Free Stay:The Last Dog in Antarctica by Jesse Blackadder Page B

kitchen slushy got to pick the music. Kaboom liked to listen to jazz, which always left Stay feeling sad.
    The bar emptied out. Someone snapped off the lights and the gloomy grey glow of the blizzard outside settled over the room. Stay started to doze, trying to ignore the lonely sound of the wind whistling around the edge of the building.
    Suddenly a scratching sound down on the ground jolted her awake.
    ‘Can you see anyone?’ she heard someone whisper.
    ‘No. I’ll keep lookout.’
    Someone else was trying to dognap her. Stay didn’t mind who it was — anything would have to be better than staying on the bar. But how would they get her out of the chain and padlock? Dux was the only one who had a key.
    Stay couldn’t recognise the dognappers. There were two people, both wearing balaclavas that covered their faces.
    ‘Have you got it yet?’ the one on the floor asked.
    ‘Give me a second! I’ve only just found the padlock.’ The first one snapped on a small torch, which cast a tiny pool of light on the padlock.
    Stay recognised their voices. The one fiddling with the padlock was Laser, and the other one was Kaboom. Her friends were going to rescue her!
    Laser had a ring of keys and she started trying to find one that fitted. Stay could feel the vibration coming up through the chain, and the little metallic sounds of the keys scraping against the padlock.
    ‘I don’t think the key is on this chain!’ Laser whispered. ‘Maybe he’s hidden it somewhere else.’
    Stay felt a rush of disappointment and willed them not to give up.
    ‘You’ll have to do it by feel,’ Kaboom said. ‘Be quiet. Dux has a nose for when something’s going on.’
    ‘Lucky he didn’t notice we swiped his keys,’ Laser said. She tried again. Stay wanted to squirm with impatience.
    At last there was a click and she felt the lock spring open.
    ‘Well done!’ Kaboom said, coming close. Theyunwrapped the chain and Kaboom lifted Stay off the bar. She gave her a quick hug. ‘I missed you, Stay.’
    ‘Where’s the leg?’ Laser asked.
    What leg? Stay wondered.
    Kaboom reached into her jacket and pulled something out. Stay realised it was her missing leg, crushed and dangling. She’d got so used to her new wooden leg that she’d nearly forgotten the old one; she shuddered at the sight of it. What were they going to do with it?
    She watched as Laser wrapped the leg in the heavy chain, crisscrossing it until the leg was almost completely covered. She pulled the two ends together and padlocked them shut.
    ‘Are you leaving a ransom note?’ Laser asked.
    ‘You bet,’ Kaboom said. She pulled a folded piece of paper out of her pocket and read it aloud. ‘ Stay has gone. This is all you’re getting. Don’t come looking for her, or we’ll cut off her other leg and send that. ’ She tucked the note into the chain.
    ‘Ooh, that’s horrible,’ Laser said. ‘Don’t worry, Stay, we don’t mean it.’
    Stay was very glad. But what were they going to do with her? She didn’t really want to hide somewhere — she was sick of hiding. It’d be better to stay where she was than be put in a cupboard or under a bed.
    ‘Come on!’ Kaboom said. ‘Let’s get out of here before Dux comes back. Over to the helipad.’
    ‘What, in the blizzard?’ Laser asked.
    ‘You bet. I’m putting her in the mailbag ready to go in the Squirrel. Can you smuggle those keys back into Dux’s office?’
    What on earth is a Squirrel and how do you get inside one? Stay wondered. It was another Antarctic mystery.
    ‘I’m sorry, girl,’ Kaboom said. She lifted up a mailbag and pulled it over Stay’s head. Everything went dark.
    Stay felt them carry her to the heavy outer door and open it. She heard Laser and Kaboom gasp as the blizzard hit them in the face and Stay felt the sleet rattling against the bag as they stepped outside.
    ‘Hold on to the guide rope,’ Kaboom said, the words whipped from her mouth by the wind. ‘Keep one hand on it.’
    Stay