Tovah looked at Capstick, who was clicking through the electronic chatter report from Echelon monitoring. 'So we're trained up and Kerry's absence is a blow, but not a critical one. Question is, do we strike as planned?'

Capstick scrolled to a report summary on his laptop screen, and began reading aloud. 'No direct communications related to Sachs and Yuen detected for twenty-six days-'

'No surprise,' Tovah interrupted. 'All Islamic State groups use strong encryption.'

Capstick nodded. 'Which is why they've been monitoring routine Internet and phone traffic in areas close to IS oil wells. Electronic chatter indicates that a well twenty kilometres east of Al Hakasah was out of operation for several days last month. There's even a report of a Facebook message from someone presumed to work at the well saying Back to work tomorrow. Chinaman came and fixed the console. Which quite probably refers to Kam Yuen.'

Tovah smiled. 'Every bit of electronic chatter indicates that Sachs and Yuen are alive.'

Capstick nodded. 'UN estimates four million dollars' worth of black oil is being smuggled out of northern Syria every week. Guys who can keep pumps working are too valuable to kill.'

'Is there any indication of the kind of security detail Sachs and Yuen are travelling with?' James asked.

'Nothing,' Capstick sighed. 'They're probably travelling in some kind of lightly armoured convoy. Three to six armed guards. Anything more elaborate would make them conspicuous.'

'What about response time?' James asked. 'If a well stops working right now, how long until Yuen and Sachs reach the scene?'

'On average, we have one to three days from first chatter indicating that a well has gone out of production, to the arrival of the engineers,' Capstick said. 'Obviously, Sachs and Yuen can only be in one place at a time, so if two go wrong at once ...'

James nodded. 'Presumably they'll try and fix the biggest well first. We're targeting big wells to improve our chances. Speaking of targets, Tovah?'

Tovah leaned across the map. 'The well at Tall Tamar is my suggested target,' she began, as she tapped a spot. 'It's a big well eighty kilometres south of the Turkish border. It's in the heart of IS-held territory, which means the military presence will be light.'

James was no military strategist and looked confused. 'Why light if it's at the centre of their territory?'

'Military forces usually defend the edges of their territory,' Capstick explained. 'There's no enemy to fight in the middle.'

Tovah continued. 'Israeli intelligence tells me that the border with Turkey is open. Main highways are damaged but pa.s.sable and they can put me in touch with a driver who knows Tall Tamar and can find us a place to hide out until our targets arrive on the scene.'

'Why is Israel so keen to help free two British hostages?' Capstick asked.

Tovah smiled. 'Islamic State wants to destroy the state of Israel. Illegal oil is Islamic State's biggest source of income and taking out Sachs and Yuen will greatly diminish their capacity to keep it flowing.'

'Makes sense,' Capstick said.

James cleared his throat. 'So, just to be absolutely clear, you're both saying we can call in the drone strike on the well at Tall Tamar and get this mission started?'

Tovah and Capstick looked at one another and laughed.

'This is risky s.h.i.t,' Tovah said. 'But we're as ready as we're ever gonna be.'

While James planned, the five Currents and three other remaining Crustys followed breakfast with a six-kilometre run around the island. The end point was a clearing on a seaside cliff, where the training a.s.sistants had dropped ten dirt bikes, ready for a ride back.

But as the sweaty runners got to the bikes, they realised that the training a.s.sistants had sabotaged them. Back wheels missing, drive chains removed, and several bikes looked OK but didn't start for less obvious reasons. Race driving had turned Lauren into a reasonable mechanic and she helped to get Bruce and Kyle on the road. As she fixed a locked brake disc on a third bike for herself, she realised that the five Currents were all stumped.

Although the idea was for the presence of the five young agents to motivate the older ones, the teens were learning too and after four weeks, team rivalries had mellowed.

'You haven't got a clue, have you?' Lauren teased, approaching Ryan as the sound of Bruce and Kyle's bikes faded. 'We've had two lectures on bike mechanics.'

Ryan looked sheepish as he held up oily fingers. 'Maybe I didn't pay as much attention as I could have. I can see the back wheel is out of alignment, and the fuel line is loose, but I can't see where this tube goes.'

Lauren laughed as she tapped her fingers under the seat. 'There's nothing to plug it into because the fuel tank is missing.'

'Oh,' Ryan said dopily. 'So I won't be able to get this one going at all?'

Now Lauren was cracking up. 'Without a fuel tank, I don't think so.' She pointed at another bike. 'Take the fuel line from your bike, fit it to that one and put some air in the back tyre. You should be OK after that, but check the brakes just to be certain.'

Alfie spoke as Lauren turned back to the bike she'd just fixed for herself. 'Would you please mind helping out here?'

'Oooh, aren't we suddenly so polite!' Lauren said. 'What about when the seat broke in my plane and you said it was because I have an a.r.s.e wider than the Grand Canyon?'

'Just joshing,' Alfie said. 'You know I think you're great, Lauren.'

Lauren tutted as she looked around. 'You're all hopeless,' she moaned. 'Daniel, it looks like the electronic ignition is loose and needs s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g back in. Ning, you need air in your tyres and clean the c.r.a.p out of the jammed rear brake. Leon, that lightning bolt on the speedometer means your battery is flat, but you'll generate enough charge to start if you roll her uphill and push off from there.'

Lauren moved towards her own bike and gave it a kick-start.

'What about me?' Alfie asked.

'Your problem,' Lauren said, flicking up one cheeky eyebrow. 'My Grand Canyon a.s.s is out of here.'

Lauren hoped Alfie would end up having to run back and was disappointed when she arrived and found Ning close behind, with Alfie riding pillion. Everyone headed into the gym, expecting Capstick and McEwen to be waiting, for some kind of gruelling combat workout. Instead, chef had laid out tables with lasagne, and two ancient rear-projection TV sets had been wheeled in. One was rigged up to a PS4 ready to play FIFA16, but Lauren was seriously excited to see the second one, linked to an ancient Sega Megadrive.

'Oh my G.o.d, it's Ecco the Dolphin!' Lauren blurted. 'I b.l.o.o.d.y loved this game when I was little.'

'The graphics are terrible,' Alfie noted. 'I didn't even realise they had computer games back in your day.'

Lauren turned sharply, hooked Alfie's ankle and dumped his a.s.s on the padded floor. 'Too slow, young man,' she teased.

James clapped to seize attention before Alfie got his shot at revenge. 'Shut the h.e.l.l up, all of yous,' he yelled. 'I've just had a conference call and I can confirm that the drone strike is set for tonight.'

A few cheers went up, but Bruce and Kyle looked more circ.u.mspect.

'Since you've all worked hard for the last four weeks, we're gonna spend the afternoon chilling out with food and video games. Enjoy, people!'

The mood was jovial as Lauren took the controls for Ecco the Dolphin, while most of the others went for the buffet table. James was surprised to find himself confronted by a very serious-looking Ryan.

'You OK, pal?' James asked, as he bit into a sausage-stuffed pepper that he'd just picked off the table.

'I was thinking about your mission,' Ryan said. 'I know you've got an empty seat now that Kerry's hurt.'

's.h.i.t happens,' James said, blowing on the hot sausage. 'It's the nature of any mission.'

Ryan nodded. 'I was thinking.'

'Should that be cause for concern?'

Ryan smiled, but was irritated by James' interruption. 'I was ranked second on the flight training, behind Lauren. I'm sixty-two kilos, so only slightly heavier than Kerry.'

James shook his head. 'I appreciate your enthusiasm, Ryan. But Ewart authorised you to come here and form a training team to help us five old farts get back into shape. The actual mission is off the books. n.o.body with links to the British military or adult intelligence. No British-made equipment or ident.i.ty doc.u.ments. If we're caught, we'll say we're mercenaries hired by Sachs and Yuen's kidnap insurance. Not that it matters, because IS will scythe our heads off, whatever we say.'

'Kerry was your best Arabic speaker,' Ryan said. 'I'm almost fluent.'

'Tovah's fluent.'

'And if she gets hurt?' Ryan asked. 'And isn't she supposed to stay back and prep the aircraft?'

James seemed to take this on board. 'True. But we'll be packing up later and leaving for Turkey first thing. I'd have to write a mission proposal, get it by Ewart and get approval by the ethics committee. And even if I did all that, they're never going to approve the mission.'

'Why not?' Ryan asked.

'Because it can be done by adults,' James said. 'It's an absolute rule. CHERUB agents are never put in danger unless the mission can't be performed by an adult.'

'Screw CHERUB then,' Ryan said. 'I'll quit.'

James laughed. 'Ryan, give it up. We're fine with the team we've got.'

'James, listen,' Ryan said firmly. 'I want to help. I've got four months until I turn eighteen. Chances are, I'll spend that time on campus twiddling my thumbs. This could be my last shot at doing something that matters.'

'You might also get killed,' James pointed out. 'This isn't a CHERUB mission. It's a full-on commando raid and you're seventeen years old.'

'I know what it is,' Ryan said. 'People younger than me died in the trenches in World War One. You can still join the British Army at sixteen, so if there was a war today I'd still be old enough to go fight on the front lines.'

James was torn. He'd worked with Ryan on the ma.s.sive mission to bring down the Aramov clan. He had no doubt that Ryan was an outstanding agent, and while they could do the mission with five people, a sixth would make life easier and give more of a cushion if things went bad. But it stuck in James' throat that Ryan was still so young.

'I want this,' Ryan said. 'Think back to when you were my age. You weren't stupid, were you? You were capable of making your own decisions.'

James felt a tear well in his eye as he remembered his own last days at CHERUB. The sense of going back to being an ordinary person. The feeling that the most exciting part of your life was probably over.

'You'd be an a.s.set to the mission,' James admitted, pulling out his phone as Ryan broke into a smile. 'So, as far as I'm concerned, you're welcome on my team if you quit CHERUB. But while this mission is off the books, the chairman of CHERUB is still my boss when I get back to campus. So you've got to speak to Ewart and make sure this is all OK.'

Ryan smiled as he took out his mobile and dialled CHERUB campus.

33. BEST.

Instructors Capstick and McEwen were happy to let everyone chill out and play video games, but training had started in the water on day one, and after a PS4 FIFA tournament resulted in comprehensive victory for the Currents, consensus grew that the only proper way to finish training was to tip a hundred coloured b.a.l.l.s in the swimming pool.

In Kerry's absence, Tovah joined Bruce, Kyle, Lauren and James on the Crusty team. And James laid down the rules.

'I don't want anyone else getting injured,' he yelled. 'So it's one twenty-minute round only and keep the physical stuff sensible.'

When the whistle sounded, Bruce and Alfie formed a new definition of sensible that involved getting into a ma.s.sive ruck in the middle of the pool. It had to be broken up by Capstick diving in and, when it erupted for a second time, Capstick yelled, 'That's your lot,' and had both players red-carded from the game.

The eight remaining players duked it for the full twenty minutes. James was in his best shape since leaving CHERUB six years earlier. Kyle had tanned and was now fit enough to keep the pace until the final whistle blew, with a few nice moves along the way.

Bodies dripped as James put his neck collar back on and exhausted players watched the training a.s.sistants counting up b.a.l.l.s at opposite ends of the pool. Shouts went back and forth as both scores pa.s.sed 190, with just a few left in each dumpster.

'One-ninety-six, to the Crustys,' an a.s.sistant shouted.

At the other end, Leon and Daniel jumped for joy as the a.s.sistant counted one-ninety-nine, before adding a final five-point blue ball to make two hundred and four for the Currents.

'Still best,' Leon shouted, as he high-fived his brother.

Alfie couldn't resist getting right in Lauren's face. 'You still lose, Grand Canyon b.u.t.t.'

As Lauren shoved Alfie in the pool, James grabbed his phone off a sunlounger and saw a message from Chairman Ewart Asker.

'Bad news, guys,' James announced, after he'd read the message. 'I'm gonna have to disqualify the Current team for fielding an ineligible player. Apparently Ryan Sharma is no longer a CHERUB agent.'

Ryan looked shocked, as Ning burst out laughing and told James to get stuffed.

Kyle put a friendly arm around Ryan's wet back. 'You OK there, pal?'

'Nervous,' Ryan admitted, as the twins scrambled out of the pool and approached. 'But I guess I got what I wanted.'

The twins hugged their older brother.

'So, I guess you two won't get kicked out of CHERUB before me after all,' Ryan said.

'Just don't go getting yourself killed,' Daniel said.

Leon nodded and grinned. 'I don't personally give a c.r.a.p, but Theo will be devastated if you're not around to protect him from me and Daniel.'

Ryan's brain froze, as he realised he'd been wrapped in his own thoughts and hadn't given any consideration to the effect on his youngest brother if something bad happened.

'I'll be fine,' Ryan said unconvincingly.

'All right, people,' James shouted. 'We need to pack and clean up ready for tomorrow. If you're interested, we should have live video from Tovah's Israeli Air Force buddies shortly after eleven.'

The PS4 had been swapped for the video output on Tovah's laptop and all the gym lights switched off, intensifying the blurry night-vision image on the big telly. It was close to midnight and the Currents, Crustys, instructors and their a.s.sistants all sat on plastic pool chairs or sprawled across the padded gym floor in their nightwear.

'Wish we had popcorn,' Leon said.

A pilot's voiceover came out of the screen in Hebrew.

'He says the drone is one kilometre from target,' Tovah translated.

Controlled remotely from Israel and travelling at sixty kilometres per hour, the metre-long quadcopter drone skimmed over a village at two hundred metres, then tilted forwards and lost height as the outline of an oil derrick came into view.

'Here comes a s.h.i.t storm,' Alfie predicted, blurting over something from the screen and earning an angry shush from Tovah.