Free New Guard (CHERUB) by Robert Muchamore Page B

two, eh?’
    ‘Her mother died and you ripped off her phone?’ Daniel said incredulously.
    Oli shrugged and smirked. ‘Life’s a bitch, then you die.’
    A flimsy door by the service counter came open, and a haze of cigarette smoke along with it.
    ‘Trey’s ready,’ an old dude in carpet slippers said. All three boys stood up, but he pointed at Oli. ‘Just you.’
    As Oli vanished inside with the wheeled case, Daniel looked at Leon, shook his head and spoke in a whisper. ‘Who robs a girl whose mother just died?’
    Leon nodded in agreement. ‘Before we go back to campus, I’m gonna bundle Oli into one of the shower rooms at Nurtrust and give him such a beating.’
    ‘It’s a nice thought, but they’ll kick our asses out of CHERUB if we do that.’
    ‘Who’s gonna tell ’em?’ Leon asked. ‘James is cool.’
    The pair played with their phones and clock watched. Five. Five fifteen. Five twenty-five.
    ‘Maybe they killed him,’ Leon suggested.
    ‘Maybe he took our share and legged it out the back way,’ Daniel suggested.
    Oli finally emerged, looking unsure of himself and reeking of cigarette smoke. He zipped his jacket and started towards the door.
    ‘So?’ Daniel asked. ‘What did we get?’
    They were out of the alleyway and walking towards the bus stop when Oli finally answered.
    ‘Sixty pounds each,’ Oli said, peeling a roll of notes out of his pocket.
    ‘You what!’ Daniel shouted. ‘That was a twelve-hundred-quid Lenovo laptop. Plus the Xbox.’
    ‘I tried to get it up to two hundred,’ Oli said. ‘Trey said the market was really tight. Like, nobody is buying stuff.’
    ‘You should have walked out,’ Leon said.
    Oli shook his head. ‘It’s the risk you take, OK. Trey’s a serious guy. If you walk out, you’re gonna offend him. And he’s not someone you want as your enemy.’
    Daniel gave Oli a little shove back into the bus canopy. ‘You’d better not be ripping us off.’
    ‘How much did you get for the phone?’ Leon demanded. ‘Open your pockets.’
    Oli bordered on tears as Daniel and Leon stood close. They unzipped his jacket, went down the pockets inside and out, then made him turn out the pockets in his muddy tracksuit bottoms. All they found were a couple of pound coins and a Fresh Start ID card.
    ‘Where’s your share, dumbass?’
    ‘I didn’t get one,’ Oli blurted. ‘It was a hundred and twenty for all three of us. I messed up, OK? I gave you my share because Trey acted like a dick and I felt bad for letting you down.’
    A tear welled in Oli’s eye and the twins felt sorry for him. He was kinda pathetic.
    ‘I’m sorry.’
    ‘We should go back over the road and beat the shit out of everyone,’ Leon said.
    Oli raised his hands anxiously. ‘They’re serious people, you can’t mess with them. But there’s something else.’
    ‘What?’ Leon asked.
    ‘Trey says there’s a job that needs doing. I vouched for you two and he said there’s a bunch of stuff we can steal. Probably only take a couple of hours, but it needs to be done tonight.’
    ‘What kind of job?’ Leon asked.
    ‘And how do you know he’ll actually pay us?’ Daniel added.

14. FLOOD
    ‘Trey Al-Zeid,’ James said. ‘He runs a taxi office, possibly involved in a protection racket. My people didn’t get to actually see him.’
    James was in his flat. The woman on the other end of the phone was Aisha Patel, an intelligence service liaison officer with West Midlands Police.
    ‘The name means nothing to me,’ the policewoman said. ‘I’m assuming you’ve already checked his background?’
    ‘Sure,’ James said. ‘Mid-thirties. His older brother owns the taxi firm, and another one south of the city. He’s had a couple of minor traffic violations, and he was arrested in London at a Stop-the-War march back in 2003.’
    ‘Right, right,’ Aisha said. ‘I’ll ask the local beat commander if he knows anything that’s not in official police records.’
    ‘What about the