but his father knows that his son is seventeen years old, Julian has no previous criminal convictions and he’s making a confession that will lead to the seizure of a large shipment of illegal weapons and the arrest of Riggs and Woodhead.’
Zara nodded. She understood how the law worked with juveniles better than most lawyers and finished the story herself. ‘So Julian will have to go to court and plead guilty to a couple of minor charges, but the judge will give him credit for confessing. And, as Julian’s still seventeen, he’s a juvenile so he won’t even have a criminal record beyond his eighteenth birthday.’
‘That’s it in a nutshell,’ Neil sighed. ‘But Judge Hargreaves’ get out of jail free scheme for Julian has wrecked any chance we had of following the weapons to their destination and getting evidence that links the Führer and other senior Brigands to the smuggling racket. The icing on the cake for us is that we’ve paid a three-hundred-grand deposit which we’ll probably never see again. It’s a massive embarrassment.’
Dante sprang up, making his chair shoot backwards, then slammed his palm on the table top. ‘That bastard,’ he shouted. ‘The Führer’s gotta be the luckiest dirtbag on the planet. Nothing ever sticks to him. Give me a gun, I’ll stick it in his face and spray his brains all over his front doorstep.’
Chloe stood up and moved towards Dante. ‘Calm down, mate,’ she said soothingly. ‘Everyone here wants to see the Führer put behind bars, but we always knew that this mission was a long shot.’
‘Don’t give me that,’ Dante said furiously. ‘For all you lot the Führer is a target. Some you win, some you lose and if you lose you’ll get on with the next job. But I watched him take a gun and kill four members of my family.’
Zara stood up and spoke in a firm voice. ‘Dante, I know you’re having a hard time with this. But even CHERUB isn’t totally above the law. There are countries in the world where the government goes around killing anyone they don’t like, but I’m glad that I don’t live in one of them.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Dante said, stepping back from Chloe and picking up his chair. ‘I’m not being professional. It just pisses me off that the Führer keeps on getting away with everything.’
‘Completely understood,’ Zara nodded. ‘So how was the CHERUB part of the mission going before this happened?’
Lauren answered first. ‘Me and Dante were getting nowhere fast. We did get the tip-off about Nigel being involved in the weapons smuggling through his sister Anna, but that was a fluke to be honest. Our main target was Joe Donnington, on the basis that he’d know a lot about what his dad was up to, but he doesn’t. He finds having a father who goes around dressed like Hitler embarrassing and keeps his distance.’
‘Joe’s a good kid,’ Dante said. ‘He was my best friend back in the old days and if my parents were alive he probably still would be. But he doesn’t know any more about Brigands weapons smuggling or drug dealing than I do.’
‘Disappointing,’ Zara said. ‘What about you, James?’
James straightened up in his chair and cleared his throat. ‘It was going really slowly,’ he said. ‘On Friday I’d have said that I was no closer to penetrating the Brigands organisation than when we first arrived. But the run out to the Rebel Tea Party changed everything. Dirty Dave loves me, the other Brigands are starting to think I’m an asset and I’m a shoo-in for Monster Bunch membership if I hang around over the summer.’
‘It’s so frustrating,’ Chloe said. ‘James made the breakthrough we’ve been desperate for just as the other end of the operation blew up in our faces.’
‘I’ve got this meeting with Dirty Dave on Monday,’ James said. ‘He said he’s going to offer me a way to start making some money.’
‘Any idea how?’ Tracy asked.
James shook his head. ‘But he said he didn’t want to talk about it over the phone, so it’s going to be something illegal.’
Zara nodded and locked her fingers together. ‘Well,’ she said, as she drew a sharp breath, ‘none of you are going to like this but I think CHERUB has to pull the plug on this one.’
‘For god’s sake,’ Dante moaned.
‘Don’t bite my head off,’ Zara said. ‘Every CHERUB mission is authorised by our ethics committee. Your mission briefings cleared you to infiltrate the Brigands and work with the Biker Task Force