The Great Escape Read Online Free PDF

know very little about what’s been going on, if they think there are only mice and rats in there. I presume even quite a stupid person would realise
I am not a mouse. Or a grubby little rat.’
    ‘And they think that it’s only medicines that are being tested. But that’s not what they were using you for, is it?’ Millie frowned.
    Max had no idea. He shrugged.
    ‘I mean,’ Millie carried on, trying to explain, ‘they didn’t give you a voice to test a medicine, unless it was an unexpected side-effect, which doesn’t seem very
likely. I can imagine there are medicines which could
damage
your voice, but not give you one from scratch. And they don’t need to find a medicine that can make people talk – we
can talk already.’
    ‘More’s the pity,’ snapped Max. ‘Present company excepted of course. You’re right, though. So, what
were
they doing?’
    ‘I don’t know. Maybe I’m wrong –
could
it have been a side-effect of a drug? Did they seem surprised when they found you could talk?’
    ‘Not as surprised as you did.’
    Millie grinned. ‘I bet they didn’t. So they expected you to be able to talk?’
    ‘Yes. I think so. They asked us questions. That suggests that they were expecting answers.’
    ‘When did they ask you questions?’ Millie asked.
    ‘Every day.’
    ‘From the day you arrived there?’
    ‘No, from the second or third day. I’m not sure. I was tired, and my throat hurt.’ Max looked a bit dejected, not something Millie had seen before.
    ‘Your throat hurt? Let me see.’ Millie reached out for his neck, and he jumped back, hissing.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ Millie cried, and pulled back her hand as if scalded. They looked at each other for a long moment.
    Max sighed.
    ‘No,
I
am sorry. I know you’re trying to help me, and I didn’t mean to get angry. It’s just—’
    ‘I know,’ she said, imagining how she might feel if the last human being to come near her had kidnapped and tortured her. ‘I just want to see if there are marks on your
fur.’
    He stepped forward, and she put her hand gently on his throat, where the fur seemed shorter than elsewhere. She nodded, grimly.
    ‘I think you were tired because they gave you an anaesthetic the day after you arrived. And your throat hurt because while you were unconscious, they operated on you to give you a voice.
Your fur’s shorter here, because they must have shaved it. I had my tonsils out last year, and my throat hurt for a fortnight. And yours must have been much worse than that.’
    Max looked a bit sick.
    ‘They . . . shaved my fur?’ he said faintly.
    ‘Yes, I think so.’
    ‘Tell me we will punish them for this indignity,’ he said.
    ‘Of course we will. Do you always sound like one of the Three Musketeers when you get angry?’
    ‘Always.’
    They sat for a moment, and Millie gave him a small smile.
    ‘Did they test you for any other things?’
    ‘They took temperatures, heart rates, that kind of thing. They had charts on each of us, I think,’ he replied.
    ‘That just sounds like they wanted to check whether the surgery had made you ill in any way. Did they operate on all the cats as soon as they came in?’
    ‘I guess so. I don’t know exactly.’ Max furrowed his brow, trying to remember.
    ‘Could you all talk, in the end?’
    ‘Yes. Although they thought one of us could not.’
    Millie raised her eyebrows, questioning.
    Max explained: ‘There was one cat, Monty, who refused to talk to them at all. He could, but he wouldn’t. He was there when I arrived, and he was very smart, very funny. He took care
of me. He was always planning some kind of escape, but he is old and not so quick or strong as I am. His daughter, Celeste, was there too – he was planning for her, I think . . .’ Max
gazed at Millie. ‘We
must
help them.’
    ‘We will,’ said Millie simply. ‘I promise.’
    ‘After the first couple of days, when they started questioning us, he never answered. They thought it hadn’t worked