CHERUB: The Recruit (23 page)

James slumped on Kerry’s bed.

‘You sound exactly like Meryl Spencer, my handler. I can’t believe you’re happy about all this work.’

‘It’s not much more than I had as a red shirt.’

‘I wish I’d never come here.’

‘Stop being a drama queen,’ Kerry said. ‘CHERUB gives you a great education and a cool place to live. When you leave here you’ll speak two or three languages, have qualifications coming out of your ears, and be set for life. Think where you’d be now if you hadn’t come here.’

‘OK,’ James said. ‘My life was down the toilet. But I hate school. It’s so boring I want to smash my head up against the wall half the time.’

‘You’re lazy, James. You want to sit in your room with your stupid Playstation going blip, blip, all day. You said yourself you were gonna end up in prison the way you were carrying on. If you get bored in a classroom, how would you like eighteen hours a day in a cell? And take those filthy boots off my bed before I bust your head open.’

James put his feet down.

‘Playstation is not a waste of time,’ he said.

‘You want the best reason why you should work hard?’

‘What?’

‘Lauren. She loves you. If you do good, she’ll do good. If you muck up and get thrown out, she’ll have to make a choice between staying with you and staying at CHERUB.’

‘Stop being right,’ James said. ‘Everyone in this place is clever, level-headed, and I’m always wrong. I hate all of you.’

Kerry started laughing.

‘It’s not funny,’ James said, starting to smile.

Kerry sat beside him on the bed.

‘You’ll get used to it here, James.’

‘You’re right about Lauren,’ James said. ‘I have to think about her.’

Kerry moved a bit closer and rested her head on James’ shoulder.

‘Beneath that dumb exterior you’re a good person,’ Kerry said.

‘Thanks,’ James said. ‘So are you.’

James put his arm round Kerry’s shoulders. It felt like the natural thing to do, but two seconds after he did it his brain was spinning. What did this mean? Did he want Kerry to be his girlfriend, or was it just that they’d been through so much together in training? He’d showered with her and slept next to her, but until training ended James had barely noticed that Kerry was a girl. Not a dream girl like Amy, but not bad either. He thought about kissing her cheek, but chickened out.

‘The room looks nice,’ James said, scratching for something to say. ‘All your pictures and stuff. I’ll have to get some. My walls are white.’

‘I was thinking,’ Kerry said. ‘We should renegotiate our deal.’

James had avoided Kerry for two days, hoping she’d forget.

‘How?’ he asked.

‘Friday night,’ Kerry said. ‘Take me to the cinema. I pick the movie. You pay the bus fare, the cinema tickets, hot dogs, popcorn, Pepsi and whatever else I want.’

‘That’s gonna be easily twenty quid for the two of us,’ James said.

‘That kid you’re friendly with, Bruce.’

‘What about him?’

‘He broke his leg once,’ Kerry said. ‘When we were eight.’

‘He said it broke in nine places.’

‘He exaggerates. I only broke it in seven places.’

‘You?’ James said.

‘Snapped it like a twig. Kicked him in the head for luck.’

‘OK,’ James said. ‘Cinema, my treat.’

*

Kyle arrived back from a mission Friday morning with sunburn and a sack-load of fake designer gear. James followed Kyle into his room. It was freakishly neat. Even inside the wardrobe Kyle’s clothes were all in dry cleaner’s bags, above a row of boots and trainers with shoe trees in them.

‘Philippines,’ Kyle said. ‘I’m back in Mac’s good books.’

‘What happened?’ James asked.

‘Confidential. Here, these were supposed to make you feel better when you got kicked out of training.’

Kyle tossed over a pair of fake Ray Ban sunglasses. James slipped them on and posed in the mirror.

‘These are cool, cheers,’ James said. ‘Everyone thought I’d fail.’

‘You would have,’ Kyle said. ‘If you hadn’t got Kerry as a partner, Large would have chewed you up in a week.’

‘You know Kerry?’ James asked.

‘Bruce does. He said you had a chance once he found out Kerry was your partner. She cost me ten quid.’

‘You bet against me getting through training?’

‘No offence, James, but you’re a spoiled brat and a total whiner. I thought I’d make an easy tenner.’

‘Thanks,’ James said. ‘Good to know who your friends are.’

‘You want to buy a fake Rolex watch?’ Kyle asked. ‘Same as the real thing, four quid each.’

*

The whole crowd went to the cinema Friday night. Bruce, Kyle, Kerry, Callum, Connor, James, Lauren and a few other kids. James was happy being part of a big group, all messing about and slagging each other off. The film was a twelve. The rest of them could pass for twelve, but they had to smuggle Lauren through the emergency exit.

James worried about what would happen with him and Kerry, especially with everyone else watching. He sat down. Kerry sat with one of her girlfriends a few seats away. James was relieved, but disappointed as well. The more he thought about it, the more he realised how much he liked her.

*

Four days into his timetable James realised he could live with it. In his old life he’d always got up late, sat in class mucking about all day then come home and either played Playstation, watched TV, or hung out on the estate with his friends. Most of the time he was bored. The routine at CHERUB was hard but it never got dull.

You weren’t allowed to slack off in lessons. Every class had ten kids or fewer, which meant as soon as you stopped working the teacher was on your back asking what the problem was. Pupils were picked by ability not age. Some classes, like James’ advanced maths group, had kids who were fifteen and sixteen. His Spanish, Russian and self-defence classes were with six- to nine-year-olds.

Punishments were psycho if you got out of line. James swore in history and got a ten-hour shift repainting the lines in the staff car park. Next day his palms and knees were blistered from crawling around on tarmac.

Most days had a PE session. After training, James was really fit. Two hours’ running around felt like a warm-up. They started with circuit training inside the gym. The second half was always a game of football or rugby. James liked it best when they played Girls versus Boys, which usually went a bit mad, with insane tackles and punch-ups breaking out everywhere. What the girls lacked in strength they made up for with cunning and gang tactics. Boys always scored most goals, the girls edged the carnage.

After lessons James got an hour’s rest before dinner, then it was a scramble to do homework, before rushing off to extra martial arts training. James volunteered because he was ashamed that half the nine-year-olds at CHERUB could beat him in a fight. On the nights he didn’t have martial arts he’d go to the junior building and hang out with Lauren.

At the end of each day James was worn out. He’d sit in his bath and watch whatever was on TV through the doorway before drying off and collapsing into bed.

It was two months since training. Kerry had done a mission, come back, and gone on another. She was so superior about it, James could have thumped her. Gabrielle was in Jamaica. Connor had disappeared with Shakeel. Bruce was away for days at a time. Kyle went off one morning promising that this mission was going to earn him his navy shirt. James was still at CHERUB and felt like a lemon.

Amy was the only one who hadn’t been away. She spent hours on the eighth floor in one of the Mission Preparation rooms. James still got to swim with her four times a week. He was good now. Four hundred metres front crawl, keeping his body under the water and tipping his face to the side to breathe without lifting his head out of the water. He never got scared and Amy said his stroke was almost perfect.

*

James and Amy were putting their uniforms back on. All they’d done was swim lengths together, then sit on the poolside and talk for a bit.

‘That was our last lesson,’ Amy said.

James had known it was coming for ages, but that didn’t stop him feeling bad. He liked hanging around with Amy. She was funny and always gave good advice on stuff.

‘Is your mission starting?’ James asked, sitting down to lace up his boots.

‘In a couple of weeks,’ Amy said. ‘I need to devote all my time to it.’

‘I’ll miss having lessons with you. You’re a brilliant teacher.’

‘Thanks, James, you’re sweet. You should go swimming with Kerry when she gets back. You swim as well as she does now, probably better.’

‘She’ll be too busy rubbing my nose in it about her mission experience. I saw Meryl Spencer again yesterday, she still says there’s no mission for me.’

‘I can confess now,’ Amy said. ‘I had you suspended from mission activity.’

‘Because of swimming?’ James asked.

Amy went in her swimming bag and got out a plastic card. James had seen people swipe them in the lift to get up to the secure part of the main building where missions were planned.

‘This is yours,’ Amy said, handing it across.

James broke out smiling. ‘I’ve got a mission with you?’

‘Yes,’ Amy said. ‘I put in some work on this job before you even came here. When you arrived I realised we looked alike. Same colour hair, similar build. I knew you could pass as my little brother. We set you up with Kerry so you had the best chance of passing training. I wasn’t happy when I heard you started a fight with her and nearly got thrown out.’

‘Don’t remind me,’ James said. ‘I was so dumb.’

‘You’re lucky Kerry didn’t retaliate. All she had to do was flip you up and break your arm and you would have been out of training. Nobody would have blamed her either.’

‘I was on top of her,’ James said. ‘She couldn’t get up.’

Amy laughed, ‘If you got on top of Kerry it’s because she let you. She could squash you like an egg under her boot if she wanted.’

‘Is she that good?’ James asked.

Amy nodded. ‘She must like you a lot to let you off like that.’

*

The eighth floor was exactly like the accommodation floors below: a long corridor with rooms off either side. Entering the Mission Preparation room meant swiping your security card and staring into a red light while the blood vessels in your retina were scanned for identification.

After the hi-tech entry, James expected something flash inside: a map of the world with a bank of computer screens above it or something. It was actually a bit of a dump. Old computers, chairs with sponge bursting out of cushions and metal cabinets covered with stacks of files and papers. The only good feature was the view over campus.

Ewart Asker stuck his hand out for James to shake and introduced himself as the Mission Controller. He was in his twenties, CHERUB uniform, bleached hair with black roots and a stud through his tongue.

‘First mission, James,’ Ewart said. ‘Worried?’

James shrugged. ‘Should I be?’

Ewart laughed. ‘I’m nervous, James. This baby is complicated. You wouldn’t normally get something like this until you’d done a few easy missions, but we needed a twelve-year-old boy who could pass for Amy’s brother, and you’re the best we’ve got.

‘There’s a ton of stuff to learn. I’ve cut your school schedule back. Amy has written a mission dossier for you. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. The mission starts in about ten days.’

James pulled up a chair and opened the briefing:

**CLASSIFIED**

MISSION BRIEFING FOR JAMES ADAMS
DO NOT REMOVE FROM ROOM 812
DO NOT COPY OR MAKE NOTES

(1) Fort Harmony

In 1612 King James made a fifty square kilometre area near the Welsh village of Craddogh into common land. The charter allowed people to graze animals and build a small shelter on the land. By the 1870s everyone who lived on Craddogh Common had moved to the village to work in the coal mine. Nobody lived on the land for the next ninety-seven years.

In 1950 Craddogh Common was made part of West Monmouthshire National Park. In 1967 a small group of hippies led by a woman called Gladys Dunn settled on Craddogh Common. Gladys named the settlement Fort Harmony. They kept chickens and built wooden shelters, claiming they could do so under the 1612 charter.

At first the National Park tolerated the settlers, but numbers grew, and within three years about 270 hippies lived in a hundred or so ramshackle buildings. The National Park Authority began legal action to evict the hippies. After two years the High Court decided that the king’s charter ended when Craddogh Common was made part of the National Park. The court gave the hippies one week to pack up and leave.

The hippies would not go. Police began destroying huts and arresting the hippies in the winter of 1972. The size of the community soon dropped to less than fifty, but this hard core was determined to stay.