CHERUB: Divine Madness - Robert Muchamore Page 0,73
the communes, transfers of Survivors from one location to another, paying bills and bulk purchasing the produce that fed and clothed cult members around the world.
She knew some of this information might provide evidence of links between the Survivors and Help Earth, but there were thousands of computer files, rooms lined with filing cabinets and no easy way to distinguish between routine paperwork and valuable intelligence. Her only option was to stick her nose in whenever she could and hope for the best, but she wasn’t optimistic. It might take weeks or even months to get lucky.
Rat hated working in the office. He’d sorted out a regular skive, spending hours of every shift hiding out in a room used to store old bits of furniture. The office was large enough for people to lose track of each other, so it was easy to sneak off.
Rat’s favourite scam was to grab a glass of milk and some biscuits from the kitchen and sit under a broken desk reading a paperback. Sadly, reading matter inside the Ark was restricted to the wisdom of Joel Regan and a few classic novels studied by older kids in English Literature classes. Rat’s favourite was a paperback copy of Oliver Twist, which he’d stolen from a classroom and read more than a dozen times. It was now in tatters and Rat kept an elastic band around it to stop the pages dropping out.
Lauren enjoyed hanging out with Rat more than doing office work, but she kept herself busy because she knew the mission wouldn’t get anywhere while she sat around chatting. Still, Rat could be persistent and he managed to talk Lauren into spending half an hour sitting under the desk talking about different kinds of video games. Rat had played them on aeroplanes when he was a toddler, but they weren’t allowed inside the Ark and he was fascinated by them. He wanted to know every detail, like how many buttons the controllers on different consoles had, what type of things you saved on a memory card and what the most popular games were.
When Lauren finally headed off to do some work, she heard voices on the other side of the door and held back, not wanting to give away Rat’s hiding place. She waited for the talking to stop, but instead it started turning into a row.
‘Who is it?’ Rat whispered.
Lauren got excited when she realised the voices belonged to Joel Regan’s wife and eldest daughter.
‘It’s Susie and The Spider.’
Rat enjoyed a good bit of gossip and crawled out from under the desk. The two kids had their ears almost touching the door and sprang away as Susie backed into it.
‘Get your freak hands off me, Spider,’ Susie shouted.
‘I’ve found a hole,’ Eleanor shouted back. ‘Seventy million
dollars have vanished over the last five days.’
‘So what’s that got to do with me?’ Susie yelled.
‘My father and I were the only ones who had access to those funds. Now, Lomborg Financial are draining it.’
‘Why don’t you ask your father before accusing me?’
‘Don’t bullshit me Susie, I wasn’t born yesterday. I know you gave my father grief until he let you have control over that account. He’s a sick man and you’re abusing his trust.’
‘Arnos Lomborg has made us a lot of money,’ Susie shouted back. ‘You don’t mind when it comes rolling in, do you? Your precious Ark in Nevada would still be a blueprint if it wasn’t for me. Japan and Europe would be pipe dreams.’
‘But where does this miraculous ability to make money come from?’
‘Investments.’
‘Pull the other one, it’s got bells on. I’m no financial whiz, but it doesn’t take one to know that two hundred per cent returns on a three-week investment aren’t legitimate.’
‘Just count your money and shut your mouth,’ Susie snapped. ‘The only reason you don’t like this is because my people set up the contacts with Lomborg. What did the Survivors have before I started taking an interest? Vending machines, collection tins and red bills from the electricity company. Joel nearly bankrupted us trying to turn this godforsaken stretch of desert into some pathetic copy of Disneyland.’
Rat grinned at Lauren and shrugged, as if to say I don’t understand any more of this than you do. He had no reason to suspect that Lauren understood the implications of every word: Susie Regan was behind the links between Help Earth and the Survivors; Joel was too ill to make decisions and The Spider was out of the loop.