Cherub: Guardian Angel: Book 14

by Robert Muchamore

  ‘So,’ Ethan said, jerking with pain as his ankle caught the edge of the desk. ‘It looks like Leonid’s set up a Gmail account. We’re going to need to access that before we can change his passwords, so let’s go through the logs and see if he’s accessed it over the last few weeks.’

  32. DUBAI

  Kazakov, Ryan and Ning had touched down in Dubai a few minutes before Ethan’s arrival in Sharjah. But while Ethan had gone straight to a hangar, the instructor and CHERUB agents found their arrival at the private jet terminal coinciding with the departure of Dubai’s Crown Prince, so they were forced to wait aboard their plane for a full half-hour.

  ‘My mobile’s dead,’ Ning said impatiently. ‘There’s no airport Wi-Fi. It’s like someone’s blocking all the signals.’

  ‘That’s exactly what’s happening,’ Kazakov explained. ‘Wireless and cellphones can be used to trigger bombs, so when very important people move around they switch off all the networks.’

  Ning nodded. ‘All these Arab leaders are shitting their pants after the uprisings.’

  ‘It shouldn’t matter much,’ Ryan said. ‘TFU is a pretty small set-up, but Amy said they’ve got a crack CIA hacking team working on this now.’

  ‘Your personal touch with Ethan might still be vital,’ Kazakov said.

  As soon as the Crown Prince’s jet was in the air, the ground crew rolled steps up to the plane. A few seconds after that, the Wi-Fi network kicked in and signal bars started reappearing on cellphone screens all over the airport.

  It was two in the afternoon in Dubai, which made it 3 a.m. in California, where Ethan thought Ryan was. Normally Ryan would avoid calling when he ought to be asleep in California, but the situation was critical so he risked it.

  While Ryan logged into the Ethan identity on his wrecked BlackBerry and made a call that would reroute through TFU headquarters in Dallas and appear to be coming from the USA, Ning called Amy for an update.

  Ryan was stepping into the airport’s marbled VIP lounge as Ethan answered.

  ‘I just got your messages,’ Ryan said. ‘Your life is insane. Are you safe?’

  Ethan sounded distracted. ‘It’s good to hear your voice, Ryan! I am safe. I’m in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.’

  ‘Sharjah,’ Ryan said, astonished to find that Ethan was less than twenty kilometres away, and had travelled from southern Africa in the time it had taken them to move half that distance from Kyrgyzstan.

  ‘Ryan, no disrespect,’ Ethan said. ‘But I’m in the middle of some serious shit. I’ll call you back when this is over.’

  ‘I can help you,’ Ryan said keenly. ‘You said something about the FTP.’

  ‘It’s all good, bro,’ Ethan said. ‘Well, my shoulder’s agony, my feet are blistered and my ankle is up shit creek, but Grandma found an old Russian bomber to get me out of Africa and now I’m hacking up Leonid.’

  ‘I can totally help you with that,’ Ryan said. ‘It’s the middle of the night, but I don’t care.’

  ‘I’ve got an accountant on the case with me. I’m in Leonid’s online banking and I’ve just cracked his Gmail account. I’m sorry, but I’m hanging up.’

  Ryan tried thinking of one last-ditch way to get information out of Ethan, but the line went dead.

  ‘Cocky little bastard,’ Ryan complained.

  Ning was still on the phone with Amy. It sounded like things were going OK, but Ryan and Kazakov had to wait until Ning hung up to get a full report.

  ‘There’s a CIA team working on the spyware files,’ Ning explained. ‘Leonid has divided his mother’s money between at least ten banks. They’ve already transferred a few million dollars out of one account and they’re working through the rest. How was Ethan?’

  ‘Sounded pretty chipper,’ Ryan said, as an expression of concern spread across his face. ‘He must be accessing different accounts to the CIA team. Sooner or later he’s going to log into something and find that we’ve been there first.’

  They’d almost reached the customs desks when Kazakov had a realisation. ‘Did I hear you say Sharjah?’

  ‘You did,’ Ryan said.

  They had to break for a moment as they flashed passports at a customs officer. Kazakov got asked if Ryan and Ning were his own kids, and after explaining that he was their tutor and that they were travelling on to Britain they got waved through.

  ‘I’ve got a text from Ted saying that we’re booked on a flight to London in a little over three hours,’ Kazakov said, as they stepped on to a downwards escalator into the transit hall. ‘But we’re not getting on it.’

  ‘Why not?’ Ning asked.

  ‘It’s important that we get control of all of Irena’s money,’ Kazakov said. ‘Ethan’s got to change Leonid’s passwords to something. And if we can get hold of Ethan, I’m sure I can tease the new passwords out of him with a little gentle persuasion.’

  ‘Shouldn’t we check with Ted or Amy first?’ Ning asked.

  ‘I’ll let them know what I’m doing,’ Kazakov said. ‘But it’s not like they’re going to say no, is it?’

  The trio stepped through automatic doors into muggy air. There was no taxi rank, but a smartly dressed chauffeur dashed across the tarmac and gave a little bow.

  ‘Limousine, sir?’ he said brightly. ‘Which hotel, sir?’

  ‘Sharjah Airport,’ Kazakov said. ‘Quick as you can.’

  The trio didn’t waste time putting bags in the trunk and lobbed them all into the back of the stretched limo. Although the long car looked cool from the outside, Ryan was disappointed by a shabby interior that smelled vaguely of wet dog.

  Kazakov pressed the button to raise the privacy screen and looked at Ning as the driver vanished behind a rising leatherette wall.

  ‘You’re faster with those smartphone keyboards than me,’ Kazakov told Ning. ‘We know the Aramovs have a base at Sharjah. An office, maybe even their own hangar. Get me an address.’

  ‘The Aramovs’ more reputable flights are run as Clanair,’ Ryan said. ‘It’ll probably be under that.’

  Ning only took a few taps to get an exact address for Clanair’s Sharjah Airport hangar, but the traffic was horrendous and they took fifteen minutes just to reach the main road out of the airport. Amy called Ning just as they turned on to the expressway heading towards Sharjah.

  ‘It’s not looking that great,’ Amy said dejectedly. ‘The CIA team has taken control of eight of Leonid’s bank accounts and TFU in Dallas are trying to get a couple of accounts inside the European Union frozen under money-laundering laws. But the big money was in Russia and it looks like Ethan beat us to it.’

  ‘So much for the CIA’s team of experts,’ Ning said.

  ‘Ethan must have been tipped off by his grandmother,’ Amy said. ‘It seems he went straight for a bank called Industrial Trust and unless Irena’s a lot poorer than we thought, Ethan’s now got control over the vast majority of her money.’

  As Amy spoke, Kazakov gave Ning a signal to pass the phone over.

  ‘We’re on our way over to the Clanair hangar to find him,’ Kazakov said. ‘I’m sure a little Spetsnaz-style persuasion can wring a few passwords out of a thirteen-year-old.’

  *

  Andre had just got back from a web café in Dordoi Bazaar when Ethan called to speak with Irena.

  ‘Ruby’s added it all up,’ Ethan told his grandmother. ‘She reckons eighty-six million was transferred out of Leonid’s accounts. I’m currently controlling accounts with seventy-three million in them.’

  ‘You’re a good boy,’ Irena said softly.

  ‘Passwords got changed on some of the minor accounts before I got to the other thirteen million,’ Ethan said. ‘Leonid must have been tipped off somehow.’

  ‘Must have,’ Irena said thoughtfully. ‘I’ll know soon enough. My spy at the hospital says he’s on his way back here.’

  33. SHOWDOWN

  People moved aside as Leonid and Alex Aramov strode through the Kremlin lobby. One of the guards asked how Boris
was doing and Leonid almost ripped his head off.

  ‘He’d be doing better if the security teams around here didn’t have their heads up their arses,’ he barked.

  There was a woman with a cleaner’s cart waiting for the lift.

  ‘Get the next one,’ Leonid ordered, as he shoved past her. ‘Ugly old bag.’

  Even the lift seemed scared of Leonid and the doors closed obediently, without any of their usual shuddering back and forth. When he got to the sixth floor Leonid strode purposefully out of the lift towards his apartment, with Alex two paces behind.

  ‘Mr Aramov, I must ask you to stop right there.’

  Leonid looked back and was surprised to see two bulky men with handguns at the ready.

  ‘Where did you two monkeys come from?’ Leonid roared. ‘You work downstairs, you pricks.’

  The bigger of the two men took a step forward. ‘I’m going to have to ask you to hand over any weapons you may be carrying.’

  ‘Hands off,’ Leonid shouted.

  As Leonid turned back, he saw another big guy push Irena into the hallway in her wheelchair.

  ‘Have you lost it, Mother?’ Leonid shouted. ‘Swallowed too many pills again?’

  ‘Shut up,’ Irena ordered. ‘Take the gun out from under your jacket. Do it slowly or I’ll tell them to shoot you.’

  ‘She’s high on painkillers,’ Leonid told the guards. ‘You can’t listen to what she tells you.’

  ‘I know you tried to kill me,’ Irena growled. ‘But you messed that up, like so many other things. Now open your jacket and drop the gun. Alex, the same goes for anything you’re carrying.’

  Leonid grimaced as he took his gun out and placed it on the carpet between his boots.

  ‘Kick it across,’ Irena said.

  Leonid did as he was told and one of the heavies swooped in and picked the gun up.

  ‘Both of you take your boots off,’ Irena ordered. ‘You’ve been known to keep knives down there.’

  Leonid pulled off his boots, but Alex was only wearing trainers. Once they were both unshod the bodyguards patted them down.

  ‘What kind of boy tries to kill his own mother?’ Irena asked bitterly. ‘Let’s go to my room.’

  The bodyguards stayed close behind as Leonid took the short walk down the hallway to Irena’s living-room. Andre was there, and tried making himself invisible by backing up to a mirror over a fake fireplace.

  ‘Sit,’ Irena said.

  Leonid smiled. ‘It doesn’t matter that you’re alive, Mum. Your money’s long gone and your goons had better think hard if they want to see next month’s wages.’

  Irena smiled back. ‘You transferred my money, but you’re not as clever as you like to think you are. Everything you typed on your computer was logged. Every web page you visited. Every security number and password. Over the past couple of hours we’ve changed all your passwords and begun transferring the money back to my accounts.’

  Leonid’s face drooped. ‘You’re paranoid. I didn’t try to kill you.’

  ‘Do you know how pathetic that sounds?’ Irena asked. ‘If you were anyone other than my son you’d be dead in a ditch already.’

  Leonid pushed his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket and looked like a sulky kid. ‘I want control,’ he shouted. ‘I’ve worked for the clan since I was thirteen years old.’

  ‘Pity you didn’t use all that time to grow up,’ Irena said. ‘You were a selfish child who became a selfish adult.’

  Leonid hesitated for a few seconds before dramatically playing his final hand. ‘If you want to see your grandson alive, you’ll back off.’

  Irena raised one eyebrow. ‘Which grandson would that be?’

  ‘Ethan.’

  ‘He seemed perfectly fine when I spoke to him ten minutes ago,’ Irena said. ‘And fortunately he inherited his mother’s brain. He’s long suspected that you killed his mother. Ethan put the spyware on your computers to try and prove it.’

  Leonid didn’t know what to say to his mother, so he turned on Andre. ‘What’s your part in this?’ he shouted. ‘Did you betray your own father?’

  Andre looked frightened, but spoke defiantly. ‘You killed your sister, you kidnapped Ethan and tried to kill Grandma. How am I the disloyal one?’

  ‘Don’t take it out on a ten-year-old,’ Irena said firmly. ‘You have one hour to pack your things. You can take a plane to wherever you want to go, but if you set foot in Kyrgyzstan or interfere with clan affairs I’ll come down hard. You’ll receive a monthly allowance that will enable you to live comfortably. Alex and Boris are loyal to you and must leave with you. Andre and your ex-wife can make up their own minds.’

  ‘I’m staying here,’ Andre said instantly.

  ‘This isn’t over,’ Leonid hissed. ‘Everyone inside the clan knows you’re past it.’

  ‘Maybe I am past it,’ Irena said. ‘But that doesn’t mean they want to work for you.’

  ‘Bitch!’ Leonid spat.

  Irena’s eyes were misting over as she reached for the plastic mask attached to an oxygen cylinder under her chair.

  ‘My own son,’ she said softly. ‘You appal me.’

  Leonid roared with laughter. ‘Our planes are responsible for half the heroin on the streets of Europe. You deliver cluster bombs to psychopaths. Girls get kidnapped and sold as sex slaves. You taught me everything I know, Mother.’

  ‘You don’t speak to me like that, boy,’ Irena shouted. ‘Bring him here.’

  Leonid was no weakling, but the bodyguards were twice his size.

  ‘Kneel,’ Irena ordered, as Leonid was held in front of her. Then she looked back at Andre. ‘Get your grandfather’s dagger from the mantelpiece.’

  Andre trembled as he took the knife from the shelf. His grandfather had been a boy soldier in the Red Army and he’d stolen the dagger from a dead German officer. It smelled oily and the button on the leather sheath popped as Irena pulled the knife out and pushed its tip against Leonid’s throat.

  Leonid tried moving away, but the huge guards had him clamped.

  ‘If I live much longer I expect I’ll regret letting you go,’ Irena told Leonid. ‘But in my heart you’re still the boy who sat on this floor playing Lego with Josef and Galenka.’

  Leonid smiled. Andre gasped with relief, because while he didn’t think much of his dad he didn’t want to watch his throat get cut either. But Leonid’s smug grin needled his mother, so she tugged his ear, then slashed down with the knife, cutting it clean off his head.

  The move was swift for someone so frail and the guard was so shocked by the spurting blood that he let Leonid go.

  Leonid screamed, as blood gushed down the side of his neck. He made a lunge at Irena’s wheelchair, but the bodyguards grabbed him under the arms and slammed him into the wall.

  ‘One hour to pack,’ Irena shouted. ‘Stick a bandage around his thick head and don’t let him out of your sight until his plane’s off the ground.’

  Irena made a little sob, as all the blood and stress sent Andre into a dry heave.

  ‘Somebody take this away,’ Irena said, as she dropped her son’s ear at her feet. ‘And get a cleaner up here to scrub the blood out of this rug. I’m very fond of it. It really ties the room together.’

  *

  The limousine was on the access roads around Sharjah Airport when Ryan’s phone rang. International flashed on the display.

  ‘Hey, man,’ Ethan said.

  ‘It’s him,’ Ryan mouthed, as he made a shush gesture.

  Ning and Kazakov both nodded, and leaned forward trying to listen in.

  ‘Ethan, buddy! How’s it hanging?’

  Ethan sounded really happy. ‘I just shoved it to my uncle Leonid, big time.’

  ‘Seriously?’ Ryan said. ‘What happened?’

  ‘He tried to rip my gran off. But I had the spyware on his computer. I got up in all his banking and e-mail. Locked him out of a bunch of accounts. Transferred a bunch of money back to my grandma.’

&
nbsp; ‘Sweet,’ Ryan said. ‘Leonid must be furious.’

  ‘Last I heard he was heading back to the Kremlin and my grandma was gonna nail his arse.’

  ‘So where are you now?’

  ‘This lady Ruby who works for my gran is driving me to a hospital in Dubai. I jumped off a building in Kanye and messed up my ankle pretty good.’

  ‘You’re heading to Dubai,’ Ryan said, more for the benefit of his fellow passengers than anything else.

  Meantime, Ning had typed something in the notes app on her phone and held it in front of Ryan’s face:

  ASK HIM ABOUT THE PASSWORDS!

  ‘I finally feel like something good is about to happen in my life!’ Ethan said. ‘I can’t get Mom back, but at least I won’t have this Leonid thing weighing me down.’

  Ryan couldn’t ask Ethan for his passwords directly, but he had an idea.

  ‘Just make sure you don’t forget all those passwords you changed,’ he said jokingly.

  Ethan laughed. ‘No fear. I sent them all to a safe place. And I hope I didn’t piss you off earlier, but you called when everything was manic.’

  ‘Not at all.’

  ‘I’ve gotta go, I’m pulling into the hospital,’ Ethan said. ‘I’ll call tomorrow or something and we can have a proper chat.’

  ‘For sure,’ Ryan said. ‘Keep in touch.’

  ‘Always, mate.’

  As Ryan ended the call, Kazakov pressed the intercom button to speak to the driver. ‘Turn it around. We’re heading back to Dubai. I’ll let you know where in a moment.’

  Ryan spoke to Ning. ‘Ethan said he sent all the passwords to a safe place. You can be sure that doesn’t mean he printed them off and put them in the post.’

  ‘What online accounts does he use?’ Ning asked.

  ‘Skype, Hotmail and Facebook mostly,’ Ryan said. ‘We’ve got his login details for all of them. Sir, can I borrow your laptop again?’

  ‘Knock yourself out,’ Kazakov said, before leaning forward and digging his laptop from the mound of baggage in the middle of the car.

  The computer was in sleep mode, and as Ryan opened the lid and connected it to a local 3G network, Ning used the browser on her phone to try finding a list of hospitals where Ethan might have ended up. As the traffic looked bad in both directions and Ethan had arrived already, she figured that the hospital had to be near the border between the Emirates of Sharjah and Dubai.