Jimmy Coates by Joe Craig Page A

sudden?”
    â€œIf I need to be,” Felix insisted. “If we can save Chris by paying the Capita lots of money, then we should just, you know, rob a bank or something. It’s not as if we’d get caught, is it? You and Saffron could probably do it with your training, even if you didn’t have Jimmy to help.”
    Helen waited until Felix had finished, then lowered her face and spoke softly.
    â€œI didn’t think I would have to say this, but…” She let out a deep sigh. “…while your parents aren’t here, I’m the one who’s meant to be looking after you, right?”
    Felix’s expression changed immediately. Jimmy knew his friend thought about his parents every day. They all did. Jimmy was angry with his mum for mentioning them like this. It seemed like a cruel way to win an argument with Felix. But then he knew she was right.
    â€œWhat would your mum and dad say?” Helen asked. Felix didn’t need to answer. He simply shrugged, slouched in his chair and reached for a packet of crisps.
    â€œAnyway, robbing a bank wouldn’t be enough,” Saffron cut in, swivelling from the computer to look at the others. “Do you know of any bank with twenty million pounds in the vault?”
    â€œTwenty million pounds?” Jimmy gasped.
    â€œFrom the look of Chris’s campaign accounts,” Saffron explained, “that’s a rough estimate of what he’s spent.”
    â€œAnd it’s all the Capita’s money?” Helen was aghast.
    â€œFor all we know it could be,” said Saffron. “Everything’s been pretty well disguised in these accounts. It looks like it comes from lots of unrelated donors, but…”
    â€œâ€¦but that’s just the way the Capita would operate.” Jimmy finished Saffron’s sentence for her. “I can’t believe Chris was so stupid.”
    â€œHe’s not stupid,” Georgie protested. “He’s brave. He needed money to try to get rid of this Government and this was probably the only way he was going to get enough.”
    All the information buzzed round Jimmy’s head. He couldn’t make sense of it.
    â€œTwenty million pounds?” he said under his breath, half to himself. “What could be worth that much to the Capita?” Nobody had an answer. “Is there any more information on the computer network?”
    â€œThere’s plenty,” Saffron replied. “And we can see it all if we like. Chris may have been secretive, but he’s never had a password I couldn’t guess.”
    Jimmy jumped up with excitement. “So what does it say about—?”
    â€œNothing.” Saffron interrupted. “I’ve already run every kind of search I can think of. There’s no mention anywhere on the network of any code or anything to do with the letter H. No H Code. Nothing on the internet either. Well, nothing that looks relevant. But you know how useless the internet is while it’s so heavily censored.”
    â€œSo what can we do?” asked Georgie. Jimmy was impressed that she and Felix were regaining their composure so quickly. The image of the two dead attackers being dragged across the floor was only now starting to play on his mind. His programming was relaxing, allowing his human fears to seep through.
    â€œWhat if we could get enough money?” Felix asked suddenly.
    â€œWe’re not robbing a bank!” Helen laughed.
    â€œNo, you don’t understand. We wouldn’t need to rob a bank if we had all the Government’s money. They’ve got billions.”
    â€œSo now you want to rob the Treasury? Felix, the Government doesn’t just keep all its money piled up in a vault waiting for you to go and steal it…”
    â€œBut if we were the Government…”
    â€œChris isn’t Prime Minister,” Georgie cut in. “Didn’t you notice? He lost the