CHERUB: The Syndicate

6: Attack

George had no idea what time it was or how long it was until it got light, but he spent the spare time sorting through all the equipment they had while Katie tried to massage some feeling into her leg and Letty kept look-out.

"Apparently it'll start getting light at about four in the morning," Katie told him, dividing the ammunition into three piles. "The moment we can see where we're going, we'll get Kimberley to find the remaining flags and storm the place. Worst case, we lose our flag, never mind, but we'll lose for certain if we just hide," she explained. "Hopefully we'll grab a couple of flags and pull off a late win."

"I suppose having access to the cameras is our secret weapon," George replied. "Even if they move to a new location or even if they're moving around, we should be able to home in."

"Exactly. It's not much of an advantage, but it's better than nothing, and we're more likely to get credit for trying."

When they'd been moving around in the dark, the adrenaline had kept George going, but now he was just sat still with nothing but his thoughts, he could feel himself slowly falling asleep. He wanted to tell Katie, but she was having a conversation with Kimberley, so he took his radio earpiece out and lay on the concrete floor, using his pack as a pillow. It didn't take long to fall asleep, but his sleep was constantly interrupted by weird dreams and the sound of gunfire.

"Come on sleepy, we're going in a minute," Letty said, nudging him awake. "It's just getting light, so we've got about four hours to go."

George was groggy but he felt a bit better, so he pulled his pack onto his back and followed Letty down the stairs, glad that when he looked outside he could make out vague outlines instead of complete darkness like before. The only downside was that it had started raining during the night.

"Kimberley's been keeping track of all the movement last night and the situation seems to be that the red team have two flags, the yellow team have one and the green team have none," Katie said as they jogged gently along a street laid out like a suburban area with curves and widely spaced houses, the pain pelting down onto their padded suits. "We'll track down the red team and since we know exactly who's carrying the flags, focus on getting hold of them."

"What's the plan after that?" George asked, occasionally peering through the window of a house to see if there was any equipment.

"Head back to where Kimberley and Ralph are and then hold on as long as possible," Katie shrugged. "The good news is that the other teams are unlikely to know where each flag is, so the red team will want to get one more to secure victory. Hopefully we can pick off a couple of members before heading for wherever they're hiding."

With the light slowly returning, there was more gunfire sounding around the compound, which suggested that the teams were finding each other again. A fierce exchange somewhere in the west worried Katie, since it was over where Kimberley was, but Kimberley checked in and said it was just the yellow and green teams scrapping over the single flag they had.

"Okay, you're about one hundred yards away from the building. There's someone posted on the ground floor, then two on the top floor," Kimberley said as they approached the red team's base. "There's only a single staircase leading to the top floor, so it might not be possible to rush it."

Katie thought for a moment. "Well, the best thing to do is, Letty, climb up to the top floor of the building opposite and take the rest of the smoke grenades. If you can, get a smoke grenade through the window and then just fire at them, doesn't really matter if you hit anything. George and I will overwhelm the one downstairs then try and get upstairs in time to get hold of both flags."

"Isn't it odd that they kept their flags together? It's safer to spread them out," Letty said, eyeing up the building opposite to see if it was possible to throw a grenade from one to the other.