movie.
‘Old skool,’ Rat grinned, giving a double thumbs-up as he peered through the glass door. ‘Do you reckon they still use it?’
‘Doubt it,’ Lauren said as she pulled a plastic pass out of her trousers. ‘Now stop lusting after the big computer, you geek. I need you to keep your eyes open.’
She swiped the pass through a magnetic reader and the door clicked open.
‘Nice one,’ Rat nodded, as Lauren held the door open for him. ‘I wonder where Kyle got the pass.’
Lauren shrugged. ‘Knowing Kyle he traded it for a stack of pirate DVDs.’
The archive smelled of dust and furniture polish. It was only staffed during regular office hours so the reception desk was unmanned.
As Rat peered down the fifty-metre-long lines of metal shelves and filing cabinets to make sure they were alone, Lauren sat in front of an old PC with a glowing green screen. She looked for a mouse, but after a few seconds she realised there wasn’t one and used the cursor keys to navigate down the screen to a field marked SEARCH.
Lauren typed NORMAN LARGE and after twenty seconds a list of files and reference numbers scrolled up from the bottom of the screen.
After moving through the list, she spotted the Personnel Record 1996 – present and jotted the shelf reference on to a Post-It, before pressing the escape button several times to clear the evidence of her search.
‘There’s nobody around,’ Rat confirmed, as Lauren stood up from the desk. ‘What’s down here? How come this place is so huge?’
‘There’s records on every CHERUB mission before 1992, after which they’re all computerised,’ Lauren explained. ‘Then there’s paper records for everyone who has ever visited campus and required security clearance, from the chairwoman all the way down to some bloke who popped in twenty-five years ago to replace the filter on a swimming pool. There’s also other stuff like contracts, building plans, accounts …’
Rat’s face lit up with mischief. ‘Are our personal files down here?’
Lauren shook her head. ‘Files on current agents and recent missions are in the mission preparation building, but they all get scanned and digitised after five years.’
‘Pity; a peek at our own files might have been a laugh.’
‘FGS-271C,’ Lauren said as she peered down one of the long lines of shelves. ‘Now where’s that gonna be …’
‘Tell you what,’ Rat said. ‘We’ll need to make photocopies. You start looking for the file; I’ll go over and make sure the copiers are switched on and warmed up.’
‘Good thinking,’ Lauren said, as she set off between the lines of shelving, trying to figure out the filing system.
It started out at AAA-000A, so she guessed that her reference starting with F would be in the second or third aisle. She found the Fs in less than a minute, but had to locate a sliding ladder and push it along the front of the shelving units to retrieve the chunky box file from its slot on the top shelf.
As Lauren opened the file for a quick peek the mound of papers inside spewed over the carpet.
‘Balls,’ she cursed.
Rat heard the noise and came jogging between the shelves to help her pick up. They were both tense, but couldn’t help laughing when they spotted a picture of a university-age Norman Large dressed in bleached jeans, sporting an extraordinary mullet hairstyle and holding a placard that said LSE Student Union boycotts South African goods.
Once the papers were back in order, Lauren took the file to a small table that lay between the ends of two storage racks and sifted through cream-coloured wallets until she came to the one marked Descendants.
‘It’s spooky to think that CHERUB will keep files on us for years after we leave,’ Rat said. ‘And not just on us, but our kids and our wives and stuff.’
‘It’s a big job making sure CHERUB stays a secret,’ Lauren nodded. ‘I’ve heard that there’s an enforcement unit of some of the toughest ex-cherubs. They go around making sure nothing ever leaks out.’
‘Like how?’
‘Whatever it takes, I guess.’
‘Cool,’ Rat grinned. ‘Do you reckon they kill people? Like, imagine if someone threatened to publish a book about CHERUB and there was no other way to stop them.’
Lauren shrugged impatiently. ‘I don’t know Rat, it’s just a rumour. At this moment, we have to look at this file and get out of here before we’re busted.’
She opened the Descendants file and quickly read the title page:
NORMAN LARGE
Descendants – 1
Name – Hayley June Large-Brooks
Born – 16.05.1991
Parents – N/A
NOTE – Hayley is the