAARDEN (AKA DOODS) is still thought to be at large, possibly within the United Kingdom.
Ex-Brigand PAUL WOODHEAD was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for his role in weapons smuggling operations. Trawler captain JOHNNY RIGGS was sentenced to seven years. NIGEL CONNOR was sentenced to thirty months in a young offenders’ institution.
JULIAN HARGREAVES pleaded guilty to all weapons smuggling charges but was released unconditionally and praised by the trial judge for his bravery in coming forward to give evidence. Following a series of instances of vandalism and harassment against his family, Julian now attends a fee-paying school in London, while his father JONTY HARGREAVES has sold his apartment in Marina Heights.
Devon police say that these sentences and the seizure of the trawler Brixton Riots have had a significant effect on the Brigands’ ability to smuggle weapons into the United Kingdom.
MARTIN DONNINGTON continues to manage the Marina Heights crêpe stand. He has booked a round-theworld air ticket and hopes to have saved enough money to spend the whole of 2009 travelling the world.
His younger brother JOE DONNINGTON paired off with ANNA CONNOR after Dante and Lauren returned to campus.
In an internal police report, Chief Inspector ROSS JOHNSON was criticised for continuing the weapons purchase operation after the undercover role of Sergeant NEIL GAUCHE was unearthed and for the consequent loss of £316,000.
The role of CHERUB agents in the latter stages of the operation could not be revealed to the team that wrote the report. Johnson was saved from demotion following the personal intervention of CHERUB chairwoman Zara Asker.
Johnson continues to work with CHERUB mission controller CHLOE BLAKE with a view to staging another anti biker mission.
Neil Gauche’s attachment to the National Police Biker Task Force has now ended and he has returned to work as a detective in his native Leicestershire.
Ex-CHERUB agent and child psychologist JENNIFER MITCHUM is partially retired, but works part time on CHERUB campus studying the background of potential recruits and counselling agents who have returned from difficult missions.
CHERUB chairwoman ZARA ASKER gave birth to her third child, a boy, JONAH EWART ASKER.
In its report on the biker mission, the CHERUB Ethics Committee criticised JAKE McEWEN for his assault on the police officer, and his excessively violent interrogation of Julian Hargreaves. McEwen is slowly archiving five thousand files in the basement of the main building on CHERUB campus. Zara Asker has also sent him for anger management training.
JAMES ADAMS, LAUREN ADAMS and DANTE WELSH all flew off to the CHERUB summer hostel the week after they returned from their mission. James Adams and his Kawasaki ER5 remain on standby for a possible reprisal in the role of biker James Raven.
CHERUB: Shadow Wave
After a tsunami causes massive devastation to a tropical island, its governor sends in the bulldozers to knock down villages, replacing them with luxury hotels.
Guarding the corrupt governor’s family isn’t James Adams’ idea of the perfect mission, especially as it’s going to be his last as a CHERUB agent. And then retired colleague Kyle Blueman comes up with an unofficial and highly dangerous plan of his own.
James must choose between loyalty to CHERUB, and loyalty to his oldest friend.
Plus:
James gets back on his ER5 to tidy up unfinished business from Brigands M.C.
James and Kerry – how will it end?
James meets his dad.
Uncle Ron gets out of prison.
The final epilogue – find out what happens to all the major characters.
Get ready for James’ final adventure – Shadow Wave coming soon.
Read on for The Switch –
Callum and Connor star in a special
CHERUB bonus story!
CHERUB: THE SWITCH
Wednesday, 10.37 a.m.
‘So what’s with you two?’ Maureen Evans asked.
As an assistant mission controller Maureen didn’t get her own office, but her boss Chloe was working in Devon and wouldn’t be back any time soon. The two fourteen-year-olds facing her across Chloe’s desk were identical twins. Fair haired, slim, not bad looking.
Callum had been dragged away from a training exercise. He’d left muddy boots at the door, but still had beads of sweat streaking down his face and dark patches under the arms of his navy CHERUB shirt. Connor had been taken out of maths class, so his hair was carefully spiked and he wasn’t stinking up the room.
Neither twin said a word.
‘I’ve got a mission,’ Maureen explained. ‘We’ll need to make a fast switch. I don’t care what your personal problems are, I need to know if you can work together and I need the answer now.’
Connor broke the silence. ‘My problem is that my brother is a selfish, lying dickhead.’
Callum swelled up in his seat. ‘I’m a dickhead? You’re just pissed off because you struck out as usual.’
‘Just die,’ Connor shouted. ‘That girl was after me the whole time. You ripped me off.’
Maureen didn’t understand and didn’t particularly want to understand, but she needed the two lads for her mission. ‘Why don’t you both calm down and explain what happened?’
They spoke simultaneously:
‘This cheating turd—’
‘He’s a total scumbag, you can’t reason with him—’
Maureen took a breath, pointed at Connor and spoke firmly. ‘You first.’
Connor glowered at his brother as he began to explain. ‘We went to the bowling alley Saturday night. I got talking to this girl on the next lane. We were getting along great. Eating my nachos, joking about and stuff. But I offered to buy the girl a coke, then realised I didn’t have any money. Tight-wad here wouldn’t lend me a cent—’
Callum interrupted. ‘You always borrow money and never pay me back. You owe me about thirty quid.’
Connor stood up and yelped indignantly. ‘I owe you money,’ he gasped. ‘You’re the one who borrowed fifty euros when we were at summer hostel, and what about my G-Star jeans that you’ve had for three months?’
Callum stood up and the twins went eyeball to eyeball. ‘You said I could have those jeans, so don’t give me that shit. And you wore my leather jacket for months and brought it back with the pocket hanging off.’
‘Sit down,’ Maureen shouted. She pointed at Callum. ‘You can have your say when he’s finished his story.’
The twins made identical sighs as they settled back into their chairs. Maureen smiled at how they sat forwards with their ankles crossed: they acted the same even when they hated each other.
‘Please continue your fascinating story, Connor,’ Maureen said.
‘Typical, take his side,’ Callum moaned, as he slumped in the chair and tipped his hea
d back.
‘Callum wouldn’t lend me shit, so I went off to find Mo, who was playing a few lanes over. Then I went off to get the cokes. There was a mega queue, so I was gone for ages and when I get back this piece of work is sitting with my girl, hands up her shirt and tongue down her neck.’
Maureen stifled a smile.
‘She thought you’d ditched her,’ Callum explained. ‘I just wandered over and she started being really friendly.’
‘She thought you were me,’ Connor yelled, standing up again. ‘Don’t act all innocent. You saw me chatting her up for over half an hour. What you did was low and doing it to your own twin was lower than low.’
The boys were out of their seats again. Connor bunched his fist, but Callum got the first punch in, going for the head but only managing to glance his brother across the shoulder. As Connor stumbled backwards and tripped over his chair, Maureen threw herself into harm’s way and got caught painfully in the thigh by Callum’s swinging boot.
‘Pack it in,’ she yelled.
The twins both looked shocked. Kicking a member of CHERUB staff, even if you weren’t aiming at her, could land you in serious trouble. The pain made Maureen furious as she hobbled backwards towards the desk, but she needed the boys working together on a mission, not running punishment laps.
‘Right,’ Maureen yelled, wagging an index finger fitted with two huge gold rings. ‘You boys now have two choices. First choice: I march you over to Zara’s office, tell her what just happened here and you two will find yourself in very deep doo-doo.’
‘What did I do?’ Connor shouted indignantly. ‘Callum booted you.’
‘Shut your mouth,’ Maureen yelled, as she gave Connor her sternest don’t mess with me face. ‘I’ll make sure there’s plenty of trouble for both of you,’ she explained. ‘Your second choice is to sit back in those chairs, agree to take the mission, you act nicey nice for the next twenty-four hours and we forget this incident ever happened.’