New Guard (CHERUB) (7 page)

Oli put his coin in the bypass slot and turned it to release the bolt. He looked back at Leon and Daniel, flicking one cheeky eyebrow before charging the door.

The door burst inwards. Abigail screamed as Oli reached into the steamy space and flicked out the light. Oli charged into the little cubicle and gave Abigail an almighty shove through the shower curtain. As she slammed tiles at the back of the shower and lost her footing, Oli scooped her towel and clean clothes from a shelf, whipped the curtain open and threw them all under the running water so they got soaked. As Abigail screamed in pain and shock, Oli backed out of the room and turned the key, leaving his victim screaming in pitch darkness.

‘You snitch and I’ll come after you,’ Oli warned, as he thumped on the door.

Abigail kept screaming as Oli turned back towards the twins, grinning like a loon.

‘How cool was that?’ he shouted.

Three hours later, the hallway was down to a bluish glow of nightlights as Daniel stepped out of his room. Abigail could be heard sobbing a few rooms away and a couple of kids were playing music, even though it was headphones only after ten on a weeknight.

‘You awake?’ Daniel asked quietly, as he stepped across the hallway and put his head inside Leon’s room.

The only light came from a laptop standing on the desk, but it was enough for Daniel to see his brother sat in bed with his phone.

‘Show us,’ Daniel said.

‘None of yours,’ Leon tutted. ‘I’m talking to Rhea on WhatsApp.’

‘Just make sure she doesn’t hit you over the head and steal your wallet,’ Daniel warned. ‘Why don’t you invite her over?’

‘She’s locked up in secure until morning.’

‘Can I sit?’ Daniel asked.

Leon nodded, and pulled up his legs so his brother could use the end of the bed.

‘So what do you make of Oli?’ Daniel asked.

Leon shook his head. ‘I think the cops were right. He’s a massive bullshitter. No way he’s connected to any terrorists.’

‘Not seeing much potential as a CHERUB agent, either,’ Daniel said.

‘Nope,’ Leon agreed. ‘CHERUB recruits a lot of kids who are messed up and rough around the edges, but I don’t think Oli has a sympathetic bone in his body.’

‘He started on Wes the Weed again after we brushed our teeth.’

‘Hard punches,’ Leon nodded. ‘Wes had tears in his eyes. Before this is over, I might have to accidentally break the little shit’s nose.’

Daniel laughed. ‘You bust his nose, I’ll break his thumbs. And that story about winning a trip to see the Taj Mahal in a poetry competition.’

‘He didn’t even know what country it was in,’ Leon grinned. ‘Talk about Captain Bullshitter.’

‘Thing is, bro, if we’re completely honest …’

Leon finished his brother’s sentence. ‘If we tell James what we really think about Oli, we’ll be back on campus doing heavy drill by Monday.’

‘So we lie to him?’ Daniel asked.

‘Not lie exactly,’ Leon said, giving a conspiratorial smile. ‘We just need to be economical in how rapidly we deliver the truth.’

Daniel smiled. ‘String this thing out for at
least
two weeks.’

Two days after arriving at Nurtrust, Daniel came out of his titchy room wearing the uniform of St Andrew’s Catholic school. Oli sat in the home’s cramped dining area, scoffing Nutella toast.

‘Was it today you’ve got History with Mr Cunningham?’ Oli asked. ‘Tell the old fart that I said hello.’

‘That the guy who got you expelled?’ Daniel asked, as he filled a bowl from a giant box of Asda-brand wheat flakes and topped it off with mixed nuts and milk. ‘Seen my brother?’

‘Saw him disappear with Rhea.’

Leon had spent the previous evening in the TV room making out with Rhea. She was hot stuff, and Daniel was jealous.

‘So, you all set for lunchtime?’ Daniel asked. ‘Bunk off and head over to our cousin’s place?’

‘Course,’ Oli said. ‘I’ve bunked a million times. Anything to get out of Games.’

‘Thought you said you were good at football,’ Daniel noted.

‘I am,’ Oli said defensively. ‘I was top scorer on the school team last year.’

A Year Eight girl called Mel sat across the table, big shoulders and purple streaks in plaited hair. ‘Top scorer,’ she squealed, as she accidentally spat cereal across the table. ‘You so full of it, Oli, with them chunky-monkey legs.’

Oli reared up. ‘What do you know? You’ve never been at my school.’

‘Seen you run,’ Mel said. ‘Give us a football, bet you couldn’t catch me, let alone tackle me.’

‘Am I talking to you?’ Oli blurted. ‘Is this
your
conversation, hippo?’

Mel looked at Daniel, then pointed a false nail at Oli. ‘He’s full of shit.’

Wes the Weed chimed in from the next table. ‘You know how you can tell when Oli’s lying?’ he asked. ‘He’s lying whenever his lips move.’

Oli’s chair grated backwards as he stood and yelled. His voice hadn’t broken so it was really shrill. ‘I’ll bust your nose if you don’t shut your mouth.’

One of the kitchen staff overheard this and stepped between the boys. ‘Cool heads, the lot of you,’ he shouted.

Rather than sit down, Oli abandoned the last of his toast, grabbed his school pack and stormed out. Daniel had wolfed most of his cereal and ignored the kitchen guy’s order to come back and clean plates.

‘Up yours, losers,’ Oli shouted, giving a backwards flip off.

Daniel followed Oli past the admin office, downstairs and along the corridor to the street. He had a fiver and realised there was time to get a McDonald’s breakfast before school. But he was distracted seeing Leon up against the shutters of the yet-to-open betting shop, snogging Rhea.

‘Get a room you dirty perverts,’ Oli yelled.

Rhea stopped kissing Leon and checked the time on her phone. She went to the same Fresh Start unit as Oli, so she gave Leon a goodbye peck.

‘Laters, Leon,’ she said, before walking off the same way as Oli.

‘I love this mission!’ Leon told his brother as he picked his school pack off the pavement. ‘What a girl!’

Daniel didn’t want Leon knowing he was jealous, but the twins knew one another too well to hide emotions.

‘Don’t worry,’ Leon said, as he pulled his phone out of his school trousers and unlocked it. ‘I had a word with Rhea. She’s gonna fix you up with one of her hot mates. I know your type, she’s
perfect
.’

Daniel looked excited. ‘Really?’

‘Here’s a picture.’

Daniel looked at his brother’s phone, seeing a police mugshot of a meth addict with sunken eyes and blackened teeth.

‘Oh you’re
so
funny,’ Daniel said, giving Leon an almighty shove in the back. ‘And it’s pure luck you know. If I’d been sitting by the door when she walked in …’

‘Nah-nuhh-uh-nuh-nuh-nuh,’ Leon mocked, as he wiped lipstick off his cheek. ‘So Captain Bullshit’s all set for lunchtime?’

‘I bet he’s not coming,’ Leon said. ‘Chicken shit.’

He was in a side street with Daniel, sitting on a low wall in front of an abandoned exhaust centre. Both boys had coat hoods up, with rain pelting the outsides.

‘Better text James,’ Daniel said, but Oli came around the corner just as he was about to dial.

‘Howdy, partners,’ Oli said, stuffing his face from a family bag of Walkers Cheese and Onion. ‘Sorry I’m late. Had to wait till lunch was over ’cos they had someone on the back gate today.’

‘No probs,’ Leon said, as he started a slow walk. ‘So our cousin wants this garage cleared out, says he’ll pay us thirty each. Take maybe three or four hours.’

‘Cool,’ Oli said. ‘I don’t even care about the money, because I’ve got three grand in my Nationwide savings account. I just wanna get off Games, you know?’

‘We’ve done odd jobs for him before,’ Leon continued. ‘Sometimes he gives us a bit of weed as well.’

‘I love smoking joints,’ Oli said. ‘I had one that was like, twenty-five centimetres for New Year and I smoked the whole thing myself.’

‘Nice,’ Daniel said, trying not to meet his brother’s eye because he knew he’d laugh.

They walked a couple of side streets, with the wind whipping rain and leaves. As they turned into a street of two-storey houses, an elderly woman came down an overgrown front path. She clanked her gate and set off at a decent pace towards the boys. When she was a few steps in front of the trio, a set of keys dropped from the woman’s coat pocket. She must have been hard of hearing because they made a clatter but she kept on walking.

Daniel picked up the keys and turned to shout after the old lady, but Oli stood in front of him and raised a hand.

‘We could go in there,’ Oli said urgently, pointing up towards the house. ‘Keep your mouths shut.’

Leon and Daniel exchanged glances.

‘Old people keep cash in the house,’ Oli said, as he watched the lady cut across the road. ‘Thousands sometimes. Or she might have antiques, or shit.’

‘She’s an old lady,’ Daniel pointed out.

‘
You’re
an old lady,’ Oli said, as he looked across at Leon.

‘He could be right,’ Leon told his brother. ‘Old people don’t trust banks.’

‘What if there’s someone else in there?’ Daniel asked.

‘Even if there is, they’ll be old, like her husband or something,’ Oli said. ‘You wanna slave for your cousin for thirty quid when there could be all kinds of valuable stuff to rip off?’

‘He’s right,’ Leon said.

Daniel handed Oli the dropped keys and the three boys glanced about, before dashing up ten metres of driveway towards the house.

The front door was tatty, with a crack in the frosted glass. Oli took a minute, working out which of four keys undid the deadlock and the main lock.

‘It’s deadlocked, so there’s probably nobody else home,’ Oli noted, as he stepped into a gloomy house.

It wasn’t very warm and there was a smell of damp in the hallway. The living-room had lots of framed photos, an old TV and an ancient video tape recorder with the clock flashing. Leon checked out the kitchen, which had a feeding bowl and a whiff of cats. Oli started opening jars along the counter top hoping to find money, but he only found stale biscuits, flour and gravy powder.

‘This isn’t worth the risk,’ Daniel noted.

Oli laughed. ‘What risk? If they catch me they’ll put me in a secure care home. But I’m
already
in a secure care home. They might tighten up my curfew or move me back to secure corridor, but who really gives a shit?’

As Oli said this he opened a cupboard under the sink and found a black enamel money-box on a shelf. It was narrow, and the inside was divided into sections with handwritten labels saying things like
gas
,
telephone
,
vet
and
birthday
.

‘Ker-ching!’ Oli said, rattling coins as he thumped the box on the dining-table. After popping off the lid, he stripped out eighty pounds in tenners, plus a five and a dozen pound coins. ‘I bet the old bag keeps more upstairs.’

‘We’re splitting this three ways,’ Leon said, as Oli led a charge upstairs.

Daniel still seemed reluctant. ‘She’s just an old lady,’ he said, as he reached the upstairs landing.

‘So what?’ Oli said. ‘What have old people ever done for us?’

There were two rooms and a bathroom upstairs. There was a jewellery box beside the woman’s bed. Oli pocketed a man’s sovereign ring and some diamond earrings, while Leon found another seventy pounds under a bar of soap in a drawer full of bras.

Oli ignored the bathroom, then almost had a heart attack as he walked into the other bedroom. The large room was dominated by a hospital-style bed with an electric hoist above for lifting someone in and out, along with a portable toilet.

The man in the bed was in his forties, with lank, greying hair. He snored lightly, but when he breathed, one side of his body seemed completely paralysed.

‘Stinks like hell!’ Oli whispered, pulling his shirt up over his face. ‘But I think we hit pay dirt!’

Besides various pieces of medical equipment, there was a modern flat screen TV mounted on the wall, a laptop on the bed, an Android tablet alongside and an Xbox One with half a dozen games.

‘We can’t rob this guy,’ Daniel whispered, as he stepped in last.

‘I know a guy who’ll buy this stuff,’ Oli said, grinning ear to ear. ‘We’ll make four, even five hundred quid, easy.’

‘We need a bag,’ Leon whispered.

‘There was a wheeled suitcase under the stairs,’ Oli noted. ‘Go get it, Daniel.’

But Daniel looked furious, holding up his hands. ‘I’m embarrassed,’ he said. ‘You two should be ashamed of yourselves.’

‘This is serious money,’ Oli said. ‘What’s your problem?’

‘I don’t want this on my conscience,’ Daniel said. ‘I’m outta here.’

Leon followed his brother out on to the landing, then watched as he stormed downstairs and out of the front door.

As Daniel headed down the front path towards the street, Leon retrieved the wheelie case from under the stairs, and came back to find Oli crawling under the disabled man’s bed, unplugging the tablet and laptop chargers.

‘He’s been pissy all day,’ Leon explained to Oli. ‘He won’t admit it, but he’s crazy jealous about me getting it on with Rhea.’

‘More money for us,’ Oli said, as he slid out from under the bed and swiped dust off the knees of his trousers.

While Leon unzipped the case and started loading up with the Xbox and its accessories, Oli walked around to the far side of the bed, which was barely thirty centimetres from the wall. The disabled guy’s laptop was a swanky Lenovo that was probably worth more than everything else they’d stolen. Trouble was, the owner had fallen asleep while using it and the laptop lay open on his thighs, with one arm draped across the keyboard.

Leon felt jittery as he watched Oli slide the laptop towards the edge of the bed. Then he grabbed the man’s outstretched wrist and began lifting it away. Oli thought he’d done the job, but as he snapped the laptop shut the man reared up in his bed.

He was a big fellow, more than six feet tall and overweight. ‘Who the hell are you?’ he shouted, as he shot upwards. ‘What are you doing?’

Oli tried scrambling back around the outside of the bed, but the man was only paralysed down his right side and managed to flick his leg, pinning Oli to the wall as the laptop clattered to the floor.