CHERUB:Maximum Security - Robert Muchamore
CHERUB:Maximum Security - Robert Muchamore
1. COLD
Before you entered basic training, you probably heard stories from qualified CHERUB agents about the nature of this one-hundred-day course. Although every basic training course is designed to teach the same core abilities of physical fitness and extreme mental endurance, you can expect your training to differ from that of your predecessors in order to retain the element of surprise.
(Excerpt from the CHERUB Basic Training Manual)
It looked the same in every direction. The sunlight blazing off the field of snow made it impossible for the two ten-year-old girls to see more than twenty metres into the distance, despite the heavily tinted snow goggles over their eyes.
Now far to the checkpoint??Lauren Adams shouted, breaking her stride to stare at the global positioning unit strapped around her best friende wrist.
Only two and a half kilometres,?Bethany Parker shouted back. if the ground stays flat, we should be at the shelter in forty minutes.?
The girls had to shout for their voices to override the howling wind and the three layers of clothing protecting their ears.
Thate cutting it close to sundown,?Lauren yelled. Let better get a move on.?
Theyt set off at dawn, dragging lightweight sleds that could be hooked over their shoulders and carried as backpacks on difficult terrain. The good news was, the two CHERUB trainees had the whole day to trek fifteen kilometres across the Alaskan snowfield to their next checkpoint. The bad news was that at this time in April, the daylight lasted just four hours and wading through half a metre of powdery snow put enormous strain on their thighs and ankles. Every step was painful.
Lauren heard a howling noise rising up in the distance. ite gonna be another big one,?she shouted.
The girls crouched down, pulled their sleds in close and wrapped their arms tightly around each othere waists. Just as you can hear waves approaching a beach, out here in the Alaskan snowfields you could hear a strong gust stirring up in the distance.
They were both dressed for extreme cold. Laurene normal underwear was covered with a long sleeved thermal vest and long johns. The next layer was a zip-up suit made from polar fleece that covered her whole body, except for a slit around the eyes. The second fleece was designed to trap body heat. It looked like a baggy Easter bunny suit, minus the pom-pom tail and sticking up ears. Then came more gloves, another balaclava, snow goggles and waterproof outer gloves that went all the way up to Laurene elbows, ending in a tightly fitting elastic cuff. Finally, on the outside was a thickly padded snowsuit and snow boots with spiked bottoms.
The clothing was enough to keep them comfortable as they walked, despite the temperature being minus eighteen centigrade, but this dropped another fifteen degrees whenever a strong gust hit. The wind pushed the insulating layers of warm air between the girls?clothes into all the places where it wasnt needed, leaving nothing but a couple of centimetres of synthetic fibre between their skin and the ferociously cold air. Each blast ripped into their bodies, delivering searing pain to any exposed area.
Lauren and Bethany used their sleds as windbreaks when the gust hit. A spike of cold air punched through the tightly fitting rim of Laurene goggles. She pushed her face against Bethanye suit and squeezed her eyes shut, as snow and ice pounded deafeningly against her hood.
When the gust passed and the snow had settled, Lauren brushed the dusting of powder off her suit and stumbled back to her feet.
Everything OK??Bethany shouted.
Lauren stuck up her thumbs. Rinety-nine days down, one to go,?she shouted.
*
Lauren and Bethanye home for the night was a metal container painted in a high visibility shade of orange. It was the kind of container yout normally expect to pass on the motorway, mounted on the back of an articulated truck. There was a radio mast and a shattered flagpole lashed to the roof.
The girls had beaten the darkness. The sune distant face was already touching the horizon and the light it sent through the mist of falling snow gave the whole landscape a powdery yellow hue. The girls were too exhausted to appreciate its beauty; all they cared about was getting warm.
It took a few minutes to dig out the snow from around the two metal doors that formed one end of the container. Once they were open, Lauren dragged the two sleds inside, while Bethany searched along a wooden shelf until she found a gas lamp. Lauren closed the