Lone Wolf by Robert Muchamore Page B

listen.’
    Sadad looked nervous when he got close, and everyone in the room was looking.
    ‘Show respect to Barry,’ the thug told Sadad. ‘Get a mop and bucket and clean the whole floor.’ Then he looked at Ryan. ‘Did you treat Mr Barry with respect?’
    ‘I did,’ Ryan said, nodding anxiously.
    ‘OK, go back with your friends.’
    Sadad walked briskly towards a cleaner’s closet, not daring to show any dissent. Ryan rejoined his new friends. After giving it a few seconds and making sure that the toughs weren’t looking at him, Ryan turned to Abdi and spoke in a whisper.
    ‘Who are the three nutters?’
    ‘They work for Hagar.’
    Ryan acted innocent. ‘Who the hell is Hagar?’
    This comment caused widespread laughter.
    ‘What’s funny?’ Ryan asked.
    ‘How can you not know who Hagar is?’ Youssef snorted.
    ‘I moved here less than a week ago,’ Ryan said. ‘I don’t know who anyone is.’
    Abdi smiled. ‘Hagar’s the biggest drug dealer in this part of town.’
    Ryan looked over. ‘So which one’s Hagar?’
    This caused more laughter.
    ‘Hagar’s the top dog,’ Abdi said, snorting with laughter. ‘He doesn’t sit in a crummy youth club all day. Those are his lieutenants. They organise all the street dealers and dish out crumbs to us kids if we’re lucky.’
    ‘What kind of crumbs?’ Ryan asked.
    ‘If they like you, they give out jobs,’ Abdi explained. ‘Maybe twenty quid to take something from here to there, or go to Starbucks for coffees. Once they start really trusting you, you might get a package. That’s when you sell drugs yourself.’
    ‘Shit!’ Ryan said excitedly. ‘Can you make a lot of dough?’
    Abdi nodded. ‘There’s guys our age making seven hundred a week, just for selling a few hours a day after school. But you’ve gotta be careful, ’cos if you mess up, Hagar’s guys will batter you.’
    ‘Maybe kill you even,’ Youssef added, as the black ball rattled into a pocket on the nearest pool table.
    The guy who’d lost handed Ryan a chewed-up cue, while the victor racked up the balls for another game.
    ‘OK,’ Ryan said, as he lined up to break. ‘Let’s play some pool.’

15. NEBRASKA
    Fay and Ning left Idris STC shortly after noon on Friday. A prison service minibus drove south for an hour and a half before dropping Fay at a semi-detached house in the suburb of Elstree. Her new foster-parents were a couple in their late forties, who had two younger foster-kids and a house filled with china dolls and frilly curtains.
    Ning reached Nebraska House just before five, but a mix-up in the paperwork meant it was nearer to 7 p.m. before she was allocated one of the care home’s dingy single rooms. Dinner was evil and Ning sent Fay a picture message showing curry and rice with the word, EWW!
    Fay texted back a few minutes later, I have a big double bed, the foster-mum makes Victoria sponge cake that’s 2 die 4.
    Once she’d settled in her room, Ning called her mission controller, James, to confirm that everything was OK.
    ‘If you get a chance, pop into room sixteen and see if it still says James Choke on the wall,’ James said.
    ‘Who the hell is James Choke?’
    ‘My pre-CHERUB name,’ James explained. ‘I was in Nebraska House for a while after my mum died.’
    ‘The rooms look like they were painted quite recently,’ Ning said. ‘So how’s Ryan doing?’
    *
    Friday night drew a crowd of more than fifty to The Hangout, and a few of them were even girls. It was officially a disco night, but although Barry had folded up the ping-pong tables to make space, nobody seemed interested in dancing.
    Ryan sat at the back of the room with Abdi, who’d sneaked in an Evian bottle filled with vodka.
    ‘Where’s the rest of the gang?’ Ryan asked.
    Abdi pointed discreetly at the single heavy sitting outside the office. ‘Friday and Saturday are busy,’ he explained. ‘Youssef makes deliveries for a dealer. Sadad’s got a gig as a lookout that pays thirty