CHERUB: Knight

15: Goal

"Are you sure you kids will be okay?" Sandy asked, pulling on the handbrake as they pulled up outside the central bus station.

"We'll be okay," Letty replied, leaning between the two front seats and smiling. "Thanks so much for giving us a ride."

"It's been fun," Sandy said, laughing a little. "Are you sure you kids will be okay on your own?"

"Yeah, it's just a bus ride," Letty lied, doing her best to hide the deception. "Should be no problem."

"Well, if y'all are sure. I'll be getting on my way."

Letty and George climbed out of the car, grabbing their their belongings and stepping onto the pavement just beneath a sign for the bus station. For half a second it looked as if Sandy was going to pull away, but she paused and wound down the window.

"Here, take this," she said, holding out a sheet of paper. Letty grabbed it.

"It's my cell number. If you get stranded, give me a call." She smiled kindly and George smiled back, waving a little.

"Bye Sandy, thanks," Letty said, stepping clear of the car as Sandy put it into gear and finally pulled away, indicating before merging with the traffic and disappearing around the corner of the block.

"Freedom!" George said, grinning triumphantly. "I can practically taste that grey shirt."

Letty shook her head but couldn't hide her smile. "If we can find a phone, we'll be all set."

They walked in the general direction of the consulate, hoping that the people there would give them assistance if nobody else would. They paused outside a shabby launderette and Letty went inside to ask about a phone while George dug out a GPS transmitted from his bag. It was the size of a shirt button, but when he pressed down on it a radio signal was given out that would alert the instructors to where they were. Salt Lake City was over two hundred miles from their planned training zone, but George guessed it would only take them four or five hours by helicopter or car to come and collect them.

"The owner says we can use her phone," Letty said, beckoning George to come inside.

George was happy to allow Letty to do the talking since her accent blended in better, but when they got to the phone Letty handed him the handset.

"You ring. I'll keep the laundress busy," she explained, and George was impressed because he'd never heard the word 'laundress' before.

Letty got chatting to her fellow American while George entered the country code for the United Kingdom and then CHERUB's agent contact number.

"Unicorn Tyre Repair, how can I help?"

"It's George Knight," George began, but during training they'd been told to give their agent number and he hadn't been assigned one yet.

"George Knight?" the person on the line repeated, sounding suspicious.

"Uh, yeah, I don't have an agent number but I'm trainee number five at the moment."

There was a pause and the sound of a keyboard. George was nervous because he didn't want the laundress to overhear anything, but the longer he stayed on the phone, the more likely she was to come and ask what was going on. With a jolt, he remembered that they'd swapped numbers at the start of basic training and the staff at CHERUB might not know. He was about to launch into an explanation when he got a response.

"Can you confirm where you're calling from?"

"A launderette in Salt Lake City, Utah."

Clearly the operator on campus didn't expect people to accidentally ring a British number from a launderette four thousand miles away, so he got the benefit of the doubt.