Free In the Deep End by Pam Harvey

exit. There wasn’t. Just two doors behind the counter, both labelled.
    STRICTLY NO ADMITTANCE. AUTHORISED PERSONNEL ONLY
    She opened the door to the left and stopped. She’d been expecting the room she’d seen from the pink tube with the huge vats of ice cream.
    But it wasn’t that at all. In the fading light she could just make out a work bench covered with flasks, beakers and other equipment. She stepped closer. On the bench was a range of jars with dull-coloured powders in them. Each one was neatly labelled. Two enormous gas bottles, each painted red, stood like sentries on either side of the bench. Under the bench, by itself on a shelf, was a jar. Green and orange balls the size of small grapes half-filled it. Hannah turned around. Near the door was a small plastic-covered tent. When she looked closer, she could see it was like a mini hothouse filled with pot plants.
    There was only one way out—back the way she’d come. Hannah sped down the corridors, running as fast as she’d ever run before. Through the office and into the mouse room. Hannah paused, her chest heaving. There was something different about the place. She listened—trying to ignore her pounding chest. The mice. She peered into one of the cages. They were gone. All of them. Someone had been here—maybe was still here. She glanced around the room, left then right. It was empty.
    She turned back to the cages. None of them had floors. Someone, or some automated system, had slid the floors of the cages away. Hannah peered into them. The mice would have disappeared into the black void she was looking at. But disappeared to where? The tunnels, she thought, suddenly remembering the mice they’d encountered in the green tube.
    Without another thought, she raced to the door and opened it. She’d never been more relieved to see her bike.
    All I have to do now is take this swipe card back, she thought to herself, her breathing slowly returning to normal. But that was going to have to wait till morning.
    Hannah touched the card in her pocket and headed home.

Chapter 9
Teasdale Secondary School: Wednesday morning
    Hannah rode her bike to school alone the next day. She’d slept with the swipe card under her pillow and dreamed all night that she was sliding down a tunnel with an avalanche of green ice cream cascading down after her. When she got to school, only a scattering of people were there. Good, she thought. I’ll be able to get into the classroom and put the card back.
    But it wasn’t as easy as that. She was so early that the room hadn’t been unlocked yet. Hannah stood staring in through the glass at the empty room and rattled the door handle angrily. In ten minutes, most of the other kids would be arriving and the last thing she wanted was to get caught with the swipe card in her bag. She turned the handle hard and pushed against the door.
    ‘I think it’s locked, Hannah.’
    Mrs Kent, the librarian, was walking along the corridor with a box of books. Hannah smiled at her. Mrs Kent was the sort of teacher who never had to yell and always seemed pleased to see a student.
    ‘Hi, Mrs Kent. I was just trying to get in to get my Maths book. I think I left it in my locker yesterday.’ Hannah surprised herself at how easily she was lying. ‘I really need to get it before class so I can get my homework done.’
    Mrs Kent stopped beside Hannah and looked up and down the corridor. No other teacher was in sight. ‘I’ve got keys somewhere,’ she said, trying to balance the box with one hand and feel in her jeans pocket with the other.
    ‘Can I hold those for you?’ Hannah reached for the box and Mrs Kent gave it to her.
    ‘Got them.’ The librarian unlocked the door and smiled at Hannah. ‘I’ll wait here while you get it. Then I can lock up.’
    Hannah looked at Mrs Kent over the box of books. How am I going to put the card back if she’s watching? she thought. She tried to think of some emergency that a librarian would have to go to