"Chapter 19 - The Annual Camping Trip/

"Jack returned to school on the Friday, Frank thought it best for him to stay in class for a full day, he knew Mrs King would be onto him if he didn't. Stark had taken Ewart in for questioning, but Ewart wasn't talking. Oscar, Rose and Carrie updated Jack throughout the day on what they had got out of Bruce Norris so far, and how the CHERUBs were behaving like they didn't know MI9 had picked up Bruce and Ewart. "So, Bruce is going to roll over, where does that leave him?" Jack asked as they sat in the canteen over lunch, "they're going to drop all the charges, he'll go back to CHERUB, face punishment there, no criminal charges, although I doubt CHERUB will ever trust him again." Rose said, Carrie pushed the food on her plate around, "I kind of feel bad for the guy, he thought he was helping, now he'll be forever labelled a snitch." Carrie said. The four of them looked up as Mr Flatley joined their table, "ah Jack, good to see you're feeling better" Jack smiled and carried on eating./

"At three thirty, Jack, Carrie, Rose and Oscar headed down to HQ, Stella was waiting for them, "Any luck with Ewart Asker?" Jack asked, Stella shook her head, "Still not talking, we're waiting for Moss' plane to land tonight, speak to him first, see if he can roll on Ewart." "When will you bring in James and Kyle?" Rose asked, Stella shrugged, "We need to dig through Zara's files and emails first, see if she knew about her husband, we don't want to bring those two in if it will alert her." The rest of the team were in agreement, "So what do we do now?" Oscar asked. "Keep working on the mission, find the Help Earth link to KORPS." The team nodded and Stella's phone rang, they waited for her to finish. "Gear up, Moss' plane is going to land at Heathrow in half an hour, he'll be debriefed on the journey back to CHERUB, we need to set up a roadblock before he gets back." Everyone nodded and started to pack their gear into their rucksacks./p

"They set up the roadblock a mile from the entrance to the CHERUB campus, they stopped each car as it went through checking licenses for each driver. A red sedan pulled up and Jack identified David Moss and Chloe Blake, he walked around to the other side of the car and knocked on the window, David rolled down the window, "David Moss?" He asked, David didn't reply, "David Moss, CHERUB agent 04751?" David looked up shocked someone knew his real identity. "Step out of the car and put your hands on the roof." Dave did as he was told and Jack called for Frank, the others continued to search cars and let them pass, "Do you have any sharp objects or anything that could hurt me whilst I do this search?" Jack asked, Dave shook his head and Jack began to pat him down, once Jack had turned out Dave's pockets, he pulled a set of handcuffs from his belt, "David Moss, I'm arresting you on suspicion of espionage and high treason, you do not have to say anything" Jack continued to recite Dave's rights as he put him in the MI9 car. He walked back over to Chloe, "you can go." He said letting the car pass, Chloe smiled and pulled away. Jack whistled and the rest of the team came over, "got him, let's shut this charade down" The rest of the team nodded and began dismantling the roadblock. Jack jumped in the car alongside Dave Moss and the car pulled away, headed for MI9 HQ.

"Dave was put in a single cell and Jack explained what was going on, Dave waived the rights to a guardian and a lawyer and turned on James, Kyle and Ewart. "Listen man, I was just doing it for my mates they needed someone who could easily translate into Russian. James' Russian is crap, he can hold a conversation, but man, he can't translate big documents like that." Dave said, "where does Ewart Asker fit into all this?" Jack asked, he had been recording the whole conversation, Dave was aware of this, in fact he insisted, he had less than a year left of CHERUB before he went off to university, he didn't want to get into trouble, unlike Bruce he had no problem being labelled a snitch, his university applications were complete, there was little left for him at CHERUB now. "Ewart was the one who got the documents for James, James went to Kyle, Kyle came to me. Ewart and James made some deal with Kazakov" "Who's Kazakov? The training instructor?" Jack asked, Dave nodded, "Kavakov's a gambler, he owes money to some guy, the documents were instead of a money drop." Jack nodded and left Dave alone in his cell, Dave was jetlagged and soon found himself asleep.

"Frank it's Jack, we need to bring in the training instructor Kazakov." Jack said, "I'm sorry Jack, he's taken a group of 10-year olds into the Amazon Rainforest for basic training, he won't be available for at least the next month." Frank replied,"Why can't we pull him like we pulled Moss?" Jack asked, "Because no one can reach them, and Kazakov is the only instructor left. The other one flew home with an injured kid three days ago." Jack put the phone down and went to tell the Head of MI9 the bad news./"The Head of MI9 had laid out a plan, Ewart and Dave would be released back to CHERUB campus on an ankle tag, they had also been given a mobile phone to check in every day, if they received anything from Kazakov or the buyer, they were to call. Ewart was still under investigation and still had charges pending, Dave also had charges pending, however they had reduced the charges to just accessory charges. She had also decided that they weren't to pull in James and Kyle, not until they had spoken to Kazakov.

""Ah Frank!" Mr Flatley said as he turned the corridor the following Monday, "This is for you, Jack's permission slip for the camping trip." He handed Frank a piece of paper, "I thought we'd make it a yearly thing" Frank nodded and put the slip into his pocket. He called the agents down to HQ,"What we got today? Help Earth? Korps? CHERUB?" Carrie asked hopefully, since they had started to dig into CHERUB as an organisation, they had stopped regularly communicating with the other team. The CHERUBs were starting to get suspicious, however they were told that they were working on another mission at the same time. "Not exactly" Frank said as he held Jack's permission slip up for the rest of the team, "Flatley's camping trip is coming up, same place as last year, there's going to be an information drop again. A simple find and receive package." The agents nodded, they often got missions like this that they were able to do on school trips. "Can we know who?" Oscar asked, Frank shrugged, "I'm sorry team, I don't know either, this has come from the Head" The agents returned to school and Jack was grabbed by Maddy, "At least its not a full moon this time" she laughed, Jack laughed too, "So who are you sharing with?" Rhydian asked, "Um I'm not sure yet mate, probably Oscar, we've got something to do" Rhydian nodded, and they separated for English class.

"They were comparing books for their upcoming English mock paper when Mr Jeffries walked in "Sorry can I borrow Jack for a minute?" He asked their teacher, she nodded, and Jack was taken into Mr Jeffries office. "Just called you in for a catch up." He said, Jack nodded and sat down on the other side of the desk, "You've missed a lot of school since coming back, what's been going on?" he asked, Jack shrugged, "Just not been very well Sir" he said. "Are you sure that's it, you know a lot of students say that when somethings going on, how's living with Mr London? Is that all okay?" Mr Jeffries said, it was clear he was concerned. Mr Jeffries was the one teacher that could throw the whole MI High project into question, as he was always on the agents case about how much school they were missing, he also somehow managed to always get himself involved in missions one way or another, when the project was put at St Hopes, he wasn't there, but Mrs King brought him in to try to bump up the schools exam grades. "It's okay, everything's cool" Jack replied. Mr Jeffries nodded, "Any contact with your family, I mean now Jana's back in Stoneybridge." Jack shook his head, "They left me for dead sir, I wouldn't want it even if they asked. Frank's my family now" Jack replied angrily, he didn't like talking about his parents, Frank was his family now, he adopted him, and Jack would be forever grateful for that. "I see, do you ever feel like you're not good enough, or anxious, or scared, or sad?" Mr Jeffries asked, it was clear to Jack that Mr Jeffries did care, but he was clearly reciting a mental health pamphlet. "I don't want to talk about stuff like that." Jack said, Mr Jeffries nodded, "we spoke before about that scar, what actually happened there?" he asked, Jack shook his head, "I want to go back to class now Sir" Jack replied as he stood up, Mr Jeffries realised that he had overstood the mark and let him go. Jack went straight down to HQ, where Frank, Stella and Stark were looking through Zara's emails, "Frank," Jack said close to tears, "Can we talk please" Frank nodded and Stella and Stark took their laptops through to the interrogation room, they both knew that it wasn't mission related, and that they should respect the family boundaries that Frank and Jack have. Jack explained the conversation he had just had with Mr Jeffries, "I've lied to you all Frank, my father, he didn't do this" Jack said pointing at the scar, "I did, just after you found me, you were round the campfire." Frank pulled Jack into a hug "It's okay kid," "will I get kicked out of MI9?" Jack asked, Frank shook his head, "not if I can help it, do you still feel like that?" Jack shrugged, "not really, just when Jeffries asked it just got me thinking." "Then you have nothing to worry about, your career is fine, we'll figure this out together, MI9 don't need to know." Frank replied./

"The team was stood on the yard at St Hopes waiting for the bus to arrive, it was the day of the camping trip, Frank and Jack had arrived earlier that the others to help Mr Flatley load the van, then they met with Carrie, Rose and Oscar. They still didn't know much about the information drop, all they knew was where the package was and where to take it – it wasn't anything that they needed to worry about, other agents were on that case. When they arrived at the campsite, Frank stayed to help set up before taking the van back to Stoneybridge, Jack was sharing a tent with Oscar, he found himself spending more time with the other agents than with the wolfbloods these days, not that he minded, he got time to focus on his work and bettering himself as an agent, and he felt that this showed through the praise that the alone was getting from Stark. It was late in the day; they had done the orienteering challenge and thankfully Mr Jeffries didn't keep Jack behind this time and were back in the camp. Jack was confused and pulled Oscar, Rose and Carrie away from the group, "Someone's here" he said, "CHERUB" Jack growled. The others were confused, "Coincidence?" Rose asked, Carries shook her head, "the information drop, who is it Jack?" she asked him, Jack shrugged, "It's not clear enough, they were here in the camp but they're long gone." "I'll call Frank, let him know what's going on" Oscar suggested, the others nodded in agreement, "I need to find out who, I've got an idea" Jack said, Oscar was on the phone to Frank and so didn't hear the plan, Jack reexplained the plan so that Oscar could hear. "Rose is going to call Stark, we're bringing the drop time forward, I'm going to get Rhydian, Maddy and Jana we'll come along as backup, the CHERUBs know us, they've fought us, we need backup, but we can't call anyone – they'll have to do" Oscar nodded and Jack went to get the wolfbloods. Jack returned with them moments later, Carrie had set the shower running and everyone was escorted to their tents, they waited for a few moments before running out. Jack, Jana, Maddy and Rhydian transformed and ran alongside the agents Jack leading the pack picking up the scent of the CHERUBs. They stopped at the drop site, the Wolfblood's positioning themselves strategically to cover the agents as they retrieved that package.

They got the package and started to trek to the cabin, suddenly Jack stopped, Jana, Maddy and Rhydian each stood in front of one of the agents, Jack growled and lowered into a fighting stance, Jana joined him up front, a twig snapped from behind one of the trees in front of them, they heard a gun click and dove out of the way. Maddy and Rhydian also heard it and pushed Carrie, Rose and Oscar to the ground, Jack ran towards the tree where the sound came from and the others saw a human fall to the ground with Jack on top of him. Oscar ran over and picked up the handgun that had been dropped and pointed it at the person, Jack kept him pinned and Rose pulled back the balaclava, and it was Kerry. "Stay on guard" Oscar ordered everyone, "There will be more." Rose tied Kerry to the tree and Jana alerted to another person 50 yards east. Jack and Jana took down that person, Oscar called Stark whilst Carrie tied Kyle to the tree next to Kerry "Stark we're being ambushed, we're a mile off from the cabin, requesting immediate backup."/

"The agents made a circle around the tree they had tied Kyle and Kerry to, "Get out of here!" Rose shouted to Maddy, Rhydian and Jana, "We've requested backup, they don't know about you, go!" The three wolfbloods ran off, had Kyle and Kerry had managed to untie themselves and launch a surprise attack, Rose and Carrie were able to counter the attack, Jack ran to help, he launched himself at Kerry who was the stronger fighter out of the two, he took her down again, whilst he was waiting for someone to deal with her, the backup had arrived, Kyle moved his attention into helping Kerry up, Jack had got off her to help Rose against another masked assailant, Jack couldn't place the scent of the person, however it was familiar, but he knew that it definitely wasn't James or Lauren. James was indeed there; he had positioned himself in a tree and hadn't been noticed by any of the agents. He took aim at Stark and cocked the rifle, Jack heard the sound, he looked up and saw James, James however was looking down the barrel, Jack made a quick calculation and dived at Stark. As they hit the floor, the gunshot rang out and they both saw the bullet hit the floor where they were just standing. Jack got off Stark and ran after James who was climbing down from the tree, he knocked the rifle from him and James started to run, Carrie, who was near Jack saw him chasing James and joined to help. Jack managed to get hold of James ankle, sinking his teeth in James fell to the floor screaming in pain. Jack let go and Carrie caught up, Carrie bent over trying to catch her breath when she heard the gunshot.