CHERUB: Divine Madness

by Robert Muchamore

  ‘I guess …’ Dana said, eyeing the gun tucked into Barry’s shorts and trying to think up the best way to get close. ‘I kept thinking about those two cops in the car earlier. I know they’re only devils, but they were just doing their job … You know?’

  ‘That’s the trouble with the world we live in, Dana. It’s full of people just doing their job and ignoring what’s really going on. Care about the rainforest until they get a couple of kids and enough money for a gas guzzling car, or some fancy hardwood dining furniture. Watch all those wildlife programmes and coo over the furry animals, but still eat meat and poultry that was raised in conditions of unbelievable cruelty. I’m sorry, but we live in a relatively free society. The facts are available, but people choose to ignore them. As far as I’m concerned, any educated person who works for the government or a big oil company is guilty through their own selective ignorance.’

  Dana looked solemnly at the floor. ‘I guess I’m scared about what’s gonna happen.’

  Barry turned towards Dana, one side of his face lit up blue by the control panel. ‘You’re going to do a fantastic thing in a couple of hours. Help Earth is fighting a war to help make the world a better place and you and the Survivors are part of that. You should be proud.’

  As Barry said this, he stepped forwards and pulled Dana into a hug. It was perfect. Dana could feel the gun pressing into her waist as Barry’s hairy hand gently massaged her shoulderblade. She reached around to the back pocket of her shorts, slid out the aerosol and felt for the little dimple on the nozzle to make sure it was going to spray in the right direction.

  The instant the hug broke apart, Dana whipped out the can and began squirting it in Barry’s face. Oven cleaner contains sodium hydroxide – a highly caustic substance that burns human skin as effectively as it dissolves the grease inside your oven.

  As Barry staggered backwards with the bitter tasting foam bubbling around his eyes and mouth, Dana used her free hand to snatch his gun and expertly clicked off the safety.

  ‘On your knees, prick,’ Dana demanded. ‘Quickly.’

  ‘You’re dead,’ Barry shouted, as he desperately tried to scoop the burning foam out of his eyes.

  ‘That’s not how it looks from here,’ Dana said, as she turned the gun on its side and used it to punch Barry in the face. His nose burst and blood spattered Dana’s T-shirt as he splayed out over the leather cushions. She stood over him, pressed his head against the cockpit window and took two more slugs with the gun to knock him cold.

  Barry’s face was pulped. Maybe the last punch had been one too many, but with adrenalin flowing and dozens of lives at stake, Dana figured it was better to be safe than sorry.

  The hardest part of the job was done, but there was no time for self-congratulation. Dana ran out of the door at the back of the bridge and grabbed the bundle of nylon cord she’d dumped at the top of the stairs.

  Back inside, she put the gun down on the cushion and dragged the unconscious body off the sofa on to the floor. As she knelt on Barry’s back, binding his wrists behind his back, the boat tilted violently and she slipped off.

  It had been five years since Dana learned knot-tying in basic training and she struggled to remember. When she was done, Barry’s wrists and ankles were bound and she’d trussed the two sets of ropes together, but the result didn’t look much like the neatly tied outline in the CHERUB training manual.

  As Dana stood up, she realised that the catamaran was skimming the water at a hundred kph with nobody at the helm. She grabbed the throttle to cut the engines. As the turbines slowed down to idle and the boat became eerily quiet, the door at the back of the bridge slid open. It was Nina, brandishing an evil look and a bread knife.

  ‘Traitor,’ Nina snarled. ‘I thought you were up to something with that cord.’

  Dana spun around to grab the gun off the cushion beside her, but the wave had knocked it across the floor. Nina saw Dana eyeing the weapon and both women lunged.

  Dana was closer and got a hand on the barrel, but Nina came crashing down on her outstretched arm as she swung at Dana’s head with the knife. The blade skimmed Dana’s shoulder and plunged into one of the leather cushions. Despite having Nina’s entire bodyweight crushing her arm, Dana tightened her grip on the gun and managed to lock her free arm around Nina’s neck, making a chokehold.

  Nina fought for breath as both women tried getting control over the gun. As fingers tangled around the trigger a wave knocked the boat to one side and the knife dropped out of the cushion, hitting the deck with a clang. The blade was now within easy reach, but Dana let it be, sensing that her opponent was rapidly losing the fight for air.

  On the edge of unconsciousness, Nina finally managed to wrest Dana’s fingers off the trigger. She was pinned and couldn’t raise the gun off the deck, but she managed to turn it around and fire a shot.

  The blast echoed in the cramped space and Dana felt a tearing sensation, as if her foot had just been ripped off. But she managed to keep up the stranglehold for a few more seconds, until Nina’s body went limp.

  As she freed her trapped arm, Dana rolled on to her back and moaned at the searing pain in her ankle.

  The main light was still off. Dana felt queasy as she crawled to the control console and flipped a light switch. With no idea what state her leg was going to be in, she was scared to look down. Her heart was flat out, over two hundred beats per minute, and she was close to collapsing in shock.

  When she finally braved a glance, it was a relief. Her leg looked OK, but there was blood seeping from a bullet hole at the tip of her trainer. Oddly, her toes didn’t hurt as much as the tendons at the bottom of her leg. She recalled a badly twisted ankle that had caused a similar pain a couple of years earlier and after a second’s thought it made sense: the joint must have been torn out of position by the huge force of the bullet smashing into her foot.

  There wasn’t time for Dana to feel sorry for herself because there was still Eve to deal with. She tucked her gun into the waistband of her shorts – realising that she’d have been in a lot less pain if she’d taken a couple of seconds to do that when she was tying up Barry – then grabbed the bundle of nylon cord and crawled across to Nina. After checking she was still breathing, Dana rolled the woman on to her belly and trussed her up the same way she’d done with Barry.

  Dana was reduced to crawling or hopping, but she had the gun and didn’t believe that Eve posed much of a threat. She had no way to get down the steps to the rear deck in her present condition so she figured that her priority was to send out an emergency call. She crawled across the floor and pulled herself up using the arm of the captain’s chair.

  There was a microphone attached to the console, but the radio looked confusing and Dana knew nothing about maritime communication. Was there an emergency SOS frequency she should use? Maybe it was already set on the channel, or maybe she’d have to spend ages twiddling knobs until she found someone else to talk to. As all these thoughts spun around, she was massively relieved to discover a satellite phone on the opposite side of the console.

  Using the control console as a prop, she hobbled across the bridge, grabbed the handset and dialled the UK code, followed by the number for CHERUB campus.

  The female voice came back with a reassuringly Geordie accent. ‘Unicorn Tyre Repair.’

  ‘Agent eleven-sixty-two,’ Dana yelled anxiously. ‘Can you patch me through to John Jones?’

  ‘Dana Smith?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘OK, I’m trying to get John’s mobile in Darwin. It’s bloody good to hear from you, pet. We’ve had full-scale missing agent alert on you. Where are you?’

  ‘Have you ever heard of the Arafura Sea?’

  ‘Can’t say I have.’

  ‘Nor me, until about five hours ago. I seem to be in the middle of it, halfway between Australia and Indonesia.’

  ‘OK, I’m patching you through to John right now.’

  As Dana heard a beep from the campus switchboard, she
looked out towards the rear deck of the boat and gasped in shock: the lights over the rear deck had been turned on and the dinghy had disappeared from the back.

  John’s voice came through the earpiece. ‘Dana?’ he said, sounding hugely relieved. ‘Thank Christ, can you hear me?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Dana said, totally stunned. ‘I’m here – just.’

  As she spoke to John she stared incredulously towards the empty space at the rear of the boat. The dinghy hadn’t fallen off, because the tarp that had been covering it lay across the deck.

  Dana had no idea if the dinghy could last in the open sea, or if there was enough fuel onboard to reach the coast of Indonesia, but she did know one thing: Eve was a fanatical Survivor who’d do everything she could to take out the oil terminal on her own.

  41. EXPLOSIVES

  The nursery wasn’t big enough for James, Lauren and Rat to talk while Georgie sat in her canvas director’s chair by the door. They spread cushions over the floor and tried to rest, but the evening’s events had left them way too tense. At five to midnight, The Spider put another announcement over the Tannoy:

  ‘I’m sorry to have to announce that the forces of the Devil are swelling around the Ark’s perimeter. Soon, they will have men and weapons enough to overwhelm us. Since the discovery of my father’s murder, I have been praying for guidance. I have also been studying his writings. He taught us that when the dark time came, we must gather at the core of the Ark, in the strong rooms beneath our Holy Church. We must go there now to pray and await our instructions from God. When we emerge, be that in days, months, or years, it will be into another world. Our task will either be to rebuild this world, or face judgement in the next.’

  Georgie shot up as soon as the Tannoy cut out. She flicked on the lights and stepped towards the kids.

  ‘You heard our new leader,’ Georgie shouted. ‘The dark time is upon us. I’m heading up to the school to make sure that the staff up there know what to do. You three wake up the others. Grab the little ones, put them in strollers and take them up to the church.’

  Georgie slung her M16 over her shoulder and headed off, leaving the door open behind her. James, Lauren and Rat rolled off the cushions and on to their feet.

  ‘Don’t know about you two, but I don’t fancy getting myself barricaded underneath the church,’ James said, as he stuck his head through the door to see what was occurring in the corridor outside.

  There was nobody around, but he was shocked to see electrical wire running along the floor, linked up to sticks of explosive spaced out every ten metres.

  ‘That’s not good,’ James gasped. ‘Once that circuit is activated, any TAG units trying to come down here will get blown to bits.’

  ‘The rest of the tunnels are probably the same,’ Lauren said. ‘The turrets and gates as well I’d bet.’

  ‘So,’ Rat said, ‘are we good little kids heading for the church, or do we risk making a dash and try escaping through the sewage tank?’

  A little voice came up behind them. ‘Are we going?’

  James looked back at Joseph. ‘Sure, wake Ed up and get dressed quickly.’

  ‘You’d better decide fast,’ Rat said, as Joseph took great delight in waking Ed up by twisting his ear. ‘Georgie doesn’t trust us. She’s not gonna leave us down here on our own for long.’

  James nodded. ‘OK, we’ll vote. I don’t fancy getting locked behind a blastproof door until the food runs out or Special Forces storm in, so I vote sewer.’

  Lauren waved her hand uncertainly. ‘I wish there was another choice, but you’re right.’

  Rat had already been outvoted, but his smile made it clear things had gone the way he wanted. ‘I’ve spent my whole life trying to get out of here. Let’s go.’

  ‘Hang on,’ Lauren said. ‘What about the little dudes?’

  ‘Eh?’ James frowned.

  Rat shook his head, as Lauren scowled at the two boys. ‘You’re prepared to abandon them down here? If something happened I’d never forgive myself.’

  ‘Come off it Lauren,’ James said. ‘They’ll slow us right down, it’s not practical.’

  Lauren stepped backwards and waved the boys away. ‘Fine, you two go. But I’m staying here. I’ll do what I can to help them.’

  James shook his head firmly. ‘I’m senior, Lauren. I’m ordering you to come with me.’

  ‘I’m not stopping you,’ Lauren said, ‘just go.’

  James knew his sister was as stubborn as hell and he didn’t want to leave without her. ‘Get the buggies out,’ he sighed. ‘We’ll take ’em.’

  The two oldest kids, six-year-old Joseph and seven-year-old Ed, were nearly dressed. Lauren scooped Annabel and Martin from the cushions and popped them into a double buggy unfolded by Rat. The fifth kid was a three-year-old called Joel, who’d been asleep since they arrived. James picked him off a small mattress and gently lowered him into a single buggy.

  ‘Great, you’ve got them all ready,’ Georgie said, breaking into a rare smile as she stepped through the doorway.

  James thought fast and gave his sister a shove. ‘Wait for me outside.’

  Lauren didn’t know what her brother was up to, but didn’t argue. After everyone was out of the nursery and as Georgie reached to shut the metal door, James spun around in the doorway and dashed back towards the bathroom.

  ‘Just a sec.’

  ‘For crying out loud,’ Georgie said irritably. ‘Can’t you hold it in for five minutes? I want to lock up and get moving.’

  ‘I’m really busting,’ James said as he ran into the bathroom.

  James looked around for a weapon. The porcelain lid over the toilet cistern looked ideal. It was up near the ceiling, so that little hands couldn’t fiddle with it. James balanced on the toilet seat as he slid it off, making a grating sound that sent a chill down his back.

  ‘Come on,’ Georgie shouted after a minute. ‘What are you playing at in there?’

  ‘Can’t you stop being such a moody cow for once?’ James shouted back. ‘You’re so damned ugly; I bet you’ve never had a man near you.’

  A brighter person might have seen through James’ ruse, but Georgie was a hothead who had very little going on in the brains department.

  ‘You’d better watch that tongue, young man,’ Georgie yelled as she bowled into the bathroom.

  James stepped out from behind the open door. The cistern lid weighed a ton and it strained James’ biceps as it smashed into the back of Georgie’s head. It didn’t knock her out, but she lost her footing and toppled like a great tree, so stunned that she didn’t even put out her arms to save herself. As Georgie moaned, James grabbed the gun off her shoulder. He couldn’t help grinning as he stepped over her legs and slammed the bathroom door: Georgie took such delight in being mean to kids that he reckoned she totally deserved a taste of her own medicine.

  He ran into the corridor, pulled shut the reinforced metal door and turned the key in the lock. Lauren, Rat and the little kids were waiting.

  ‘What happened to Georgie?’ Joseph asked, as they turned the buggies around and set off briskly towards the sewer. ‘Why have you got her gun?’

  The two little lads were old enough to understand some of the Survivors’ beliefs. James knew they’d start going nuts if they realised they weren’t really heading for the church, but he couldn’t think up a good excuse.

  Fortunately Rat butted in. ‘We discovered that Georgie’s a devil,’ he explained. ‘James had to deal with her.’

  Joseph and Ed broke into big smiles. ‘She’s always so mean to us,’ Joseph said.

  Rat nodded. ‘Exactly. Someone that horrible couldn’t really be an angel.’

  This explanation proved very satisfactory to the two small boys, who’d been terrorised by Georgie their whole lives. The three toddlers, one pushed by Rat and two by Lauren, were asleep. As the buggies clattered rapidly over the tunnel floor, James dropped behind, so that Joseph and Ed didn’t overhear his attempts to radio Chloe.

&nb
sp; ‘No signal,’ James said, looking at Lauren when he caught up.

  While James had fallen behind, Ed had started asking questions about why they were going the wrong way. He was only seven, but he’d lived in the Ark his whole life and he knew the way to the Holy Church.

  As ever, Rat proved the master of excuses as he turned his buggy off the main underground walkway and into a gloomy tunnel that had a mass of explosive sticks wired up in its entrance.

  ‘The soldiers are really close, Ed,’ Rat said. ‘They’ve taken over some of the Ark, so we’ve got to take a really long way around. Don’t worry though, I know these tunnels. Once we get under the church you’ll be safe.’

  The corridor ended at the base of a spiral staircase. James gave Lauren a filthy look as he picked Annabel and Martin out of the double buggy. It was a huge palaver, taking the toddlers out of the buggies, folding them up, carrying them up the stairs, unfolding the buggies again and then putting the three toddlers back in their seats and doing the whole thing gently so as not to wake them up.

  Unfortunately, Rat misjudged a step and stumbled as he carried Joel. The blond-haired kid woke with a start and realised that he was in a strange place in the arms of a strange person. It was all the excuse he needed for a good scream up.

  As they set off again, Joseph pushed the empty single buggy and Rat struggled to hold Joel in his arms as the toddler wriggled and kicked for all he was worth.

  ‘Where’s everyone else?’ Ed asked. ‘Are you sure we’re not lost?’

  Lauren was losing her patience with the kids and she’d realised that their racket was echoing for hundreds of metres, giving away their position. She turned sharply and practically bit Ed’s head off. ‘Shut up,’ she said fiercely.

  ‘Who are you?’ Ed said. ‘You can’t boss me. You’re not even a grown-up.’

  Rat stole one of Georgie’s favourite lines. ‘Shut up the pair of you, or I’ll knock your bloody heads together.’

  A couple of minutes after the staircase, they turned into a maintenance corridor with bare bulbs instead of fluorescent tubes. It had bunches of pipes and electrical cables running along the walls and a damp stone floor. Fifty metres along, Rat dumped a slightly calmer Joel back into his buggy and scowled at Joseph.