brake. ‘Oh, that’s gonna get you home so much earlier.’
The driver of the car in front poked his hand out the window and flicked Dave off.
‘Up yours too,’ Dave snarled, before calming down a little and resuming his conversation with James. ‘You’ve been pretty lucky on your missions so far, kiddo. You earned most of the glory on that drugs mission and when we were locked up in Arizona, but I reckon it’s gonna be the David Moss show this time.’
James thought about it for a second and realised that he didn’t really mind.
‘Who cares?’ he grinned. ‘I won’t be earning any black T-shirt for this sideshow. So you can have your glory. As long as the weather stays nice and I get to spend a few weeks chilling with Hannah …’
‘Kids these days,’ Dave tutted, as he shook his head and struggled to keep a straight face. ‘Fancy putting a bit of skirt before the mission.’
James started to laugh. ‘Oh yeah Dave, you’d never do that.’
*
The boys arrived back at five in the afternoon. They’d bought cheap blinds to go up all the windows, bedside lamps, some shelving for the living-room and a couple of rugs to cover over the grubbiest areas of carpet in the bedrooms.
Hannah was grounded, but Max and Pete Tarasov both turned up. Pete brought some tools and a stepladder. He helped Dave put up the blinds, while James and Max screwed the pine shelving together. When the younger boys finished, they moved into James’ room and wired up Will’s old computer on the battered desk. The machine ran fine, but there weren’t any games or other cool stuff on the hard drive, so they headed down to the football pitches to join the nightly kick-about.
The end of school had put Palm Hill’s teenage population into a jubilant mood. James enjoyed himself too. At CHERUB, everyone was in good shape and his lack of footballing talent was evident; but amongst ordinary kids, his strength and high level of fitness made him look average.
The game meandered through an orange sunset into the bluish glow from streetlamps, but they ran out of players just before eleven, when Charlie went off with Liza Tarasov and a couple of slightly younger kids got hauled in by tetchy mums. James picked his shirt off a wooden bench and used it to wipe the sweat dripping out of his hair.
‘You wanna come over to my place some time tomorrow?’ Max asked, as they walked upstairs to their flats. ‘I’ve got four controllers for my X-Box. We can call up a couple of other guys and have a FIFA tournament or something?’
‘Yeah, that sounds cool,’ James nodded, grabbing his keys out of his pocket as they stepped on to the balcony. ‘We’ll sort it tomorrow. You’ve got my mobile number.’
James couldn’t decide whether to take a shower as he pushed open the front door. On one hand he was boiling hot, but on the other his legs were wasted and he just wanted to crash out in bed.
‘Dave, you awake?’ James asked, as he leaned into the living-room.
He didn’t get an answer, so he wandered through to the kitchen, stuck his head under the cold tap and began gulping down water. When he was satisfied, he wiped his mouth on the shirt and dumped it on the dining table, before cutting across the hallway to his room.
As James opened his door, he caught a strong whiff of burning. His heart raced as he scrambled out into the hallway and yelled.
24. SMOKE
‘Fire!’ James screamed.
Dave was sprawled across the double bed, with his bum on display and his duvet tangled around his legs.
‘Come on,’ James shouted frantically, slapping Dave on the leg. ‘Dave, wake up.’
Dave rolled on to his back and opened his eyes. ‘What’s the matter?’
‘I think there’s a fire in my room!’
Dave shot up and flicked on the new Ikea lamp beside his bed.
‘Are you sure?’ he asked, as he rolled out of bed and pulled his shorts up his legs.
‘I’ll call the fire brigade,’ James said, reaching for his phone.
‘Did you see flames?’ Dave asked. ‘Maybe the smell blew in from somewhere out the back. Let me check it out first.’
James lowered his phone, as Dave jogged up to his bedroom and rested his palm flat against the door.
‘It doesn’t feel hot, James. Did it feel hot when you opened the door?’
James shook his head. ‘No, just really smelly.’
Dave opened the door a few centimetres. Both boys caught the burning smell,