CHERUB: The Syndicate

7: Serious

It didn't take long for the campus gossip machine to start spreading the news like wildfire. George slept through the middle of the day after a precautionary trip to the medical department, which told him he had a mild concussion and whiplash. Poppy's concussion was more severe so they kept her in, but George was allowed to go back to his room on the condition he didn't go to sleep until after eight pm. His annoyance at not being able to sleep was offset by the fact that he had a note to get him out of lessons for two days. By the time he was eating dinner in the evening, everyone knew that Katie had beaten up someone from the yellow team, and her punishment ranged from a prison term to twenty thousand laps depending on who you spoke to. Nobody had much sympathy for her, including George, but she didn't come to the cafeteria for anything to eat and nobody saw her that evening so the rumours continued to circulate.

The following morning he found himself being woken by someone knocking gently on the door, which was a bad sign. His friends would just have burst in or pounded on the door as loud as possible.

"It's open," he said, trying to see what time it was and accidentally knocking his alarm clock onto the floor.

His handler Rose pushed open the door and peered inside. "Feeling okay, George?"

George nodded and sat up in bed, scratching under his t-shirt. "Neck's stiff and my head still aches slightly, but I'll live."

"Well, don't move your head too much for a couple of days," she said with a gentle tone George didn't think he'd ever heard before. "Anyway, I've actually come to ask for a favour."

"Ask away," George said, moving his pillow so he wasn't sitting on it. "I'm not going anywhere."

Rose wrinkled her nose and looked at the pile of dirty washing. "George, is that your swimming kit from this past week?"

George grinned. "Haven't quite got round to washing it, miss."

Rose made a face and opened the windows to let some air in. "Sometimes you boys really disgust me." She made sure the door was closed before sitting at the foot of his bed. "Now, I'm afraid I've got to ask you about what happened on the training exercise."

George opened his mouth but she held up a hand to silence him. "I was a Cherub for eight years, I know how it works and I'm not going to insult you by asking you to grass on anyone. However, obviously this is an extremely serious matter. You mustn't tell anyone this, but it looks as if Katie will be thrown out of CHERUB. There was an emergency meeting with the chairwoman, a member of the ethics committee and the head instructor, although their decision is yet to be finalised. She certainly won't be going on a mission again."

"But miss, she-"

Rose shook her head. "The agent she attacked had two broken legs and multiple internal injuries as a result of being shot point-blank no fewer than twelve times. Do that on the street and you'll be looking at a lengthy stretch behind bars. She gets no sympathy from me, and she shouldn't from you. She should have known better."

George just nodded.

"Now, I need to ask you if there's anything you want to tell me about the incident. Off the record, if you choose to say nothing, then I'm okay with it, but if there's anything you think the authorities should know, say it now."

There was nothing he could say without sounding like a grass, so George kept quiet and fiddled with the corner of his duvet.

"The rules of the exercise have been reviewed so we don't expect a repeat performance of this, you'll be pleased to know."

"Will anyone else be punished?" George asked, anxious to know if his immediate future contained multiple laps of the athletics track.

Rose smiled. "Don't worry, you won't be. We don't know exactly what happened, but Katie told us that neither you nor anyone else on the team were involved, so we're satisfied. However, as part of the investigation, we discovered an unauthorised usage of the compound cameras, so I understand that Kimberley will be cleaning the toilets in the dojo for quite some time. Here's a tip from an ex-Cherub; don't try and outsmart the instructors."