CHERUB: Knight

6: Strange

For the second time in a week, George woke up with a throbbing head. This time it was from the blow he'd taken, and without opening his eyes he gingerly explored the area. It seemed to have bruised a little, but there was no cut. He felt slightly woozy as he sat up in bed and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, trying to work out where he was. It looked like a hospital, but there was nobody else around and there was an orange t-shirt hanging on the end of his bed.

Assuming he was supposed to wear it, George pulled it over his head and wondered where the rest of his clothes had gone. There were a pair of khaki trousers and fresh underwear set out on the bedside table, so he figured they were as good as anything until he could ask someone for his trousers back.

It was odd that there were no nurses on duty, and even when George poked his head into the office, it was deserted. There were empty coffee cups lying around, so he decided that it was definitely a hospital that was in use and that if he walked far enough he'd find someone. He didn't fancy leaving without shoes again, considering how cold his feet had got during his trip on the tube, but there hadn't been any shoes around for him to put on. When he doubled back to the bed, he spotted a pair of polished boots at the foot of the bed, tucked underneath. Once he'd laced them up, he trotted out of the double doors.

The window of the corridor looked out on a Oriental-style building, surrounded by an avenue of trees. It was nothing like the buildings in London and the lawns everywhere made George wonder whether he'd been abducted and taken somewhere sinister in the countryside. There were a few other kids in similar clothes to him, but different coloured t-shirts, walking purposefully down the path with kit bags, and George hurried towards the entrance so he could catch up and ask them what to do or where he was.

"Ah, Mr Anderson. You're up," a calm voice said as he reached the reception area. It made George jump and he had a hand on his wildly beating heart as he turned to see who it was.

The voice belonged to a middle-aged woman who was sitting on a tatty sofa looking at some kind of mother & baby magazine. George was stunned for a moment as she stood up and walked over.

"How's your head?"

"It's... hurting, actually," George replied, opting for the truth instead of trying to seem tough. The lady seemed more like someone's mum than a member of a kidnapping squad.

"Would you like something for it?"

This seemed suspicious so George shook his head. Now that he was up and about, his head was actually hurting less, so he decided to grin and bear it instead of accepting drugs from a stranger.

"Okay, well, let me introduce myself. I'm Zara Asker, the chairwoman here."

"Where's here?"

"Good question. I suggest we walk and talk, if that's okay, and you can get a coat from that rack by the door."

They headed towards the Oriental building when they left the hospital.

"This is CHERUB, which is a place where children like you go to live. Everyone you see here works for British intelligence," Zara told him. "Even the kids."

"Like, MI6?" George replied. "Spies?"

"Exactly. This building is our dojo. Every agent learns martial arts to protect them on missions and if you join us, you'll easily become a black belt," she explained, pointing to it. "Most kids like to avoid it because it's tough exercise."

"How did I get here?" George asked, realising he should have asked that first.

Zara sighed. "Well, that's actually rather unfortunate. We were hoping that we could inject you with a sedative and bring you here while you slept, but as you know, you got wind of that and ran for it, quite sensibly."