CHERUB: People's Republic (27 page)

Max looked shocked. ‘You beat up some little old lady and all you get is the recycling centre? I got ten hours of one-on-ones just for crashing an electric buggy. You shouldn’t be sulking, Rybo. You should be celebrating.’

‘With buxom mademoiselles,’ Alfie added. ‘And deep-fried Mars bars!’

Max looked back over his shoulder. ‘Alfie, can we leave your fantasies out of the conversation for once?’

‘Maybe the recycling centre isn’t as hard as one-on-ones,’ Ryan said, ‘but I’d rather do twenty one-on-ones than five hundred hours in recycling.’

Max gasped, then laughed. ‘Five hundred! Holy shitting shit. Nobody ever got a five hundred hours of
anything
. That’s gonna take you months to work off.’

‘Zara says if I do two hours a night on weekdays and three hours on a Saturday and Sunday I can do it in six months.’

‘I doubt it,’ Alfie said, shaking his head. ‘Training exercises and missions will delay things. I’d say more like eight or nine.’

‘Five hundred hours,’ Max said. ‘At least it’ll teach you not to go round bashing up old ladies.’

Ryan found Max’s tone irritating and he sat up sharply. ‘I only shoved her. It’s not my fault she happened to be a thirty-kilogram midget who’d fall down in a stiff breeze.’

‘Calm down, tiger,’ Max teased. ‘You know what you’re like with those violent mood swings of yours.’

Ryan simmered as Alfie started to laugh.

‘Are you guys here for any reason other than to take the piss?’ Ryan asked.

‘I think we’ve covered the piss-taking now,’ Max said, before looking back at Alfie. ‘Was there anything else on the agenda?’

Alfie saw that Ryan looked upset and gave Max a look that said
stop it
.

‘You need a girlfriend, Ryan,’ Alfie said. ‘You’re gonna be on campus for at least the next few months.’

‘Grace,’ Max suggested. ‘Nice bum. Not a great deal in the boob department yet, but that’s bound to improve and she totally fancies you.’

‘The last time I saw Grace she squirted half a can of whipped cream down my shorts,’ Ryan said.

‘Blatant flirting,’ Max said.

‘I’m pretty sure she hates me and I’m not even bothered,’ Ryan said. ‘I can get a girlfriend when I’m fourteen or something.’

‘I’d lick honey off Grace’s belly,’ Alfie said.

Ryan and Max both laughed.

‘I swear, Alfie,’ Max said, ‘you seriously need help. You’re an eleven-year-old sex fiend. Have you ever considered an iced bath, or going for long runs?’

‘I’m half French,’ Alfie said. ‘We’re the greatest lovers in the world.’

‘Grace is tiny, Alfie,’ Max said. ‘If you got married you’d roll over in the night and she’d disappear up your arse crack.’

Ryan felt slightly less miserable now that Alfie was the butt of the joke. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘You need a
big
woman.’

Max agreed. ‘Like Irene: you know, the canteen lady with the huge rack and the mole with hairs growing out of it.’

Ryan burst out laughing. ‘I bet when Irene takes her clothes off, she’s got more giant moles,’ he said. ‘Whole massive clumps of them, growing under her pits like mushrooms.’

‘Aww, don’t,’ Max said. ‘You’re making me gag.’

‘Isn’t that your phone?’ Alfie asked.

Ryan had his mobile on vibrate, but he hadn’t noticed over the laughter. Max took the phone off its charging stand and threw it across.

‘Hello?’ Ryan said, but there was nobody on the other end.

The phone’s screen said,
1 Missed Call – Amy Collins
. Ryan didn’t know what it was about, but he didn’t want Alfie and Max dicking about in the background.

‘Mission stuff,’ he said.

For security CHERUB agents aren’t supposed to share details of their missions, so Alfie and Max left without fuss.

‘Meet you downstairs for lunch in ten,’ Alfie said.

‘I’ll try,’ Ryan said.

He didn’t know what to think as he read Amy’s name on the screen. Ryan understood why she hadn’t taken his side when he’d hit Dr D, but he’d grown fond of her when they’d lived together in Santa Cruz and on an emotional level he still felt betrayed by the way she’d sided against him.

‘Hi, mate,’ Amy said. ‘Are you OK? I feel really bad about how stuff turned out last week.’

‘I’ve gotta write Dr D an apology,’ Ryan said. ‘How’s she doing?’

‘No damage,’ Amy said. ‘Ted reckons he’s been working with Dr D for years and quite regularly gets the urge to knock her on her arse.’

Ryan laughed awkwardly. ‘Maybe that’ll be some consolation as I do my five hundred hours in the recycling centre.’

‘Five hundred,’ Amy gasped. ‘Wowee! Zara really threw the book at you, didn’t she?’

‘Yes she did.’

‘I was going to call to see how you were doing,’ Amy said. ‘But this isn’t a social call. We’ve lost the tracker we implanted in Ethan’s thigh.’

‘Seriously?’ Ryan said. ‘Did it break, or do you think it was found and pulled out of him?’

‘Impossible to say at this stage,’ Amy said. ‘We thought we’d lost all trace of Ethan. But HQ in Dallas kept monitoring the phone and Internet accounts you set up under the name Ryan Brasker. An unknown number tried to call your Ryan Brasker mobile and we think it’s probably Ethan.’

‘Must be,’ Ryan said thoughtfully. ‘Nobody else had that number.’

‘I need you to go over to the mission control building,’ Amy said. ‘They can route comms so it’ll look like your call comes from a mobile phone in California. After I hang up I’ll send you an e-mail that the IM put together. It’s got a background story, saying where your Ryan Brasker persona is living now and what you’ve been doing since Ethan last saw you. You need to read and memorise the details.’

After what had happened the previous week, Ryan didn’t appreciate Amy’s bossy tone, nor the way she just seemed to assume he’d do whatever she asked.

‘I’m suspended from missions,’ Ryan said.

Amy sighed. ‘Ryan, this isn’t exactly a mission. You don’t even need to step off campus. We just need you to re-establish contact with Ethan and try to find out as much as you can about where he is and what he’s doing.’

‘I don’t know,’ Ryan said. ‘Cherubs have the right to refuse any mission, don’t they? I’d just like to put Santa Cruz behind me; work off my punishment hours as fast as I can and move on.’

This wasn’t really true, but Ryan wanted to make Amy sweat.

‘But what about Ethan?’ Amy asked. ‘He could be in danger.’

Ryan laughed. ‘So Dr D cares about him again now that it suits her?’

‘Look, Ryan, I understand why you’re sore. I’ll have to talk to Zara to revoke your mission ban anyway. What if I try to bend her ear? I’ll tell her Dr D has forgiven you, and get your punishment hours reduced, or something like that.’

Ryan broke into a big smile at the thought of this, but he made sure his emotions didn’t come through in his voice. ‘I suppose I’d have more time to help you if the punishment was reduced.’

‘I’ll ask her to knock a hundred hours off,’ Amy said. ‘How does that sound?’

‘Pretty good,’ Ryan said. ‘Do you think you could get her to reinstate my allowance as well?’

‘Don’t push your luck,’ Amy said, as she gave a dry laugh. ‘I’ll send that e-mail over, you can start reading and I’ll talk to Zara.’

35. HOSE

Ning tried going back to the basement, but Ben made her stay upstairs in the kitchen, with the door open so that he could keep an eye on her. Leo went out for about twenty minutes and came back with thick plastic dust sheets, reels of tape, plastic masks and cartons of bleach from a DIY store.

‘Put the kettle on, sweetheart,’ Ben said.

As Ning made mugs of tea, she thought about throwing the boiling water and making a run for it, or grabbing a big knife from a kitchen drawer. But Ben had a bulge under his shirt and she was sure it was a gun.

Out in the hallway, Ben and Leo rolled the bodies in dust sheets and wound whole reels of tape around them. Then a van backed on to the driveway. They threw the bodies inside and it pulled away.

Ning thought uneasily about the creepy way Ben spoke and touched her face when they’d met on the stairs. She was pretty sure it was dollar signs not lust she’d seen in his eyes, and she recalled what Chun Hei had said about how much money a girl her age would be worth to a brothel owner or a paedophile.

It had been stupid staying here so long.

‘You’re just a lazy piece of shit,’ Ben shouted from the hallway. ‘You’ll do as I say.’

Ning’s ears pricked up, and she took a sideways step so that she could see the two men through the kitchen doorway. Leo was on his knees, scrubbing a red mark off the hallway wall, and Ben stood over him with his hands on his hips.

‘You could have burned out the van,’ Leo said angrily. ‘Saved all this mess and stench.’

‘It’s a two-year-old van,’ Ben yelled. ‘You think I’m just going to throw away ten thousand pounds?’

‘You have insurance.’

‘You think smuggling vans are legit, you dipshit?’ Ben shouted. ‘I don’t care if you’re too much of a sissy to put up with a little bit of stink. You get your hose and disinfectant, you put on a mask and you hose out that van like I tell you.’

‘Why’d you even bring it here?’ Leo shouted. ‘I’m a caretaker. Shit like this is above my pay grade.’

‘You were nearby. This house has tall hedges, it isn’t overlooked. I expect everyone who works for me to pull together in a crisis. So are you going to do it, or do you and I have a big problem?’

Leo towered over his boss, but he took a step back and raised his hands in a surrender gesture. ‘You know we don’t have a problem.’

‘That’s good for you,
and
for your mother back in China,’ Ben said threateningly. ‘I have to go home and change for a dinner appointment. Once you’ve cleaned out the van, get Nikki to come back and pick it up. Then I want you to drive up to the country place with Ning. Clear?’

‘Yes, boss.’

‘Do you know where you’re going?’

‘I’ve been there before,’ Leo said.

Ben started clicking his fingers in Leo’s ear. ‘From now on, when I click you jump. Click, jump. Click, jump. Clear?’

Ning didn’t know what the country place was, or what to expect when she got there, but she was certain it wouldn’t be good. As Ben kept clicking his fingers and yelling at Leo, she quietly pulled open a kitchen drawer and started hunting for a weapon.

*

Amy called Ryan back fifteen minutes after she’d hung up.

‘Zara has no problem with you helping to relocate Ethan and she’s agreed to knock seventy-five hours off your punishment. And I’ll get TFU to pay your two months’ allowance, if you find Ethan. Do we have a deal?’

‘I guess we do,’ Ryan said, as he smiled and silently shook a jubilant fist in the air.

‘Did you read through the e-mail?’

‘Yeah, it all seems straightforward.’

‘Great,’ Amy said. ‘If you go over to the mission control building they’ll set up a communications room for you.’

As Amy hung up, Ryan grabbed a printout of her e-mail and took a brisk ten-minute walk across to the mission control building.

The high-tech, banana-shaped building was barely six years old, but it’d had a troubled history, with dodgy security systems, faulty heating and burst pipes. Presently the whole place was covered in scaffolding while a team of army engineers replaced large sections of the roof.

After using his fingerprint to unlock the main door, Ryan found sixteen-year-old black-shirt Lauren Adams waiting for him. She had shoulder-length blonde hair and an athletic build, sort of like a younger, less stunning version of Amy. Ryan didn’t know Lauren well, but she’d given him some one-on-one Karate lessons before he’d entered basic training.

‘Haven’t seen you in ages, Ryan,’ Lauren said cheerfully, as she led him down a curved corridor. ‘Good to see you in a grey T-shirt.’

‘I didn’t know you worked over here,’ Ryan said.

Lauren shrugged. ‘Just for a few weeks, maternity cover. It’s good to get experience in areas like Mission Control, because it means you stand a better chance if you want to come back for a summer job when you’re at uni. Here we are.’

They’d reached the door of a small office, with a soundproof door. A pair of Windows PCs and a Mac sat on a long desk inside.

‘I’ll leave you to it. Just yell if you need anything,’ Lauren said.

Ryan sat in a bouncy office chair and saw that Lauren had printed off a sheet with logins for all of the various Internet and social networking accounts that had been set up for the Ryan Brasker identity he’d used on the mission.

California was eight hours behind the UK, which made it just after eight in the morning. Ryan jiggled the mouse to wake up one of the Windows PCs and started a monitoring program that would log every piece of information passing through the computer, including keystrokes and audio. Then he put on a wireless headset and logged into a program routed through TFU in Dallas. This would make it appear as if he was talking from a mobile phone in California rather than the UK.