CHERUB: Mad Dogs (17 page)

Kyle had been preparing to leave for a while, but seemed choked by this sudden end to ten years as a cherub. ‘I knew the risk I was taking,’ he said, nodding weakly. ‘Can I please have a few days to say goodbye to everyone and stuff?’

‘I can live with that,’ Zara nodded. ‘It’ll take that long to sort out the details of your new identity and set you up financially anyway.’

‘Right,’ Kyle nodded.

‘And I think that’s it for you,’ Zara said. ‘I’ll speak to Meryl and she can start making arrangements for your departure.’

As Kyle left the room, it occurred to Lauren that she’d been left till last because she was in the biggest trouble of all. Her heart was banging.

‘And then there was one,’ Zara said dramatically as she reached behind and took Lauren’s personal file from a glass shelf. ‘I never realised that we had a serious problem with you until I looked into your file.’

Lauren gulped when she heard
serious problem
. ‘I don’t
exactly
know what you mean,’ she said meekly.

‘Don’t you indeed?’ Zara smiled. ‘You’re one of the best agents we’ve got and you’re
still
the youngest black-shirt on campus, but your disciplinary record
on
campus is wretched.’

Zara opened Lauren’s file and began to read. ‘In late 2004, you assaulted Mr Large with a shovel. Mac put you on six months’ ditch-digging and gave you a final warning. In summer 2006, you were caught and punished after blackmailing James and breaking into the basic training compound to assist the trainees. Now you’re back in this office because of a second scheme you’ve concoted, this time to get revenge on Mr Large and force him to resign.’

‘But he blackmailed me,’ Lauren said. ‘I was just—’

‘I
know
what Mr Large did. And you did the correct thing by approaching Meryl Spencer and reporting the incident, which was resolved. What you did afterwards with Hayley and James was
utterly
unacceptable. And the thing I really don’t like is that you invented a scheme in a similar fashion just over a year ago.’

‘A lot of that one was Bethany’s idea though,’ Lauren protested.

Zara didn’t appreciate Lauren’s squirming. ‘Well, Bethany is away on a mission, so it certainly wasn’t her fault this time, was it?’

‘No, Miss.’

‘Your four-hundred-lap punishment seems to have had no effect, which has left me in a tricky position. My conclusion is that you need to spend a period of time demonstrating exemplary behaviour on campus before you can continue your career as an agent.’

‘You mean I’m suspended from missions?’ Lauren gasped.

‘You’re suspended for three months. Then, for three months after that I’m going to have you restricted to smaller scale missions: security checks, recruitment missions, things like that.’

‘OK,’ Lauren nodded miserably.

‘I also want you to make a bigger contribution to campus life and to take part in some activities that will give you responsibility and hopefully make you grow up. We’ve been recruiting aggressively over the last couple of years and we’ve currently got more than a dozen red-shirts aged under seven. The staff over in the junior block could do with a hand looking after them, so I want you to help out four nights a week for the next six months.

‘It’s all fairly simple: helping with their reading, making sure they take baths and showers, putting them to bed and maybe occasional activities such as swimming lessons, or trips out. Some of them are also going through a difficult time adjusting to campus life after losing parents or loved ones, so they can be demanding and they need plenty of emotional support.’

Lauren nodded, but she wasn’t happy. Maybe the punishment wasn’t as physically demanding as running laps, but six months was a long stretch and she’d never been shy about rubbing her elevated status into the faces of friends who were still mostly grey-shirts. They were going to
love
it when they found out she’d been suspended from missions.

It was Friday lunchtime and although it was supposed to be the last day of his week off, James’ morning had been hectic: another briefing on the Luton gang situation with Chloe, the last third of his fifty punishment laps and a practice session with his specially prepared handgun on the shooting range. Through all of this, James worried about Kyle, who hadn’t been himself since Zara had ordered him to leave.

‘You there, mate?’ James shouted, as he knocked on Kyle’s door.

He didn’t get an answer so he stepped inside. Kyle’s room was always neat, but now it was also bare, with just a few cardboard boxes stacked up by the window. James noticed that the bed had been stripped and the mattress flipped over. He couldn’t see his best friend, but he could hear the shower running in the bathroom and he pulled a sub-compact pistol out of his tracksuit top as he approached the bathroom door.

James quietly pushed down the handle and was pleased to find the door unlocked. It was hard to see through the steam swirling out of the shower cubicle as he crept inside, gun in hand.

‘Stick ’em up,’ James shouted, as he ripped back the shower curtain.

But it wasn’t Kyle that yelped.

‘What the hell?’ Kevin Sumner shouted, as he dropped his shampoo bottle and covered his privates with his hands.

‘Sorry,’ James said, almost as shocked as Kevin. ‘I thought you were Kyle. What are you doing in here?’

‘We all got back from training this morning,’ Kevin explained. ‘Everyone wanted one of the newer rooms up on the eighth floor, but I had to go in the loo and by the time I got upstairs they’d all been snaffled. But Kyle’s so neat that this room is almost as good.’

James saw Kevin’s grey T-shirt hanging on the towel rail and reached out to shake his hand. ‘Congrats,’ James said. ‘I guess we’re neighbours then. I’m directly across the hall.’

Kevin was dripping and he shivered as he shook James’ hand.

‘I hope there’s no hard feelings about what happened in the jungle the other night,’ Kevin said.

James waved his hand across his face. ‘It’s not like I would have acted any different in your shoes. How was Kazakov after I left?’

‘Brutal, exactly like you’d expect,’ Kevin shrugged. ‘But now it’s over I hardly care. I want a mission. And then there’s the absolute best thing about being a grey-shirt.’

James was curious. ‘What’s that?’

Kevin smiled. ‘You were never a red-shirt, were you?’

‘Nope. I was twelve when I joined CHERUB so I went straight into basic training.’

‘I’ve
finally
got my own bath and shower,’ Kevin explained. ‘It’s communal over in the junior block and you always end up with some six-year-old trying to climb into your bath, or some joker lobbing cups of cold water at you.’

‘I can see that would get on your tits,’ James nodded. ‘Though you might want to consider bolting the door next time.’

‘Yeah,’ Kevin nodded.

‘So, do you know where Kyle is? He’s been miserable and I’m worried about him.’

‘I think he’s driving the last of his clothes over to Meryl’s house. He said he’d help me to move my stuff out of the junior block when he got back.’

‘Right,’ James said, as he put the gun back in his pocket. ‘And sorry about this …’

As James backed out of the bathroom he realised that if Kevin was home then Dana must be too. But as he headed towards Dana’s room, Kyle emerged from the lift holding a cardboard box loaded with Kevin’s stuff.

‘Hey,’ James said. ‘What’s with your room?’

‘I gave it to Kevin.’

‘I saw
that
. But Zara said you can stay until Sunday.’

Kyle looked sad as he shook his head. ‘I’m moving out today.’

‘No,’ James gasped. ‘Saturday night’s your big leaving party. Everyone on campus is gonna be there and I know for a fact that Kerry and some of the others are getting you a prezzie.’

‘I’m not coming,’ Kyle said. ‘I told you I don’t want a big fuss.’

‘Give over,
everyone
has a leaving party.’

‘Well, I’ve got nowhere to sleep now I’ve let Kevin have my room.’

‘Bunk on my floor,’ James shrugged. ‘Hell, you can have my bed if it means you stick around for the party.’

But Kyle turned angry. ‘Stop going on, James. I just want to get out of here.’

And then Kyle sniffed, which made James feel sad and awkward at the same time. ‘I’d give you a hug if you weren’t holding that box,’ James said, as a tear welled up in his own eye. ‘The sixth floor’s not gonna be the same when you’re gone.’

Kyle took the hint and put the box down so that James could embrace him.

‘I’ll miss you,’ James said, pulling Kyle in close and slapping him on the back.

‘Miss you too,’ Kyle said, as a tear streaked down his face. ‘Ten years just whizzed by, you know? When I drive off campus it scares me.’

‘It’s shitty,’ James nodded. ‘But you’ve got your whole life. You’re seventeen, you’re going off travelling which is gonna be totally amazing. Then you’ve got university which is gonna be a blast. Give it a year and I bet you’ll be wondering what was ever cool about living in a corridor with a bunch of noisy yobs like me.’

‘You’re a good friend, James,’ Kyle said, as he rubbed an eye with the back of his hand. ‘I thought you were such a spoiled brat when I first met you. I never told you this before, but when CHERUB recruited you from Nebraska House I recommended that they didn’t accept you. I got overruled by that shrink, Jennifer Mitchum. She thought you had potential.’

‘You git!’ James laughed. ‘Why am I still hugging you?’

‘Guess I was wrong,’ Kyle said, sounding more like his usual self as the boys separated. ‘And I spoke to Meryl. She says I’ll be able to come back to campus for holidays like Christmas and stuff once I start university. She’s also gonna ask about getting me some paid work in the summer, helping out at the CHERUB hostel or something; but she said it’s best to leave it a while before speaking to Zara because I’m not exactly flavour of the month after her front door got kicked down.’

‘We’ll see each other loads,’ James smiled.

‘I’d better get on,’ Kyle said, as he bent down to pick Kevin’s box off the floor. ‘And by the way, I think Dana’s looking for you. She was getting lunch downstairs when I saw her.’

‘When was that?’

‘Ten minutes, you’ll catch her easily.’

‘My mission starts on Monday, so I’ve got to cram months of red-hot love action into three days,’ James said as he started moving towards the lift. But after three paces he turned back and yelled at Kyle: ‘Hey.’

‘What?’ Kyle asked.

‘You’ve
got
to be here Saturday night. You’ve only got two days left to hang here and a whole lifetime afterwards.’

Kyle smiled. ‘Kevin did say that him and all the other new grey-shirts were planning to have a party. I guess I
could
stick around. I wouldn’t want anyone’s last memory to be that I’m an unsociable git, would I?’

*

The party started at eight and fizzled out by three on Sunday morning. Kyle spent his last night in James’ bed while James crashed on the sofa in Dana’s room. James woke with a crick in his neck and a touch of hangover. There was also a text on his mobile, telling him to call Chloe as soon as he got the message.

James called her as he sat on Dana’s toilet.

‘Good morning, James,’ Chloe said brightly. ‘How’s your head?’

‘I’ve survived worse,’ James yawned.

‘Listen, we’ve had a couple of plain-clothes cops looking into Junior Moore’s movements. It seems he’s scheduled for a meeting with his probation officer tomorrow morning. His school is oversubscribed and we’ve had no luck getting you a place there. But he’s only just been released from youth custody and he has to visit his parole officer every Monday. We think that’s going to be your best opportunity to bump into him.’

‘I can do that,’ James nodded. ‘It might be a bit of a rush if we’re moving into the halfway house in the morning but—’

Chloe interrupted. ‘That’s the thing: Junior’s parole meeting is at ten, which means I really need you and Bruce to move into the halfway house today.’

James baulked. ‘But it’s Kyle’s last day. He’s gonna have Sunday lunch with everyone …’

‘I know,’ Chloe said sympathetically. ‘If it’s really that important, I guess we can find another opportunity.’

‘No,’ James said. ‘I guess the party was the main thing. The meal’s gonna be depressing anyway.’

‘If you’re sure,’ Chloe said. ‘I appreciate your commitment.’

‘Have you spoken to Bruce yet?’

‘Yes. He said he’d go, as long as you were OK about it.’

‘Cool. So what time do we need to get on the road?’

‘Well it’s almost noon, so I reckon we should set off as soon as you’ve both had some brekky and packed your bags.’

Dana was awake when James stepped out of her bathroom. She sat on the corner of her bed, still dressed in her party clothes, with black eyeliner smudged over her face.

‘And how’s my beautiful baby?’ James grinned sarcastically.

‘Delicate,’ Dana groaned. ‘I can’t remember anything. Did you put me to bed?’

James nodded. ‘Me and the twins had to lift you. You were completely wasted.’

‘Tequila slammers. Never
ever
again.’

James got a whiff of stale booze and sweat as he kissed Dana. ‘I’m afraid I’ve gotta go, they’ve brought my mission forward.’

Normally they would have had a proper snog before parting, but Dana was in no fit state. All she could do was mumble, ‘Keep safe,’ as James headed out.

James stepped into his room and found that Kyle was already up. He’d showered, eaten some cereal, remade James’ bed with clean sheets and even taken all the dirty clothes and linen downstairs to the laundry.

‘I’m not gonna make it to Sunday lunch,’ James explained as he grabbed a holdall out of his wardrobe and began stuffing it with clothes.

‘I’m dead jealous,’ Kyle smiled. ‘It’s weird to think that it’s all over. No more campus, no more missions, no more summer hostel. I’m just an ordinary student.’

James tried not to start blubbing again. ‘I’m gonna miss the shit out of you, Kyle.’

Kyle started to grin. ‘You know what I was thinking?’

‘What?’