CHERUB: The Sleepwalker - Robert Muchamore Page 0,8

‘Are you completely sure?’

‘Pretty sure,’ the man nodded. ‘We’re moving so fast, but it definitely looked like something. More of a glint in the sunlight than anything else.’

‘I think I saw something too,’ a woman in the row behind added. ‘Like he said. It was rectangular. A strip of metal or something.’

The stewardess nodded. ‘I’ll run up to the cockpit and tell the captain.’ Then she raised her voice. ‘Can everyone at a window seat please keep lookout and report if you see anything unusual.’

Angus felt a touch of relief as the words listen to announcements disappeared off his LCD screen. Maybe the pilots had decided that everything was OK. He slid his hand out of his mother’s grasp and flipped the channel until it came to the screen that showed flight information.

The red trail behind the little aircraft on the screen had doubled back on itself and the nose pointed back towards

North America.

‘We’ve turned around,’ Angus noted.

Megan hurriedly flipped her own screen to the aircraft information channel. As she got there the woman sitting in front of her spoke with alarm.

‘We’re losing height: four thousand metres.’

Angus looked at their position over the North Atlantic. He saw how far they’d flown in the two hours since leaving New York and he reckoned that they were at least an hour away from dry land, even if there was an airport right on the coast.

Everyone went silent as an upbeat voice came over the intercom. ‘Hi, this is Maxine, your co-pilot. We’re still trying to understand precisely what occurred to the aircraft, but I can confirm that we are having some difficulty controlling the plane due to a partial failure of the hydraulic system. We have now successfully adjusted our course for the nearest airport and expect to be making a landing in Newfoundland as a precautionary measure in approximately eighty-five minutes. To help you relax we’ve taken the entertainment system out of emergency mode. However, we would ask that all passengers please remain seated for the remainder of this flight.’

The co-pilot didn’t sound rattled. Once again Karen reached into the laps of her two children, but this time her hands rested gently rather than clutching tight.

‘I’m absolutely busting,’ Angus said.

Megan looked across and managed a smile. ‘What is it about boys? You have to go every two minutes.’

Karen seemed more concerned. ‘Well if you’re really desperate, I’ll have to ask the stewardess next time she comes by.’

Angus looked at his screen and saw that the plane had dropped another five hundred metres. ‘We’re still going lower,’ he noted.

His grandmother leaned forward in her seat. ‘Pilots change altitude all the time to avoid pockets of turbulence,’ she explained. ‘I was flying over Australia years back when we visited your auntie Marian. It got so bad that your grandfather’s false teeth flew out.’

Karen had heard this story before, but the kids hadn’t and they thought it was hilarious.

‘False teeth are so gross,’ Angus said. ‘Remember that time we stayed in the hotel and they were on the table beside Granddad’s bed?’

Megan shuddered. ‘Don’t remind me.’

Angus felt better now he knew where they were going and as if to prove his grandmother right he saw the numbers on the display. ‘We’re back up to four thousand,’ he said.

‘Holy shit,’ a big scouser in a Fred Perry shirt shouted. ‘Stewardess!’

Angus looked down the aisle and saw the man standing up from his window seat a dozen rows behind. Several others jumped out of seats in the rows around him. There was too much commotion to understand any individual but the news rippled through the plane.

‘What did he say?’

‘Who?’

‘Back there. Something about a crack.’

‘Huge crack in the wing?’

‘Jesus, you’ve got to be kidding.’

‘There’s a crack over the wing.’

‘Is that what’s going on down there?’

The news hit Angus like an anvil dropped on a cartoon bunny. His mum’s wedding ring dug into his wrist, but he didn’t complain. The stewardess sprinted up to the cockpit as Angus noticed that they were losing height again.

‘Ladies and gentlemen, this is Maxine your co-pilot,’ came across the intercom, but this time she’d lost her cool. ‘I’m sorry to say we’ve received reports of a serious flaw in the airframe. Although we have some degree of control, we are currently finding it impossible to maintain height. We are in touch with engineers at our base in London and we’re doing all we can, but I must now ask you to listen carefully to the cabin crew who will instruct you on