New Guard (CHERUB) - Robert Muchamore Page 0,74

to get back here. Repeat, back here now.’

‘We can give you a T-shirt,’ Tovah said in Arabic, grabbing the girl’s hand as Bruce started running towards the supermarket. James was out in the car park, clearing some debris from the fighting as Lauren drove her microlight out of the supermarket, with Sachs’ chunky frame squeezed in the back.

‘Good to go,’ James shouted, giving his sister a double thumbs-up.

As Lauren put her lightweight plane to full throttle and rattled off across the parking lot in one direction, Bruce, Tovah and the Syrian girl sprinted towards the shed. Before Lauren was even off the ground, Ryan rolled out of the supermarket, with Yuen as passenger. His heart thumped as he ran through checks he’d done fifty times before at the hostel. Fuel, navigation, flaps.

‘All set,’ Ryan said, taking a glance back at his nervous passenger and forward at Lauren leaving the ground, before going full throttle for take-off.

The next two planes were some way off being ready for take-off.

‘Who’s this?’ James asked, surprised to see Tovah with a raggedy Arab accomplice.

‘She needs a T-shirt,’ Bruce said. ‘Tovah’s probably closest to her size.’

‘No,’ Tovah said firmly. ‘We’ll fly her out. She’s not safe here without her brother looking after her.’

‘There’s no empty seat,’ Kyle said.

‘Three planes,’ Tovah said, pointing across the hall. ‘We brought a backup. I had to take some parts off to replace a faulty navigation unit on Ryan’s plane, but I can fly eighty clicks in daylight without one.’

The building shook as something hit the front wall.

‘That’s a twenty-millimetre shell,’ Tovah said, glancing at the screens. ‘I’d say they’re wary of coming close after we took the first wave out, but it looks like they’re gonna be shooting from a distance. James, you fly with Kyle. Bruce, you take the girl.’

‘Maybe she’d be more comfortable with you,’ Bruce suggested. ‘Being female and speaking good Arabic.’

‘I’ll be last out in case any of you have a problem on take-off,’ Tovah said. ‘And the faster she’s out, the safer she is.’

‘It’s too hairy out there for my tastes,’ James said, casting a wary glance back at the monitors, as two more 20mms shook the building.

As James and Kyle pushed their little plane towards the exit and clambered inside, Tovah spent a few seconds explaining to the girl that Bruce was going to fly her to a safe place and that they would find a good family to look after her.

‘What’s her name?’ Bruce asked, as he realised that nobody had thought to ask.

‘Zahra,’ the girl said.

Bruce smiled. ‘I’ll try and be a good pilot,’ he said warmly.

Zahra smiled, even though she didn’t understand much English. James powered up his engine as Kyle rolled their plane out into sunlight.

‘It’s cold up high,’ Tovah said, as she handed Zahra a sleeping bag they’d been planning to leave behind. Then she helped the girl fix her five-point harness.

Kyle was about to board James’ plane when he remembered the detonator in his shirt pocket.

‘If you’re leaving last,’ Kyle explained, as he handed it to Tovah.

As Kyle buckled up behind, James upped the throttle and trundled out on to the tarmac. More 20mm shells were thumping the far side of the supermarket and a vehicle had parked up, shielding behind the two fast-food restaurants at the lot’s far end.

‘Full throttle,’ James announced, deciding that the risk of staying on the ground for an extra minute was greater than the risk of not making final checks that Tovah was sure to have done at least twice already.

Bruce throttled up before James was even off the ground and there was now small ammunition coming towards the planes from behind the garage.

‘Tovah, don’t hang around,’ Bruce warned over the com, as he pulled up the flaps, following James and Kyle into the air.

Tovah was out on the concrete within seconds of Bruce taking off. As she hit the throttle she heard shots coming from all sides and tried not to think about the frailty of her air-filled wing. As she neared take-off speed, she felt something hit the runway in front, then bounce up and smash the front wheel. As an instructor-level pilot, she instinctively raised the flaps slightly, so that the nose lifted and the plane continued its take-off balanced on two rear wheels.

Another half-dozen shots ripped off as she finally got up to speed and since she was flying solo and manual, she put the little plane into the steepest climb that she dared. James and Bruce’s craft