in the campus library, not up in his room. Obviously, you’re welcome to socialise with your friends off campus, but the leisure facilities on campus will be out of bounds and I don’t want you hanging around anywhere else on campus either.’
Kyle had been preparing to leave for a while, but seemed choked by this sudden end to ten years as a cherub. ‘I knew the risk I was taking,’ he said, nodding weakly. ‘Can I please have a few days to say goodbye to everyone and stuff?’
‘I can live with that,’ Zara nodded. ‘It’ll take that long to sort out the details of your new identity and set you up financially anyway.’
‘Right,’ Kyle nodded.
‘And I think that’s it for you,’ Zara said. ‘I’ll speak to Meryl and she can start making arrangements for your departure.’
As Kyle left the room, it occurred to Lauren that she’d been left till last because she was in the biggest trouble of all. Her heart was banging.
‘And then there was one,’ Zara said dramatically as she reached behind and took Lauren’s personal file from a glass shelf. ‘I never realised that we had a serious problem with you until I looked into your file.’
Lauren gulped when she heard serious problem. ‘I don’t exactly know what you mean,’ she said meekly.
‘Don’t you indeed?’ Zara smiled. ‘You’re one of the best agents we’ve got and you’re still the youngest black-shirt on campus, but your disciplinary record on campus is wretched.’
Zara opened Lauren’s file and began to read. ‘In late 2004, you assaulted Mr Large with a shovel. Mac put you on six months’ ditch-digging and gave you a final warning. In summer 2006, you were caught and punished after blackmailing James and breaking into the basic training compound to assist the trainees. Now you’re back in this office because of a second scheme you’ve concoted, this time to get revenge on Mr Large and force him to resign.’
‘But he blackmailed me,’ Lauren said. ‘I was just—’
‘I know what Mr Large did. And you did the correct thing by approaching Meryl Spencer and reporting the incident, which was resolved. What you did afterwards with Hayley and James was utterly unacceptable. And the thing I really don’t like is that you invented a scheme in a similar fashion just over a year ago.’
‘A lot of that one was Bethany’s idea though,’ Lauren protested.
Zara didn’t appreciate Lauren’s squirming. ‘Well, Bethany is away on a mission, so it certainly wasn’t her fault this time, was it?’
‘No, Miss.’
‘Your four-hundred-lap punishment seems to have had no effect, which has left me in a tricky position. My conclusion is that you need to spend a period of time demonstrating exemplary behaviour on campus before you can continue your career as an agent.’
‘You mean I’m suspended from missions?’ Lauren gasped.
‘You’re suspended for three months. Then, for three months after that I’m going to have you restricted to smaller scale missions: security checks, recruitment missions, things like that.’
‘OK,’ Lauren nodded miserably.
‘I also want you to make a bigger contribution to campus life and to take part in some activities that will give you responsibility and hopefully make you grow up. We’ve been recruiting aggressively over the last couple of years and we’ve currently got more than a dozen red-shirts aged under seven. The staff over in the junior block could do with a hand looking after them, so I want you to help out four nights a week for the next six months.
‘It’s all fairly simple: helping with their reading, making sure they take baths and showers, putting them to bed and maybe occasional activities such as swimming lessons, or trips out. Some of them are also going through a difficult time adjusting to campus life after losing parents or loved ones, so they can be demanding and they need plenty of emotional support.’
Lauren nodded, but she wasn’t happy. Maybe the punishment wasn’t as physically demanding as running laps, but six months was a long stretch and she’d never been shy about rubbing her elevated status into the faces of friends who were still mostly grey-shirts. They were going to love it when they found out she’d been suspended from missions.
21. GUNS
It was Friday lunchtime and although it was supposed to be the last day of his week off, James’ morning had been hectic: another briefing on the Luton gang situation with Chloe, the last third of his fifty punishment laps and a practice session with his specially prepared handgun on the shooting range. Through