Free The Great Escape by Natalie Haynes

lunchtime, definitely.’
    ‘How did they get in? Did they have a key?’
    ‘I don’t know. I was in the back garden. I didn’t see them get in, I just saw them when they went into the kitchen. The side-window of your garage is open, though, and the
brickwork beneath it looks scuffed, so I think they got in there. I watched them going up the stairs, so I jumped onto the garage roof, and then I waited outside the bathroom window. I knew they
would open a window upstairs, because it’s been so hot today. When they left the bathroom one open, I jumped in.’
    ‘Are you mental? What if they’d seen you?’ Millie cried.
    ‘I am not, as you say, mental,’ Max said stiffly. ‘I am silent and cunning. I heard them talking in your father’s room, I knew the coast was clear, I jumped in and I hid.
This is what cats are good at. One of the
many
things we are good at,’ he corrected himself.
    ‘But the risk was huge.’ Millie was still appalled. ‘What did they do next?’
    ‘They searched your dad’s room for a while, and the other bedroom. Then they tried yours. They checked for cat hair on the bed – it’s lucky I am too polite to moult.
Also, I think they were put off by all the dust. One of them kept sneezing.’
    ‘That’s lucky. I knew it would come in handy sooner or later – I keep telling Dad that housework is dangerous. What did they do then?’
    ‘Then they turned on your computer.’
    ‘How did that go?’
    ‘Badly for them.’
    ‘Great.’
    ‘They accessed your email account.’
    ‘My regular one?’
    ‘Does it have two messages in, one from your grandparents in Australia and one from your friend Claire who is in Italy on holiday?’
    ‘That’s the one.’
    ‘Yes, they checked that. They seemed a little disappointed that you didn’t have more mail.’
    ‘I’m a surprisingly efficient correspondent.’
    ‘That’s good.’
    ‘Did they check the Deleted Items?’
    ‘Apparently you have none. Just a few emails from somewhere, asking you if you’d like a special-offer DVD, whatever that might be.’
    ‘I empty it pretty often. I leave those ones in so it doesn’t look suspiciously empty.’
    ‘Suspicious to whom? Have you lived your whole life expecting something like this to happen? You are extraordinary.’
    ‘I told you – my dad is nuts about computer privacy. That’s why I have a Mac – they’re harder to attack with viruses.’
    ‘The computer can become ill?’
    ‘Yeah, kind of. And people can send you stuff which can get them information about your machine. They’re called Worms. Or Trojans.’
    ‘Oh.’ Max looked confused.
    ‘Anyway, my dad thinks that if you only store the things you can’t keep in your head on the computer, there’s less for someone to steal, so I delete everything I can, and keep
my vital stuff on a memory stick, which I carry ar—’
    ‘Please don’t take this the wrong way. I’m impressed, and yet simultaneously not interested.’
    ‘It’s fine. I slightly wish I’d rescued another cat.’
    ‘I slightly wish you had, too.’ Max looked huffy.
    Millie laughed.
    ‘Ah, I
am
interested in one thing,’ said Max.
    ‘What’s that?’
    ‘Your father is a computer expert, yet he is cleaning windows for a job. Why is that?’
    ‘Oh, well . . .’ Millie looked embarrassed, as though she were giving away her dad’s secrets. ‘He lost his job about three months ago. And I thought he’d be
applying for other jobs, but he doesn’t seem to want to. Or maybe he does want to, but his friend thinks he’s lost his belief in himself. Only, we don’t have very much spare
money, because there’s only my dad and me. My mum died years ago, and my grandparents are in Australia, and they don’t even know he’s lost his job, so . . .’ She trailed
off.
    ‘That is nothing to be ashamed of,’ Max said. ‘He is earning money the best way he can, until the right thing comes along. I think that’s very dignified. Very
fatherly.’
    ‘Me