New Guard (CHERUB) - Robert Muchamore Page 0,63

he took out his mobile and dialled CHERUB campus.

33. BEST

Instructors Capstick and McEwen were happy to let everyone chill out and play video games, but training had started in the water on day one, and after a PS4 FIFA tournament resulted in comprehensive victory for the Currents, consensus grew that the only proper way to finish training was to tip a hundred coloured balls in the swimming pool.

In Kerry’s absence, Tovah joined Bruce, Kyle, Lauren and James on the Crusty team. And James laid down the rules.

‘I don’t want anyone else getting injured,’ he yelled. ‘So it’s one twenty-minute round only and keep the physical stuff sensible.’

When the whistle sounded, Bruce and Alfie formed a new definition of sensible that involved getting into a massive ruck in the middle of the pool. It had to be broken up by Capstick diving in and, when it erupted for a second time, Capstick yelled, ‘That’s your lot,’ and had both players red-carded from the game.

The eight remaining players duked it for the full twenty minutes. James was in his best shape since leaving CHERUB six years earlier. Kyle had tanned and was now fit enough to keep the pace until the final whistle blew, with a few nice moves along the way.

Bodies dripped as James put his neck collar back on and exhausted players watched the training assistants counting up balls at opposite ends of the pool. Shouts went back and forth as both scores passed 190, with just a few left in each dumpster.

‘One-ninety-six, to the Crustys,’ an assistant shouted.

At the other end, Leon and Daniel jumped for joy as the assistant counted one-ninety-nine, before adding a final five-point blue ball to make two hundred and four for the Currents.

‘Still best,’ Leon shouted, as he high-fived his brother.

Alfie couldn’t resist getting right in Lauren’s face. ‘You still lose, Grand Canyon butt.’

As Lauren shoved Alfie in the pool, James grabbed his phone off a sunlounger and saw a message from Chairman Ewart Asker.

‘Bad news, guys,’ James announced, after he’d read the message. ‘I’m gonna have to disqualify the Current team for fielding an ineligible player. Apparently Ryan Sharma is no longer a CHERUB agent.’

Ryan looked shocked, as Ning burst out laughing and told James to get stuffed.

Kyle put a friendly arm around Ryan’s wet back. ‘You OK there, pal?’

‘Nervous,’ Ryan admitted, as the twins scrambled out of the pool and approached. ‘But I guess I got what I wanted.’

The twins hugged their older brother.

‘So, I guess you two won’t get kicked out of CHERUB before me after all,’ Ryan said.

‘Just don’t go getting yourself killed,’ Daniel said.

Leon nodded and grinned. ‘I don’t personally give a crap, but Theo will be devastated if you’re not around to protect him from me and Daniel.’

Ryan’s brain froze, as he realised he’d been wrapped in his own thoughts and hadn’t given any consideration to the effect on his youngest brother if something bad happened.

‘I’ll be fine,’ Ryan said unconvincingly.

‘All right, people,’ James shouted. ‘We need to pack and clean up ready for tomorrow. If you’re interested, we should have live video from Tovah’s Israeli Air Force buddies shortly after eleven.’

The PS4 had been swapped for the video output on Tovah’s laptop and all the gym lights switched off, intensifying the blurry night-vision image on the big telly. It was close to midnight and the Currents, Crustys, instructors and their assistants all sat on plastic pool chairs or sprawled across the padded gym floor in their nightwear.

‘Wish we had popcorn,’ Leon said.

A pilot’s voiceover came out of the screen in Hebrew.

‘He says the drone is one kilometre from target,’ Tovah translated.

Controlled remotely from Israel and travelling at sixty kilometres per hour, the metre-long quadcopter drone skimmed over a village at two hundred metres, then tilted forwards and lost height as the outline of an oil derrick came into view.

‘Here comes a shit storm,’ Alfie predicted, blurting over something from the screen and earning an angry shush from Tovah.

James had sent detailed US satellite photos to the Israeli Air Force team controlling the drone. Blowing the well to pieces with a missile would be easy, but no repair team would visit a well that was obviously beyond repair. The trick was to cause minor damage, and to do so in such a way that it didn’t raise suspicion of sabotage.

At fifty metres the well’s control room came into view. It was a regular prefab site cabin, mounted on a metre-high steel platform in case of flooding. There was