‘No I’m not,’ Oli shouted, clutching at his jaw. ‘The asshole hit me.’

Seeking vengeance, Oli grabbed a glass water jug from a bedside table. He threw it at the man’s head, but it just clanked off the bedframe and didn’t break.

‘Scum!’ the man shouted as he rolled over and punched a red emergency button on a cord around his neck.

A voice came out of the necklace inside five seconds. ‘GoldAlert emergency. What’s the problem, Mr Brown?’

‘I’m being robbed in my bed,’ he yelled, as Leon and Oli zipped up the suitcase and started scrambling down the stairs. ‘Call the police immediately, then contact my mother on her mobile.’

‘Bloody hell,’ Oli said, clutching his jaw but grinning exuberantly as he followed Leon and the wheeled suitcase out the front door down the driveway. ‘We’d better get the hell out of here.’

12. SCARPER

After parting company with Leon and Oli, Daniel passed through the old lady’s front gate, crossed the street, walked right for fifty metres and grabbed the rear door of a Mercedes van with a hire company logo on the side. James sat on a folding chair in the cavernous rear compartment, watching video from inside the house on his laptop.

The screen showed the feed from six different cameras. In the top left corner, the disabled man was walking around, apparently cured of his paralysis. The centre of the bottom row showed Oli running down the driveway and Leon behind, dragging the wheeled suitcase.

‘Did you get good audio?’ Daniel asked.

James made a fake shudder. ‘That kid has the moral compass of a sewer rat.’

‘I did like you told me, boss. Took the high ground, gave Oli plenty of opportunities to question whether he was doing the right thing.’

‘I heard every word,’ James said. ‘You were great.’

‘But it could be trauma or something,’ Daniel suggested.

James looked confused. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Like, Oli’s been an orphan his whole life. In and out of care homes. Maybe if he got the opportunity to be in a better environment he’d become a better person.’

James snorted. ‘And let me guess, you’d like another week or so to study Oli in great detail and try to unearth this buried potential?’

‘CHERUB is supposed to be short of recruits,’ Daniel said.

James broke into a big grin. ‘My cynical side thinks you’re just trying to delay your return to campus. As if you had some kind of horrible punishment hanging over your head, or something.’

Daniel gave it a final shot. ‘I just think Oli deserves a fuller assessment.’

‘So do I,’ James said.

Daniel’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Really?’