Divine Madness (2 page)

Rather than arresting the young suspect, it has been decided to infiltrate Xu’s family in the hope that more senior figures within Help Earth can be uncovered. (Excerpt from a CHERUB mission briefing for Kyle Blueman, Kerry Chang and Bruce Norris.)

Hong Kong, February 2006

Kerry Chang broke into a jog when she spotted Rebecca Xu leaning against a lamppost waiting for her. The two thirteen-year-olds wore school uniform – blue blouse, navy skirt and pullover, white tights – and were mixed up with hundreds of others dressed the same way. Some were heading home alone, some stood in groups gossiping, while others cut precariously into four lanes of snarled up traffic, trying to catch a double-decker bus parked at a stop on the opposite side of the road.

‘Good day?’ Kerry asked, speaking in Cantonese.

Rebecca shrugged. ‘School’s school, you know how it goes.’

Kerry knew how she felt. When an undercover mission drags on, the person you’re pretending to be starts getting mixed up with who you really are. She’d now been attending Prince of Wales School for six weeks and had settled into a rut.

Rebecca started walking.

‘Aren’t we waiting for Bruce?’ Kerry asked.

‘Detention,’ Rebecca smiled. ‘I thought you knew. Your brother’s such an idiot.’

‘
Step
brother,’ Kerry said. ‘No shared genes, thank you very much. What’s he gone and done now?’

‘Oh, just him and his stupid mates yapping all through maths class. Mr Lee chucked a mental and told them to come back after school.’

Kerry shook her head. ‘I wish I was in your class. I’ve got nobody to talk to all day.’

Rebecca smiled. ‘But we’d probably get in trouble for chatting all the time.’

The air-conditioned school was always chilly, but it was sunny out and Kerry got hot as they headed home. She loosened her tie, then pulled her sweater over her head and knotted it around her waist. The fifteen-minute walk took the two girls through a maze of high buildings, cramped streets and elevated walkways choked by fumes from speeding traffic.

Home for both girls was a recently built tower block, twenty storeys high. It had five identical cousins, the last of which was still under construction. Hong Kong’s sea air and tropical climate eats buildings, and despite its newness, the balconies stretching skywards already looked tatty.

In most wealthy countries, cramped apartment blocks like these would house the poor, but Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated cities in the world and this accommodation was mostly home to professional types. Rebecca’s family was typical: her father was a dentist and her mother part-owned a jeweller’s shop in an upscale mall.

The doors parted automatically as the girls passed into a muggy lobby. The security guard gave them a friendly nod from behind his desk.

‘Have you got much homework?’ Kerry asked, as they waited for the elevator up to the ninth floor, where they both lived.

‘A fair bit,’ Rebecca said. ‘We can do it together … Or surf the net, whatever.’

‘Cool,’ Kerry said. ‘But I’m gonna go in my place and lose the uniform first. I’ll see you round yours in ten minutes.’

*

The front door of the cramped apartment led directly into the kitchen. Kerry yawned as she stepped inside. She dumped her backpack on the floor and skidded her keys across the dining table. Assistant mission controller Chloe Blake leaned through the doorway leading into the living-room.

‘Hiya, Kerry. Where’s Bruce?’

‘Detention.’

‘Oh
 
great
,’ Chloe said, looking stressed.

‘What’s up?’

‘Are you doing homework with Rebecca tonight?’

Kerry nodded. ‘As soon as I’m changed. Why, what’s going on?’

‘You’d better look at this.’

Kerry moved through to the living-room. Sixteen-year-old Kyle Blueman – Kerry’s other stepbrother for the purposes of this mission – was sitting on the couch dressed in shorts and a T-shirt.

‘No school?’ Kerry asked.

‘Clyde Xu skipped out of our English class this morning,’ Kyle explained. ‘I followed him down to the harbour, but I had to keep my distance and lost him at a busy crossing. John picked up a couple of mobile calls in the surveillance suite back at the hotel, but they didn’t tell us much. All we know is that Clyde met with someone at an Arby’s in the business district around lunchtime.’

‘Any idea who?’ Kerry interrupted.

‘Not even a name,’ Kyle said. ‘But after the meeting, Clyde came back here to the Xus’ apartment. We’ve got it on video.’

Chloe flipped up the lid of her laptop, which was connected to a satellite antenna on the balcony. She double clicked, opening up a video file which Kerry leaned in to watch. The fisheye image was from an ultra wide angle camera that Bruce had sneaked into the light fitting above Clyde Xu’s bed four weeks earlier.

‘When was this recorded?’ Kerry asked.

‘A couple of hours ago,’ Chloe replied.

The screen showed Clyde Xu walking into his tiny bedroom. He sat on his bed, then pulled off his trainers and school shirt, revealing a muscular chest.

‘He’s
 
so
 
fit,’ Kerry said.

‘Totally,’ Kyle grinned. ‘Cutest little terrorist I’ve ever seen.’

Chloe tutted. ‘Can you two keep the raging hormones under control and concentrate on what you’re watching?’

Clyde Xu pulled a small, cellophane-wrapped package out of his school backpack, then leaned forwards. He opened a chest of drawers and tucked it under a pile of socks.

‘Any idea what that is?’ Kerry asked.

‘Impossible to tell,’ Chloe said. ‘But you don’t go to all that trouble to meet someone and come back with something you could have bought from the Seven Eleven, do you? Can you try and get a look at it, maybe take some photos?’

Kerry looked uncertain. ‘Couldn’t we wait until tomorrow and go in when the Xus are out at work and school?’

‘It would be easier,’ Chloe said. ‘But that’s fifteen or sixteen hours away. Who’s to say Clyde won’t have passed the package on to someone else by then? Knowing what’s in that package now might be the difference between foiling an attack and hundreds of innocent people losing their lives.’

‘Well,’ Kerry said, shaking her head, ‘it’s gonna be tricky without Bruce there keeping an eye out. He’s
 
such
 
a knob, getting himself in trouble on the one day we need him.’

Chloe clicked a few icons on the laptop screen, making the display switch to a live feed from the Xus’ apartment. Between them, Kerry and Bruce had managed to place a miniature camera and microphone in every room.

‘Well,’ Chloe said, as she flipped between the live pictures from six different cameras. ‘Rebecca is in her room, Clyde is on the computer in his parents’ room and we can rely on Mum and Dad not being home before seven o’clock.’

Kerry nodded. ‘You can’t get Clyde off that PC once he’s online. Rebecca always has to fight with him when she wants to go and play Sims Two.’

‘Do you think you’ll be safe going into the room without Bruce covering you from outside?’

Kerry shrugged. ‘I can probably talk my way out if they catch me in the room, but if I’m sitting there taking pictures of whatever he’s got hidden in that drawer, our cover’s totally blown.’

‘What do we do if the package turns out to be a bomb?’ Kyle asked. ‘If it is, Clyde could be planting it at any time. In just a few hours, or something.’

‘I doubt it’s tonight,’ Chloe said. ‘Don’t forget the second meeting.’

‘What meeting?’ Kerry asked.

‘Something John picked up in one of Clyde’s mobile calls,’ Chloe explained. ‘He’s got a meeting tonight at eight o’clock.’

‘Where?’

‘No idea where or who, Kerry. But groups like Help Earth keep information on potential attacks separate. One person deals with the device, another knows the target and the attacker is only given the whole picture at the last minute. That way, the plan isn’t compromised if anyone is caught.’

Kerry nodded. ‘So, all these meetings mean the attack has to be coming soon.’

‘Almost certainly within the next seventy-two hours,’ Chloe said.

‘What if Clyde isn’t the attacker?’ Kyle asked.

‘We’ve had this discussion,’ Chloe said, a touch wearily. ‘Xu is a sixteen-year-old with no specialist knowledge. His only use to Help Earth is as a lightning rod: an unlikely suspect who can take some of the risks that more senior people don’t fancy.’

‘Right,’ Kerry said. ‘I’ll hook a two-way radio up under my T-shirt. As soon as I get in Clyde’s room I’ll fix it in my ear.

You guys watch on the video and speak to me if you see someone coming.’

Chloe gave Kerry a friendly rub on the back. ‘You’d better hurry up and get changed before Rebecca starts wondering where you’ve got to.’

Rebecca’s bedroom was a windowless box, so the two girls always did their homework in the Xus’ living-room. Kerry lay on the floor, with her books spread over a sheepskin rug, while Rebecca sprawled on a smart leather couch with one eye watching MTV.

‘Oooh, Busted,’ Rebecca said, grabbing the remote and turning the sound up loud.

Kerry looked up from her maths exercise book and shook her head. ‘I can’t believe you still like them. They’re so last year.’

‘Last year, next year, Matt Jay is still hot.’

Kerry giggled. ‘Not as hot as your big brother, Clyde.’

Rebecca screwed up her face. ‘
Kindly
 
keep your warped fantasies about my brother to yourself, Kerry. Besides, he’s only interested in saving bluebottle dolphins, or standing outside the American embassy with some dopey placard. I don’t think he’d know what to do with a girl if you gave him one.’

‘Bottle
nose
 
dolphins,’ Kerry corrected, as she stood up. ‘If you’re listening to that racket, I’m going to the loo.’

Kerry guessed the Busted video lasted three-and-a-half minutes. Rebecca wouldn’t budge while it was on, but she needed to know what Clyde was up to as well. She cut out of the living-room, took two paces down a hallway and stepped through the open door of Mr and Mrs Xu’s bedroom. Clyde sat at a desk between two wardrobes, totally wrapped in a game of Doom III, with gunfire roaring out of the speakers.

‘Ahem,’ Kerry said, noisily clearing her throat as she stepped up beside Clyde.

‘What?’

Kerry smiled, with a hint of flirting, as she pushed a strand of hair away from her face. ‘I like that T-shirt, Clyde. It always looks nice on you.’

‘I can’t pause this game,’ Clyde said irritably, as he switched weapons and unleashed a barrage of rockets. ‘I’m playing an online death match. What is it you want?’

‘We won’t be getting our internet set up until my dad finishes his old job and moves in with us. I was hoping I could do an e-mail to my old mates back in London.’

‘They’ve got internet in the library at school, you know,’ Clyde said.

Kerry backed off a step and made herself sound wounded. ‘OK,’ she said weakly. ‘I’ll do it at school, I suppose.’

Clyde sensed that Kerry was upset and briefly snatched his eyes away from the screen. ‘Look, after this game, OK? It’ll be ten minutes or so, I’ll give you a shout when I’ve finished.’

Perfect
, Kerry thought as she brushed her hand against Clyde’s shoulder. ‘Thank you, Clyde.’

She turned on her socked feet and passed through the kitchen, confident that she had two uninterrupted minutes to get a look at the mysterious package. There was a short hallway leading from the kitchen towards Clyde and Rebecca’s tiny bedrooms. The bathroom door was directly opposite.

Kerry leaned into the bathroom and tugged on the light cord to make it look like she was inside, then cut a quick glance over her shoulder, before slipping into Clyde’s room. Her heart rate bounced as she pushed open the door, flipped on the light switch, pulled a tiny earpiece from inside her T-shirt and plugged it into her ear.

‘Chloe, can you hear me?’ Kerry whispered.

Chloe’s reply came through the earpiece with a soothing tone. ‘Don’t worry; I’ve got your back. You’ll know the second either of them moves.’

‘Mind’s gone blank,’ Kerry said nervously. ‘Which drawer was it?’

‘Second one down.’

Kerry quietly pulled open Clyde’s drawer and slid her hand amongst the balled up socks until her fingers touched the package. She made a mental note of its exact position, before pulling it out and placing it on top of the cabinet.

‘OK,’ Kerry whispered, as she unravelled the plastic bag wrapped around the package and glanced inside. She immediately recognised the contents, having used identical equipment during basic training. ‘Looks like four bars of plastic explosive – probably C4 – and two self-contained detonators. I can’t tell what type they are just from looking.’

The explosives looked like grey plasticine and the two sophisticated detonators would make turning it into a bomb a snip: simply mould the explosive to shape, put it where you want to – inside a car, under a desk, whatever – push in the detonators and your bomb is complete.