Man vs. Beast

  ‘I’m afraid I can’t reveal details until immediately before the operation, but I’ll be frank with both of you. The operation we’re planning is a huge gamble. I’m confident that my plan will work, but I’m not going to sugar-coat the risks: if either of you are caught, the chances are that you’ll be charged under anti-terrorism laws and go to prison for many years. You’re both extremely young – are you really comfortable with that possibility?’

  Kyle shrugged uneasily. ‘No smoke without fire, I guess.’

  ‘Are Tom and Viv going to be involved?’ James asked.

  Jo nodded. ‘They’ve both agreed to work with us.’

  ‘I’m in if Tom and Viv are,’ Kyle said.

  Jo smiled. ‘It’s good that you’re both enthusiastic. But when you’re planning a complex operation, every member of the team must show absolute commitment. The only way I can be confident that you won’t back out under stress is if your abilities are put to the test.’

  ‘Tested how?’ James asked.

  ‘If you accept the invitation to join our group, we’ll assign you an operation to carry out with Tom and Viv. The task we set will be risky, but straightforward. If you perform it successfully, you’ll be considered a paid-up member of our group and you might even get to see our faces.’

  ‘Sounds fair,’ James said.

  ‘So, do you tell us about our operation now, or what?’ Kyle asked.

  Jo shook her head. ‘My colleagues will drive you back into town and you can expect to hear from us at some time within the next couple of weeks. I want you both to think seriously about what we’re asking you to do.

  ‘If you have any doubts, just say the word and you can walk. But once you’ve made a commitment to our group, I expect it to be absolute. If one of you chickens out and ruins a major operation, we might have no option but to kill you in order to maintain security. Is that understood?’

  James and Kyle both nodded.

  ‘Shall we take ’em back to the van?’ one of the other women asked.

  Jo nodded, but suddenly changed her mind. She stepped forwards and pointed the gun at James’ black school trainers. ‘Are they leather?’ she asked accusingly.

  ‘Yeah, my mum’s always been veggie, but we only went vegan when we moved in with Ryan.’

  Jo shook her head with contempt. ‘If I see you walking around with bits of dead cow on your feet again, I’ll shoot your bloody toes off.’

  24. DEBRIEF

  Zara phoned Lauren on the bus from school and told her not to bring Stuart home that afternoon. Meatball greeted Lauren in the hallway, barking and wagging his tail, but the little dog found himself shunned as she rushed through to the kitchen to find the cause of all the excitement.

  ‘Unbelievable,’ Lauren grinned, once the day’s events had been explained. Then her face dropped. ‘Pity I’m not involved in any of this.’

  James, Kyle and Zara were leaning over the kitchen table. They’d spread out a 40 Miles Around Bristol map and the boys had made some educated guesses about where they might have been driven to, based upon the turns they’d taken, the types of road and the amount of time they’d been inside the van.

  The trouble was, Bristol is the intersection point of the M4 and M5 and a network of minor motorways that lead traffic across the bridges into Wales. They’d realised that the van could easily have branched off on a slip road and doubled back without the boys noticing, so the only real certainty was that they couldn’t have made it much farther than thirty kilometres from the centre of Bristol during the twenty-five- minute ride.

  ‘Did you get the numberplate of the van?’ Lauren asked.

  ‘Course,’ James said.

  ‘Maybe some of the motorway surveillance cameras picked it up,’ Lauren suggested.

  Zara nodded. ‘We can run the police recordings through our numberplate recognition software, but we have to put in an official request through the proper MI5 channels. It’ll take two or three days to get any result and it’s far from foolproof, especially in the kind of nose to tail traffic you get around here.’

  ‘Those girls knew what they were doing,’ James said. ‘The numberplate is the most obvious way to track them down, so I’d bet my left nut that the van was wearing falsies and they probably changed them again as soon as they dropped me and Kyle off.’

  ‘The building you boys described was quite distinctive,’ Zara said. ‘It was modern and it was out of use. I’ll get one of my research assistants on campus to call up the commercial estate agents and see if they’ve got any buildings that fit your description on their books. If that fails, they can take a trip around the local council offices and start working through the planning applications for anything like that built in the last ten years or so.’

  ‘How long will that take?’ Lauren asked.

  Zara shrugged. ‘Days, maybe even weeks. I think things are going to progress too quickly for the information to be of much use, but you can never be sure.’

  James looked at his sister. ‘Did we tell you why Jo pointed the gun at us?’

  Lauren shook her head.

  ‘She said it was because one of their associates had overheard you telling someone that me and Kyle were Karate black belts.’

  ‘Oooh,’ Lauren said, intrigued. ‘It must be someone I’ve spoken to up by the Malarek gates. But who out of that whole flask and sandwiches crowd is gonna be involved with radicals?’

  ‘The more time you spend hanging around them, the more chance that you might get to find out,’ Zara said. ‘And it goes to show: just because your part of the mission isn’t the most glamorous, it doesn’t mean you should go around moaning that it’s a waste of time.’

  ‘What fun,’ Lauren smirked. ‘But if I hear one more story about prostate surgery, or if one more old dear tells me what a lovely little girl I am …’

  ‘It’s not all good news,’ James said. ‘I know we’re making progress, but I reckon we should be worried. We’ve got no idea about the people we’ve been asked to work for. We don’t know when we’re gonna be asked to take this test, or what it’s going to involve. I mean, for all we know they’re gonna ask us to batter someone, or worse.’

  Kyle nodded. ‘And if Viv’s with us, things could easily get out of hand.’

  James looked gloomy at the prospect of working with Viv. ‘That guy puts the shits up me. Even if we’re asked to do something straightforward, it could end up ten times worse with that nut on the scene.’

  Zara looked pensive. ‘It’s a sliding scale,’ she said. ‘I mean, if they ask you to kill someone then you’ve obviously got to pull the plug. If smashing windows and graffiti can get you accepted into the core of this mystery group, then you obviously do it. The trouble is, there’s a grey area in between those two extremes. You’ll just have to use your best judgement as the situation unfolds.’

  ‘With luck it might even be a bluff,’ Lauren said. ‘Remember when James and Kerry were on that drugs mission? They got sent off to deliver cocaine, but it turned out to be harmless white powder.’

  Kyle nodded. ‘Let’s hope so, eh?’

  *

  James’ head of year was an Aussie-born PE teacher called Mr Snow. He bounded around the school in shorts, showing off his giant smile and hairy legs. He was the type of teacher who girls fall in love with and boys think is a git. James and Zara had an appointment to see him first thing on Tuesday morning.

  ‘You’ve been at this school for barely a month,’ Snow said, leaning across his desk and steepling his fingers. ‘Two instances of truancy in such a short time period is wholly unacceptable.’

  James didn’t give a damn, because Zara was fine about everything. But they had to keep up the pretence of being a normal family to maintain their cover.

  ‘James has had a lot of difficulty settling in around the village,’ Zara explained. ‘And he did get a call from his older brother yesterday, who was having a girlfriend crisis.’

  Mr Snow gave an I know better grin. ‘Mobile phone
s must be switched off during lessons at this school – or any other school I’ve ever heard of. If there’s a reason for you to leave class on an urgent matter, the correct procedure is for someone to ring the school secretary, who will fetch you from your class. The secretary will then speak to a senior member of the teaching staff and obtain the necessary authorisation for you to leave school. Is that clear James?’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ James nodded.

  ‘I know that you’re new here and I appreciate that everyone encounters difficulties settling in. But, we have a zero tolerance policy on bunking off and I can’t allow the other pupils in your class to see you behaving like this and getting away scot-free. Therefore, I’m proposing that you be suspended from lessons for the remaining three days of the summer term.’

  James worked hard not to grin. He’d feared detentions, but suspension was perfect. Especially when the weather was so nice.

  ‘Hopefully you’ll come back in September with a better attitude. Year Ten marks the start of your GCSEs and it goes without saying that it will be a very important year for your education.’

  James grinned wildly as he headed out towards the school car park with Zara. He ripped off his tie and helicoptered it around his head. There was a slight chance he’d have to go back to school if the mission dragged on for another seven weeks, but that looked unlikely.

  ‘Lauren’s got three more days of school,’ James gloated. ‘She’ll go nuts when she finds out I’m suspended.’

  ‘Try looking less happy and a bit more like an ordinary kid who just got in serious trouble,’ Zara said wearily. She liked James, but found him irritatingly full of himself at times.

  James realised Zara was right and stopped messing about, but they’d almost reached the people carrier by then anyway.

  As they drove home, Zara’s mobile rang. She looked for it on the centre console, before realising that it was inside the linen jacket she’d thrown into the middle row of seats.

  ‘Grab that for us, will you,’ she said to James, who sat next to her.

  James reached between the seats and grabbed the phone. It had been ringing for ages by this time, so he thought he’d better answer.

  ‘Zara’s phone.’

  It was her husband, Ewart.

  ‘Hang on,’ Zara said, as she grabbed the handset. ‘I’m stopping the car.’

  She didn’t like talking and driving and pulled up at the side of the lane.

  ‘Oh you got it,’ Zara said, a quiver coming into her voice. ‘So is it good news or what … Yes, idiot head, of course I want you to open the envelope.’

  James was intrigued by the drama, even though he had no clue what Zara was talking about.

  ‘My god, I don’t believe it,’ Zara gasped. ‘Oh yes.’

  James was shocked to see her bouncing up and down in her seat as a tear welled up in her eye. ‘I never thought I stood a chance at my age and with two kids under five … So when is it?’

  The call went on for another minute and ended with Zara and Ewart exchanging I love yous.

  ‘Are you pregnant again?’ James asked, as he handed Zara one of the tissues in the glovebox to dab her eyes.

  Zara giggled and sniffed at the same time. ‘No. Well … I suppose you deserve an explanation after that display, but please don’t spread it around campus. Not even to Kyle and Lauren, in fact.’

  James tried to look cool as he nodded, but he was bursting to know Zara’s secret.

  ‘Remember when I went up to campus, the day Meatball was rescued?’

  ‘Yeah, for a senior staff meeting or something.’

  ‘Well, that was a little white lie,’ Zara grinned. ‘It was a job interview.’

  ‘Job interview?’

  ‘I wasn’t going to apply. There are quite a few strong applicants and I thought I was too young and having two young children would count against me. But Ewart prodded me into it and said it would be good experience, if nothing else …’

  James got the horrible feeling that Zara would be leaving CHERUB before he made the link between Zara applying for a job and the one job he knew was about to become vacant.

  ‘Are you the new chairman of CHERUB?’ he gasped.

  ‘Not yet,’ Zara grinned. ‘They interviewed eight applicants. Ewart called to tell me that I’ve made the final shortlist of two. I’ve got to go to London next Tuesday for an interview at Number Ten.’

  ‘Downing Street?’

  Zara nodded. ‘The final interview takes place with a panel of three: Dr McAfferty, the Prime Minister and the intelligence services minister.’

  James was happy for his favourite CHERUB staff member. ‘I can’t believe you managed to keep it under your hat for so long,’ he grinned. ‘I really hope you get the job. Who’s the other candidate?’

  Zara squirmed a little. ‘Well, that’s the trouble. He’s called Geoff Cox. He’s an outsider with no CHERUB experience, but he’s much better qualified than me. He’s in his fifties; he worked as an intelligence operative in the 1970s and then left to become a teacher. He’s spent the last seven years as headmaster at one of London’s nuttier comprehensives, turning it from a sink school into a science and technology academy with some of the best exam results in the country.’

  ‘Sounds like an idiot,’ James said, waving his hand dismissively. ‘I’d vote for you.’

  ‘Most people would probably regard me as the underdog, James. But you never know. I didn’t even think I’d make it on to the final shortlist.’

  ‘This is so cool, Zara. The only thing is, I’m gonna be lying awake in suspense, wondering if you’re gonna get the job.’

  Zara burst out laughing. ‘You’ll be losing sleep, James. How the blazes do you think I feel?’

  25. CALL

  Lauren sat in the living-room dressed in her nightshirt. She had a bowl of cereal in her hands and wasn’t paying attention to the lame Saturday morning kids’ show on the TV. Meatball sat on the cushion beside her, half asleep. She didn’t notice James and Kyle sneaking a glance at her through the front window, or hear them creeping in the back door and stripping off their shorts, socks and T-shirts in the hallway outside.

  She flew half a metre into the air as the boys burst in and bombarded her with balled-up running kit. Her breakfast bowl tipped over as she ducked to avoid James’ trainer sock and Kyle’s shorts.

  ‘Don’t do that,’ Lauren scolded, standing up and staring at the giant circle of milk soaking into her nightshirt. ‘You idiots.’

  James cracked up laughing. ‘The look on your face was classic.’

  Meatball thought that chasing after flying clothes was a great game and came charging across the floor. But he ran headfirst into a running vest dangling over the arm of the sofa and got his front legs caught up in the neck hole. Kyle laughed as he crouched down and untangled the dog.

  ‘You two,’ Lauren said, folding her arms angrily but smiling at the same time. ‘I’m trying to have a quiet Saturday morning doss here. Now I’m soaked.’

  ‘Ahh,’ James said, putting on a baby voice. ‘I know my little sister-poos can’t stay angry at big brother James. Come on, giss a kiss.’

  ‘Don’t you dare, James,’ Lauren snapped, putting her arms out to stop him. ‘You stink, of BO.’

  James thought his sister might really blow up if he went through with the kiss, so he backed off and started gathering up the items spread across the floor.

  ‘How was the run?’ Lauren asked.

  ‘Good,’ Kyle nodded. ‘We did about seven Ks, right around the Malarek compound, out through the fields then we sprinted the last bit, back through the new part of the village.’

  ‘Stuart’s trousers are still up in that tree,’ James added.

  ‘You should have come with us,’ Kyle said. ‘It’s amazing how fast your fitness drops off when you’re on a mission and you’re not training regularly.’

  ‘Yeah,’ James nodded. ‘Believe me, you don’t want to get put on an emergency fitness plan when you get back
to campus. You know what psychos the instructors are.’

  ‘I know,’ Lauren nodded. ‘But unlike you two skiving gits, I’ve been at school all week. I reckon I deserve one morning of TV and Coco Pops.’

  ‘Next time?’ Kyle asked.

  ‘Sure,’ Lauren nodded. ‘Oh, Kyle,’ she added, ‘I could hear your phone ringing when I was on the loo. You’d better check your messages.’

  ‘Right, cheers,’ Kyle said. ‘You might as well take the first shower, James. I’ll see who called.’

  As James grabbed a towel out of the cupboard at the top of the stairs and locked himself in the bathroom, Kyle cut into his bedroom, stepped over James’ mess and grabbed his mobile off the window ledge.

  He’d missed two calls from Tom. He hoped they might be an invite to go see a film or something later on, but as his phone returned the call something dawned on him: Tom and Viv lived the bachelor lifestyle, partying into the small hours and never surfacing before noon on weekends.

  ‘Kyle, baby,’ Tom said exuberantly.

  ‘You must have had a call from our terrorist friends,’ Kyle said.

  ‘How’d you know?’

  ‘Your first missed call was at nine forty-three. You’re not usually conscious at that hour, let alone making phone calls.’

  Tom sounded worried. ‘She gave me instructions, but there’s an almighty spanner in the works. Viv took Sophie out to some new vegan restaurant in town. He’s been up and down all night with gutache and he keeps getting the shivers.’

  ‘Did you say that to the person who called?’

  ‘Yeah and she chewed my ear off: We expect results not excuses. If you can’t work your way around a simple operational difficulty then our organisation has no use for you. Then she slammed the phone down.’

  Kyle was relieved that Viv was in no state to come along, but he couldn’t say that to Tom. ‘Well me and James just went out for a run, so we’re both in good shape. What else did she say?’

  ‘Not much, you know how cautious they are. The call lasted under a minute. She told us to head up to Rigsworth services on the M5. We’ve got to get there by six this evening and head into the buffet area.’