CHERUB: The Fall - Robert Muchamore Page 0,74

bad English and other languages that Lauren couldn’t understand, she made her own way towards the coat rack.

But the main door burst open before she got there. Roman came in first, followed by Abby holding the can of pepper spray.

‘Get back to your rooms,’ Abby ordered, with her thumb clutching the trigger on the canister.

Lauren dropped behind the receptionist’s desk. The other girls didn’t seem to grasp what was in the canister, so Abby demonstrated with a quick squirt into the face of one of the older girls. She began screaming and a flurry of young legs bolted up the staircase.

‘If this doesn’t stop now, I’ll get Kenneth and a couple of his lads out here,’ Abby shouted.

Whoever Kenneth was, the mention of his name was enough to have the girls back on the sofa. Anna had disappeared back upstairs, but Lauren had crawled as far as the chromed base of the coat rack and was relieved to see the handle of Keith’s gun inside his jacket.

‘The revolution is over,’ Roman smiled. ‘Get your asses back to work.’

‘The ringleader’s over there,’ the receptionist said as she staggered up, with her hand covering a small cut where the padlock had struck her temple.

Lauren only had a second to grab the gun. As she shot up from the sticky carpet, Abby swung around and squeezed the cap on the pepper spray. The gooey liquid came through the air like snake venom. Lauren tried hiding her head behind a woman’s coat, but it hit the side of her face as her fingers gripped the stock of Keith’s revolver.

Lauren felt like her face was on fire, with one eye closed, the other streaming and the intense odour of pepper spray searing inside her mouth and the back of her throat. Her vision blurred as she aimed the gun towards the ceiling and blasted a warning shot.

‘Put the spray down and open the door,’ Lauren said, trying to sound more assertive than she felt.

She heard some of the other girls, who’d crept back to the bottom of the stairs to investigate the gunshot. The gun felt heavy. Lauren was seeing smears and fighting for breath, but she was less than three metres from Abby and Roman and you don’t need good eyesight to shoot someone from that distance.

Abby dropped the pepper spray.

‘Now open the door,’ Lauren said. ‘And anyone who wants to follow me out is welcome.’

Roman stared at Abby for confirmation before stepping backwards and opening the door. Lauren searched desperately for Anna, but all she could see were colours and blurry shapes. She realised that there were five or six girls running with her as she felt her way down the hallway towards Abby’s office, gun in hand.

‘Anna?’ Lauren yelled.

‘Your friend went back upstairs,’ a girl not much bigger than Lauren said, in broken English.

‘Not going back,’ Lauren gasped as she pointed inside the office. ‘Can you see a phone?’

‘On the desk.’

‘Dial for me,’ Lauren said. Then she realised that the other girls were standing in the doorway awaiting instructions. ‘Downstairs,’ she shouted. ‘There’s a room with bottles, run through there, jump over the bar and run out on to the street.’

As six teenaged girls clattered down the metal staircase in mules and cheap dressing gowns, Lauren told her remaining companion to pick up the phone and gave her the digits of John Jones’ mobile number.

Lauren screamed into the receiver. ‘Where are you?’

‘We’re coming in within five to ten minutes,’ John said. ‘But the cops are nervous about storming a building this size without proper reconnaissance or knowing what kind of weapons they’re up against.’

‘Only one gun that I know of and I’m holding it,’ Lauren said. ‘There should be girls coming out through the bar at the front any second.’

‘We’ll grab them. Your voice sounds terrible, are you OK?’

‘Pepper spray,’ Lauren explained. ‘Mostly on one side.’

The blurry girl who was helping Lauren spoke anxiously. ‘Abby and the others are coming.’

Lauren yelled into the phone. ‘John, the rats are leaving the sinking ship. You’ve got to stop them getting out.’

‘Are you sure they’re not armed?’

‘Pretty sure,’ Lauren said, as she waved her companion towards the staircase.

‘OK, keep safe,’ John said. ‘We’ve got cops on all sides of the building.’

‘I expect they’ll try getting out of the back gates in a car,’ Lauren said.

John yelled to someone standing close to him: ‘Get a vehicle parked across the back gates.’

Lauren realised that her companion had fled. She clutched the gun as blurry figures passed by