Black Friday (CHERUB) - Robert Muchamore Page 0,73
patch, with the half-built village stretching off down three branching alleyways. The buildings nearest to his position were barely out of the ground, but some of the buildings further away were already watertight and there was an open area nearby stacked with mounds of lumber and breeze blocks.
‘This is not a playground!’ Zara yelled, ripping into a couple of little red shirts stamping in a puddle. ‘If you two want to spend the rest of Christmas Day sitting silently in my office, you’re going exactly the right way about it.’
The chairwoman then returned to her gentle spiel. ‘As well as expanding the number of agents CHERUB can take, the idea of Campus Village is to create a proper family atmosphere, with agents living in proper houses instead of long, impersonal corridors. Each house will have a small outdoor area, where you can hang out and have barbecues. Larger gaps between houses will have basketball areas, a playground, and the entire area will be cycle friendly.’
‘Will we be able to have pets?’ one of the red shirts asked.
‘At the moment, qualified agents can’t have pets because they can’t be looked after when they go on missions. However, if six agents are living in a house it’s unlikely that everyone will be on missions at the same time, so we’re considering allowing each house to have a dog or cat.’
There were eight little kids in the tour group and they all seemed really keen on this idea.
‘The ground and first floors of each house also have full access for people with injuries or disabilities.’
‘What about carers?’ a navy shirt asked.
‘Carers will have separate offices where you can drop in. They’ll also have full access to each house, so don’t go thinking you can lock them out and throw a wild party.’
‘Boo!’ someone said.
‘When will it be ready, Mrs?’
‘2014 hopefully,’ Zara said. ‘If the project stays on schedule, the village will open in time for CHERUB’s seventy-fifth anniversary. We’re trying to get the Queen to cut the ribbon. Phase two of the project will involve demolishing the education block, building new staff quarters and refurbishing the main building as an education and admin facility. That will take until 2016.’
‘Do you think they’ll have fixed the leaky roof in the mission control building by then?’ James asked.
Zara smiled as the rest of the crowd laughed. ‘That roof will be the death of me! But I’m glad to say that the village uses good old-fashioned pitched roofs, not bits of curved aluminium that cost three grand each and fall off every time there’s a stiff breeze.
‘Now, you’re all welcome to go off and look around, but this is a building site so don’t touch anything. Don’t venture off the marked paths and I warn you now that anyone who throws mud will find all their Christmas gifts being shipped off to the nearest charity shop.’
James followed Lauren and Rat at a slow stroll as excited red shirts started belting off, pointing at houses and saying which one they wanted to live in when the village opened.
‘It’s impressive,’ Kyle said, doing a 360 while anxiously trying to avoid getting mud on anything except his boots. ‘Homely without being twee, modern without being sterile.’
Lauren nodded in agreement. ‘I really liked my room when I lived on campus, but this new set-up makes the main building look kinda shit.’
‘These trousers are dry clean only,’ Kyle shouted anxiously, as a grey-shirt boy and girl chased by, flicking mud off the back of their boots.
As James buried gloved hands in his jacket and set off up a gentle slope towards the top of the village, he felt his phone vibrating. It said International on the display.
‘Happy Christmas, James,’ Kerry said.
James smiled as he settled on a half-built wall. ‘Hey, how’s it going? Did you just get up?’
‘It’s ten o’clock here,’ Kerry said. ‘Just had my shower and stuff.’
‘You’re on your own?’
Kerry sighed. ‘I had dinner with Mark last night, but he’s driven up to his grandma’s today.’
‘That’s crappy,’ James said, though he couldn’t resist rubbing it in because he’d all but begged her to come back to campus for Christmas. ‘Everyone apart from you is here. Lauren, Kyle, Bruce, Rat, the twins. Gabrielle’s around, though I’ve not spoken to her. I’m a little drunk, and we’re squelching around looking at Campus Village.’
‘Sounds fun,’ Kerry said. ‘I bought a ticket for a Christmas dinner thing at the university, but I might just bum around the apartment.’