Free The Owl Keeper by Christine Brodien-Jones Page B

Rose charged headlong across the field, oblivious to danger. Max raced after her.
    The streets of Cavernstone Grey twisted and turned. The two children clumped through the poorer section first, where decrepit streetlamps cast their feeble light on narrow, cramped houses with roofs of corrugated iron. Max felt a cold uneasiness building inside him. What if someone saw them through a window and called the Dark Brigade?
    They entered a tree-lined avenue where the wealthy residents lived. Max's boots echoed along the paved streets. Here stood three- and four-story timbered houses, with peaked roofs of orange tiles and filigree balconies. Their wood frames were painted bright shades of yellow and red, the official colors of the High Echelon.
    Which one was Einstein's house? Max wondered. There were numerous Tredegars in Cavernstone Grey, and they were known as a clan of tightly buttoned, square-toothed grinners. All of them held high government positions.
    "Hey, Rose, where's your house?" he asked.

Rose shrugged. "Other side of town. I'll show you next time."
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    "Does the bus take you to school?"
    "I don't take any bus. My dad teaches me everything I need to know."
    "Then you have lessons at home, like me?" Max persisted, wishing she would tell him more about herself.
    "Something like that." Rose gave an irritable sigh. "Can we cut the small talk? I have to concentrate on not getting lost."
    Max went quiet. He supposed Rose had a point: after all, they were on an important mission and needed to pay attention.
    They headed up Blackbone Street, past boarded storefronts and sandwich eateries, bookshops with smashed windows, abandoned shopping arcades, a theater with closed for the season scrawled across the double doors. Max was astounded to see how neglected and run-down everything was. He had no idea that the town had fallen into such a state of decay.
    "I hope nobody's watching," he said, looking around at the shuttered windows and closed doors.
    "Don't be such a worrywart!" Rose snapped. "Everybody's asleep, even the guard dogs! Besides, nobody can see us. We're as good as invisible."
    Rose was right, he thought; the mist and darkness were like a cloak thrown over them. Anyone looking out of a window would see shadows and nothing more.
    government supplies, Max read on a shop door. ezra dear's junk shop, said another sign. Carved over a marble entryway were the words bank of the high echelon, ltd.-- est. 2066, and on a cement wall someone had spray-painted death to silver owls! The slogan made Max's blood run cold.
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    A banner hung from the pillars of the library, bold letters proclaiming: citizens' dome construction scheme (cdcs): your beneficent government, working for the people, and in smaller letters: this building houses dome construction materials. looters will be prosecuted.
    What a terrible loss, thought Max, reflecting how in Gran's time the libraries had been filled to overflowing with books of every size, shape and topic. It was devastating to think they had all been confiscated and burned.
    Rose paused beneath a tattered awning, ceremoniously unfolding a scrap of paper. "My dad drew this." She pulled a mini-flashlight from her pocket. "We're here. See?" She waved the tiny beam over a map. "We keep going till we reach Rye Corner, then we turn left onto Gravesend Road. That'll take us all the way to Cavernstone Hall."
    Max studied the lines and symbols, sketched with painstaking care. "Your dad's a good artist," he commented. He wondered if spies had to take courses in map drawing.
    "That's just one of his many talents."
    Max frowned. "I think you have a problem."
    Rose clicked off the light. "What do you mean?"
    "I know you stole Mrs. Crumlin's boots. And that map--I bet your dad doesn't know you took it. I bet he doesn't even know you're here." The words spilled out before he could stop them. "You've got sticky fingers, Artemis Rose Eccles. You could get arrested for stealing those boots!"
    "My dad knows exactly