CHERUB: Class A - Robert Muchamore Page 0,43

one of these?’
He slid a sawn-off shotgun out of his jacket and pointed it at them. James looked at Kerry, hoping she had some smart move up her sleeve, but she looked as scared as he felt.
‘This is a twelve gauge,’ the guy with the big hair explained. ‘One shot will blow the pair of you to smithereens. So, if you want to live beyond the next few minutes, you’re going to do exactly what I say. OK?’
James and Kerry both nodded.
‘First of all, pass the knives back to their owners, handles first.’
The skinheads took the knives.
‘Now put your hands on your heads.’
Once their hands were on their heads, the skinheads rummaged through James’ and Kerry’s pockets, taking their money, keys, train tickets and phones. Then they stripped off their watches.
‘Now, lose the backpacks.’
‘You know you’ll be in serious trouble if you take those packs?’ James said. ‘You’ve no idea what’s in them.’
‘I know exactly what’s in them,’ the hairball laughed. ‘And you can tell Keith Moore that if he sends any more grubby little brats down here, we’ll give them a lot worse than the beating we’re about to give you.’
Shorty looked back at the gunman. ‘Can I have his trainers before we batter them?’
‘Eh?’
Shorty pointed at James’ trainers. ‘You said we could keep whatever we nicked off them. Those trainers are a hundred and nineteen ninety-nine. My little brother would love ’em.’
The gunman shook his head in disbelief. ‘Go on, then.’
James looked mortified as he surrendered his almost-new Air Max.
‘Now,’ the gunman said, smiling sweetly, ‘after we go, you’re gonna walk or crawl the hell out of here. If I ever see you again, I’ll be the last thing you ever see. And I wouldn’t bother waiting for the bus. Kids kept chucking bricks through the windscreen, so they stopped running them after dark.’
The gunman made James and Kerry lie flat on the ground with their hands behind their heads, then he told the skinheads to give them a good going-over.
17. CRAZY
Kerry and James crawled out of the road and lay in the grass verge behind the bus stop, catching their breath. As kickings go, it hadn’t been bad, but they’d have plenty of bruises in the morning.
‘I guess they wanted us fit enough to walk home and give Keith his message,’ Kerry said.
‘How’s your knee?’ James asked.
‘I’m OK. Your lip’s bleeding.’
‘You feel up to walking, or do you want to rest for a minute?’
‘I can walk,’ Kerry said. ‘What are we gonna do?’
‘Exactly what the man with the gun told us to do,’ James said. ‘It’ll take at least an hour to get into town. Or if we pass a phone box that works, we can call home and reverse the charges.’
‘This will ruin the mission,’ Kerry said.
‘Nah. I’ll just explain what happened to Kelvin. It’s obvious we’ve been set up.’
‘What if they think you were in on it?’ Kerry asked. ‘There’s plenty of delivery boys. If there’s any doubt, KMG will just dump you and use someone else.’
James realised she was right. ‘They’re not exactly gonna be happy about me losing three hundred grand’s worth of coke, are they?’
‘They’ll check all of us out,’ Kerry said. ‘Not just you and me. Kyle, Nicole, Ewart and Zara will be under the spotlight as well. The whole mission will be down the toilet.’
‘I don’t see how we can get the drugs back,’ James said. ‘That guy had a gun. I don’t even have trainers.’
‘He was small-time,’ Kerry said.
‘What makes you say that?’
‘You heard what the skinhead said when he took your trainers. That hairball was paying them by letting them keep our stuff. That’s hardly the modus of a big shot.’
‘OK,’ James said. ‘He’s small-time, but he’s still got a gun.’
‘He won’t kill us in a million years,’ Kerry said. ‘He’s been paid a few hundred quid to scare us, grab the drugs and send a message to Keith Moore. There’s a huge difference between that and murdering two kids.’
‘Supposing you’re right,’ James said. ‘How do we find this guy?’
‘I think there’s only one road in and out of this chunk of paradise and we haven’t seen him leave. We’re looking for a tall, fat drug dealer with tons of curly hair and a beard. I bet one of the scumbags hanging around here will be able to put a name to a description like that.’
‘And we just walk up and they’ll tell us?’
Kerry shrugged. ‘We’ll make some excuse why we need to find him.’
‘The thing is,’ James