CHERUB: The Fall - Robert Muchamore Page 0,17

before stepping out on to the balcony. After checking that there was nobody down below, he began scooping fresh snow into the pot until it was almost full. Back inside, he set it down over the flames.

His next task was to capture the birds. His mind flashed back to basic training and Mr Large telling him that pigeons are basically stupid and much easier to catch than fish or mammals. They only have two states of mind. The first is oh my god something’s coming let’s fly away and the second is everything’s fine. If you want to catch a pigeon, all you have to do is make it believe that everything’s fine and it will practically walk into the cooking pot.

While his pot of snow melted, James raced upstairs to the pigeon-infested sixth floor, clutching his penknife and the large pot. The balcony was encrusted with bird lime and feathers. Naturally, the pigeons flew away when James came near them, but he crouched down with his back to the wall and stayed deadly still.

Within seconds, the birds forgot that James existed and began strolling around him as if he wasn’t there. When the first one came within a few centimetres of his hand, James reached out and grabbed it, before snapping its neck and dumping it in the pot. The sudden movement caused the birds to flutter, but within another minute they were all pecking away at James’ feet and within ten he had five pigeons in his pot.

Back downstairs, he found the bathroom smoky but warm and the snow melting over the flames. He began preparing the pigeons by slitting their throats and letting the blood drain into the bath tub.

The first animal James had ever cleaned and cooked had been a freshly shot squirrel during basic training. Pushing his hands inside to pull out the guts and the warm blood sticking to his fingers as he stripped away the pelt had made him feel sick. He’d wondered when such a skill would be useful to an undercover agent in the twenty-first century, but he appreciated the knowledge now as he expertly skinned and gutted each bird with his penknife, before snapping its ribcage to turn each one into a flattened slice that would cook evenly on the small fire.

James fed the fire as he worked and by the time the pigeons were prepared he had a saucepan of boiling water. Placing the pigeons on the grill, he headed out to the balcony and washed his bloody hands with snow, before coming back inside and rubbing them with vodka to sterilise them.

After flipping the meat with a stick, James sat on the plastic chair, poured water into the beaker and took three gulps, before cupping it under his chin and enjoying the steam rising towards his face.

This was his first moment of reasonable comfort since he’d been rudely awakened eight hours earlier. But it only served to remind James of his precarious situation: he was a long way from home and had never felt more alone in his life.

8. DIDDLEYBOMBBOMB

Lauren and Kerry felt weird as they faced each other across a table in the campus dining-room. Kerry had a lesson but couldn’t face it. They didn’t want to be alone, but at the same time they both felt awkward, sitting together and wondering what to say.

Rumours were the only things that spread around CHERUB campus faster than germs. By lunchtime, everyone seemed to know that James was missing. The two girls felt radioactive, as friends offered their sympathy in gentle voices, before sitting as far away from them as they could.

Lauren was supposed to play basketball and Kerry was scheduled to go into town with her friends, but neither girl felt like it. They went back to Kerry’s room and somehow ended up spending their Saturday afternoon playing Scrabble with Rat and Kerry’s mate Gabrielle to pass the time.

*

Reasonably warmed and fed, James moved out of the apartment as soon as the sky darkened. The electricity was back on and he knew that his orange jacket and gloves made him conspicuous in the city centre.

He’d spent much of the day wondering about the best way to get a mobile phone. He’d considered breaking into an empty apartment in one of the city’s wealthier areas, but these tended to be well policed. Besides, there were few landlines around and people generally took mobiles with them when they went out.

He thought about simply walking up to someone and asking to