How Kirsty Jenkins Stole the Elephant Read Online Free PDF Page A

lifted a phone.
    â€˜Give us a garden! Give us a garden!’ This was great. Like proper protesters. This would make Mr Thomas listen. It had to. If only she’d brought a whistle, then they could make even more noise. A few people crossing the foyer stopped to stare. Some must work here; they had badges on strings around their necks. One or two were just ordinary people; they smiled at Kirsty. She smiled back. There was a little crowd gathering. This was brilliant!
    â€˜What on earth is going on here?’ A man in a blue uniform stepped in front of their demonstration. He wasn’t smiling like the other people.
    Ben stopped shouting at once. Kirsty carried on, until Ben jabbed her painfully in the ribs.
    The man still wasn’t smiling. ‘What do you two think you’re doing?’
    â€˜It’s a demonstration,’ Kirsty said.
    â€˜I can see that,’ the man said.
    â€˜We want Mr Thomas to change his mind and give me my grandad’s allotment.’
    Kirsty heard a woman in the crowd explaining to another who Mr Thomas was.
    â€˜And did you get permission for this display? From Security? From the relevant officers? From the local constabulary?’ the man asked.
    Kirsty shook her head. Ben let his banner droop to the ground.
    â€˜I thought not. This protest is illegal. You will have to stop immediately.’
    A woman stepped forward from the crowd. ‘They’re not doing any harm. Let them be.’
    Some people behind her gave small cheers of approval. The man in the uniform frowned. ‘I can’t do that. They’re in violation of security codes.’
    â€˜They’re just kids,’ the woman said.
    Kirsty felt a bit cross at that. She was a kid, but that didn’t mean that she didn’t have something important to say. Ben whispered in her ear, ‘We should go.’
    Kirsty shook her head and glared at him. She wasn’t going anywhere, not until she had changed Mr Thomas’s mind. ‘Give us a garden! Give us a garden!’ she yelled again, as loud as she could.
    Some of the crowd started to cheer. The man in blue frowned at the crowd. Suddenly he reached out to grab Kirsty’s banner. She stepped back, the poles angled away from him. Crunch . She felt the poles judder as they came up against something hard. Something breakable. She turned slowly. One of her poles was wedged squarely in the centre of a little red box, just above the fire extinguishers.
    Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah .
    The fire alarm was deafening. And she had set it off. She looked at the crowd, at the man in blue, at Ben, whose mouth hung open. It was like they were all frozen in time. Then she snapped to with a decision. ‘Run!’ she yelled.
    They dropped the banners to the ground. She took Ben’s hand and rushed towards the door. The man in blue made to grab at her, but she sidestepped past him. The whole building seemed to be shaking with the noise of the alarm. No, not the alarm. It was footsteps! The sound of hundreds of people tramping out of their offices, obeying the drill. She was going to be in such big trouble if they caught her!
    She ran as fast as she could, out through the doors, down the steps, along the road, with Ben matching her step for step. She looked back once to see if they were being followed, but the man and the crowd seemed to have been caught up in the huge swell of people that were evacuating the council building. Hundreds of people spilled out on to the road. Kirsty and Ben dashed around the corner, running as though they had hell hounds chasing them. They swept past shops, pedestrians, tram stops, running as fast as they could. Somewhere behind them they could hear the wail of a fire engine.
    It was only after four blocks that Ben slowed down. Kirsty grabbed her side where a stitch stabbed at her. She looked at Ben; he caught her eye. And then she felt the most delicious burst of laughter surge up out of her. She couldn’t