24: Familiar

With Zach enjoying the hospitality of Victoria Police, the mission was over and the word came through from campus that they were expected back. Pete, Dawn and Linda came over one evening for a small celebration with cake and a bottle of champagne, which George was only allowed a single glass of. Alice joined in, although she'd seemed sad ever since she'd realised that the mission was finishing.

"We'll have to wait and see what happens to the Syndicate from now on, but I'm confident we've done enough," Pete said, clinking glasses with everyone. "Sometime over the next few weeks, the police will move in on everyone else we have evidence on, but a haul like this is stretching their resources, so I expect they'll wait until reinforcements arrive from Adelaide and Sydney."

"Good job, everyone," Linda said. "It's been a pleasure."

ASIS wanted Katie to stay on in her role at the travel agency, which was still providing quality information about Melbourne's various gangs, but as a CHERUB agent she was expected to go back to campus.

"I wouldn't do it anyway," Katie told George later on, once everyone had gone home and they were lounging around in George's room. "Melbourne's amazing, but I have other things I want to do."

"Like the running stuff?" George asked, giggling. He was tipsy because Katie had let him finish the bottle.

"Exactly. I'll turn eighteen next month and in September I'll be off to university, so CHERUB's basically over for me. Not to mention that everyone on campus hates me."

"They don't hate you," George said, thinking that eighteen was impossibly old. "I bet it's all calmed down when we get back. Everyone forgets the old scandals."

Katie nodded. "I suppose so. But still, I think some people won't like me much, so it's good that I'm going soon."

"So this was your last mission, huh? Scary," George said. "It's only my second proper one."

"Last one, yes. On my second mission, I got kicked by a horse and cracked a rib," Katie laughed. "I was pretty hopeless."

"A horse? How did that happen?" George laughed, starting to get an uncontrollable urge to collapse into giggles again.

"The mission target loved them. I had to pretend to like them, but they never liked me," Katie replied, giving George a shove so he rolled off the bed.

"You don't exactly cover them in basic training," George agreed, checking the bottle but finding nothing in it.

"Give that here," Katie said, taking it off him and putting it out of reach. "You've had enough, you can't hold your drink."

George started giggling again so Katie tickled him, which drove him insane but he was too incoherent to protest. Eventually he fell off the bed again so Katie pinned him down and started tickling his feet until he was begging for mercy.

"I'm gonna miss you, Georgie," Katie said, sitting back on the bed. "I'll give you my email address or something so we can keep in touch."

"Of course," George said, too tired to get up. "You know, a lot of people think you're scary, but I think you're just nice."

"Nice? Such a charmer," Katie said sarcastically, giving him a kick in the ribs. "Try harder."

"Beautiful and spectacularly nice," George replied, rolling onto his side so she couldn't kick him again.

"I'm fine with beautiful," Katie said, appeased for the moment. "I can be scary too, though, so don't get cheeky."

George tried to tell her he would never be cheeky, but all that came out of his mouth was a weird burbling noise which made Katie laugh.

"Like I say, such a charmer. I can't believe I have to share a flight with someone like you soon," she grinned, moving in to tickle him again.

"No, please," George said, trying to wriggle free but finding Katie's arms clamping him in place. "Anything but tickles."

Katie spent the next few days training her replacement at the travel agency, who just so happened to be a middle-aged ASIS operative going undercover. George did a few more deliveries for Kuwat and tried to pick up any information he could, but the only rumours going around were questions about where to send their profits now that the Syndicate had received police attention. George was a little disappointed that there were still plenty of drugs to sell, but just taking down one organisation was never going to have much of an impact on the drugs trade. He let Kuwat know the backstory they were using for their trip back to England; that Alice couldn't handle his behaviour at school and that he and Katie were going to live with another relative back in England. Kuwat didn't question this and just told him he'd been a good employee and was sorry to see him go. The money arrived as usual through the letterbox, but Pete had got wind of it and was already contacting campus over the best thing to do with it all.

ASIS were surprised at how much Alice had bonded with the two agents and agreed to let them spend the evening together on the day before Katie and George were due to fly back to the UK, first thing in the morning. Alice cooked lasagne and they watched a movie before Alice and Katie swapped stories. Alice had a lot from her time in the USA, and seemed more cheerful about them leaving.

"I've decided to move to New Zealand and make a fresh start down there," she explained. "There's a visa agreement between Australia and New Zealand that means I can stay there indefinitely without having to change my citizenship. I was wondering about opening a shop or taking one over."

"Sounds great," Katie grinned. "I'm sure you'll do really well."

"I thought you were thinking about intelligence work?" George asked.

Alice laughed. "It sounds nice, but I was too much of a big fish in Melbourne. There's too much chance of getting recognised if I went undercover, and I'd rather do something for myself than work in an office for ASIS analysing boring financial stuff."

"Well, for what it's worth, you've been great to live with," George said. "Best cooking I've eaten pretty much ever."

"Same here," Katie said. "We thought about getting you a present, but ASIS said it wouldn't be appropriate."

"Don't worry, I don't need anything," Alice said, sounding touched. "I've had the pleasure of your company for the past five months, so that's enough."

Alice said she couldn't handle waving them off in the morning, so she stayed in bed while George made sure he'd packed everything, then spent an hour helping Katie pack her entire wardrobe. Eventually they had everything ready to go, but the noise had disturbed Alice, who gave them tearful goodbye hugs in her dressing gown.

There was a taxi waiting to take them to the airport, so George got his last glimpse of Alice as the taxi pulled away, standing in the doorway in her dressing gown with a mug of coffee.

"Twenty-three hours to London," Katie said, smiling. "You ready?"

"I'm planning to sleep for as much of that as possible," George replied, stretching. "I'll be glad once we're on the plane and don't have to worry about suitcases."

"Our stopover is in Singapore, and I think we'll land at about six in the morning. You want to stay awake until the last stint to avoid being jetlagged back in England," Katie advised. "Plus, once again, no bothering me on the plane. I've had enough of airlines to last a lifetime."

Pete was still in Australia, tidying up after the mission and liaising with ASIS over what the next mission might be, so they were picked up from Heathrow by George's handler, Rose, who was not happy to have landed the short straw of a half past three start to come and collect them.

"Good mission, was it?" she asked once they'd loaded everything into the car. It felt weird for George to hear a British accent again, especially a familiar one, after almost six months of non-stop Australians.

"Yeah, nice successful one," Katie replied, settling into the front seat. "Can't wait to be back, though. I'm exhausted."

"Had a few toddlers on the last stretch, screaming fit to burst," George moaned. "Been kept up pretty much since we set off."

Rose laughed. "I'm glad my days of long-haul flights are behind me. You can catch up on some sleep in the car, I don't mind."

George spent ten minutes looking out of the window at the familiar blue motorway signs and British number plates, but Katie was out like a light and it didn't take long for him to go the same way.

Being back on campus was exciting, but George still felt tired and the prospect of his bed was better than a noisy breakfast with his friends, so he slept the rest of the morning away and spent the afternoon unpacking, planning to announce his arrival when everyone got back from afternoon lessons. His room felt weird at first, like it wasn't his, but once he'd put everything away he felt a little better. He'd emailed Letty and Rex to let them know when he would be getting back, so when he was in the middle of deleting some spam messages someone knocked on the door.

"George! Oh my God!" Letty said, grabbing him around the neck and pulling him into a hug. "You look so different!"

"So do you!" George replied truthfully. She'd let her hair grow out so it fell in tangled curls down her back and she looked slightly older, but the biggest change was that boobs were pushing out her navy t-shirt. It took him a second to stop staring, but Letty didn't seem to notice.

"When did you get back? You sound so different!" she squealed, pushing past him and jumping onto his unmade bed.

"About eight this morning," he replied, leaving the door open in case anyone else got back from lessons. "I couldn't stomach breakfast, too tired, so I just came here and slept for a while."

"I still can't believe you're back!" Letty squeaked, bouncing on the bed. "Suzi is on her way."

"Who's Suzi?" George asked, wondering if a new agent had joined CHERUB while he'd been gone.

"It's what I've started calling Jemima."

"Nice nickname," George laughed. "It's weird how much has changed even though I've only been away six months.

"They've started building the new accommodation blocks," Letty said, standing up again. "They're always building something here."

She gave George another hug, before springing backwards.

"George! Wow, you're back!" the familiar voice of Jemima said, and she was hugging him before he knew what was happening. He noticed her boobs too, although they weren't as big, but this time he managed to keep his eyes on her face.

"How's campus been without me? Boring I expect," George said, sitting down in his swivel chair and looking at the two girls making a racket in his room.

"It's been okay. I don't know how much gossip you've missed," Letty said, excitedly. "Are you gonna come down to dinner so we can fill you in?"

"Why not?" George smiled. "It's been long enough."

"Have you seen Rex yet?" Jemima asked. "He was asking if anyone had seen you this morning."

"Not yet. I was planning to go over and see if he was in but Letty attacked me first," George said, spinning the chair around.

"We'll go with you. He owes me a fiver and it's time to collect," Jemima said, heading for the door. "I think I just heard him get back."

George wondered how they'd heard anything over the noise they'd been making, but he got up and followed them, looking forward to a decent CHERUB dinner - Alice's food was much better, but you couldn't beat the campus gossip machine for in-meal entertainment. Rex wasn't in as Jemima had said, but they headed for dinner anyway, assuming he'd catch them up. As they got into the lift, George realised he'd missed the seventh floor most of all on campus; there always seemed to be something going on, and he recognised most of the rooms he passed. Michael's was at the opposite end, but he hadn't knocked since the girls were in a hurry and he didn't even know if Michael was away on a mission. Happy to be back, the lift doors slid shut and he felt the familiar rumble of it making its way down.