8: Paintball
Conveniently, George had forgotten all about his extra shift in the junior block, which meant he had to spend the following lunchtime begging Rose to let him off it so he could go paintballing.
"It's my only chance to see Letty before we both go on missions," he said. "I don't mind moving it to tomorrow or something, just not today."
"It's way too late, George, you should have told me yesterday," Rose said impatiently. "It's not very responsible of you to break promises you made."
"Miss, it's one day, please," George said, sounding desperate. "If I'm the only one who misses out, I'll look like a complete muppet."
Rose couldn't help smirking. "You've always looked like a complete muppet, to me," she laughed. "Okay, I'll swap it to tomorrow. But this is the final time you're allowed to change it. You miss it tomorrow, you run laps."
"Thank you so much," George said. "Now I've got to run if I'm gonna get lunch before afternoon lessons."
"One more thing," Rose added, and George screeched to a halt halfway out of her office door.
"Yes, miss?" George asked.
"I was asking your teachers for assignment work for you while you're away, and I discovered from your geography teacher that you've already got two late assignments," Rose said. "I want them both completed and handed in before your mission, or you don't go."
George ground his teeth. "But miss, Mrs Temple hates me for no reason," he complained. "I did the first assignment about erosion but she said it didn't have enough words, even though I know Ed's was shorter than mine and she never made him re-do it."
"George, this isn't a negotiation. Both assignments done and Mrs Temple satisfied, or you stay on campus and we send someone else," Rose told him firmly. "Now get out."
Between mission preparations, working in the junior block, paintballing and now extra homework, George's free time was filling up rapidly. He tried not to think too much about geography, telling himself he'd get to it tomorrow. For now, he joined in with the banter at dinner, which they had as soon as lessons were over to make the most of their time on the paintballing course.
"Which member of staff is supervising?" Rex asked. "I hate it when you get the ones who run around like referees enforcing all the rules."
"Nah, it's the summer," Ralph said. "It'll be one of the Cherubs who are back from uni and helping out on campus, and they're usually fun."
Beatrice speared a lump of chicken enthusiastically. "It's gonna be amazing," she said happily. "We've got the whole basic training gang except for Harry."
"I can't believe that jammy git has been on a mission in the Caribbean for ages," Rex said, shaking his head. "Some people are so lucky."
"I nearly got that one, but I'd only been back on campus a few days from my last mission," Ralph added, bitterly. "I bet he's on the beach every single day."
When they got to the paintballing arena, as expected, the staff member was a fit-looking white shirt back from uni, with thighs like tree trunks. George vaguely recognised her from a couple of training courses years before but couldn't think of her name, but it turned out Letty had been in her maths class in the olden days and the two of them, plus Jemima, caught up on some campus gossip whilst everyone else squabbled over the best paintball guns and checked over all their equipment.
"Okay, everyone," the white shirt said, clapping her hands together. "I'm Laura, for those of you who don't know. You've got three hours, so I've split it into six half-hour games. Three games of king-of-the-chopper, then three games of elimination. Since there are seven of you, we'll play in four teams and I'll make up the spare person."
George grinned. "Bagsy basic training teams," he said to everyone, and Letty gave him a fist bump.
"Oh no," Jemima complained, glaring at George, but everyone else agreed, so she and Rex reluctantly stood next to each other. That put Beatrice and Ralph together, whilst Ed got paired with Laura since Harry was absent.
"Okay, if everyone's ready. Remember, when you get hit, that's five minutes in the deadzone. Cheaters get laps, and yes, I get the final say," Laura said, leading the seven Cherubs out into the arena. "I'll set a sixty-second ceasefire for the beginning so you can move away from each other."
When the klaxon went, George and Letty turned left and set off around the perimeter of the paintball zone. King-of-the-chopper was a new game the Instructors had come up with: there was the metal shell of an old helicopter planted in the middle of a field on the furthest side of the arena. Inside it had a bluetooth system that tracked everyone's helmets, and if you were inside the shell, it started racking up points for every ten seconds you stayed there. The downside was that you were extremely exposed in the chopper and an easy target for people hiding in the trees around the field. The trick was to eliminate opponents early instead of running straight to the chopper, but if you left it too late, you couldn't get enough points inside the time limit. George hadn't played for a couple of months, but Letty had and she set the strategy.
"There's a big tree in the far corner of the arena which has a decent view over the field," Letty explained as they jogged. The dry weather meant the ground was hard, but there was a lot of undergrowth in the trees which made running harder and thin branches whipped at George's legs.
"One of us in the tree, the other near the field?" George asked.
"That's it, sure. There's no foolproof method but if I go in the tree, whenever you hear me do a single whoop, it means someone's going for the chopper. Double whoop means you run to the chopper. It worked real well for me and Jemima last time."
"Well, won't Jemima know about it, then?" George asked.
"Probably, but her and Rex are going to argue so much, I wouldn't be surprised if they shoot each other, first," Letty grinned.
They tried the tree strategy in all three games. In the first one, Ed hid in the chopper from the start whilst Laura ran around eliminating everyone with her extra speed and fitness until Rex got a lucky shot and eliminated her, but too late to stop them winning. In the second game, the tree worked perfectly, and after George got three eliminations in the space of a minute, Letty did a double whoop and he managed to survive nearly ten minutes in the chopper, enough to win. The third time, Jemima sneaked up on Letty's lookout spot and shot her point-blank, then tricked George with a fake double-whoop. He and Letty met up again in the deadzone, comparing paint marks.
"No point wearing ourselves out in this game, we've got no chance now," George said, peeling back his jacket sleeve to check his watch. "What do you reckon for the elimination matches?"
Letty shrugged. "I think most people like to try and lay low until near the time limit and then go hunting, but it's so boring sitting around."
"All-out attack?" George grinned. "I like the sound of that."
"Worst case, we get to chill out here in the deadzone without the stuffy helmets," Letty said.
Predictably, they lost the first two games. Laura was just too good at paintballing to give them a chance, especially since she seemed to be particularly good at taking accurate shots through the trees where people were hiding. In the final game, it was getting close to sunset and seeing people through the low sun was getting to be difficult. As George was patrolling through the trees close to the deadzone, he heard a whistle and saw Rex waving frantically at him.
"Truce!" he hissed. George jogged over, expecting a trick.
"Listen, we're getting thrashed by Laura and Ed," Rex complained as they lay under a bush. "Jemima has made a pact with Beatrice and Ralph that we're just going to hunt Laura down and keep eliminating her. You in?"
"Might as well be," George agreed. "I'll tell Letty if I see her."
"I think Jemima's already seen her. Beatrice is going to act as a decoy in the chopper field. You take up a position somewhere on the outskirts and wait until you see Laura coming to deal with her, then take her out if you can," Rex explained. "You'll know Beatrice's signal when you hear it."
It turned out, Beatrice's signal was for her to run across to the chopper, climb onto the roof, and start singing at the top of her lungs, firing paintballs at random into the trees. George had taken a position at the furthest side of the field, assuming that was where Laura would go to be safest, and he noticed Ralph taking up a position ten metres away, poised and ready. Despite the racket Beatrice was making, Laura didn't appear for a few minutes, but then there was a sudden burst of firing from the far side of the field, which missed Beatrice but one shot splattered on the metal of the chopper not far from her legs.
George was annoyed he'd picked the wrong side for the action, but there was a brief exchange of fire over in that direction and he saw Ralph getting to his feet to go and investigate. He'd only been up for a moment when paint slammed him in the back, and when George whipped his head round to see where it had come from he got hit square in the chest.
"Unlucky, boys," Laura laughed, jogging past George and eliminating Beatrice with two well-placed shots which sent her tumbling off the chopper. "You'll have to get up a lot earlier to catch me out with a plan like that."
After their paintballing humiliation, George made the effort to get up early the next day to see Letty off. He recognised the bald head and glasses of John Jones and exchanged a wave as the mission controller pulled around one of the pool cars.
"Stay safe, okay?" Letty asked, giving him a hug.
"You too," George said, his voice strained as Letty bear-hugged him. "And anyway, I'm sure infiltrating a violent drug gang is as safe as it gets."
Letty managed a smile. "Don't let Rex get you into any bad situations," she said, then took a few steps towards the car once John had parked it.
"You forgot your suitcase," George said, pointing to her roller case that she'd left next to him.
"Oh, I assumed you would put that in the trunk for me. Chop chop, servant boy," Letty grinned, sliding into the passenger seat and leaving George to grumble as he rolled the case over to the back of the car. John jumped out to open the boot for him.
"Women, eh?" he joked, giving George a wink as he moved his briefcase to one side to let George get the case in.
"Why do we keep putting up with them?" George replied, shaking his head.
George procrastinated his geography assignments, putting them off until Sunday when he thought he'd have free time to do them after a footy match in the morning and Sunday lunch in the cafeteria. When he got back to his room, stuffed full, wondering whether he had time for an hour on the PlayStation before he really got down to work, his phone started ringing.
"Hi Flora, what's up?" George asked, settling onto the sofa and grabbing his controller.
"Hiya George, listen, the staff at Albert Park have got their wires crossed and thought you'd be coming this weekend and starting school tomorrow. Are you open to leaving for the mission in the next hour?"
The TV had just flicked on so George hurriedly switched it off again. "Yeah, should be, I just need to pack a few bits."
"Rex has already said he's good to go. Trains are a bit useless on a Sunday so I'll book a pool car and meet you at the main entrance in an hour's time."
"See you then," George said happily, before realising he had a problem. "Oh, um, I have a little overdue-homework issue, actually."
Flora sighed audibly. "I'll speak to Rose and get you out of it. This is why you're supposed to be up to date with your work," she scolded.
"I always said you were the best mission controller," George said gratefully as he punched the air. "See you in a bit."
