Free Dark Sun by Robert Muchamore Page B

like a couple of old men,’ Andy said. ‘But at least I can go back to calling you Rat now. This whole Greg thing is confusing.’
    Greg had grown fond of Zhang and George and felt a touch sad. Now the mission was completed, CHERUB would invent some excuse why he had to move away and he’d never see either of them 100
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    again. On the upside, Greg hadn’t been near his girlfriend Lauren in two months and there’d be a mad part y on campus when he turned thirteen in a couple of weeks’ time.
    ‘Feel sorry for old George,’ Andy noted. ‘It wasn’t deliberate, but we totally stitched the poor guy up.’
    ‘He’ll survive,’ Greg laughed. ‘We got the job done and that’s what counts.’
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EPILOGUE
    March 6th 2008 – World Book Day
    The grass was stiff with frost, but the kids walking across CHERUB campus were happy because
    they’d all been allowed out of lessons to attend the opening ceremony for a new building. The t wostorey structure was an eco-friendly design, with straw-insulated walls and a dramatic, curved, glass frontage.
    The little red-shirt kids showed their enthusiasm by running in circles outside the main entrance, jumping up and down and generally going nuts. Older kids were more reserved, hanging back with their mates and trying not to show any enthusiasm in case it didn’t look cool.
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    Lauren Adams led one of the biggest groups. Her boyfriend Rat (AKA Greg) walked alongside with his arm around her back while Andy walked with Lauren’s best friend Bethany. Lauren’s older brother James was behind with his best friend Bruce and a couple of his other mates bringing up the rear.
    ‘It’s freezing,’ Chairwoman Zara Asker said, once the crowd around the new building had settled.
    ‘So I’m gonna keep my speech short. We have a lot of special facilities on CHERUB campus, but our previous library was demolished to make way for the new mission control building. Today is World Book Day, so it gives me extra delight to officially declare the new CHERUB campus library open for business!’
    There was a gentle bout of clapping as t wo of the smallest red-shirts walked up to a ribbon stretched across the main door, each holding one side of a pair of giant scissors. The crowd laughed as the ribbon refused to cut until it was held tight by t wo members of staff.
    With more than t wo hundred people filtering through the doors, it was several minutes before 103
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    Lauren and her friends made it inside.
    ‘Prett y swish,’ Lauren said, as she looked up at the library’s high-tech curved-oak ceiling and wavy glass frontage. There were desks and reference books on a gantry up above. At the far end was a refuge for little kids, filled with cushions and beanbags, in the middle of which was a five-metrelong pirate ship complete with a line of reading hammocks, an antique ship’s wheel and white sails with the CHERUB logo printed on them.
    The opposite end was designed for older kids, with armchairs, sofas and tables. An espresso machine provided coffee or frothy hot chocolate and there were baskets of muffins, croissants and fruit. Signs on the wall above the food said: Please take a free drink and eat our freshly-baked muffins while you read. We can also offer fifty punishment laps to anyone who takes food or drink into the main library!
    Because of the sheer numbers of people, Lauren’s group had to fight its way through just to get near the lounge area.
    ‘It looks prett y swanky,’ James Adams said, as he stared at the ceiling. ‘But I’ve never really seen the point of books. I mean, if they’re any good you 104
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    just have to wait a couple of years and it gets turned into a movie.’
    Lauren t utted. ‘Just because the last book you read was