put his head inside the training instructor’s hut. He’d knocked, but hadn’t got an answer.
‘Mr Pike?’
Pike emerged from a tiled area at the back of the hut, with wet hair and dressed only in a pair of alarmingly skimpy underpants.
‘Thanks for coming by during your lunchtime,’ Pike said.
‘No bother,’ James said. ‘I was coming up this way to see Bruce. The nurse asked me to bring his portable DVD player and some clean clothes.’
‘How’s he doing?’
‘About what you’d expect, I guess,’ James shrugged. ‘It’s a bad break. When I left him last night they’d given him a load of sedatives and he was dead to the world.’
‘Too bad. We’ve had a couple of bumps and sprains where kids have bounced off a net and hit a tree, but that’s the first broken bone we’ve had in my time here.’
‘I guess it’s just a freak thing, getting your foot caught in the net like that.’
‘Anyway,’ Pike said, as he pulled on a clean pair of combat trousers. ‘I asked you up here to say thanks. I wasn’t totally convinced that Kevin would respond to bullying tactics, but it seems to have worked out.’
‘He’s even a bit the other way, sir. I’m worried that he might go too far and start thinking he’s indestructible.’
‘I’ve got him for a hundred days of basic training, starting in just over three weeks,’ Pike smiled. ‘I reckon we’ll have his head straight by the end of that.
‘The other reason I wanted you to come up was to ask if you’d be interested in helping us out a bit more. There are always kids to be trained. We can always do with a hand on weekend exercises and of course, if you’re helping us out on a regular basis, we’ll make sure that your own training and academic requirements are lightened.’
James nodded. ‘Meryl said I had a choice between helping out with training and doing heaps more academic stuff. The only thing is, if they lift my suspension I’ll probably be out on missions most of the time.’
Mr Pike was now dressed, except for his boots. He walked over to a coffee percolator. ‘Drink?’
‘Nah, I’m fine.’
‘So how’s Ewart getting on with the investigation?’ Pike asked.
James shrugged. ‘I went over there, but Ewart won’t tell me what’s going on. He says there’s a big row going on with MI5. It looks like it could drag on for months and I could be the one who gets stitched up.’
‘That wouldn’t surprise me,’ Pike said. ‘Once upon a time, me and Ewart were best mates.’
‘Really?’ James said. ‘I’ve never seen you speak to each other.’
‘That’s ’cos I hate his snidey guts. I completed my basic training a few months before Ewart. We had rooms next to each other; I had your girlfriend’s room actually.’
James smiled. ‘Kerry’s room. I never knew that.’
‘We even went on our first couple of missions together. But the third time out, Ewart stitched me up big time. We were both still grey-shirts, thirteen years old. Some of our mates had got their navy shirt and we were both getting desperate. Anyhow, like you I hated writing essays and reports. The only things that interested me were skirt, rugby and punch-ups. So when our mission came to its end, Ewart generously volunteered to type up my report as well as his own. We’d both done a decent enough job, but I see him two days later and he’s wearing a navy shirt.
‘When I read the reports, it was like everything Ewart had done was perfect and everything I’d done was half-arsed. I did my nut, but I couldn’t complain unless I was prepared to admit that I hadn’t written my own mission report.’
James shook his head. ‘Some best friend.’
‘I dragged Ewart out of his room and kicked him from one end of the sixth-floor corridor to the other, but the damage to my career was done. Ewart was part of the elite, going off on all the best missions. It took me another eighteen months to get my navy shirt, but I was never regarded as anything other than an average agent.’
‘Do you get on with him now?’
‘Barely,’ Pike shrugged. ‘Zara’s a nice lady and she invited me when her kids were christened. I put my good suit on and acted civil, but Ewart still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. He’s a snidey little so and so and if I was in your position, I’d be worried. I’d bet you my left nut that what