CHERUB: Guardian Angel by Robert Muchamore Read Free Book Online Page A

and spend the day in town with him. The dude had all the personality of a brick wall, but Natalka dug his muscular body and wavy blond hair and was flirting like mad.
    ‘Total slut,’ Andre said as he came up to Ethan. ‘Didn’t I say that just yesterday?’
    Ethan tutted and looked irritated, but Andre spoke again before he thought of a response.
    ‘My dad wants to see you.’
    Ethan gulped. Leonid Aramov didn’t summon people for tea and biscuits, or a nice chat.
    ‘What for?’
    ‘Don’t ask me. I just heard him telling Boris not to let you on the school bus.’
    ‘Did he sound angry?’ Ethan asked.
    Andre smirked. ‘My dad always sounds angry.’
    Ethan grew more anxious when his nineteen-year-old cousin Boris came bounding out of the Kremlin lobby and gave the bus keys to Vlad.
    ‘You know the route?’ Boris barked.
    As Vlad settled in the driving seat and the other kids started boarding the bus, Boris took Ethan by his upper arm and gave him a yank.
    ‘Your uncle wants to see you at the stable.’
    Ethan had assumed Leonid would want to see him in his sixth-floor office. Trekking out to the Aramovs’ stables made matters more sinister. The only positive thing was that it seemed unlikely that his uncle would try anything underhand after it had been announced that he wanted to see him at the stables in front of a dozen witnesses.
    The stables were a kilometre’s walk across rocky ground.
    ‘You know why your dad wants to see me?’ Ethan asked, as he struggled to keep pace with his much larger cousin.
    ‘Just shut your face and do what you’re told,’ Boris snapped back.
    There was a steep downwards slope on the final approach to the stables. The ground was slippery and when Ethan hesitated, Boris gave him an almighty shove accompanied by an enthusiastic shout of, ‘DOOSH!’
    Ethan crashed forward, sprawling out and smashing his elbow on a wooden post. Boris closed in and threw a kick, but as Ethan flinched Boris pulled the blow.
    ‘How can a skinny tit like you be related to me?’ Boris shouted, getting his head right in Ethan’s face as he yanked him to his feet. ‘I’ve plucked chickens that are tougher than you.’
    Ethan shuddered as his cousin walked close behind him. The stable block was in an L-shape, running along two sides of a muddy paddock. Most of the horses kept here were used by Aramov security men who patrolled the surrounding hillsides looking for thieves, spies and covert surveillance devices.
    Leonid Aramov’s stable office had a big stone fireplace and hunting trophies mounted on the wall behind his desk. He wasn’t as pumped as his two sons, but Leonid’s eyes were mean little slits and he fitted the Russian gangster stereotype nicely with a tight leather jacket and three days’ stubble.
    ‘My little nephew,’ Leonid said. ‘How are you settling in?’
    ‘I’m getting by,’ Ethan said, feeling uncomfortable with Boris towering behind and the thought that the man at the desk had almost certainly ordered his mother’s death.
    Leonid went into his desk drawer. He pulled out a small stack of papers and beckoned Ethan closer.
    ‘SatCom Internet bill,’ Leonid explained, waggling papers in the air as Boris shoved Ethan closer to the desk. ‘Our bill has been four or five hundred US dollars a month since forever. But you arrive and suddenly, we get bills for sixteen hundred, eighteen hundred dollars.’
    Ethan pretended to be mystified. ‘I don’t have a computer. I’m not even allowed to use the Internet.’
    ‘Cut the shit,’ Leonid boomed, as he made an angry stab with his pointing finger. ‘Only family can get on the sixth floor and use computers on the satellite link.’
    ‘There’s loads of staff on our floor,’ Ethan said.
    ‘Whoever it is uses a proxy and wipes their history every time they log off, so we can’t tell what they’ve been looking at,’ Leonid said. ‘Do you think your grandma’s nurse could manage that? Or that one of the other