As Lauren headed into the kitchen and opened cupboards, wondering what had happened to all the battered cutlery and amused to recognise a stain on the wall where her bestie Bethany had tripped up holding a glass of cranapple, James headed for his old room.

The bed and sofa were gone, but the fitted storage and bathroom fixtures were intact. It had been some other kid’s room until a few months earlier. Some of her posters still adorned the walls. Inevitably, rain had encroached after the cladding got removed and the carpet near the missing external wall had a greenish tint from mould and dried-out bird droppings.

James stood as close as he dared to the missing external wall and looked out over campus. Preparations were taking place for the demolition party. Beyond that lay the main building’s recently opened replacement.

Instead of rooms off of anonymous high-rise hallways, CHERUB agents now lived in one of five streets. Individual homes, monitored by carers, with public kitchen and living spaces downstairs and four to six private suites on each top floor. Cycle paths ran between, along with play areas and a circular area of grassland, with a relocated CHERUB fountain and benches which had been packed out every night through the summer.

At the farthest end, a long, arrow-shaped three-storey building contained the new dining-room, staff accommodation and leisure facilities including a cinema and theatre, a main assembly hall and an indoor play area for little red-shirt kids. The final building was a six-storey glass box known as Town Hall, which was where all the most senior staff, including Chairman Ewart Asker, worked.

Campus Village was larger and better in every sense than the dilapidated main building and junior blocks it had replaced. But James was still saddened by the loss of a place where he’d lived for the happiest seven years of his life and felt a tear well up. When he noticed a change in the light behind him he expected to see Lauren in the doorway, but it was the orange-capped army demolition expert.

‘Sir,’ she said, peevishly. ‘This area is out of bounds. I must ask you to leave.’

Lauren loomed behind the sergeant, poking her tongue cheekily at James.

‘Right,’ James said, feeling guilty that he’d made the sergeant chase him up six floors. Then sad as he stepped out of his old room for the very last time.

6. HOSE

‘There’s nothing here for you maggots,’ instructor Capstick roared. ‘You gonna hold out for sixty days? You think this is bad? How’s it gonna be when your joints stiffen up? When you’re hungry? When you’ve been cold and wet for two whole weeks and there’s still forty-five days to go? It is my personal mission to destroy you. So?’

‘Not quitting, instructor,’ Leon gasped, as he stood on one leg, with sweat streaking down a muddy face.

‘No way,’ Daniel added.