Brigands M. C. (17 page)

‘Please step into a booth and remove your clothing, including your underwear, and jewellery including watches and earrings. Then put on the orange suits and sandals provided.’

The booths were similar to shop changing rooms, apart from the lack of privacy curtains. While Neil and Ross stripped, the guard carefully went through the photographs and documents inside Ross’ briefcase, before transferring the contents to a clear plastic bag. The guard then weighed the bag, and attached a sticky label.

‘Don’t dispose of anything from the bag while on campus,’ the guard said, adopting a flat tone that made it clear he’d done the speech a hundred times before. ‘It will be weighed and inspected again when you leave. If you’re given anything to take away from campus, keep it separately and present it for inspection when you leave. Do
not
remove anything from campus without authorisation. By entering campus, you agree never to mention its existence to anyone.

‘You also agree that you may be x-rayed, searched, or given a rectal or oral examination by campus staff. In the event of any security breach before or after today’s visit you may be arrested and detained for an indefinite period. If you agree to all of the following sign the form and proceed through the x-ray barrier. Your liaison is waiting on the other side of the barrier. Have a nice day.’

The plastic sandals and baggy orange suits didn’t make it easy to move quickly. As police officers, Neil and Ross were used to being in control, but the hooded flight and intimidating security arrangements left them both out of their depth.

After the x-ray they entered a more familiar space. The waiting room had a filter coffee jug, magazines and a water cooler, but the two cops didn’t need it because a woman and a boy were waiting alongside.

‘You must be Chloe,’ Ross said, as he reached across to shake the woman’s hand, before looking at the boy and smiling. ‘And
you
are a heck of a lot bigger than the last time I saw you.’

Chloe Blake was CHERUB’s youngest full mission controller. Like most CHERUB staff, she’d once been an agent herself. She kept herself in shape with a tough fitness and combat training routine that manifested itself in a slim but muscular frame, currently clad in Nikes and a cotton sweatsuit.

Dante smiled and gave Ross a hug. ‘Sorry about the clothes and the security.’

‘I don’t mind,’ Neil grinned. ‘I think the
prisoner in transit
look suits me. Do you kids have to go through these shenanigans?’

Dante shook his head. ‘Security sometimes do random searches and stuff when we come in and out, but agents and staff don’t have to go through all that and of course we know where campus is.’

Chloe cleared her throat and glanced at her watch. ‘We need to go over to the mission control building, it’s a ten-minute walk. And Dante, you really
shouldn’t
discuss any aspect of campus security with guests.’

*

Across campus, Lauren Adams glanced at her watch as she headed out of a girls’ changing room with damp hair and a plastic bag filled with wet swimming kit and rolled-up towel. She was a good swimmer, but she’d just completed a ninety-minute aqua-fitness session, comprising lengths, sprint swims, water aerobics and repeated dives into the deep end to retrieve bean bags and weights from the bottom of the pool. Her shoulders and thighs ached and her face was red from the exertion.

Her boyfriend Rat waited for her in the hallway. ‘Took you long enough,’ he grouched as they headed towards the exit.

‘Of course I take longer,’ Lauren tutted. ‘Your hair is two centimetres long and takes about thirty seconds to dry. I have to shampoo to get the chlorine smell out, then I have to comb it or it dries all straggly.’

‘So you want to do homework together or what?’ Rat asked. ‘We could stop off in the dining-room. I fancy one of those hot chocolate croissants they’ve started doing. Or we could go to the library and research that history thing.’

‘Can’t,’ Lauren said. ‘I told you, dummy, I’ve got a mission briefing.’

They passed out of the pool complex and turned south as a group of overheated red shirts passed on either side, heading for an after-school splash in the leisure pool.

‘Why are you even going on this mission?’ Rat asked.

Lauren looked slightly incredulous. ‘Why did I spend all afternoon busting my guts in a swimming pool? What’s the point of being a cherub if you turn down missions?’

‘But we were going to the summer hostel together,’ Rat whined. ‘We can’t if you’re going off on some mission …’

‘Missing summer hostel is a bummer,’ Lauren admitted. ‘But if I miss out, I’ll get a winter break. I’ll be able to go skiing or something.’

Rat tutted. ‘But not with me.’

‘Well we’re not
married
, Rat. I’ve always thought that’s the best thing about us. Bethany’s been through about six boyfriends since you and me have been together. She’s all over someone, then it’s finished three weeks later. We just sort of plod along.’

‘We did until your red-headed pretty boy came along.’

Lauren laughed. ‘Dante?’

‘Who else?’ Rat said angrily. ‘The way you act around him:
Oh Dante, that’s such a funny story. Oh Dante, you’ve got really firm biceps. Oh Dante, I bet your poop tastes like Nutella
.’

‘Give us a break,’ Lauren sighed. ‘How can you be jealous of him? The guy’s come back after being away from campus for three years. What’s wrong with making him welcome?’

‘I’m not jealous,’ Rat said. ‘But the way you fawn over him is
totally
blatant. And now you’re going off on a mission with him. And instead of going to the summer hostel, you’ll get a winter break. And who’s that gonna be with? Oh yes, the carrot-headed wonder boy.’

The pair turned on to the main path through the centre of campus that led towards mission control and the main building. At this time of day it was busy with kids heading towards the lake to do homework in the sun, or going the other way towards the tennis courts with rackets in their hands.

‘I just don’t know what to say,’ Lauren said. ‘I thought you were more mature.’

‘I’m mature,’ Rat said angrily. ‘That doesn’t mean I want my girlfriend slobbering all over someone else and making me look like a fool.’

‘Slobbering!’ Lauren gasped. ‘When was I slobbering?’

‘I just want to go to the summer hostel with my girlfriend,’ Rat yelled. ‘What’s so wrong with that?’

‘You’re changing the subject,’ Lauren said. ‘When was I slobbering over Dante? When did I do anything, apart from try to be nice and welcome back someone who’s been away for a long time?’

‘It’s everything,’ Rat shouted. ‘The way you look at him. The flirty little smiles.’

‘You’re jealous,’ Lauren shouted back, as she stopped walking and put her hands on her hips. ‘And
totally
immature. And I can’t believe you’re accusing me of cheating on you.’

‘I can’t believe that you’re denying it when you’re so blatantly trying to get off with him.’

Lauren looked at her watch. ‘I’m late for my briefing. I’m going on a mission with Dante and my brother. I’ll probably go for a late holiday with them afterwards too and maybe I
will
ask Dante out, because I’m not putting up with you acting like a moody jealous creep.’

Lauren stormed off, cutting across the grass because it was a more direct route to mission control.

‘See if I care,’ Rat shouted after her. ‘Why don’t you go off and shag the stupid red-headed wanker?’

‘He’s got more chance than you’ll ever get, you brainless Aussie twerp,’ Lauren shouted back, before turning around and giving Rat a two-fingered salute with both hands.

*

James Adams was sitting inside Chloe Blake’s office in the mission control building when she arrived with Dante, plus Ross and Neil in their orange suits. The office was large, with a suede sofa that was starting to show signs of wear and a floor-to-ceiling window that had a view of the satellite dishes on the grass outside.

‘I picked up the platter from the dining-room,’ James said, standing up to shake Ross and Neil’s hand before pointing to the food. ‘Fresh coffee, sandwiches, cakes. Help yourselves.’

‘Your sister not here yet?’ Chloe asked.

‘Nope,’ James said. ‘But she’s got to come right across from aqua training on the opposite side of campus.’

Dante took obvious pleasure in catching up with Ross. He couldn’t tell the policeman anything about his mission in Northern Ireland, but he gave some vague details about life on campus and asked questions about Tina, who was now training to be a solicitor.

‘I’m worried about Dante’s appearance,’ Ross said, giving Chloe a serious look.

Chloe nodded as she sat behind her desk and took a cup of tea from James. ‘We looked at some video footage of the interviews you conducted with Dante back in 2003. He’s obviously grown physically, the long hair and his new accent also help. But we’re going to give him a complete dye job. Not just the red hair on his head but his body hair too and we’ll show him how to keep the colour consistent so that he doesn’t show any red roots.’

‘We did a computer mock-up,’ Dante said, handing across a colour image. ‘That’s what I could look like.’

‘Blond to match me and my sister,’ James put in.

‘And obviously I can’t be called Dante,’ Dante added. ‘I’ll go for John, it’s a nice bland name.’

‘Looks good,’ Ross nodded. ‘I definitely think it’s an advantage having Dante on the mission. He’s not been around Salcombe for five years, but he probably knows more about the Führer and how the Brigands operate than any one of us.’

Dante smiled. ‘There’s nobody in the world more motivated to see the Führer’s arse behind bars than me.’

‘After my experience in that field last week, I think I’ll run you a close second,’ Neil said.

‘All of us will need some degree of physical transformation to infiltrate the South Devon Brigands,’ Chloe explained. ‘James is sixteen, but he’ll have the identity of a seventeen-year-old for the mission.’

‘Which means I can have my motorbike licence and try hanging around with the younger members of the Monster Bunch,’ James said gleefully. ‘I’ve ridden motorbikes before, but I’ve been out on the roads around campus with an instructor for the last few nights.’

‘Lauren will pretty much be herself,’ Chloe added. ‘But I’m only ten years older than James, so I’ll have to age myself a few years so that I can pretend that I’m his mum. A change of wardrobe and a couple of grey highlights should do the trick.’

‘Speaking of Lauren, she should be here by now,’ Dante said.

Lauren was fifty metres away and had just used the iris scanner to enter the mission control building. She was knackered after the swimming and the walk across campus in bright sunshine.

The argument with Rat was doing her head in. They’d been together almost since they’d first met three years earlier. This was their biggest row ever, but Lauren wasn’t sure if they’d really broken up for good. She didn’t think she’d shown any particular fondness towards Dante, but wondered if she had flirted without meaning to because she’d liked him from the morning they’d woken up on campus together and she dug his muscular frame and exotic red hair.

‘Sorry I’m late,’ Lauren said, dumping her wet swimming stuff in the doorway and quickly shaking hands with Neil and Ross.

‘OK,’ Chloe said. ‘James, Lauren and Dante have all read a lot of background information on the South Devon Brigands over the last week. Ross has brought a lot more information with him which you’ll need to study and he’s going to brief you on the nature of the mission.’

Ross got up from the sofa and propped himself on the corner of Chloe’s desk. ‘I think you’re all aware of the basic situation,’ he said brightly. ‘We’re ordering a large shipment of arms through a man named Sealclubber who is the president of the London Brigands chapter. We’re hoping that such a large shipment will stretch the resources of the South Devon Brigands and in particular their weapons-dealing business. Originally it was Neil’s job to get himself involved in the deal, but his cover was blown so now that job falls to you three.’

Chloe interjected. ‘Obviously, Neil was going to try and get involved with the Brigands themselves. You three will have to penetrate the smuggling operation in a less direct way.’

Ross nodded. ‘First James. You’re going to be seventeen. You’ll have an unreliable motorbike, that gives you plenty of excuse to hang around with the motorbike dealership located in the retail development near to the Brigands clubhouse. Hopefully, a groovy young cat such as you shouldn’t have too much difficulty getting involved with other young bikers who hang around the fringes of the Monster Bunch and Dogs of War gangs.’

‘Those two gangs have a much younger membership and are much easier to infiltrate than the Brigands themselves,’ Neil explained. ‘Rather than trying to join, concentrate on the dodgiest young characters who hang around the gangs. I know for fact that some of those lads earn money doing the Brigands’ dirty work, whether it’s selling marijuana to the local school kids or going across country on a train to deliver a handgun to someone in London or Manchester.’

James nodded. ‘Do you reckon I’ll have time to join a gang?’