‘Small handguns aren’t the easiest to use accurately,’ Chloe added. ‘So we’ll be taking the three of you down to the firing range for a couple of refresher lessons before you head off to Luton.’
‘What about the protective equipment?’ Zara asked.
‘First off, all three of you will be issued with standard sets of body armour,’ Terry said. ‘It’s too bulky to wear all the time, but if you’re heading into a potentially dangerous situation it’s both bullet and stab proof. I’ve also got an experimental batch of this stuff.’ He pulled a small square of silvery fabric out of his jacket.
‘What’s that, a magic hanky?’ James grinned.
Terry raised an eyebrow to indicate that he didn’t find James funny, before continuing his speech. ‘This fabric is interwoven with something called carbon nanotube fibres. It’s very new, very high tech. Diamonds are pure carbon and one of the hardest substances known to man. You can think of a carbon nanotube as a thread made from diamond. The material is as light as polyester, but it will protect you from stabbing. If you get shot, the bullet is unlikely to pass through the fabric and kill, but because a bullet travels at enormous speed and the material isn’t rigid, you’ll still be absorbing a massive amount of energy and I’d expect internal bleeding and broken bones.’
Gabrielle sounded a little bit annoyed. ‘How come we’re only getting this now?’ she asked. ‘I might not be sitting in this wheelchair if I’d had clothes made out of that stuff.’
Terry swept the back of his hand across his face. ‘Unfortunately it’s a matter of cost,’ he admitted. ‘One square metre of carbon nanotube fabric currently costs around six thousand pounds. I’m proposing that James, Bruce and Michael each select two garments such as a hoodie and a lightweight jacket. I’ll then get our seamstress to pull the clothes apart and stitch in a layer of the nanotube fabric.
‘We’ll need around one and a half metres of fabric for each piece. That’s nine thousand pounds each, fifty-four thousand for the six and another eighteen thousand pounds on top if Gabrielle returns to the mission.’
‘That’s a lot of dough,’ Bruce said.
Zara nodded. ‘We do everything we can to protect agents on missions, but we don’t have unlimited resources. The only way we can afford this is by paying for it out of the research and development budget, rather than the mission budget.’
‘We’re hoping that nanotube fabric will be much cheaper once it goes into mass production,’ Terry said. ‘In five or six years, clothes reinforced with this stuff could be as much a part of a CHERUB agent’s standard kit as a lock gun or multitool is today, but right now it’s too expensive.’
Maureen smiled. ‘And whatever you do, don’t go using your nine-thousand-pound sweatshirt as a goalpost and then leave it on the grass.’
19.SHOWDOWN
Kyle was only studying for the one A-level he needed to secure his place at university and Lauren had a free period after lunch. They met up by the main campus gates and began the ten-minute journey to Mr Large’s house.
‘Nervous?’ Kyle asked, as they walked briskly, with gloves on and breath curling in front of them.
‘A bit,’ Lauren nodded. ‘But I’ve dealt with FBI sharp shooters and paedos, so I reckon I can survive an encounter with Large.’
‘He might not even be home,’ Kyle said.
But Mr Large came to his front door in a pair of baggy jogging pants and an England rugby shirt, scratching his moustache as he stood in the doorway.
‘What?’
Lauren spoke politely. ‘We’d like to come in and talk. You know that thing you mentioned the other night?’
Large was smart enough to realise that they might be recording the conversation. ‘It was just a friendly chat, Lauren.’
‘We know you’re a busy man,’ Kyle said, trowelling on the irony because he knew that Large was suspended from his job and had nothing to do. ‘We’ll try not to take up too much of your valuable time.’
Large leaned out of the doorway and glanced left and right suspiciously before waving the pair inside.
‘Nice and warm in here,’ Lauren said, pulling off her gloves as she walked down a neatly furnished hallway.
Mr Large’s morning was spread across the living-room for all to see: a copy of the Times with the crossword half done, a breakfast bowl with a splash of milk in the bottom, a Crunchie bar wrapper and an American chat show blaring out of the TV.
Lauren smiled. ‘Mind if we sit down?’
Mr Large was clearly uneasy, but he scooped the newspaper off the sofa to make space for Lauren. Kyle sat in an armchair facing her.
‘What’s this all about?’ Large asked.
‘My old mate Rod Nilsson sends his regards,’ Kyle said. ‘Remember him?’
Large looked uncertain. ‘Red-headed lad,’ he nodded finally. ‘Nice boy, but he didn’t have the stomach for a second go at training.’
‘He still gets nightmares,’ Kyle said pointedly. ‘Nightmares about choking on sand and suffocating.’
‘Look,’ Large said firmly. ‘I don’t know what this is – sour grapes or whatever – but I had a job to do and I was damned good at it.’
Lauren raised an eyebrow. ‘I guess that’s one way of looking at it …’
‘And you’re going to tell the truth and stick up for me at my hearing on Friday, aren’t you?’
Lauren smiled. ‘The truth is exactly what I’m going to be telling.’
‘I just hope that everyone will be safe and happy afterwards,’ Large threatened.
‘Lauren tells me that you tried to blackmail her,’ Kyle said bluntly.
Mr Large suddenly looked uncomfortable. ‘Is this some kind of joke?’ he said, scowling at Lauren. ‘I haven’t met either of you in months, except for a few nights back when Lauren and I exchanged hellos on my doorstep.’
‘We’re not recording you,’ Lauren said. ‘I knew you wouldn’t be stupid enough to repeat what you said. But I’m not the only one who has vulnerabilities.’
As Lauren spoke, Kyle pulled a small stack of photos out of his jacket. He held up the top one, which was a flattering head-and-shoulders enlargement of Hayley.
‘Quite a nice-looking girl, your daughter,’ Kyle said casually, as he switched the picture to the back of the pile, revealing the next shot of Hayley and James kissing, with James’ fingers clutching her bum.
‘My brother certainly seems to be getting along with her, doesn’t he?’ Lauren grinned.
Mr Large gasped.
Kyle flipped to another picture, an extreme close-up of James and Hayley kissing.
‘And that was just their first date,’ Lauren added. ‘Imagine what they’ll get up to next time.’
‘I can hear something,’ Kyle said, cupping a hand to his ear. ‘Could it be the patter of tiny feet?’
‘Nah,’ Lauren shook her head. ‘Knowing my brother, he’ll just dump her and break her heart.’
‘But don’t worry,’ Kyle said. ‘You’ve trained a lot of boys on campus. They’re all fit guys and I bet that once James ditches her, they’ll all be queuing up to take a shot at your daughter …’
Mr Large didn’t know what to say or where to look.
‘Dozens of big strapping teenagers throwing themselves at Hayley,’ Lauren sighed. ‘And you know what teenagers are like. If you stand between Hayley and some boy she fancies, she’ll only end up hating your guts.’
Lauren and Kyle weren’t proud that they’d manipulated Hayley and had no intention of taking things further. But people judge others by their own standards. Hopefully Large would believe their threats, because it was the sort of dastardly scheme he might have concocted himself.
‘But of course none of this has to go any further,’ Lauren emphasised. ‘We’re prepared to back off, as long as you guarantee that Meatball stays safe.’
Mr Large was turning extremely red. ‘Why bring my daughter into this?’ he screamed. ‘She’s innocent.’
‘Innocent?’ Lauren s
napped. ‘Is she really? And I suppose Meatball is a little doggie serial killer. Or maybe he sneaks on to campus and sells crack to the red-shirts.’
‘We have it on good authority that Zara Asker doesn’t like you, Norman,’ Kyle said. ‘Mac kept saving your bacon, but his days are over. When Lauren tells that disciplinary panel the truth, you know you’re going to be out on your arse.’
‘Especially now you’ve upset me,’ Lauren added. ‘I might even be tempted to exaggerate.’
‘You can’t do this!’ Large spluttered, sending his breakfast bowl and a couple of remote controls flying as he booted the coffee table up in the air.
The noise made Lauren jump, but she kept herself together and faked a grin. ‘Oh dear, now you’ve gone and spilled milk on the carpet.’
‘And just to make sure that you’re not reinstated, we’re going to send a petition around campus. Agents will refuse to go on missions if you are,’ Kyle added.
This was news to Lauren, mainly because Kyle had only thought up the idea two seconds earlier.
‘And we’ve already told Meryl Spencer that you tried to blackmail me,’ Lauren said. ‘Zara doesn’t know yet, but I wouldn’t expect a Christmas card from the Askers this year.’
Mr Large was going so red that Lauren was frightened he’d keel over with another heart attack.
‘CHERUB has been my whole life,’ Large bellowed. ‘I’m a training instructor, that’s what I am.’
‘No,’ Lauren corrected. ‘What you are is an arsehole.’
Kyle couldn’t help giggling as Mr Large stepped towards Lauren. She was a quarter of his age and a third of his size, but she didn’t flinch.
‘You’ve wrecked my life, Lauren Adams,’ Large shouted. ‘You put my back out when you hit me with the spade and knocked me into that ditch. I hardly ever drank until I found out that it helped relieve the pain. And it was the drink that made me put on weight, which gave me the heart attack, and to top it all off you now want to hammer the nail into my career—’
‘Don’t blame me,’ Lauren screamed back. ‘I only hit you because you were making Bethany dig a grave when she was in agony with her back. It all sounds a lot like poetic justice to me.’
‘Come on Lauren,’ Kyle said, as he stepped out of the armchair. ‘We’ve said everything we came here to say. It’s up to him whether he resigns now or lets himself and his daughter be humiliated.’
But as Lauren tried to step around Mr Large and leave, he placed a hand on her shoulder and pushed her backwards across the sofa.
Lauren tried knocking him away with a two-footed kick, but Large was enormous and his stomach felt like concrete. Her legs buckled under his weight as he leaned forward and grabbed her cheeks, squishing her lips out of shape.
Kyle wrapped his arms around Large’s waist and tried dragging him off, but Large launched a powerful kick that sent him clattering backwards into a drinks cabinet.
‘Your fancy moves won’t work on me,’ Large grinned, as he pushed down hard, squeezing Lauren’s head against the sofa cushion. ‘Remember, I’m the guy that taught ’em to you.’
Lauren looked towards Kyle, hoping that he’d be able to find a weapon or something, but the kick had winded him and he was crumpled against the wall, clutching his stomach.
‘You won’t get away with this,’ Lauren croaked.
‘I guess I won’t,’ Mr Large agreed. ‘I guess I’ll have to resign. We’ll move somewhere near where my partner works and I’ll make sure it’s far enough from campus that your perverted brother can’t touch Hayley. But here’s the good part: just so that you never forget me, I’m gonna head next door and wring Meatball’s neck.’
Lauren broke into a coughing fit as Large let go and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
‘We’ve got to stop him, Kyle,’ Lauren screamed. ‘He’s gonna kill Meatball.’
As the two injured cherubs stumbled into the hallway, Large ran across the driveway and made the Asker’s front door shudder as he shoulder-charged it.
Kyle reached the inside of Large’s front door a second later, but it didn’t move when he turned the handle.
‘He must have put the deadlock on. We’ll have to go out the back.’
As they scrambled towards the rear of the unfamiliar house, Large’s second kick knocked the Askers’ front door off its hinges. He shouted, ‘I’ll show you Lauren Adams,’ as the burglar alarm erupted.
Kyle made it out of the back door and sprinted across Large’s garden towards the driveway.
‘You’ve got to bite him, Meatball,’ Lauren shouted desperately as she charged after Kyle. ‘Don’t let him get hold of you.’
As the chairwoman of CHERUB, Zara Asker was one of the highest ranking officials in the British Intelligence Service. This made her a potential hostage target and her home was fitted with a state-of-the-art alarm. When Meatball heard the claxon, he went into a frenzy, running around the living-room couch and barking like mad.
Mr Large had looked after Meatball when the Askers were on holiday and the little dog padded curiously towards a man who’d fed him on many occasions. But as Mr Large reached down to grab Meatball off the carpet, the dog picked up the scent of Lauren racing up the driveway.
While Mr Large had fed him, Lauren not only fed Meatball but also played with him, took him for really long walks and never shouted at him. As a result, Meatball vaulted over Mr Large’s hands, cut between his legs and charged on through the splintered front door.
But Kyle was running ahead of Lauren and before Meatball knew it, he’d put a hand under the dog’s belly and plucked him off the ground. Meatball hadn’t seen Kyle since he was a puppy, but the dog remembered Kyle’s smell and seemed happy enough, until he looked back and noticed that Mr Large was charging down the hallway towards them and yelling noisily.
With Meatball in his arms, Kyle scrambled out on to the driveway. But Large had a good turn of speed for a man in his forties. He’d built up momentum while Kyle turned, and soon got his arms around Kyle’s waist.
As Kyle tumbled forward on to the patio, Meatball spilled out, yapping frantically as he ran towards Lauren.
Down on the patio, Kyle had wriggled on to his back and put Mr Large in a headlock, while Large was using his trunk-like arms to crush Kyle’s ribs.
Lauren considered grabbing Meatball and making a dash back towards campus, but the fight was horribly uneven. Large was powerful and completely out of control, and she could see Kyle getting seriously hurt. To emphasise this, Large freed himself from the headlock and pressed his elbow against Kyle’s windpipe.
‘You’ll kill him,’ Lauren screamed, as she searched desperately for a weapon.
As Meatball wagged his tail, excited by the running around and the blaring alarm, Lauren raced towards the Askers’ front door. She was greatly relieved to see a muddy implement leaning against the inside of the front porch.
Mr Large saw Lauren charging towards him, but he had Kyle’s legs locked around his waist and only one free arm to fend her off. Kyle used all his strength to keep Large still as Lauren swung at him, hitting him square in the back of the head.
The blow made a huge clang and sent a wave of vibration up the handle. Large groaned, as Kyle felt his opponent’s strength evaporate. He wound up with Large’s dead weight slumped on top of him.
‘Are you OK?’ Lauren asked, as she threw down the spade and pushed Large’s unconscious body off Kyle.
Kyle was bright red, with sweat pouring down his face. ‘Just about,’ he coughed.
As he stood up and brushed off his trousers, a white BMW came to an abrupt halt in the road. Two men slid handguns from under their jackets as they opened the doors and ran up the driveway. Lauren recognised them as campus security officers and realised that the Askers’ alarm was linked up to the campus security room.
‘What’s going on here?’ one of the guards shouted, glancing between the unconscious Large and the busted front door as his colleague used a plipper to
shut off the alarm.
20. RECKONING
Zara Asker had never liked Mr Large, and she had to hide her smile when Lauren admitted that she’d battered him with a spade for the second time.
Large had only been stunned and he’d regained consciousness shortly after being lifted on to a bed in the medical unit on campus. When Zara arrived ten minutes later, he sat on the edge of his mattress sipping water out of a plastic cup.
‘Ahh, here she is,’ Large grinned sarcastically. ‘Her Royal Highness, gracing me with her presence.’
‘Funny,’ Zara said, her manner making it clear she thought it anything but. ‘I was just speaking to my husband. Is it true that you threatened to kill my son’s dog?’
Large shrugged, acting like he couldn’t have cared less. ‘That fancy security rig on your house must have CCTV. Why don’t you work it out for yourself?’
‘I haven’t had a chance to look, but I’ll take your answer as a yes,’ Zara said.
Large smiled. ‘You can take it as whatever you like and then you can shove it up your big fat arse.’
‘Listen, Norman,’ Zara snapped. ‘Nothing would make me happier than to kick you out of here and never see you and that ridiculous moustache again. But you know about CHERUB, you’ve worked here most of your life and that means we’re obliged to help you out.’
‘Only so you can keep tabs on me,’ he snorted.
‘You’ve known that we’ll keep tabs on you since you were ten years old,’ Zara said. ‘What’s the saying? Once you know, we can’t let go. Now the question is, are we going to have to go through the charade of a disciplinary hearing, or can I expect a resignation letter?’
‘You write the letter and I’ll sign it.’
‘Good,’ Zara said. ‘You own your house jointly with Gareth, don’t you?’
Large nodded. ‘He’s doing a fifty-mile commute every day so he’s after moving anyway.’
‘CHERUB has steadily been buying up that row of houses to use as staff quarters,’ Zara said. ‘We’ll pay you twenty per cent over market value which should cover your moving costs. You can have three months’ severance pay and I’ll guarantee to write you a good job reference if you want to work elsewhere within the security or intelligence business. But don’t expect any kind of help if you apply for a job that involves kids. I won’t have that on my conscience.’