‘Nightmare,’ James said.
‘You’re telling me,’ Ewart nodded. ‘It’s like the old question:
What happens when an irresistible force hits an immovable object?
We’re completely stuffed unless we get some solid evidence.’
‘What about if I went through your files on the investigation?’ James asked. ‘You never know, a fresh pair of eyes might make a difference.’
Ewart shook his head. ‘Sorry James, that’s a
big
no. I’m already getting flak from the MI5 bods saying that I’m unfit to investigate because I was involved in the operation and I’m the chairwoman’s husband. Letting MI5’s prime suspect sift through all my investigative work wouldn’t go down well at all.’
‘I guess I’ll leave you to it then,’ James said, as he stood up. ‘I’ve got a fitness session in the gym at eleven.’
‘I’ll try and keep you informed,’ Ewart said. ‘And don’t let rumours get under your skin. They’re baseless; nothing but flights of fancy.’
‘Just one other thing.’ James stood in the doorway. ‘Suppose that there’s no more evidence two or three months down the line when the investigation finishes. What happens to me?’
Ewart looked uncomfortable. ‘We have to be whiter than white, James. You know that.’
‘Meaning?’
‘Two people are dead and MI5 are doing their best to lay the blame at our door. If we can’t prove that you’re innocent, Zara won’t have much option but to ask you to leave CHERUB.’
‘So the rumours aren’t so far from the truth after all,’ James said dejectedly.
Lauren was lying on her bunk reading a problem page when Anna came in from school. She stood on the bottom rung of the ladder and waved a Toblerone.
‘For you,’ Anna smiled.
‘Cheers,’ Lauren said, as she grabbed the bar. ‘What’s this in aid of?’
‘Last night, with the telephone …’ Anna tailed off.
‘Don’t worry,’ Lauren said, as she offered Anna two bits of Toblerone. ‘You’ve never had your own phone. To be honest, I’d forgotten all about it.’
This wasn’t true. Lauren had spent half an hour trying to find a good place to put her replacement phone. She wanted it where Anna would be able to find it, but not somewhere so obvious that it made Anna suspicious of a trap.
‘Last night, I lied,’ Anna said. ‘I took your phone to call a friend in Russia.’
‘Why didn’t you use the phone in the hallway downstairs?’ Lauren asked, secure in the knowledge that this was also bugged.
Anna looked suspiciously over her shoulder, then stepped off the ladder and pushed the door shut. ‘I don’t want the care workers to trace the call,’ she whispered. ‘I lived in a children’s home in Russia. It wasn’t nice like here, no good clothes, not even a warm place to wash, and they’ll beat me if I go back. But I want to call my friend and see if Georgy is OK.’
‘Well I guess you can use mine,’ Lauren said. ‘It’s in my desk drawer.’
‘You’re a good friend,’ Anna smiled. ‘My English is rotten, it’s so nice having another Russian to talk to.’
Anna pulled the phone out of the drawer and flipped it open, but then stood staring at the keys. Lauren jumped off her bed with the last triangle of chocolate bulging in her cheek.
‘Give us,’ Lauren said. ‘Tell me the number.’
‘Two, six, one, two, seven, one.’
Lauren shook her head. ‘That won’t work, that’s just the local number. You need the area code and the country code for Russia.’
‘Pardon?’
‘Extra numbers,’ Lauren explained.
‘Where from?’
‘I can get them from the operator, as long as you know where the place you’re dialling is.’
Anna smacked herself on the forehead. ‘I’m so stupid,’ she gasped. ‘I’ve tried before from the phone box near school;
that’s
why it didn’t work.’
It took Lauren a couple of minutes to call the operator and get the correct codes for Nizhniy Novgorod and dial the number.
‘It’s ringing.’ Lauren handed the phone across to Anna.
‘Hello,’ Anna said, putting on a deep voice.
*
John Jones sat in his bed and breakfast half a kilometre away. He listened to Anna’s conversation, with a laptop spread on the bed in front of him. The computer was doing a reverse search of the Russian telephone directory, via a secure link to CHERUB campus.
‘Who is this?’ a woman asked.
‘My name is Yasha,’ Anna said. ‘I’m a school friend of Polya’s. Can I speak with her?’
‘Polya isn’t here any more,’ the woman answered sourly.
‘Oh,’ Anna said, slipping into her normal voice for a moment. ‘I have a book she lent me. Can you tell me where she is?’
‘I don’t know,’ the woman snapped. ‘I’m not a secretary.’
An address flashed up in Cyrillic letters on John Jones’ laptop:
Underage Care Unit 7
The Municipal Building
Main Square
Nizhniy Novgorod
Russia
‘She lent me a book,’ Anna repeated. ‘I’d like to give it back to her.’
The woman made a sound like a door creaking and followed it with a knowing laugh. ‘Anna,’ she said slyly. ‘I thought I’d seen the last of you.’
The call abruptly went dead.
*
Anna turned ghostly white as she snapped the phone shut.
‘My friend is gone,’ she choked. ‘I hoped she’d tell me about Georgy, but I suppose they sent her away too.’
‘If it’s a children’s home, they’ll look after him, won’t they?’
‘Georgy is cute,’ Anna said, matter-of-factly. ‘Not many people want kids our age, but now I’m out of the way he’ll be adopted easily. I’ll never see him again.’
Lauren put her arm around Anna’s back as a tear ran down her face.
‘They mustn’t send me back there,’ Anna sobbed. ‘So keep quiet about this, OK?’
*
It was dark and bitterly cold as James headed out of his last lesson and towards the training compound. Bruce ran up behind and slapped him on the back.
‘How’s your gob?’ he asked.
‘Not bad,’ James told him. ‘Bit of a fat lip.’
‘Stuart Russell’s in my woodwork class,’ Bruce grinned. ‘I grabbed hold of a chisel, went up to him and said:
You got a problem with me, sunshine?
All the colour went out of his face. I swear, he looked like he was gonna shit his pants.’
‘Is Stuart hard?’ James asked. ‘He was acting pretty confident.’
Bruce shook his head. ‘Stuart’s all mouth. Lauren could probably take him.’
James laughed. ‘Lauren could probably take me. She might be little, but you just try getting hold of her.’
‘Anyway,’ Bruce said, ‘stop smiling. We’ve got a job to do.’
Kevin was waiting when they reached the wooden obstacle, dressed for the cold weather in a thick jacket, gloves and woolly hat.
‘Think you’re pretty smart, don’t you?’ Bruce said, as he grabbed Kevin by the scruff of his jacket and squeezed him against a wooden post. ‘Telling your cousin all about us. Trying to make trouble.’
‘I was just talking,’ Kevin squirmed. ‘I didn’t know he’d come after you …’
‘You pull another stunt like that and I’ll personally find the most disgusting toilet on campus and shove your head down it. Understand?’
‘Yes, sir,’ Kevin said meekly.
‘We saw progress last night,’ James said, as he reached into his jacket for a key Mr Pike had given him and slotted it into a grey box on the post above Kevin’s head. ‘Now let’s see how you get along with this baby.’
As James turned the key, banks of floodlights came on, illuminating the wooden framework of CHERUB’s sprawling height obstacle. The mixture of towers, planks, poles and rope swings built amidst tall trees was a tough challenge for anyone. If you were scared of heights, it was your worst nightmare.
‘Looking a bit pale there, Kev,’ James grinned.
He felt bad as Kevin fought back a sob. James’ instinct was to give him a hug and tell him that he’d be OK, but they’d already made one breakthrough by being ruthless. They couldn’t drop the façade now.
‘Cry baby,’ Bruce sneered, pinching Kevin’s cheek. ‘How are you ever gonna make it as a cherub if you start bawling before you even try?’
James was pleased to see Kevin choke back his tears, grit his teeth and show the same defiant expression as he’d done after jumping off the roof the night before.
The obstacle started with a line of rope ladders, each of which led up to a wooden platform suspended between two huge trees more than twenty metres off the ground.
‘Don’t look down,’ James said, as Kevin nervously planted his boot on the bottom rung.
James remembered how frightened he’d been the first time he’d gone over the obstacle. As Bruce raced ahead on another ladder, James followed a few rungs behind Kevin. He was a little slow and he stopped moving when the wind made the ropes sway, but James thought he was doing OK for a first timer.
In some ways, it was easier going over the obstacle in darkness because you were much less aware of your surroundings.
‘Where’s the railing?’ Kevin asked, when he reached the platform.
‘There ain’t one,’ Bruce said, with a flourish in his voice that made James wonder if Bruce actually enjoyed making Kevin suffer.
James could remember his own first time on the platform, twenty metres up and less than two boot lengths wide. ‘If that plank was on the ground, you’d walk up and down it all day long and not fall over,’ he explained, as he rested a reassuring hand on Kevin’s shoulder.
Bruce took the lead on to the next section of the course, which comprised two long scaffold poles stretching across the ten-metre gap to the next platform.
‘Rest a hand on each pole and hook your boots around at the back. Then crawl,’ Bruce explained.
‘Are there nets under here?’ Kevin asked.
‘You’ll find out if you fall off,’ James barked. ‘Move your skinny butt.’
Again, Bruce led the way across and on to the next platform, which was square and had a wooden fence built around two sides. The metal poles were freezing cold on James’ fingers. Kevin moved quickly, until he was about two-thirds of the way across and his right boot slipped. He managed to tighten his grip and hook his ankle back around the pole, but it had spooked him and he froze up and started sniffling again.
‘Jesus Christ,’ Bruce screamed. ‘We know who we’ll have playing the fairy in this year’s nativity play.’
James was concerned because Kevin had stopped moving. If he fell, he would hit a net before the ground, but it would wreck his confidence and the branches would cut him to pieces on the way down. And it wasn’t just that James felt sorry for Kevin and wanted him to succeed: his History coursework was at stake as well.
‘Shift it,’ James said, as he took his hand off the rail and gently tapped Kevin on the bum.
Kevin shuffled forward again, but he was crying his eyes out. Bruce grabbed hold of him as soon as he was within reach and slammed him against the wooden fence.
‘If I hear one more sob,’ Bruce said, as he pinched Kevin’s nose and twisted it out of shape, ‘I’ll give you something that’s worth sobbing for.’
‘I can’t do this any more,’ Kevin squealed. ‘Please let me down.’
Bruce grabbed the collar of Kevin’s jacket and dangled him over the open side of the platform. ‘You wanna get down?’
‘Don’t let me go,’ Kevin screamed. ‘
Please
don’t let me go.’
‘Baby,’ Bruce said, ‘I can’t put up with your racket any more.’ And he let go of Kevin’s jacket and shoved him off the platform.
James gasped as he heard the small body screaming through the branches. ‘What are you
doing
?’
Bruce shrugged. ‘He’ll hit the nets.’
‘But they’re for emergencies. He could easily put his back out or something.’
Bruce tutted. ‘James, we’re supposed to be ruthless. You’re carrying on like you want to marry the kid.’
‘But there’s ruthless and there’s
this
, Bruce. You threw him off the platform,
psycho
.’
‘Me and Kyle used to do it all the time when we were red-shirts,’ Bruce said dismissively, as he put his foot out over the edge and leaned forward. ‘Nighty night.’
James watched Bruce disappear through the branches. As James looked down, he was relieved to catch a glimpse of Kevin stumbling out of a net to safety, crying but apparently undamaged. Then Bruce screamed out in pain.
‘Bruce?’ James yelled frantically as he looked down. ‘Are you OK?’
‘Do I sodding well sound OK?’ Bruce yelled back.
James crouched down and felt under the platform for one of the emergency ropes. Once he’d undone a leather buckle, a length of knotted rope dropped down towards the ground.
‘I’m coming,’ James shouted, as he lowered his boots off the side and stepped down on to a knot.
Bruce kept moaning as James scrambled down the rope. He raced up towards Bruce, who was crumpled on the ground.
‘What happened?’
‘God knows,’ Bruce groaned, ‘but my leg is killing me.’
Kevin stepped up behind James. ‘I saw,’ the younger boy sniffed, as he pointed up towards a section of black netting with a gap in it. ‘His boot got caught in the hole and his leg made this massive crunch.’
‘Run to the medical unit and get someone to drive straight up here,’ James said. ‘I think it’s just a dislocated joint, but it might be broken.’
‘Gotcha,’ Kevin said, before he sprinted off.
James knelt over Bruce and grimaced when he realised that Bruce’s boot was almost pointing backwards.
‘Actually, I think that is broken,’ James said, recoiling at the thought that it was probably even more painful than it looked.
‘If you …’ Bruce croaked weakly.
‘Eh?’ James said, as he moved his ear closer to his friend’s mouth.
‘I’ve jumped off that platform a hundred times,’ Bruce moaned. ‘And if you say
I told you so
, I swear to god I’ll kick every single tooth out of your head.’
James broke into a giant smile. ‘I told you so, Brucey boy.’
Lauren was woken by her MC Hammer ring tone at three in the morning. She leaned way over the side of her bed and grabbed the phone off her desk. It was a man’s voice; someone she didn’t know, speaking in Russian.
‘Is that Anna?’
‘No,’ Lauren said. ‘But she’s here, do you want to speak with her?’