CHERUB: Brigands M.C. - Robert Muchamore Page 0,92

and licked a bead of sweat off his chest. ‘It’s not every day you get rescued by a big horny boy. What happened down here?’ she asked, poking just below his nipple. ‘Did some crazy girl try to bite it off ?’

‘Nah,’ James grinned. ‘I got bitten by a snake, about a year back.’

‘You lead an interesting life,’ she smiled.

‘I suppose I do,’ James agreed as he nuzzled the back of the girl’s neck. ‘You know, this is kind of embarrassing but I didn’t actually catch your name.’

‘That’s because I didn’t tell you,’ the girl said, pushing James’ head away and sitting up with her bum balanced precariously on the edge of the bed. ‘Did you see where my socks went?’

James laughed. ‘So aren’t you going to tell me?’

‘No,’ the girl said, as she picked up the watch lying on the draining board. ‘And now I have to go to work.’

James was disappointed. ‘How long for? Can we meet up afterwards?’

‘This was fun,’ she smiled, as she hooked on a black bra and gave James a kiss. ‘But it was what it was.’

James wasn’t sure exactly what it had been, but he didn’t want to sound stupid so he changed the subject. ‘So what do you work at?’

‘My father and uncle have a van. We make paella.’

‘Ahh,’ James said. ‘So you travel all around?’

‘In summer,’ the girl nodded. ‘All the big festivals. V2, Reading, Glastonbury, Donnington, Notting Hill Carnival, and in Europe too. In the winter we go back to my mother and brothers in Spain.’

‘Life on the road,’ James said wistfully. ‘Sounds cool.’

‘Pass my jeans,’ the girl said as she looked at her watch. ‘You need to start getting dressed too.’

James reluctantly sat up and reached into the cab where he’d thrown the girl’s jeans. As he picked them up, he noticed a dark red triangle sticking out from the pocket.

‘A-ha,’ James said happily, as he swiped the passport from the pocket and opened the back page. ‘Reina Cardinas,’ he said in a thick Spanish accent. ‘Even your name is sexy.’

But Reina lunged frantically. ‘Nosy pig,’ she spat. ‘Give to me.’

‘You were cute.’ James smiled at Reina’s passport picture, in which she was about twelve. ‘Nice pigtails.’

Reina scowled as she snatched the jeans and the passport back. ‘Creep!’ she said, hooking James’ Ramones T-shirt with her big toe and flicking it up into his lap. ‘My things are private and you need to leave. My dad will be here soon.’

‘How come you’re out here on the road?’ James asked, as he pulled the Ramones tee over his head. ‘Shouldn’t you be at college or something?’

He’d hoped Reina would open up, but her tone remained bitter. ‘After the third school expelled me, my dad said he’d take me on the road where he can keep an eye on me.’

‘He’s doing a great job,’ James grinned as he slid his trainers on, but Reina didn’t smile back and before he knew it he was striding between the tightly parked vans, heading back towards Outlaw Hill.

33. TRAIL

The sun was starting to drop as Chloe parked the Range Rover in a side street a couple of hundred metres from the seafront at Kingswear. She walked down a steeply sloped lane and knocked on the back of a van marked with the name of a sanitation company.

The door swung open and she hopped inside, joining McEwen, Neil Gauche and an array of screens and monitoring equipment.

‘Your majesty,’ McEwen said sarcastically. ‘To what do we owe the honour?’

Chloe smiled. ‘James is in Cambridgeshire, Lauren and Dante are partying at the Führer’s house and there’s nothing on telly, so I thought I’d come along and see if you boys needed a hand.’

‘Cool,’ Neil said.

‘So what’s the state of play?’ Chloe asked.

McEwen answered. ‘Johnny Riggs arrived and went aboard the Brixton Riots about an hour after I fitted the cameras and microphones on the boat. A fuel tanker came by, then he spent some time cleaning up on deck. Paul Woodhead, plus Julian and Nigel arrived just after six. We picked up Nigel asking how long it would take. Riggs said he hoped to be back ashore before nine and all finished by eleven at the latest.’

‘What about the equipment?’

‘See for yourself,’ McEwen said, as he pointed to an LCD screen showing a clear video feed from the rear deck of the boat. ‘We’ve also got cameras set up on the dock, and Neil went out and put recording devices and trackers on Riggs’ car and the