CHERUB: Divine Madness - Robert Muchamore Page 0,80

back of the room. ‘As well as the butler, there’s usually a couple of cleaning staff and my dad’s nurse on duty.’

‘Who actually lives upstairs?’ James asked.

‘Only Susie and my dad.’

‘Right,’ James said, ‘where are we headed?’

‘You want Susie’s office, so I’m gonna take you right through the basement. We’ll come up the back stairs. When you step off the landing, Susie’s office will be the second door on your left.’

‘Aren’t you coming with us?’ Lauren asked.

‘I’ve had my arse beaten enough times, ta very much. I’ll wait on the landing.’

They crept anxiously through the basement rooms of the Regan residence: a laundry and dry cleaning area, a disused kitchen large enough to cater for parties of hundreds of guests. Finally, they cut down a narrow corridor and passed the doors of the nurse and butler’s cell-like living quarters.

As they went through the last set of doors, they were shocked to see the butler’s black trousers and mirror finished shoes poking out from under the stairwell. Rat looked aghast as James put his hand in front of the butler’s mouth to check on his breathing.

‘I can’t see any obvious injuries,’ James said. ‘But I seriously doubt he collapsed under here. Someone must have dragged him.’

Lauren nodded. ‘Drugged by the looks of it.’

‘How long do you think he’ll be out for?’ Rat asked.

‘Depends what they’ve given him,’ Lauren shrugged. ‘Might be less than an hour, might be a day or more if they used a heavy-duty tranquiliser like Ketamine or something.’

James looked at his sister. ‘Do you think we should carry on?’

‘Well …’ Lauren said, before stopping to think for a second. ‘It could be dangerous, but something’s going on up there. I reckon we ought to at least try and find out. It could be critical to the mission.’

‘What mission?’ Rat asked.

Lauren realised she’d slipped up. ‘I mean our escape,’ she said weakly.

‘How does it affect that?’ Rat asked. ‘Why don’t we just clear out and tell these spy dudes that we couldn’t get into Susie’s office? They’re hardly gonna send us back, are they?’

‘We promised our dad,’ James said.

‘I shouldn’t really complain,’ Rat said, half grinning. ‘I’ve spent my whole life moaning that nothing exciting ever happens around here.’

As James put his foot on the bottom step, Rat had a brainwave. He leaned forwards and grabbed a bunch of keys out of the butler’s jacket. They headed up four flights of stairs. The first two were bare concrete, the third and fourth covered in deep carpet. Rat opened a maple door and peeked through into a broad corridor.

‘Looks good,’ he whispered.

‘Are you coming with us now?’ James asked.

‘Gotta admit I’m curious,’ Rat said.

The three kids walked briskly. James knocked when he reached the second door.

‘If somebody answers, leg it,’ he whispered.

There was no reply and the door wasn’t locked. It was a large office, gaudily furnished with a marble-topped desk and chairs finished in purple leather. While Lauren kept lookout in the doorway, James walked around the desk and checked out the computer.

‘Crap,’ he gasped, as he saw the computer had the side panel ripped away and a bunch of loose leads dangling across the carpet.

‘What’s up?’ Rat asked.

‘They’ve taken the hard disk out. It’s like they knew we were coming, or something.’

‘Can’t we make it work without that bit?’ Rat asked naively.

James shook his head. ‘All the information inside a computer is stored on the hard disk, it’s the only bit that matters.’

Lauren took her head out of the corridor. ‘Do you think Susie has links inside ASIS? Maybe someone’s tipped her off about the raid.’

‘What raid?’ Rat asked.

James deliberately ignored him. ‘Well, I packed up the lab this morning. Maybe Susie’s shipping out with Brian Evans.’

Rat was starting to look angry. ‘How the hell do you know about Brian Evans?’

‘What do you mean?’ James asked.

‘No way,’ Rat said bitterly. ‘You guys are holding out on me. How can you expect me to trust you when you’re feeding me lies? Why should I tell you anything?’

James gritted his teeth. ‘Please Rat; I swear you can trust us, but I haven’t got time to explain every little detail.’

‘Why can’t you just tell me the truth?’

‘Fine,’ James said, exasperated. ‘Me and Lauren are undercover agents. We’ve been sent in to uncover links between the Survivors and a terrorist group called Help Earth. We wanted to get the data off Susie’s computer before we left because in less than ninety minutes a bunch of commandos are gonna drop out of helicopters