CHERUB: Divine Madness - Robert Muchamore Page 0,2
likely context of suspicious words in an e-mail or text message.
Of the million messages stored each hour by Echelon, about 20,000 will be flagged by the computer and read by one of 2,000 monitoring staff on duty at any given time.
In late 2005, an Echelon station in south-east Asia intercepted an e-mail message between two unknown parties. The e-mail mentioned a possible Help Earth attack in Hong Kong and the involvement of a sixteen-year-old environmental campaigner named Clyde Xu.
Rather than arresting the young suspect, it has been decided to infiltrate Xu’s family in the hope that more senior figures within Help Earth can be uncovered. (Excerpt from a CHERUB mission briefing for Kyle Blueman, Kerry Chang and Bruce Norris.)
Hong Kong, February 2006
Kerry Chang broke into a jog when she spotted Rebecca Xu leaning against a lamppost waiting for her. The two thirteen-year-olds wore school uniform – blue blouse, navy skirt and pullover, white tights – and were mixed up with hundreds of others dressed the same way. Some were heading home alone, some stood in groups gossiping, while others cut precariously into four lanes of snarled up traffic, trying to catch a double-decker bus parked at a stop on the opposite side of the road.
‘Good day?’ Kerry asked, speaking in Cantonese.
Rebecca shrugged. ‘School’s school, you know how it goes.’
Kerry knew how she felt. When an undercover mission drags on, the person you’re pretending to be starts getting mixed up with who you really are. She’d now been attending Prince of Wales School for six weeks and had settled into a rut.
Rebecca started walking.
‘Aren’t we waiting for Bruce?’ Kerry asked.
‘Detention,’ Rebecca smiled. ‘I thought you knew. Your brother’s such an idiot.’
‘Stepbrother,’ Kerry said. ‘No shared genes, thank you very much. What’s he gone and done now?’
‘Oh, just him and his stupid mates yapping all through maths class. Mr Lee chucked a mental and told them to come back after school.’
Kerry shook her head. ‘I wish I was in your class. I’ve got nobody to talk to all day.’
Rebecca smiled. ‘But we’d probably get in trouble for chatting all the time.’
The air-conditioned school was always chilly, but it was sunny out and Kerry got hot as they headed home. She loosened her tie, then pulled her sweater over her head and knotted it around her waist. The fifteen-minute walk took the two girls through a maze of high buildings, cramped streets and elevated walkways choked by fumes from speeding traffic.
Home for both girls was a recently built tower block, twenty storeys high. It had five identical cousins, the last of which was still under construction. Hong Kong’s sea air and tropical climate eats buildings, and despite its newness, the balconies stretching skywards already looked tatty.
In most wealthy countries, cramped apartment blocks like these would house the poor, but Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated cities in the world and this accommodation was mostly home to professional types. Rebecca’s family was typical: her father was a dentist and her mother part-owned a jeweller’s shop in an upscale mall.
The doors parted automatically as the girls passed into a muggy lobby. The security guard gave them a friendly nod from behind his desk.
‘Have you got much homework?’ Kerry asked, as they waited for the elevator up to the ninth floor, where they both lived.
‘A fair bit,’ Rebecca said. ‘We can do it together … Or surf the net, whatever.’
‘Cool,’ Kerry said. ‘But I’m gonna go in my place and lose the uniform first. I’ll see you round yours in ten minutes.’
*
The front door of the cramped apartment led directly into the kitchen. Kerry yawned as she stepped inside. She dumped her backpack on the floor and skidded her keys across the dining table. Assistant mission controller Chloe Blake leaned through the doorway leading into the living-room.
Kerry moved through to the living-room. Sixteen-year-old Kyle Blueman – Kerry’s other stepbrother for the purposes of this mission – was sitting on the couch dressed in shorts and a T-shirt.
‘No school?’ Kerry asked.
‘Clyde Xu skipped out of our English class this morning,’ Kyle explained. ‘I followed him down to the harbour, but I had to keep my distance and lost him at a busy crossing. John picked up a couple of mobile calls in the surveillance suite back at the hotel, but they didn’t tell us much.