CHERUB: The Sleepwalker - Robert Muchamore Page 0,34

dashboard and part of her hoped it showed empty, but it was three quarters full.

‘Can’t believe I’m doing this,’ Lauren grunted, as she jabbed the throttle and jerked the steering wheel. The cart almost threw her out as the back wheels squealed and she spun to face in the opposite direction.

Lauren had a big speed advantage over the white shirts, but the quads had four-wheel drive and big tyres designed for mud and hills, whereas her cart had a low chassis and titchy wheels. It was meant to run on flat paths and trimmed grass.

She blasted away from the main building, hardly able to believe she was being so nice. After half a kilometre she was alarmed by the outlines of two quads on a hilltop, but they didn’t come after her. She was heading away from the main building and they must have thought she was a member of staff.

Judging from the radio traffic, it sounded like a massive ruck had broken out in the bushes. The group of six black shirts had got hold of some weapons and were in a shoot-out with white and red shirts. Pairs of white-shirt units were moving in to collect them and Lauren knew she had a chance to help.

She pressed the transmit button and spoke into her microphone, deliberately talking quietly so that her voice was hard to recognise. ‘I’m over on the west side,’ she lied. ‘Five black shirts just came out the front of the basic training compound. I need urgent assistance.’

‘Can you confirm your ID and location,’ Kazakov answered.

‘Sorry base, can’t understand … Weak signal … My earpiece got some water in it earlier. I repeat, I’m close to the exit of the training compound. I see five black shirts coming towards me, but I can’t take all of them out on my own.’

Kazakov started to panic. ‘I want all units patrolling the lake to move west and intercept by the training compound. All rear units move forward to the lake. Don’t you dare let anyone through because there’ll be no safety net behind you.’

Lauren grinned as a sequence of will dos and roger thats came through her earpiece. The two quads she’d passed moments earlier roared away from the hilltop heading for the lake, while in the distance she could hear a whole fleet moving towards the training compound. It made her feel pretty good, but if one of the nuttier white shirts like McEwen got hold of her after that stunt, they’d kick her arse whether it was against the rules or not.

It took another two minutes to pass the last of the football pitches. She took a right and sped down the track leading towards the lake, all the time trying not to think about how she could have been tucked up in bed by now.

15. LAKE

James and Dana crouched in the trees, watching the quads roar past in the darkness.

‘They’re heading for the training compound,’ Dana whispered.

‘You think it’s Lauren?’ James asked.

Dana shook her head. ‘They wouldn’t send all that lot after one person.’

They could hear the six black shirts and the white shirts fighting in the woods less than a hundred metres away. James and Dana considered joining the fray, but both sides seemed to have guns and simunition, while all they had was a big stick and a ropey plan.

‘If half of the quads have gone west and loads of other white shirts are in a rumble over there we could try making a break for it,’ James suggested.

But Dana didn’t sound keen. ‘After my last attempt I don’t fancy our chances on foot. We should stick to our plan. One of the quads has got to come up close eventually.’

Over the next couple of minutes they heard more shooting and watched a bunch of black shirts break out of the trees and make a run downhill towards the lake. They had no vehicles, but most of them had grabbed weapons from the red shirts and some even seemed to have retrieved well-fitting clothes and body armour from the whites.

As the massed group sprinted around the edge of the lake, a single quad closed in on James and Dana’s position. Dave Moss had gone after the non-existent group in the west, leaving McEwen to hunt James and Dana alone.

McEwen was confident that with a gun and body armour he’d be able to capture them both, but as he stood up astride the quad and glanced around to eyeball them with his night