CHERUB: The Syndicate

16: Delivery

ASIS agreed with Katie and said he'd done the right thing, so George could relax a bit. They deemed it too risky to conduct an extended search of Zach's office unless his wife was out, and since she hardly ever left the house and definitely never did when George was there, it didn't seem like this was going to happen soon. George kept his eyes open for any clues as to where Zach kept his important information, and even spent thirty tense seconds searching the master bedroom for anything, but it looked as if he did everything via his computer. Some ASIS techies looked into his internet connection but he sent everything encrypted, which required special permission to decode and took ages. With no leads to go on from George's side of the mission and Katie just carrying on in the agency, their minds turned to more immediate matters.

Once George's school broke up for the summer, it was only a week until Christmas. George felt weird about lying by the pool in the sun when it was winter back in the UK, but Katie seemed to have adapted completely.

"This is my second Christmas in Australia, so you get used to it," she explained as she reclined next to Alice, both reading glossy magazines through their giant sunglasses.

There was no reason for either of them to go back to campus, so while George would have liked to see his friends, CHERUB didn't stump up the money for flights. Instead he spent an evening with Katie writing cards to everyone and then they posted them in a big parcel, which was cheaper than sending everything individually. There weren't any presents, but Katie assured George he'd get them when he got back.

Riley and his family were flying to California for three weeks so George didn't have to worry about seeing Riley. ASIS thought that the trip might be a cover for some meetings Zach would be having with organised gangs in the US, but no matter how deeply they dug, the trip appeared to be a totally innocent family holiday. Their house was protected by state-of-the-art security systems and while ASIS had the technology to disable them, they knew Zach would be having his house watched 24/7 and anyone hanging around would be reported instantly. This meant that with nothing happening on the Riley front, ASIS encouraged him to try and get involved with some of the local street gangs in the hope that it might reveal more information about the way they operated.

This was quite easy for George after the brawl, because he had a reputation as a hardcase and reports had filtered back from the police station that he'd kept his head there too. Long holidays always mean bored kids, so George was out and about almost every single day.

Street gangs in Melbourne were often divided racially, only admitting members with particular ethnic backgrounds. The only all-white gang in the local area was just a group of skinheads who didn't do much except occasionally smashing up a pub, so George found himself being drawn to a loose group made up of anyone the leaders found trustworthy. The core were Indonesian drug suppliers, but selling drugs was a risk they were willing to hand to anyone willing to listen to orders and not shop them to the police or a rival gang.

Surprisingly, George's way in was through Laurie, who'd done a couple of jobs for them before and reacted positively when George mentioned it after a kickabout.

"They like you after you beat up those Keilor guys," he explained. "They'd definitely let you do some lookout work or maybe carrying the packages."

"Well, could you put in a good word?" George asked hopefully.

"No problem. Just don't try and get Kev involved. He hates it and he'll probably give you a lecture once he finds out you're asking."

"Thanks for the heads-up," George said, picking his shirt up off the grass. "Let me know when I can start work."

Intelligence that ASIS had picked up suggested that street gangs were usually stretched thin during the Christmas period; a combination of a lot of parties and people having more money to spend. The gang got into contact with George the following evening when his mobile rang and he was told to go to a row of garages about a mile away.