The Escape - Robert Muchamore Page 0,38
if he was breathing properly for the first time since he’d left the countryside.
He had to battle shrubs and branches as he searched for an easy way in. Most of the shutters were closed, but where he could see inside he was reassured by rolled-up rugs and covers over all the furniture.
Marc hadn’t found the soft entry point he’d hoped for, but the best option seemed to be a small window made from frosted glass slats. He wasn’t tall enough to reach it easily, so he dragged a metal dustbin from the back of the house and stood on top.
It was easy to put his fingers between two slats and pull on them. There was a squeal as all six swivelled into a horizontal position, giving him a good view into a bathroom. Directly beneath the window was a washbasin, with a spider’s web spanning the taps and the edge of the bowl. Across the room was a toilet, a bidet and a large bath standing on four tarnished feet. Like the house itself, the fixtures were grand but clearly a few decades past their prime.
If he could get two or three slats out, Marc thought he’d be able to slide through the window and drop down on to the sink. He began with an experimental pull on a slat, then he gave it a wiggle, but it clearly wasn’t going to be that easy.
Marc studied the rusted metal frame into which each slat was mounted. The slats were joined to the frame by a screw at each end and although he didn’t have a screwdriver, he reckoned he’d be able to loosen the screw at each end using the director’s hunting knife and then pull them out.
He stumbled as he jumped down off the bin, but he wasn’t hurt and within half a minute he’d grabbed the hunting knife out of the pigskin bag and was trying to get the sharp edge of the blade into a screw head. However, the blade wasn’t really the right width and even when he did manage to get the blade in line to apply some force, the screw didn’t budge because it was held in with thick rust.
Marc groaned, but he was determined and he kept trying. Reaching between the slats for the screw head was an awkward job and after five minutes his shoulder ached and his only achievement was a bloody thumb.
As the knife slipped for the umpteenth time, Marc gave one of the glass slats a final, desperate yank. A chunk of mortar dropped from the gap between the brickwork and the rusty frame holding the slats in place.
Marc studied the gap and noticed that the mortar was badly cracked and crumbled away when he dug it with his thumbnail. He lined the point of the knife up with the hole left behind by the mortar and pushed forwards with a stabbing motion. His reward was a shower of dust, but several more stabs enabled him to make a clear hole between the bricks and the metal. Marc smiled as he pushed the knife into the hole and made the plaster crumble using a sawing motion.
Within a minute he’d cleared a twenty-centimetre gap between frame and wall, but he was making noise, so he decided to stop and make sure he hadn’t caught anyone’s attention. After jumping down and sweeping the loose dust from what was now a filthy set of clothes, he walked back towards the street and peered through the hedge.
A couple of men were trudging up the hill and, judging by their rough appearance, they were heading for the Dormitory Raquel. They probably wouldn’t have heard, but he gave them time to pass before going back to work.
Before long Marc had chipped out all of the mortar along one side of the window. He gave the metal bar holding the slats an experimental knock. The glass shuddered but the mortar at the opposite end snapped away in chunks.
The whole window was about to crash inside, making a noise that would be heard half a street away. Marc gripped one of the slats, but the combined weight of glass and metal was enough to twist his wrist around painfully, until he dropped the knife and steadied the opposite end with his other hand.
It was awkward, but he pulled the entire window out of the surrounding brickwork and ditched it on top of an overgrown shrub with little more than the sound of rustling branches, followed by a