Read Online CHERUB: Shadow Wave by Robert Muchamore - Free Book Online Page B

Iona.
    ‘Just CHERUB people,’ Iona said. ‘Mr Large, Miss Speaks plus the six surviving trainees.’
    ‘How’s Mr Pike doing?’ Kyle asked.
    ‘His appendix burst,’ Iona explained. ‘They took him by boat to the mainland on Christmas Eve and that’s all we’ve heard. Now I’d better run back, before Large starts yelling at me.’
    Alongside the small hotel was a paved terrace with a dilapidated swimming pool, surrounded by sun loungers and a decrepit diving board. The enormous figure of Norman Large stood at the edge of this, staring through the fencing around two sand-swept tennis courts.
    Mr Pike’s exploding appendix had put a dent in Large’s carefully laid plans for a tough climax to the hundred-day basic training program, but that hadn’t stopped him from finding ways to make Iona and five other trainees suffer.
    ‘Push-ups, twenty,’ Large shouted. ‘And make it snappy!’
    It was nearly thirty degrees. The youngsters on the courts looked like they were about to collapse as they dived forward and started doing push-ups.
    ‘Sir,’ Kyle said.
    But Large ignored him as he counted out exercises. ‘That was horrible,’ Large yelled through the fence when he’d reached twenty. ‘Now I want you running around the court. Fifteen laps and the last one to finish gets to do it all again carrying a bag of wet sand above their head.’
    Iona led the way around the edge of the tennis courts, but a dark-skinned boy named Reece held his stomach and staggered across towards Large.
    ‘I need water,’ Reece begged, as he clutched the chain link fence to hold himself up. ‘I feel faint.’
    ‘You’re lucky I’m a kind and gentle man,’ Large growled, and passed a water bottle through a hole in the fence. ‘But that drink cost you and all the other trainees ten more laps.’
    The trainees were too exhausted to groan as Mr Large turned towards Kyle and looked him up and down with contempt. ‘So they sent you,’ he sniffed. ‘Still, you’re a decent enough swimmer, as I remember.’
    ‘I’m OK,’ Kyle nodded.
    ‘I devised a four-day final exercise,’ Large explained. ‘The plan was for the kids to each drag canoes and heavy equipment up to the highest point of the island and then sail down a river. I tried to get training extended, but Mac says a hundred days is enough and won’t let me extend. So, thanks to Mr Pike and his appendix we’ll be setting off this afternoon on a truncated two-day exercise. I’ll need you to help set things up, and act as a safety monitor during the exercise.’
    Kyle nodded, though in his mind he sighed because the immediate start meant he wouldn’t have any time to get over his jet lag. But anything was better than digging ditches in the freezing cold.
    ‘Miss Speaks is in the jungle with two of our guides, setting up a few nice little surprises for the trainees. Right now I need you to take our quad bike along the beach and pick up fresh food from the fishing village. When you get back …’
    Large stopped talking because the ground lurched, throwing him off balance towards the tennis-court fence. The water in the swimming pool behind sloshed like a giant bathtub, and an ankle-deep wave lapped over the edge, running across paving slabs and charging onwards across the tennis courts.
    ‘Earth tremor?’ Kyle said curiously.
    A collection of plastic loungers and tables got washed into the pool as grateful trainees broke off their run to scoop cool water and splash it up over their bodies.
    This outraged Large so much that his eyes practically popped out. ‘Did I give you permission to stop running?’ he bawled. ‘You do not stop training, just because the planet does a little fart. Now get those legs moving you useless bloody lot.’
    ‘Never felt one of those before,’ Kyle said.
    ‘Just an aftershock,’ Large sniffed. ‘We had a couple of bigger ones about an hour ago.’
    The overheated trainees splashing in the water had pissed Large off and he pointed