"Chapter 16 - Doubts/p
l"Jack sat outside Stark's office waiting for him to get back, his secretary came over and told him that Stark would be out of the office for the next few hours, so Jack called Frank, "Frank," Jack said, "I think I've done something, I don't know if its for good or not." "Jack, where are you? What's happened? You've been unreachable for hours." "I'm at HQ waiting for Stark." Jack said regretfully, "What's going on Jack? What does Stark want with you?" Frank asked, "I went to Stark this morning, something wasn't right, I've done something terrible Frank." Jack said regretfully. "Tell his secretary to get him to come here when he gets back, you come here, let's talk" Jack nodded, and repeated Franks message to Stark's secretary./p
"The whole team was waiting for Jack to arrive, when he exited the lift, he saw that the CHERUB teens were also there, as he stepped out, everyone turned around to look at him, Jack shook his head and headed back up the lift. Everyone was confused, they were studying the blueprints found on the hard drive before Jack had come down, Frank's phone beeped, "keep working out how this could work, I need to talk to my son." He said as he put his phone back in his pocket. As the lift came up, there was a knock on the store room door, Frank opened the door, "Ah Mr London, I believe this belongs to you" Mr Jeffries said as he pointed to Jack sat on the bench outside, "Could you please make sure he attends his lessons tomorrow." Frank nodded as Mr Jeffries walked away, Frank sat down next to Jack, who stood up and walked away, Frank was confused as they headed to the dark room, Jack checked it was free of the wolfbloods before letting Frank inside. "What's going on Jack?" Frank asked./p
""You know how you always tell us to put the greater good first?" Jack asked, "What did you do?" Jack pulled out his communicator and took out the batteries, Frank was concerned but did the same, down in HQ, everyone reacted to the loud screeching it had just caused, they all wanted to know what was going on, but Jack had just stopped them from listening in. "I sold out the CHERUBs to Stark. I told him I was worried about the mission progress, said we could do it on our own. I've been getting close to Lauren, not for my own benefit like everyone seems to think" Frank nodded, "Meinir?" he asked, Jack nodded, he still missed her dearly. "Something seemed off about them, everything was fine for like that first week, then things started to change. So I said to Stark we could do this on our own, because it was like they were holding something back." "Jack this mission relies on interagency cooperation, we can't backstab each other" Frank said, Jack shook his head. "Stark said to find out ifs my hunch was correct, so I downloaded the information off their laptops, and I found a lot of documents relating to Segolia, and to Wolfbloods." Frank looked concerned, "Jack, we all have to put our feelings aside sometimes" Jack shook his head again, "Frank, they've been following Evans and Help Earth for years, they had information about the raid and KORPS, they've all said, even Zara, who's at the top of their organisation said they didn't know about KORPS, they were all surprised when they went to the warehouse, but they knew. So many people died because they sat on that information, they were tracking Baelish and there are hundreds of photos of me, Oscar in disguise and Baelish all the way back to the first Mockingbird mission, all have been analysed trying to find out Oscar's identity and there are plans on John Jones laptop for a mission that would have had a CHERUB agent put in St Hopes to get close to Oscar to take down Baelish. They could have ended us, and they sat on that information. And on top of that, they've got a leak somewhere. I don't know who's laptop this came off, but there's a back door into the CHERUB system, I found reports and briefs from all the missions relating to Evans and help Earth, and they've all been done by the same couple of agents. James, and Lauren, and Zara's husband. Then there's this." Jack said as he gave his phone to Frank, showing him a picture of the piece of fabric he found in the cutlery draw. "I recognised the scent, so I went through the archives. It was at the warehouse. There's a leak in that organisation that goes to the highest level. They knew about Segolia, they knew about Wolfbloods, they knew about the raid, the Mockingbird mission, hell Frank they even know what me Oscar, Rhydian and Jeffries were poisoned with, we haven't even been able to identify the poison, and it was me and Oscar who were poisoned."/p
"Frank sat back in the chair, unsure what to do with the information, he flicked through the documents in the spy pod. Jack was right, there was a lot of evidence of a leak, and a lot of evidence that the other team knew about the raid, where Oscar was lucky to escape. "Why'd you go to Stark first?" Frank asked slightly offended, Jack sat down next to him, "because I didn't want to disappoint you if I was wrong." Frank smiled, "and I know Stark didn't trust them either, he was easy to convince" "Still as cunning as the day I found you. Exploit the weak link" Frank laughed as he ruffled Jack's hair, "come on, let's go to Stark together." Frank said standing up, "the others?" Jack asked, Frank smiled and called HQ, "Ah, Carrie, don't react, there's a security breach, keep going at the minute, but once our visitors leave, do a full security sweep then meet us at MI9 HQ – Jack'll fill you in then."/p
"Stark still wasn't in the office, but the Head of MI9 had requested to see the team to see how the mission was progressing, the team was quiet and avoided a lot of her questions until Stark entered. He looked at Jack, Jack nodded, and Stark smiled slightly. "Ma'am, I think Agent London has something you need to see." Jack stood up and plugged his spy pod into the projector, "I went to Chief Agent Stark this morning with concerns about the mission, more specifically the interagency nature of the mission, I felt the CHERUBs were holding out on us, so under orders, I gathered information form their house," The Head of MI9 stood up, "On whose orders? Who signed that warrant, they are our sister agency, who authorised this?" Jack looked at Stark, "I took it to the intelligence minister Ma'am, he signed the order" The Head of MI9 nodded and sat back down, allowing Jack to continue. "Ma'am, here's a folder of all the original documents that I pulled so you and the intelligence minister can verify the documents. Here's a backdoor into the CHERUB database, it's a weak point in the system that allowed me access in under three seconds, also here is all the data they've collected on us. They knew about the raid, they could have prevented it or warned us, but Oscar was nearly killed, they know about KORPS, SKUL and Segolia, they know about Wolfbloods, and there are documents on every MI9 mission both active and past. Then there is this" Jack enlarged the photograph of the bit of fabric, "this came from someone who was at the raid on the warehouse, stuffed at the back of the kitchen draws." As Jack continued his explanation into what he had found, Rose was ordered back to HQ to do a comprehensive security sweep, Frank called the intelligence minister, and Carrie was sent to find Chief Agent Stella Knight./p
The whole team reconvened a few hours later and after a meeting between, Jack, The Intelligence Minister, and the Head of MI9. Rose was confident that their security hadn't been compromised, and they had taken stringent methods to ensure that they hadn't given away the location of their base, the CHERUBs knew it was somewhere on the St Hopes premises, but nothing more. When they were all allowed back into the same room, the intelligence minister thanked them for the work that they were currently doing, and praised Jack highly for finding a leak in one of his services before leaving. The Head of MI9 explained what they were going to do next. "Frank, Carrie, Rose and Oscar, head back to school, keep going on as if this never happened, but be cautious about what is going on and what you know, Stark, you're the point of contact here, Knight and London, you leave for the CHERUB campus in the morning, the intelligence minister as ordered you go in to do a comprehensive security sweep, every single room and piece of equipment is to be checked, understood?" Stella nodded, Jack raised his hand, "But they know me?" The Head of MI9 smiled, "the only people who have seen your wolf form are here" "What about Zara?" "Miss Asker will know when you two and the intelligence minister turn up at her front door tomorrow morning."/p
Back at home, Jack started packing for his trip, Frank joined him in his room, "When you get back, we can spruce this up a bit, paint it anyway you like," Jack nodded, "I'm sorry I didn't come to you first" Frank shook his head, "I understand" they both sat down on Jacks bed, "So what will you tell the school?" he asked Frank, who shrugged his shoulders, "Say you're sick I guess" Jack threw the clothes into the holdall on the floor, "I'm gonna miss you" Frank patted him on the back, "Two days, three at the most, I'll still be here when you get back, comms will still work, I got you this" Frank said handing Jack a little brown box, "transform and ill put it on" Jack nodded and did as he was told, Frank took the object out of the box, another collar, Jack thought, Frank smiled and began tapping his watch, it was morse code, anything said over his communicator would be transformed into morse code for when he was in wolf form. The doorbell went and Jack sniffed, Frank looked out of the bedroom window, it was Stella, Frank let her in, Jack stayed in wolf form, Stella still wasn't used to Jack in wolf form, so he thought it best to stay in it so she could, she too came bearing gifts, unfortunately when he saw it, he wished he was human again. Out of her bag, Stella pulled a dog jacket bearing the words, 'Security' and 'do not pet'. Jack sniffed the jacket and turned his nose up at it, at least when he wore it during the Parliament bomb plot mission he had Oscar to put it on him, Stella held up the jacket and looked at Jack, who simply stared back at her, "Sit?" She asked him, unsure if that was the right thing to do, Jack growled by ultimately sat and let her put the jacket on him. After making sure it still fit him, she took the jacket off and Jack returned to human form, "I guess you're calling the shots then?" he asked her, Stella shook her head, "I'll be following your lead, just stay in wolf form until we're in the hotel." Jack nodded, "Won't a wolf look odd?" he asked, Frank shook his head, "you've never seen what you look like?" Jack shook his head, Frank led Jack into his bedroom, Jack found it odd being in there, it was like he was invading, Frank asked him to transform and Jack found himself looking at himself in the full length mirror in Franks room. He was small, red, brown and white, he spun around a few times and stood on his hind legs before jumping up at Frank. Frank laughed and they went back downstairs, "That was weird" Jack said, "So more large dog than wolf, I always felt I was looking up to everyone else in the pack."/p