As soon as Ryan had room to move, he brought his knees up.
‘Ooof!’ Alfie moaned, as Ryan’s kneecap connected with his balls. ‘Low blow!’
With Theo driving him sideways, and Ryan bucking underneath, Max wound up in a heap in the grass. Alfie tried getting his arms around Theo’s waist, but only got whacked with the dustbin lid for his trouble.
Ryan started scrambling forwards, crawling at first but finding his feet. Max grabbed Ryan’s boot and managed to unlace it but he was soon up and running.
‘You saved my butt,’ Ryan told his little brother as he scrambled off. Theo looked extremely proud of himself.
Alfie was still groaning and holding his balls, and Max didn’t fancy his chances going after Ryan and Theo on his own. So the two brothers made it over a couple of hundred metres of clear ground before diving into a copse of trees.
‘Did you see what happened to Leon and Daniel?’ Ryan asked.
‘I saw the girls going after them.’
Ryan nodded. ‘I don’t fancy their chances, especially against Ning.’
‘It’s bogus,’ Theo complained. ‘The other team are all fifteen – well, Alfie’s fourteen but he’s enormous.’
‘Life’s not fair,’ Ryan said. ‘That’s what they’re trying to teach us.’
‘So what now?’ Theo asked. ‘Shall we try to help the twins?’
Ryan shook his head. ‘Even if we caught up with them, our chances aren’t good. I say we stick together, cover as much ground as we can. The other team is bigger and stronger, and the only way to even up the odds is by getting our hands on a gun and some ammo before they do.’
7. LAUNDRY
Idris Secure Training Centre
‘It’s not difficult,’ Chloe Cohen said, as she ambled into the laundry room, dressed in an England rugby shirt, Adidas tracksuit bottoms and a pair of flip-flops.
Chloe’s fourteen years had been a succession of abuse and disaster, that had finally got her locked up after she’d got high and burned down a house owned by her stepdad. Her companion Izzy was thirteen, but seemed more like eleven. She was doing time after stealing chemicals from her school science lab and brewing poison tea for her parents and older sister.
As Izzy put a plastic laundry basket down on the floor in front of a washing machine, Chloe dipped a scoop into a giant box of powder.
‘Open the drawer on the front.’
Izzy opened the drawer and Chloe tipped in the powder, with a few sprinkles hitting the floor.
‘Clothes in,’ Chloe said. ‘Close the door and set to thirty-degree wash. Push start.’
Izzy stepped back from the machine nervously, then turned to Chloe and gave a relieved smile when it started gurgling.
‘Takes an hour,’ Chloe said. ‘I’ll come back and show you how to do the dryers when it’s done.’
‘Hello, hello!’ Fay Hoyt said.
Now fifteen, Fay wore battered jeans and a black T-shirt that stretched over muscular shoulders. Chloe backed up towards one of the machines and Izzy detected her angst and did the same.
‘Is this the new girl?’ Fay asked, looking down her nose as she took a step nearer to Izzy. ‘Got on the six o’clock news for trying to poison her whole family?’
Chloe narrowed her eyes. ‘Well, you tried to kill a cop.’
‘I tried to get away,’ Fay said. ‘If I’d tried to kill Constable Shitface, he’d be dead.’
‘You act so tough,’ Chloe spat. ‘But I’m not scared of you.’
Fay laughed, then threw a punch. It stopped well short of Chloe’s cheek, but she jumped backwards, making Fay howl with laughter.
‘Nah. You’re not scared of me at all, are you?’
As Fay moved in again, Chloe made a clumsy lunge. Fay snatched Chloe’s flying wrist and bent back her fingers, while using her other hand to slap her face. Chloe sprawled backwards over a washing machine before Fay pulled her up and shoved her head first towards the dryers.
‘Stay where you are or I’ll kick your head in,’ Fay warned, before turning towards Izzy.
The petite thirteen-year-old had backed into a corner stacked with powder boxes. Fay pointed at the floor tiles in front of her and growled.
‘Get here.’
Izzy was trembling.
‘Don’t make me come and get you.’
‘Leave her alone,’ Chloe shouted. ‘You’re twice her size.’
Izzy was still too scared to move forward, so Fay stepped up, grabbed Izzy around the back of the neck and pushed her head against the top of a washing machine. Then she wound Izzy’s long red hair around her wrist and pulled it painfully tight.
‘What have you got?’ Fay asked.
‘What?’
Fay smiled. ‘If I go to your room and you give me something nice, we’ll be best friends and I won’t have to hurt you.’
‘Clothes?’ Izzy suggested.
‘Bonehead,’ Fay spat. ‘I’m not going to fit in your stupid midget clothes, am I, you stupid midget?’
‘Don’t give her anything,’ Chloe shouted. ‘She’s a psycho! She won’t stop.’
‘Let’s go to your room and see,’ Fay said.
Fay moved towards the door, dragging Izzy by her hair. The hallway outside was painted custard yellow and had prison-style doors off either side. At least one girl saw what was going on, but kept her head down as Izzy was manhandled halfway down the corridor to the cell she shared with Chloe.
‘You’d better have something decent,’ Fay shouted.
Izzy looked desperately around her room and pointed at a novelty bedside clock, shaped like the dinosaur from Toy Story. Fay immediately knocked the clock off the bedside table and kicked it, while simultaneously keeping her grip on Izzy’s hair.
‘Just this once I’m gonna let you off,’ Fay announced. ‘But keep your trap shut and you’d better have something to give me next time I see you.’
As Fay unwound Izzy’s hair the cell door opened and two burly women charged in.
‘No, no, no!’ one of them shouted.
‘This isn’t on, young lady!’
Fay looked around and saw a couple of school books on the window ledge. ‘She went in my room and stole my books,’ Fay shouted.
As soon as Fay had been prised off, Izzy started sobbing. The two guards expertly grabbed Fay under the arms and put her in a restraining hold before marching her out of the cell. Chloe was right outside, wearing a smirk.
‘I know you grassed me up,’ Fay shouted. ‘You wait! You just wait.’
Chloe boldly gave Fay the finger before dashing into the cell to comfort little Izzy.
‘Hey, don’t cry,’ Chloe said soothingly. ‘Fay’s a nasty bitch, but the good news is they’re kicking her back out on the street in two weeks’ time.’
*
Thirty-five minutes into the exercise, Ryan and Theo had found guns and ammo, as well as an equipment pack containing binoculars, water bottles and a collapsible shovel. Theo stood in the fork of a tree using the binoculars, while Ryan covered from the ground.
‘It’s Grace,’ Theo whispered excitedly. ‘No weapon.’
Ryan smiled. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Less than fifty metres,’ Theo said, as he jumped down quietly.
‘You cover my back, I’ll try and take her out,’ Ryan said.
As Theo crouched down with his gun poised, Ryan set off at a steady pace, placing his boots carefully to avoid making any kind of noise. Paintball guns aren’t particularly accurate, so when he got to within twenty metres he went down on his knees and kept crawling. When he was ten metres away, Grace glanced at her watch and started to walk.
Ryan bobbed up and took a shot, but he somehow managed to completely miss. Grace heard the paint spattering a nearby tr
ee trunk and started to run. Ryan knew that moving out of cover into an open chase risked being led into an enemy trap, but he decided that chasing an unarmed opponent was too good an opportunity to give up.
Grace charged out on to open ground, with a vista of CHERUB campus’ main building half a kilometre away. As Grace vaulted a log, she caught the tip of her boot and fell flat on her face. Ryan quickly closed to within five metres and shot Grace as she lay on the ground.
‘Ryan’s got me!’ Grace shouted, hoping to alert her team mates to his location.
In the background Ryan heard the distinct clatter of paintball pellets.
‘Theo?’ he gasped.
He spun around and saw flashes moving through the branches in the direction he’d just come from. A paintball whizzed over his head and he dived for cover behind a tree trunk. Part of him wanted to charge out and help save Theo, but that would be suicidal until he had some idea of where everyone was shooting from.
After twenty seconds crouching, Ryan caught his friend Alfie’s emergence from the clearing with paint splattered across his helmet and arms raised in surrender. The clatter of paintball ammo was still going and Ryan began a cautious walk towards the noise.
He thought he was still at least twenty metres from the action when his friend Max darted out from between two trees. Ryan took aim from five metres and this time he made his first shot count.
Max was a pretty laid-back character and took being killed with good grace. ‘Nice shooting,’ he said. ‘Suppose I’d better go and run my punishment circuits.’
‘Is Theo still alive?’ Ryan asked.
But Theo came out of the trees and answered for himself. ‘Naturally,’ he said, wearing the cocky smile of someone who’d got one over on a bigger kid.
‘Any sign of Leon or Daniel?’ Ryan asked.
Max laughed. ‘Grace and Ning tied them up and we dealt with them as soon as we found our first gun.’
‘So that just leaves Ning alive on the other team,’ Theo said, as he gave his brother a wary smile. ‘Two against one, in our favour.’
8. PREDATOR
A secure training centre is as hard to break out of as an adult prison, but in most other respects Idris was far less strict. Guards were known by their first names. Wendy, the head of Fay’s wing, sat at a desk with the slogan Every Child Matters painted on the wall behind.
‘Well, Fay, what have you got to say for yourself?’
Fay sat across the desk from the uniformed officer and pursed her lips like she was about to say something important. But she didn’t.
‘A new inmate. Physically small, facing a difficult period of adjustment. You march into the laundry room. You assault her room-mate, Chloe, then you assault Izzy and drag her back to her cell demanding money with menaces.’
Fay shrugged. ‘If you say so.’
‘I can understand why some girls in here lash out. They have emotional problems. They have eating disorders, substance problems or a history of abuse. Many of them have basic educational difficulties. But you’re an exceptionally bright young lady. You should do well in your GCSEs. You’re athletic. The only reason you won’t get into a good university is if you let yourself down.’
Fay cleared her throat. ‘When I was ten years old, I came back from the shop and found my mum hacked to pieces by a drug dealer. Last year my aunt Kirsten got suffocated in prison while she was awaiting trial. Murdered by another drug dealer. Those were the only two people I cared about. And the only two people who’ve ever cared about me.’
‘People here care,’ Wendy said.
Fay snorted. ‘You’ll be glad to see the back of me.’
‘Fay, you’ve discussed this in group counselling – at least until you refused to attend any more sessions. We’ve given you techniques for dealing with your past and coping with strong emotions.’
Fay laughed. ‘I stopped going because therapy is all bullshit. My aunt Kirsten is the only one who understood.’
‘Understood what?’
‘That I like it.’
‘Like what?’
‘I like the life,’ Fay said, finally raising her voice above a dull monotone. ‘The shiver that goes down your back when you’re about to rip someone off. The look of fear on someone’s face when you put a knife to their throat. Running away, knowing that you’re dead if you’re not fast enough. Once you’ve lived the life, it’s hard to knuckle down to that history essay, or get excited about the next plot twist in EastEnders.’
Wendy cleared her throat awkwardly. ‘And you replicate that thrill by bullying some poor girl like Izzy?’
Fay laughed. ‘First off, that poor girl is a crazy loon who tried to poison half her family. Second, the world is full of sheep. Millions and millions of ’em, living their dreary little lives. Then there’s a few wolves, and their job is to eat a couple of sheep once in a while.’
‘So you’re a wolf?’ Wendy asked.
‘Absolutely.’
‘And it doesn’t matter if wolves hurt sheep?’
Fay laughed. ‘Not to the wolf it doesn’t.’
‘So when you get out of here in a couple of weeks’ time, what do you plan to do?’
Fay shrugged. ‘Oh, I’m gonna straighten right up. Get my exams, go to university. Marry a guy called Connor. We’ll have a Labradoodle called Scotty, three kids, a Ford C-Max and a little cottage in Suffolk for the weekends.’
Wendy shook her head and spoke firmly. ‘Well, I very much hope that you do find stability before you mess your life up. But after this afternoon’s incident you’ll be going into segregation for five days and I’ll provide you with a copy of this institution’s anti-bullying policy.’
Fay rolled her eyes. ‘I’m sure it’s a gripping read.’
*
The campus paintball range wasn’t huge, but it was big enough that two groups moving stealthily could go a long time without bumping into each other.
For almost an hour, Ryan and Theo crept around, searching for Ning as the sun rose and sweat bristled under their masks and overalls. They found several sites where Ning’s team had unearthed bags of equipment, but no trace of Ning herself.
‘I bet she’s gone way up in a tree or something,’ Theo said.
‘Hope not,’ Ryan said forlornly. ‘Speaks said we’ll all get punished if neither side wins and I don’t fancy more running in this heat.’
‘What if I try luring her out?’ Theo suggested. ‘I’ll move out in the open. When Ning shoots me, you’ll shoot her and be the last man standing.’
Ryan shrugged. ‘That’s not a great plan, but it’s better than anything else we’ve got.’
The obvious spot was the open ground right at the front by the main gates. Ryan was irritated when he saw Leon, Daniel, Alfie and Grace sat outside the changing hut with their overalls off and bottles of ice-cold water in their hands. It felt like they were being rewarded for getting knocked out.
But Ryan didn’t have long for this thought, because there was the clap of a paintball the minute Theo stepped into the open. The shot had come from a long way off and missed by several metres.
‘Can’t shoot straight!’ Theo taunted, as he sprinted across the open grass and dived into a bunker.
Ryan was anxious: if Theo was too bold, he’d get himself killed before there was a chance for him to close on the position where the shots were coming from. Fortunately, some assistance came from Leon on the outside.
‘She’s between the two big oak trees.’
This remark caused outrage from the two members of Ning’s team, who immediately began shouting information.
‘Ning,’ Alfie shouted. ‘Theo’s in the first bunker up near the gate. Ryan’s gone into the trees, trying to flank you.’
‘Just come out and have a shoot-up,’ Daniel said irritably. ??
?We’ll all get nuked by Mr Speaks if nobody wins.’
As Theo crouched in the bunker, dodging occasional wild shots from Ning, Ryan had ducked into the trees and closed on Ning’s position. After a minute he was close enough to the two big oak trees to see where Ning was hiding.
Ryan dropped to a crawl as more shouts came from outside the fence.
‘Theo’s out of the bunker!’
Just as Ryan thought he was about to best Ning, he was startled by a rustling in the leaves behind. He swung around and took a quick-but-wild shot. Ning had taken up a position behind a tree less than four metres away.
Ryan crawled on his belly, keeping an eye out for any movement. When he got to within two metres, Ning sprang out from behind the tree and took a couple of shots. Ryan rolled out of the way, but his return shots were as bad as Ning’s.
But he could hear Ning running and – with the fact that they’d all get punished if neither team won – he decided that it would be best to chase after her. Over several hundred metres Ryan and Ning traded shots, several of which missed by only a few centimetres.
Eventually Ning found herself in the lowest part of the paintball range, which would run with a small stream after heavy rain. She dived against the embankment and waited, but it had all gone silent. After a couple of minutes with no sign of any noise, Ning crept back up the shallow embankment, using the paintball splats on leaves and branches as a reminder of her route.
She was surprised to see a leg sticking out from beside a tree root. Ning instantly shot it, but grew concerned when there was no movement.
‘Ryan?’
Ning crouched in the grass and rolled Ryan on to his back.
‘Ryan, are you OK?’
Ryan raised a hand to his head and spoke slowly. ‘I think I bumped my head on something while I was running.’
As Ning leaned further forwards to give Ryan an arm up, Theo jumped out from a position a few metres away and shot Ning square in the visor, leaving her half blind.
‘Dead meat!’ Theo shouted excitedly.