stay on at CHERUB for another year before I start at university, but I reckon I might go off travelling instead. I fancy seeing Thailand and Australia and stuff.’
James grinned. ‘Cool.’
Dave turned the page of his newspaper and gasped. ‘Sweet! Imagine waking up next to a set of those.’
James scooted around the table to look at the picture of a topless model sitting on a soccer ball. ‘Legs are too skinny,’ he grinned. ‘Although I still wouldn’t say no.’
Dave glanced at his watch. ‘Oh, it’s quarter to twelve. Raul wants the car delivered before eight this evening …’
‘Who’s Raul?’ James interrupted.
‘Just some guy who works with Leon. He rang me through with the job. I don’t want to get caught up in the rush-hour traffic, so I say we head off somewhere decent and get lunch. Then we’ve got to ride the tube up to Pinner.’
‘Is that a long way?’
Dave nodded. ‘North-west London, way out on the Metropolitan line. We’ll have to change trains at Baker Street and the house is a quarter of an hour from the station. Then we’ve got to deliver the car to some lock-up near Bow Road.’
‘Have you told Millie all this?’
‘Course,’ Dave said. ‘Once there’s no risk of it compromising our mission, she’ll tip off the vehicle crime unit.’
‘They might even be able to bust Leon that way.’
‘Yeah James, if they find evidence strong enough to prove a link between Leon and the stolen cars in court. But that’s a very big if. You’ve seen how well he covers his back.’
*
The house was further from the tube station than the boys expected. They both had baseball hats pulled down over their faces and Dave slipped on a pair of mirrored sunglasses as they turned into Montgomery Grove. It was a posh street, lined with detached houses.
Dave took a sheet of paper out of his pocket and re-read his instructions. It was purely a nervous thing, because he could have recited the words by heart.
They passed a couple of kids on bikes; Dave turned to James as soon as they were out of earshot. ‘The burglar alarm will go off thirty seconds after we enter. So no messing about, OK?’
James tutted. ‘Well d-uh.’
‘The car is in the garage and the scout left the keys in the driver’s door. We’ll take one number plate each.’
‘What type of car is it?’ James asked.
‘Porsche Cayenne Turbo.’
‘Oh cool,’ James gasped. ‘The four-by-four one. Can I drive? I’m more into motorbikes than cars, but Cayennes do a hundred and seventy miles an hour, even though they’re absolutely massive.’
‘Good idea,’ Dave said. ‘A thirteen-year-old driving a sixty-grand car through London in broad daylight. That’s not gonna attract any attention.’
James grinned. ‘I still think we should have done this last night.’
‘It’s swings and roundabouts,’ Dave explained. ‘Darkness is an advantage for the actual break-in, but there’s a lot less cars around at night, so it’s harder to blend in with the traffic during the getaway.’
James stopped walking and called back to Dave. ‘Number thirty-six, Dave. This is it.’
The boys pulled on washing-up gloves as they walked up the driveway.
‘Nervous?’ Dave asked.
James smiled. ‘Only a bit.’
‘Remember James, we’re not risking our lives over Leon bloody Tarasov. If it gets heavy, we surrender.’
‘OK,’ James nodded, as he walked on to the front doorstep and rang the bell.
Dave crept through to the back garden and pulled a crowbar out of his backpack. Once James had given it half a minute to make certain nobody was in, he followed Dave around the side of the house and gave him the nod.
Dave plunged the crowbar into the frame of a glass door in the conservatory. It took a couple of strong pulls on the metal lever to break the lock, followed by a shoulder charge and a kick to break the chain on the inside.
Dave held his shoulder and clenched his teeth with pain as he charged through the steamy conservatory and into the house with James on his tail. James felt a surge of anxiety as he caught the sound of a burglar alarm control panel bleeping; counting down the half-minute until the main siren erupted.
They cut through a luxuriously furnished living-room, with a giant photo of a married couple and their two sons hanging over the fireplace. Dave opened a narrow door that led into a double garage. There was a black BMW parked beside the giant Porsche.