Jessica Kingsley Publishers

      London and Philadelphia

      First published in 2014

      by Jessica Kingsley Publishers

      73 Collier Street

      London N1 9BE, UK

      and

      400 Market Street, Suite 400

      Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA

       www.jkp.com

      Copyright © Sarah Jane Tozer 2014

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publisher.

      Warning: The doing of an unauthorised act in relation to a copyright work may result in both a civil claim for damages and criminal prosecution.

      Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

      Tozer, S. J. (Sarah Jane)

      MI29 : Mouseweb International to the rescue! / S.J. Tozer.

      pages cm

      Summary: Operating out of a lost property cupboard at Abbotsford Airport, Mouseweb International

      agent Windsor Smith and his family devise a plot to help Lily Jane Watson, a thirteen-year-old human in

      desperate need.

      ISBN 978-1-84905-496-6 (alk. paper)

      [1. Spies--Fiction. 2. Brothers and sisters--Fiction. 3. Mice--Fiction. 4. Sick--Fiction. 5. Rats--Fiction.] I.

      Title.

      PZ7.T672Mi 2014

      [E]--dc23

      2013030411

      British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

      A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

      ISBN 978 1 84905 496 6

      eISBN 978 0 85700 895 4

      For my wonderful family

      MI29

      BY AGENT “A”

      CHAPTER 1

      “Wheeeee!” shrieked India at the top of her voice. “This is fun, Sydney. What a great idea!”

      The mice were speeding around the wet washbasins in a ladies’ toilet at London airport. They had squeezed out some slippery liquid soap and rubbed it over their paws so that they could glide along like skaters. There was Sydney, wearing small, round glasses and a denim jacket; India, who was tall and sporting a navy-blue tracksuit; then Rio, who was wearing a football shirt with his name on the back; and not forgetting Florence, who was the youngest and smallest and was dressed up in her pink fairy outfit.

      “Watch me!” cried Rio as he slid down into one basin and up the other side, bumping straight into Florence, who was spinning in front of the mirror.

      “Uff!” they both gasped as they fell down in a heap.

      Suddenly, they heard footsteps and voices in the corridor outside.

      “Quick – someone’s coming!” shouted Sydney, who was in charge, being the eldest. “Hide!”

      Just in time, the mice squeezed through a vent in the wall. They peeked through the gaps to see two women enter the toilets, dressed in overalls and pushing a cart loaded with mops, brooms, cloths and cleaning sprays.

      “Goodness me, Doris,” said one, “it looks like there’s been a flood. Children messing about again, no doubt.”

      “They just don’t know how to behave these days, Hilda,” said the other woman as she started to wipe the basins. “If I get my hands on them… Now, we must make sure to leave those stickies that Mr Clamp gave us today.”

      “Yes. Don’t want to annoy the boss.”

      The mice hunkered down in the dark metal air duct and waited until the cleaning ladies were gone. Dusty cobwebs made them cough and sneeze, and India shuddered at the spiders and dead flies. When the door closed behind the women, Sydney beckoned his brother and sisters to climb back out of the vent.

      “Come on, you guys. We’d better make sure we’ve covered our tracks or Mum will freak out in case they find us and then we’d have to find a new home.”

      “We don’t want that,” said Rio. “I love living in the airport.”

      His siblings nodded in agreement. The airport was a busy place, with so much to see and do. There was the radar aerial you could climb on that would whizz you round like a roundabout and give you an amazing view over the whole airport. The conveyer belts for the luggage reclaim were also great for a ride and the X-ray machines at security made for an interesting family photo. They loved going to the viewing platform nearby to watch the aeroplanes taxiing, taking off and landing. It was so exciting there with the roar of the engines, the smell of the fuel and the constant comings