Tracy Tam: Santa Command Read Online Free PDF Page B

searched for another room from the outside.
    She grabbed the lip of the window and heaved upward, putting way more muscle into it than she had before. It moved a few inches, but she forgot to be careful, and her broken arm screamed in pain.
    “Ow! Ow! Ow! OW!” She jumped up and down, clutching her arm to her chest.
    Then, she remembered to be quiet. Santa didn't want her leaving the room, so he'd probably frown on her going out the window. But gathering evidence was essential to saving Pim. Surely, Santa would forgive her, especially if she got everything she needed before he found out she was gone.
    Tracy pushed the window up, taking a lot more care with her arm this time, and climbed through it. As she popped out onto the crunchy dried up grass, the window slammed shut behind her. She whirled around and nearly fell over. Santa's house was gone! It was as if she were standing in a small clearing with the skeletons of dead trees closing in on her.
    This was the second time that night she had been truly afraid. What happened to the house? How was she going to find her way back in? How was she going to find her way home?
    She closed her eyes and forced herself to calm down. There had to be a rational explanation. Buildings didn't just disappear. It was probably some trick of light or mirrors designed to keep anyone from accidentally stumbling onto Santa's house. She hadn't heard of many people hiking around the North Pole looking for Santa, but if she had been brought there, then others had probably been brought there too. Santa had to have some sort of plan to ensure people couldn't find their way back.
    With trembling hands, she reached out in front of her, swishing them through the air until her fingertips brushed against the cool concrete. She pressed her palms and her forehead against the wall and sighed with relief.
    The house was still there. It was simply…hidden.
    It felt strange, because it looked like she was leaning against absolutely nothing, but the wall was there. The scratchy concrete told her so.
    Once she knew the building hadn't gone anywhere, she ran her hands along the wall, trying to find the window again. She had no intention of going back in that way, but she needed to know that it was an option.
    She found the window. The problem was, there was no way to open it again. No edge that she could tuck her fingers under, and no way to muscle it open by pushing up on the glass. She hoped the other windows weren't like that, but figured they probably were. Well, maybe she could find a back door or something.
    Tracy held her breath as she scuffled forward, dragging her fingers along the wall, searching for an opening. The North Pole was supposed to be wondrous, but this place reminded her more of a graveyard at midnight than a magical toy shop.
    The silence made her ears feel like they'd been stuffed with cotton. Nothing skittered. Nothing squeaked. Every now and then, a slight wind blew, and the bare tree branches scratched against each other, rattling Tracy's nerves. Even the building felt rough and uninviting. She scrunched up inside the red velvet coat, but it wasn't enough to stop the chill from spreading through her bones.
    As the minutes piled on top of her, she continued inching her way down the building.
    Maybe my window was the only way in , she thought. The night was beginning to feel like an episode of Doctor Who. Elves that turned into trolls. Windows that weren't really windows. Buildings that disappeared when you looked at them. What if she really wasn't at Santa's workshop? What if she'd fallen into some other dimension or had been kidnapped by some alien masquerading as Santa?
    She was just about to let her imagination take her to a different planet when a large column of light appeared in the middle of the forest. It was maybe a football field away, and it shot up into the sky as if the ground had opened up. To confirm her theory, Santa's sleigh whooshed overhead, zooming straight toward the