was chasing after a pupil of Trinity Day, not a CHERUB agent who’d done advanced self-defence training. James ducked down and used a simple Judo throw; taking advantage of their forward momentum to roll his much heavier opponent over his back and slam him against the sun-baked grass.
There was a chance the throw had injured the teacher, but James reckoned he looked tougher than that. It had probably just made him extremely angry and James didn’t want him getting up and coming after him again, so he drove a hard punch into the base of his nose.
While the PE teacher wrapped his hands over his face and yelled out in pain, James looked up and rapidly tried to assess his chances of escape. Shak had nearly made it across the pitch. He had an entire football team on his tail, but it looked like he was going to make it to the hole in the fence and out of the school. The trouble was, once Shak had revealed the location of the flap, the kids chasing him would easily be able to block it off. James realised his only way out now was over the fence, barbed wire and all.
The nearest stretch of perimeter backed on to the gardens of some houses. It was less than fifty metres away, but there were three kids closing him down. James picked the smallest one – who was still bigger than he was – and charged straight at him. The kid dropped low and spread out wide to make a tackle. James dummied, before spinning out to the right and avoiding him. He stumbled a couple of paces, before clattering into another kid who shoved him flat on to the grass. Using a technique learned in Karate training, James managed to roll head over heels and spring explosively back to his feet. He now had a clear path to the fence.
Ideally, James would have had time to throw his blazer over the barbed wire topping the fence, but the heavy pack hooked around his shoulders made it impossible to get the jacket off quickly. He launched himself at the fence at full speed. The gaps in the wire mesh were too narrow to get a toehold, so he had to rely on upper body strength to haul himself up four metres. By the time he was within reach of the barbed wire, his shoulders were in agony and his fingers felt like they were set to pop out of their sockets.
James swung his leg up on to the top of a concrete fence post, narrowly missing the grasping hand of a footballer trying to get hold of his ankle. He had second thoughts about the four-metre leap awaiting him as he tried to position a hand on the barbed wire without getting spiked; but the prospect of giving up and getting on the wrong end of a group of angry sixteen-year-olds was hardly more attractive.
As he tried to perch atop the wire to make his jump, the kids down below gave up trying to grab him and adopted a new tactic: violently rocking the wire mesh in an attempt to knock him down.
As James swayed precariously back and forth, the teacher who’d been taking the football lesson was practically foaming at the mouth, still convinced that he was looking at a genuine Trinity Day pupil. ‘Come down this instant, boy. You will be expelled for this.’
James gasped in pain as one of the barbs tore into his thigh. He took a quick breath before hurling himself clumsily off the fence. He’d hoped to jump clear of the shrubs edging the garden and collapse sideways on to the lawn, paratrooper style, but the violent swaying of the fence made the jump impossible to judge. He ended up landing on his side, with his feet tangled in a hydrangea bush. Only the heavily padded backpack saved him from injury.
After scrambling up, James couldn’t resist an opportunity to triumphantly flick off the Trinity boys.
He kept low as he jogged across the lawn towards the house. The TV was on and there were some little kids running around inside. Fortunately there was a wooden gate at the side of the house that opened with a simple latch.
He crunched down a gravel driveway between two houses, inhaling the stench of overflowing plastic rubbish bags as he caught his breath. When James stepped out on to the pavement, he leaned against a low wall and burrowed into the mobile