New Guard (CHERUB) (2 page)

‘What’s weird?’ Bruce asked.

‘When I shut my eyes, it’s like yesterday that my mum died,’ James explained. ‘Waking up on campus, meeting you guys for the first time. Being a cherub …’

Bruce paused to count on his fingers. ‘Thirteen years, pal.’

‘And in my head, when I’m working on campus and one of the kids is up to something I feel like I’m one of them. But then I have to do a double-take, and be
Mr Mission Controller
and get them to listen and behave.’

‘Can I taste?’ Kerry asked, not waiting for an answer before stabbing half a risotto ball with her fork.

‘You always do that,’ James moaned.

‘What?’ Kerry growled.

‘You say you don’t want a starter and then you eat half of mine.’

Kerry turned sideways, gave James a quick kiss before poking his slightly bulging stomach. ‘You don’t need the calories, fat boy.’ Then she pointed across the table. ‘Look at Bruce, all tanned and muscly from Thailand.’

‘I can’t help it,’ James said. ‘I’m stuck behind a desk most of the day.’

‘He failed his staff fitness assessment on campus,’ Kerry said. ‘And frankly, I’m fed up looking at his paunch.’

‘It’s just my build,’ James protested. ‘Body fascist.’

‘So anyway,’ Bruce said, pausing as a waitress swept by close enough to overhear, then speaking to Kerry. ‘What are you doing now? Are you on campus?’

Kerry shook her head. ‘I visit weekends. If James is around and I’m not working.’

‘She sold her soul to the devil,’ James added.

Bruce looked confused, before Kerry explained. ‘Unlike
certain
boyfriends of mine, who inherited hundreds of thousands of pounds from their mother and ride around on fancy motorbikes, I have to
earn
my keep.’

‘Hear hear,’ Bruce said, scowling at James because there had been nothing to inherit from his parents either.

‘Kerry works in the City of London,’ James explained. ‘Evil French bank, securitised leasing.’

‘They’re not evil,’ Kerry protested.

‘What’s securitised leasing?’ Bruce asked.

Kerry shrugged. ‘You don’t wanna know.’

‘So is it fun?’ Bruce asked.

Kerry snorted. ‘Nope.’ Then looked disappointed. ‘Salary’s great, but you work stupidly long hours, preparing trading reports and … I don’t even want to talk about it.’

‘So quit,’ Bruce said. ‘Dump the flabby boyfriend and come live with me, teaching martial arts in the sunshine.’

James gave Bruce the finger across the table, before dipping a piece of bread in olive oil.

‘A few years,’ Kerry said. ‘A couple of good bonuses and I can afford to quit and do something more satisfying.’

‘Banker bonuses,’ Bruce laughed.

‘I told you she sold her soul,’ James added.

Kerry folded her arms, but was only pretending to be upset. ‘I miss being a cherub. And when I’m at work, listening to all these Oxbridge-educated toffs going on about their gap year antics, I want to knee them in the gonads and tell them that I helped bring down a major drugs ring when I was twelve years old.’

‘So who else is coming to the party tomorrow?’ Bruce asked.

‘Loads of people,’ James said. ‘Kyle, Gabrielle, Callum, Connor, Michael. And people I’ve not seen for yonks, like Arif and Dana.’

‘Dana,’ Bruce snorted. ‘What about your sister?’

‘Lauren’s coming with Rat.’

‘Nice,’ Bruce said. ‘Probably in Rat’s private helicopter.’

James and Kerry both laughed. ‘I don’t think he’s in the private helicopter league,’ Kerry said. ‘But I heard Rat inherited well over twenty million from his crazy cult leader father.’

‘AAARGH!’ Bruce said, enthusiastically pounding the table as a waitress approached with three main courses. ‘It’s gonna be so cool seeing all the old faces again.’

Most older CHERUB agents took a trip off campus when they got a free Saturday afternoon, but Leon and Daniel’s train got held up, meaning it was past seven when they detrained at the station nearest to CHERUB campus.

‘We’re
so
screwed,’ Daniel said, as he stepped out of the unmanned ticket hall and glanced around. Sometimes there was a bus from campus waiting to pick up kids. ‘Shall we use the taxi account?’

Leon shook his head. ‘If we charge a taxi, campus will know we’re coming. If we rock up at the gate unannounced, we might just slip through unnoticed.’

‘Forty minutes at a brisk jog,’ Daniel said thoughtfully. ‘There’s a ton of guests arriving for the blow-up party, so security
might
have their eye off the ball.’

Like all CHERUB agents, the twins had to stay in top shape, so the 8km run was a breeze. They were on the last stretch towards campus when Daniel had a sudden thought.

‘Don’t forget my half of the money.’

‘What money?’

‘The three hundred that Nigel gave you,’ Daniel said.

Leon scoffed. ‘No way! I took all the risks. I had to put on those stupid shorts and have the pervert leering at me.’

‘Risks,’ Daniel said. ‘What
risks
? He’s got no skills. If Nigel tried something you could have broken his arm in ten seconds flat.’

‘I suffered mental trauma,’ Leon said.

‘Half of that three hundred is mine, Leon.’

‘I’ll give you fifty quid, just to shut you up.’

‘Stop being a dick!’ Daniel said, outraged. ‘Fifty-fifty.’

‘Possession is nine-tenths of the law.’

Daniel gave Leon a shove. It was enough to knock him off stride, but he managed to stay upright.

‘I want my half,’ Daniel demanded.

‘I’ll race you for it,’ Leon said. ‘First one to the campus gate. Go!’

The twins weren’t identical, but nor was there much between them in size or speed. Daniel knew that if he took the bait, he wouldn’t catch his twin, who was already ten metres ahead. All this became academic when Leon took a slight bend in the road and got flashed full beam from an army-green Land-Rover, parked alongside the road.

‘Evening boys,’ a burly campus security guard announced grandly, as the pair stopped running and sensed doom. ‘I’m Briggs and you two are way past your curfew time.’

Since campus appeared on maps as a military facility, the guards on its perimeter drove army-style vehicles and wore military police uniforms.

‘We went swimming in town,’ Daniel said hopefully. ‘There were some girls from that boarding school, and we lost track of time.’

‘Really,’ Briggs said, unconvinced. ‘You could have texted to say you were late. But for some reason your phones were off, so we couldn’t track them. Almost as if you didn’t want us to know where you were.’

‘I …’ Leon stuttered.

‘We …’ Daniel added.

‘You two are in a lot of trouble,’ Briggs said, as his hand beckoned the pair towards the back seat of the Land-Rover. ‘The sooner you start telling the truth about what you’ve been up to, the better the chance that you don’t get kicked out of CHERUB.’

After stepping aside from the stressful post of CHERUB chairman, Zara Asker now had a part-time role dealing with serious disciplinary measures. She yawned as she walked into the security post just inside campus’ main gate and got caught off guard by two faces she’d not seen in years.

‘Older no wiser,’ Kyle Blueman said, as the former CHERUB agent gave Zara a hug. Gabrielle O’Brien was right behind, but Zara did a double-take.

The practicalities of campus life and training make it hard for girls to dress up for anything but special occasions. Gabrielle appeared to be making up for lost time, with elaborate extensions to her plaited hair, heavy make-up and mad heels.

‘You look like a model,’ Zara said. ‘Wow!’

‘It’s weird you’re not chairman any more,’ Kyle noted.

‘My husband is welcome to it,’ Zara said. ‘It’s a twenty-four-seven job. And I’d love to stay and chat, but I have a pair of idiots to crucify.’

Zara dropped the friendly tone as she stepped past the X-ray machines used to examine baggage and down a short hallway to the waiting area where Leon and Daniel had spent the last two hours, nervously awaiting their fate.

‘Office, now,’ Zara snapped, clicking her fingers.

The twins had been allowed to shower and dress in their CHERUB uniforms, complete with navy shirts. Leon felt a shudder as Zara joined Briggs’ brooding presence across a desk top laid out with evidence. Computer printouts of phone messages, three hundred pounds, train tickets to places the boys weren’t supposed to have been …

‘Sit down.’

The twins eyed one another uneasily as they sat on hard plastic chairs. The gloomily lit room had bare concrete walls, a pair of CCTV cameras and a metal door so that it could be used as a cell if necessary.

‘We know what you did,’ Zara began. ‘Every lie you tell will just get you deeper into trouble. What I don’t understand is
why
you did this. What significance does Nigel Kinney have for you?’

Daniel looked a bit surly. ‘He’s a paedophile. He’s getting what he deserves.’

‘We knew there was a good chance we’d get in trouble,’ Leon added. ‘We’ll take our punishment.’

Briggs thumped on the desk top. ‘We didn’t ask you for a moral justification. You were asked a specific question.’

Zara looked more startled by Briggs’ reaction than the two boys, and gave him a thin-lipped
I can handle this
look.

‘Kinney?’ Zara said firmly.

Leon looked at Daniel, and got a nod before beginning to explain. ‘We did a mission in Sheffield last year. There was a kid there, Brent Johnson. Nice guy, year younger than us. But he was messed up. Cutting himself, nightmares. He’d been abused by Nigel Kinney and some other guy since he was about ten. Cops didn’t press charges because Brent was too messed up to go through a trial.’

‘Kinney had previous convictions, but you’re not allowed to mention that to a jury,’ Daniel added.

Zara shook her head slowly. ‘So you contacted the Paedophile Hunting Network?’

‘Sure,’ Leon agreed. ‘At first we just got hold of a copy of Kinney’s criminal record and sent it to the paedo hunters, hoping they’d make him a target. But they get a lot of tip-offs and they’re a tiny organisation.’

‘So you agreed to help?’ Briggs asked.

Leon nodded. ‘We hacked Kinney’s office computer and found a site he was using to speak to young boys. So I joined up and started sending him fake messages. Said I was short of cash and would like to meet up.’

‘Then we got the paedo hunters to set up the final sting,’ Daniel added.

‘I’ll take whatever punishment,’ Leon said. ‘But I’m not ashamed of what we did.’

‘You can’t be vigilantes,’ Briggs growled. ‘CHERUB has bigger fish to fry and you risked organisational security by making unauthorised access to police records.’

Zara gave Briggs another
calm down
look. ‘Guys,’ she began. ‘I have four children and the idea that anyone who wants to harm them is out there makes me sick. Online grooming is a serious and growing problem and everyone should be more aware of it. But you are CHERUB agents. Our targets are major terror groups, drug cartels, people smugglers, weapons dealers. We’re not in the business of getting revenge for one wronged child. You’ve broken dozens of rules.’

‘When news about this gets out on campus, you’ll probably be regarded as some kind of heroes by your fellow agents,’ Briggs added. ‘If we don’t hit you hard, who knows where it’ll lead?’

Leon and Daniel allowed slight smirks at the thought that they’d be considered heroes.

‘Don’t you
dare
smile,’ Zara said, wagging a finger. ‘Although I’m in charge of matters of severe breaches of discipline, I have to follow guidelines laid down by the ethics committee. Under those guidelines, you have breached so many rules that the case for permanent exclusion from CHERUB is absolute.’

Zara paused to let this sink in. The twins avoided eye contact with each other and Leon’s breath juddered, like he was going to cry.

‘However,’ Zara said. ‘I do have slight wiggle room in cases where agents act out based on traumatic events they’ve seen while on missions. And I suppose you
could
argue that you were upset after encountering Brent Johnson and that is the reason why you acted the way you did.

‘So, I’m going to give you two choices. The first is that you’re discharged honourably from CHERUB. You can live with a member of staff near to campus, so you’ll still get to see your brothers Theo and Ryan.’

Leon’s jaw dropped. ‘I thought you said there was wiggle room …’

‘Let me finish,’ Zara said firmly. ‘Your second choice will be to remain on CHERUB campus, but you’ll face severe sanctions. Namely, two months of heavy drill and ditch digging, followed by a further two months during which you’ll be suspended from missions.’

The twins gasped. ‘Two months of heavy drill!’ Leon blurted.

‘I never heard of anyone getting more than two weeks,’ Daniel added.

‘You’ll also be expected to tell none of your friends what you’re being punished for,’ Briggs added. ‘Not even your brothers.’

‘No cherub is ever forced to undergo punishment,’ Zara said. ‘You can quit now, you can quit at any time.’

Leon looked across at Daniel. ‘I got twenty-four hours’ heavy drill that time I drank all the cider and puked in French class. It was full on. I’m not sure I could hack two months.’

Daniel had never been made to do heavy drill. ‘Worse than basic training?’

‘Way worse,’ Leon said.

Zara stood up and signalled Briggs to do the same. Then glanced at her watch.

‘Quit CHERUB, or two months’ punishment. I’ll give you ten minutes to make up your mind.’

Zara and Briggs headed out. The twins jolted as Briggs locked them in with a metallic clank. As the boys looked at one another, Daniel eyed a picture of Nigel Kinney on the desk.

‘We always knew there was a good chance we’d get caught,’ Daniel said sadly. ‘Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, just being an ordinary kid.’

Leon nodded. ‘There are
so
many hot girls at that Catholic school down the road.’

Daniel looked up at one of the cameras. ‘They can probably hear what we’re saying.’

‘But on the other hand,’ Leon said, as he flicked his cheek anxiously. ‘We’ve got the whole rest of our lives to be ordinary.’