CHERUB: The Sleepwalker - Robert Muchamore Page 0,17

the attention of several staff. A petite French teacher was first into the hallway and she made a lunge, but Fahim was running at full speed and she couldn’t get hold of him.

The next teacher was a scarier prospect. Mr Linton taught science, but he doubled as a rugby coach and he’d tackled plenty bigger than Fahim in his time. His huge right arm locked around the eleven-year-old’s waist and swept him off the floor.

‘Let go, you nonce,’ Fahim shouted.

Linton had hitched him off the floor, but as his left hand came around Fahim sank his teeth into the teacher’s white lab coat.

‘Calm down,’ Linton shouted, as he tried pushing Fahim’s mouth away. But the boy kicked, spat and sank his teeth deeper as some of the Year-Six kids from Linton’s science class began filtering into the corridor to see what was going on.

Another teacher charged in and grabbed Fahim by his ankles so that he was suspended between two men with his teeth still sunk into Linton’s upper arm. The science teacher was in considerable pain and lunged with his free hand, knocking Fahim’s head away and forcing him to open his jaws.

‘I hate you,’ Fahim screamed wildly. ‘I hate this school. You can all rot in hell.’

Fahim was snapping like a turtle and Mr Linton didn’t want to get bitten again. He let the boy go and stepped backwards. The other teacher still held Fahim in the air by his ankles, and the back of Fahim’s head hit the wooden floor with a thud. The writhing and spitting stopped instantly.

‘Blast,’ Mr Linton stuttered, cupping a hand over the blood seeping through his lab coat before kneeling over the unconscious boy.

‘He was practically foaming at the mouth,’ the other teacher said, as he drew a mobile phone from his jacket and dialled 999. ‘What else could we do?’

By this time Yasmin had reached the scene and she collapsed in front of her son. ‘Idiots,’ she screamed. ‘What have you done to my boy?’

8. SPECULATE

Dr McAfferty had dished out punishments to most of the kids on campus and at some time many of them – including James and Lauren – had cursed his judgement. But Mac’s days as chairman were far enough in the past for everyone to have put a rose-tinted glow around his memory and Mac had been very good at his job. He always listened to your point of view and was big enough to admit being wrong on the rare occasions when he was.

It was evening now and the news that Mac had lost his wife, daughter-in-law and two of his grandchildren was common knowledge on campus. It had affected everyone in some way, and even the cherubs who’d joined after Mac’s reign ended had picked up the bad vibe.

The dining-hall was usually filled with the sound of kids letting off steam at the end of a long day, but on this Monday night it was like someone had turned the volume down to number three and all but the youngest cherubs kept an eye on News 24.

Men in suits sat in the TV studio talking about who could have been responsible. Someone had dug up archive footage of the plane and a few of the bereaved had been brave enough to speak for the cameras. James kept looking up, hoping for a real breakthrough, as he sat between Dana and the others eating spaghetti Bolognese.

‘I hate twenty-four-hour news,’ he complained. ‘All they do is yap, yap, yap, but they won’t know anything for weeks and by then they’ll be covering some other story.’

‘Hello,’ a small boy said brightly, squeezing into the gap between James and Dana’s chairs.

‘Joshua,’ James smiled as he looked at the son of Chairwoman Zara Asker. ‘You’re getting so big!’

Joshua Asker was two months shy of his fourth birthday. He’d decided at a very early age that James was the greatest person in the universe.

‘James,’ Joshua said seriously. He clearly had something important to ask, but he was excited and could hardly spit out the next word. ‘After dinner.’

Everyone around the table looked at the youngster and James put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. ‘Don’t worry, they won’t bite.’

‘After dinner,’ Joshua repeated, ‘will you come to the lake with me and Daddy and Meatball?’

James smiled and pointed at Dana. ‘Can she come with us?’

Joshua thought for a couple of seconds before nodding. ‘But you’ve got to play with me,’ he said. ‘No kissing.’

Dana burst out laughing. ‘Don’t worry, I won’t kiss