Chapter 4

Will was lying on his bed trying to digest what Zara had said; In connection with your next mission. What did she mean by it? He leafed though his mission briefing, but couldn't find anything useful. His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. "Will! Can I come in?" said the voice.

"Yeah, it's open Jayson." Will said recognising the voice of his best friend.

"Caleb's with me too," said Jayson walking into the room and flopping down on the bed next to Will.

Caleb plonked himself on the sofa and then Jayson broke the silence.

"So," he said. "What did Zara say?"

Will paused for a minute and then spoke. "She said what you told me, and then that they had people looking for Moll's. And then something else," he paused again, swallowing tears. "She said something about finding a lead in connection with that mission we're going on."

"Will, don't worry about Molly. You know that CHERUB will be able to find her." Caleb said, trying to comfort him.

"But what if they don't?" he said worriedly.

"Will, Molly is a really capable agent. You know that." said Jayson. "This is what she's been trained for; we've all been trained for it. To fight criminals and we always knew there would be a danger."

oOo

Molly didn't know how long she'd been sitting in the warehouse tied to a chair. She'd lost track of time, and her legs had gone all numb. She looked around the empty space trying to decide if she could escape.

She could tell that all the security cameras on the walls were fakes, which meant unless someone was in the warehouse watching her; no one knew what she was up too. There were probably people guarding the outside of the building but Molly doubted that they'd be armed as M.E wasn't a very well supplied smuggling agency. You only got the best if you were the best.

There were racks of shelves lined up in rows, but none of them had anything on them. She searched the walls for a door, and when she found one her heart sank. It was right at the other end of the warehouse, as far away as her as possible. She was tied up at the far side of the ware house and if she was going to escape she was going to have to time this right.

Kent or one of the guards came to check on her every morning at around 9 o'clock an every evening at around 6 o'clock. During the day she was left alone apart from the occasional person just collecting something or other. This meant she couldn't escape during the day as she was more likely to be caught. She also knew that there were no guards at night primarily for the reason that it was so dark they wouldn't be able to see her escaping – that was if she hadn't managed to crash into something first.

Molly thought that she could take down Kent. She could feel the pocket knife in the side of her bra and the people who had searched her must have missed that. She didn't remember being searched, but the knife that had been strapped on the inside of her leg was missing, so she must have been.

She looked at the way she was tied up. Sitting on a chair, with her hands tied to the chair behind her back. But even though this doesn't sound great, Molly knew it was the way easiest to escape from if you were tied up. All you had to do was step through the loop of your arms, so you were standing behind the chair, and then cut yourself free. Although this was good, it did worry Molly. Why had they tied her up in such an easy way? At first Molly thought that maybe they had suspected her as an agent, and that this was a trap. But it didn't add up. She was the only agent on the mission and she hadn't leaked anything. The bugs she'd planted were untraceable from every bug tracking device known. But then she thought about it again.

She was a petite blonde girl, with a slight build and hidden strength. She had moon blue eyes, tanned skin and heart shaped face. The sort of girl you'd expect to have nothing but boys on her mind, and not the sort with a 3rd dan black belt in Karate kicking boys' arses. Now she understood why she had been tied up so loosely.

She guessed that it was about 2 or 3 in the morning, and that she had been here at least two days now. She doubted that CHERUB would find her soon, so she decided to go through with her plan.

oOo

Zara sat in her office staring at the phone on her desk, wiling it to ring. It was 3 o'clock in the morning, and she normally wouldn't be on campus at this time, but she was waiting on information about Molly Redwood. She could feel her eyes dropping when there was a knock at the door. "Zara," said a feeble voice, which the chairwoman recognised instantly as Hannah Finlayson. The door opened and a girl wearing a navy CHERUB shirt, trackies and slippers came in. Zara stood up rushing over to the door. "Hannah?" she said confused, with a hint of anger in her voice. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in bed?" But then she saw the girls tear stained cheeks and guessed what was wrong. "It' about Molly isn't it." She stated as she pulled the teenager into a hug. The girl had been through so much in her life so far, that Zara almost admired her for holding on this long.

First her parents and elder sister get murdered, then her brother going missing on a mission, having to watch James Adams take a bullet, and now her brothers' girlfriend going missing. It was a lot for any teenager.

"Can I quit?" the girl said looking up at Zara.

"What do you mean quit?" Zara said, raising her eyebrows. "Leave CHERUB?"

"It's all too much," Hannah said pulling away from Zara and walking across the room to the windows that covered the south facing wall.

"Hannah I thought you would have learnt not to walk away when things get tough, and to stick it out." Zara said in an attempt to change the girls mind.

"Zara, I've been doing that for like the last ten years! I'm tired, fed up, and really sick of everything that I do going tits up!" Hannah replied.

"Okay. Number 1; please don't use bad language. Number 2; you're one of the best agents CHERUB has ever known. And Number 3; you really think that you're going to go out without a fight?" She said sitting back down in the chair behind her desk.

"Well, I don't know."Hannah sighed. "I'm just messed up really aren't I?"

"You've been through a lot, it's understandable." Zara comforted her.

"Yea, but I just want to go back to a normal life." she said.

"That would be a big change." Zara warned her.

"I know I'm just so tired. I could sleep forever," Hannah said.

"If you slept forever you'd never see anyone you know ever again," Zara said, picking her words carefully as she could tell they were heading onto tender grounds.

"Look, an agent can quit whenever they want cant they?" The girl insisted.

"Technically yes, but you're one of these best agents, only coming second to Lauren Adams, and she's practically the youngest black shirt ever!" Zara said.

"I dunno..." Hannah began, but she trailed off.

I know you don't really want to leave, so how about we have an agreement?" Zara said.

"What d'you mean?" Hannah said.

Zara saw that she had got the girls attention and carried on. "You have to promise not to leave CHERUB until Molly is found. Or if she is found before then you have to stay for a month. After that time if you decide to leave, you can."

Hannah hesitated for a minute, and then she put her hand out to Zara. "It's a deal," she said.

The teenager left and Zara went back to sitting at her desk, waiting for any information to come through. After about half an hour the phone rang and Zara leapt up to answer it. "Hello," she said, battling sleepiness.

"Zara," said a thick Scottish accent, which she recognised as Mac - CHERUB's former chairman.

"Oh thank god," she sighed. "Can I ask you for some advice?"

"If it's about Molly redwood, then no." He said. "I've already sorted it."

"Really?" She said stunned, and slightly confused. "When? How do you know about that anyway? How did you-"

"Zara Asker," He laughed, cutting off the reel of questions flying out of her mouth. "You haven't changed a bit since you were an agent. And Ewart told me. Said he needed my help to get you home. Apparently you've been sleeping on the couch in my office."

Zara laughed out loud when Mac referred to her office as his. He'd been out of the job for what? Nearly 4 years now? "So, have you actually found Molly, or what?"

"Well, we've located her, and made contact. But she's in a sticky situation. Kent Eastwood has kidnapped her and she's tied up in a warehouse in the middle of a business park. There aren't any cameras in the warehouse and it's only guarded in the day. The whole business park has practically no security at night apart from guards at the gate, but it's like a rabbit warren and you'd never find your way out at night." Mac said.

"Well what are we going to do about it?" she asked.

"There is one idea," Mac paused. "You know Hannah Finlayson?"

"Yes," Zara said, with some hesitation.

"Well, we thought that we could send her in, saying she's on work experience, to collect something from the warehouse which Molly is in." He said. "She would go in, collect a parcel which Ewart would have dropped off earlier. This is where the plan divides. If a guard follows her in to supervise her, she would follow plan A.

"What she would do is slide along the floor a small pack containing all the things Molly needs to escape; a pocket knife, a small handgun and an untraceable phone. It would also contain a small tracking device, which she could stick on to her, and we could see where she's going. We would then direct her using a small walkie talkie device, with earphones.

"Plan B is the plan that we're hoping to follow. It's much simpler, with Hannah cutting Molly free, and then the two girls departing together in one of the trucks that drives around the business park, collecting goods. This would b much simpler as we can just direct the girls through the truck radio and in the dark no one could they were just fourteen." Mac finished.

"Well looks like I don't have any decisions to make because you've done them for me! And that sounds like the best plan in the world," Zara said enthusiastically. "Except for one tiny detail. Kent Eastwood isn't who he says he is."