Arefiev looked into the hall from the stage. They had been herded together like sheep, he thought. Why? What for? Who knows? No, he needed to escape before he was manhandled into that bus. But how? There were doors to either side at the back of the stage. Arefiev wondered whether to go for the one on the left or the one on the right. The right hand one led to the stairs and from there it was easy to get out through the cellar and the vivarium, but it might be locked. The left one was never locked. It led along a narrow corridor to the director’s office.
The left one, Arefiev decided, but it was ten metres away and he was in full view of everyone. There was no way to sneak over to it. He sat there, looking out into the hall, not knowing what he was waiting for. At just the right moment the
