Archie looked freezing.
‘I can’t open the door,’ said Holly. ‘They’re alarmed. You know how serious they are about keeping me in.’
‘I could climb in through a window,’ he suggested.
‘The whole place is shut up like a prison. You have to go home,’ insisted Holly. ‘If they find you here now, they won’t let you visit any more.’
‘I can’t go home,’ he said.
‘Why?’
Archie stared back at her stubbornly. Holly could tell that he wasn’t going to answer her question but over the short time that they had known each other she had learnt to trust him.
‘Are you telling me that they’ve locked this place up so tightly that even the great Holly Bigsby can’t get round it?’ said Archie, with a challenging smile.
‘Well …’ Holly smiled back. ‘Stay there,’ she said, letting go of the cat flap and making her way up the stairs.
As it happened, Holly had worked out a way around her parents’ precautions. She had no intention of carrying it out. It was just something to do. But as long as she could get Archie in and out unnoticed, Dad and Big Hair would be none the wiser.
At night Big Hair kept the keys on her bedside table. Last week, Holly had overheard her and Dad arguing about it.
‘But, Bridget, what if there’s a fire?’ her dad had said. ‘Isn’t it a bit dangerous?’
‘The most dangerous thing in this house is that daughter of yours,’ she had replied. ‘It’s time to rein her in unless you want a delinquent on your hands.’
Holly had wanted her dad to defend her, but as usual he just said, ‘I suppose you’re right, dear,’ and went back to the newspaper he was reading.
‘And I’ve come up with a way to help you remember the alarm code.’ Big Hair had lowered her voice. ‘I’ve put the number into your mobile phone.’
‘Very clever, darling. Good idea,’ he replied, without looking up from his paper.
Big Hair had looked pleased with herself. Then she said, ‘Shouldn’t you be doing some work?’
‘Er …’ Dad shifted uncomfortably. ‘Brant has employed me more in an advisory capacity. He said he would let me know when he needed me.’
Holly had felt her blood boil, knowing full well that Brant Buchanan had only employed him to reveal the whereabouts of a secret government weapon. Now the billionaire had successfully stolen and used the weapon, Dad just sat around reading newspapers.
Holly’s plan was to sneak into Dad and Big Hair’s bedroom, remove the mobile phone from Dad’s pocket and the keys from Big Hair’s bedside table, deactivate the alarm, open the door and let Archie in, then reactivate the alarm, lock the door and replace the phone and keys. If she left a window unlocked, Archie could sneak out through the window in the morning and no one would ever know he was there. Simple.
Holly darted up the stairs, careful to avoid the noisy floorboards, and across the landing to the bedroom door. She pushed it open and poked her head round the corner, ever ready to freeze and blend if either of them stirred.
Her dad was snoring lightly. Big Hair was sleeping silently beside him. Holly tiptoed into the room. On a wicker chair on her dad’s side lay his discarded clothes. On the back of the chair was his suit jacket. Holly checked the trouser pockets but there was no phone. She slipped around to the other side of the chair. Her dad muttered something in his sleep. She froze, but he didn’t wake up so Holly carefully picked up the suit jacket and reached into the inside pocket, pulling out the mobile phone. She slipped it into her own pocket and moved swiftly to the other side of the bed.
Big Hair was sleeping with her face disconcertingly near to where the keys rested on the bedside table. Holly approached. She noticed that Big Hair’s eyes were only half shut. For a moment she thought that she was awake, but she quickly realised that her eyes weren’t focusing on her and from the rhythmic breathing it was clear that she was asleep.
Holly reached inside her T-shirt and pulled out the dragon claw she had taken to wearing round her neck, having threaded a piece of string through a hole in it. She knew it was risky to carry around proof of dragon existence but she wore it because it reminded her of the world that had opened up to her since meeting Dirk. She used it to hook the key ring and lift it from the table before clasping a hand over the keys to stop them jangling together. Big Hair let out a small moan. ‘Yes, we’re thinking of having it refurbished,’ she muttered in her sleep. Holly could feel her heart pounding against her chest and the blood rushing through her ears so noisily that she began to worry that if the keys didn’t wake Big Hair, the sound of her own fear would, but Big Hair rolled over, still asleep.
Holly carefully placed the keys in her pocket and made her way across the room, out of the door, and down the stairs, where she pulled out her dad’s mobile and unlocked it. The screen lit up and she read:
You have 78 missed calls
She OK’d the message and searched through her dad’s contacts until she found Mr A Code.
‘Mr A Code,’ she said to herself, smiling. ‘Alarm code. Subtle!’
Sure enough, Mr Code’s telephone number was only four digits long. She opened the cupboard under the stairs where the alarm was kept and typed the numbers into the keypad. The alarm let out a long beep to indicate that it had been switched off.
Holly ran to the back door, unlocked it and opened it.
‘Under five minutes – not bad,’ said Archie, looking at his watch.
‘Shh,’ hushed Holly. ‘Go to the front room.’
She shut the door behind Archie and locked it before following him into the room.
‘Do you know how much trouble I’m in if we’re found out?’ she said.
Archie reached into his pocket and offered Holly a jelly bean.
‘No thanks,’ she said.
‘Sorry. I had nowhere else to go.’
‘Stay here,’ she said, unlocking a window. ‘I’m going to put everything back then I’ll come back down again.’
‘You want help?’ offered Archie.
‘It’s easier alone. I’ll be back in a second,’ replied Holly, slipping back out into the hallway, up the stairs and into the bedroom.
This time she did everything in reverse, replacing the keys on the bedside table first then crossing the room and dropping the mobile phone into the jacket pocket. She turned to leave but a buzzing noise stopped her. It was the phone vibrating, rattling against the wicker chair. Her dad murmured in his sleep. Scared that it would wake him up, Holly reached back inside the pocket and lifted it out, to turn it off. On the screen were three words that made Holly’s blood run cold.
Brant Buchanan calling
She hit the cancel button. The screen now read, 79 missed calls. She felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked around to see her dad standing behind her, staring angrily at her.
‘Holly, what on earth are you doing?’ he whispered.