The Venice Job

by Deborah Abela

Max blushed. ‘All in a day’s work.’

  Linden leant in. ‘Makes you want to get straight into another one, doesn’t it?’

  Max stopped. Her smile fell from her face as she realised what he was doing.

  ‘I’m not going back, Linden.’

  ‘I know. You said.’

  ‘You can’t talk me out of it.’

  ‘Sure, and you’ve got every right to stick by your decision.’

  ‘I nearly lost my mum, Linden. I don’t want to face that again.’

  Linden softened his look. ‘I understand.’

  Linden’s palm computer beeped with an incoming message but he didn’t move.

  ‘Aren’t you going to get that?’ Max asked.

  ‘Yeah,’ he nodded, activating the message.

  The cheery face of Steinberger, the Administration Manager of Spyforce, appeared on the screen.

  ‘Ah, Linden, there you are. So nice to see you again, as always. I mean, I definitely can’t remember a time when it wasn’t pleasant to see you, but I guess it’s nice to say anyway, as it is perfectly true.’

  Steinberger loved to talk, and as he prattled on, Max made sure she stayed out of his view. She knew if she started talking to him, her decision to leave would be even harder to stick to.

  ‘We’re very close to giving the go-ahead for your next mission. We’d like you to be here this afternoon for the briefing.’

  ‘The briefing?’ Linden asked. ‘This afternoon?’

  Max couldn’t help but notice that Linden would normally be more excited about a mission.

  ‘Yes. Are you busy?’

  ‘No, I’ll be there.’

  ‘And have you managed to …’

  ‘No!’ Linden interrupted abruptly. ‘Not yet. Do you know where the mission will be?’

  Steinberger’s chest ballooned out. ‘Oh, it is one of the world’s most beautiful cities,’ he almost swooned. ‘The magnificent city of Venice! I remember my first visit. It was in the summer of ’72. I’d just had a gelato and was sitting in the Piazza San Marco when …’

  Steinberger went on with his reminiscing while Max secretly did her own. She’d read all about Venice after seeing one of her dad’s favourite old films, The Italian Job, about a group of young thieves who go to Venice to pull off a robbery only one of the group double crosses the others and steals the money all for himself.

  ‘So if you could be here in two hours, we’ll get started. May the Force be with you.’

  And with that Steinberger disappeared from the screen in a puff of cheerfulness.

  ‘Venice,’ Max said quietly. ‘It’s really beautiful there. I wonder what the mission is?’

  There it was again: that hollow well in her stomach that opened up as if Max had been dumped in the middle of Siberia; a cold, lonely sensation that if she didn’t get found soon, she’d never be found again.

  They sat in silence for a few seconds until Linden couldn’t stand it anymore. ‘Max?’

  ‘Yes?’ She swung her head round so fast she was almost nose-to-nose with Linden. She moved away slightly and hoped she knew what his question would be.

  ‘Max, I know you’re not going to like me saying this, but it won’t be the same on this mission without you.’

  Max’s skin prickled all over. Linden could do that.

  ‘Do you think you might …’ Linden knew he had to tread carefully. ‘Might … I mean, I was wondering if …’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘When did this little party start?’

  Eleanor stood in the doorway draped in a nightie and large multicoloured shawl.

  ‘Not so long ago,’ Max replied with a measure of disappointment.

  ‘Well, seeing as you’re up, it’s your turn to get the breakfast, Linden. I’ll let the birthday boy sleep a little longer, but when he’s awake he’ll want to eat everything in sight.’

  Linden logged out of his palm computer and got up from the swinging chair. ‘I guess I shouldn’t keep Ben’s stomach waiting.’

  ‘Not if you value your life.’ Max smiled. She’d never had a brother or sister to joke around or share stuff with, but being with Linden gave her a feeling of what it would be like.

  Eleanor sat in the swing chair and noticed Max’s mother’s car was gone.

  ‘She had to go back to work,’ Max explained. ‘But she really wanted to stay.’

  ‘I know.’ Eleanor snuggled in closer to Max. ‘What were you two doing?’

  ‘Spyforce have archived our last missions in the guide.’

  ‘Oh!’ Eleanor exclaimed warmly. ‘I used to love it when our missions were updated.’

  It wasn’t so long ago that Max had learnt Eleanor and Ben were Spyforce agents too, even though it was hard to believe her bulky, off-key-singing uncle used to catch bad guys for a living.

  ‘Once you’re in the Force, it’s hard to get it out of your bones, isn’t it?’

  ‘Harder than I thought.’ Max looked down.

  Eleanor leant into Max. ‘No-one thinks badly of you because of your decision to leave. You did what you felt was right.’

  ‘But is it right?’

  ‘Only you can really know that. Even if it’s not clear now, it will be.’

  A great roaring yawn floated out of the house.

  ‘Either the zoo has lost a lion or I’d say your Uncle Ben is awake.’ Eleanor stood up from the chair and held out her arm. ‘May I escort you in?’

  Max wove her arm through Eleanor’s, ready to face another feast. But for the first time since she’d left the Force, she realised she wasn’t sure if she was ready to say goodbye to her life as a secret agent after all.

  Far away in the ancient Italian city of Venice, hurried footsteps were making their way along a grand and majestic corridor. Giant yawning windows lined the elongated passage, spilling light like opened floodgates onto walls crowded with portraits, and floors of illuminated marble.

  The footsteps came to a stop in front of a set of double doors that rose almost to the full height of the gold-leafed ceiling. Hair was smoothed over, a jacket straightened and breath checked into a cupped palm in small huffed spurts.

  There was a knock, a small cry to enter, and the meeting began.

  A brief meeting that would take no more than mere seconds.

  ‘They are in place.’

  ‘All of them?’

  ‘All of them.’

  ‘Very good. Now, we wait.’

  The messenger was dismissed with a slow wave of a carefully manicured hand. He bowed, a silly thing to do he would think later, but somehow fitting as well.

  The door closed and stage one of the plan was complete.

  ‘In a few short days I should have what I want.’ The voice hardened, like boiled syrup cooling into hardened toffee. ‘Or this city will pay dearly.’

  A large sheet of corrugated iron was dragged across the yard sending a mini dust storm into the air along with a strange kind of twisted orchestra sound. Ben and Eleanor’s pig, Larry, tugged at the oversized piece of metal, before using his rounded nose to nudge it into place.

  But Max saw none of it.

  What she did see were the backsides of Linden and Ben as they leant out of the kitchen window and bit into oversized pieces of toast.

  ‘I’ve had better views first thing in the morning,’ Max said to Eleanor.

  ‘I find that hard to believe,’ Eleanor smiled.

  ‘Ah,’ Ben said through crunching toast. ‘You’re just in time. Larry’s about to add the finishing touches.’

  Max and Eleanor squeezed alongside them and watched as Larry placed a clump of dried bush in front of the pile of tin.

  Ben, Eleanor and Linden believed they could predict the weather by Larry’s behaviour. Max wasn’t so sure.

  ‘Done!’ Ben exclaimed with pride.

  Max looked at the broken-down pile of junk. ‘What’s done?’

  ‘The castle,’ Linden added with equal pride.

  ‘That’s a castle?’

&nb
sp; ‘Yes!’ Eleanor smiled broadly. ‘I can see it.’

  Max watched as all three stared at Larry as if he’d just delivered his first speech to parliament.

  ‘I can’t see it,’ Max declared over a growling stomach.

  ‘Sure you can,’ said Ben as if Windsor Castle had just landed in their yard and she was staring straight at it. ‘There’s the turret, the moat and the manicured garden.’

  ‘Why a castle?’

  ‘I read him the story of Cinderella and he’s been obsessed with them ever since.’

  ‘I think he’s really starting to nail it,’ Linden added.

  ‘Right,’ said Max, still unable to get her imagination to stretch as far as the others. ‘Breakfast?’

  And that was the magic word to stop them talking about the pig. Ben and Linden sprang from the window and within minutes were seated in front of scrambled eggs, fresh juice, pancakes and giant slices of watermelon.

  ‘So where’s this new mission going to be then?’ Ben asked Linden.

  ‘Venice.’

  Max couldn’t help noticing that Linden said this with more enthusiasm than he’d had before.

  ‘Venice! Doesn’t get much better than that. The Doge’s Palace, the Piazza San Marco, gondolas.’

  ‘Yeah, I think this might be the most exciting mission yet.’ Linden shot a sideways glance at Max, who had stopped eating her scrambled eggs and was now pushing them listlessly across her plate.

  Ben gave Linden a secret encouraging nod. ‘Yep, you don’t get sent to much better places than Venice. Know who the bad guy is yet?’ He bit into a fork full of pancakes.

  ‘Not yet, but they think they’re close. And the best part is …’

  ‘I think I might go to my room and read.’ Max stood up from the table.

  ‘Okay,’ Ben answered a little flatly. ‘We’ll be here if you hear more pancakes calling your name.’

  Max left the room and carefully closed the door.

  ‘It’s her decision.’ Ben put his fork down. ‘Even though we don’t like it.’

  Linden kept staring at the door, his face a blanket of disappointment.

  ‘You’ll miss her on this mission, won’t you?’ Ben asked.

  ‘She’s not like any other spy I’ve met,’ Linden said quietly. ‘She makes me feel different, like I can do anything.’

  Ben nudged him in the side. ‘You’re as good a spy as any of them.’

  Linden winced through a pained smile. ‘Yeah, but I don’t think I’ll be any good without her.’

  Eleanor reached out and held his hand. ‘Do you remember another time you felt like this?’

  Linden bit his bottom lip. ‘Yeah. When Mum died.’

  ‘I think we all felt like that for a long time, but then, slowly, we realised she’d never want us to sit back and do nothing because of what happened. I reckon she’d have been pretty angry with us if we’d let it go on much longer. And do you remember what she made us promise?’

  ‘That we wouldn’t go wasting our lives moping around because of her.’

  The bottom of Eleanor’s eyes began to glisten. ‘You remember a lot of your mum’s sayings, don’t you?’

  ‘It’s like I can still hear her saying them.’

  ‘And what do you think she’d say now?’

  Linden thought. ‘That there’s no use sitting down beside life, it’s there to be lived. That was one of her favourites.’

  Ben laughed. ‘That’s exactly how she would have said it, too.’

  ‘Do you think Max will come back to Spyforce?’

  Ben and Eleanor exchanged an uncertain look. ‘We don’t know.’

  Linden slumped forward onto his crossed arms. Eleanor’s answer wasn’t the one he was hoping for. ‘Everything seemed so simple up until now.’

  Eleanor frowned. ‘You mean apart from escaping from vats of jelly, surviving plane crashes and saving an entire spy agency from a deadly sleeping sickness?’

  Linden slumped even further. ‘All that seemed easy compared to this. Max, why won’t you just come back?’

  ‘I thought you’d never ask.’

  The door had swung wide open and Max was standing there trying out a series of poses that she hoped looked casual.

  And as if she hadn’t been listening.

  ‘You’ll come back?’ Linden sprang upright.

  ‘Sure, if you need a hand, but just for this mission.’

  Ben and Eleanor bubbled out of their chairs like a shaken fizzy drink and were about to swoop in on Max.

  ‘On one condition.’ Max held up her hand. ‘No-one makes any fuss.’

  Her aunt and uncle stopped mid-swoop and slowly backed away to a more regular standing position.

  ‘Right then. No fuss. Gotcha.’ It took all Ben’s strength to put his hands in his pockets and not pick Max up and swing her around in a huge sweeping arc.

  ‘Welcome back, boss.’ Linden almost saluted.

  Max gave him a warning look. ‘And don’t call me boss.’

  ‘Sure thing, boss.’ He gave her a small apologetic smile. ‘I mean, sure.’

  The kitchen settled into an awkward silence as no-one said anything. Max stared at the wide beaming smiles that stretched before her, smiles that were making her feel more and more self conscious every minute.

  ‘Well, come on, Linden. If I’m going on this mission, I’ll need to be briefed on what you know so far, and we should tell Steinberger that I’m coming back.’

  ‘Sure, boss.’ But he just stood there in a pool of Linden happiness.

  ‘And I was thinking we might do it sometime like … now.’

  ‘Oh, sure.’ He snapped out of it. ‘Follow me, boss.’

  Linden’s jaunty footsteps echoed down the hallway as Max turned and followed. ‘And stop calling me boss!’

  The nightwatchman shone his flashlight across the still and quiet yard of the glassworks factory. He looked at his watch. Three o’clock a.m. In two hours his shift would finish and he could finally get out of the cold night air and go home.

  He walked over to a stone wall facing the Venetian lagoon. He took out a thermos and poured himself a coffee. But he would never take a sip.

  The heat of the explosion seared his back as he was thrown to the ground. He turned to see a tidal wave of orange flames devouring the factory while great chunks of glass, metal and wood rained down.

  The nightwatchman gulped in gasps of singed air, clutching his broken wrist to his chest as he watched the factory burn.

  ‘Exactly on time.’ A man viewed the blast through binoculars from the safety of a large palazzo.

  ‘Good,’ a second voice replied. ‘They can’t refuse us now.’

  ‘So long, fella.’ Linden held Ralph’s face in his hands. ‘It’ll work out. It’s always hard the first time you fall in love.’

  Ralph stared forlornly back.

  ‘I know it feels like it’ll never end, but it will. Trust me.’

  ‘Are you sure you should be giving advice on love?’ Max stood behind Linden with her arms across her chest.

  ‘Oh, I know love, baby.’ Linden sighed and stood up. ‘See you, fella. We’ll be back in a few days and you’ll see, by then everything will be fine.’

  They walked towards the paddock.

  ‘What if it isn’t?’ Max asked. ‘Are you going to send him to a dog psychiatrist?’

  ‘Eleanor has the name of one handy just in case.’

  ‘A dog psychiatrist?’ Max had been joking. It was too bizarre to think of Ralph lying on a couch being counselled.

  ‘He’s a dog whisperer, actually. Like for horses, only with dogs. Apparently he’s the best.’

  Linden was good at jokes and Max waited for the punch line, but none came. He really was serious.

  ‘Max?’ Linden said softly. ‘Thanks for coming back.’

  Max sniffed. ‘If you wanted me to come back all you had to do was ask.’

  Linden frowned. ‘I was trying as hard as I could.’

  ‘
Well.’ Max tried to think of something to say. ‘Maybe you didn’t try hard enough.’

  Linden laughed. ‘You know, as hard as you are to understand sometimes, I wouldn’t have you any other way. In fact, Max, I wanted to say …’

  Max felt a mushy moment coming on. ‘Look at the time. Steinberger will worry if we’re late.’

  But there was a little more mush to go before they would leave.

  ‘Max! Linden!’

  Max turned to see her aunt and uncle running towards them. They’d reluctantly agreed to Max’s request of saying goodbye in the house and keeping everything low-key. It seemed the agreement had just been thrown out the window.

  ‘We wanted to give you these,’ Eleanor puffed.

  Max and Linden took the hankies she offered.

  ‘You came out here to give us hankies?’

  Ben looked a little guilty. ‘You never know when you might need one.’ His attempt to restrain himself lasted about three seconds before he flung his arms out and hugged Max to within an inch of her life.

  ‘I’m so glad you’re back in the Force.’

  ‘Thanks,’ Max wheezed.

  Eleanor tapped him on the shoulder and gave him a look that told him he’d better let Max go if she was going to survive the farewell.

  ‘Oh. Okay.’

  It was Eleanor’s turn. ‘We had to say one more goodbye.’ She hugged Linden. ‘Take care, both of you.’

  ‘We will,’ Linden answered. He knew Max just wanted to get on with the departure, but when he looked, she was tearing up.

  ‘Yeah, we will,’ Max said.

  After lots of eye wiping, nose blowing and another ‘travel safely’, it was time.

  Max set the coordinates of the Time and Space Machine for Spyforce headquarters in London.

  ‘The pact!’ Linden cried. ‘We almost forgot.’

  Max sighed. She liked saying the pact, but now that she had decided to return to Spyforce, she was keen to get on with the mission. She reached out and took Linden’s hands. Ben muscled in so he and Eleanor could take part too.

  ‘If Linden should come to harm or get lost or be in danger in any way, I, Max Remy, will do everything I can to help him and bring him to safety. Your turn.’

  Linden smiled and repeated the pact for Max, only a little more slowly. ‘Now we’re ready.’