Seventeen.  Elly.

When Elly got to the bus-stop the following morning, Nick was already there. He was leaning against the side of the bus-shelter, his hair flopping into his eyes like always.
“Hi,” he said, “ready to go?”
“Yes, sorry I’m late, but Dad rang just as I was about to leave.”
“Any news about the baby? Is he any better?”
“He had a quiet night but he’s still on the ventilator; apparently they’re worried about his lungs, they might not be strong enough for him to breathe on his own yet. Dad said they should know more later today.”
“Well, at least he’s holding on in there…” Nick looked awkward as if he didn’t know what to say.

“Have you thought up a cover story for us?” asked Elly, changing the subject. “In case anyone asks us what we’re doing there?”
“Yes, I’ve brought along an application for a school bus-pass; I found one in a drawer in the kitchen. It gives us a reason for being at the Council offices as long as they don’t ask too many questions.”
“Brilliant! Look, here comes the bus.”
                                                        *

They got off the bus just up the road from County Hall and walked back towards the large building that housed all the Council offices for the region. Walking up the steps to the main entrance Elly felt very nervous, she wasn’t sure if this was such a good idea after all. She glanced at Nick but he seemed as calm and unruffled as always, if he was feeling nervous too he certainly wasn’t showing it.

They reached the large glass doors that led into the reception area, taking a deep breath Elly pushed the heavy door open and they went in. It was very busy, work-men in yellow jackets stood next to men in suits and ties holding bundles of paperwork and looking puffed up and important. The reception desk was almost hidden by a crowd of people waiting to speak to one of the harassed looking receptionists, three telephones on the desk were ringing shrilly and two couriers in motor-bike leathers were waiting to hand over parcels.

Elly and Nick slipped past the reception desk and headed for one of the lifts, on the wall next to the lifts was a list of all the departments and the floor number they were on.
“There it is,” said Nick pointing at the list, “Planning Department, third floor.” He pushed the button to call the lift and immediately the middle lifts doors slid open, it was empty.
They walked in and Nick pushed the button for the third floor, the doors slid closed and the lift began to rise.

The display on the button panel counted up from G, 1, 2 and then 3 with a ping and the doors opened. Cautiously they walked out of the lift and found themselves in a long corridor. Doors led into offices and through one of the windows Elly could see people  busy typing away at computers, large ordinance survey maps were pinned onto most of the walls.

“This way,” said Nick who was heading up the corridor towards a set of double doors. Elly hurried after him. “How do you know this is the way?”
“I don’t know for sure, but these offices seem bigger than those back there, we need to get into the main one if we’re going to find anything,” he replied.

When they reached the doors Elly tried to look in the window to see if anyone was inside but the blinds had been pulled down.
“We’ll have to just risk it,” said Nick, “if there’s anyone in there we’ll pretend we’re lost.”
“All right,” she whispered, her stomach performing somersaults and her mouth dry, “let’s go.”

Nick opened one of the double doors fractionally and poked his head around, “It’s fine, there’s no-one in here.”
Opening the door wider they went into the office, Nick pushed the door closed behind them and they looked around.

It was a much bigger and grander office than the ones down the corridor, the walls were panelled in dark wood, a large desk sat in one corner and the walls were decorated with real paintings of various chocolate box cottages with roses and ivy growing around the doors. Nick started searching the desk while Elly checked out some filing-cabinets she had found, unfortunately they were all locked and there was no sign of the key. She went over to see how Nick was getting on. “Any luck?” she asked.
“No, nothing at all to do with Ellingham forest or the quarry or anything.”
“What do we do now? We’ve looked everywhere.”
“Not quite, there’s one place we haven’t looked yet,” said Nick.
“Where? There’s nowhere left to search.”
“We haven’t looked at this yet,” he said patting the computer that was sitting silently on the desk.

With a click of a switch Nick turned the computer on and it whirred into life, the familiar icons ‘username’ and ‘password’ appeared on the screen.
Elly groaned, “Well that’s no use then, we don’t know either of those.”
Nick smiled, “Did I ever tell you what my best subject at school is?” he asked, “just give me a moment.”

Nick started tapping away at the keyboard while Elly paced up and down the room, growing more anxious with every passing minute. After five minutes she couldn’t bear it any longer, “Nick, we can’t stay in here much longer, we’re going to get caught.”
“Nearly there,” muttered Nick tapping even faster, “nearly there, YES! Got you!”

He looked up triumphantly as the screen changed to show the desktop options, Elly watched over his shoulder as using the mouse he clicked on ‘documents’, a long list appeared, he scrolled through it quickly but found nothing of interest. “Let’s try something else,” he said, clicking on another icon, then another, then another. “I know there’s something on here,” he said, “I can feel it, I’m so close…”
“Nick, we’ve got to leave, now.”
“Just a sec’, I’ll just try one more…”
Three words appeared on the screen, ‘THE LADY’S SLIPPER’. Nick looked at Elly, “What does that mean? That’s a strange title for a document on planning permission, I’ll see if there’s anything else.”

The intercom on the desk suddenly turned on, making them both them both jump.
“Mr Burrell, are you there? Mr King is here to see you.”
Elly and Nick stared at each other in horror, she felt frozen with fear, they couldn’t jump out the window this time, they were three floors up.
Nick turned the computer off as the voice on the intercom spoke again, “Mr Burrell, are you there? There’s no answer Mr King, I’ll have to…” The rest was cut off as the intercom switched off again.

“Come on,” said Nick, “we’ve got to get out of here; my father is on his way.”
They ran across the room to the double doors, Nick pulled one open and they left the office. A few people were in the corridor but no-one asked any awkward questions and they made it back to the lifts. They got in and Elly pushed the ‘G’ button, the doors closed and the lift started to descend.

Elly’s head was pounding, she couldn’t believe that they’d got away with it, she made a silent vow to herself, ‘if I get out of here safely I will never put myself in this position again.’

The lift reached the ground floor and the doors opened, Elly and Nick walked out of the lift quickly, bumping into someone who was trying to get in. It was Nick’s father.
                                                         *