CHERUB: The Sleepwalker - Robert Muchamore Page 0,43
physical descriptions and Asif Bin Hassam is a common Arab name.’
‘So anyone of that name just gets automatically nabbed by airport security?’
‘Exactly,’ Mac said. ‘Senator Ted Kennedy – JFK’s brother – had problems because a terrorist suspect used the alias T Kennedy. That name was removed from the list, but there have been several other high-profile cases.’
‘Did you ask the FBI why Asif Bin Hassam is on the list?’
‘They added the name to the list after it was received from an anonymous Pakistani informant,’ Mac said. ‘That’s the only information they have.’
‘But you still think we’re on to something?’ Lauren asked.
‘Yes,’ Mac said firmly. ‘And this is what makes it look really interesting.’
Mac handed Lauren a small pile of photocopied credit-card statements and mobile-phone bills, with Yasmin Bin Hassam’s name at the top. There were more than a dozen phone calls each day and the money being run through the credit card made Lauren’s allowance look extremely humble.
‘What was the date of Fahim’s call to the hotline?’ she asked.
‘Tuesday September eleventh; two days after the plane went down.’
‘There’s no phone calls or credit-card payments after the tenth,’ Lauren gasped. ‘It’s like Yasmin Bin Hassam disappeared off the face of the earth. Did you check the airports?’
‘And the ferries,’ Mac said. ‘If Yasmin left the country she used a false passport.’
‘And on the day she disappears, her son rings the anti-terrorist hotline scared out of his wits,’ Lauren said.
Mac smiled and raised a finger. ‘So now you’re not so sure that this old codger has gone off his rocker?’
‘Suppose not,’ Lauren said. Then she shook her head desperately. ‘I mean, not that I ever was.’
‘There’s just one problem,’ Mac said, as he threw more papers across the desk. ‘Fahim was expelled from his school on the tenth and that’s the educational psychiatrist’s report on him.’
Lauren scanned through a three-page document and read aloud some of the sections highlighted by Mac. ‘Fahim suffers from emotional insecurity and constantly craves attention. He seems mildly paranoid and believes that everyone is out to get him … Fahim is disruptive in class and prone to fighting and facial tics … His parents report regular night terrors, panic attacks and sleepwalking.’
‘And he’s the bedrock on which my hunch is based,’ Mac said uneasily.
‘Tiny acorns,’ Lauren said as she put the report down on the desk. ‘It’s not much, but when you put it all together, I guess it’s worth looking into.’
18. WORK
James and Kerry had both passed CHERUB’s advanced driving course, but they were still too young to drive legally and Meryl rejected James’ suggestion that they drive to Deluxe Chicken and park up a couple of streets away.
Instead they had a cover story that they were Year Eleven pupils from a school more than thirty kilometres from where they’d be working. After being dropped at a bus stop in a village three kilometres from campus, they had to suffer a forty-minute journey on a crowded bus. The only people who used it were either too old or too poor to drive and James found it a depressing experience.
The driver had a face like thunder, nobody smiled and even when James hopped out to help an old dear bring her shopping basket on board, all he got was a suspicious look like she was expecting to get mugged.
‘Everyone loves teenagers in this country,’ James tutted, as he crashed back into his seat in the row behind Kerry.
She smiled, which was a rare thing in James’ presence. He’d broken Kerry’s heart when he dumped her for Dana, but it had been almost a year and James couldn’t understand why things hadn’t thawed out. Especially as Kerry was going out with Bruce – who was more or less James’ best friend now that Kyle had retired from CHERUB.
‘You heard from Bruce at all?’ James asked.
Kerry nodded. ‘He told me to say hello. He thought it was pretty funny us two getting the same work experience.’
‘Is he doing OK?’ James asked.
‘Seems to be. He’s annoyed about the weather though. You expect it to be hot if you get sent down under, but it’s the middle of their winter and he says it’s just drizzle all the time.’
James smiled – this was the longest conversation he’d had with Kerry in eleven months. ‘What was your first-choice job?’
‘Stern and Frank, the merchant bank.’
James nodded. ‘I thought about applying for that one. It looked cool and you got to stay in London for two weeks.’