CHERUB: Dark Sun

by Robert Muchamore

  MI5 believed this would be a relatively simple matter of disabling Lydon’s burglar alarm and breaking in, but the Dark Sun network is keeping a close eye on Kurt Lydon and has his home under twenty-four-hour surveillance.

  No adult operative will be able to get inside Lydon’s office and access the workstation without arousing suspicion. However, Lydon has a thirteen-year-old son, George, and a fifteen-year-old daughter, Sophie. It has been suggested that a pair of CHERUB agents may be able to befriend George and/or Sophie, infiltrate Kurt Lydon’s home and then sabotage the centrifuge design.

  6. INTRODUCING

  ‘You boys OK?’ John Jones asked, as he drove a Nissan 4x4 across a deserted roundabout. Andy and Greg sat in the back.

  ‘All set, boss,’ Greg nodded, before looking across at Andy. ‘Just remember not to call me Rat.’

  ‘OK, Rat,’ Andy smirked.

  John turned into a modern development of detached houses and slowed down so that he could catch the house numbers as he rolled by. At number twenty-two he turned on to a brick driveway and pulled up beside a silver Astra.

  The boys reached over the back seat to grab their backpacks before following him up to the front door. A slim woman opened up before they had a chance to ring the bell. George hurried up the hallway behind her, dressed in a T-shirt and Futurama boxers.

  ‘You must be Dr Lydon,’ John smiled, giving himself a bit of an Australian accent so that he’d pass for Greg’s dad. ‘Thanks for having the boys. If there’s any problem whatsoever just give me a call.’

  ‘Call me Susie,’ George’s mum said, as she shook John’s hand. ‘It’s no bother. They’ve got money for pizza and three dozen X-box games, so they’ll pretty much take care of themselves.’

  As the adults spoke on the doorstep, Greg and Andy ducked under Dr Lydon’s arm, kicked off their trainers and headed upstairs to George’s bedroom.

  ‘You boys behave,’ John shouted after them.

  ‘No worries, Dad,’ Greg shouted back. ‘See you in the morning.’

  The house was comfortable, but it wouldn’t win any design awards and smelled slightly like cats. George had a smallish bedroom, but he had a cool AV setup with surround-sound speakers and a 37-inch LCD mounted on the wall. Zhang had arrived early and was playing Forza Motorsport Two with the volume turned up loud. He’d stripped down to a pair of Chelsea shorts because the room was stifling, and sat himself cross-legged on the end of George’s bed.

  ‘Nice bruises, Zhang,’ Greg noted.

  Zhang shook his head. ‘It was nice of you to leave your Karate Kid act until after Johno battered me and stuck my head down the crapper.’

  ‘Until today I thought getting your head stuck down the school toilet was just an urban myth,’ Greg smiled, before looking across at Andy. ‘This is my cousin. He’s down from Scotland for the first week of the holiday.’

  Zhang was driving a Dodge Challenger through a chicane, so he just made a grunting noise.

  ‘You’ve got four controllers,’ Andy smiled.

  ‘Yeah,’ George said proudly. ‘You any good at Virtua Tennis? We can play a doubles tournament.’

  ‘Bagsy not Zhang’s team,’ Greg blurted. ‘He sucks.’

  ‘Screw you,’ Zhang shouted. ‘You can’t expect anyone to play brilliantly the first time you pick it up. I took you to a tiebreak that last set—AAARGH, I hate that stupid corner so much!’

  George cracked up laughing as Zhang’s Challenger clattered through a gravel trap before smashing into a tyre wall.

  ‘Tossers!’ Zhang shouted, as he threw the controller at the bed. ‘Second place – I had him all lined up to overtake on the next straight.’

  The boys all jumped as George’s mum’s voice sounded in the doorway.

  ‘Haven’t you heard of knocking?’ George tutted.

  ‘I did knock,’ she yelled. ‘If you didn’t have those speakers turned up so loud…’

  George crawled across the floor and turned down the volume on his hi-fi.

  ‘Sit up as long as you like and have your fun,’ Dr Lydon said firmly. ‘But I’ve been on at the hospital for sixteen hours and I’m going to bed as soon as I’ve had my shower, so keep the noise down. OK?’

  ‘Don’t worry, Mum,’ George said. ‘We’ll be quieter than mice in silk slippers.’

  George’s mum smiled. ‘There’s crisps in the cupboard, Ben and Jerry’s in the freezer and some of those microwave burrito thingies that you like. I’ll leave you to it.’

  Greg looked surprised as she headed down the corridor. ‘So your mum’s going to bed?’

  George broke into a big smile. ‘It’s so mint!’ he grinned. ‘My dad’s gone off for some business meeting in Belgium, Sophie’s going out clubbing with one of her mates and my mum’s just worked a double shift at the hospital. Once she’s asleep we own this joint!’

  ‘Cool,’ Zhang said.

  Andy and Greg exchanged covert smiles: the fewer people in the house, the easier it would be to access Kurt Lydon’s computer.

  ‘It gets better,’ Greg said, as he pulled his sleeping bag off the top of his backpack and dragged out eight cans of beer.

  George eyed them warily. ‘If my mum sees that…’

  Zhang tutted. ‘Don’t be a wuss, Georgie. It’s only two cans each. It won’t kill you.’

  ‘Four each, actually,’ Andy grinned. ‘There’s eight more in my bag.’

  Zhang smiled at Andy. ‘I’m starting to like you already, mate.’

  ‘I suppose,’ George said. ‘But we’d better wait until my mum’s asleep. And you’ll have to take the empty cans home because if she sees that lot in the rubbish she’ll kill me.’

  ‘We’re all getting hammered!’ Zhang sang. ‘We’re all getting hammered.’

  ‘Mind if I use your toilet, George?’ Andy asked politely.

  ‘Better than pissing on the carpet,’ George smiled, as he opened his door and pointed along the hallway. ‘Second door on the right.’

  Across the hallway, George’s sister Sophie stepped out of her room. She was dressed for a night out in black heels and a black dress that left plenty of flesh on display.

  ‘Look boys,’ George grinned. ‘All done up like a dog’s dinner.’

  Sophie flicked her brother off. ‘What’s all this then?’ she sneered. ‘X-box and Battlestar Galactica DVDs? You’re such a bunch of losers.’

  ‘Yeah,’ George scoffed. ‘Much better to sit at the back of the cinema getting tongued by that chav Daniel.’

  Sophie tutted with contempt as she headed down the hallway towards the bathroom, then banged furiously on the door when she realised that Andy was inside.

  ‘Outta there, geeko!’ she yelled.

  ‘Use the one downstairs,’ George said.

  ‘I can’t, thicko,’ Sophie growled. ‘Mum’s in the shower.’

  Andy was in a strange house with people he didn’t know, so he apologised to Sophie as he emerged from the bathroom.

  ‘Just get out my way,’ she growled.

  George shrugged apologetically as Andy headed back towards the bedroom.

  ‘Sticks and stones,’ Andy said casually.

  ‘I know how to get her back,’ George grinned, as he darted into his sister’s room.

  Seconds later, George emerged with a floppy-eared toy rabbit and plunged it headfirst down the front of his boxers.

  ‘Oh you naughty rabbit!’ George said noisily, as the other three boys burst out laughing.

  George raced down the hall with the soft toy protruding ridiculously from his shorts and banged on the bathroom door.

  ‘Sophie,’ George said sweetly. ‘Mr Rabbit’s in trouble!’

  ‘How many times?’ Sophie shouted, as she burst out of the bathroom with wet hands. ‘Stay out of my room you little freak.’

  But she didn’t go really bananas until she saw the pair of furry legs sticking out of her brother’s boxers.

  ‘Dirty little git,’ she screamed. ‘You’re getting such a slap.’<
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  George started to run but Sophie wrapped an arm around her brother’s waist as he scrambled through his bedroom doorway.

  ‘Ooof,’ Zhang laughed, as George took a brutal slap across the cheek. ‘I felt that.’

  Sophie ripped the bunny out of George’s shorts before slapping his back and knocking him to the ground. ‘Stay out of my room,’ Sophie screamed. ‘Don’t you ever touch my stuff, geek.’

  ‘You wait and see what I do while you’re out,’ George said, unperturbed by the huge red welt on his face. ‘Mr Bunny has a date with my Stanley knife.’

  Sophie pinned George against the hallway wall with her leg before bending forwards and grabbing his skinny ankles. There was a desperate turn in George’s expression which the other lads didn’t understand.

  ‘Sophie, I’m sorry!’ George gasped. ‘Don’t.’

  George grasped at the door frame, but Sophie was way stronger than her scrawny brother and she started dragging him down the hallway. As she picked up speed, his bare back zipped across the shaggy nylon carpet.

  ‘Noooo,’ he screamed desperately. ‘Mummmm!’

  Greg, Andy and Zhang piled out into the corridor to watch. As George sat up, his three friends saw the bright red friction burn caused by his high speed ride across the carpet. George screwed up his face in pain, but didn’t want his mates to see that he was hurting.

  ‘Stay out of my room, loser,’ Sophie shouted.

  ‘Evil bitch,’ George shouted back.

  Downstairs a door clicked open and George’s mum stormed out of the shower room in a pastel green dressing gown and matching slippers.

  ‘Pack it in,’ she shouted. ‘I’m so sick of you two. You’re thirteen and fifteen, but you act like you’re still three and five. Look what you’ve done to his back!’

  ‘Oh, why not take his side for a change, Mum?’ Sophie said sarcastically. ‘He stuck Mr Rabbit’s head down his pissy shorts. All I want is for the little prick to stay out of my room.’

  ‘Why can’t you just die of cancer?’ George shouted, as he grabbed the banister and hauled himself up.

  Sophie poked out her tongue. ‘Loser,’ she hissed.

  George’s mum growled furiously. ‘How many times have I told you to stay out of each other’s rooms?’

  ‘I can’t trust him,’ Sophie shouted. ‘I’m gonna come home and find pizza crusts in my bed or something.’

  ‘Just get out of my sight, Sophie,’ her mum shouted. ‘Your father put locks on all the doors to stop this nonsense. Have you turned the key?’

  ‘I can’t find it,’ Sophie admitted.

  George’s mum pointed her daughter downstairs at the front door. ‘I’ve got a spare. Now get out of this house before I really lose my temper and ground the pair of you.’

  As Sophie slammed the front door, her mum steamed down the hallway towards the other three boys, who’d all disappeared into George’s room because she looked like she’d bite the head off anyone who dared open their mouth.

  She leaned into Sophie’s room and spotted the supposedly lost key amidst the jumble of hair products and GCSE revision on the desk.

  ‘Right,’ George’s mum said, as she locked Sophie’s room and put the key in her dressing-gown pocket. ‘You boys might be on holidays, but I’ve got to go to work tomorrow. So have fun, but if anyone wakes me up there’s gonna be major eruptions.’

  7. TREES

  George slowly closed the door of his mum’s bedroom, feeling a little woozy as he crept down the hallway towards his room. It was almost ten and nearly dark outside, but it was still boiling hot, so the four boys just wore shorts.

  ‘She’s soundo,’ George grinned as he stepped back into his room.

  The room smelled mostly like pizza, but there was also a whiff of beer and sweat. The floor was strewn with crumbs and pizza boxes, while Zhang had added to the carnage by stepping up on George’s bed and sticking a slice of cheese-topped garlic bread to the ceiling.

  ‘More beer?’ Greg asked, as he pulled out a can.

  ‘Don’t mind if I do,’ Zhang slurred.

  Before handing the beer across, Greg tilted the can, making sure there was a little blue mark on the bottom: they’d brought sixteen identical looking cans, but the contents had been tampered with by the technical team on CHERUB campus.

  The ones with blue marks were for George and Zhang and contained full strength beer, injected with a powerful sedative. The beer in the unmarked cans had been sucked out and replaced with an alcohol-free variety. If the plan worked out, George and Zhang would get drunk and crash out, while CHERUB agents Greg and Andy remained wide awake and sober.

  ‘Check this out, babes,’ George shouted jubilantly as he threw his bedroom window wide open and climbed up on to the ledge.

  Andy and Greg were horrified as George hurled himself through the first-floor window. They were supposed to be monitoring how drunk George and Zhang got and their mission would go straight down the toilet if someone ended up in casualty.

  There was a crunch of branches followed by a triumphant whoop from George as Andy and Greg leaned out of the window. George was laughing wildly as he clambered out of a dense hedge.

  ‘I’ve always wanted to try that,’ George said, as he collapsed backwards on to the lawn, howling with laughter and thumping his chest. ‘Much beer give caveman George courage.’

  Despite his initial alarm, Greg realised that the hedge was huge and the drop on to it from the first-floor window less than two metres.

  ‘Come on you pussies,’ George shouted. ‘It’s such a rush.’

  Andy pointed to the strapping around his chest. ‘I don’t want to rip this lot off.’

  Greg had no such qualms and vaulted on to the window ledge before diving face first into the huge hedge. The leaves and branches were prickly, but it was a riot having the thick shrubbery crashing around his head and then trying to untangle himself.

  Greg had only drunk alcohol-free beer, but he had to act drunk so he howled like a loon as he staggered out on to the lawn. Zhang seemed less confident as he climbed on to the window ledge.

  ‘Come on down, fat-boy,’ George taunted.

  George and Greg cheered as Zhang crashed forward out of the window. At first it looked the same as when the first two boys dropped, but Zhang’s weight pushed him deeper into the hedge and there was an almighty snap of wood as one of the main stems holding up the hedge snapped.

  ‘AAAARGH!’ Zhang screamed.

  He ended up with his legs high in the air, atop a giant clump of snapped hedge strewn across the back lawn.

  Zhang wasn’t hurt and Greg laughed as he helped him up, but George was freaking out over the state of the hedge.

  ‘My dad’s gonna slaughter me,’ George gasped.

  Greg grabbed the main chunk of the broken hedge and rested it against the intact pieces on either side. ‘Good as new,’ he grinned.

  ‘It’s not funny you guys!’ George moaned, as he crouched over and picked up leaves and snapped branches scattered over the lawn.

  A torch flickered on in the garden next door and an old woman’s voice came from behind the fence. ‘What the devil’s going on out there?’

  ‘Miss Hampstead,’ George gasped, as he started running around the side of the house.

  ‘Go back indoors, you nosy old bat,’ Zhang shouted.

  ‘She’s Sophie’s godmother: practically family,’ George whispered. He gave Zhang a shove before looking up towards his bedroom window. ‘Andy, get downstairs and open the front door before she shines that light over the fence!’

  Andy smiled thoughtfully out of the window. ‘I might do,’ he grinned.

  Andy laughed as the other three scrambled up the driveway, yelping as chunks of gravel dug into their bare feet. When they got inside George looked up the stairs nervously, half expecting the racket to have woken his mum up.

  The boys muffled their giggles as they headed up the stairs, but Zhang held his hand over his mouth to stifle a huge yawn.
<
br />   ‘Man, I’m knackered all of a sudden,’ Zhang complained, stepping back into George’s bedroom and crashing backwards on to the bed.

  ‘Know what you mean,’ George nodded, as he caught the yawn. ‘That beer’s given me a headache.’

  ‘Can’t take your drink,’ Greg teased, as he looked at his watch and saw that it was ten-fifteen. It was ninety minutes since George and Zhang had taken their first mouthful of drugged beer and the sedative was kicking in right on schedule.

  ‘We never got around to Virtua Tennis,’ Andy said, as George slumped on to a leather beanbag. ‘You guys up for it?’

  Zhang had his eyes closed and George waved his hand in front of his face. ‘You start off, I need a few minutes’ rest.’

  Greg loaded the tennis game into the X-box and turned the hi-fi volume down low as he grabbed one of the wireless controllers. The two CHERUB agents played half-heartedly. Andy won the first set on a tiebreak, but there were no protests or celebrations.

  Instead, Andy leaned across the bed and pinched Zhang’s cheek, while Greg crept across the carpet and jabbed George’s thigh with his big toe.

  ‘Sleeping like babies,’ Greg said. ‘Get the kit.’

  Andy unzipped a pocket on the side of his backpack and pulled out a plastic wallet. It looked like a packet of felt-tips, but instead of pens it contained twelve identical syringes filled with a fast-acting sedative. The sedative in the beer worked for less than two hours and it was hard to tell exactly how much they’d drunk. George and Zhang had to be injected with something more powerful to ensure that they didn’t wake up.

  Even the gentlest of injections can turn into a small swelling and a bruise which looks obvious on open skin, so Andy had to inject an area of the body that’s hard to inspect.

  ‘Show me some butt,’ Andy grinned.

  Greg rolled Zhang on to his belly and pulled down the back of his boxers.

  ‘Gross,’ Greg choked, gagging and turning away. ‘It’s skidmark city down there.’

  Andy tried not to breathe as he pulled Zhang’s buttock upwards and wiped a patch of skin with a sterile wipe. He then dug the needle into the fold where Zhang’s flabby bum met the back of his thigh.