12: Mingle

It didn't take George long to get into a routine. After getting up early and going for a swim, he'd get through school by mucking around with Riley, then either go back to Riley's house or cycle over to the nearby park to hang out with some of the local kids. He'd made friends with a set of non-identical twins called Laurie and Kev who were a year older than him and had lived in the house opposite George's their whole lives, so they knew everything that went on. The only thing that frustrated George was that the older kids, who were more involved in the illegal stuff that seemed to be happening everywhere, wouldn't trust him and always clammed up when younger kids were nearby. He tried getting to know them by staying out late and being generous with his cash, but all he ever got was the occasional slap for his trouble.

The weather warmed up more as September went on, and it felt weird to George when he thought about it getting colder back in England. Instead of digging out his winter coat he was taking two showers a day and wishing he had more pairs of shorts. ASIS told them to take it slowly and not force anything, so he was happy just going to Riley's house and picking up any rumours he heard from Laurie, who always acted like a big man and boasted about anything he'd heard that was cool.

"There police were round here all day yesterday," Laurie said for the second time, getting a groan of annoyance from his brother. "Apparently it was a drugs bust."

"You've told me about a million other drugs busts and it's always just some old lady's cat in a tree," Kev complained.

"It was only a cat that one time," Laurie said defensively. "Anyway, this time I'm pretty sure. Some of the older guys were talking about it."

The Australian natives were used to the hot weather, but George was knackered from a PE lesson that afternoon at school and couldn't do much except lie on his back on the grass and try not to think about his shirt sticking to his back. "I'm still waiting for the day that they actually have a drugs bust, because it'll be the one time Laurie doesn't hear about it."

Kev laughed but Laurie gave George a dead leg. "When are you gonna introduce me to your sis?"

The only thing George really had going for him was the fact that everyone who'd seen Katie thought she was a total babe and kept asking him about her. It got tiresome quickly, but it was better than being ignored so George normally played along. Today he didn't have the energy, though, so he just shrugged. "Maybe when you stop being a skinny loser."

Kev spoke up before Laurie could lay down any more beats. "Are you free tomorrow night, George? Someone's having a barbie and a party and we have to go. You're not strictly invited, but we could sneak you in easily."

George sat up and shook the grass off his shirt. "Nah, I've gotta go to some work do of my aunt's. Been planned for ages, otherwise I'd just ditch it. A barbie sounds like more fun," he replied, mocking the way the Australian's said barbie.

"I thought you poms might have a tea party to go to," Laurie grinned. "Make sure you take a cake."

"It'll be boring, but what can you do?" George said, looking around. None of the older kids were around and he felt nasty all covered in sweat, so he grabbed his bike. "I'm gonna head home, wanna have a shower."

"Alright," Kev said, slapping him on the back as he jogged past to get his own bike. "Fancy a race?"

George won easily every time against the out-of-shape twins, but he thought it might be a little closer since he was feeling tired. "Let's do it. Laurie, you might as well walk, you'll be miles behind."

Laurie gave him the finger as George jumped onto his bike and pedalled away, legs working hard on the grass. Kev's longer legs gave him an advantage and by the time they were back on the tarmac of the road, he was almost out of sight, but he was going to tire before long and George was faster on the hard surface.

Alice's event was actually a posh dinner party in downtown Melbourne that her company held every year. She'd told ASIS that the company used it for networking and meeting clients, which meant that anyone with money could get an invitation. Zach had been going for the past eight years and made the most of the opportunity to mingle with Melbourne's richest and meet a few clients of his own. For George, this meant that Riley would be going and he was supposed to keep him company. Katie didn't fancy spending the evening at home on her own and came with them, but only after she and Alice had spent nearly two hours fussing about their dresses and make-up.

"You'd better get used to this," Katie said, leaning on him while she pulled on one of her heels. "I'm sure you've got a long future of waiting for women to get ready."

George sighed. "I'm sure nobody can possibly take as long as you two." He'd taken all of two minutes to put on some clean trousers and a shirt.

"Then you're in for a shock," Alice said, tucking her phone into her purse and searching for her car keys. "Let's go, then. Wouldn't want George to miss any of the excitement."

Only the adults were invited to the actual dinner part, so when they arrived everyone had already moved to the open-air bar. George got his hopes up that Alice might buy him something alcoholic but she handed him a lemonade without any ice.

"You're too young" she said, noticing his look.

"But Chelsea's got one," George complained, pointing to the glass of wine Katie was holding.

"She's eighteen."

George didn't want to argue when there were people around, even if her mission cover said she was only seventeen. Instead he drained half of the drink and then set off to find Riley, who was sitting with his parents looking bored. Zach greeted George with a slap on the shoulder, but Riley's mum, Maria, just glared at him until he and Riley had disappeared into the crowd.

"Your mum really doesn't like me," George grinned as they took seats on a low wall at the edge of the bar.

"She just thinks you're a bad influence," Riley replied. "Anyway, I've been to this party loads of times before and it's always the most boring thing ever."

Riley often decided that things were the most boring ever,and George thought it would be quite fun to try and schmooze some alcohol out of the adults and make the most of the fact that everyone there was loaded, but he had to go along with whatever Riley wanted to do.

"Any ideas for what to do?" George asked, trying to balance his glass on the wall next to him. Just when he thought it was balanced and took his hand away, it tipped over and fell six feet to the floor on the other side, smashing and spraying lemonade everywhere.

"Good idea!" Riley said, lobbing his glass over the wall too. The smash was barely audible over the noise of people talking, but it looked spectacular.

"Well that was fun for all of five seconds," George complained, feeling thirsty already. "What now?"

Riley jumped off the wall. "This place is a hotel or something, so we can probably just go for a look around."

"Wow, sounds like the most fun I've ever had," George replied, but he didn't have any better ideas so he followed Riley anyway.

There was a whole chapter in the CHERUB training manual about avoiding alcohol in key situations, but Katie thought she looked more sophisticated with a glass of wine on the white tablecloth in front of her. Alice was well-known amongst Melbourne's financial workers and the evening was just a stream of men in suits alternating between questions about who Katie was and what the current economic climate meant for their business.

"My sister recently passed away so I'm doing the parenting thing," Alice explained for the tenth time. "There's also a younger one, Brian, but he's disappeared somewhere."

When a waiter came around with a bottle for refills, Alice put her hand over the top of her glass in a practiced manner. Katie had only drank half of hers, but she was slower off the mark and ended up with another full glass.

"I'm driving," Alice explained with a smile, sending the waiter on his way. Katie sipped her drink and listened while Alice pointed people out and told her who they were.

"Ah, Miss Blythe, may I have a moment of your time?" a voice said, and when Katie looked up it belonged to a face straight out of her mission briefing.

"Mr Kurjak, always a pleasure," Alice replied, smiling graciously as he kissed her cheek.

"Please, call me Zach," he said, taking a seat opposite Katie. "I hear this is your niece from our mother country?" he asked, looking over at her.

"Zach, this is Chelsea. Chelsea, this is Zach Kurjak, one of my associates," Alice said, although they both knew he needed no introduction. "You've met the other one, Brian, of course."

"Riley's partner in crime," Zach said, letting out a sigh. "Riley's a chip off the old block, but I think George is the one with the brains in that partnership."

Katie smiled. "You'd be surprised."

Zach gave her a fleeting smile before going back to Alice and changing the subject. Katie was no good at small-talk and wondered if she'd annoyed him somehow, but from the tone of the conversation he had been keen to ask Alice's advice on something important.

"We're really desperate to get someone into the travel agency but I can't trust anyone off the street at a crucial time like this," Zach explained.

"Haven't you got anyone inside?" Alice asked, looking interested for the first time that evening.

Zach shook his head. "I've got all the usual meatheads, but I need someone with finesse. All of our rivals are eyeing it up, so I've got to beat them to the punch."

Alice looked thoughtful for a moment. "So you'd say that at this stage, you'd take anyone so long as they can be proved to be trustworthy? Even if they were untried?"

"Exactly! Problem is, I have extremely few people like that, and there's nobody I'm one hundred percent sure of."

Katie second-guessed what was going on just before Alice said it.

"Well, Chelsea here doesn't have a job and she's got to be as solid as they come," Alice suggested.

Zach turned to Katie and gave her a once-over. "I've only just met her."

"She's my niece, Zach, and she's only been in Australia a few weeks. Her slate is as blank as it gets in this game, and she's seventeen, so the police won't be sniffing around her."

The leader of the Syndicate turned this over in his mind for a few moments. "Well, I'm willing to bet that she doesn't answer to anyone but you. If she's incompetent then I won't really have lost much," he finally said. Katie didn't like being discussed as if she was a performing seal, but she kept her mouth shut.

"Then it's a deal. Let me know the details," Alice said, waving her hand slightly. Her tone made it clear that the conversation was over. "Give my regards to your wife."

"Will do," Zach mumbled, still thinking as he got up and headed for another table.

Katie leaned over to Alice once they were alone. "What did you just sign me up for?"

"I'll explain later. Too risky here."

Alice spotted someone and waved them over, repeating all of the same topics of conversation from the rest of the night. Katie just answered the questions politely and wondered where George had gone.

Her question was answered when a giant security guard, shirt barely containing his huge gut, appeared, holding both Riley and George by their collars.

"Found these two in the penthouse suite," he grunted, dropping them. "Made a huge mess."

"Don't worry about it," Zach said smoothly, tucking some cash into the bouncer's pocket. "I'll speak to the manager and sort it all out."

The security guard lumbered away and George made good his escape before he got an earful from Maria. He spotted Alice and Katie and jogged over.

"Destroying the penthouse suite?" Alice asked, raising an eyebrow.

George cracked a huge grin. "We swiped the key from reception. Ate all of the food in there and had a huge pillow fight. We only got caught after Riley used the fridge door to make a huge crack in the bathtub."

Katie shook her head. "Way to keep a low profile."

"It's a good thing this place doesn't have minibars in the rooms, otherwise we'd probably be scraping you two off the patio beneath the balcony," Alice said darkly. "Anyway, since you're in disgrace, we'd better push off. I've seen everyone I want to."

George produced a packet of mints from his pocket which he hadn't got round to eating yet, but Katie swiped them and gave him a thwack with her handbag for good measure.