CHERUB: Knight

11: Exhaustion

It came to a head on day fifty. Letty had a good head for numbers and she kept track and told him every morning what day it was, since his head was usually too full of Russian squiggles to remember what she'd said yesterday.

They were learning a technique for moving fluidly between a kick and a punch in karate training, but because of the repeated practice every trainee was getting a few bruises. When it came to the sparring, George caught Letty off balance and knocked her over, then held out a hand to help her up. As he did so, he spotted some commotion coming from behind him.

Jemima was lying in the mud, sobbing and holding her leg. Rex stood over her defiantly, fists bunched, as Smoke dashed over and assessed the damage.

"What happened?" Letty asked George, but Ed answered.

"Rex managed to knock Jemima down for a change, and when she went down he gave her this huge kick in the leg," he said, sounding serious. "Can they kick you off for something like that?"

Miss Smoke sent Jemima to the medical center, inciting jealousy in all of the other trainees, but before she got anywhere Kazakov appeared and stopped her.

"Right, you two, over here," he snarled, his face turning red with anger. Dumbly, Rex and Jemima went over to him.

"You two obviously have a problem. I'm going to give you a choice. You can either shake hands and that's the end of it, no more problems. If I hear of another problem, you'll both be kicked out of training.

"Or, you can have a real sparring match, right here, right now. Kick, punch, scratch, do whatever you want to each other, but if either of you gets a serious injury you're both out. After that, if I hear of another problem, you'll both be out."

The other six trainees stood watching, but Smoke lashed out with an arm and sent Harry tumbling into the mud. "What are you lot gawping at? Back to sparring, this isn't for your entertainment."

Kazakov took Rex and Jemima to the other side of the training hut so they couldn't watch. George was worried for Rex, because if he didn't pass training it would make their relationship awkward, and he could tell Letty had the same problem. Everyone's mind was on what was going on, which was bad news for Ed.

He tried the move they'd been drilling earlier, twisting from a punch to a kick, but with his mind on Rex and Jemima he didn't realise that Harry was moving towards him. His kick caught Harry up the backside and the older boy fell forwards, knocking Ed over and trapping his leg underneath him. Ed let out a scream as Harry rolled off, turning white.

"What happened?" Smoke yelled, but one look at Ed's leg made it obvious it was broken. "Right, one lap of the assault course, right now," she yelled as she scooped Ed up in her arms. "Get going!"

It was a sensation. Ed was out of training for sure, and it looked like Rex and Jemima would be going the same way. Harry was lost without his partner and chose to run the course with George and Letty.

"I didn't mean to... it was an accident," he mumbled, looking close to tears.

"Don't sweat it," Letty said, patting him on the shoulder. "He'll get another chance and nobody blames you."

George liked Ed and felt bad for him, but he had to concentrate on his own training. It brought home how easily one little slip could send fifty days of torture spinning down the drain, so he kept his eyes firmly ahead.

When they got back to the training hut, Kazakov was waiting. There was no sign of Rex or Jemima, which meant that they'd either both been thrown out of training or they were at the medical centre. George didn't like to say which.