CHERUB: People's Republic Read Online Free Page B

stuff inside,’ Yannis said, with his flabby back in Ryan’s face. ‘It’s getting dark. You can see better inside.’
    Ryan sidestepped Yannis. ‘This robotics stuff looks cool. Is there a club or something you go to?’
    Ethan was about to reply, but Yannis blared over him. ‘We learned ourselves from books and online. It’s taken years to learn all that we know. We’re not interested in working with a rookie.’
    Ryan was easy-going, but he’d done a lot of combat training since he’d joined CHERUB and at that moment he’d have happily used his Karate black belt and kickboxing skills to beat Yannis to a pulp.
    ‘Nighty-night, Ryan,’ Yannis said, waving his porky hand as he followed Ethan up the beach towards house number five.
    Ryan turned to face the sea and swore under his breath. On the way back to his house he encountered the little boy sitting proudly on the shoulders of his enormously tall father.
    ‘How’s it hanging, bro?’ the retired basketball star asked.
    ‘Been worse,’ Ryan said, but his smile was fake and he was scowling by the time he reached house eight. He was living there with pretend half-sister Amy and FBI agent Ted Brasker, who was their pretend father.
    Ryan pushed a sliding door and stepped inside on to the metal-grilled floor of a beach shower. After hosing the sand off his feet he padded into a huge basement room, kitted out like a proper health-club gym.
    CHERUB agents are expected to maintain high levels of fitness when they’re undercover. Ryan thought about the treadmill or the weight bench, but the heavy bag hanging from the ceiling seemed the best outlet for frustration.
    After some warm-up stretches and toe touches, Ryan exploded upwards, pirouetting on the ball of his foot and smashing the bag with a powerful roundhouse kick. As the bag swung back towards him, he dodged it, then launched a stream of heavy left and right hooks, accompanied by grunts.
    After five minutes Ryan’s knuckles hurt, the tops of his feet were bright red, his torso glistened and the bag had a huge dent from the pounding.
    ‘Give the poor bag a break,’ Amy shouted, as she came down the stairs.
    Ryan backed up and tried to catch his breath. Amy was the kind of girl who’d look hot if you put a tent over her head, but fresh from the pool in a lime green swimsuit she was off the Richter scale.
    ‘Sorry, I was pushing the envelope, you know?’ Ryan said.
    He was trying to sound macho, but Amy sensed his frustration.
    ‘I was floating,’ Amy replied. ‘I could hear your grunting two floors up.’
    She inspected the dent in the heavy bag, before launching a heavy kick, spraying Ryan with chlorinated drips.
    ‘You’re not bad,’ Ryan said, as he matched Amy’s move.
    Amy didn’t appreciate having her combat skills referred to as not bad . She threw a kick so hard that it pushed the bag violently upwards. As it crashed down, the chain holding it up made a clank followed by a hollow boom as the entire ceiling flexed.
    Ryan gawped upwards, half expecting to see cracks in the plaster. He’d seen a heavy bag lifted up before, but only by a training instructor with thighs broader than Amy’s waist.
    ‘God help any guy who messes with you,’ Ryan laughed.
    ‘So why the naked aggression?’ Amy asked.
    ‘Nothing in particular,’ Ryan said.
    Amy didn’t buy that. ‘I saw you with Ethan and Yannis while I was swimming. Can I assume it wasn’t the breakthrough you’ve been waiting for?’
    Ryan looked depressed as he sat down on a weight bench.
    ‘I’ve got to pull this off, but I’m screwing up,’ he admitted. ‘A good agent should make friends with their target within a day or two – a week at most. I’ve done hours of role play, I know all the psychological tricks for making someone like me. But we’ve been out here almost four weeks. I’m getting nowhere with Ethan, at home or school.’
    ‘Is Yannis still the problem?’ Amy asked.
    Ryan nodded. ‘I hate that fat dick, but