Free CHERUB: Guardian Angel by Robert Muchamore Page A

she wanted cigarettes or money and then giving him the cold shoulder whenever she had something better going on. He liked her a lot, but wasn’t certain that he could trust her.
    ‘It’s going into Leonid’s computer,’ he said reluctantly. ‘The program hijacks the computer. Logs every keystroke, takes regular screenshots and saves every file that’s opened in unencrypted form.’
    ‘Who uploaded the program to the FTP site?’
    ‘My mate Ryan from back in California. I’ve only had limited access to the net, so he’s been helping me out by doing searches. Trying to learn about hacking and stuff.’
    ‘You trust this Ryan kid?’
    Ethan nodded. ‘He’s some kid at my school from before my mum died. He saved my life when I got hit by a car. And I make sure we use picture messaging or Skype sometimes, so I know it’s really him, not some goon from the CIA who ripped off his MSN account.’
    ‘You should still be careful,’ Natalka said. ‘Especially if he’s in America.’
    Ethan shrugged. ‘It’s not like I’ve got queues of friends lining up to help me out, Natalka. Maybe I’m only ninety-nine per cent sure that Ryan is trustworthy, but I’m a hundred per cent sure that Leonid wants to take the clan over unopposed. I think he killed my mom and tried to kill me back in California.’
    ‘But he’s two rooms away,’ Natalka said. ‘If he wants you dead it wouldn’t be hard.’
    ‘He has to do it subtly,’ Ethan explained. ‘If my grandma worked out that Leonid killed my mom, she’d kick him out of the clan. So she’s shielding me now, but I’ll be shit out of luck when she finally keels over.’
    ‘So how does hacking Leonid’s computer help?’
    ‘I’m not sure exactly what it will give us,’ Ethan said. ‘But information is power. Maybe I can find something I can use to blackmail him. Maybe I can stitch him up. There’s even an outside chance that I’ll find evidence that I can show to Grandma to prove that he killed my mom.’
    ‘Irena’s not stupid,’ Natalka said. ‘She must have her suspicions that Leonid killed your mum. Plenty of other people in the Kremlin reckon he was behind it.’
    Ethan was surprised by this. ‘Really?’
    ‘For sure,’ Natalka said. ‘Quite a few of the pilots my mum knows have said as much.’
    ‘I hardly know anyone in the Kremlin,’ Ethan said. ‘I’m out of the loop on all the gossip.’
    Natalka nodded. ‘Plus you’re Aramov, so they’ll avoid talking in front of you in case it gets back to Leonid.’
    ‘I think my grandma’s got a blind spot. Leonid’s her golden boy, or something. She covers up for a lot of his crazy shit, and even though they fight all the time, I’ve noticed that Leonid nearly always gets his way.’
    Natalka nodded. ‘Like a lot of parents: she thinks the sun shines out of her kid’s arse.’
    Ethan smiled fondly. ‘My mom used to argue with my PE teachers on parents’ night. She used to say they never gave me a chance. She could never accept that I’m totally uncoordinated and crap at sports.’
    ‘Speaking of school,’ Natalka said, ‘how’s the Dubai thing going?’
    Ethan shrugged. ‘Nothing’s for sure and Grandma’s still annoyed that I was sneaking in to use her PC, but hopefully it’s on again – once I’ve served my time at the stables.’
    ‘Cool,’ Natalka nodded, as she threw the USB memory stick at Ethan. ‘There you go,’ she said. ‘So what’s your plan for getting it in the back of Leonid’s computer?’
    *
    The six CHERUB agents belted along the canal footpath with three cops in hot pursuit. The fattest cop didn’t keep up after the first couple of hundred metres, but the other two were an athletic black dude and a big-arsed woman who moved way faster than you’d have thought possible.
    The crowds thinned out as they moved away from the market and Max led the way as the narrow canal-side path skimmed beneath their feet.
    ‘Split up,’ Chloe yelled, as she passed a