Escape! Read Online Free Page A

with a half-finished
painting propped up on it. Brushes and tubes of paint were
scattered on the floor beside the easel.
    Joe leaned back in his chair. He squinted through the
harsh-smelling smoke from the stubby cigar that was clamped in his
teeth.
    “How’re you feeling?”
    “Okay.”
    “Sit down. The smoke bother you?”
    “No, it’s okay.” Danny saw that there was only one
other chair in the office, over by the half-open window.
    Sitting in it, he asked, “Uh... did you tell any of
the other guys about, eh, what happened yesterday?”
    “About you trying to escape?” Joe shook his head.
“No, that’s no business of anybody else’s. SPECS knows it, of
course. But I’ve ordered SPECS to hold the information as private.
Only the staff people who work on your case will be able to learn
about it. None of the kids.”
    Danny nodded.
    “Quite a few people saw me carrying you into the
hospital, though.”
    “Yeah... I guess so.”
    Joe tapped the ash off his cigar into the wastebasket
next to his desk. “Listen. You’re going to start classes tomorrow.
Most of the kids spend their mornings studying, and use the
afternoons for different things. You’re expected to work a couple
of hours each afternoon. You can work in one of the shops, or join
the repair gang, or something else. Everybody works at something to
help keep the Center shipshape. Otherwise the place would fall
apart.”
    Danny frowned. “You mean it’s like a job?”
    “Right,” said Joe, with a grin. “Don’t look so glum.
It won’t hurt you. You get credit for every hour you work, and you
can buy things in the Center’s store. SPECS runs the store and
keeps track of the credits. And it’s only a couple hours a day.
Then the rest of the day’s all yours.”
    “A job,” Danny muttered.
    “You can learn a lot from some honest work. And
you’ll be helping to keep the Center looking neat. You might even
get to like it.”
    “Don’t bet on it.”
    Joe made a sour face. “Okay, I’m not here to argue
with you. You have a visitor. She’s in the next room.”
    “She? Laurie?”
    Nodding, Joe said, “You can spend the rest of the
afternoon with her. But she’s got to leave at five.”
    Without another word, Danny hurried from Dr. Tenny’s
office and burst into the next room. Laurie was sitting on the edge
of a big leather chair. She jumped up and ran into his arms.
    After a few minutes, Danny pulled away from her and
closed the door.
    “How are you?” They both said it at the same time.
They laughed.
    Laurie was a little thinner than Danny remembered
her. And sort of pale. She was a small girl, almost frail-looking,
with hair and eyes as dark as Danny’s own. Danny knew prettier
girls, but no one like Laurie. Of all the people in the world, she
was the only one that needed Danny. And the only one that he
needed.
    “You look good,” she said.
    “You look great.”
    “Are they treating you okay?”
    He nodded. “Sure. Fine. This is more like a school
than a jail. How about you? Everything okay?”
    “Uh-huh.”
    They moved slowly to the couch, by the room’s only
window.
    “How’s Silvio and the other guys?” Danny asked as
they sat down.
    “They’re all right.... Danny, are you really
okay?”
    Laughing, he said, “Sure. I told you. This ain’t
really a jail. I nearly broke out of here yesterday. Looks easy.
Hardly any guards. I’ll probably be out in a couple weeks. Soon’s I
figure out a couple things.”
    Laurie’s eyes widened. She looked frightened. “Danny,
don’t do anything they can catch you on. If you get into more
trouble....”
    “You feel like waitin’ around for five years?” he
snapped. “Or ten? Twenty? If I can break out, I’m goin’ to do it.
Reason the other guys don’t try it is ‘cause they’re too soft. They
got it too easy here, so they stay. Not me!”
    “But they’ll just hunt you down again and bring you
back. Or maybe put you in a worse place....”
    “You want me to