his mum, but he didn't mean it. It just kept happening, part of being a teenager or something. Whatever his true feelings, Andy wasn't going to give his little brother the satisfaction of a straight answer.
Thy don't you mind your own??
Stuart sucked air through his teeth. Tou're so selfish.?
Biss off.?
Don't start, you two,?Christine shouted from the hallway. She had a bag over her shoulder now and the car keys in her hand, all set to leave. Toure got ten minutes or youEl both be late for school. Don't forget to turn the deadlock in the front door as you leave.?
Andy gave his mum a nod. Later Mum, have a good day at work.?
Sot much chance of that,?she answered gloomily.
Andy waited for the front door to close before scowling back at his brother. Tou're asking for a punch with that smart mouth.?
Before Stuart could think up a comeback that was nasty enough to sting but not so nasty it earned him a dead arm, a scream erupted out on the driveway.
It could only be their mum and it wasn't an Ire seen a spider scream or the way sher screamed at their father when they were getting divorced. It came from deep inside, like she was in a lot of pain.
The two lads bolted out of their seats at the dining table and raced down the hallway towards the front door.
A Balaclava-clad man smashed Christinet car windscreen with a mallet as Andy burst out on to the driveway. Christine writhed in the gravel, screaming and spitting. Her face and hands glistened with red paint that had been thrown in her face.
The man popped two more windows along the side of the car, but Andy fixed on his accomplice, a stocky dude looming over his mother. He wore camouflage trousers, a black Balaclava and looked ominously like he was about to stick the boot in. Andy didn't even have shoes on, but couldn't stand there while someone laid into his mum.
Tou're dead,?Andy screamed as he charged forward.
He was stocky, but the teenager wasn't up to fighting a grown man. The masked dude wrapped an arm around Andyt neck and planted a gloved fist hard into his face.
T'll not the killer here,?the dude snarled, as Andyt nose exploded in pain.
Andy toppled backwards into a hedge, before a giant boot sank into his belly, pushing him deep into the tangled branches. As Andy wiped a bloody nose on his white sleeve, the Balaclava-clad men jogged off towards a battered Citro
The little getaway car lurched as Andy experienced the most desperate feeling of his life. It wasn't just the pain in his nose, or worrying about his mum, but a feeling of total inadequacy: her let the thugs whor attacked her get away and hadn't been able to stop them because he was only a kid. As Andy untangled himself from the branches and staggered on to his feet, he could hear her moaning.
T can't see,?Christine sobbed.
Stuart stood on the doorstep, chalk white and rigid.
Don't just stand there, moron,?Andy yelled as he stumbled towards his mother. Aet inside, call a bloody ambulance.?
As Stuart came to his senses and raced for the phone, Andy noticed that a hangmant noose had been spray-painted on to the garage door and a message written alongside it:
QUIT YOUR JOB AT THE ANIMAL LAB
NEXT TIME YOU DIE
BY ORDER ?THE ANIMAL FREEDOM MILITIA
2. PUTTY
Doctors fear that the thirty-six-year-old woman may have suffered permanent damage to her eyesight. This is the latest in a string of increasingly violent attacks by the Animal Freedom Militia. Avon police say they are doing all they can to protect employees of Malarek Research, but with more than two hundred workers at the laboratory, their resources are stretched to the limit 厭
The news item came from a screen hanging on the wall beside James Adams?head, but he wasn't listening. He was in the dining-room on CHERUB campus and those of his mates who weren't away on a mission sat around their usual table: Kerry, Bruce, Callum, Connor and Shak.
It had been a couple of minutes since Bruce had gone arse over tit, spilling a tray of macaroni and 7up over a girl sitting a couple of tables across, but everyone was still winding him up about it.
James had a stack of chicken bones on the plate in front of him. His bloated tummy dug into the waistband of his jeans and he was content to sit back and let the conversation pass him by. Kerry had finished eating