The Great Escape (12 page)

‘You think?’ Millie’s eyebrows were sky high. ‘We need to go
now
.’ She addressed all the cats. ‘There’s a corridor in front of you when the door
opens. Run down there, turn right – we’re going down the stairs at the end of that. It’s down three flights and across a lobby, then through the doors to outside. There’s a
man out there with an Alsatian.’ Fifty tails went upright. ‘But he’s chasing our colleague, so hopefully that’ll be fine,’ she finished hurriedly.

The orange cat looked extremely scathing.

‘
Hopefully?
This is the best plan you could come up with?’

‘Yes,’ said Max firmly. ‘You can stay here if you prefer.’

‘No, no,’ said the cat airily. ‘I’ll come.’

‘Is everyone ready? We all need to get in here at once.’ Millie pressed the door button and the door slid open again. The cats all piled in behind her, in a frankly undignified
scrum. Millie was pleased to see the ginger cat take a paw in the face in the confusion. ‘Is that everybody?’

‘Yes,’ said Max, doing a quick head count. Then, ‘No.’

Millie looked at him in alarm.

‘Where’s Monty?’ he said, looking round, trying to catch the face of his friend.

‘Monty is not here,’ said the orange cat. ‘Now hurry.’

‘What do you mean he’s not here?’ asked Millie.

‘He’s dead,’ said the orange cat, supremely unconcerned.

‘
Dead?
’ cried Millie, as Max stared, completely at a loss.

‘He refused to cooperate with them. They stopped feeding him. They stopped giving him water. He was already old. He died.’

Millie felt Max stiffen by her feet.

‘They
killed
him?’ he asked, uncomprehending.

‘Yes—’ said the orange cat, who was about to continue before two other cats appeared to feel the need to sit down urgently on his head.

‘Max, we have to hurry,’ said Millie. ‘I’m so sorry.’

‘He left you a message, Max,’ said one of the tortoiseshells. ‘He knew you would come back.’

Max turned to face her, tears in his eyes. Millie was on the verge of crying herself, but adrenaline was pumping around her body and she couldn’t lose focus now.

‘Celeste, what did he say?’ asked Max, so quiet now that Millie could barely hear him.

The tortoiseshell cat gazed at him. Her voice shook a little. ‘He said to tell you that you were
my
rescuer, but not his. That he didn’t want to live with what they had done
to him. That he was sorry he couldn’t stay to tell you himself, but that your escape was the only thing he had enjoyed this past year. He said to wish you luck.’

Max nodded very slowly. ‘I’m sorry we couldn’t be here sooner,’ he whispered.

‘He knew you couldn’t,’ she said. ‘So do I.’

‘Max, I have to—’ Millie looked down at him and took a deep breath. She pressed the second button, but the inner door remained firmly open, and the outer one just as firmly
shut.

‘Squash up more,’ she said desperately. ‘One of you is keeping the door from closing.’

There was a peevish
meow
from someone, and the door clicked shut. The second door now finally opened, and they ran full tilt down the corridor and around the corner. As one, the cats
suddenly stopped and stood rigid in the dim light.

Millie ran as fast as she could to reach the cats, and almost tripped over a straggler as she rounded the north-west corner, trying not to tread on any paws or tails as she crashed to a
halt.

‘What is it?’ she gasped.

‘Shh,’ snapped the ginger cat. ‘Someone is coming up the stairs.’

The van driver had eventually cracked and rung Arthur Shepard, who was annoyed on several counts: first, with himself for having been asleep; second, with the driver for having
woken him up; third, with the driver again for being late. At the very moment the great escape was racing down the west side of the building, Arthur Shepard was heading up the stairs on the
south-west corner to put all the cages on a trolley and take them down to the ground floor in the service lift for when the van arrived.

Millie thought her heart would burst into her throat. She looked frantically for Max to confirm what the other cat had said.

‘He’s right.’ She heard his voice, even though she couldn’t see him. ‘Turn back.’

They raced back the way they had come and around to the far set of stairs, where Millie had collected all the rubbish bags. The fire door was shut now, so the cats couldn’t escape as
easily as Max had when he fled the first time. Rather, they had to wait impatiently, twisting and writhing like a multi-tailed, fluffy hydra, as Millie ran to catch them up.

‘Whenever you’re ready,’ muttered the orange cat.

Millie was now certain that this must be Ariston, the cat who used to pick on Max.

‘Sorry I’m slower than you,’ panted Millie, ‘but at least I brought my opposable thumbs.’ The cat frowned in annoyance, as Millie leaned on the door handle.
‘Now
run
!’ she said. ‘I’m right behind you.’

They raced down the stairs, Millie taking them two at a time to try and keep up with the pulsing carpet of fur. She reached the ground floor, and stopped.

‘Wait,’ she whispered. ‘I’d better look around first.’

The cats backed away from the door, and Millie opened it a crack. She and Max peered round it. The corridor which led towards the lobby looked empty. She couldn’t see the
whole
lobby from here – that was why they had preferred the other staircase. Well, preferred it until they realised Arthur Shepard was using it, anyway. She was sure that the front doors would be
shut, as they expected. She dialled Jake’s brother one last time, and let it ring three more times, to signal that the doors needed to be unlocked again, and the cameras and alarms must
remain turned off. They all waited, paralysed in silence, every second thinking that the door above them would open and that Arthur Shepard would find them, trapped at the bottom of the stairs.
Millie felt sick from the tension. She swore to herself that after tonight she would never do anything again that involved waiting for someone else to do something – it was the most wretched
sensation in the world. Her phone flashed once again. She looked around one final time and then glanced down at Max. He nodded.

‘Go,’ she said.

The door swung open and every single cat erupted simultaneously into the corridor, following Max to the lobby. They weren’t quite at the doors when the unmistakable sound of a curdling
shout of rage came from the third floor. Millie and Max eyed each other nervously. The automatic doors remained stubbornly shut until Millie wrenched them apart a few inches. She held the doors
open as the cats raced past her to get outside.

Suddenly Max hissed, ‘Millie – move!’

She frowned at him – half the cats were still waiting their turn to cram through the doors.

‘Now!’ he shouted.

And finally she saw the headlights of the van which Max’s pricked ears had heard seconds earlier, driving up to the front of the lab. She looked down in horror at the remaining cats, let
go of the doors, and ran back into the lobby, hiding behind the security man’s desk. Max was there even before she was, but there were still eight or nine cats milling hopelessly by the
closed doors.

‘Hide,’ Millie whispered urgently, peering round the side of the desk. Perhaps they couldn’t hear her, or perhaps they were too confused by the huge, empty space in which they
found themselves, after so long cramped up in cages – but they seemed paralysed, gazing out at the unexpected lights. ‘You’ll be caught,’ she begged. ‘Please,
hide.’ But it was too late.

The van driver was walking up to the doors, just as Arthur Shepard flew down the staircase that Millie and Max had originally planned to use, panting heavily from the exertion of running down
three flights of stairs. Millie ducked back behind the desk, flattening herself against the chair so her reflection wouldn’t show in the huge windows.

‘Ah,’ he said, with a savage glee. ‘
There
you are. Well,
some
of you.’

The cats looked around in panic, recognising their captor from his recent visits to their room upstairs. Arthur Shepard, meanwhile, appeared to have used the very last of his energy in this
short speech and he leaned against the doors, breathing hard. Millie was relieved – they were only a few feet away, and if he weren’t making such a noise himself, he would surely hear
her heart beating as though it was about explode from her chest, like the alien in the film her dad didn’t think she had watched.

‘Yes, here I am, mate. All of me,’ said the van driver rather tartly, misunderstanding Arthur Shepard’s words and assuming (since he could see no one else nearby) that Shepard
was talking to him.

‘What?’ snapped Shepard, who had apparently not even noticed the man standing outside.

The driver, in turn, had not noticed the cats as his gaze was fixed on Arthur Shepard’s face, which was puce with fury and the unexpected exercise.

‘You don’t look well, mate,’ said the driver, with a total lack of concern in his voice. ‘Need some air, by the looks of it.’

‘What?’ said Arthur Shepard again. He was still too out of breath to say much more.

‘Doors broken, are they?’ asked the driver.

‘Yes,’ piped up a voice, which was not Arthur Shepard’s. ‘Give us a hand with them, could you?’

Millie never did know which cat had spoken, but one of them had come to his senses with excellent timing.

‘Here you go,’ said the driver. And he pulled the doors open with ease, making Millie blush to think how she had struggled to do the same.

‘No!’ cried Shepard. ‘
No!
’ The last of the cats ran between his legs to freedom, as he reached down, grabbing at them. He caught the tail of the last one and
lifted it triumphantly in the air. ‘Got you,’ he crowed, grabbing it by the neck so it couldn’t bite. ‘Don’t scratch,’ he warned, tightening his grip. The cat
went limp.

‘
No!
’ whispered Max. ‘He has Celeste.’

Millie placed a hand gently on his back. This was no time for heroics.

‘You idiot! Try and catch them!’ Shepard cursed at the driver. But the cats that had made it through the doors had disappeared like smoke on a windy day, dispersing in every
direction, as though they had never been there at all. The sound of mocking laughter echoed back from the woods, growing fainter every second.

‘No need to call people names,’ said the driver, now rather huffy. ‘You asked me to open the doors. Should have made sure your cats was in cages, shouldn’t
you?’

Arthur Shepard gave the man a look of pure, undiluted hatred. ‘Chase them!’ he demanded.

‘Chase cats, in the dark? You’re joking, mate,’ said the van driver, sounding happier at having something concrete to refuse. Shepard looked around desperately.

‘Where’s the dog?’ he continued.

‘You’ve lost a dog as well? Dearie me, you
are
careless,’ said the van driver helpfully.

‘The security guard’s dog,’ snarled Shepard. ‘Did you see anyone as you drove up?’

‘No, mate,’ said the driver. ‘Who else have you lost?’

‘I haven’t lost
anyone
,’ said Arthur Shepard, his voice shaking with anger. ‘People have broken into my laboratory and stolen most of my cats. You just lost the
rest. They’ve only just left the building. You must have seen them. They must have driven past you to get out of here.’

Millie could scarcely breathe. What if he realised they hadn’t left the building at all? He only had to walk a few feet, and he would be standing right over her and Max.

‘Didn’t see anything come past me. There must be another route out of here, mustn’t there?’ said the driver. ‘If I’d known I was in charge of your security as
well as driving your cats halfway up the country, I’d have been paying more attention, wouldn’t I?’

Shepard fixed him with a glare. ‘Go away,’ he said, so quietly that Millie could scarcely hear him.

‘Are you sure?’ asked the driver. ‘Because I’m supposed to be picking up a consignment of cats . . . No, hang on, you’ve lost ’em, haven’t
you?’

‘I
said
, go away,’ Arthur Shepard’s teeth were gritted.

‘Right you are, mate,’ said the driver, feeling and sounding perkier than he had done all day. And he got back into the van, slamming the door. The engine started up and he drove
swiftly away.

Shepard went slowly back to the stairwell, no doubt, thought Millie, to take Celeste straight back to the lab. She and Max had to be quick, so she texted Jake’s brother silently.

are the cameras still off?

The reply came back immediately.

yes.

‘We have to go,’ she said to Max. ‘I’m so sorry.’

He nodded, saying nothing. And they moved silently towards the doors.

That was it. They were free. She turned to look back at the laboratory as they ducked into the woods. They had made it. They ran a few feet into the cover of the trees, and
then she stopped, picking Max up to carry him through the darkness. He still said nothing.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said again, and he finally turned to look at her. Tears were streaming down her face.

‘You don’t look very beautiful when you cry,’ he said softly.

‘Sorry.’ She wiped her eyes and nose on her sleeve.

‘That, of course, is much more lovely.’ He gave her a half-smile, and patted her gently on her less grimy arm.

‘We’ll get her back,’ Millie promised. ‘I just don’t know how yet.’

‘You will,’ said Max. ‘You will.’

Max guided Millie effortlessly to her bike, and they began the journey back across the fields towards town. They had only gone about a mile, however, when Millie felt the bike
lurch beneath her.

‘What is it?’ asked Max.

‘Puncture,’ Millie replied. She was suddenly exhausted, as though all the night’s stresses had caught up with her at once. She stopped pedalling and began to dig through her
bag, hoping, rather than expecting, to find a puncture repair kit.

‘Can you fix it?’ asked the cat.

‘No,’ she sighed. ‘A repair kit is the one thing I forgot to bring.’