CHERUB: Guardian Angel (10 page)

‘I can think of some things we can do in a park,’ Grace said, as she put her hand on Ryan’s jeans and studied the dot of blood where the Taser barb had snagged him.

28 March (11 days later)

It was quarter to eleven on a Wednesday night and every surface in Ryan’s bedroom was covered with torn-out magazine articles, hastily scribbled notes and web printouts, plus tape, glue and scissors.

Alfie was crawling around the floor in a grubby Karate suit, cutting out a picture of bashed-up cars floating down an overflowing river. As he glued it to a big sheet of paper with ‘Freak Weather’ written at the top in marker pen, Ryan came through the door holding a plastic A3 folio case.

‘I got Grace and Chloe’s project!’ Ryan said excitedly.

Like Alfie, Ryan was in Karate kit and the lads stood over the end of Ryan’s bed to study the folio’s contents.

‘Finally something useful out of you getting off with Grace.’

Ryan looked anxious. ‘She’s on that late night training thing. So I swiped it and she’ll
murder
me if she knows we’re copying her stuff, so let’s not hang about.’

Ryan opened the folio’s plastic catch and was simultaneously awed and irritated by the girls’ weather project. The first page was a carefully drawn cartoon of a hurricane with dustbins, stick-men and stick-dogs getting blown around in the vortex.

‘They’re such swots,’ Alfie complained. ‘Our project’s gonna look so crap compared to this.’

Ryan shrugged. ‘Who gives a damn about humanities? Let’s just glue some shit on, rip off a couple of the girls’ articles and try getting to bed before midnight. I don’t care what mark we get as long as there’s a bunch of pages we can hand in to old cock face tomorrow morning.’

‘I’ve got fitness training first thing and we’re supposed to be going to the cinema tomorrow night,’ Alfie groaned. ‘I will be shattered.’

‘You’ll have to try catching up on your sleep during lessons,’ Ryan joked.

Ryan had left his door slightly ajar and twenty-two-year-old Beatha Johannsson leaned into the room. The sturdy brunette was a former CHERUB agent, whose career ended at age fourteen when a mission led to her face being all over the national news. She couldn’t work undercover after that, but after a forced exile in Switzerland and university in Canada she’d recently returned to campus to work as a carer.

‘Why aren’t you two in bed?’ Beatha asked, stepping in and then hurriedly wrapping an arm over her nose. ‘Jesus, it
reeks
in here. Open the windows, then take showers!’

‘We’ve
got
to finish this project,’ Ryan explained, as he dragged a pillow over the girls’ project to hide his intention to copy.

Beatha crouched down and looked at some of the sheets that Ryan and Alfie had put together with Pritt Stick and poor scissor skills.

‘This looks really shoddy,’ she said. ‘Why’d you leave it until the last minute?’

Ryan shrugged. ‘Forgot . . . Kinda.’

‘Well you’re not gonna get it done tonight, anyway,’ Beatha said. ‘Ryan, you’re wanted in the meeting room downstairs.’

‘Who?’ he asked anxiously.

Nobody had been fingered for the canal incident, but even after nearly two weeks Ryan and his friends still feared that news would creep back to campus.

‘I don’t know,’ Beatha said. ‘I was heading up and Zara asked me to get you out of bed.’

Zara was CHERUB’s chairwoman.

‘Have I got to shower first?’ Ryan asked.

‘Sounded urgent, so I’d go straight down.’

Ryan smiled pleadingly and put his hands together in mock prayer. ‘Then
please
can you get me an extension for my project. After all, I had to go on mission business.’

Beatha could be a soft touch, but she snorted as she grabbed Chloe and Grace’s folio off the bed. ‘You should have finished your project days ago, but I will give you a break by taking this back and not reporting you for copying. Especially as you both so kindly agreed to vacuum the entire sixth-floor hallway and stairs this Sunday morning.’

Alfie looked mystified. ‘We did?’

Ryan couldn’t believe Alfie was being so dense. ‘She’s
making
us.’

‘Oh!’ Alfie said, then his face sank. ‘Ryan, I’ll see how much of this I can get done on my own, but try and get back as soon as you can, yeah?’

‘And open a goddamned window,’ Beatha said, as she headed back into the hallway.

Ryan hurriedly swapped his sweaty Karate suit for a cleanish hoodie and combat trousers and pushed black-soled feet into boots before getting the lift down to the ground-floor meeting room.

As it was just him being called down, he doubted it was anything to do with the canal incident but it was still a relief to step into the conference room to find CHERUB’s chairwoman Zara Asker sitting at the table with Amy Collins and a Texan CIA agent named Ted Brasker.

Ted had played the role of Ryan and Amy’s dad on their California mission and Ryan cracked a big smile. Firstly because Ted was a nice guy, but mainly because his presence guaranteed this was nothing to do with the canal punch-up.

‘You’re sprouting!’ Ted said, as the ex-US Marine locked tattooed arms around Ryan and gave his back a solid thump. ‘A good couple of inches since I last saw you.’

‘Doesn’t smell so good, mind,’ Amy added, as she wafted her hand in front of her face.

Zara laughed and pointed at the far end of the table. ‘Sit up that end, what
have
you been doing?’

‘I’d shower if I had time,’ Ryan protested. ‘Today I had fitness training and a session in the dojo, and I’m gonna get nailed by old cock fa—’

Zara looked shocked and sat bolt upright. ‘Pardon me?’ she snapped.

‘Err . . . nailed by Mr Gilligan,’ Ryan spluttered, as the colour drained out of his face. ‘I have to get my humanities project finished by the morning or he’ll kill me.’

Zara looked stern. ‘Why do you boys
always
leave homework until the last minute?’

‘You’ve had plenty of time for Grace, so I hear,’ Amy teased.

Ted burst out laughing. ‘Oh, you’ve got a girlfriend now. Is she a hottie?’

Ryan didn’t answer, but he squirmed with embarrassment as the three adults smirked.

‘I take it I’m here for
some
reason?’ Ryan said irritably.

‘You still haven’t heard from Ethan?’ Zara asked.

Ryan shook his head. ‘It’s been fifteen days.’

‘Well there’s good news and bad on that score, Ryan,’ Amy said, as she slid some papers down the long meeting table. ‘That’s a copy of a fax intercepted by the Echelon communications monitoring network. It was sent to the Kremlin from an educational consultant named Douglas Miles.’

Ryan skimmed through the text:

Dear Mrs Aramov . . . Pleased to say that based upon his academic credentials your grandson Ethan has been accepted into DESA (Dubai English Speaking Academy) without the requirement for an entrance exam.

Although this new school has less rigorous entry requirements than its more established rivals, I am well acquainted with the senior staff there and can assure you that Ethan will receive a most excellent education . . .

Ryan checked the top of the letter and was pleased to see it had been sent on March 25th.

‘That’s last Friday,’ Ryan said, as he cracked a smile. ‘So I’ve still got no idea why Ethan’s stopped using the Internet, but at least it looks like nothing serious has happened to him.’

Amy nodded. ‘And based upon some other faxes, plus information we’ve intercepted from Douglas Miles’ office, the plan is for Ethan to start at DESA on the first day of summer term. That’s Monday April 16th. A little over two weeks from now.’

Zara took over the conversation. ‘The best thing in that fax is that
the school has less rigorous entry requirements
. Our nightmare situation at CHERUB is when we have to try getting an agent into a popular or oversubscribed school. We can usually manage it, but never at two or three weeks’ notice. However, as
less rigorous entry requirements
basically means that the school is desperate and takes any kids whose parents are willing to pay the fees, we’re in luck.’

‘Isn’t it a bit of a heavy coincidence if I turn up there?’ Ryan said.

‘Not
you
, obviously,’ Amy said, smiling at the thought. ‘When Ethan arrives at DESA there are going to be two other new kids who we hope will become his new best friends. CHERUB agents of course. A boy to be his mate, and a girl who can stir up Ethan’s teenage hormones. You can work closely with them.’

‘But what can they find out that I don’t know already?’ Ryan asked.

Amy explained. ‘People your age can be fickle. We have to accept the possibility that Ethan has stopped communicating with you simply because he’s bored. Maybe he’s made a new friend in Kyrgyzstan. Maybe he’s been swept off his feet by that Natalka girl he mentions all the time in his MSN conversations.

‘Secondly, it’s worth sending in more agents because any information we can get about the Aramov Clan is incredibly important. Their planes supply arms that fuel wars in Africa, tons of drugs transported from growers in Afghanistan and South America to markets in Europe and America, plus counterfeit goods and hundreds of young girls to sex traffickers.’

Ted put the argument more concisely. ‘If you get the Aramovs’ transportation network, you cut the legs off of a dozen other crime syndicates. But the Aramovs have got powerful friends in China and Russia, and practically every senior cop, general and politician in Kyrgyzstan is in their pocket. So we
have
to tread delicately and Ethan is our only window into the top level of the Aramov organisation.’

‘Ryan, you’re the only person in this room who knows Ethan well,’ Zara said. ‘You know most of the kids your age on campus. So which boy and girl would you pick as good prospects to make friends with Ethan?’

Ryan shifted awkwardly in his chair. ‘People might get upset with me if they know I didn’t pick them.’

Zara nodded. ‘Whatever you say will stay in this room.’

‘Do they have to be experienced?’ Ryan asked.

Amy answered this one. ‘The mission looks standard at this stage, but you never know with these things. Your mission in California looked routine when it started, but that ended up with murders and explosions and all sorts.’

‘OK,’ Ryan said thoughtfully. ‘Ethan’s OK-looking, but he’s kinda skinny and he’s gonna know something’s weird if a really hot girl comes on to him. I’d go with someone like Ning. I mean, she’s not a dog, but she’s not smoking hot either.’

Zara interrupted. ‘Doesn’t Ning have previous with Leonid Aramov?’

Amy nodded. ‘Ning escaped from China via Kyrgyzstan. Leonid Aramov tortured Ning and killed her stepmother.’

‘But Ethan was in California at that time, so there’s no possible way that he could ever have seen Ning,’ Ryan said. ‘It’s not like Leonid Aramov is gonna be turning up at DESA for parents’ evenings, and I’d think Ning will be happy to get involved in any mission that might help bring down the people who killed her stepmother.’

Amy nodded in agreement. ‘Ning also did well in basic training, and the way she’s found friends and settled in since arriving on campus bodes well for her ability to become fast friends with Ethan.’

‘Ning it is then,’ Zara said, ‘as long as you’re certain that nobody will recognise her. And for the boy?’

‘It could be my mate Max, I guess,’ Ryan said. ‘I know he gets in heaps of trouble, but I’m sure Ethan would get his sense of humour.’

Zara seemed less sure, leaning forward and steepling her fingers. ‘I’d be very concerned about Max being able to focus on a slow-burning mission. I think he’ll make a good agent in the long run, but he’s yet to demonstrate that he can control his mischievous personality over a long mission.’

Ryan didn’t want to slag his friend off, but Zara probably had a point and he kept quiet.

‘Alfie then,’ Ryan said, as he realised that he was basically rolling off the names of his best friends. ‘He’s actually a year younger than me and Ethan, but he’s big so he can easily pass for thirteen.’

Zara was more positive about this idea and wagged her finger. ‘Yes!’ she said. ‘And that nice French accent of his would fit in perfectly at an international school.’

‘Plus Alfie plays the flute,’ Ryan said. ‘So even chess players and computer nerds will have something to look down on.’

‘Ted and I will work on mission briefings and backgrounds on the Aramov Clan for Alfie and Ning,’ Amy said. ‘I’ll need you to write a report containing everything you know about Ethan, Ryan, along with any strategies you can think of for Ning and Alfie to pal up with him.’

Ryan sighed. ‘I’m kinda busy,’ he said. ‘To get this done I’ll need you to give me a pass to get out of my humanities project?’

Zara rocked back in her chair and stared into Ryan’s eyes as if she was digging for some hidden truth.

‘One pass on the geography project and five one-lesson passes so that you’ve got time to write the report properly,’ Zara said, and then in a harsher tone accompanied by a wagging finger, ‘but I expect you to be
working
in those hours, not mucking about.’

Ryan was happy enough with a pass and getting out of five hours’ lessons, but he kept his involuntary grin under control.

‘Oh and one other thing before you go up to bed,’ Zara said. ‘From now on you shower after
every
training session no matter how busy your schedule gets. Come in here stinking up my meeting room again and I’ll
personally
take you over to vehicle maintenance and hose you off in the car wash.’

13 April (two weeks later)

‘So you’re not shovelling horse manure any more?’ Natalka asked.

She was in the Kremlin lobby with Ethan, awaiting a car that was supposed to take them to Dordoi Bazaar.

‘Grandma’s put her foot down,’ Ethan explained. ‘Leonid didn’t want me going to school in Dubai, but she told the old fart to mind his own. I’ve had all the uniform delivered, bags are packed and I told Grandma that I needed to go into town for some deodorant and pens and stuff.’