CHERUB: The Fall (31 page)

James and Dana looked at each other.

‘What gave Lauren that idea?’ James asked.

‘She said that you two were having an affair and that you’d run away because she was planning to tell Kerry all about it. She seemed pretty upset.’

‘We didn’t run away,’ Dana grinned.

‘I figured that much out for myself,’ Zara said. ‘I got security to run a check on your movements and they picked you up sneaking in and out of Ewart’s office with the documents. What on earth possessed you to do that?’

James looked awkwardly at the tabletop. ‘I thought he was going to stitch me up in the investigation.’

‘Pardon me?’ Zara spluttered.

James thought about mentioning Mr Pike’s involvement, but couldn’t see that it would do anyone any good.

‘To be honest, I’ve never liked Ewart much,’ he blurted. ‘I was worried that he was going to make me a scapegoat, like he did with Nicole when we were on the drugs mission a couple of years back.’

‘Oh come off it,’ Zara said. ‘Nicole consumed a class-A drug. You can’t blame Ewart for that.’

‘I guess …’ James said. ‘I’m just trying to be honest. For
whatever
reason, I didn’t trust Ewart so I went to look at all the paperwork in his office.’

Zara nodded. ‘And you discovered that he knew a lot more than he was telling you.’

‘So
you
knew?’ James gasped. ‘You knew that Ewart had the CIA tape and didn’t bother telling me?’

‘It was an extremely difficult decision,’ Zara said. ‘We wanted to put you out of your misery, but MI5 were pressuring us to send you down to London for more interviews. We couldn’t risk even the slightest chance that you’d let something slip out during a long interview.’

‘I’m trained for that kind of stuff,’ James said. ‘You could have trusted me.’

‘I know you are,’ Zara smiled. ‘But MI5 interrogators are trained to wheedle secrets out of intelligence agents with a lot more experience than you. One slip of the tongue, one flippant answer, or even just the fact that you seemed a bit more confident than you had done in previous interviews might have tipped them off that Ewart’s investigation was close to uncovering the truth.’

‘And you were dealing with some powerful people,’ Dana nodded.

‘Exactly,’ Zara said. ‘When you’re trying to bring down one of the richest men in the country, and his son, who also happens to be junior intelligence minister, you can’t take any unnecessary risks.’

‘We were sure Ewart was taking bribes off Lord Hilton when we saw the new Lexus,’ James added.

Zara burst out laughing. ‘It was Ewart’s thirtieth birthday present from me. I got a good raise when I was promoted to chairman. We’d never really had a decent car before and I wanted something that was a bit flash, but also safe and comfortable for the kids.’

James decided to cut to the chase. ‘So are me and Dana getting nailed for going after Ewart, or what?’

Zara shrugged. ‘I can’t condone you going through secret papers in my husband’s office, or breaking out of campus in a stolen car.
But
, you’ve been through a miserable few weeks, what with getting beaten up and then worrying about the investigation, and I can hardly ignore the fact that you saved my husband’s life. I guess the two sets of factors just about cancel each other out.’

‘What about me?’ Dana asked.

‘How long have you got to carry on cleaning the mission preparation building?’

‘Two and bit weeks.’

‘You can take today off, then get back at it tomorrow, OK?’

James felt like a massive weight had been lifted off. For the first time in weeks he didn’t have to worry about the investigation, or the threat of being kicked out of CHERUB.

‘What about the envelope?’ he asked.

‘I spoke to Ewart about it,’ Zara said. ‘He reckons that Jason McLoud will want it now that he knows Sarah Thomas isn’t a crackpot. McLoud can break the story and save us the awkward task of having to explain where we fit in; but we’ll keep the originals of everything just in case.’

Dana smiled at James. ‘Do you realise, we’d have been spared
all
of this if McLoud had bothered returning his answerphone message from Sarah Thomas two weeks ago?’

‘Yeah,’ James moped. ‘Stupid old codger.’

‘We’d better get moving,’ Zara said. ‘I want to get all of the documents and tapes back to campus ASAP. Once our bods have made duplicates of everything inside the envelope, we’ll have someone drive it down to McLoud’s house and slip it through his letterbox. If he gets his act together, he should be able to sell an exclusive to one of the Sunday papers.’

‘We know the Hiltons have McLoud’s phone tapped already,’ James said. ‘What if they try and bump him off?’

‘It’s a possibility,’ Zara nodded. ‘I’ll have someone keep him under close surveillance until the story breaks.’

Zara led James and Dana out of the canteen and on to a staircase that led towards the parking lot at the back of the police station.

‘You know,’ Zara said, as they hurried down the steps. ‘Maybe you snuck out of campus for the wrong reasons, but it took guts to step in when the father of my children had a gun pointing at his head. I reckon you two are gonna look good dressed in black …’

James got back to campus at three-thirty. He ran through the corridors near the science labs and grabbed hold of Lauren as she left her last lesson of the day.

‘Black T-shirt,’ Lauren grinned, as Bethany walked out behind her. ‘Congratulations. Of course, I got mine first, so I’m still senior.’

‘Whatever,’ James said anxiously. ‘What did you tell Kerry?’

Bethany started laughing. ‘You’re ghost white, James. You’re shitting yourself.’

‘Who’s talking to you?’ James spat.

‘When we saw that you and Dana had gone, I mentioned that I’d caught you snogging,’ Lauren explained. ‘I said that you’d been having an affair and had probably run off together.’

‘Did Kerry hear about this?’ James asked.

‘Well …’ Lauren said sheepishly.

Bethany butted in. ‘It’s all over campus. It’s all everyone’s been talking about all day. Kerry was crying. Gabrielle and a couple of the other girls were comforting her.’

‘She’s gonna break my neck.’

‘I expect she will,’ Bethany said brightly. ‘And I
really
hope I’m there to see it.’

Meanwhile, Rat had come out of another classroom. ‘I thought you’d eloped with Dana.’

‘That was the first time I’d ever kissed her,’ James yelled.

‘Nobody believes that,’ Bethany sneered.

Rat nodded. ‘Seriously James, nobody believes it was the first time. Especially with her boobs out and everything …’

‘I didn’t even get to see them,’ James said. ‘And I don’t care whether you believe me or not. It
happens
to be true.’

‘It doesn’t really matter what
we
believe,’ Rat noted. ‘If I was you, I’d be more worried about what Kerry believes.’

‘Where is she now?’ Bethany asked.

‘She has football practice,’ James said. ‘It doesn’t finish for another twenty minutes. I don’t know what to do. I mean, if I confront her she might go nuts. But she might be even madder if I don’t have the decency to face her.’

‘Are you going to try getting back with Kerry, or are you going to start a thing with Dana?’ Rat asked. ‘I’d definitely pick Dana, there’s more of her to grab hold of.’

Lauren punched Rat on the arm. ‘Don’t
ever
speak about girls like that. We’re not ornaments, you know.’

‘Rat, I haven’t had time to think about that,’ James said. ‘Right now I’m just trying to stay alive.’

‘This is gonna be
so
much fun,’ Bethany squealed.

Lauren turned angrily towards her best friend. ‘Will you stop stirring it? I know you two can’t stand each other, but he is my brother.’

‘Fine, I’ll leave,’ Bethany said indignantly. ‘But don’t forget about our biology project. I’ll see you in my room later.’

James gave Bethany the finger as she walked away.

‘I tell you what,’ Lauren said. ‘We’ll go over to the all-weather pitches together and meet Kerry after practice. She probably won’t get so angry if I’m there.’

James looked at his watch and shook his head. ‘It’s too soon. I haven’t worked out what I’m gonna say to her.’

‘You can’t keep running away,’ Rat said.

‘Maybe not,’ James admitted. ‘But right now it’s the only strategy I’ve got.’

*

James wandered back towards his room and popped in to visit Bruce along the way. He was lying on his bed with a cast over the bottom of his leg.

‘How’s it feel?’ James asked.

Bruce broke into a big grin. ‘You’ll find out when Kerry catches up with you.’

‘I could have done with you as a bodyguard.’

‘Sorry, old bean. Takes me ten minutes just to hobble into the bathroom for a piss at the moment. Kevin Sumner came to visit this morning; he seemed pretty chuffed with himself.’

‘He’s a good kid,’ James nodded. ‘I hope he gets through basic training.’

James’ mobile rang. He flipped it open and heard Dana’s voice.

‘Where are you?’

‘Bruce’s room.’

‘I’m outside your door,’ Dana said. ‘We need to talk.’

James shut his phone and told Bruce that he had to go. He smiled when he saw Dana standing in the corridor in her black CHERUB T-shirt.

‘Looks good,’ James said.

‘Yours too,’ Dana nodded.

James felt awkward as they stepped into his room. He’d have liked time to think everything through, but he didn’t have that luxury.

‘Is me and you going to be a thing, or what?’ Dana asked.

Much to James’ surprise, he knew the answer as soon as Dana asked. He’d been going out with Kerry on and off for two years and the whole thing had gone stale. They’d had a lot of good times, but it just wasn’t much fun any more.

‘You were there for me when it mattered,’ James told her. ‘Me and Kerry have been drifting apart almost since we got back together in April. It just took you to make me realise.’

Dana smiled. ‘I’m kind of cranky, you know. I mean, I like being on my own quite a lot of the time and I’ve had a few boyfriends, but none of them have lasted more than a few weeks …’

James shrugged. ‘We’ll see how it goes. No pressure.’

‘And Kerry?’

‘I’ll have to face up to her, I guess.’

‘I’ve not eaten since breakfast,’ Dana said. ‘Do you fancy going down for an early dinner?’

‘I could go for that. Then we could come back here and watch a movie or something. I’ve got …’ James stumbled. ‘You know, I just realised I don’t know what kinds of films, or music, or stuff you like.’

‘I read more than I watch,’ Dana shrugged. ‘Two or three books a week.’

‘I read a book once,’ James grinned. ‘It was about this dog called Spot and he was learning all the different colours.’

‘The disturbing thing is that I don’t even think you’re lying. I’ll lend you one of my copies of
Lord Of The Rings
.’

James grimaced. ‘Isn’t that about twenty million pages long? And besides, I’ve seen the movies so I already know what happens.’

‘Do you like swimming?’ Dana asked. ‘The leisure pool, with all the slides and the water spouts?’

‘I could go for that,’ James nodded. ‘Kerry hates it because the little kids make so much noise.’

‘Doesn’t hurt to act like a kid once in a while,’ Dana smiled. ‘And if the little dudes get on my nerves I just thump ’em.’

*

The dining-room never got busy much before 5 p.m., but there were still enough people in the room for James to feel like everyone was staring as he stood in line with Dana. He stacked up his plate with roast potatoes and veg whilst the server cut his slices of turkey and beef.

The choice of table was tricky. James didn’t know how he and Dana would be received at his usual table, where Kerry and all his mates sat. But on the other hand, if he let Dana lead the way to the small table at the back where she always sat on her own, it would be like sending a signal to his mates that he wasn’t part of their gang any more. On yet another hand, if he sat in the corner he’d be far less likely to encounter Kerry. On the other hand to the other hand, Kerry might be even more annoyed if she thought he was hiding from her …

‘Why are you standing there like a lemon?’ Dana said, as she led the way towards James’ regular table.

‘Do you want to sit there?’ James asked edgily.

‘You always sit here,’ Dana said, as she pulled out a chair. ‘You’re not ashamed of me, are you?’

‘Don’t be daft,’ James said.

But it hardly mattered whilst none of the others were around. The queue for food steadily increased as James and Dana ate their roast. It was mostly little red-shirt kids. They tended to eat earlier because they finished lessons early and didn’t get as much homework as the older kids.

Bruce was the first to join James and Dana. He was using two crutches, so one of the kitchen staff carried his tray to the table.

‘Seen Kerry yet?’ Bruce grinned, with all the tact of a wrecking ball. ‘Are you two an item now or what?’

‘We’re giving it a go,’ James nodded.

By the time James and Dana had moved on to their chocolate trifle and brownies, the queue was out of the dining-room door. Lauren, Bethany, Rat, Andy and a bunch of Lauren’s other mates had settled at two adjacent tables and started chattering amongst themselves. James tried thinking unscary thoughts when Gabrielle and Kerry came in.

‘Fancy another dessert?’ Dana asked, as she ran a finger around the inside of her bowl.

James looked over his shoulder and saw that the dessert counter was free. ‘Go on, you talked me into it,’ he said, rubbing his belly as Shak came over to the table, accompanied by the identical twins Callum and Connor.

Dana got up to grab the extra desserts as James’ three friends sat down.

‘One of you sit this side of me,’ James said anxiously, as he realised that the only two vacant seats were next to him.

‘Why would we want to do that?’ Callum – or maybe it was Connor – grinned.

‘Where have you two scrotes been anyway?’ James asked. ‘You’re almost as dark as Shak.’

‘Down under, mate,’ the other twin said, in what was easily the worst Australian accent James had ever heard. ‘Heroin, bent cops and speedboat chases. All in a day’s work for two heroic young studs such as ourselves.’