bits of oily rag theyt used when they were working on the snowmobile and stuffed them into one end of the tube.
The oil on these rags will burn easily,?Lauren explained. it wont stick around long enough to feel any more than a quick lick of flame.?
Lood thinking,?Bethany said admiringly.
Bethany found some waterproof matches in her sled, as Lauren moved up to the door with the long cardboard tube.
Be ready to pull up the door after me,?Lauren said. Nee not going to like this one bit.?
Bethany went up on tiptoes with a match in her hand. The oiled rags instantly erupted in blue flames. Lauren pushed the burning tube through the doorway, hoping that the freezing wind wouldnt snuff out the flame.
The fire turned orange as Lauren tilted the tube forward and the cardboard caught light. Her second crunching step through the snow took the flaming end to within half a metre of the beare head. When the flame was almost touching its nose, Lauren lowered the tube on to the snow and rolled it towards the beare face. Certain that the bear would rear up the instant the flame touched it, she scrambled desperately back towards the container and Bethany clanged the door shut behind her.
The girls caught their breath for a moment, before cracking the door back open. They were expecting to find a four-hundred-kilogram bear with a burned snout on the rampage, but what they saw was more shocking: the beare head was in flames and its eye socket had sunk down through its skull into its head.
Le killed it,?Bethany shrieked. The poor thing must have been old, or sick.?
But Lauren wasnt buying it. Shet noticed the grey wisps of smoke venting out the back of the mound in the snow. Lauren didnt know much about the anatomy of polar bears, but she was certain their insides werent hollow.
ite fake,?Lauren announced.
Lauren plunged into the snow towards the smouldering bear and leaned over it. Although it was smoky, she got a reasonable view inside the cavity where the head had melted. The bear was made of nylon fur, stretched over a frame shaped out of chicken wire. Inside, she could see the plastic bellows, rubber tubing, car battery and electric pump that had made it breathe.
Le should have known,?Bethany stormed, angrily kicking up a flurry of snow. Ifter all the tricks the instructors have played on us.?
Lauren looked at her watch. i reckon wete lost fifteen minutes of daylight. Lete get breakfast down our necks and get out of here.?
The porridge was bubbling over the side of its tin when they got back inside the container. Lauren laced the porridge with a heavy dose of glucose powder and a slow-release energy supplement designed for long-distance runners. The girls?bodies would need every calorie of this high-energy food to keep warm on their thirty-five-kilometre snowmobile journey. When it was all mixed in, the porridge had a gritty texture and the grey pallor of cement, but the girls barely considered this as they half spooned and half drank the soggy mixture.
i hope theree no more tricks,?Lauren said, as she wiped a dribble of porridge from the corner of her mouth.
Bethany spoke with her mouth full. if we can just keep our heads together for four more hours e
4. SUNDAY
Kids who live on CHERUB campus miss a lot of school when theyte away on missions. One of the ways they catch up is by having lessons on Saturday mornings. James thought this was cruel, because it left Sunday as the only time when he got a chance to lie in.
It was nearly eleven when he decided to untangle himself from his duvet. Dressed only in boxers and a grubby CHERUB T-shirt, he glanced through the slats in his blind and saw that it was a typical April morning, with a light frost on the grass and a drizzle of rain. A football match was being played on the pitches beyond the tennis courts. The players were a bunch of muddy eight- and nine-year-olds, mostly boys.
James wandered across to his laptop, flipped up the screen and tapped on the navigation pad to check his e-mail. He was hoping for a message from Kerry, but all he had was spam from a company offering him a Free online personality test that could change your WHOLE life!!! and a schedule notification from the mission controller Zara Asker:
James,
Please ensure you attend the mission preparation building, room 31, at 1530 this afternoon, where you will be briefed on