Large grunted.
Zara put her hands on her hips and stiffened her voice. ‘Considering that you’ve attempted to blackmail a twelve-year-old girl and strangle Kyle, I think we’re being very generous. And this isn’t a negotiating position. You can take my offer right now, or we’ll go through the disciplinary process and you’ll come out with diddly squat.’
‘Whatever.’ Large sounded like a spoilt kid as he crumpled his plastic cup and threw it at a waste bin. ‘Just give me something to sign.’
‘Excellent,’ Zara said. ‘The nurse said it’s probably best if you stay here and rest for an hour or so. They’ve taken a head X-ray, but they doubt there’s any lasting damage. If you have any belongings over in the instructors’ building I can send someone to collect them.’
Large shook his head. ‘There’s a few pairs of muddy boots, but you’re welcome to ’em.’
‘Like all ex-cherubs you’ll be welcome to return to campus for reunions and anniversary events, but your regular access will be revoked as soon as you step off the grounds.’
Zara reached out to shake hands, but Large kept his arms at his side.
‘Maybe you don’t believe me when I say this, Norman,’ Zara said after a pause, ‘but I’m truly sorry that your career had to end like this. I wish you luck with whatever you choose to do and you’re welcome to call me at any time if you think I can help you.’
Large didn’t respond and Zara thought he was being rude. But as soon as she left the room, Norman Large tipped his head and started to cry.
*
The photographs had dropped from Kyle’s pocket when he ran from Mr Large’s living-room. They’d been picked up by the security team and handed to Zara as evidence. Most pictures were of James and Hayley, but Bruce and Kerry were identifiable on some shots taken inside the steakhouse and there was even a pic Bruce had snapped while testing the camera inside the mini-bus which revealed Callum, Connor and Rat. Andy was the only one who got off.
The chairman’s office had recently been redecorated. Zara’s glass desk, iMac and Herman Miller chairs made the room feel less intimidating than the leather and oak of her predecessor. There weren’t enough seats, so major perps Lauren, Kyle and James were told to sit down, while Kerry, Bruce, Callum, Connor and Rat stood in line behind them.
Strict discipline was important because cherubs have to perform to the highest standards when they’re out on mission. But Zara didn’t enjoy punishing kids and when she’d first become chairwoman some staff had accused her of being soft. She’d reluctantly accepted the criticism and become stricter, but she wasn’t consistent about it.
When Mac was chairman, a cherub could be certain of their punishment for most routine offences. An agent returning to campus after curfew could always expect twenty punishment laps for every quarter hour they were late. With Zara, you might get anything from ten to a hundred, depending upon her mood.
This randomness made kids who were about to be punished nervous, and cherubs could no longer do something wrong because they could take the punishment if they got caught. Oddly, while Zara generally punished kids less severely than Mac had done, it was tales of the harshest penalties that circulated around campus and she’d gained a fearsome reputation.
‘I’m very much torn about how to punish all of you,’ Zara began. ‘The whole affair was instigated because Mr Large tried to blackmail Lauren, but that doesn’t excuse the way you acted.’
Kyle spoke boldly. ‘I’m the oldest and it was my idea to get revenge. I’m prepared to accept full responsibility.’
Zara smiled. ‘And how much longer are you with us, Kyle?’
‘Just over seven weeks.’
‘So if I punish you and you don’t fancy it, you’ll just quit a few weeks early,’ Zara said.
Kyle realised he’d been rumbled and looked down at his lap.
‘I know I haven’t been chairwoman for long, Kyle, but I’m not a complete idiot. It’s Hayley I feel really sorry for in all this. As she doesn’t know that CHERUB exists there’s no way I can have you make it up to her. I just hope that her feelings weren’t too badly hurt.’
James shrugged. ‘She didn’t seem all that impressed, so I don’t think she’ll be upset if she never hears from me again.’
‘Sensible girl,’ Zara said. ‘First of all I’m going to deal with you five standing along the back. I’m giving each of you two hundred punishment laps, to be run over a three-week interval along with eighty hours’ gardening duty—’
‘But that’s not fair,’ Kerry shouted, ‘I was barely involved.’
All the other agents turned to give Kerry dirty looks, even Bruce.
‘You were in the restaurant, which means you were more involved than me or the twins,’ Rat pointed out.
‘Quiet,’ Zara yelled. ‘If you’ll just let me finish. The laps and the gardening duty will be suspended for six months. If you break any other rules before the end of September, you’ll serve this punishment, plus the punishment for whatever else you did wrong.’
Kerry was pleased by this. She hardly ever got in trouble and reckoned a suspended was as good as no punishment at all. The four boys were also relieved, but didn’t relish having to tiptoe around on their best behaviour with a big punishment hanging over them.
Zara continued. ‘James, you played a major role, but you weren’t an instigator. I’m giving you two hundred laps and a hundred hours’ decorating duty, but I’m suspending everything except fifty laps, which I want you to run before you go off on your mission.’
James was fairly happy with this. He liked to run a couple of times a week and twenty-five laps was a ten-kilometre run, which took him less than fifty minutes.
‘Now I want those of you who’ve received their punishments to leave the room. I need to talk with Kyle and Lauren in private.’
Bruce spoke as they headed out of the room. ‘Can I just ask: has Mr Large been kicked out?’
Zara nodded and everyone started to smile.
‘You’d better wipe those grins,’ Zara said sternly as the six kids headed out. ‘If I see any of you gloating about this, I might just decide to unsuspend some of those laps. Mr Large would almost certainly have been dismissed at his disciplinary hearing, so all you’ve really done is brought a lot of trouble upon yourselves.’
James was the last one out of the room. As he closed the door, Lauren and Kyle looked anxiously towards Zara.
‘Kyle,’ Zara said, breaking into a friendly smile. ‘I think we’ve reached the end of the line, don’t you?’
Kyle was confused. ‘Pardon me?’
‘This was mainly your idea and you’re the most senior agent involved. But I can’t punish you effectively because you’ll just leave. You passed the bulk of our exams last year and you’re only studying maths. I’ve spoken to Meryl Spencer. She’s just bought a sizeable house off campus and says she’d be happy to have you as a lodger for a couple of months until you set off on your travels.’
Kyle gasped. ‘But—’
Zara raised her hand. ‘There’s not enough time for you to prepare for another mission. I think the only reasonable solution is for you to pack your things up and leave campus a few weeks earlier than planned.’
‘But what about my lessons and stuff?’
‘You can come back on to campus to attend the revision sessions for your maths A-level. And I believe James has been tutoring you, so you can come back for that, but only in the campus library, not up in his room. Obviously, you’re welcome to socialise with your friends off campus, but the leisure facilities on campus will be out of bounds and I don’t want you hanging around anywhere else on campus either.’
Kyle had been preparing to leave for a while, but seemed choked by this sudden end to ten years as a cherub. ‘I knew the risk I was taking,’ he said, nodding weakly. ‘Can I please have a few days to say goodbye to everyone and stuff?’
‘I can live with that,’ Zara nodded. ‘It’ll take that long to sort out the details
of your new identity and set you up financially anyway.’
‘Right,’ Kyle nodded.
‘And I think that’s it for you,’ Zara said. ‘I’ll speak to Meryl and she can start making arrangements for your departure.’
As Kyle left the room, it occurred to Lauren that she’d been left till last because she was in the biggest trouble of all. Her heart was banging.
‘And then there was one,’ Zara said dramatically as she reached behind and took Lauren’s personal file from a glass shelf. ‘I never realised that we had a serious problem with you until I looked into your file.’
Lauren gulped when she heard serious problem. ‘I don’t exactly know what you mean,’ she said meekly.
‘Don’t you indeed?’ Zara smiled. ‘You’re one of the best agents we’ve got and you’re still the youngest black-shirt on campus, but your disciplinary record on campus is wretched.’
Zara opened Lauren’s file and began to read. ‘In late 2004, you assaulted Mr Large with a shovel. Mac put you on six months’ ditch-digging and gave you a final warning. In summer 2006, you were caught and punished after blackmailing James and breaking into the basic training compound to assist the trainees. Now you’re back in this office because of a second scheme you’ve concoted, this time to get revenge on Mr Large and force him to resign.’
‘But he blackmailed me,’ Lauren said. ‘I was just—’
‘I know what Mr Large did. And you did the correct thing by approaching Meryl Spencer and reporting the incident, which was resolved. What you did afterwards with Hayley and James was utterly unacceptable. And the thing I really don’t like is that you invented a scheme in a similar fashion just over a year ago.’
‘A lot of that one was Bethany’s idea though,’ Lauren protested.
Zara didn’t appreciate Lauren’s squirming. ‘Well, Bethany is away on a mission, so it certainly wasn’t her fault this time, was it?’
‘No, Miss.’
‘Your four-hundred-lap punishment seems to have had no effect, which has left me in a tricky position. My conclusion is that you need to spend a period of time demonstrating exemplary behaviour on campus before you can continue your career as an agent.’
‘You mean I’m suspended from missions?’ Lauren gasped.
‘You’re suspended for three months. Then, for three months after that I’m going to have you restricted to smaller scale missions: security checks, recruitment missions, things like that.’
‘OK,’ Lauren nodded miserably.
‘I also want you to make a bigger contribution to campus life and to take part in some activities that will give you responsibility and hopefully make you grow up. We’ve been recruiting aggressively over the last couple of years and we’ve currently got more than a dozen red-shirts aged under seven. The staff over in the junior block could do with a hand looking after them, so I want you to help out four nights a week for the next six months.
‘It’s all fairly simple: helping with their reading, making sure they take baths and showers, putting them to bed and maybe occasional activities such as swimming lessons, or trips out. Some of them are also going through a difficult time adjusting to campus life after losing parents or loved ones, so they can be demanding and they need plenty of emotional support.’
Lauren nodded, but she wasn’t happy. Maybe the punishment wasn’t as physically demanding as running laps, but six months was a long stretch and she’d never been shy about rubbing her elevated status into the faces of friends who were still mostly grey-shirts. They were going to love it when they found out she’d been suspended from missions.
21. GUNS
It was Friday lunchtime and although it was supposed to be the last day of his week off, James’ morning had been hectic: another briefing on the Luton gang situation with Chloe, the last third of his fifty punishment laps and a practice session with his specially prepared handgun on the shooting range. Through all of this, James worried about Kyle, who hadn’t been himself since Zara had ordered him to leave.
‘You there, mate?’ James shouted, as he knocked on Kyle’s door.
He didn’t get an answer so he stepped inside. Kyle’s room was always neat, but now it was also bare, with just a few cardboard boxes stacked up by the window. James noticed that the bed had been stripped and the mattress flipped over. He couldn’t see his best friend, but he could hear the shower running in the bathroom and he pulled a sub-compact pistol out of his tracksuit top as he approached the bathroom door.
James quietly pushed down the handle and was pleased to find the door unlocked. It was hard to see through the steam swirling out of the shower cubicle as he crept inside, gun in hand.
‘Stick ’em up,’ James shouted, as he ripped back the shower curtain.
But it wasn’t Kyle that yelped.
‘What the hell?’ Kevin Sumner shouted, as he dropped his shampoo bottle and covered his privates with his hands.
‘Sorry,’ James said, almost as shocked as Kevin. ‘I thought you were Kyle. What are you doing in here?’
‘We all got back from training this morning,’ Kevin explained. ‘Everyone wanted one of the newer rooms up on the eighth floor, but I had to go in the loo and by the time I got upstairs they’d all been snaffled. But Kyle’s so neat that this room is almost as good.’
James saw Kevin’s grey T-shirt hanging on the towel rail and reached out to shake his hand. ‘Congrats,’ James said. ‘I guess we’re neighbours then. I’m directly across the hall.’
Kevin was dripping and he shivered as he shook James’ hand.
‘I hope there’s no hard feelings about what happened in the jungle the other night,’ Kevin said.
James waved his hand across his face. ‘It’s not like I would have acted any different in your shoes. How was Kazakov after I left?’
‘Brutal, exactly like you’d expect,’ Kevin shrugged. ‘But now it’s over I hardly care. I want a mission. And then there’s the absolute best thing about being a grey-shirt.’
James was curious. ‘What’s that?’
Kevin smiled. ‘You were never a red-shirt, were you?’
‘Nope. I was twelve when I joined CHERUB so I went straight into basic training.’
‘I’ve finally got my own bath and shower,’ Kevin explained. ‘It’s communal over in the junior block and you always end up with some six-year-old trying to climb into your bath, or some joker lobbing cups of cold water at you.’
‘I can see that would get on your tits,’ James nodded. ‘Though you might want to consider bolting the door next time.’
‘Yeah,’ Kevin nodded.
‘So, do you know where Kyle is? He’s been miserable and I’m worried about him.’
‘I think he’s driving the last of his clothes over to Meryl’s house. He said he’d help me to move my stuff out of the junior block when he got back.’
‘Right,’ James said, as he put the gun back in his pocket. ‘And sorry about this …’
As James backed out of the bathroom he realised that if Kevin was home then Dana must be too. But as he headed towards Dana’s room, Kyle emerged from the lift holding a cardboard box loaded with Kevin’s stuff.
‘Hey,’ James said. ‘What’s with your room?’
‘I gave it to Kevin.’
‘I saw that. But Zara said you can stay until Sunday.’
Kyle looked sad as he shook his head. ‘I’m moving out today.’
‘No,’ James gasped. ‘Saturday night’s your big leaving party. Everyone on campus is gonna be there and I know for a fact that Kerry and some of the others are getting you a prezzie.’
‘I’m not coming,’ Kyle said. ‘I told you I don’t want a big fuss.’
‘Give over, everyone has a leaving party.’
‘Well, I’ve got nowhere to sleep now I’ve let Kevin have my room.’
‘Bunk on my floor,’ James shrugged. ‘Hell, you can have my bed if it means you stick around for the party.’
But Kyle turned angry. ‘Stop
going on, James. I just want to get out of here.’
And then Kyle sniffed, which made James feel sad and awkward at the same time. ‘I’d give you a hug if you weren’t holding that box,’ James said, as a tear welled up in his own eye. ‘The sixth floor’s not gonna be the same when you’re gone.’
Kyle took the hint and put the box down so that James could embrace him.
‘I’ll miss you,’ James said, pulling Kyle in close and slapping him on the back.
‘Miss you too,’ Kyle said, as a tear streaked down his face. ‘Ten years just whizzed by, you know? When I drive off campus it scares me.’
‘It’s shitty,’ James nodded. ‘But you’ve got your whole life. You’re seventeen, you’re going off travelling which is gonna be totally amazing. Then you’ve got university which is gonna be a blast. Give it a year and I bet you’ll be wondering what was ever cool about living in a corridor with a bunch of noisy yobs like me.’
‘You’re a good friend, James,’ Kyle said, as he rubbed an eye with the back of his hand. ‘I thought you were such a spoiled brat when I first met you. I never told you this before, but when CHERUB recruited you from Nebraska House I recommended that they didn’t accept you. I got overruled by that shrink, Jennifer Mitchum. She thought you had potential.’
‘You git!’ James laughed. ‘Why am I still hugging you?’
‘Guess I was wrong,’ Kyle said, sounding more like his usual self as the boys separated. ‘And I spoke to Meryl. She says I’ll be able to come back to campus for holidays like Christmas and stuff once I start university. She’s also gonna ask about getting me some paid work in the summer, helping out at the CHERUB hostel or something; but she said it’s best to leave it a while before speaking to Zara because I’m not exactly flavour of the month after her front door got kicked down.’
‘We’ll see each other loads,’ James smiled.