New Guard (CHERUB) - Robert Muchamore Page 0,27

in the name gives you the balls to think you can rip off my print shop? You think you’d get away with it?’

‘Little dirt bag stole that key from under my nose,’ the driver added.

Leon and Daniel’s jaws dropped. ‘The print shop was yours?’

‘My father’s,’ Trey said. ‘How dumb are you?’

‘Oli told us you run a protection racket,’ Leon explained. ‘Said we had to trash the joint. Owner hadn’t made his payments or something.’

‘I paid that weasel Oli four hundred,’ Trey said, looking at his driver. ‘But he threw a strop ’cos I said the pink phone wasn’t worth much because it’s a couple of years old.’

‘Four hundred,’ the twins gasped.

They’d searched Oli’s pockets, but money could have easily been stashed inside his underwear or down a sock. ‘He gave us sixty each.’

Trey leaned right to the edge of his seat as the VW took a corner. Close enough for the boys to catch garlic on his breath.

‘You’d better not be lying,’ Trey warned. ‘Got a nice wrench for breaking thumbs back at the wood shop. But I’ll go easy if you help us find golden boy. You got his number?’

Leon had few qualms about dropping Oli in it. He grabbed his mobile from his blazer and explained that it had to be switched off in school. In actual fact, his phone was modded and he swiped in using a special combination that meant all calls and messages would also be relayed via campus to James.

‘Oli man, where you at?’ Leon began. ‘You bunked school … ? Right … When’s your bus get in? You wanna meet up, get fish and chips or something … ? You know the car park behind Morrisons? Come round there when you get off the bus … ? I’ve got something to show you.’

Trey scowled as Leon ended the call and took a breath. Back at his flat, James got an emergency alert on his phone and listened in, impressed that Leon had the presence of mind to fix a meet right on his doorstep.

‘Twenty minutes,’ Leon said.

Rather than risk being seen with binoculars, James leaned out of his bedroom window and positioned a couple of tiddly wireless cameras so that he got a clear view over the car park. He grabbed a Taser and a Glock semi-auto pistol before heading downstairs to the car park and moving the Focus into a disabled bay with a decent view.

As James listened to muffled audio coming via the monitoring function on Leon’s phone, an attendant in an orange vest started writing him a ticket.

‘Hoppit,’ James growled, as he opened the driver’s window and flashed a police ID.

The VW van came into the lot a couple of minutes later and parked a few spaces down. James zoomed one of his remote cameras so that he could see in the vehicle’s back window. The twins looked OK. Trey and the driver were having a conversation about a birthday present.

Daniel was allowed out of the car, and gave James a slight wave as he crossed into Morrisons’ rear entrance, presumably to go out front and meet Oli as he got off the bus. James hopped out of the car, followed him through the back door of the little supermarket and quickly caught up.

‘OK, mate?’ James asked.

‘Trey’s got a gun, but he’s not waving it around or anything. Says Leon will get it if I don’t come back.’

‘You’re sure?’ James asked, as the pair kept walking towards the street exit at the front of the shop. ‘I can move in and get Leon out if you want.’

‘Trey just wants to get hold of that lying bastard Oli,’ Daniel explained. ‘Wouldn’t mind knowing what he’s up to myself. Little rip-off merchant …’

‘Take this,’ James said, passing over a lipstick-sized tube of pepper spray. ‘Bear attack formula,’ he warned. ‘Don’t stick around if you spray it in the car, ’cos the fumes alone can blind you.’

‘Nice one, Q.’

‘Keep safe.’

As Daniel headed out the automatic front door to a bus stop right outside, James grabbed vitamins off the nearest shelf and paid at the self-checkout so that he looked like a regular shopper as he strolled back into the car park.

16. STAPLES

James checked things were still calm inside Trey’s VW, before using a bus tracker app on his phone to work out when Oli would likely arrive. The app said seven minutes to wait when Oli and Daniel came out the back of the supermarket.

‘What’s back here?’ Oli asked, clearly having second thoughts.

Ten