CHERUB: The Fall - Robert Muchamore Page 0,30

to drive you nuts by following you everywhere.’

If it hadn’t been for tubes, bruises and a complete lack of energy, James would have sat up and hugged her. ‘Brothers and sisters are weird,’ he croaked. ‘Somehow you end up loving each other but making each other crazy at the same time.’

13. BRIEF

Two days after his operation, James was still in hospital and going stir crazy. The bruises and swellings were reducing, all of his tubes and sensors had been removed and he was eating normally and using the toilet down the hall. Lauren agreed to return to campus once she saw that her brother was on the road to recovery, but she still travelled to the hospital after lessons every day, usually accompanied by Kerry and a couple of James’ other mates.

The daytime was worst. James watched TV, played on his PSP and read motorbike magazines, but it did his head in having nobody around, so he was pretty grateful when Ewart and Zara Asker turned up just after he’d eaten lunch.

Zara had smartened up since becoming chairwoman and sported a grey pinstripe business suit, but Ewart looked the same as ever. Ten years younger than his wife, he wore ripped jeans and a T-shirt with the poster from the 1960s Planet Of The Apes film on it.

‘So what’s this in aid of?’ James smiled, as the couple sank into the green armchairs alongside his bed.

Ewart spoke first. ‘I’ve been going through the recordings I made when I interviewed you about the mission yesterday. And – there’s no way to sugar-coat this, James – we’re really not sure how much of your testimony we can believe.’

James was shocked. ‘Are you saying I’m a liar?’

Zara shook her head. ‘Not so much lying, James, as confused. You took a severe beating, you spent a night out in the cold, and you were under a huge amount of stress.’

Ewart took over. ‘The thing is James, two well respected undercover operatives are dead. I’ve discussed the situation with senior MI5 officials and they’re not buying your story that Boris and Isla were killed after murdering Denis Obidin.’

‘Ewart, I told you yesterday. The CIA guy took me back to the safe house, he put the laptop in front of me and I watched the whole thing on video.’

‘Are you completely sure it was Boris and Isla?’

James tutted. ‘Absolutely sure. I saw them getting dressed before they went out. They were wearing the right clothes and everything.’

Ewart wagged his finger. ‘But in the testimony I recorded yesterday, you said that you had a pulsing headache, your eyes were swollen and the video footage was blurry. Can you really be sure?’

‘I felt rough,’ James nodded, ‘but I wasn’t blind. It was CCTV footage. It was black and white and a bit blurry, like every other bit of CCTV footage I’ve ever seen.’

‘So you could positively identify Boris and Isla on the clip?’ Zara said.

Ewart interrupted before James got to answer. ‘The thing is James, MI5 are saying that this video clip is what the CIA, or whoever this Partridge dude really works for, wanted you to see. It could have been staged with actors, or real footage could have been manipulated by computers.’

‘I guess,’ James said. ‘All I know is that it looked real to me when I saw it and we’ve since confirmed that Boris, Isla and Denis are all dead.’

Ewart nodded. ‘Point taken.’

‘Can’t you contact the CIA and see if you can get hold of the footage?’ James asked.

Zara smiled. ‘James, we’re certainly going to try, but it’s a delicate business. You can’t just ring up CIA headquarters and say, Hey we’re a bunch of British spies who don’t officially exist, you know that top secret undercover mission you’ve got going on in Northern Russia …’

‘Well obviously,’ James nodded. ‘But, the Americans are our friends, right? I mean, I worked with the CIA and the FBI in Arizona two years ago. That’s how they knew who I was.’

‘Espionage isn’t a world of black and white, James,’ Ewart said. ‘In some instances, such as the Arizona situation, British and American interests are the same and we work together. In Aero City, things are more complex. Denis Obidin was a massive presence in the Russian aerospace industry. His contract with Hilton Aerospace to fit British jet engines and maintain Russian airliners is worth billions. Even though it’s a declining market, the big American aero-engine companies would still love to get hold of that contract and gain a