CHERUB: Divine Madness Read online

  ‘A fair bit,’ Rebecca said. ‘We can do it together … Or surf the net, whatever.’

  ‘Cool,’ Kerry said. ‘But I’m gonna go in my place and lose the uniform first. I’ll see you round yours in ten minutes.’

  *

  The front door of the cramped apartment led directly into the kitchen. Kerry yawned as she stepped inside. She dumped her backpack on the floor and skidded her keys across the dining table. Assistant mission controller Chloe Blake leaned through the doorway leading into the living-room.

  ‘Hiya, Kerry. Where’s Bruce?’

  ‘Detention.’

  ‘Oh great,’ Chloe said, looking stressed.

  ‘What’s up?’

  ‘Are you doing homework with Rebecca tonight?’

  Kerry nodded. ‘As soon as I’m changed. Why, what’s going on?’

  ‘You’d better look at this.’

  Kerry moved through to the living-room. Sixteen-year-old Kyle Blueman – Kerry’s other stepbrother for the purposes of this mission – was sitting on the couch dressed in shorts and a T-shirt.

  ‘No school?’ Kerry asked.

  ‘Clyde Xu skipped out of our English class this morning,’ Kyle explained. ‘I followed him down to the harbour, but I had to keep my distance and lost him at a busy crossing. John picked up a couple of mobile calls in the surveillance suite back at the hotel, but they didn’t tell us much. All we know is that Clyde met with someone at an Arby’s in the business district around lunchtime.’

  ‘Any idea who?’ Kerry interrupted.

  ‘Not even a name,’ Kyle said. ‘But after the meeting, Clyde came back here to the Xus’ apartment. We’ve got it on video.’

  Chloe flipped up the lid of her laptop, which was connected to a satellite antenna on the balcony. She double clicked, opening up a video file which Kerry leaned in to watch. The fisheye image was from an ultra wide angle camera that Bruce had sneaked into the light fitting above Clyde Xu’s bed four weeks earlier.

  ‘When was this recorded?’ Kerry asked.

  ‘A couple of hours ago,’ Chloe replied.

  The screen showed Clyde Xu walking into his tiny bedroom. He sat on his bed, then pulled off his trainers and school shirt, revealing a muscular chest.

  ‘He’s so fit,’ Kerry said.

  ‘Totally,’ Kyle grinned. ‘Cutest little terrorist I’ve ever seen.’

  Chloe tutted. ‘Can you two keep the raging hormones under control and concentrate on what you’re watching?’

  Clyde Xu pulled a small, cellophane-wrapped package out of his school backpack, then leaned forwards. He opened a chest of drawers and tucked it under a pile of socks.

  ‘Any idea what that is?’ Kerry asked.

  ‘Impossible to tell,’ Chloe said. ‘But you don’t go to all that trouble to meet someone and come back with something you could have bought from the Seven Eleven, do you? Can you try and get a look at it, maybe take some photos?’

  Kerry looked uncertain. ‘Couldn’t we wait until tomorrow and go in when the Xus are out at work and school?’

  ‘It would be easier,’ Chloe said. ‘But that’s fifteen or sixteen hours away. Who’s to say Clyde won’t have passed the package on to someone else by then? Knowing what’s in that package now might be the difference between foiling an attack and hundreds of innocent people losing their lives.’

  ‘Well,’ Kerry said, shaking her head, ‘it’s gonna be tricky without Bruce there keeping an eye out. He’s such a knob, getting himself in trouble on the one day we need him.’

  Chloe clicked a few icons on the laptop screen, making the display switch to a live feed from the Xus’ apartment. Between them, Kerry and Bruce had managed to place a miniature camera and microphone in every room.

  ‘Well,’ Chloe said, as she flipped between the live pictures from six different cameras. ‘Rebecca is in her room, Clyde is on the computer in his parents’ room and we can rely on Mum and Dad not being home before seven o’clock.’

  Kerry nodded. ‘You can’t get Clyde off that PC once he’s online. Rebecca always has to fight with him when she wants to go and play Sims Two.’

  ‘Do you think you’ll be safe going into the room without Bruce covering you from outside?’

  Kerry shrugged. ‘I can probably talk my way out if they catch me in the room, but if I’m sitting there taking pictures of whatever he’s got hidden in that drawer, our cover’s totally blown.’

  ‘What do we do if the package turns out to be a bomb?’ Kyle asked. ‘If it is, Clyde could be planting it at any time. In just a few hours, or something.’

  ‘I doubt it’s tonight,’ Chloe said. ‘Don’t forget the second meeting.’

  ‘What meeting?’ Kerry asked.

  ‘Something John picked up in one of Clyde’s mobile calls,’ Chloe explained. ‘He’s got a meeting tonight at eight o’clock.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘No idea where or who, Kerry. But groups like Help Earth keep information on potential attacks separate. One person deals with the device, another knows the target and the attacker is only given the whole picture at the last minute. That way, the plan isn’t compromised if anyone is caught.’

  Kerry nodded. ‘So, all these meetings mean the attack has to be coming soon.’

  ‘Almost certainly within the next seventy-two hours,’ Chloe said.

  ‘What if Clyde isn’t the attacker?’ Kyle asked.

  ‘We’ve had this discussion,’ Chloe said, a touch wearily. ‘Xu is a sixteen-year-old with no specialist knowledge. His only use to Help Earth is as a lightning rod: an unlikely suspect who can take some of the risks that more senior people don’t fancy.’

  ‘Right,’ Kerry said. ‘I’ll hook a two-way radio up under my T-shirt. As soon as I get in Clyde’s room I’ll fix it in my ear.

  You guys watch on the video and speak to me if you see someone coming.’

  Chloe gave Kerry a friendly rub on the back. ‘You’d better hurry up and get changed before Rebecca starts wondering where you’ve got to.’

  3. PLASTIC

  Rebecca’s bedroom was a windowless box, so the two girls always did their homework in the Xus’ living-room. Kerry lay on the floor, with her books spread over a sheepskin rug, while Rebecca sprawled on a smart leather couch with one eye watching MTV.

  ‘Oooh, Busted,’ Rebecca said, grabbing the remote and turning the sound up loud.

  Kerry looked up from her maths exercise book and shook her head. ‘I can’t believe you still like them. They’re so last year.’

  ‘Last year, next year, Matt Jay is still hot.’

  Kerry giggled. ‘Not as hot as your big brother, Clyde.’

  Rebecca screwed up her face. ‘Kindly keep your warped fantasies about my brother to yourself, Kerry. Besides, he’s only interested in saving bluebottle dolphins, or standing outside the American embassy with some dopey placard. I don’t think he’d know what to do with a girl if you gave him one.’

  ‘Bottlenose dolphins,’ Kerry corrected, as she stood up. ‘If you’re listening to that racket, I’m going to the loo.’

  Kerry guessed the Busted video lasted three-and-a-half minutes. Rebecca wouldn’t budge while it was on, but she needed to know what Clyde was up to as well. She cut out of the living-room, took two paces down a hallway and stepped through the open door of Mr and Mrs Xu’s bedroom. Clyde sat at a desk between two wardrobes, totally wrapped in a game of Doom III, with gunfire roaring out of the speakers.

  ‘Ahem,’ Kerry said, noisily clearing her throat as she stepped up beside Clyde.

  ‘What?’

  Kerry smiled, with a hint of flirting, as she pushed a strand of hair away from her face. ‘I like that T-shirt, Clyde. It always looks nice on you.’

  ‘I can’t pause this game,’ Clyde said irritably, as he switched weapons and unleashed a barrage of rockets. ‘I’m playing an online death match. What is it you want?’

  ‘We won’t be getting our internet set up until my dad finishes his old job and mo
ves in with us. I was hoping I could do an e-mail to my old mates back in London.’

  ‘They’ve got internet in the library at school, you know,’ Clyde said.

  Kerry backed off a step and made herself sound wounded. ‘OK,’ she said weakly. ‘I’ll do it at school, I suppose.’

  Clyde sensed that Kerry was upset and briefly snatched his eyes away from the screen. ‘Look, after this game, OK? It’ll be ten minutes or so, I’ll give you a shout when I’ve finished.’

  Perfect, Kerry thought as she brushed her hand against Clyde’s shoulder. ‘Thank you, Clyde.’

  She turned on her socked feet and passed through the kitchen, confident that she had two uninterrupted minutes to get a look at the mysterious package. There was a short hallway leading from the kitchen towards Clyde and Rebecca’s tiny bedrooms. The bathroom door was directly opposite.

  Kerry leaned into the bathroom and tugged on the light cord to make it look like she was inside, then cut a quick glance over her shoulder, before slipping into Clyde’s room. Her heart rate bounced as she pushed open the door, flipped on the light switch, pulled a tiny earpiece from inside her T-shirt and plugged it into her ear.

  ‘Chloe, can you hear me?’ Kerry whispered.

  Chloe’s reply came through the earpiece with a soothing tone. ‘Don’t worry; I’ve got your back. You’ll know the second either of them moves.’

  ‘Mind’s gone blank,’ Kerry said nervously. ‘Which drawer was it?’

  ‘Second one down.’

  Kerry quietly pulled open Clyde’s drawer and slid her hand amongst the balled up socks until her fingers touched the package. She made a mental note of its exact position, before pulling it out and placing it on top of the cabinet.

  ‘OK,’ Kerry whispered, as she unravelled the plastic bag wrapped around the package and glanced inside. She immediately recognised the contents, having used identical equipment during basic training. ‘Looks like four bars of plastic explosive – probably C4 – and two self-contained detonators. I can’t tell what type they are just from looking.’

  The explosives looked like grey plasticine and the two sophisticated detonators would make turning it into a bomb a snip: simply mould the explosive to shape, put it where you want to – inside a car, under a desk, whatever – push in the detonators and your bomb is complete.

  ‘Someone paid a lot of money to get their hands on these,’ Kerry said.

  ‘Whys and wherefores later, Kerry,’ Chloe warned, deliberately keeping her voice calm. ‘Just take some photographs and get out as quickly as you can.’

  Kerry slid a tiny digital camera out of her jeans. She placed the two detonators, which looked like tiny fireworks, on the top of the drawer and took a picture. While the flash recharged, she set out the explosive ready to photograph.

  The doorbell rang.

  ‘Dammit,’ Kerry gasped into the microphone. ‘Chloe, who is that?’

  In the flat five doors along, Chloe sat at the laptop clicking through the different camera feeds until she came to the one positioned in the corridor outside.

  ‘It’s Bruce,’ Chloe said.

  Kerry snapped the picture of the explosive and started putting it back into the bag in a state of panic.

  ‘What the hell is he playing at?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Chloe said frantically. ‘He must have got out of detention and decided to come straight over there.’

  ‘Didn’t you ring him to say what was going on?’

  ‘Oh …’ Chloe said, sounding choked. ‘I should have, shouldn’t I?’

  Kerry was annoyed, but she didn’t have time to let it fester. She quickly wound the plastic bag around the package, shoved it back under the socks and pushed the drawer shut.

  ‘Clyde and Rebecca are in the kitchen,’ Chloe said.

  Kerry tried to think as she heard Rebecca answer the front door. The kitchen was less than two metres away; there was no way she could emerge from Clyde’s bedroom without being seen.

  ‘Hi, Becks,’ Bruce grinned, speaking in stilted Cantonese that had improved rapidly over the six weeks of the mission. ‘I thought you and Kerry would be doing homework. Is she here?’

  Rebecca nodded. ‘How was detention?’

  ‘Oh, nothing major,’ Bruce shrugged. ‘Just wasted half an hour of my life staring at a clock with my arms folded.’

  Clyde looked put out at having had to answer the door. ‘Might as well go for a pee now I’m up. I was kicking that guy’s butt ’til you got here.’

  ‘You can’t, Kerry’s in there,’ Rebecca said.

  But by the time the words were out, Clyde had the bathroom door open.

  ‘Not unless she’s flushed herself down the toilet she isn’t.’

  Rebecca looked mystified, as Bruce had the horrible realisation that he’d probably blundered in and disturbed Kerry when she was up to something.

  ‘Maybe she went home,’ Bruce said edgily.

  Back in Clyde’s tiny bedroom, Kerry realised she needed to do something desperate as she ripped out the earpiece and tucked it back down her T-shirt.

  Rebecca opened her bedroom door and leaned inside. ‘Kerry? – Well, she’s not in there.’

  Kerry plunged her little finger deep into her nostril, then dug her nail into the soft tissue and ripped it out. The pain was horrendous, but she managed to snatch a wad of tissues from Clyde’s bedside table and bunch them against her face as he stepped into the room.

  ‘What the hell are you doing in here?’

  As Kerry turned to face Clyde, she blew out the drips of blood that had collected at the base of her nostril. Clyde looked shocked as it dribbled over her lips and down her chin.

  Rebecca stepped in behind her brother. ‘Oh my god, Kerry. What happened?’

  Kerry didn’t need to fake anything; the injury she’d inflicted upon herself was bloody and extremely painful.

  ‘I get nosebleeds quite a bit. I was coming out of the toilet and it started up really bad. I ran in here to grab tissues.’

  If Rebecca or Clyde had stopped to think in great depth, they might have wondered why Kerry didn’t go back into the bathroom and grab some toilet tissue, or grab a paper towel from the kitchen rather than enter a room she wasn’t familiar with. But neither of them could think beyond the bloody face and pained expression standing right in front of them.

  ‘What do you want us to do, Kerry?’ Clyde asked.

  ‘I think I’d better go home,’ Kerry said, close to sobbing. ‘My mum’s there. She knows how to stop the bleeding. She’s done it loads of times before.’

  *

  Bruce opened the door of the flat. Kyle and Chloe had watched Kerry’s escape plan unfold on the laptop screen, but they weren’t prepared for the torrent of blood pouring down her neck as she stumbled towards the table and slumped into a dining chair, glowering at Bruce.

  ‘Moron,’ Kerry screamed. ‘You nearly blew this whole

  operation.’

  ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t think,’ Bruce said, wrapping his hands over his head, totally unable to look Kerry in the eye.

  ‘You never think.’

  Chloe stepped in to calm them down. ‘Kerry, it was my fault. I should have phoned Bruce.’

  ‘It wasn’t you that got a detention,’ Kerry said.

  She grabbed her camera out of her pocket and banged it on the table, as Kyle grabbed a first aid box from under the sink.

  ‘Bruce,’ Kyle said, trying to be diplomatic, ‘why don’t you go in the other room and e-mail the photographs to John. I’ll stay here and patch up Kerry.’

  Bruce and Chloe walked through to the living-room, as Kyle handed Kerry a damp flannel to wash her face.

  ‘The old nosebleed trick,’ Kyle said. ‘I learned it in espionage training, but to be honest I’d totally forgotten it.’

  Kerry appreciated Kyle’s bedside manner and managed a tight smile as she dumped the bloody flannel on the table in front of her. ‘I won’t be in any hurry to use it again.’

/>   ‘OK, tip your head back. I need to take a look up there.’

  Kyle took a small torch out of the first aid box and shone it up Kerry’s nostril. The flow was already slowing, as the blood darkened and clotted.

  ‘Fingernails pick up a lot of dirt and bacteria, Kerry. I’m gonna squirt antiseptic up there so you don’t get an infection.’

  Kerry couldn’t nod with her head tipped back, so she made a little uh-huh noise as Kyle flipped the top off a pump spray.

  ‘This might be a little bit cold. Hold your breath; I don’t want it running down into your throat.’

  Kerry clenched her fists in pain as the mist of antiseptic burned the inside of her nose.

  ‘Sorry,’ Kyle said. ‘I’ll make you an ice pack from the fridge. You’ll have to hold it against your nose until the bleeding stops.’

  Chloe came back into the kitchen from the living-room.

  ‘I spoke to John at his hotel and told him about the plastic explosive. He says it’s critical that we find out where Clyde Xu’s meeting is tonight and what’s being said.’

  4. MEET

  Every breath reminded Kerry of the dried blood caked inside her nostril. She was in a packed shopping street, walking briskly alongside her mission controller, John Jones. It was dusk and the greens and reds of hundreds of illuminated signs reflected off his silver-framed glasses and bald head.

  ‘Can you still see Clyde?’ Kerry asked.

  She could only see the backs and heads crammed around her. John was taller, with a view over the crowd.

  ‘I think I can,’ John said. ‘But straight dark hair isn’t exactly uncommon around here.’

  There was a brief gap in the crowd and John caught a glance of the yellow baseball jersey attached to the head he’d been watching for the last two minutes. Clyde Xu was wearing a green bomber jacket.

  ‘Dammit,’ John said. ‘Wrong guy.’

  ‘You’re joking,’ Kerry gasped, as they stopped walking and anxiously turned into the frontage of a shop selling tacky jewellery.

  John pulled a smart phone out of his pocket and dialled Chloe. She was back at the apartment, sitting in front of the laptop.

  ‘I’ve lost Xu,’ John said. ‘What are you getting?’