CHERUB: The Fall

by Robert Muchamore

  The pilot looked at James and screamed: ‘Get the door!’

  Sheer terror gave James the strength to reach over the two men and grab the metal lever that retracted the steps. The pilot hit the throttles as soon as the steps were off the ground and James had to grab hold of a handrail above the door to stop the blast of air from knocking him back.

  A siren sounded in the cockpit and a voice warning blared out of a speaker above James’ head. ‘Danger, main door improperly secured. Danger, main door improperly secured …’

  Craig crawled along the aisle and the co-pilot got back to his feet as a hydraulically assisted bolt locked the door into place. The red warning light went out, replaced by a reassuring green bar with door secured written across it.

  James clicked his seatbelt on as the co-pilot scrambled into the cockpit, but a quick glance out of the far side window showed him that the excitement wasn’t over. The car that Craig had shot off-course was coming alongside them and the cop in the passenger seat was aiming a pistol. He remembered what the pilot said about a single stray bullet blowing the whole plane – but the cop only got one shot in before the twin jets gained an edge over the small Russian petrol engine.

  The ice on the runway made the take-off hairy. The pilot was fighting her tail rudder, trying to keep the aircraft from skidding off the runway. All James could see was her hand on the throttles, but her shaking arm and bulging tendons made it clear that this was no routine take-off.

  Then the nose lifted and everything went smooth. Everyone in the aircraft let out a collective gasp. James looked around and saw Craig, with ripped trousers and a bloody gash over his knee, belting up in the leather seat behind him.

  James peered out of his window and looked back at Aero City. There were a few cars moving along the roads and odd glimmers of light from buildings with their own generators. He felt relieved for about ten seconds, then his ears popped and his sinuses exploded with pain.

  12. NURSE

  James opened his eyes slowly. It took a couple of blinks for his surroundings to come into focus. He was in a hospital bed. The back of his throat felt like it had been scoured and he had a tube up his nose, electrodes wired to his chest, a drip in his arm and a port taped to the back of his hand for injections. He felt hungry and needed to pee really bad. Then he raised his head slightly and noticed Lauren.

  ‘Hey,’ James croaked, as he watched his sister breaking into a giant smile.

  ‘Kerry,’ Lauren yelled happily over her shoulder. ‘He’s awake!’

  ‘Where am I?’

  ‘East Side military hospital, near campus,’ Lauren explained, as Kerry’s boots squeaked towards the bed. She had her winter jacket and gloves on, as if she’d been about to leave.

  ‘I’ll fetch the nurse,’ Kerry said, before dashing off again.

  James tried to sit up, but Lauren sat on the edge of the bed and pushed him down gently.

  ‘You’ll pull your tubes out.’

  ‘But I’m busting,’ James explained.

  ‘Just go,’ Lauren said gently. ‘You’re all wired up down there.’

  ‘Eh?’

  ‘With a catheter and a bag.’

  James shuddered. He knew that catheters are inserted into the penis, and while he had no memory of it going in, he immediately realised that he’d have to endure the painful procedure of it being yanked out at some point in the future.

  Even with covers over him, James felt weird having Lauren sitting next to him as the high-ceilinged hospital room echoed with the sound of his pee running into a bag.

  ‘How long have I been here?’

  ‘Since yesterday,’ Lauren said. ‘But you were in a hospital in Finland for two days before that.’

  ‘You mean, like a coma or something?’

  ‘Not a full-blown coma, but you’ve been drifting in and out of consciousness. You’re groggy now because they gave you a general anaesthetic this morning, before you went down to theatre.’

  ‘Theatre?’

  ‘You’ve got a broken rib. They made a little incision in your chest and pulled out a loose bone fragment. They also did a bit more work on your broken nose while you were under.’

  ‘The last thing I remember is shutting the door of an aeroplane … And a bloke with a bloody knee and …’

  ‘That was Saturday,’ Lauren nodded. ‘It’s Wednesday now. You had a blood clot inside your nose. As the plane rose up, the atmospheric pressure dropped, the gas trapped inside your sinuses expanded and the pain knocked you out. The pilot had to make an emergency landing in Helsinki.’

  Kerry came back into the ward, followed by a fat nurse. He gave James a huge smile and spoke with a Caribbean accent as he pulled a small torch out of his pocket.

  ‘Nice having you back with us, James,’ he said. ‘Look at the light and try to follow it with your eyes.’

  James obediently tracked the narrow beam as it moved in front of his face.

  ‘Great stuff,’ the nurse smiled, as he pushed a few buttons on a monitoring device beside the bed. It hummed as it spat out a length of curled-up paper.

  ‘This looks fine,’ the nurse said, as he studied the figures. ‘How do you feel?’

  James shrugged. ‘I just feel a bit dull, like I’m all wrapped in cotton wool or something.’

  ‘Anything else?’

  ‘My nose hurts and I’m completely starving.’

  Lauren looked at the nurse. ‘Is he OK?’

  The nurse nodded reassuringly. ‘He’ll be confused for the next couple of hours. But his heart rate and blood oxygen levels are healthy. Doctor Packard should be here shortly and I expect he’ll run a few tests before he’s satisfied, but it all looks fine to me.’

  ‘Your blood oxygen level was dangerously low when you arrived in Helsinki,’ Lauren explained. ‘They were worried that you might have brain damage.’

  ‘I’ll come back tomorrow,’ Kerry smiled, as the nurse headed out of the room.

  ‘Can’t you stay a bit longer?’ James asked.

  Kerry shook her head. ‘It’s midnight. I was on my way out ten minutes ago. My cab driver will be losing his rag.’

  ‘Night then,’ James said, as Kerry reluctantly headed for the door. Then he turned towards Lauren. ‘What about you?’

  ‘Nah,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘I’ll sit with you as long as you like. When you arrived here yesterday I told them that I wasn’t leaving the hospital until you did. Zara got cross with me, but when …’ Lauren stopped talking and gave a massive sob. ‘When …’

  James reached out from under his sheets and put his hand on Lauren’s knee.

  ‘At first, when you were missing I was so scared,’ Lauren sobbed. ‘Then they found you and I was OK. But then they said about the emergency landing and you were drifting in and out of consciousness and they didn’t know how badly injured you were. So when you got back here I … I told Zara that the only way I’d leave your side was if they dragged me out kicking and screaming.’

  James felt his eyes blurring with tears. ‘Come on sis, I’m gonna be OK.’

  ‘I know we have our own friends and that, James, but you and me are special. We go all the way back to when Mum was alive. I mean, I can remember when I could barely walk and I used to drive you nuts by following you everywhere.’

  If it hadn’t been for tubes, bruises and a complete lack of energy, James would have sat up and hugged her. ‘Brothers and sisters are weird,’ he croaked. ‘Somehow you end up loving each other but making each other crazy at the same time.’

  13. BRIEF

  Two days after his operation, James was still in hospital and going stir crazy. The bruises and swellings were reducing, all of his tubes and sensors had been removed and he was eating normally and using the toilet down the hall. Lauren agreed to return to campus once she saw that her brother was on the road to recovery, but she still travelled to the hospital after lessons every day, usually accompanied by Kerry and a couple of James’ other mates.

  The
daytime was worst. James watched TV, played on his PSP and read motorbike magazines, but it did his head in having nobody around, so he was pretty grateful when Ewart and Zara Asker turned up just after he’d eaten lunch.

  Zara had smartened up since becoming chairwoman and sported a grey pinstripe business suit, but Ewart looked the same as ever. Ten years younger than his wife, he wore ripped jeans and a T-shirt with the poster from the 1960s Planet Of The Apes film on it.

  ‘So what’s this in aid of?’ James smiled, as the couple sank into the green armchairs alongside his bed.

  Ewart spoke first. ‘I’ve been going through the recordings I made when I interviewed you about the mission yesterday. And – there’s no way to sugar-coat this, James – we’re really not sure how much of your testimony we can believe.’

  James was shocked. ‘Are you saying I’m a liar?’

  Zara shook her head. ‘Not so much lying, James, as confused. You took a severe beating, you spent a night out in the cold, and you were under a huge amount of stress.’

  Ewart took over. ‘The thing is James, two well respected undercover operatives are dead. I’ve discussed the situation with senior MI5 officials and they’re not buying your story that Boris and Isla were killed after murdering Denis Obidin.’

  ‘Ewart, I told you yesterday. The CIA guy took me back to the safe house, he put the laptop in front of me and I watched the whole thing on video.’

  ‘Are you completely sure it was Boris and Isla?’

  James tutted. ‘Absolutely sure. I saw them getting dressed before they went out. They were wearing the right clothes and everything.’

  Ewart wagged his finger. ‘But in the testimony I recorded yesterday, you said that you had a pulsing headache, your eyes were swollen and the video footage was blurry. Can you really be sure?’

  ‘I felt rough,’ James nodded, ‘but I wasn’t blind. It was CCTV footage. It was black and white and a bit blurry, like every other bit of CCTV footage I’ve ever seen.’

  ‘So you could positively identify Boris and Isla on the clip?’ Zara said.

  Ewart interrupted before James got to answer. ‘The thing is James, MI5 are saying that this video clip is what the CIA, or whoever this Partridge dude really works for, wanted you to see. It could have been staged with actors, or real footage could have been manipulated by computers.’

  ‘I guess,’ James said. ‘All I know is that it looked real to me when I saw it and we’ve since confirmed that Boris, Isla and Denis are all dead.’

  Ewart nodded. ‘Point taken.’

  ‘Can’t you contact the CIA and see if you can get hold of the footage?’ James asked.

  Zara smiled. ‘James, we’re certainly going to try, but it’s a delicate business. You can’t just ring up CIA headquarters and say, Hey we’re a bunch of British spies who don’t officially exist, you know that top secret undercover mission you’ve got going on in Northern Russia …’

  ‘Well obviously,’ James nodded. ‘But, the Americans are our friends, right? I mean, I worked with the CIA and the FBI in Arizona two years ago. That’s how they knew who I was.’

  ‘Espionage isn’t a world of black and white, James,’ Ewart said. ‘In some instances, such as the Arizona situation, British and American interests are the same and we work together. In Aero City, things are more complex. Denis Obidin was a massive presence in the Russian aerospace industry. His contract with Hilton Aerospace to fit British jet engines and maintain Russian airliners is worth billions. Even though it’s a declining market, the big American aero-engine companies would still love to get hold of that contract and gain a foothold in the Russian aerospace market.’

  ‘In fact,’ Zara said, ‘if two British agents did charge into Denis Obidin’s office and kill him, it might very well push several lucrative defence contracts into the hands of the Americans. It could be exactly what the CIA wants the Russians to believe.’

  ‘Well I guess …’ James wasn’t entirely convinced by Zara’s argument. ‘I mean, what you’re saying isn’t impossible, but what if the version the CIA man told me is true and it turns out that MI5 are covering their backs and refusing to accept the blame?’

  Zara nodded. ‘At this stage we’re just gathering evidence. We’re ruling nothing in and nothing out.’

  ‘Anyway,’ James said, ‘why are us Brits so keen to do business with the Obidins? I thought the whole point of my mission was to gather evidence and put Obidin behind bars for selling illegal weapons.’

  ‘We certainly wanted the evidence,’ Ewart smiled. ‘But MI5 might have achieved a better outcome by using it to blackmail Obidin. That way, he stops selling weapons to people our government don’t like and three thousand British jobs are guaranteed.’

  James shook his head. ‘Sounds pretty shady.’

  Zara nodded. ‘It is shady, but the Russian courts can be as corrupt as their police force. Even if we’d gathered cast iron evidence against Obidin, there’s no guarantee that a crooked judge or a bribed jury wouldn’t have acquitted him.’

  Ewart spoke again. ‘Another aspect of your testimony is causing me some concern …’

  ‘Hang on,’ James said angrily. ‘How come it’s testimony all of a sudden? Yesterday afternoon, you came in here acting all casual and asked if I felt well enough to answer some questions. You said you’d record the conversation so you didn’t have to write it all down. I thought it was just a debriefing, but now you’re asking me all this extra stuff, sounding like a lawyer and picking apart what I said.’

  ‘James, there has to be a comprehensive investigation into what went wrong,’ Zara explained. ‘Two agents are dead, you were lucky to get out alive. We’re not saying that you’re a liar, but we can’t just carry on as if nothing has happened. Ewart is going to conduct a thorough investigation into every aspect of the Aero City mission. He’ll obviously be on the lookout for evidence that confirms your version of events, but he has to be impartial. That means he’ll have to investigate your conduct during the mission and ask you some difficult questions about it.’

  James shrugged wearily. ‘Well, whether you believe me or not, everything I told you yesterday is what I honestly believe is true.’

  Zara sat up in her chair and adopted a grave tone. ‘The thing is, James – and I came along with Ewart today because I wanted to tell you in person – CHERUB has to appear whiter than white. As well as Ewart’s investigation, MI5 will be conducting a separate inquiry into the events in Aero City and both organisations have been asked to report back to the intelligence minister as soon as possible. In the meantime I’ll have to suspend your status as an active CHERUB agent.’

  ‘Eh?’ James gasped furiously. ‘After everything I went through out there? Are you taking the piss?’

  ‘None of us likes it, James, but until the inquiry is complete and you’re cleared of any responsibility, I have no option but to suspend you.’

  ‘But I haven’t done anything.’

  ‘It’s not a punishment, James,’ Zara said softly.

  ‘What a crock of shit,’ James yelled.

  ‘Hey, watch your mouth,’ Ewart shouted.

  ‘Ewart, don’t start,’ Zara said. ‘James, I know this is really rotten for you, but we have to obey certain rules. One of those rules is that we can’t send agents on a mission while their conduct on a previous mission is under investigation.’

  ‘I nearly died,’ James screamed. ‘Those two MI5 traitors stitched me up. Now you’re stitching me up.’

  ‘James, I’m sorry,’ Zara said. ‘I know you’re upset, but we’re not stitching anybody up.’

  ‘You know what? Screw it. Why should I risk my life on another mission for people who don’t trust me or stick up for me? I quit – send me off to live with a set of foster parents or whatever.’

  ‘Come off it, James,’ Zara said. ‘I can see how this might seem like we’re kicking you when you’re down, but try to keep things in perspective. The investigation will probably take one or two months. You w
ouldn’t have been sent on another long mission until you were feeling better and you’d caught up on your schoolwork. The difference to your CHERUB career will probably be minimal.’

  James thought for a second. ‘Maybe that’s true, but everyone on campus is gonna know I’m under investigation and I know how these things drag out. You say one or two months now, but it’s just as likely to be four or five.’

  Ewart rolled his eyes. ‘James, you’re not the first agent ever to be suspended pending an investigation and I’d bet that you won’t be the last.’

  ‘Besides,’ Zara said, ‘if you leave, you’ll end up at some other school with no friends and about half of the facilities you’ve got on campus.’

  ‘I guess,’ James sighed. ‘And I didn’t mean to swear at you. It’s just, I could do without this after everything I’ve been through in the last week …’

  Zara reached into a carrier bag she’d brought in with her and pulled out a big box of fancy chocolates.

  ‘Continental selection,’ Zara smiled. ‘Kerry said you liked them. They’re a personal gift from Ewart and me. And this second one is a get well present from CHERUB itself.’

  As James grabbed the box of chocolates, Zara reached back into the carrier bag and pulled out a box with an Apple logo on it.

  ‘I’m not really up on these things,’ Zara explained, ‘but Kerry said you were on about getting an iPod for when you go running. I gave it to Kyle last night and he said he’s loaded on some music and a couple of audio books.’

  James was pleased with the gifts, but they left a bitter taste. It felt like they were buying him off.

  14. QUESTIONS

  Two weeks later

  James broke off the cross-country trail and sprinted across a football pitch, heading towards the rear entrance of the main building on CHERUB campus. It had been raining for most of the last three days and mud spattered up his legs as he ran.