CHERUB: Brigands M.C. - Robert Muchamore Page 0,48

and making me look like a fool.’

‘Slobbering!’ Lauren gasped. ‘When was I slobbering?’

‘I just want to go to the summer hostel with my girlfriend,’ Rat yelled. ‘What’s so wrong with that?’

‘You’re changing the subject,’ Lauren said. ‘When was I slobbering over Dante? When did I do anything, apart from try to be nice and welcome back someone who’s been away for a long time?’

‘It’s everything,’ Rat shouted. ‘The way you look at him. The flirty little smiles.’

‘You’re jealous,’ Lauren shouted back, as she stopped walking and put her hands on her hips. ‘And totally immature. And I can’t believe you’re accusing me of cheating on you.’

‘I can’t believe that you’re denying it when you’re so blatantly trying to get off with him.’

Lauren looked at her watch. ‘I’m late for my briefing. I’m going on a mission with Dante and my brother. I’ll probably go for a late holiday with them afterwards too and maybe I will ask Dante out, because I’m not putting up with you acting like a moody jealous creep.’

Lauren stormed off, cutting across the grass because it was a more direct route to mission control.

‘See if I care,’ Rat shouted after her. ‘Why don’t you go off and shag the stupid red-headed wanker?’

‘He’s got more chance than you’ll ever get, you brainless Aussie twerp,’ Lauren shouted back, before turning around and giving Rat a two-fingered salute with both hands.

*

James Adams was sitting inside Chloe Blake’s office in the mission control building when she arrived with Dante, plus Ross and Neil in their orange suits. The office was large, with a suede sofa that was starting to show signs of wear and a floor-to-ceiling window that had a view of the satellite dishes on the grass outside.

‘I picked up the platter from the dining-room,’ James said, standing up to shake Ross and Neil’s hand before pointing to the food. ‘Fresh coffee, sandwiches, cakes. Help yourselves.’

‘Your sister not here yet?’ Chloe asked.

‘Nope,’ James said. ‘But she’s got to come right across from aqua training on the opposite side of campus.’

Dante took obvious pleasure in catching up with Ross. He couldn’t tell the policeman anything about his mission in Northern Ireland, but he gave some vague details about life on campus and asked questions about Tina, who was now training to be a solicitor.

‘I’m worried about Dante’s appearance,’ Ross said, giving Chloe a serious look.

Chloe nodded as she sat behind her desk and took a cup of tea from James. ‘We looked at some video footage of the interviews you conducted with Dante back in 2003. He’s obviously grown physically, the long hair and his new accent also help. But we’re going to give him a complete dye job. Not just the red hair on his head but his body hair too and we’ll show him how to keep the colour consistent so that he doesn’t show any red roots.’

‘We did a computer mock-up,’ Dante said, handing across a colour image. ‘That’s what I could look like.’

‘Blond to match me and my sister,’ James put in.

‘And obviously I can’t be called Dante,’ Dante added. ‘I’ll go for John, it’s a nice bland name.’

‘Looks good,’ Ross nodded. ‘I definitely think it’s an advantage having Dante on the mission. He’s not been around Salcombe for five years, but he probably knows more about the Führer and how the Brigands operate than any one of us.’

Dante smiled. ‘There’s nobody in the world more motivated to see the Führer’s arse behind bars than me.’

‘After my experience in that field last week, I think I’ll run you a close second,’ Neil said.

‘All of us will need some degree of physical transformation to infiltrate the South Devon Brigands,’ Chloe explained. ‘James is sixteen, but he’ll have the identity of a seventeen-year-old for the mission.’

‘Which means I can have my motorbike licence and try hanging around with the younger members of the Monster Bunch,’ James said gleefully. ‘I’ve ridden motorbikes before, but I’ve been out on the roads around campus with an instructor for the last few nights.’

‘Lauren will pretty much be herself,’ Chloe added. ‘But I’m only ten years older than James, so I’ll have to age myself a few years so that I can pretend that I’m his mum. A change of wardrobe and a couple of grey highlights should do the trick.’

‘Speaking of Lauren, she should be here by now,’ Dante said.

Lauren was fifty metres away and had just used the iris scanner to enter the mission control building. She was knackered after the