Free The Paradise Trap by Catherine Jinks Page B

answer was obvious. If they got chased, they would run.
    ‘We should leave Prot here to hold the door open,’ he suggested. Though he had spotted an up button beside the door, he no longer trusted doors – or buttons. ‘We don’t want the lift leaving without us.’
    ‘Good point,’ said his mother. Then she turned to the robot. ‘Prot, you should stay, please, to keep our escape route clear,’ she ordered. ‘Understand?’
    ‘Clarification required,’ was the robot’s toneless, plodding answer. ‘I do not understand how I must staple east to key power escape route clear.’
    ‘Just stay here , Prot,’ Marcus instructed, very slowly and precisely. ‘Hold the door open. And wait until we come back. Okay?’
    ‘I will hold the door open and wait until you come back,’ Prot concurred.
    ‘Good.’ Looking around, Marcus saw that Sterling had already wandered out of the lift. ‘Mr Huckstepp! Hold on!’ Marcus squeaked in alarm. ‘We have to be careful!’
    He and his mother rushed to join Sterling, who was reverently patting a white wicker chair. Holly tried to explain in a low voice that they couldn’t linger – that they had to find Coco – that the Crystal Hibiscus Health Spa was a very dangerous place. But Sterling seemed more interested in the flowers, and the fountains, and the fact that the lift was embedded in a caretaker’s hut.
    ‘Isn’t that neat?’ he gabbled, before dipping his hand in a stone basin to test the water. ‘Hey! Check this out! It feels like the real thing!’
    ‘Shh! Not so loud!’ hissed Marcus.
    ‘God help us! Will you look at that!’ Sterling pointed through an archway towards the distant view of whitecaps on a sapphire sea. ‘Is that a back-screen projection of some kind, or what?’
    ‘Sterling. Listen to me,’ Holly begged, in the softest of whispers. ‘We have to find Coco. She came here and wouldn’t leave—’
    ‘I’m not surprised!’ Sterling boomed, just as two giant cats rounded the nearest bend in the path. One cat was pink and one was grey; both were carrying trays laden with tropical fruit, chocolate-covered nuts, manicure equipment, and vials of nail polish in every shade of pink known to humanity.
    Sterling gave a shout of laughter.
    ‘I don’t believe it!’ he exclaimed. ‘It’s Coco’s dream come true! She must be having the time of her life!’
    His voice echoed off the sweeping expanses of white marble like a thunderclap. Holly and Marcus both winced as the two cats froze. Four identical golden eyes swivelled in Sterling’s direction. A pair of tails began to twitch.
    ‘No wonder she’s hiding out!’ he continued. ‘I don’t blame her for not wanting to leave; I’d like to stay too!’
    The two cats exchanged glances. Though they didn’t exactly shrug, Marcus somehow sensed that they wanted to. They then proceeded on their way quite calmly, as if nothing had happened.
    Holly’s jaw dropped.
    ‘What was that all about?’ said Marcus.
    ‘I – I’m not sure . . .’
    ‘They didn’t attack us. Why didn’t they attack us?’
    ‘I don’t know.’
    ‘I do.’ The answer had come to Marcus in a flash.
    ‘It’s because of Mr Huckstepp. He keeps saying how wonderful everything is—’ ‘—and how Coco would never leave!’ his mother finished. ‘Which is exactly what the cats want to hear!’
    ‘Yup.’
    ‘So he’s not regarded as any sort of threat.’ Holly frowned as she watched Sterling trot after the two cats. ‘Oh dear. What’s he up to? You shouldn’t touch a cat’s tail – cats hate it when you do that.’
    ‘ It moves! ’ Sterling called back to her, gesturing at the fluffy pink tail that had jerked away from his reaching hand. ‘ It’s got some kind of hydraulic system built into it! ’
    Marcus sighed and tugged at his mother’s sleeve.
    ‘Come on,’ he muttered. ‘We’d better stay close, or he’s bound to do something stupid. Anyway, those cats will lead us straight to Mrs Huckstepp.