Bandits, Dirt Bikes & Trash by Robert Muchamore

Author:Robert Muchamore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bonnier Publishing Fiction

24. IT WAS MUD, DAMMIT

‘Robin was about nine,’ Alan told Josie as they walked across the thick casino carpet towards the Nest with Robin a few steps behind. ‘Parents signed us up for this mini-rugby week to get us off their backs during Easter hols. And you know how rugby has the big H-shaped post that you kick the ball through?’

‘Of course,’ Josie said. ‘Did Robin smash into it?’

‘Better than that,’ Alan said, smirking. ‘They’d taken one post away to be repaired. So, Robin was running with the ball and his front foot goes straight down the hole. The hole’s full of water. It all squirts up in his face and he’s all twisted up with his leg wedged in the hole.

‘The rugby coach came running over and lifted Robin out, but the best part was, falling down the hole gave Robin such a fright that he shat his shorts.’

‘Seriously?’ Josie said, howling with laughter.

‘It was running down his legs . . .’

‘You’re full of it,’ Robin said, tutting and sounding defensive. ‘My whole foot would never have fitted down that hole when I was nine. We were five years old and the stuff running down my legs was muddy water.’

‘I’m sticking to my version of the story,’ Alan said, as Josie kept laughing. ‘All the older kids were killing themselves laughing and calling Robin Crap Legs. I had to sit next to him on the bus home and he smelled so bad!’

Robin pretended to sulk as they got close to the Nest, but though the jokes were at his expense, he enjoyed hanging out with Alan for the first time in almost a year and seeing Josie laugh.

‘You’re both totally immature,’ Robin said, as he took a short run-up and gave Josie a gentle kick up the bum. She didn’t retaliate because they’d reached the door at the back of the casino.

‘You been here all day?’ Robin asked Oluchi as he reached the top of the stairs and entered the Nest.

The young journalist looked bleary-eyed, and had notebooks, Post-its and dead coffees littering her workstation. As Alan got his first look at the Nest and admired the rows of spinning fans at the back of the bright green supercomputer, Robin noticed his hacking guru D’Angela in a chat window on Oluchi’s screen and gave her a wave.

‘Good to see you!’ Robin told her brightly then, after introducing Josie and Alan, ‘Have we made progress?’

‘Oluchi’s doing a great job,’ D’Angela said.

‘The image search you’ve been running on the Super found a match for Heirani Stone,’ Oluchi began. ‘Her original name was Heirani Amo. She was twenty-two, from a boatload of refugees who arrived in Sherwood after the tsunami in French Polynesia. D’Angela’s crew has also hacked the account linked to the car charging receipt. It belonged to Heirani’s older brother, Max Amo.’

‘That’s definitely her,’ Alan said, a lump swelling in his throat as he looked at one of Oluchi’s printouts and saw the face from his nightmares. ‘She was burned and bloody, but it’s the girl I saw thrown into the car.

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