CHERUB: The Sleepwalker - Robert Muchamore Page 0,78

never before.’

*

‘We’ve got a trace on Asif’s cellphone,’ Mac said. He’d phoned Lauren, but Rat took the call while Lauren concentrated on the road. ‘He’s using an unregistered phone for his calls, but luckily the idiot’s left his normal phone switched on. He’s at the warehouse now, or close to it. Jake and I are in the car and on our way, but we’re way behind you.’

Rat glanced at the Bentley’s giant sat-nav screen. ‘We’re less than a kilometre away,’ he told Mac. ‘But this is the worst possible car to be driving. Everyone stares and you should see the looks we’re getting when they spot Lauren behind the wheel. And it doesn’t help that she can’t drive to save her life.’

‘Hey,’ Lauren snapped. ‘I can drive, but it’s all narrow streets and this thing’s bigger than the bloody QE2.’

‘Don’t start fighting amongst yourselves,’ Mac said firmly. ‘When you arrive, remember that Asif almost certainly has a gun.’

They were snarled up behind a bendy bus and a queue of traffic as Rat ended the call and pocketed Lauren’s phone.

‘Screw this,’ Lauren said impatiently.

She turned the steering wheel to its fullest extent and blasted the horn. The big engine roared as they swerved into the oncoming traffic. The car accelerated quickly past the jam and the traffic coming towards them had to brake sharply to avoid the imposing Bentley grille. The driver of a tiny Smart car pulling out of a turning wasn’t so lucky, and the big Bentley crunched its front end.

‘Careful,’ Rat yelled.

Lauren growled as she pulled back to the correct side of the road. ‘You moan when I’m too timid, you moan when

I’m assertive.’

‘Turn left in fifty metres,’ the sat-nav said.

With another horn blast to warn pedestrians, Lauren swung into a side road and hit the accelerator. The big saloon had soft suspension, but not soft enough to stop the front bumper scraping the ground as they hit a speed bump at fifty miles an hour.

‘Jesus,’ Rat shouted.

‘Did you hit your head?’ Lauren grinned, as she glanced at Rat. ‘Good.’

The navigation screen told Lauren that they were less than four hundred metres from their destination. Not wanting to attract undue attention, she slowed to normal driving pace before taking a final turn into a cul-de-sac.

‘You have now reached your destination.’

The wire-mesh gates in front of the dilapidated warehouse building were unlocked. Asif’s X5 was the only car in the small lot and Lauren parked the big Bentley across the gates, blocking his way out.

‘Do we wait, or try inside, or what?’ Rat asked, as he grabbed Lauren’s backpack.

Lauren thought for a second before answering. ‘Right now we’ve got the element of surprise, but the moment Asif steps out of the building and sees Hassam’s Bentley he’s gonna know something’s up. And if he’s got a gun, it’ll be too risky to chase him.’

‘Where’s your body armour?’

‘Back at the flat, there wasn’t time to put it on.’

They approached cautiously, Lauren’s stun gun at the ready as they headed towards a door with flaking paint at the rear of the warehouse. Rat crouched low, then peeked inside through a filthy window.

‘Light’s on,’ he whispered. ‘There’s a couple of bags and a backpack inside the door, but I can’t see Asif.’

Lauren had her lock gun ready, but the door came open when Rat turned the knob. It hadn’t been oiled in years and the rusty hinges squealed. They gave Asif a few seconds to respond to the noise before straddling the bags in the doorway. Rat peeked inside the smallest one, a Fila backpack containing fake passports and wads of pounds, UAE dirhams and American dollars held together with elastic bands.

As grit on the floor crunched underfoot, the sound of a toilet flushing came from the opposite side of the echoing space. Using the rushing water to camouflage their noise, Lauren and Rat hurried between two racks of metal shelving towards a washroom door with a 2004 topless calendar pinned next to it.

The pair crouched on opposite sides of the door as the toilet cistern refilled and Asif Bin Hassam’s hands splashed under a running tap. Lauren took deep breaths as she held the stun gun in her hand, her trigger finger ready to fire the electrified barbs at Asif before he could grab his pistol.

Asif had nothing to dry his hands on and he shook them vigorously as he came through the doorway. He was startled to see Rat looking up at him, but before he could react, Lauren shot