got six quid and an HMV voucher my mum gave me for Easter; and that’s no exaggeration.’
James decided to play for time. ‘I’m not saying no, but remember what I said about getting some money together and setting up our own crew properly? I can lend you a few hundred to tide you over until then.’
‘I’m sick of hand-outs,’ Junior yelled. ‘All my life I’ve been Keith Moore’s son, or I’ve had my mum on my back, or Sasha looking out for me. I want my own action. I can rob the travel agent tomorrow. Then I’ll use the money to buy some coke and grass and I can sell it around at school. The sixth formers snort and smoke like there’s no tomorrow, but they’re too scared to approach a dealer on the street so they’ll always pay over the odds. Give it a month and we could have twenty or thirty grand, fit girls on our arms and all the white powder we can stick up our noses.’
James shrugged. ‘It just isn’t the right time for me, Junior.’
‘You know what your problem is?’ Junior sneered. ‘You’re chicken.’
James tutted. ‘Yeah I’m chicken. I just helped take down a hard front for Sasha. That’s how chicken I am.’
‘There you go again,’ Junior shouted. ‘Sasha, Sasha, Sasha. Stick with him then, arsehole. I planned the travel agent as a one-man job anyway, so I’m going in tomorrow whether you and your boyfriend like it or not.’
‘Junior, calm down,’ James said, as he tried to grab Junior’s arm. ‘There’s kids everywhere.’
But Junior shoved James away. ‘Get your hands off me. You’re treating me like a baby, same as everyone else.’
‘Come on, mate,’ James said.
Junior’s push almost knocked him into a Year-Eight kid walking behind them.
By the time James had regained his footing and told the kid he was sorry, Junior was storming down the road. James knew there was no point going after him.
*
Bruce was lying on his bed at the Zoo when Chloe called.
‘The meeting went really well,’ she said. ‘Simeon’s going to set up a deal for next Wednesday. The ethics committee aren’t gonna be happy when they hear about the hard front, so this is going to be our only shot at taking down Major Dee and Sasha before we’re all hauled back to campus.’
‘At least we’ve got a chance,’ Bruce said hopefully.
‘Simeon is making all the right noises, but he’s hardly what I’d call trustworthy and we’ll have to keep our eyes on him. I want you and James to stick as close to Sasha as you can. He seems pleased with you boys, so hopefully he’ll drop some hints at the planning stage. The police have also been doing surveillance on Sasha, but so far they’ve got nothing except blurry photos and I wouldn’t hold out much hope of things improving.’
‘It’s a small crew,’ Bruce said. ‘So even if we’re not involved in the planning, Sasha’s bound to want us involved in the robbery.’
‘Hopefully so,’ Chloe said. ‘I’m going to ask Michael to do exactly the same for Major Dee’s side of the operation. I’m liaising with Chief Inspector Rush on the anti-gang taskforce, but he’s concerned that his unit isn’t a hundred per cent leak free, so he’s getting experts in from another force to run the surveillance operation. The local coppers won’t be told what’s going on until shortly before they have to move in and make arrests.’
‘I’ll make sure James is in the loop,’ Bruce said.
‘Where’s he disappeared to?’
‘He went to meet Junior,’ Bruce said, as he glanced at the watch resting on his bedside table. ‘I thought they’d go into town or something, but James called to say that he was coming back here, so I expect we’ll head over to Sasha’s later on.’
‘OK, keep in touch,’ Chloe said.
Bruce put his phone down and headed off to the toilet for a pee. James was in the bedroom when he got back and he wasn’t happy.
‘Junior’s such a moron,’ James yelled furiously, as he pulled his top off and flung it at his bed.
‘What’s he done?’
‘He’s got a crappy converted pistol and he’s planning to rob some travel agent first thing tomorrow morning. I did everything I could to talk him out of it, but he won’t listen.’
Bruce shrugged. ‘He’s a spoilt brat. What did you expect?’
James looked surprised. ‘I thought you said he was OK.’
‘Sure, he’s a good laugh. But he’s wasted all the time and it’s pretty clear to anyone with a