CHERUB: The Sleepwalker (16 page)

Lauren and Jake both nodded.

‘My original plan was to use Jake and Bethany,’ Mac explained. ‘But Bethany needs time to recover from her Brazilian mission and Zara and I thought that you two were the next best thing.

‘Fahim started attending a new school last week. It’s one of the worst schools in the borough of Camden and they’re short of pupils, so we’ll have no problem getting you in. With luck Fahim won’t have made any close friends yet either.

‘The mission will start off as a routine intelligence-gathering job, and if it goes well we’ll see where it takes us from there. Fahim’s father works from home, which means that if you can get inside the house, you should be able not only to search and put surveillance into Hassam Bin Hassam’s home, but also get inside his office and possibly access all his computer files. I’ll also want you to pump Fahim for information on what he knows about his parents and their possible connections with terrorist groups.’

‘Assuming he’s not an attention-seeking loony who called the hotline for kicks,’ Jake said glibly.

Lauren found Jake’s interruption annoying, but chose not to say anything. ‘Could I suggest sending in a second boy?’ she said. ‘There’s always a chance that Fahim and Jake won’t hit it off.’

Mac shook his head. ‘If the terrorist threat is real, another attack could happen at any time, so we’re going for an open approach.’

‘That means we tell Fahim who we really are,’ Jake said.

Lauren glowered at Jake and stretched out her T-shirt. ‘I know what an open approach is, Parker. See the black T-shirt? That means I know what I’m doing.’

Jake tutted as Mac slapped his hand on the desk to get their attention. He spoke firmly. ‘Jake, this is your first shot at a prestigious mission. Lauren, you’re just back after a long suspension for misbehaviour on campus. I would have thought you’d both have the common sense to get along with each other and make the best of this mission. Wouldn’t you?’

‘Yes, sir,’ Lauren and Jake both said.

‘If this mission is going to succeed I need to know right now that you’re both mature enough to put aside any petty squabbles that you might have. Is that crystal clear?’

After another round of yes sirs, Lauren posed a question. ‘Isn’t an open approach risky though? Especially when there’s no definite link to terrorism.’

‘The risk is very slight,’ Mac answered. ‘It’s similar to the risk we take every time we bring a candidate to campus to undergo recruitment tests, and it’s easily outweighed by the benefits. We know Fahim has already toyed with the idea of going to the police and an open approach is faster.

‘Instead of taking a week or more to form a friendship and infiltrate Fahim’s home, we can approach and lay our cards on the table within forty-eight hours of the mission starting. If he refuses to cooperate, we can apply pressure by telling Fahim that the police will be forced to arrest his father and ask why he called the hotline.’

‘It’s better to be friendly though, isn’t it?’ Jake asked.

‘Always,’ Mac nodded. ‘A contact who wants to cooperate is more reliable than someone acting under duress. I only want you to turn the thumbscrews if you can’t win Fahim’s trust.’

‘Gotcha, boss,’ Jake said.

Lauren was less than thrilled by the limited evidence behind Mac’s mission, but Jake’s obvious excitement made her realise how jaded she’d become with experience.

Mac continued. ‘Another factor in our favour is that Fahim is an isolated figure. Yasmin Hassam has disappeared. Fahim’s only other close family member is his father and his history of emotional problems means that he’ll hardly make a credible witness if he claims that he was approached by child spies.’

‘So when do me and Jake move into position?’ Lauren asked.

‘ASAP. We’ve sorted accommodation close to where Fahim lives. That way you’ll be able to travel back and forward to school on the same bus as him.’

‘And who’s our mission controller?’ Lauren asked. ‘You?’

Mac nodded. ‘I haven’t worked as a mission controller for nigh on twenty years, but everyone else is snowed under and I’ll be able to continue working through the daily intelligence briefings relating to the crash while you’re out at school.’

Jake broke into a smile. ‘You’re too old to be one of our parents though. We’ll have to say you’re our granddad.’

Mac had just lost a grandson and Lauren thought Jake was being insensitive, but Mac seemed to see the funny side and he gave Jake a gentle crack on the knuckles with his ruler.

On a weekday the lunchtime rush didn’t amount to more than ten people in the Deluxe Chicken restaurant and the queue at the counter rarely extended beyond three.

‘Hello,’ Kerry said brightly, as she stood in front of a till in her nylon shirt and paper hat. ‘Welcome to Deluxe Chicken, may I take your order?’

The customer resembled a hot-air balloon swaddled in a leather jacket and her body spray overpowered the smell of cooking fat.

‘I want two Deluxe Mega Meals, one with Fanta, one with baked beans,’ she said. ‘And I’ve got the half-price coupon from this morning’s paper.’

Kerry looked at the hand-torn square of newspaper, then turned around and peered through the aluminium shelves stacked with fries and chicken pieces.

‘Excuse me … Gemma, Gabriel?’ Kerry shouted, but they’d all disappeared.

She looked frantically at the grid of buttons on the till. Then she noticed one for discount and pressed it, but the screen said enter code and she didn’t know what that meant and she didn’t want to mess it up.

‘I’m sorry,’ Kerry said to the customer. ‘I don’t know which button to press to get the discount on the till.’

She walked around behind the counter, where she found Gemma, James and another assistant called Randall crouching behind the area where the burgers and chicken were prepared with grins on their faces.

‘Stop taking the piss and come help me,’ Kerry said fiercely.

James laughed as Gemma stood up and walked around to the counter. She gave the waiting woman a sarcastic smile.

‘Sorry to keep you waiting,’ Kerry apologised.

Gemma snatched the coupon and started reading it slowly.

The customer looked angry. ‘I’ve got to get back to work in fifteen minutes; can’t you get a move on?’

‘OK,’ Gemma said, as she leaned over Kerry’s till. ‘See at the bottom of the coupon where it says PROM6. That means you press the promotions button, then the number six. Discount is for special orders and only the manager can authorise that.’

Kerry did as she was told and the till cut the price of one meal in half. Then she turned around and searched the racks desperately.

‘Where are the beans?’ Kerry shouted.

Randall stood up and shrugged. ‘Ready in five minutes.’

According to the Deluxe Chicken training manual, you were never supposed to deter customers from buying by saying how long an order would take. You were only supposed to say ‘ready in a moment’, but Kerry didn’t feel comfortable lying.

‘Five minutes,’ she said.

The customer sucked air between her teeth. ‘Just gimme two bloody Fantas then.’

Kerry assembled the order for the impatient customer, by which time another was waiting. Randall was working the prep station cooking pieces of chicken and making up the sandwiches, but Kerry was annoyed that she was doing all the serving while James and Gemma mucked around at the back.

Luckily for her, Gabriel stepped out of his office as two more customers joined the queue.

‘Let’s hustle, people,’ Gabriel shouted, then he glowered at Gemma. ‘Why do we have a queue of customers and only one register open? Randall, move your arse. Kerry, good work, keep it moving. James …’

The scrawny manager had taken a dislike to James back-chatting him when he’d first arrived.

‘James, I seem to be getting a lot of negative vibes from you,’ Gabriel said. ‘I don’t think you’ve got the correct attitude for serving customers, so I want you to get a bucket of hot water and a broom, then you can go out into the alleyway, wash up the puke from the weekend and sweep up all that broken glass.’

James was furious at being picked on and considered telling the manager where to stick his job, but he knew he’d be in deep shit with Meryl if he got fired from work experience after less than three hours, so he filled a bucket with disinfectant and hot water and sauntered outside while moaning to himself about the crummy job he’d landed.

Back in the restaurant the queue died down once Gemma started serving, so Gabriel invited Kerry across to the second prep station. This was only used on Friday and Saturday evenings when the restaurant was packed out with bowlers and cinema-goers.

‘You seem like a smart girl,’ Gabriel said. ‘Would you like me to show you a few things?’

Kerry smiled and nodded keenly. James shot her a dark look as he came back inside carrying a pail filled with broken glass.

‘Ah, James,’ Gabriel said smugly. ‘When you’re done with that, you can pick up the litter and wipe down the tables inside the restaurant.’

Kerry couldn’t resist poking out her tongue at James as he went back out into the alleyway.

‘This is a standard cooking station used in Deluxe Chicken restaurants all over the world,’ Gabriel explained, loving the sound of his own voice as he stood a little too close to Kerry for comfort. ‘Three deep fat fryers, for chicken burgers, chicken pieces or fries. A salad and relish station where we make up our sandwiches and baguettes, and over your head two microwaves, to ensure that all sandwiches are delivered at an acceptable temperature.

‘Your basic ingredient is frozen chicken. All the boxes come from the walk-in freezer and on each one you’ll see there’s a coloured square. Simply match the colours on the box to the colours on the fryer dial and the computer automatically sets the right cooking time.’

Kerry looked at the solid layers of milky fat in the fryers. ‘How long does it take for the fat to heat up?’

‘About fifteen minutes from cold. While the oil heats up, the operator is expected to fill the containers with salad and condiments from the fridge and make sure that the preparation surfaces and the inside of the microwaves are wiped down with anti-bacterial gel.’

Gabriel went on in this less than riveting fashion for another ten minutes, but being keen to make a good impression Kerry nodded, smiled at her boss’s feeble jokes and asked lots of questions. Gabriel had an annoying habit of standing too close and Kerry found this creepy, but she ignored it right up until the moment when he planted a hand on her bum.

‘Get that off,’ Kerry snarled. ‘Now.’

Gabriel smiled. ‘Just being friendly, honey,’ he said, as he gave her cheek a gentle squeeze.

Kerry stepped back and put her hand up behind her boss’s head. She bopped his forehead against the front of a microwave oven with such force that it broke off the bracket holding it to the wall.

‘Hey,’ Gabriel shouted, wagging a finger in Kerry’s face. ‘I know Karate.’

‘Really?’ Kerry said indignantly. ‘So do I.’

James heard the commotion and came running inside to find Randall and Gemma watching in amazement.

‘You lay one more finger on my arse, you skinny perv,’ Kerry hissed, ‘or anyone else’s for that matter and it’ll be more than pieces of dead chickens sizzling in your deep fat fryers.’

Kerry was tempted to break Gabriel’s pointing finger, but she didn’t want to do any permanent damage so she shoved him backwards into the refrigerator.

‘You got Karate?’ Kerry growled, goading Gabriel on as she moved into a fighting stance. ‘Come on then, skinny. Show us your moves.’

Gemma jumped up in the air and clapped her hands noisily. ‘You tell him, sister,’ she shouted. ‘I already warned him I’d get my Danny in here to give him a slap if his busy hands came near me again.’

Gabriel was in a daze from his encounter with the microwave and didn’t fancy his chances. ‘Get back to work,’ he steamed, as his bandy arms flailed in the air. ‘All of you.’

Then he dashed into his little office and slammed the door.

Gemma ran over to Kerry. ‘Are you OK?’ she asked sympathetically.

‘I’d bet I feel better than his head,’ Kerry said, as she broke into a sly grin.

‘All right, sis
taah
,’ Gemma grinned, as she gave Kerry a high five. ‘I thought you were a square, but you showed him.’

‘I hate people like that,’ Kerry said as James stepped up to the microwave and admired the crack Gabriel’s head had made in the clear plastic door. ‘First day on the job when you’re vulnerable … I mean, I know how to defend myself, but there’s a lot of people out there who don’t.’

The Emergency Relocation Unit is a sub-branch of the intelligence service that makes short-notice housing arrangements for everyone from CHERUB agents to protected witnesses. Within two days of Mac telling them that he’d need an apartment close to Hassam Bin Hassam’s Hampstead home, the local estate agencies had been scoured and the team had discreetly signed a lease on a three-bedroom apartment in a luxury block.

Mac dealt directly with Jake and Lauren’s enrolment in school. Over the years, CHERUB had become adept at manipulating school staff and computer systems to ensure that young agents ended up sitting in the same classroom as their targets.

Three hours after briefing on the mission, Mac was driving Lauren down the motorway with Jake in the back and their luggage stacked in the boot. He drove fast because he had to buy ties and badges for Lauren and Jake from the school uniform shop and then meet with their new deputy head at 5 p.m.

*

Lauren had slept in loads of places since she’d joined CHERUB, but she always found it hard to sleep on her first night in a new bed. No amount of experience seemed to quell the butterflies that came at the start of each mission. If anything, after being shot at, kidnapped, blasted with pepper spray and nearly getting blown up, her nerves had worsened.

Mac cooked a full English breakfast, but Lauren only managed to rearrange the food with her fork a few times before downing a couple of mouthfuls of egg and pushing away the plate.

‘My cooking not up to scratch?’ Mac asked, as he scraped the plate and loaded it into the dishwasher.