Brigands M. C. (12 page)

The red-shirt boy stood up. ‘It wasn’t my fault, Mrs. I didn’t even start it. I was just …’

Zara interrupted. ‘Jake, it’s your lucky day. The chairman is sick, so go back to your lesson and try
behaving
for once.’

Jake nodded sheepishly. ‘I thought you’d left until after your baby was born.’

Zara smiled and rested both hands on her belly. ‘He’s in no rush to come out. I’m in for a couple of hours to show these two orange shirts around. Now scram.’

She turned back to Lauren and Dante as Jake ran off. ‘He’s a terror, that one,’ Zara said, smiling through gritted teeth. ‘Now I expect you’re wondering exactly where you are.’

‘Can I see my brother?’ Lauren asked.

‘Now that’s
slightly
complicated,’ Zara said. ‘He’s in basic training. You can go and watch him, but you won’t be able to speak to him at the moment.’

‘What’s basic training?’ Dante asked.

‘I tell you what,’ Zara said. ‘Rather than answer odd questions here and there, how about I take you on a tour of CHERUB campus and explain exactly who we are and what we do?’

Lauren and Dante nodded. Zara led them out of the main entrance and down five steps. In the gravel outside was a fountain. The sculpture inside it had a three dimensional version of the baby on a globe depicted on their T-shirts. Three small electric carts were parked alongside.

‘I can’t fit behind the steering wheel,’ Zara said. ‘Would one of you mind driving? It’s not hard.’

Dante got excited as he sat behind the steering wheel. The controls were simple: a lever switched between forward and reverse and two foot pedals for accelerating and braking.

‘They can go quite fast, but keep it below ten miles an hour because there are lots of kids running around,’ Zara said as she squeezed into the front passenger seat. Lauren hopped into the back seat and Dante jabbed the accelerator pedal.

‘We’ve just left the main building,’ Zara explained, as the little buggy drove slowly around the fountain and on to a gravel path. ‘It’s where all CHERUB agents eat; it’s also where many of our staff live, along with the older agents. There are administrative offices, an archive in the basement and our mission control centre up on the top floor.’

Lauren looked curiously towards the roof. ‘Mission control,’ she repeated. ‘That sounds like NASA or something.’

Zara laughed, but then they went quite hard over a bump and she told Dante to drive more slowly and take the next left on to the main path that led through the centre of campus.

‘We don’t launch rockets,’ she explained. ‘Our missions are the undercover variety. CHERUB agents are trained spies aged between ten and seventeen.’

Dante glanced at Zara’s face to see if she was being serious. Apparently she was.

‘Why?’ Lauren asked. ‘What’s the point of using kids as spies?’

‘Turn right again,’ Zara said. As she continued, the buggy passed around the side of the main building. After a dense copse of trees they broke out into a clear December day. There were tennis courts alongside and a view over most of CHERUB campus, including rugby and football pitches, a dozen or so buildings ranging from storage sheds to a medieval chapel. In the far distance was a lake, beyond which lay dense woodland.

‘We use kids as spies because nobody suspects them,’ Zara explained. ‘The example Mac always uses is of a grown man knocking on an old lady’s door in the middle of the night. Most people would be suspicious. If he asked to come inside, the lady would say no. If the man claimed to be sick she’d probably call an ambulance but still wouldn’t let him in.

‘Now imagine the old dear answers the door and it’s a young boy, crying.
My dad’s car crashed. I think he’s dying. Please help me
. The old lady opens the door. The man jumps out of hiding, bops her on the head, goes inside and robs the place. Terrorists and criminals have been using tricks like this for years. CHERUB turns the tables and uses the same techniques to catch them.’

Dante smiled. ‘So kids are actually better at being criminals or spies than grown-ups.’

‘In many respects, yes,’ Zara said. ‘Because people don’t suspect them.’

She pointed over her right shoulder. ‘That’s our swimming and diving pool complex. Do either of you like swimming?’

Lauren and Dante both nodded.

‘I never get to go swimming though,’ Lauren said. ‘My mum got embarrassed because she was overweight and my brother James is a total wuss. He turns green and says he’s gonna puke if you even go near a swimming pool.’

Zara nodded. ‘James had to learn to swim before he could start basic training. I wasn’t involved myself, but I understand he only passed the swimming test in the nick of time.’

Lauren was aghast. ‘James can
swim
? That’s practically a miracle.’

Dante cut the speed as the buggy splashed through a couple of inches of water alongside a football pitch. Exhausted looking teenagers were running through the mud, doing shuttle runs while carrying fifteen-kilogram weight discs high above their heads. All the while a female instructor screamed abuse at them.

‘We have strict discipline here,’ Zara explained, as they watched the training. ‘That lot smuggled eighty cans of beer on to campus, held a wild party and then tested positive for marijuana the following Monday. We have a zero tolerance policy for all illegal drugs.’

‘So what’s the deal?’ Lauren asked. ‘Are we being asked to join CHERUB or what?’

‘That’s it exactly,’ Zara said. ‘The circumstances that brought you here are slightly different, but Jennifer Mitchum has given both of you a preliminary assessment and we think you both stand a good chance of qualifying as CHERUB agents.’

‘Why’s that?’ Dante asked.

‘Agents have to be exceptional in all areas,’ Zara explained. ‘Physically strong, emotionally mature and of well-above average intelligence. You both have potential, but I’m sure you’ll also have shortcomings. If you choose to join CHERUB …’

Lauren interrupted. ‘So it’s our choice?’

‘Absolutely,’ Zara said. ‘I know you were brought here without your knowledge, but that’s only because our location is a secret. If you’re not interested in becoming a spy and living on campus, all you have to do is tell us and we’ll drop you home.’

‘But isn’t this place a massive secret?’ Dante asked. ‘I mean, once you’ve told us we could blab to anyone.’

‘Who would believe you though?’ Zara pointed out. ‘You don’t know where we are. You won’t be able to prove anything. In fact, you probably ought to be careful because if you start telling people about being recruited by a secret spying organisation, people are likely to think you’ve gone mental.

‘Anyway, going back to what I was saying before. We believe that you both have the potential to become CHERUB agents. However, before you reach that stage we have to iron out all your flaws. We’ll work on your fitness levels, we’ll start you off with intensive language and combat courses. You’ll be astonished at what our training can help you to achieve, but I’m not going to pretend that it’s for everyone. Becoming a CHERUB agent is probably the toughest thing you’ll ever do – Dante, next left into the trees and keep the speed down. The road up to the basic training compound is bumpy, and I don’t fancy going into an early labour.’

‘Have you got any other kids?’ Dante asked, as he steered the buggy on to a narrow path between the trees.

Zara shook her head. ‘Joshua will be my first and after
this
pregnancy my last.’

Lauren smiled. ‘So you’ve named him already?’

‘Yes,’ Zara said. ‘My husband Ewart and I both liked the name. He’s been Joshua since the day we found out he was a boy.’

‘So you said my brother’s in basic training,’ Lauren said. ‘How does that work?’

‘Careful, Dante!’ Zara said urgently, as the buggy clattered into branches at the side of the path. ‘Ten mph, no faster.’

Dante enjoyed driving the buggy. It reminded him of what Ross’ daughter Tina had said after he’d woken in the night: about how his life would go on and how he’d be able to do special things that would have made his parents happy.

Zara continued her explanation. ‘Anyone over ten years old who’s reached the required fitness level will go into basic training. It’s a one-hundred-day course and the idea is that your mind and body are pushed to the limits every minute of every day. Once you pass you’ve earned your grey CHERUB T-shirt and you’ll be qualified to go on undercover missions.

‘If we stop here we should be able to see the trainees doing their morning combat session through the fence.’

Dante stopped the electric cart. After he’d helped Zara out of the buggy, she led the trio over muddy ground. They ended up behind some bushes, with the mesh fence around the training compound in front of them.

‘Keep your voices down,’ Zara whispered, as she glanced at her watch.

Thirty metres away stood a massive fellow with a bristly moustache and a white CHERUB T-shirt stretched over vast muscles. In front of him stood six trainees. They wore light blue shirts with numbers on the back, but you could barely read them because they were so muddy. The kids had bare feet and the giant instructor had them all in a line, endlessly repeating a complicated combo of four Karate moves.

‘That’s Norman Large,’ Zara explained. ‘He’s not exactly the most loved member of campus staff amongst you kids, but he does a
bloody
good job of turning out highly trained agents.’

It took Lauren several seconds to recognise her twelveyear-old brother. Not only was James filthy, but his blond hair had been shaved down to a number one and he had a dirty bandage over a wound on his cheek. He’d lost a lot of puppy fat since the last time Lauren saw him and she was impressed by the way he strung together the rapid sequence of Karate moves.

‘Partners, sparring,’ Large shouted.

‘Which one’s your brother?’ Dante whispered as the trainees split into three pairs.

‘In the middle,’ Lauren said. ‘Squaring up to the little Asian girl.’

‘That’s hardly fair,’ Dante noticed. ‘He’s miles bigger.’

‘That’s Kerry,’ Zara explained. ‘And I wouldn’t worry on her behalf.’

Zara didn’t need to explain her remark because Instructor Large blew his whistle for the sparring to begin. Lauren watched aghast as Kerry ducked below her brother’s clumsy kick, then drove her body upwards, lifting James off the ground, throwing him over her back and dumping him in the mud. Kerry then jammed her heel between James’ shoulders and ruthlessly wrenched his arm into a painful lock.

Lauren clutched her hand over her mouth in awe as James moaned in pain and thumped on the mud in submission.

‘That Kerry girl is awesome!’ Dante said. ‘She could be a pro wrestler with skills like that.’

Zara smiled at Dante. ‘I heard that you liked wrestling and who knows? With the skills you learn here, maybe you could be a pro wrestler some day.’

As the six trainees started a second round of sparring, Dante stepped back from the fence and broke into a relieved smile. For the first time since the night his parents died, he felt like he had some kind of future without them.

After their tour of campus, Zara took Dante and Lauren into the dining-room for a very late breakfast. The space was big enough to seat three hundred around its maple-topped tables. There were serving areas and trays for mealtimes, but agents and staff came and went at odd hours so fresh cooked food could be ordered at any time, day or night.

Hands were cold after the ride in the open cart, so Lauren and Zara warmed themselves with soup and freshly baked bread, while Dante went for a hot turkey and bacon baguette which he opened up and drenched with three sachets of ketchup.

Dante was keen to join CHERUB, Lauren less so.

‘Training and fighting in mud,’ she said warily as she broke off a piece of warm bread. ‘I’m not a skirts-and-glitter type, but that training looked mental.’

‘It’s tough,’ Dante nodded. ‘But when your brother finishes basic training he’s gonna be rock hard. Like, he can just walk into a room and beat the crap out of anyone he wants to.’

‘James is training to defend himself, Dante,’ Zara smiled. ‘And Lauren, we’re not suggesting that you make an absolute commitment to becoming an agent today. I’d suggest that you agree to move here on a trial basis and see how you settle in. You’ll start off with regular lessons, along with beginners’ fitness training and combat programmes. You’re not the first girl who’s seen what goes on here and baulked, but once you’ve settled in and made friends I expect you’ll be much more relaxed about it. And if you decide not to stay, we’ll find you a foster home and you can still be near your brother.’

‘If I join, what happens about Holly?’ Dante asked.

‘Holly can grow up on campus,’ Zara explained. ‘We have an excellent nursery unit and you’ll be able to see her every day. At four we’ll start her off with some combat and language training. At ten, she’ll be able to make her own decision about entering basic training and becoming an agent.’

‘What if one of us doesn’t pass basic training?’ Lauren asked. ‘Or if my brother doesn’t pass?’

Zara shifted awkwardly in her chair. ‘Sometimes it takes two or three attempts, but it’s rare for someone to fail basic training completely. We can’t plan for every possible outcome, but we have had situations where one sibling has become a CHERUB agent while another lives with a foster family near to campus.