Chapter One

"LISTEN TO ME, YOU SON OF A BITCH!" screamed Adam, angry tears in his eyes. "YOU CAN CUT ME, BEAT ME, FUCKING RAPE ME FOR EVER MORE BUT YOU CAN NEVER HURT ME, NEVER!

"I SWEAR ON MY LIFE, I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU! YOU GET THAT? YOU ARE DISGUSTING. YOU MAKE ME WANNA THROW UP!"

"I make you do…other things, my love," Danny replied in his sweet, intoxicating voice. "I know you love me deep down."

Adam spat at him, causing Danny to chuckle as if he had been told a silly joke. He went over to the naked and chained boy, pushed him backwards, straddled him, crushing his legs and sharply kissed Adam. He smiled, pecked him on the cheek and left the metal box; leaving Adam in almost pitch black darkness, save for a few small light holes at the top.

Adam curled up on the floor. It was useless to fight the handcuffs that bound his wrists. It was useless to try and go to the door of the container as he was chained to the wall. He had no mobile phone, no lock gun, no clothes, nothing. All he could do was hope that his mission controller, Jennifer Hargreaves and his senior agent, James Adams would find him soon…

CHERUB Campus – Three Months Previously:

James Adams walked towards the mission preparation building with excitement. The sixteen year old black shirt had just been told of an important mission that could take a while to finish, well through Christmas.

Of course, he felt bad that he would be leaving Lauren, Dana and everyone else on campus and now he was a black shirt, he didn't have to think about getting a black shirt for how this mission turned out. He was just raring to go on another mission.

He entered the Mission Preparation building, the biometric access still being out of order, went down the corridor to Jennifer Hargreaves's office. He hadn't worked with Jennifer before but from what he'd heard from other agents, she was fair and treated all agents like adults. Inside, there was Jennifer, along with a male grey shirt who sat in the corner, reading their mission briefing.

James recognised the agent from when Callum Reilly completed his basic training on the second attempt. He had done some missions but seemed to have a luck streak that had run with Dana previously. His missions tended to fizzle out or just became weaker and weaker as evidence became harder to come by. He had been twelve then and he was now fifteen. His name was Adam Drury.

Adam wore as much black as he could. You could either call him an Emo or a Goth; he didn't care, as long as people left him alone. When out of uniform, he usually wore the Emo stereotype t-shirt and skinny jeans, messy, banged, black hair and stripy arm warmers or spiked wristbands. He was a loner, always spent his time training in many different areas of skill or up in his room doing…something, no one really knew.

He didn't really have any friends, he didn't want any. Kyle Blueman, a retired Cherub and James's best friend once had a punishment with him after Adam had overdone it during a spar in the dojo. His opponent had had to have 8 stitches. All Kyle had to say was that he was quiet and pushed away any attempts of trying to make conversation by giving Kyle a look of annoyance.

James walked over towards the desk as Jennifer stood up.

"James Adams, it's a pleasure to meet you," she said, firmly shaking his hand. "Your record speaks for itself as an outstanding agent."

"Thanks, I've heard some good things about you as well," said James, sitting down in front of the desk.

"You're a couple of minutes late but I'm afraid the early bird gets to see the mission briefing first," she said.

"I had a maths tutoring lesson with the red shirts," said James. "Things went a bit…crazy because it was someone's birthday so I decided to celebrate with a test."

Jennifer chuckled but Adam remained quiet. James smiled and Jennifer handed him a plain folder containing the mission details. James opened the folder and the disgusting image of a mangled body introduced him to his mission. He flipped past the photo to the first page.

CLASSIFIED MISSION BRIEFING

FOR JAMES ADAMS, ADAM DRURY

THIS DOCUMENT IS PROTECTED WITH A RADIO

FREQUENCY IDENTITY TAG

ANY ATTEMPT TO REMOVE IT FROM THE MISSION

PREPARATION BUILDING

WILL SET OFF AN ALARM

DO NOT PHOTOCOPY OR MAKE NOTES

MISSION BACKGROUND – THE KILLING KIND GROUP

The Killing Kind group were formed in Ware, Hertfordshire, in 1988, when three major gangs joined together after years of turf war. Of the three original leaders, only one is left: Richard Thatcher, 50. The other two, Milo Roberts and Thomas Damper were killed in a drive-by shooting which, rumour has it, was orchestrated by Thatcher.

Activities by the Killing Kind group include Homicide, Arson, Theft, Fraud, Drugs, Illegal import of cigarettes and other popular items and many others. Unfortunately, trying to convict Thatcher is increasingly becoming more difficult as he is never anywhere near any crime committed by the group and increases in loyalty to him mean that if suspects are brought in, the most they get out of them is that their name, that they were nowhere near the crime and the name and number for their lawyer.

THE MISSION

The two attending agents have two separate targets, as follows:

James Adams – Infiltrate the Killing Kind group and rise in the ranks, collect evidence on their activities, who assigns things to the members, wear a wire if there isn't a chance of it being discovered and your cover being blown.

Adam Drury – Befriend John 'Jack' Thatcher, the son of Richard Thatcher, in anyway possible. Infiltrate his house and plant listening devices and tap his phones. Please note that Jack is 17 years of age. Your age will be kept the same but your cover story is that you took your GCSE's a year early, which will confirm with your current grades, so you went to college at nearly 16.

The main recruitment ground for Killing Kind members is the college campus, where Jack is known to hang out during and after college hours.

You will be posing as the Crawford Family, having been through a nasty divorce and moved to Hertfordshire to start over. James Crawford will have a history of anti-social behaviour and having been let off after setting a car alight as there was no substantial evidence to link him to the crime. Adam Crawford will be quiet but prone to angry outbursts after being abused by his father, one of the reasons for the divorce, and find solace with Jack as a friend.

Jennifer Hargreaves will play as Jennifer Crawford. She will have gone through two marriages. Her first husband abandoned her during pregnancy with James Crawford and Adam Crawford is the son from her second marriage, ending in divorce.

If either fails at trying to engage in their targets, a review of what their usefulness on the mission will be and how they can be used to their full potential somewhere else. Infiltrating the Thatcher household and planting listening devices and phone taps is of highest priority. Failure to achieve this will result in the mission being pulled and revised to a later date.

THE CHERUB ETHICS COMMITTEE ACCEPTED THIS MISSION BRIEFING. ALL MISSION CANDIDATES SHOULD CAREFULLY CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING FACTORS:

This mission has been classified high risk. Though in the case of Adam Drury where it is just befriending a key factor to the mission, there is risk of being caught in his house placing listening devices, possibly resulting in torture for information and/or risk of death. In the case of James Adams, you will be deep in the enemy's gang with risks of illegal activities going wrong, being arrested, being caught with a 'wire' with subsequent consequences. Also, all members of the Killing Kind group should be treated with extreme caution.

Agents are likely to be confronted with real effects of arson, shooting, stabbing, fighting and others. Agents who are squeamish may prefer not to be involved with this mission.

All agents have the right to refuse participation in this mission.

"It sounds…" started James, unable to find a word to finish his sentence.

"Intense?" said Adam, not looking at James.

"Yeah," he replied. "I mean…torture?"

"That group is known to torture it's traitors before killing them, they're famous for it actually, that's why there are so many 'loyal' members so that they don't have to suffer before being allowed to die," said Jennifer. "If you want to back out James, I understand…"

"I'll do it, it's just a bit different from my previous missions, you know?" said James.

"And what about you, Adam, do you accept the mission?" asked Jennifer.

"Fine, torture doesn't scare me, neither does death," he replied, almost venomously. "But I don't see why I was picked for this mission, or how Adams is supposed to be brothers. We're completely different."

"You're half-brothers, as it says in the mission briefing and you were picked mainly because Zara believed you needed a good mission with an experienced agent and that you and Jack have similar likes and personalities that will help you to connect easily," said Jennifer. "Zara is worried that you will finish as a grey shirt and your potential will not be reached to the highest in the field."

"Oh…I see," he said, bitterly. "Fine, it'll probably go wrong for me anyway and I'll be sent home, like always, and hurt too no doubt."

There was a short moment of silence before anyone spoke again.

"I think that's all really, here are your lists of what to bring etc. if you have any questions, feel free to ask, otherwise you can go," said Jennifer, placing two identical, paper lists on the desk. "James, I need to talk to you for a few minutes though."

Adam took his list and left the office, closing the door behind him. James took his own list but sat down again.

"James, we need to talk about Adam," she said, resting her arms on the desk. "What are your views on non-heterosexual people?"

"I'm okay with them, Kyle Blueman was my best friend when he was here and he was gay so I've got nothing against them, why do you ask?" said James, puzzled.

"Oh good, then you will have no trouble sharing a room with Adam," said Jennifer. "He's bisexual, James, and I just wanted to make sure there weren't going to be any problems."

"Oh…well, I guess there shouldn't be any problems." said James. "Why, is this relevant to the mission?"

"Well…when it says 'Befriend him in anyway possible' basically, it means that he has to start a relationship with him," she replied. "Adam picked that up as soon as I told him they would have similar likes and personalities."

"Do you think he's pissed off about it because…he wasn't exactly…" said James, trailing off.

"James, I trust that as senior agent on this mission, you won't have any difficulties working with Adam," said Jennifer.

"I won't, I can work with most people, we're trained that way," said James.

"This is Adam's first big mission and he needs this to work out for him, so be helpful and help him when he needs it, okay?"

"Sure, Jennifer," said James. "You know…our cover story is like my life before Cherub."

"I took inspiration from it, if you don't mind that is," said Jennifer.

"Nah, I think it'll be easier to be undercover with a much more familiar back story," said James. "Well I better go sort out everything in my room for clean clothes and stuff."

They shook hands again and James left the mission preparation building. It was the beginning of lunch so James headed to the dining room and grabbed lunch. Soon he was joined at his usual table by everyone and the topic of conversation was James's mission.

"So, what are you doing exactly?" asked Dana.

"Oh you know, just bringing down some local bad guys," said James, scoffing his lunch.

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