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details. Let’s mail them both. We’ll see what we can find
out.’
    ‘No, don’t do that.’ Max stood up suddenly. ‘What if they are not real people, writing these things?’
    ‘You think fictional people are doing it? Can they even type?’
    Max gave Millie a long, level stare. ‘Not fictional people, Miss Clever,’ he said, making her smirk. ‘You might wish to remember,’ he added haughtily, ‘that I am
speaking in my third language. I
mean
, what if the people at the laboratory are behind the sites? They are not real protesters, even though they are real people.’
    ‘Calm down,’ said Millie. ‘I’m on it. I’m going to set up a special account, which is remote from this computer. We’ll mail them from there, and they
won’t be able to track it back to us at all. And we’ll only use it for mailing this site, so nobody will be able to put two and two together.’
    ‘Why would they do that?’
    ‘It’s just an expression – put two and two together. It means take little bits of evidence and jump to a big conclusion. But they won’t be able to match the person
mailing the site with the girl cleaning windows. I promise.’
    Max still looked sceptical, but eventually shrugged his consent.
    ‘Now,’ Millie continued, ‘we need a user name, and a password – something no one else would know.’ She picked up her book, flipped to a random page, and picked the
first two nouns – overcoat and collar – that she found on page 35. ‘Right, that’s it. The username is “overcoat1”, and the password is “collar35”.
We’ll
remember that, but no one would be able to guess it.’
    ‘That’s pretty clever,’ said Max. ‘Have you done this kind of thing before?’
    ‘My dad’s really interested in codes and ciphers,’ replied Millie. ‘He wrote computer programs before he lost his job. He’s nuts about stuff like this. He’s
always going on about how people use stupid stuff for passwords – their friend’s name, or their pet’s, and their birthday, or someone they know’s birthday, you know, for the
number. Makes it easy for someone else to guess. But if you open a book at random, and pick two words, no one is going to guess those. Even if they get the book you were reading, what are the
chances they’ll come to the same page that you did, and pick out the same words?’
    ‘So, how will
you
remember them?’ asked Max, confused.
    Millie shrugged. ‘I just will,’ she replied. ‘How do you remember your way around Ixelles?’
    Max nodded slowly.
    ‘Right, that’s the account set up,’ Mille continued. ‘Now, the message.’
    hello – i am mailing to ask you about the haverham lab. i’ve been reading your site, and you seem to think that they only have rodents there. i am sure
     there are also cats being used for tests in that building. i want to expose the truth. can you help me?
    ‘That should do, don’t you think?’
    ‘I suppose so,’ Max agreed. ‘We don’t want to expose the truth straight away, though. We need to get the others out first, especially Celeste and Monty.’
    ‘I know. But we’ll have to offer them something, or they might not reply.’
    ‘OK, send it.’ Max was suddenly decisive.
    Millie pressed the button. They waited for the ticking arrow to turn.
Message sent
flashed up on the screen. She did it again, and sent the same message to the second site.
    ‘Now what?’ asked Max.
    ‘Now I take this book back to the library and get you some cat food. You go for a wander, if you want to, or stay here, if you don’t. I’ll be back in an hour and we can see if
they’ve replied.’

Chapter Nine
    Max decided to go and lie in the sunshine in Millie’s back garden. He had been warned by Millie about the nosy neighbour, so he found a tree to hide under and he lay
behind it, watching the stupid, stupid birds, and wondering about another meal. There were insects buzzing all around him and he thought about catching one of those, just for the