25. BRIEFING
As requested, Alfie crossed campus towards the mission preparation building with the card Allison had given him grasped tightly in his hand. His mind was racing as to what he could have possibly been chosen for and surprised he'd even been considered at all. Guess the only way he would find out would be to actually go to the mission briefing.
He swiped himself in and was greeted by a banana-shaped corridor running its entire length with seemingly around twenty offices and special equipment rooms off the sides. The two most luxurious officers belonging to the senior mission controllers, he only knew Zara Asker out of the pair though as he looked around the place. Alfie didn't have to wait for long however because almost as soon as he stepped inside the building, a young woman with long blonde hair tugged up into a ponytail and square-framed glasses stepped outside one of the offices and met his gaze.
A kindly smile broke out across the woman's face as she held out her hand. "Alfie Swan – I wondered where you'd got to," Gennie Thomas nodded as Alfie reached out to shake. "It's nice to finally meet you."
"Finally?" Alfie asked confusedly.
"When I started planning for this mission, you had just only finished basic training," she explained. "I'm quite new to the job so I asked a few handlers for recommendations; Allison and Meryl spoke very highly of you."
"I'm obviously not great enough to be recruited on any recent missions," Alfie scoffed. "All of my friends who did basic training with me have already been on missions."
Gennie smirked. "All good things come to those who wait."
"I guess." Alfie mumbled.
Gennie gestured back towards her office door and Alfie followed her through, taking a seat in front of a large desk to which sat a laptop and two files. But Alfie wasn't the only agent in the office; there was an older girl dressed in a navy T-shirt and shorts. Alfie thought she looked around fourteen/fifteen-years-old with shoulder length blonde hair and brown eyes. She smiled at him as he walked in.
"Alfie, let me introduce you to your new sister – Karen Granger," Gennie said with a smile. "Karen, this is Alfie Swan, a new agent here at CHERUB."
Karen leaned over and smiled warmly at him, offering her hand. "Nice to meet you," she said. "Not too scared about your first mission, are you?"
They shook as he nodded. "A little bit," he told them embarrassingly.
Gennie shrugged. "It's only natural; I'd be concerned if you weren't at least a little nervous. It shows that you care – anyway," she passed along two files across the desk, towards them. "Take a read of this and tell me what you think."
**CLASSIFIED**
MISSION BRIEFING FOR KAREN GRANGER & ALFIE SWAN
THIS DOCUMENT IS PROTECTED WITH A RADIO
FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION TAG.
ANY ATTEMPT TO REMOVE IT FROM THE MISSION
PREPARATION BUILDING WITH SET OFF AN ALARM.
DO NOT PHOTOCOPY OR MAKE NOTES.
UK firearm laws
Firearm laws in the UK have been continually restricted since around the late nineteenth century. The very first 'right to bear arms' was brought about in 1689 and had been untouched until 1870 when the first licence was introduced for anyone who wanted to carry a gun outside their own home. Ever since then, more and more laws have been introduced that further limited the freedom of owning and possessing a gun.
The Firearms Act of 1968 consolidated the already existing laws brought about in 1920 and 1937 as well as giving the Home Office the right to set fees for shotgun licenses. But these laws were once again changed after two tragedies struck the UK only nine years apart. As a result of the Hungerford massacre in August 1987, the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988 was passed. This law banned semi-automatic and pump-action rifles, weapons that had fire explosive ammunition, short shotguns with magazines as well as elevated pump-action and self-loading rifles. It also made registration mandatory for shotguns which were required to be kept in secure storage.
Stricter controls were introduced after the 1998 killings in Dunblane, in which the Conservative government at the time drew up the legislation that banned handguns above .22 calibre. However when the Labour Party came to power after their general election victory, they introduced Firearms (Amendment) (No.2) Act 1997, which further outlawed .22s as well.
As a response to a series of high-profile shootings, the most recent law passed relating to firearms was the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006. This act made the manufacturing, importation or selling of realistic imitation guns an offence as well as doubling the maximum sentence for carrying an imitation gun to a total of twelve months and made it a crime to fire an air weapon beyond the boundary of any premise. This also had the additional law that increased the age limit for buying or possessing an air weapon from 17 to 18.
Alfred Albach
Alfred 'Alfie' Albach was born on the 6th of January 1973 in Ingolstadt, Bavaria in Germany to a struggling family of five and was the youngest of three other brothers (Harvey, Markus and William). From a young age, Albach was always shown as bright and intelligent, surpassing most of his brothers; education wise. Albach's father, in search for more substantial work and recognising the potential of his youngest son, used up most of the income the family received and moved them to a small town in North Carolina, USA where Albach later attended school.
1991 – During his time in America, his parents opened a small antique/pawn shop in the hopes of obtaining a source of income and provide a safe home for their children. However, this plan was quickly dissolved in 1990, when they went bankrupt with lack of income and costly renovation schemes in the hopes to attract more customers. The Albach family was struggling to cope and eventually, the two youngest boys; William and Alfred resorted to crime in order to bring in some money. Alfred dropped out of school in 1991 and began to work selling and delivering drugs for a generous sum of money. Eventually he was caught and sentenced to jail for thirty months for being caught in possession of illegal drugs but refused to tell the local police department anything about the origins of these drugs.
1993 – After coming out of jail, Alfred moved in with his youngest brother Harvey in a medium sized apartment in the city of Charlotte, working a part-time job in order to get back on his feet again as well as attending weekly rehab sessions as requested by the police.
1995 – Alfred and his brother William applied for a VISA to the UK which was grudgingly accepted under the agreement that any crime committed by the pair, no matter how small, will result in them becoming extradited back to US. The brothers settled down in the coastal city of Southampton in the south of England and began to work for a small shipment company entitled Brizo at the docks. The pair became friendly with the elderly owner Mr Horace Noland and the man accordingly almost immediately took a liking to them both.
1996 – Alfred married his wife Hayley Messenger, further solidifying his citizenship in England.
1998 – The death of Horace Noland in the winter of 1998 came as quite a shock to the majority of the workers within his company. His will was released shortly after his death which accordingly left all of his shares and company to Alfred Albach when it was revealed that Mr Noland had no children or other potential heirs to pass his fortune onto. There was a small investigation into the causes of the man's death before it was eventually confirmed as 'natural' and the case was later closed.
The Brizo Company was later rebranded and soon name Alpheus with the appointment of Albach. The company began attracting the attentions of businesses local and even further and it was soon expanding to other parts of England with the opening of more warehouses.
2000 – Alfred's first child Devona Albach was born.
The shipment company was increasing in popularity but not fast enough for Alfred who made several attempts to improve the business such as purchasing bigger ships to export larger quantities of cargo. This payment took a considerable amount of money out of the overall Alpheus fund totals but still the company wasn't getting the amount of attention Albach wanted.
2003 – Hayden Albach, Alfred's final child is born.
2014 – The Alpheus Company's reputation drops even further when one of their ships containing expensive cargo, disappeared whilst crossing over the English Channel to France. The main Southampton-based Alpheus Warehouse accordingly lost communication with one of their smaller vessels and was unable to locate its whereabouts again. As well as causing a huge blow financially to the company from this event, companies began to turn away from using Alpheus to ship their merchandise across Europe.
To keep his company up and running, Albach made desperate grasps at money-saving schemes such as shutting down many warehouses across the country, leading to the redundancy of thousands of British workers. He also sold the majority of his smaller modern merchant ships but even with these attempts, the Alpheus Company appeared to be on the brink of bankruptcy.
Today – Many people, including the neighbouring shipment companies that also occupy the majority of Southampton Docks, were surprised by Alpheus' massive bounce back into the competition. Alfred rebranded the company again, returning the business to its original title of the Brizo Company. This random burst of fortune caught the attentions of the police and even more so when the company's ships were sighted on the coast of America when the business was supposed to be solely European based. Crime has began to skyrocket in the area, with there being several armed robberies occurring throughout the city as well as the increasing amount of arrests of people in possession of Class A drugs.
There is a suspicion that Albach has somehow resorted to illegally importing several items including firearms and drugs in order to increase his profit and effectively save his company.
Southampton Docks
Southampton is the largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire, England and is situated approximately seventy-five miles south-west of London. It is home to one of the most major ports of England and is the closest city to the New Forest. It has a current estimate population of 254,651.
Out of all the important sections that Southampton is well known for, such as its popular city centre, train lines and airports, the city's most well known aspect is the docks. The first dock to be opened was in 1840 and was referred to as 'The Gateway to the Empire.'
From 1904 to 2004, parts of the docks were shipbuilding yards which built and repaired ships used in the two World Wars and became a major employer within the city. Famous ships such as the RMS Titanic set sail from here and is the home port for many transatlantic passenger services operated by Cunard. The Blue Riband liner, are known for boats such as RMS Queen Mary and her running mate RMS Queen Elizabeth all made their home there. In 1968, Southampton Docks also became home to the flying boats of Imperial Airways. Southampton Container Terminals first opened in 1968 and has continued to expand.
Recent Armed Robberies and Rise of Class A Drugs
A few weeks ago, four armed robberies took place all throughout Southampton ranging to local shops and even a small bank. When the CCTV footage was re-watched by the authorities they believe that the firearms used by the assailants are all currently prohibited in the UK.
There has also been a rise in the number of arrests of people in the possession of Class A drugs within the city. Drugs such as cocaine, ecstasy, heroin, LSD, methadone and methamphetamine has had an worrying escalating rise within the city, with all the possessions withholding information as to what and where the source is currently coming from.
Brief connections have been made between the robberies, the sudden rise of drugs in the city and the Brizo Company but it cannot be proved or backed up with the substantial evidence needed to form a full conviction against Alfred Albach and his brother.
THE CHERUB MISSION
A female and male agent, between the preferred ages of fourteen/fifteen and eleven/twelve, will move into one of the suburbs in Southampton with mission controller Gennie Thomas and pose as her children. They will be required to attend Norwood Community College with the target of befriending DEVONA ALBACH and HAYDEN ALBACH in order to gather as much information as possible about Alfred Albach's sudden bounce back into the shipping business and rise to the top of most shipment companies in the area. With hopes that the evidence to be potentially required will be enough to give Albach the most probable jail sentence.
THE ETHICS COMMITTEE ACCEPTED THIS MISSION ON A 4-0 VOTE BUT REQUEST THAT THE AGENTS CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING:
This mission has been classified as LOW RISK, whilst the possibility of being exposed to violence and illegal drugs is considerably unlikely, the agents are to be reminded that they will be excluded from CHERUB immediately if they willingly use any drugs declared as Class A.
When he finally stopped reading and looked up again, he noticed Gennie Thomas watching them patiently from behind her desk. Alfie couldn't help but think Gennie reminded Alfie of Allison, she could be nice and kind but when you got on her nerves, all hell went down. She was around the age of her early thirties and looked very serious in her formal attire. "Do you both think you understand it all?" she inquired once she was sure she had both Alfie's and Karen's attentions full attention.
Karen nodded. "I have the objective of befriending Alfred's daughter Devona."
Gennie turned to him.
"Um," he quickly glanced his eyes over the briefing again. "I have to befriend Hayden Albach, so we can try and gather the necessary information to arrest Alfred."
Their mission controller looked pleased. "On your file it says you can speak almost fluent German, that'll be helpful when forming a friendship with Hayden – Alfie. And Karen, you've been learning the language since you were a red shirt – one of the reasons why I picked the pair of you for this task," she informed them. "Although both of them were born in the UK, Albach brought them up to learn both English and German."
"Will our name change?" Alfie asked.
"Your first names will remain the same, but both of your seconds names will be changed to Braun seeing as you'll be posing as my children."
"That's a German surname. Do you speak German too?"
"Not fluently," Gennie smiled and continued. "This mission shouldn't be taken anymore than a month. You'll be enrolled in the same school as Devona and Hayden so you'll have the chance of getting closer to the Albach family. Hopefully, in the end, you'll have access to their home and maybe even onto the man's computer."
"That shouldn't be too hard, I guess."
"So, I take it both of you agree to take the mission?"
"I would never say no to a mission," Karen nodded and then cocked her head to the side, patting Alfie on the back. "Guess I'll have to get used to having a little brother."
"And Alfie?"
"Of course I do," Alfie grinned. "I'd be a moron to not take it."
Gennie laughed and began piling up the files back up onto her desk. "I'm glad to hear that because I've scheduled for us to leave campus by one today so you've both only got around three hours to pack up and say goodbye to your friends. I'll meet you down at the entrance of the main building."
~oOo~
Alfie practically ran the way back to his room on the other side of campus, hardly believing his luck. His knowledge of German had gotten him this mission and he silently thanked his mum for the lessons when he was younger. He stepped out of the elevator with the intention of getting everything packed quickly so that he would have time to spare and say goodbye to his friends before he left for the month, only pausing when he spotted Harry leaning against the door.
The boy had a sombre expression on his face until he noticed Alfie and immediately brightened. "Hey, I was wondering as to where you'd got to."
Alfie smiled. "I was at the mission preparation building, I've got a mission."
He noticed that Harry's smile seemed to falter slightly before returning back to normal again. Alfie pretended he didn't notice and reached for his door. "That's great," Harry said cheerfully. "When you leaving?"
"Today, we're leaving at one but my mission controller said we won't be gone any longer than a month," Alfie told him. "I'll be seeing you again in no time. You can tell me how you're getting on with those punishments Allison dished out for you and Harriet."
"Don't remind me," Harry grumbled and then winced. "Look, I'm sorry we almost dragged you down with us dude and that I tried to punch you –"
"Honestly, its fine," Alfie waved him off with a laugh. "How's your hand?"
Harry lifted up his bandaged hand. "It's okay, it's what I deserve I guess," then he sighed. "But I feel so guilty. We could've prevented you from getting any missions."
"Well, you haven't because they just gave me one," Alfie placed a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Really, it's fine. You can help me pack if you want, probably not much fun though. I also need to remind myself to say goodbye to Grace, Harriet and Frankie."
Harry smiled and followed Alfie inside his room.