Nicole Eddison walked through the cold wet of the rain, seething with anger. The huge fire a week ago had destroyed the farm she had lived in, and killed her stepbrothers and her boyfriend. She barely escaped, and that was only because of her CHERUB training on an emergency evacuation for all sorts of buildings, including farms. She managed to grab her boxful of money she'd saved for university, but that would run out very soon. All she had was her box, the clothes on her back and her training. All because of Mac, god damn him. She'd sniffed only two times. Two times, and she had been dropkicked out of CHERUB. But what really made her mad was that James Adams wasn't expelled as well.
He'd been a microsecond from sniffing the cocaine as well, but-who was it again?-Kelvin something or other was walking down the stairs and had startled him. Most likely he had grassed on her while she was unconscious, to lift the suspicion from himself. He had practically admitted when he lied to Kerry that he had tried to stop her. As if. He was the cause of all this. If he hadn't told on her, she would be eating dinner at campus right now, talking and laughing along with the others. Instead she was walking through the rain with no umbrella and a rapidly depleting supply of money. And then she thought of a way, both to earn some money and to get back at James.
Time for a few prison breakouts.
xxxxx
Nicole sat in a rented apartment, along with some others, some with shocked looks on their faces, some with furious looks. She smiled. Jane Oxford and her son was there, as was Keith Moore, along with Major Dee, Susie Regan and Brian Evans. Jane slammed her fist down on the table.
"Are you actually saying that James, the guy who helped Curtis break out of Arizona Max is some spy for the government?"
Nicole nodded. "Yes. I used to be a part of it, but I got kicked out when I snorted cocaine." The deal had been simple. Set her up with a good life, shelter, food, maybe even some nice luxuries in return for how they got caught and how to get back at the guy who did it. Brian Evans shook his head. "I don't believe this. He was a damned good kid. Even been in my house and stuff." Nicole wasn't surprised. "He probably got some evidence on you while he was at your place." Susie's eyes blazed in anger. "I don't know and I don't care. He got into the Ark. Even got Rat to call in a favor so he'd get a cushy job. I'm going to kill him." Curtis stared in disbelief. "It's impossible. He beat up a couple of guys in Arizona. This Cherub group wouldn't have allowed him to do that."
Nicole cocked an eyebrow. "If you were them, would you trade some bruises on two criminals for the arrest of your mom?" The others looked down at the table, where they realized the truth. Major Dee finally spoke. "Right, deal's a deal. Give me the address of this Cherub thing, and you'll get an adopted family, whatever you want." She shook her head. "I want in. He grassed on my cocaine thing. Besides, I've got good training and I know my way around campus." Dee grinned, exposing two rows of shiny white teeth. He dialed a number into his phone. "Slasher Boys, get ready for some fun."