Lone Wolf - Robert Muchamore Page 0,30

me drag most of this stuff outside and lift up the floor.’

It took the girls ten minutes to drag tools and sacks out of the shed. Once the space was clear, Fay told Ning to stand up against the back wall of the shed.

‘I’ll lift the floor with the shovel, you grab hold and prise it up.’

Fay took three attempts before she got the shovel between the boards and lifted a big section of the shed’s wooden floor. Ning struggled to lift it, so Fay threw the shovel down and after some grunting the pair managed to rest it against the side wall.

‘Grab a shovel,’ Fay said.

As Ning went outside for a shovel, Fay began digging. After the first couple of loads, her spade banged the top of a metal box. Ning moved in and the pair gradually unveiled an ex-army ammunition box a metre and a half long and half a metre wide. Fay dug a little hole at the narrow end to reach a handle and strained as she tugged the box out of the earth.

‘Give us a hand.’

Ning grabbed the handle at the other end and the two girls lifted the box out of the earth.

‘God that’s heavy,’ Ning said, as the box thudded down. ‘What’s inside?’

‘I’m not sure exactly,’ Fay said, as she grabbed the box’s aluminium lid.

Ning was half scared, half impressed when she looked inside. There was an arsenal of knives, but her eye was drawn to some small rolls of twenty-pound notes, tightly wrapped in clingfilm to keep out the damp.

‘There’s a few of these,’ Ning said. ‘Maybe a couple of thousand quid.’

‘Enough to keep me ticking over for a few weeks,’ Fay said, as she studied the contents at the other end and pulled out a set of body armour and a nylon pouch full of evil-looking knives.

‘Ceramic blades, no rust,’ Fay explained.

Removing the body armour had unveiled some cardboard boxes, each one vacuum sealed to keep out moisture. Fay used a craft knife to open a box, and Ning instinctively backed up when she saw the contents.

‘Is that for real?’ Ning asked.

Fay nodded as she lifted out a handgun. ‘This is what I was hoping to find. Two Glock 17 police issue handguns and two hundred rounds of ammunition.’ Then she pointed the plastic-wrapped gun at Ning and said, ‘Bang, bang!’

17. BACON

Ryan woke up feeling pretty pleased with himself. He’d got in with the right crowd and had even been sent on an errand by one of the heavies from The Hangout. He found James in the kitchen, with a foot on the dining-table cutting his toenails.

‘Now there’s a sight,’ Ryan said. ‘And what happened to the nice cooked breakfasts I’ve been getting?’

James smiled. ‘You get breakfast on a schoolday. On the weekend, it’s self-service.’

As James said this, a big piece of toenail shot across the room in Ryan’s direction.

‘You’ll have someone’s eye out,’ Ryan said, as he walked to the fridge and found a big pack of bacon.

‘Bacon sandwich?’ Ryan asked, as James clipped another nail.

‘Count me in,’ James said, as he put his foot down and started pulling on a sock.

Ryan put a pan on the hob and poured in some cooking oil.

‘So tell me more about your errand,’ James said.

‘Not a massive amount to tell,’ Ryan said. ‘The Somali guy gave me some cash—’

James interrupted. ‘Name?’

‘I didn’t get a name, but Abdi or one of those kids will know. So anyway, he gives me fifty quid and sends me to buy burgers.’

Ryan paused while he laid out bacon rashers in the pan, then quickly washed his hands before walking to the cupboard and grabbing a white sandwich loaf.

‘So what was going on when you got to this flat with the burgers?’

‘Poker game,’ Ryan said. ‘I only got as far as the hallway, but I could tell from the noises they were making.’

‘Makes sense,’ James said. ‘They’re not gonna send an untested kid into the place where they count the money or something. But it’s a really good sign.’

‘How come?’

‘They’re interested in you,’ James explained. ‘For all we knew, Hagar’s crew had fifty kids all eager to work for them and you wouldn’t get a look-in for weeks. Did he take your mobile number?’

Ryan nodded. ‘When I got back to The Hangout I asked for his number, but he just laughed.’

‘What about the girls?’ James asked.

Ryan looked mystified as he laid four slices of bread on the countertop. ‘What girls?’

James laughed. ‘It was a disco, wasn’t it? So I