Escape! Read Online Free

smells and action hit Danny. A
basketball game was in full swing. Boys shouting, ball pounding the
floorboards, referee blasting on his whistle. Overhead, on a
catwalk that went completely around the huge room, other boys were
jogging and sprinting, their gray gym suits turning dark with
sweat.
    But at the far end of the gym was the thing that
struck Danny the hardest. A boxing ring. And in it, Lacey was
sparring with another black boy.
    Danny stood by the elevator and watched, all the
sights and sounds and odors of the gym fading away into nothing as
he focused every nerve in his body on Lacey.
    The guy was good. He moved around the ring like he
was gliding on ice skates. His left snapped hard, jerking the other
guy’s head back when it landed. Then he winged a right across the
other guy’s guard and knocked him over backwards onto his back.
    Turning, Lacey spotted Danny and waved. His black
body was gleaming with sweat. His face was one enormous smile, made
toothless by the rubber protector that filled his mouth.
    “Hello, Danny.”
    Turning, he saw Alan Peterson standing beside
him.
    “Hi.”
    “Watching the champ? I hear you’re scheduled to fight
him the first of the month.”
    “Yeah.” Danny kept his eyes on Lacey. A new sparring
partner had come into the ring now. Lacey was jab-jab-jabbing him
to death.
    “Were you in the hospital yesterday?” Alan asked.
“There’s a story going around....”
    “Yeah, I was.” Danny still watched Lacey.
    “Are you sick? I mean, will you miss the fight? You
can’t fight anybody if you’re sick.”
    “I ain’t sick.”
    “But....”
    Lacey floored his new partner, this time with a left
hook.
    “I ain’t sick!” Danny snapped. “I’ll fight him the
first of the month!”
    “Okay, don’t get sore,” said Alan. “It’s your
funeral.”
    The loudspeaker suddenly cut through all the noise of
the gym: “DANIEL FRANCIS ROMANO, PLEASE REPORT TO DR. TENNY’S
OFFICE AT ONCE.”
    Danny felt almost relieved. He didn’t want to hang
around the gym any more, but he didn’t want Lacey to see him back
away. Now he had an excuse to go.
    “I’ll take you,” Alan offered.
    Danny said, “I can find it by myself.”
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter Seven
     
    He had to ask directions once he was outside on the
campus. Finally, Danny found the building that the boys called “the
front office.” It was smaller than the other buildings, only three
stories high. The sign over the main door said ADMINISTRATION.
Danny wasn’t quite sure he knew what it meant.
    Inside the door was a sort of a counter, with a girl
sitting at a telephone switchboard behind it. She was getting old,
Danny saw. Way over thirty, at least. She was reading a paperback
book and munching an apple.
    “Where’s Joe Tenny’s office?” Danny asked her.
    She swallowed a bite of apple. “ Dr. Tenny’s
office is the first door on your left.”
    Danny went down the hallway that she had pointed to.
The first door on the left was marked:
    DR. J. TENNY, DIRECTOR.
    Instead of knocking, he walked back to the
switchboard girl. She was bent over her book again, her back to
Danny. He noticed for the first time that there was a clear plastic
shield between the top of the counter and the ceiling. Like
bulletproof glass. He tapped it.
    The girl jumped, surprised, and nearly dropped the
book out of her lap.
    “Hey,” Danny asked, “is Tenny the boss of this whole
place?”
    She looked very annoyed. “This Center was Dr. Tenny’s
idea. He fought to get it started and he fought to make it the way
it is. Of course he runs it.”
    “Oh.... Uh, thanks.”
    Danny went back and knocked at Joe’s door.
    “Come in!”
    Joe’s office was smaller than Danny’s room. It was
crammed with papers. Papers covered his desk, the table behind the
desk, and lapped over the edges of the bookshelves that filled one
whole wall. In a far corner stood an easel