CHERUB: The Sleepwalker - Robert Muchamore Page 0,76

her jeans.

‘What’s up, Jake?’ she gasped.

‘Mac needs to know where you are,’ he answered. ‘We’ve just driven out of Sainsbury’s and he’s going nuts. We’ve both got voicemails from Fahim on our phones.’

‘Just spoke to him,’ Lauren said. ‘Me and Rat are running to the house. We’re about to turn into Fahim’s road.’

‘Mac’s on the blower to MI5,’ Jake explained. ‘They’re getting an emergency team to review the surveillance recordings. Hopefully they’ll have a better idea of what occurred inside the house in a few minutes’ time.’

‘Rat picked up our receiver and he’s monitoring the live signals,’ Lauren said. ‘The house is quiet. I think they left by car about five minutes ago. We’re planning to go inside and see if we can work out where they’ve gone.’

There was a pause while Jake explained this to Mac, who was finishing his call to the MI5 surveillance team.

‘Have you got weapons?’ Mac asked, as he snatched Jake’s phone.

‘Stun guns and pepper spray,’ Lauren said.

‘OK,’ Mac said. ‘Only go inside the house if you’re certain they’ve left.’

‘Got that,’ Lauren said. ‘I’ll keep in touch.’

She started running up a slight hill past gated homes. Rat used his extra speed to arrive first and began scaling the gate. Lauren was tense, but couldn’t resist smiling as she punched the entry code and opened the metal door alongside it.

‘Bloody hell,’ Rat moaned, as he balanced precariously on the spikes atop the gate.

‘I’ve got a front door key too,’ Lauren grinned, ‘but you’re welcome to try battering it down.’

Rat made sure that his tracksuit bottoms weren’t snagged on the spikes before dropping on to the gravel inside. His earpiece fell out as he landed, but he reattached it and had a quick listen to the iPod-sized receiver.

‘It’s dead in there,’ he said.

‘We can’t be certain,’ Lauren warned. ‘Hassam found the relay and busted it, so we’re only getting signals from half the house.’

Lauren held a stun gun in one hand as she unlocked the front door and stepped into the hallway. She looked down at the blood-spattered marble, but Rat was the first to see the cleaner’s feet, sticking out of the toilet door.

‘Jesus,’ Rat gasped. He looked away, but the image of the badly beaten woman with chunks of splintered thighbone jutting through her skin still made him retch.

Lauren felt almost as bad, but managed to stare for long enough to see her chest move. ‘She’s breathing.’

‘That’s something,’ Rat said, still too squeamish to look.

Lauren stepped reluctantly through the congealed blood and grabbed Sylvia’s wrist to take a pulse.

‘It’s so weak,’ she said urgently. ‘Call an ambulance.’

Shocked by Sylvia’s horrific injuries, the pair had neglected to make sure that the house was empty. As Rat called an ambulance, Lauren made bloody trainer prints as she checked the upstairs and the basement, before finishing off with the kitchen and the office annexe.

‘All safe,’ Lauren shouted. ‘Hassam must have called Asif and decided to bolt as soon as he found the bug. There’s no sign of any packing.’

‘Why didn’t he just get in a car and drive?’ Rat asked.

Lauren shrugged. ‘We put tracking devices in all his cars; maybe he suspected us.’

As she came back through the hi-tech kitchen, Lauren picked the rectangular relay box off the floor tiles. Hassam had tried breaking the box open with a screwdriver or knife, but the plastic hadn’t split. To her astonishment she could hear a distinct whistling sound as she moved it close to her face.

‘Bastard’s faulty,’ Lauren said furiously, as she moved back towards Rat and held it to his ear. ‘He never should have found that relay, but listen.’

Rat shook his head with disgust. ‘It might have cost a life. The ambulance is on its way; five to ten minutes.’

Lauren glanced at Sylvia, something she found easier now the shock had worn off. ‘I know first aid, but there’s not much I can do for her, and I don’t want to have to explain myself when they turn up.’

‘Who’ll let them in, though?’

Lauren thought for a second. ‘There’s bar stools in the kitchen. We’ll use one to wedge the front door and we’ll open the front gate so they can drive right up to the door.’

Lauren’s phone rang as she jogged towards the kitchen.

‘Mac,’ she said, before explaining what had happened.

‘OK, listen,’ Mac said. ‘MI5 got an emergency team to skim through the last recordings before the gunshot. It sounds like Hassam and Fahim are moving to a temporary safe-house, but we’ve no idea where that is.