her camera in shock.
Lauren was staked out in the bushes twenty metres from the barn. She wasn't invisible, but your have had to look hard to see her and if she was caught she could push the matchbox-sized digital camera down the back of her underwear and pretend to be nothing more than a kid sister sticking her nose where it didn't belong.
As James, Kyle, Tom and Viv stepped into the barn to be searched by the two women, Lauren crept up through the bushes until she was directly in line with the rear of the van. She could easily be spotted from this distance, but it was the only way sher get a shot inside the van when the rear doors opened.
She flipped the tiny camera into video mode, propped it on a branch and tied it into position with the neck strap. When this was done, she dashed back to her original spot and slid a tiny remote out of her pocket.
James was the first to emerge a couple of minutes later. He pulled down his tracksuit bottoms and started peeing against the side of the barn. By the time her finished, the others were heading towards the rear of the van. Lauren hit record on the remote as Jo opened the rear doors.
*
Looks comfy,?James grinned, as he stepped into the back of the van. There were cushions and beanbags piled up inside the long metal box. There were no windows in the back or sides, so they wouldn't know where they were going, but the vehicle had started life as a security van and the escape hatch in the roof had been ripped out to let in fresh air and light.
The only other person in the back of the van had made himself comfortable, stripped down to his shorts and sprawling over two beanbags. He looked about twenty years old.
T'll Jay,?he said, touching fists with the four new arrivals as Jo slammed the back doors and plunged them into gloom.
Once theyr all settled in, Jay put on The Beatles?white album and offered everyone a choice of Coke or mineral water from a cooler box.
Tou better appreciate the music,?Jay grinned. T waged war to bring this boom box ?I told the girls there was no way I was sitting in a van for four hours staring at metal.?
Tou couldn't read for that long,?Kyle said. Especially in this light.?
The long wheelbase gave all five lads space to stretch out and James got comfortable on a big cushion, with a smaller one propped behind his head. He was nervous about the next forty-eight hours, but Tom, Viv, Jay and Kyle all started chatting and he found it hard not to pick up the buzz of five young men going on an adventure.
The only trouble was, it was high summer and they were trapped inside a poorly ventilated, metal-sided box. By the time they reached the motorway, everyone had copied Jay and stripped down to their shorts.
*
Lauren gave the van a minute to clear the area around the barn, before grabbing the camera and sprinting off across the fields towards the cottage. Zara was waiting at the kitchen table with her laptop open.
That did you get??
T took pictures,?Lauren gasped. More important, I recognised one of them: Adelaide Kent, from when we rescued Meatball. She seemed so gentle with the dogs and putting her little sisters to bed and that 厭
Tou should know better than to judge people based upon one meeting,?Zara cautioned, as she wired Laurent camera up to the laptop. She copied the whole lot on to the hard drive and e-mailed the pictures to CHERUB campus before taking a look herself.
慠un the video,?Lauren said. T wonder if weEl be able to make out anything inside the van.?
Windows Media Player popped up on screen. The first few seconds of picture were washed out, as the little camera adjusted its exposure settings from the sunlight reflecting off the back of the van to its gloomy interior.
The next bit showed legs and bums as the boys clambered into the van, but Lauren finally spotted something useful as they settled on to their cushions.
Thatt Jay,?Lauren said, tapping the screen. Adelaidet boyfriend.?
Can you remember his surname??
Buckle, like a belt,?Lauren nodded.
Aood stuff, Lauren. Hopefully the names and the picture of the mysterious Jo will help us fit together a picture of the AFA.?
Ryan had taken to spending all of his mornings in bed and was heading into the kitchen, dressed in a set of striped