'Our older brother and his mate robbed a Burger King one time,' Leon lied. 'He got over eight hundred quid. Cops chased him and everything, but he got away with it.'

Oli nodded enthusiastically. 'I've been chased by cops so many times when I'm bunking school. One time me and this friend of mine took an iPad out of Selfridges at the Bullring. Sold it for four hundred.'

'Nice,' Daniel said. 'You should show us how you did it.'

Leon nodded. 'We could go robbing shops.'

Oli's bluff had been called and his smile vanished. 'I have to be so careful now though,' he blurted. 'Cos ... Like, the store detectives all know me and s.h.i.t. They've even got a special file on me.'

'Special file,' Daniel said, trying not to smirk as he caught his brother's glance. 'Wowee!'

'But I'd like to hang with you guys, for sure.'

'You seem cool,' Leon said, which made a huge smile erupt across Oli's face.

Leon was dominating at FIFA, but only got the score back to 32 before time ran out.

Daniel looked at Oli. 'You wanna play Leon?'

But Oli was looking out the door down the hallway. Abigail the girl who'd been sobbing when the twins arrived had been to the office to get a shower key. Now she'd emerged from her room with a towel and a bundle of clothes under her arm.

'I overheard Gurbir say that Abigail's mum was in a big car smash,' Daniel said. 'Touch and go whether she'll live.'

Leon nodded sympathetically, but Oli didn't seem to care. 'Boo-hoo,' Oli said. 'My mum died when I was three. What good's sobbing her head off gonna do?'

Oli's words made Leon and Daniel think about their mother dying of cancer. At the other end of the hallway, Abigail's slender frame unlocked a door and hopped into a small room with a shower cubicle at the back.

'You wanna mess with Little Miss Tearful?' Oli asked.

Leon wasn't keen. 'We could put a different game on.'

But Oli was on his feet. After stepping into the hallway and taking a few furtive glances, he hurried to Abigail's room, rattled her door and found that she'd had the sense to lock it. Undeterred, Oli beckoned Leon and Daniel.

'You wanna see something funny?' Oli asked.

The twins dashed along the hallway towards room nine. They instinctively wanted to tell Oli to leave Abigail alone, but their mission was to find out whether Oli would make a decent CHERUB recruit and they'd get a better sense of his personality if they went along with his plan.

'I'll give her something to cry about,' Oli grinned, as he reached inside his tracksuit pocket and pulled a twenty-pence piece.

The boys heard water running as they closed up to the door of the shower room. A key with a big yellow In Use tag was in the outside of the door, which was locked with a bolt on the inside. This bolt had a bypa.s.s, which looked like a giant screw head and was designed to enable staff to access a bathroom from outside in an emergency.

Oli put his coin in the bypa.s.s slot and turned it to release the bolt. He looked back at Leon and Daniel, flicking one cheeky eyebrow before charging the door.

The door burst inwards. Abigail screamed as Oli reached into the steamy s.p.a.ce and flicked out the light. Oli charged into the little cubicle and gave Abigail an almighty shove through the shower curtain. As she slammed tiles at the back of the shower and lost her footing, Oli scooped her towel and clean clothes from a shelf, whipped the curtain open and threw them all under the running water so they got soaked. As Abigail screamed in pain and shock, Oli backed out of the room and turned the key, leaving his victim screaming in pitch darkness.

'You snitch and I'll come after you,' Oli warned, as he thumped on the door.

Abigail kept screaming as Oli turned back towards the twins, grinning like a loon.

'How cool was that?' he shouted.

Three hours later, the hallway was down to a bluish glow of nightlights as Daniel stepped out of his room. Abigail could be heard sobbing a few rooms away and a couple of kids were playing music, even though it was headphones only after ten on a weeknight.

'You awake?' Daniel asked quietly, as he stepped across the hallway and put his head inside Leon's room.

The only light came from a laptop standing on the desk, but it was enough for Daniel to see his brother sat in bed with his phone.

'Show us,' Daniel said.

'None of yours,' Leon tutted. 'I'm talking to Rhea on WhatsApp.'

'Just make sure she doesn't hit you over the head and steal your wallet,' Daniel warned. 'Why don't you invite her over?'

'She's locked up in secure until morning.'

'Can I sit?' Daniel asked.

Leon nodded, and pulled up his legs so his brother could use the end of the bed.

'So what do you make of Oli?' Daniel asked.

Leon shook his head. 'I think the cops were right. He's a ma.s.sive bulls.h.i.tter. No way he's connected to any terrorists.'

'Not seeing much potential as a CHERUB agent, either,' Daniel said.

'Nope,' Leon agreed. 'CHERUB recruits a lot of kids who are messed up and rough around the edges, but I don't think Oli has a sympathetic bone in his body.'

'He started on Wes the Weed again after we brushed our teeth.'

'Hard punches,' Leon nodded. 'Wes had tears in his eyes. Before this is over, I might have to accidentally break the little s.h.i.t's nose.'

Daniel laughed. 'You bust his nose, I'll break his thumbs. And that story about winning a trip to see the Taj Mahal in a poetry compet.i.tion.'

'He didn't even know what country it was in,' Leon grinned. 'Talk about Captain Bulls.h.i.tter.'

'Thing is, bro, if we're completely honest ...'

Leon finished his brother's sentence. 'If we tell James what we really think about Oli, we'll be back on campus doing heavy drill by Monday.'

'So we lie to him?' Daniel asked.

'Not lie exactly,' Leon said, giving a conspiratorial smile. 'We just need to be economical in how rapidly we deliver the truth.'

Daniel smiled. 'String this thing out for at least two weeks.'

11. UNIFORM.

Two days after arriving at Nurtrust, Daniel came out of his t.i.tchy room wearing the uniform of St Andrew's Catholic school. Oli sat in the home's cramped dining area, scoffing Nutella toast.

'Was it today you've got History with Mr Cunningham?' Oli asked. 'Tell the old fart that I said h.e.l.lo.'

'That the guy who got you expelled?' Daniel asked, as he filled a bowl from a giant box of Asda-brand wheat flakes and topped it off with mixed nuts and milk. 'Seen my brother?'

'Saw him disappear with Rhea.'

Leon had spent the previous evening in the TV room making out with Rhea. She was hot stuff, and Daniel was jealous.

'So, you all set for lunchtime?' Daniel asked. 'Bunk off and head over to our cousin's place?'

'Course,' Oli said. 'I've bunked a million times. Anything to get out of Games.'

'Thought you said you were good at football,' Daniel noted.

'I am,' Oli said defensively. 'I was top scorer on the school team last year.'

A Year Eight girl called Mel sat across the table, big shoulders and purple streaks in plaited hair. 'Top scorer,' she squealed, as she accidentally spat cereal across the table. 'You so full of it, Oli, with them chunky-monkey legs.'

Oli reared up. 'What do you know? You've never been at my school.'

'Seen you run,' Mel said. 'Give us a football, bet you couldn't catch me, let alone tackle me.'

'Am I talking to you?' Oli blurted. 'Is this your conversation, hippo?'

Mel looked at Daniel, then pointed a false nail at Oli. 'He's full of s.h.i.t.'

Wes the Weed chimed in from the next table. 'You know how you can tell when Oli's lying?' he asked. 'He's lying whenever his lips move.'

Oli's chair grated backwards as he stood and yelled. His voice hadn't broken so it was really shrill. 'I'll bust your nose if you don't shut your mouth.'

One of the kitchen staff overheard this and stepped between the boys. 'Cool heads, the lot of you,' he shouted.

Rather than sit down, Oli abandoned the last of his toast, grabbed his school pack and stormed out. Daniel had wolfed most of his cereal and ignored the kitchen guy's order to come back and clean plates.

'Up yours, losers,' Oli shouted, giving a backwards flip off.

Daniel followed Oli past the admin office, downstairs and along the corridor to the street. He had a fiver and realised there was time to get a McDonald's breakfast before school. But he was distracted seeing Leon up against the shutters of the yet-to-open betting shop, snogging Rhea.

'Get a room you dirty perverts,' Oli yelled.

Rhea stopped kissing Leon and checked the time on her phone. She went to the same Fresh Start unit as Oli, so she gave Leon a goodbye peck.

'Laters, Leon,' she said, before walking off the same way as Oli.

'I love this mission!' Leon told his brother as he picked his school pack off the pavement. 'What a girl!'

Daniel didn't want Leon knowing he was jealous, but the twins knew one another too well to hide emotions.

'Don't worry,' Leon said, as he pulled his phone out of his school trousers and unlocked it. 'I had a word with Rhea. She's gonna fix you up with one of her hot mates. I know your type, she's perfect.'

Daniel looked excited. 'Really?'

'Here's a picture.'

Daniel looked at his brother's phone, seeing a police mugshot of a meth addict with sunken eyes and blackened teeth.

'Oh you're so funny,' Daniel said, giving Leon an almighty shove in the back. 'And it's pure luck you know. If I'd been sitting by the door when she walked in ...'

'Nah-nuhh-uh-nuh-nuh-nuh,' Leon mocked, as he wiped lipstick off his cheek. 'So Captain Bulls.h.i.t's all set for lunchtime?'

'I bet he's not coming,' Leon said. 'Chicken s.h.i.t.'

He was in a side street with Daniel, sitting on a low wall in front of an abandoned exhaust centre. Both boys had coat hoods up, with rain pelting the outsides.

'Better text James,' Daniel said, but Oli came around the corner just as he was about to dial.

'Howdy, partners,' Oli said, stuffing his face from a family bag of Walkers Cheese and Onion. 'Sorry I'm late. Had to wait till lunch was over 'cos they had someone on the back gate today.'

'No probs,' Leon said, as he started a slow walk. 'So our cousin wants this garage cleared out, says he'll pay us thirty each. Take maybe three or four hours.'

'Cool,' Oli said. 'I don't even care about the money, because I've got three grand in my Nationwide savings account. I just wanna get off Games, you know?'

'We've done odd jobs for him before,' Leon continued. 'Sometimes he gives us a bit of weed as well.'

'I love smoking joints,' Oli said. 'I had one that was like, twenty-five centimetres for New Year and I smoked the whole thing myself.'

'Nice,' Daniel said, trying not to meet his brother's eye because he knew he'd laugh.

They walked a couple of side streets, with the wind whipping rain and leaves. As they turned into a street of two-storey houses, an elderly woman came down an overgrown front path. She clanked her gate and set off at a decent pace towards the boys. When she was a few steps in front of the trio, a set of keys dropped from the woman's coat pocket. She must have been hard of hearing because they made a clatter but she kept on walking.

Daniel picked up the keys and turned to shout after the old lady, but Oli stood in front of him and raised a hand.

'We could go in there,' Oli said urgently, pointing up towards the house. 'Keep your mouths shut.'

Leon and Daniel exchanged glances.

'Old people keep cash in the house,' Oli said, as he watched the lady cut across the road. 'Thousands sometimes. Or she might have antiques, or s.h.i.t.'

'She's an old lady,' Daniel pointed out.

'You're an old lady,' Oli said, as he looked across at Leon.