as he took his first step, but he ignored it as he sprinted down the hallway and dived into George’s bedroom.
Sophie was much heavier than Andy, but her Karate skills were limited to a few self-defence classes and Andy soon straddled her waist, pinning her arms to her side.
‘Please calm down,’ Andy said. ‘You’re drunk. You’ll feel better if you get in bed and try going to sleep.’
‘I want that key,’ she screamed. ‘I don’t want you little idiots in my room.’
Greg burrowed down the side pocket of Andy’s pack and grabbed one of the syringes. Out in the hall, Sophie spat and wriggled, even though Andy had her hopelessly pinned.
‘Get off me,’ she yelled.
‘As soon as you calm down,’ Andy yelled back. ‘It’s a misunderstanding. I haven’t got any key, I swear.’
Greg crouched down behind Andy. He put the syringe between his teeth, before grabbing Sophie’s foot and twisting it around so that it was flat to the floor.
‘I’ll kill you both,’ Sophie screamed, now close to tears. ‘Lemme go.’
Andy felt bad because Sophie was really upset, but she was going so crazy that he knew he’d only have to pin her again if he let her up.
Greg took the needle and jabbed it into the flesh between two toes on Sophie’s right foot. She felt something, but Andy’s torso blocked her view so she had no idea what it was.
It took half a minute for the sedative to start working. Sophie stopped thrashing about and her body started to relax.
‘Thank Christ for that,’ Andy gasped breathlessly, as he tried to stand up.
But the mixture of nightclub cocktails, panic and sedative hadn’t done Sophie any good. As Andy lifted his weight off her stomach, she sat upright and spewed bright green vomit into his lap.
‘Ahh shit!’ Andy gasped, heaving at the smell of the puke dripping off his thighs as Sophie crashed back on to the carpet, dead to the world.
It’s easy to choke when you’re unconscious and Andy’s first-aid training kicked in. He plunged his hand into Sophie’s mouth and made sure that her airway was clear, before standing up and rolling her into the recovery position.
‘Who’d want to be a spy?’ Andy complained, clutching the strained muscles down his left side as he stepped back from Sophie. ‘How come you never see James Bond covered in some drunk bird’s puke?’
Greg wasn’t listening because he had his own problems. He leaned against the wall, inspecting his right heel. He’d ignored the pain when the adrenalin was flowing, but now realised that he’d sliced his foot open on a chunk of the broken vase. What’s more, he’d left a trail of blood all along the hallway carpet and into George’s room too.
Andy inspected the mess: blood, puke, beer, broken china, half a bag of crushed M&Ms and even a dent in the wall. ‘George’s old lady’s gonna love this when she wakes up in the morning.’
Andy and Greg were both in pain, but they’d been through worse in CHERUB training and were both determined to pull off their mission.
Greg looked up and smiled at Andy, then mimicked the gruff voice of a CHERUB instructor. ‘This is tough but cherubs are tougher,’ he said.
Andy laughed, but that made the torn muscles in his stomach hurt even more.
‘I’ll take a shower and nick a clean pair of shorts from George’s wardrobe,’ he said. ‘You find a bandage or something to stop your foot from bleeding. Once we’re cleaned up, we’ll drag Sophie on to her bed.’
‘Fair enough,’ Greg nodded. ‘Then what?’
Andy glanced at his watch. ‘It’s only one forty-five. Nobody will be waking up for at least three hours, so we go back into Kurt’s study, make the last forty-three revisions to the centrifuge design and then turn in for whatever’s left of the night.’
‘Sounds like a plan to me,’ Greg nodded, as he started hobbling towards the bathroom.
10. RAGE
Earthquakes are measured on the Richter scale, tornados on the Fujita scale, and there’s an Explosivity Index for volcanoes. Andy and Greg weren’t sure what scale was used for enraged mothers, but whatever it was George’s mum hit the top level when she woke up at half-past seven that Saturday morning.
‘Get your arses downstairs,’ Dr Lydon screamed, as she yanked George out of a gentle slumber. Being gassed had left her with a bad headache, which made her mood even worse. ‘Mind your feet, there’s broken china all along the passageway.’
She’d seen the carnage in the hallway, but only learned of the