‘Two weeks,’ James said. ‘Three if you’re lucky.’

‘Any chance it could spiral?’ Leon asked.

‘A hundred and four days would suit us best,’ Daniel added. ‘Wipe out the rest of our heavy drill.’

James smirked as the twins made simultaneous starts on their carrot cake. ‘I’ll need the pair of you in my office at noon. So get back to your rooms and scrub up.’

‘Sorry,’ James said, running into his office holding a red plastic pouch. ‘It’s chaos around here. You’re not the only ones who can’t wait to get off campus.’

Leon and Daniel stood in front of James’ desk. The pair now wore neatly pressed CHERUB uniform, comprising lightweight black boots, combat trousers and navy CHERUB logo T-shirts. Their hair was damp from a shampooing and there was a powerful aroma of Axe body spray.

‘Sit,’ James said, pointing to a couple of chairs that needed to be dragged across. ‘What is it about teenage boys and body spray? You just need a tiny amount. You’ve made my office smell like a Thai brothel.’

‘Sorry,’ Daniel said.

But Leon grinned. ‘Do you have much experience with Thai brothels?’

James raised one eyebrow, as he pulled two ruggedised Android tablets out of the red pouch and handed them across. ‘If you want to go back to heavy drill, be my guest.’

As the boys leaned over to grab identical tablets, James noticed that the quick scrub up hadn’t extended as far as the twins getting all the mud out from under their nails, and Leon’s right ear seemed to have a leaf stuck in it.

‘I’m assuming you’ve both seen one of these before,’ James said. ‘Each unit has a mission briefing and a bunch of background files. You can access the tablets using your agent number and thumbprint. Once you accept the mission, the data will be transferred into your personal data cloud and be accessible using the secure area of your smartphones.’

‘What happened to paper briefings?’ Leon asked.

‘Too much risk of being carried off site,’ James explained. ‘All agent phones and laptops are set up to be remotely wiped if they’re lost or stolen. I have to go man the control room while the duty controller takes his twenty-minute break. So, you guys stay here, read this through and I’ll answer any questions when you get back.’

James charged out, then back again briefly to grab his phone off the desk as the twins started to read.

8. SKIP

**CLASSIFIED**

MISSION BRIEFING:

FOR LEON SHARMA AND DANIEL SHARMA

DO NOT PRINT, COPY, OR MAKE NOTES

MISSION GOALS

This mission has been given a dual classification, as an opportunity to recruit a CHERUB agent and to potentially gain insight into possible extremist activity in the Sandy Green area of Birmingham.

SANDY GREEN