Read Online Cherub Black Friday by Robert Muchamore - Free Book Online Page B

fifty miles an hour. I guess it depends when they plan to hit the stores.’
    ‘People turn out early to catch bargains,’ Kazakov said. ‘They’ll want to hit the stores when they’re rammed. People will panic and go home when they hear about bombs in shopping malls, so all ten attacks have to be near-simultaneous for maximum effect.’
    Ryan checked his watch and saw that it was about 8 p.m. local time. ‘So if they want to attack a shopping mall in Houston at say nine a.m. tomorrow, the first trucks will have to leave here within the next two or three hours.’
    ‘And who says Houston is the furthermost target?’ Kazakov asked rhetorically. ‘We need to get the warning out quickly.’
    ‘How quickly?’ Ryan asked.
    ‘As long as it takes us to make up a plan.’
    ‘Our cover’s blown the moment we try something,’ Ryan said.
    ‘They’ll be less suspicious if we take the money,’ Kazakov said. ‘Might think we were spooked by what they did to Tracy and the change of landing spot.’
    ‘They’d still kill us,’ Ryan said.
    ‘CHERUB has rules,’ Kazakov said. ‘No agent is ever forced to do anything against their will. We’ve every reason to believe that IDoJ will let us go free because they want to keep the Aramov Clan sweet. Nobody will hold anything against you if you don’t want to take any more risks.’
    Ryan shook his head. ‘Thousands of people could die and there’s been no sign that Dr D’s team knows what happened after we landed. We’ve got to try contacting someone.’
    Kazakov cracked a wry smile. ‘I was afraid you’d say that.’ Then he pointed up to a skylight in the ceiling. ‘They’ll spot us leaving through a door or window,’ he said. ‘That skylight’s a possibility, but you’d still have to crawl over the roof and drop down the side.’
    ‘What if we make some kind of scene?’ Ryan asked. ‘Draw the guard in and twat him.’
    ‘Could work,’ Kazakov said. ‘But our best bet’s to look for a floor hatch. Mobile homes usually have a connection panel for water and electricity, or access to pipes under the floor.’
    ‘Whereabouts?’ Ryan asked, as he scanned the floor.
    Kazakov headed for the cupboard under the kitchen sink. He opened it up and saw gas, water and sewage pipes running towards the bathroom. ‘Not here,’ he said.
    The bulky Ukrainian was almost too big for the tiny bathroom door. He ducked in and less than twenty seconds later Ryan heard a dramatic crack and a sound like plastic snapping.
    ‘Lifts right up,’ Kazakov said happily. ‘Come look.’
    Ryan headed for the toilet, but before he saw anything he breathed a stench of sewage and backed away fighting a gag reflex.
    ‘Aww that’s nasty,’ he blurted.
    Kazakov laughed. ‘You wouldn’t have lasted five minutes in the Soviet Army with that weak stomach of yours.’
    Ryan hooked the neck of his T-shirt over his nose before making a second approach. Kazakov’s bulk filled much of the tiny bathroom, but Ryan could see that Kazakov had somehow freed the toilet and the panel behind, making it swing into the adjacent shower cubicle on a hinge.
    The gap behind the panel was deep and Ryan watched as Kazakov used a coin to turn a large plastic screw head, freeing a rectangle of flooring.
    ‘I won’t fit down there, but you will,’ Kazakov said, as he rested the piece of flooring against the sink.
    When Ryan leaned over Kazakov, he realised the stench was the result of a slow leak in a sewage pipe. The earth below was soaked in a brown ooze that looked like chocolate syrup.
    ‘We’re standing on brick pillars, so you can crawl under the floor and come out at the side,’ Kazakov explained.
    ‘Kill me now,’ Ryan said, as he tried not to heave.
    ‘I’ll find something to lay over the worst of it,’ Kazakov said, as he followed Ryan’s horrified expression back into the kitchen.
    ‘It’s a good four kilometres to the highway,’ Ryan said. ‘I can easily run that distance, but I