Chapter 25 - Breakthrough
The team was sat in the canteen of MI9 headquarters, they couldn't question the others, protocol states that the interviewer needs to be one rank superior to the interviewee, and the four of them held the same rank as the CHERUB agents. They could question Dave and Bruce, as Bruce was just an informant, and Dave's charges had unofficially been processed. The four teens decided to work on their coursework whilst they were waiting for any updates, a MI9 social worked joined them, she was a good help for their work, she was also waiting for the final updates on the ten year olds. They were also joined by one of the psychiatrists assessing the kids, over the course of the next few hours they were joined by various other members of staff, all waiting for the same outcome. "How did the evaluations go by the way?" Carrie asked the psychiatrist, he shook his head, "not good, we wouldn't send you guys into the field like that – three of them begged not to be sent back, we're going to sort something for that, the others – well that's up to the ethics committee" Carrie hung her head, she felt awful for the kids. The rest of the MI9 staff were helping with the teenager's coursework, they were happy to help and the teenagers were happy to have their coursework finished weeks before the deadline. Things were going smoothly, staff rotated round and some staff left and others joined, but they all stopped and looked when the door to the holding cells beeped open, Bruce Norris and a social worker exited, and Bruce freely walked over to the group of MI9 staff, one of the adult agents stood up and made space for him to sit down. "What you working on?" he asked, Jack smiled and turned the paper round, "The history of the British Empire" the other three followed Jack's lead, "Life and Death in Hamlet" Rose said, "How Romeo and Juliet has lost meaning in modernisation" Carrie said, Oscar also turned his paper around, "A study of frogs" Bruce studied Oscar's workbook, "Really?" Oscar smiled slightly and nodded, "Yeah, our staff are weird". Bruce smiled, "I've had weirder" Oscar tilted his head in confusion, "My biology teacher wanted us to perform an autopsy on an actual human" "seriously?" one of the social workers asked, Bruce nodded, "What do OFSTED say?" Rose asked, "What's OFSTED?" Bruce replied, Rose excused herself and went to find the Head of MI9, she was interviewing Zara Asker and felt that she should be asked about this. Bruce stayed with the MI9 staff for a few hours before a security agent entered the canteen and brought an unidentified person over to the table where everyone was gathered. "Bruce" She said, "Hi, I'm Jane Carlton, I'm an emergency foster carer" Bruce smiled and stood up from the table, he shook Janes hand, "do you have anything you're bringing with you?" Jane asked him, Bruce shook his head, "We'll stop at the 24 hour Tesco on the way home, come on" Jane said, "Bye guys, thanks for everything" Bruce said as he followed Jane and the security agent out the door. "At least we've got one happy ending" Oscar said, "Don't hold your breath, we've still got to get his things and try to figure out how to get around the CHERUB expulsion policy." Jack sighed, he wanted Bruce to be happy, but he knew it would be a long road.
The teenagers went back to their work, when Stark came rushing in, "We've got a confession" he said gleefully, the four teenagers leapt out of their chairs and ran into the observation room, where they saw Kerry in tears in one room, and Ewart signing paperwork in another, "So what happened?" Rose asked, "James and Kyle are stewing, we've presented everything to them, Kerry's rolled on them the lawyers are working out a charge, but will be pushing for house arrest on the CHERUB campus, Ewart Askers also confessed, he'll be put into witness protection whilst in prison and when he comes out, the lawyers have worked out a ten year deal hopefully the judge will agree." Stark said. The four teenagers high fived each other, "Zara and Kazakov?" Oscar asked, "Zara's back in her cell, she is still denying everything, Kavakov's been restrained, we'll be removing him to Broadmoor until the trial."" Broadmoor? But he's sane?" Jack said, Stark shook his head, "played it up didn't he, went all psychotic, medics and psychiatrists came in and sedated him, they'll be moving him in the morning." "And David Moss?" Jack asked, "he'll be arraigned in the morning, most likely he'll make bail, and we'll collect his things from the campus along with Bruce's and Mr Moss will move into a safe house until the trial where he'll most likely get an accessory charge and do a few months which will take him up to the start date of his university course." Stark said.
The four teenagers returned to St Hopes on Monday, there was nothing more they could do at this point, they had two confessions, MI9 couldn't press the others further the 24 hours were up, and so they were arraigned and bailed until the trial. They felt a little disheartened, they wanted an open and shut case with confessions from them all, Jack felt conflicted, he wanted to believe that Lauren didn't have anything to do with it all, but Kerry threw her under the bus with the rest of them, but they had no physical evidence linking her to the case. "Good morning" Mr Jeffries said as he entered the room, the agents were in for another boring day at St Hopes.