13. FENCE.

The reality had been Oli snivelling and peeing his pants, but he'd rewritten the story before the mud dried on his clothes. The three boys were in a tatty chicken shop, with c.o.kes and a jumbo chips on the plastic table in between.

'I almost made it, man,' Oli smiled. 'That ma.s.sive pit bull grabbed me, but I was all ready to kick up with both feet. Cane that thing in the head, but the dog got lucky when Daniel pulled it off.'

Daniel shook his head. 'You'd have been doggie chow if I didn't come save your a.s.s.'

'That kick in the face was awesome,' Oli said. 'I didn't realise you know martial arts. I used to do Muay Thai, could have got my black belt, but I got moved to a new foster placement before the grading.'

Oli demonstrated his skills with a little jab.

Leon laughed. 'You make a fist like that you'll break your thumb first time you hit someone.'

'I know,' Oli said defensively, as he dipped chips in brown sauce and filled his mouth.

'So if we walk back into Nurtrust with a wheelie case filled with booty, chances are we'll get busted in three seconds flat,' Leon said.

'School will still be open for homework club,' Daniel said. 'There's nothing in my locker yet.'

'Case won't fit in.'

Daniel shrugged. 'Everything else will, though.'

Oli was chomping to say something, but had to swallow his chips first. 'I told you, man. I know this guy, Trey. I've nicked stuff before and he'll pay us in cash. He's a serious dude, like Islamic State terrorism.'

The twins both laughed.

'What's your problem?' Oli growled.

Leon smirked. 'No offence, man, but you're a little colourful.'

'What's that supposed to mean?'

'Well, you're almost a Muay Thai black belt, but you don't know how to make a proper fist,' Daniel said. 'You're the top goal scorer for your school team, but you run slow and get out of breath after two hundred metres. You owned a PS4 but you didn't know where the L2 b.u.t.ton was.'

Oli started going bright red.

'It's OK, dude,' Leon said. 'We like you. But you don't need to make crazy s.h.i.t up to impress us.'

Oli didn't know what to say, but broke into a huge involuntary smile as Leon gave him a shoulder thump, hard enough to rock him off his plastic seat into the chicken shop's front window.

'I never had much in my life,' Oli said. 'I guess I trash-talk sometimes. But Trey is for real.'

Leon smiled. 'You're sure we won't get blown up by a USAF drone strike if we visit his flat?'

'Screw you,' Oli said, giving the finger with his muddy hand. 'I've nicked stuff before and he buys it. And a few times I've done jobs for Trey, like bricks through windows and s.h.i.t.'

This sounded pretty far-fetched and Daniel snorted. 'Why does Trey want you to put bricks through windows?'

'He runs a protection racket,' Oli said, folding his arms furiously when he saw the expressions on the twins' faces. 'That's G.o.d's honest truth, you a.s.sholes. If you don't believe me, we'll go see him.'

Leon decided to call Oli's bluff. 'Now?'

Oli sc.r.a.ped up the last few chips and stood up. 'Number eighty-four bus. Ten-minute ride. You coming?'

The trio kept a wary eye out for cops as they waited for the bus and got off by a stop under a railway arch. A cobbled alleyway took them past Asian taxi drivers standing in a noisy circle alongside their parked Priuses and into a cab office under a railway arch.

The receptionist behind the Plexiglas screen looked suspicious when Oli asked to see Trey.

'He knows me,' Oli explained.

'He's in a meeting,' the woman said, as a cynical eyebrow flickered beneath her headscarf. 'Have a seat.'

An old-fashioned bottled gas heater gave off a sweet smell as the boys squished together on a knackered sofa. Leon flicked through an ancient copy of FourFourTwo magazine, while Daniel played with his phone, texting James to let him know what was occurring.

'Just in case there's any argument,' Oli said, as he slid a Samsung Galaxy with a pink cover out of his pocket. 'Everything is split three ways, but the money from this is mine.'

'Where'd you get that?' Leon asked.

'Remember that snivelling girl who I locked in the shower?'

'Abigail,' Leon said.

Oli nodded. 'Gotta pick a pocket or two, eh?'

'Her mother died and you ripped off her phone?' Daniel said incredulously.

Oli shrugged and smirked. 'Life's a b.i.t.c.h, then you die.'

A flimsy door by the service counter came open, and a haze of cigarette smoke along with it.

'Trey's ready,' an old dude in carpet slippers said. All three boys stood up, but he pointed at Oli. 'Just you.'

As Oli vanished inside with the wheeled case, Daniel looked at Leon, shook his head and spoke in a whisper. 'Who robs a girl whose mother just died?'

Leon nodded in agreement. 'Before we go back to campus, I'm gonna bundle Oli into one of the shower rooms at Nurtrust and give him such a beating.'

'It's a nice thought, but they'll kick our a.s.ses out of CHERUB if we do that.'

'Who's gonna tell 'em?' Leon asked. 'James is cool.'

The pair played with their phones and clock watched. Five. Five fifteen. Five twenty-five.

'Maybe they killed him,' Leon suggested.

'Maybe he took our share and legged it out the back way,' Daniel suggested.

Oli finally emerged, looking unsure of himself and reeking of cigarette smoke. He zipped his jacket and started towards the door.

'So?' Daniel asked. 'What did we get?'

They were out of the alleyway and walking towards the bus stop when Oli finally answered.

'Sixty pounds each,' Oli said, peeling a roll of notes out of his pocket.

'You what!' Daniel shouted. 'That was a twelve-hundred-quid Lenovo laptop. Plus the Xbox.'

'I tried to get it up to two hundred,' Oli said. 'Trey said the market was really tight. Like, n.o.body is buying stuff.'

'You should have walked out,' Leon said.

Oli shook his head. 'It's the risk you take, OK. Trey's a serious guy. If you walk out, you're gonna offend him. And he's not someone you want as your enemy.'

Daniel gave Oli a little shove back into the bus canopy. 'You'd better not be ripping us off.'

'How much did you get for the phone?' Leon demanded. 'Open your pockets.'

Oli bordered on tears as Daniel and Leon stood close. They unzipped his jacket, went down the pockets inside and out, then made him turn out the pockets in his muddy tracksuit bottoms. All they found were a couple of pound coins and a Fresh Start ID card.

'Where's your share, dumba.s.s?'

'I didn't get one,' Oli blurted. 'It was a hundred and twenty for all three of us. I messed up, OK? I gave you my share because Trey acted like a d.i.c.k and I felt bad for letting you down.'

A tear welled in Oli's eye and the twins felt sorry for him. He was kinda pathetic.

'I'm sorry.'

'We should go back over the road and beat the s.h.i.t out of everyone,' Leon said.

Oli raised his hands anxiously. 'They're serious people, you can't mess with them. But there's something else.'

'What?' Leon asked.

'Trey says there's a job that needs doing. I vouched for you two and he said there's a bunch of stuff we can steal. Probably only take a couple of hours, but it needs to be done tonight.'

'What kind of job?' Leon asked.

'And how do you know he'll actually pay us?' Daniel added.

14. FLOOD.

'Trey Al-Zeid,' James said. 'He runs a taxi office, possibly involved in a protection racket. My people didn't get to actually see him.'

James was in his flat. The woman on the other end of the phone was Aisha Patel, an intelligence service liaison officer with West Midlands Police.

'The name means nothing to me,' the policewoman said. 'I'm a.s.suming you've already checked his background?'

'Sure,' James said. 'Mid-thirties. His older brother owns the taxi firm, and another one south of the city. He's had a couple of minor traffic violations, and he was arrested in London at a Stop-the-War march back in 2003.'

'Right, right,' Aisha said. 'I'll ask the local beat commander if he knows anything that's not in official police records.'

'What about the possibility of a protection racket?'

'We know it exists,' the officer said. 'There are hundreds of small, mostly Asian-owned businesses in north Birmingham and there's plenty of evidence that criminal gangs extort protection payments from landlords and business owners in return for their safety.'

'What evidence?' James asked.

'People turning up at casualty with broken thumbs but refusing to say how it happened, smashed windows, arson attacks on shops and industrial units. But people are reluctant to speak to the police. There's a long history of distrust between police and the Asian community, and people who speak out fear for their family and friends. We can protect an individual and their immediate family, but it's impossible to protect an extended family of parents, cousins, aunties, uncles and so forth.'

'Who's behind the extortion gangs?' James asked. 'Is it a large organisation, or lots of different gangs fighting over territory?'

'Police funding has been cut by a quarter over the past ten years,' Aisha explained. 'We know there's a problem, but we don't have the resources to investigate properly.'

James nodded. 'I hear that a lot.'

'But I certainly have colleagues who'd be very interested to share any information you unearth on Mr Al-Zeid,' Aisha said. 'And I'll get back to you if the local officers come up with anything useful.'

Leon pushed Rhea gently against the door of his room, put his hand on the back of her neck and gently nibbled her lower lip. Tongues connected as he moved the hand down her back and she slid one socked foot up the back of his leg as he grabbed her b.u.m.

'Hey,' Daniel yelled, thumping on the door from outside.

'Ignore him,' Rhea whispered, gripping Leon's waist as he backed away.

Leon looked around as Rhea started pushing him towards the bed.

'Ten to nine, dude,' Daniel shouted as he rattled the doork.n.o.b. 'Get your b.u.t.t out here.'

'Don't,' Rhea warned, then looked sore as Leon backed away, wishing that he didn't have to. 'What's so b.l.o.o.d.y important?'

'Gotta beat nine o'clock curfew,' Leon said, then to the door, 'Come in.'

Rhea scowled as Oli and Daniel strode in, both in shoes and jackets. Leon sat on his bed, grabbing his phone and sliding feet into a pair of Adidas.

'She on board?' Oli asked.