Free Home Alone 3 by Todd Strasser, John Hughes

hooked the end of the stick under the bedclothes and swept the blankets and extra clothes away.
    Alice blinked. She was looking down at a big gorilla doll. That's what she'd just shot . . . a doll.
    Behind her, Jernigan laughed.
    Alice spun around, gritting her teeth angrily. "Shut up!" she yelled at him.
    "You shot a doll," Jernigan chuckled.
    Alice pointed down at a foot pump on the floor.
    "The kid must have set this up. I stepped on the pump and it—"
    Suddenly she froze with her mouth agape. She went white with terror.
    Jernigan couldn't figure out what was wrong. Alice was staring at him, but why? All he was wearing was his torn camouflage outfit.
    Squeak . . . . Something made a sound.
    Jernigan looked down. Some kind of little animal had poked its head out of his camouflage suit. It looked like a little white . . . rat.
    Uh-oh . . .
    Jernigan looked back at Alice. She was holding the hockey stick like a baseball bat.
    She started to swing.
    "No—" Jernigan cried.
    Too late.

45
    In the linen closet, Alex heard a loud, anglished howl. Like a man was in horrible pain. Alex didn't know what that was, but with everyone screaming and howling, it seemed like a good time to get out of the closet and head back to the attic.
    Unfortunately, it wasn't a good time.
    No sooner did Alex leave the closet than Unger came out of his parents' room and saw him.
    "The kid!" Unger shouted.
    Alex leaped toward the stairs up to the attic, slammed the attic door behind him, and locked it. Doris scampered up the stairs beside him. The doorknob rattled as the burglars tried to get it open.
    Alex knew he didn't have much time. He pulled on a backpack filled with supplies. Then he picked up Doris and the remote-controlled toy car.
    Bang! Bang! More gunshots. Alex didn't have to guess what those were for. One of the burglars had just shot off the doorknob. Now he heard the sound of their steps as they hurried up toward the attic.
    Alex climbed into the dumbwaiter.
    Then he reached out and pushed a button on the control panel on the wall.
    The dumbwaiter started to go down. A second later, Alex was gone.

46
    Down in the basement, Alex crawled out of the dumbwaiter. He pulled off the backpack and took out some tools. He used those tools to remove the floor of the dumbwaiter. Then he took a toy robot out of the backpack. It was battery-operated and had little mechanical arms that swung forward as it moved.
    Alex set up the robot about four feet from the basement control panel for the dumbwaiter. Then he switched the robot on. The robot started to move slowly toward the control panel, swinging its arms as it went.
    Next he crossed the basement to the washing machine. As part of his plan he'd left his hat and coat and Nerf dart gun there. He pulled on the hat and coat and picked up the dart gun.
    Something was wrong. The gun weighed a ton!
    Alex looked down at it. His eyes went wide!
    It wasn't the dart gun! It was a real gun!
    One of the burglars must have left it. He must've been so dazed from falling into the basement that he'd picked up the dart gun by accident.
    Alex had no use for a real gun. He opened the trash can beside the washing machine and put it inside.
    Then he let himself out of the basement and headed outside into the backyard. The snow was deep and soft. More of it was still falling from the sky. It would have been a lot of fun to make a new snow fort. Too bad he had to deal with these dumb burglars instead.
    Alex positioned himself in the middle of the backyard where he could see the attic window. He crossed his fingers. If he was lucky, the best was yet to come.

47
    Earl Unger couldn't believe what he was seeing. The attic looked like a command centel: Granted it was filled with old junky TV sets, but they worked! On their screens he could see the driveway and backyard terrace.
    "This is unbelievable," he groaned. "The kid was watching us the whole time! He had cameras on us!"
    "I'll tell you what's really unbelievable,"