9: Flight

The school didn't start until the second week of September so the mission was set to start a week earlier, giving the agents time to get over their jet lag and learn where everything was in the neighbourhood before things really got started. In the last two weeks of August, George did brush-up sessions on gathering information from targets' houses and roleplayed various situations that he might get into with Riley. Katie sometimes joined him, but mostly she was working in the archives; now that she was no longer suspended from missions, she had to work for nine hours a day cataloguing paper files and digitising them, which sounded really boring.

Letty, Ralph and Beatrice were all jealous of George getting a juicy mission in Australia, but Ralph departed on a mission before George's started and Beatrice was confined to campus after an incident at the local bowling alley, so George was glad he was going somewhere and that, by the time he got back, campus would be a bit livelier.

"I don't think you can come to the airport in case someone's watching the flight," George told Letty as he finished his packing. Their flight was that evening and it was just starting to get dark outside. Letty was in his room to help, but she'd spent most of the time finishing the microwaveable pancakes from his fridge and complaining about having nothing to do when he'd gone.

"Makes sense," Letty said, wiping syrup off her lips. "Did they say how long the mission will take?"

George rolled his eyes. "I've told you at least twice, they think it'll take up to six months."

His instructions were to pack summer clothing, but he could fit practically all of the clothes he owned into one suitcase so he'd just packed everything. They had to maintain the idea that he and Katie were moving to live with their aunt in Australia, so they could only take one suitcase each.

"Do you think I could squeeze my PlayStation in somewhere?" George asked, looking at it sadly.

Letty giggled. "You and your PlayStation, you'd think it was your girlfriend."

"It's better than a girlfriend," George replied, giving Letty a shove so she toppled off his bed. "You just don't understand."

"You probably shouldn't. The power supply might be different and it ould get damaged," Letty said, picking herself up off the floor.

"True," George replied, putting the PlayStation away in his wardrobe. "Maybe I'll be able to get one over there."

He didn't have anything else left to pack, so he finished zipping up his suitcase and dragged it over to the door.

"Make sure you email me," Letty said, sounding a little bit sad. "It's gonna be so quiet here without you and Rex, and Jemima's still not back from her mission."

"Rex only has a week or two left," George shrugged. "Before you know it, you'll be wondering why you ever put up with me."

"By the time you're back, we'll both be twelve," Letty grinned. "I'm expecting a birthday present."

"So am I," George said, "and mine's first, so if I don't get one from you, you're not getting one in return."

"Make sure you stay safe," Letty said, leaping over to him and hugging him.

George felt awkward but hugged her back. "I'll do my best."

"I'll walk down with you. It's not as if I'm busy," Letty said, opening the door so George could push his suitcase out. "Don't you have some carry-on luggage?"

George shook his head. "I'm only taking my phone and some headphones, so they'll fit in my pocket. I'll get water and stuff at the airport, since you can't take it through security."

"Okay then, let's go!"

Every time George had seen Katie since the exercise she'd seemed depressed, which has hardly surprising, so he was taken aback when he found her sitting in the car they were taking, grinning at him.

"Took long enough," she said, jumping out and helping him to load the suitcase into the back. "We're leaving this car at the airport since there's some Cherub agent returning tomorrow morning and they'll drive it back."

George nodded. "Sounds good. Can I drive?"

Katie shrugged. "Can you drive?"

George had meant it as a joke, but his eyes went wide at the thought of being allowed to drive. "My last mission was a car mission, so I've passed the CHERUB course and everything."

"Well, I'll drive us off campus, then we'll swap over and you can take drive the rest until we get into London, when I'd better do it. Don't want security cameras at Heathrow seeing you driving," Katie said, climbing back into the driver's seat.

"What time's the flight?" George asked, clipping on his seatbelt.

"Ten o'clock, so we've got plenty of time," Katie said, checking her watch again. "Have you got everything, since we can't go back for it?"

George nodded. "I'm all set."

"Do me a favour and check that we've got all our tickets and stuff, they should be in the brown envelope on the back seats," Katie said, putting the car into gear and pulling away. "There should also be passports in there."

George grabbed the envelope and checked everything was there, before pulling out his passport and flicking through it to find the photo page.

"It's at the back," Katie said. "Have you never had a passport before?"

"Nope. This is the first time I've been overseas except for basic training," George replied, finding the picture and grinning at how bad it looked. The name on the passport was Brian Ashworth, which was his mission cover and the real name of the boy he was pretending to be. He said it out loud a few times, trying to get used to it.

"That reminds me, from now on we should really use the mission cover all the time," Katie said. "Remember to call me Chelsea."

"Okay Chelsea," George said, putting his passport back into the envelope. Weirdly, looking at it made him miss his mum, since it was the same colour as her old passport he'd played with when he was little. "How long's the flight?"

Katie thought for a moment. "I think it's about twenty-eight hours including the stopover in Shanghai. We'll arrive first thing in the morning, so try and get plenty of sleep on the flight to try and beat the jet lag."

George settled into his seat. "Let me know when I can take over driving."

Katie let George drive as far as a supermarket car park in north London, but she took over before they hit the M25. George had kept the speed down so he wouldn't be pulled over by the police and they were running late, so Katie blasted along the motorway to make up for it. Cars registered to CHERUB couldn't get speeding tickets, and it gave George a warm glow of satisfaction every time a camera went past.

Unfortunately, to make their departure from the UK and arrival in Australia look as authentic as possible, they weren't afforded any special privileges at the airport and had to queue up for everything. The man behind the check-in desk gave Katie's bulging suitcase a series of suspicious looks, but it came in under the maximum weight and he let it go. Security took even longer and George was dying for a pee, but they got through eventually and George sprinted for the loos in the departure lounge while Katie bought sweets and drinks from an overpriced shop.

"Don't drink too much until we're on the plane," Katie said as she passed George two giant bags of Skittles and a bag with bottles of water in it. "They serve drinks on the plane and you've gotta make it last until we get to Shanghai."

George compromised and tore into the Skittles while he waited for Katie to buy a stack of glossy magazines. She got him a motoring magazine he'd had his eye on, but refused his money.

"I can probably put this on travel expenses, so don't worry," she said, stuffing her magazines into her carry-on bag.

"Think they'd pay for me to buy a PlayStation?" George asked through a mouthful of Skittles.

"Probably not," Katie smiled. "Anyway, not so many Skittles, you're supposed to eat them on takeoff and landing in case it upsets your ears."

George shrugged. "I can always buy more, right?"

"It's not the cost I'm worried about, it's the fact that you'll be hyper all the way there," Katie tutted. "We'd better go to the gate, it's five minutes until boarding opens."

The only time George had been on a commercial airliner was on the way back from the end of basic training in the US, which had been a seven-hour flight that he'd slept through nearly all of. For once he was going to be able to enjoy it, and Katie gave up her window seat so he could stare out of the window at the planes moving around in the darkness.

"Don't bother me when I'm tired or there will be trouble," Katie said severely when he started playing with the in-flight entertainment system.

"Okay sis," George replied in a cheeky tone, earning himself a dark look before he went back to browsing the choice of films.

They switched the system off during take-off, so George just stared out of the window and did his best not to disturb Katie, who was reading one of her boring magazines.

George slept all the way through the second leg from Shanghai, so he was feeling refreshed when they arrived in Melbourne. They had to join a long queue at immigration, but they had their passports stamped and were walking into arrivals by half past eight local time. George was off-form after the long flight and it took him a second to process why Katie was pointing to a sign with 'Brian and Chelsea' on it. The lady holding it had wavy blonde hair and was wearing a smart business suit, but she pulled both of them into hugs when they reached her.

"Hi Aunt Alice," Katie said, extracting herself from the hug. "Good to see you."

"Hi Chelsea, Brian, welcome to Australia," Alice said, giving them both a huge smile and a good look at her pearly-white teeth. "I'm parked in short-stay so we'd better hurry. Let me get one of your bags."

It was overcast as they got their first look at Melbourne, but the airport was on the outskirts of the city and they didn't see much except houses.

"ASIS have swept the car and the house for bugs, so you can talk openly here," Alice explained. "I'll fix you some breakfast and then we'll go shopping in the afternoon for anything you need. Are you jet lagged?"

Katie shook her head. "We managed to stay up long enough, but it'll probably be an early night tonight."

"That's fine. I don't know what kinds of foods you like so we can go to a supermarket too. I think some ASIS operatives are scheduled to meet with you tomorrow, but you can just settle in today. Let me know if you need anything."

George laid out on the back seats, wondering whether to go to sleep, while Katie and Alice chatted in the front. Both of them had similar hairstyles and builds, which made the family connection seem even more believable, but the more they talked the more Alice seemed to warm to Katie.

"I was just like you when I was your age," Alice said, turning off the main road into a suburban housing area. "I bet you've had a string of boyfriends."

Katie giggled and stuck to the cover story. "I had a few, but they're back in Sydney now."

"Well I'm sure you'll find a few more here, especially over the summer. You both have cool British accents, too."

"Will people make fun of them?" Katie asked.

Alice shrugged. "Probably not, there are enough people around with non-Australian accents that it won't make much difference, I expect."