CHERUB: The Fall - Robert Muchamore Page 0,71

sick.’

‘Sticks and stones …’ Keith said. ‘You’d better start being a bit smarter, Lauren. I’m big, you’re small. You’re going to do everything I tell you to do. The only question is how much I have to hurt you to make it happen.’

‘Have you tried this before?’ Lauren asked. ‘I mean, raping a twelve-year-old?’

Keith smiled as he pulled off his Reeboks. ‘Let’s see how smart that mouth of yours is in half an hour’s time.’

‘Your mother must be really proud of you, Keith.’

That snapped it. Keith lunged at Lauren with one leg still in his trousers. He tried grabbing her by the neck, but she ripped her hand out of her leggings, ducked down low and plunged the knife between his legs.

Keith grabbed Lauren’s hair as he screamed in agony. Hot blood ran over her hand as she tried to free the knife, but the handle was slippery and it wouldn’t budge. Lauren felt a section of her scalp tear as Keith hitched her off the ground. The pain was excruciating, but Lauren managed to smash her palm against the underside of Keith’s jaw. Still holding on to Lauren’s hair, he staggered back and collapsed across the bed.

‘Let me go,’ Lauren yelled, kneeing the bloody patch between Keith’s legs as she landed on top of him.

Keith was bleeding heavily and she felt his grip weaken. She wriggled free and realised that she was covered in blood as she stumbled back towards the dividing curtain.

Lauren wasn’t particularly aggressive, but she hated Keith because of what he’d wanted to do to her and probably had done to other girls who’d been less able to defend themselves.

‘Paedophile,’ she snarled, as she watched the blood streaking down Keith’s legs. ‘You’re lucky I don’t strangle you.’

She was sorely tempted, but her training overpowered her thirst for revenge. There were only thin wooden partitions between each room. Someone had probably heard the commotion and it wouldn’t be long before they came to find out what had happened.

29. DOCUMENTS

James had to do it. He’d agreed with Kerry once he realised that she wasn’t going to help, but only because he knew he’d never get a snog while they were arguing.

James’ first idea was to sneak across campus in the early hours of the morning, but that would be highly suspicious. He knew from personal experience that the mission preparation building was usually almost empty by 6 p.m. If he got caught at that time, he’d be able to claim that he’d found the door open and was looking for Ewart; provided he didn’t get caught red-handed with his nose in a secret file.

There was a light drizzle in the evening air as he headed towards mission preparation. James bottled out a couple of times and even stopped walking before finally committing himself to the section of curved path leading towards the long, banana-shaped building.

CHERUB training teaches you that confidence is the key: it’s best to act like you haven’t got a care in the world even when you’re cacking yourself. Campus was monitored by numerous security systems, but with hundreds of cameras and hundreds of people moving around, the security staff were unlikely to get excited about anything that didn’t look too suspicious.

James approached with a swagger, swiped his card, pushed the door when it clicked and tried not to make it too obvious that he was attempting to see as far ahead as possible as he peered down the curving corridor that led to Ewart’s office.

The office wasn’t locked. Ewart usually left early to pick his kids up from nursery, but James knocked just in case. When he didn’t get an answer, he stepped in and flipped the light switch.

James didn’t have keys to the filing cabinets or cupboards, so it was lucky that Ewart was a slob. He began flicking through some of the papers stacked on the desk: invoices, plane tickets, lists of babysitters for the kids, a vet’s bill for Meatball and a lot of stuff related to an upcoming mission in Taiwan.

Frustrated, James tugged at the three locked desk drawers before eyeing a giant stack of papers on the glass coffee table in front of Ewart’s sofa. James saw his own photograph on top of the stack. It had been taken on the day he’d joined CHERUB and James was surprised by how much he’d changed. He barely recognised the chubby, innocent face, and could only envy the absence of zits.

JAMES ADAMS: CONFIDENTIAL FILE.

The cardboard folder was ten centimetres thick, bursting with