The Great Escape by Natalie Haynes Read Free Book Online Page A

get some answers sooner than we thought – we’ve been asked to go back to the lab tomorrow,’ she said, closing the door behind her.
    ‘What? Why?’
    ‘Windows need cleaning
indoors
, apparently.’
    ‘Has this ever happened before?’ Max asked.
    Millie shook her head. ‘No . . . I don’t think so. Why?’
    ‘It could be a trap, don’t you think? They might think you have seen something.’ Max paced worriedly up and down her bedroom floor.
    ‘Hmmm. Maybe. They didn’t ask for me to go, though. Just Dad and Bill.’ Millie tried to weigh up the possibilities.
    ‘But they cannot ask for you, of course. It would be too suspicious.’
    ‘I suppose so,’ Millie agreed. It wasn’t very likely that they would book some window cleaners and ask them to bring a twelve-year-old girl with them. It would sound, at best,
dodgy. ‘Do you think I shouldn’t go? Dad will be there. And Bill. And we’ll be inside the building – I might be able to find something out that would help us.’
    ‘That’s true.’ Max continued to pace. ‘I think, though, that it will be a risk for you to go tomorrow. Are you sure you want to?’
    ‘How else will we find out who’s doing this?’ Millie couldn’t see any alternative.
    ‘I know. But you must be prepared for people to ask you questions,’ Max warned her.
    ‘That man asked me questions as soon as you’d escaped, and I was OK,’ she pointed out.
    ‘Millie, I know. I am not doubting your abilities. I just want you to remember that these men do not have the same ideas as you about what is right and what is wrong. If they’re
willing to kidnap crate-loads of cats, they may not think twice about kidnapping, or even hurting, a little girl.’
    ‘I’m not little. And I won’t be on my own.’
    ‘Maybe I should come with you,’ he suggested.
    Millie’s eyes popped. ‘Are you insane? You just escaped. I can’t deny having seen you if your tail is poking out of my bag, can I?’
    ‘No. I suppose not. I don’t want to go back, of course, but I don’t want you to have to go on your own either.’ He looked decidedly unhappy.
    ‘I’ll be fine. I’ll be with Dad. They can’t kidnap me – he’d notice. Probably before he and Bill got back here, even.’ He gave her a small smile.
‘This is a chance to get a proper look inside.’
    Max gave in.
    ‘Then we will make a plan, yes? I will show you where you need to be looking.’
    ‘Done.’ Millie was relieved they’d managed to avoid having a fight. ‘What am I looking for?’
    ‘Do you have a pen?’
    ‘Yes, why?’
    ‘To draw a map, from what I tell you.’ Millie pulled a quizzical face. He went on, ‘You will have noticed, of course, that although I have a fine speaking voice, I am not yet
at the point where I have opposable thumbs.’
    She nodded. ‘Sorry.’
    Between them, they sketched out a good working plan of the building. It was a large oblong block, three storeys high, and Max knew he had come down three flights of stairs to
the lobby, so they assumed that he had been on the third floor – the top-most one. Millie knew there were two staircases: the one which Max had raced down, and one in the opposite corner of
the building, because she had cleaned the windows around them just yesterday. Max had only seen what looked like office or cupboard doors as he raced along the top corridor, unlike the
glass-fronted doors of the laboratory, so they guessed that the researchers might work up on that floor too. Neither of them knew what went on on the second floor. Millie guessed that might be
where the rodent research took place – the official purpose of the laboratory building. Max wasn’t convinced that there were any mice in the building at all. They knew no more about the
first floor; probably more offices, Millie thought. The ground floor, which she knew best, having looked in through its windows several times, housed cleaning cupboards, the big lobby and its
jungle of pot plants, plus