Read Online CHERUB: The Fall by Robert Muchamore - Free Book Online

was restless and began exploring his bitterly cold surroundings as soon as day broke. He checked out the apartment, stepping gingerly over missing floorboards, then along the balcony where he was relieved to see nothing but more stripped-out apartments.
    After checking his own floor, James surveyed the rest of the building and concluded that his only companions were the hundreds of pigeons roosting on the top balcony. But when he scanned the neighbourhood from up high, the clothes hanging out to dry and odd wisps of smoke indicated that he wasn’t completely alone on the eastern side of Aero City.
    James had already decided that it would be too risky to try leaving via the only road out of town: there was sure to be a police blockade. He considered escaping through the forest to a neighbouring town and either hitching a lift to Moscow or making a phone call when he got there. The trouble was, the nearest settlements were more than thirty kilometres away. James had no idea where they were and there was every chance that the Obidins would have goons on the look-out when he arrived.
    This left James with one realistic option: sneak back into the city centre, get hold of a mobile phone and call for help. But with only one set of clothes, he’d be easily identified if he went out in daylight. He’d have to stay inside until it got dark and then sneak into one of the city’s more affluent areas and either mug someone or break into an apartment.
    James didn’t have a watch, but he knew it got light at around eight in the morning and was dark when he came out of school at four, which left him with seven and a half hours to kill. It was important to stay warm, and now that he felt more confident about his surroundings, he decided to make a fire.
    Although most of the doors and many window frames had been removed from the block, there was still plenty to burn. James collected up rags and a few sheets of newspaper and used his penknife to strip splinters of wood from a floorboard. He laid them all in the bathroom sink and used a match to light the kindling.
    He kept the fire small, because he didn’t want to burn the building down or leave a trail of smoke big enough to be spotted from the ground. But the flames were enough to warm his hands and raise the temperature inside the small bathroom up to a couple of degrees above freezing.
    Once he’d warmed up, James’ thoughts turned to his stomach. The sugar in the chocolate bars and Coke he’d bought the night before would provide him with enough calories to see the day through, but he craved something hot and his mind turned towards the pigeons roosting on the top floor.
    He’d trapped and eaten pigeons during basic training. The meat was tasty and perfectly safe if you gutted the bird and cooked it properly, but he’d also need clean water for making a hot drink and cleaning up.
    More importantly, James figured that keeping himself busy by boiling water and cooking food would be better for his mental state than spending all day shivering and worrying about whether his future involved an unpleasant reunion with the Aero City police.
    There were a couple of centimetres of clean snow on the balcony, but he’d need a pot in which to boil and sterilise the water. Fortunately for James, few of Aero City’s former residents owned cars and many had been forced to leave their heaviest and least valuable possessions behind. A tour of a few apartments was all he needed to find a couple of battered pots, an enamel beaker that would serve as a makeshift cup, the wire mesh from a grill tray and even a plastic office chair to sit on.
    James built up the fire in the sink and rested the mesh over the top before stepping out on to the balcony. After checking that there was nobody down below, he began scooping fresh snow into the pot until it was almost full. Back inside, he set it down over the flames.
    His next task was to capture the birds. His mind flashed back to basic training and Mr