New Guard (CHERUB) - Robert Muchamore Page 0,33

these two,’ Ryan explained. ‘You’re an influential man in these parts. My brothers and I don’t want you as an enemy.’

‘We helped you find Oli,’ Daniel added.

The brat in the kitchen had finally stopped screaming and Trey pulled shut the kitchen door so that his wife couldn’t hear.

‘That prick,’ he hissed, pointing at Leon. ‘That prick put three staples in my ass. I can’t sit down and my driver has a broken nose.’

‘Through your jeans and pants,’ Daniel scoffed. ‘Not into bone, like Oli.’

‘You took my brothers hostage,’ Ryan said calmly. ‘They acted the way they did because they were scared. But it was Oli that caused all the trouble.’

‘So why isn’t he here apologising?’

‘Oli’s gone,’ Daniel said. ‘Foster placement.’

‘Where?’

The twins both shrugged.

‘We’re young and fit,’ Ryan said. ‘My brothers don’t want to live in fear of retribution.’

‘We’ll work,’ Daniel said.

‘Errands, jobs. Like you used to give Oli.’

Trey paused to think, running a hand through stubble on his chin.

‘Fine mess you made,’ Trey said thoughtfully. ‘Not just the print shop. Water flooded into the shop below. Whole lot’s gotta be stripped.’

‘What about insurance?’ Leon asked.

Trey snorted. ‘The flooding was a criminal act, so the insurance will want a police report. And I don’t want cops nosing around in there.’

The brothers nodded knowingly.

‘So it all needs clearing out,’ Trey said. ‘Upstairs and the shop below. I’ll get you a truck. You come after school tomorrow and start clearing out anything that’s damaged. I guess it’ll take a couple of evenings, maybe part of Saturday. Got new carpet tiles coming Monday, so it’s gotta be done by then.’

‘Sounds fair,’ Ryan agreed. ‘I’ll help my brothers. And then we’ll be even?’

‘Thereabouts,’ Trey said. ‘And of course, I want the six hundred you took from Oli as well.’

Ryan smiled as he pulled an envelope out of his jacket.

‘Your bullet and six hundred quid.’

Trey snatched the envelope. ‘Tomorrow after school,’ he said firmly, wagging a finger. ‘And you’d better not be spreading word about my address. Next time you wanna see me, you call the taxi office and you make an appointment like everyone else.’

19. SQUELCH

Monty was barely out of his teens, greasy hair and stick thin.

‘Fine mess you boys made,’ he said, as he unlocked the door marked Sunray Travel Agents and flicked on the lights.

The trashed office hummed with the noise of two dehumidifier units, sucking moisture out of the air, down long pipes and draining into the toilet. Ryan’s first couple of steps were OK, but his trainer squelched carpet on the third.

‘You gotta clean all the damaged stuff out,’ Monty said, as he crossed the wet floor and pointed into the print room. ‘All this soggy paper’s gotta go downstairs to the rubbish, then the carpet tiles gotta be taken up.’

Dumping the paper didn’t take long, but the carpet tiles were hell. Crawling around the damp floor on their knees, each lad started in a corner with a Stanley knife and a wallpaper scraper. Some tiles came up with a hard tug, but where there was a lot of glue the tiles ripped apart and had to be scraped off piece by piece.

After twenty minutes, Ryan had lifted nine tiles out of more than four hundred. His jeans were soaked, knees and elbows hurt, and his fingers were all gummed with the brown paste used to stick the tiles to the floor.

‘You boys better pick up the pace,’ Monty noted, as he opened up to let in a smartly dressed service engineer.

Ryan worked along the edge of the partition separating the desked area from the print room and watched as the engineer stripped down the giant printer.

‘They’re not designed to have water thrown on them,’ the engineer told Monty. ‘This machine is a wreck. You’ll be better off buying a new or reconditioned machine.’

‘No,’ Monty said. ‘We have a big job for early next week. The machine has to be up and running.’

The engineer nodded sympathetically. ‘We have a demonstration unit in our showroom, which we’ll be more than happy to make available to you for your printing needs. Then we can have the new 950L model shipped in by the end of next week.’

Monty sighed and thumped the machine. ‘We need this machine working by Tuesday. I’ll pay you cash to work through the weekend.’

‘You’ll also get fluorescent printing and full two-year warranty on a 950L,’ the engineer continued.

Monty looked panicked as he pointed at the door. ‘My boss wants this place cleaned up and running smooth when his boss