The Venice Job

by Deborah Abela

  ‘Oh, and don’t forget to …’ Ben began, but before he could say any more, Max said ‘transport’, and with a small fffttt sound, they were gone.

  Fifteen seconds later, on the other side of the world, a flash of fluorescent light billowed from the air and tiny sparks of colour fell like a sunshower. Max and Linden appeared from the centre of a bright light, and after a few moments suspended in the air, floated gently towards the solid ground of the VART.

  The VART, or Vehicular All-Response Tower, was a large cavernous hangar where Spyforce kept all its technologically advanced vehicles. There were Inflatable Foldaway Aqua Buggies and Heliocrafts, the Sleek Machine, all-terrain trucks, one-seater mini choppers, hovercrafts and, of course, the hyper-fast Invisible Jet, which Max and Linden would be able to see if it wasn’t invisible.

  When Linden felt his feet settle on the ground he sighed. Although it had been a long time since he’d first used the Time and Space Machine, it still left him with a rush that was better than any roller-coaster or G-Force ride.

  ‘That is still the best way to fly.’

  Linden looked at Max, but she didn’t answer.

  For Max, landing in the VART was like coming home. Like sinking into a big comfy lounge, with your favourite blanket and PJ’s.

  ‘I knew I’d get you to come round to my way of thinking,’ Linden said proudly.

  ‘Linden! Max!’

  Steinberger had been eagerly awaiting their arrival and hurried across in his over-polished shoes and carefully pressed suit.

  ‘Welcome back to Spyforce!’ His eyes sparkled as if he was a kid who’d just found out the tooth fairy really did exist. ‘We’ve missed you.’

  As he stood before them with an extra-wide grin stretched across his face, Max was sure every smile muscle was being pushed to the limit.

  ‘It’s only been a few weeks.’ She shrugged easily, hoping it would calm Steinberger down. ‘But just to let you know …’

  ‘Everyone is so thrilled!’ Steinberger was warming up to excitement overload. ‘Quimby, Frond. And Irene. I can’t tell you how pleased she is. Broke her heart when you decided to leave. She understood why, of course, but she’s been baking those ovens into a fury ever since she heard you were coming back. Alex would love to have been here but is on assignment in Russia, and Agent 31 is doing some undercover groundwork in Venice – he said he’ll see you there – and I just know Mr Harrison is beside himself.’

  This was getting out of hand.

  ‘Steinberger?’ Max tried to interrupt.

  ‘This is turning out to be a fine, fine day. In fact, I think it might be the best day since …’

  ‘Steinberger?’ she tried again a little louder.

  ‘Oh gosh, since …’

  ‘Steinberger!’ she shouted.

  ‘Mmmm?’ The picture of the welcome-back party froze in his head.

  ‘Can I ask you a favour?’ Max was worried Steinberger’s gushiness would explode into outright silliness with her at the embarrassing heart of it. ‘I was hoping we could do this without any fuss.’

  Steinberger’s enthusiasm deflated like a day-old balloon. ‘Oh. Sure. Roger that. No fuss. I’ll let the others know.’ He took out his palm computer and began sending a message. ‘We’ll be so low-key you won’t even notice we’re here.’

  Max wasn’t sure about the low-key bit, but as long as everyone got on with being normal, her return to the Force would be just fine.

  He finished his message and gazed at Max as if she was a long-lost relative he hadn’t seen for years. He sniffed and took out a handkerchief.

  ‘Sorry. It’s a little overwhelming. May I at least give you a hug?’ He held out his arms.

  Max scowled. ‘Ah, sure.’

  Steinberger leant in and hugged her with a sniff that echoed in her ear. Max gave Linden a ‘save me’ look, but he simply bit into a chewy fruit bar he’d taken from his pocket and enjoyed seeing her squirm.

  Until she started to turn a slight shade of blue, then he thought he should step in.

  ‘Don’t I get one?’

  Steinberger let go of Max. ‘Of course.’ He wiped his eyes on his hanky and gave Linden a hug – one not so nearly sniffle-filled.

  ‘It was just so emotional when you decided to leave, Max, and now that you’re here, everything feels right again. In fact, when you left, I wondered how we would ever …’

  Steinberger was interrupted by the sound of one of the doors of the VART slowly opening.

  ‘Ah,’ Steinberger pulled himself together. ‘They’re here.’

  ‘Who’s here?’ Max asked.

  ‘You’ll see.’ He tucked his hanky into his pocket.

  Max looked up into the empty space of the VART’s high roof, waiting for the entrance of a Spyforce vehicle. She heard the faint sound of an engine coming in for a landing, but could see nothing. It couldn’t have been the Invisible Jet, they’d need the double doors for that, but in only a few more seconds, she found out what it was.

  ‘Sleek!’

  Max saw the outline of Spyforce’s chief engineer and vehicle expert hovering a few metres above them. He was flying the Sleek Machine, a cross between a hovercraft and a motorbike. It flew at an oscillation speed that made it and its passengers invisible, so they could only be seen on take-off and just before landing.

  But there was someone else.

  ‘Toby?’ Max watched as Toby became visible in the sidecar next to Sleek.

  ‘Looks like it’s the old team back together again,’ Linden said through the final chews of his fruit bar.

  Toby lifted off his goggles. ‘That is definitely my vehicle of choice.’

  An eager Steinberger led Max and Linden over to the landing platform.

  ‘Welcome back to Spyforce, Agent Toby Jennings. I believe we now have the perfect team for our mission in Venice.’

  Toby climbed out of the sidecar and accepted Steinberger’s handshake. He then stood before Max. ‘I knew Linden would convince you to come back.’

  Max folded her arms across her chest. ‘Linden didn’t convince me of anything.’

  ‘Oh, then it must be the attraction of being with me again.’ Toby swept back his hair in an exaggerated Hollywood flick. ‘I can understand that.’

  ‘Is it just me or has your head grown bigger since I last saw you?’ Max asked.

  ‘I think it’s my general tall and good-looking stature.’

  ‘Are you sure it’s not your very inflated opinion of yourself?’

  Toby smiled. ‘Oh, I’m sure.’

  It was good to be with Max again. When Toby had first met her at school, he thought she was a grumpy loner who didn’t do much more than look surly and read books, but now he knew her as one of the most intelligent and exciting people he’d ever met. Only he’d never tell her that.

  ‘Austria not missing you too much?’

  Toby had recently moved there to live with his heart-specialist parents.

  ‘Apart from the weeping women gathered around my door, it’s all under control.’

  ‘And your parents?’

  ‘It’s been arranged that Toby is on a school trip in the Swiss Alps,’ Steinberger explained.

  Behind them a gnarled and strangled scream echoed throughout the VART. Max spun round and assumed her superspy action stance: arms up in self-defence, hands clenched, legs apart, ready to pounce.

  But she didn’t need any of it.

  ‘Sleek?’

  The extreme agent was dangling from the blade of an Aqua Chopper, his legs swinging two metres from the ground.

  Steinberger noticed the reason for Sleek’s amazing leap.

  ‘Delilah, you pesky little cat. She likes to welcome Sleek when he returns to the Force,’ he explained. ‘Trouble is, I think Sleek would rather she didn’t. Here, kitty kitty.’

  He bent down and held his hand out to the cat, but Delilah turned her tail towards him and hissed before slinking away.

  Sleek wasn’t only the chief engineer, he was
also the extreme action member of the Force, and even though no mountain was too high for him, no high-speed chase too fast and no vat of worms too icky, cats were a different matter altogether.

  He dropped from the blades to the floor and slapped his hands together. ‘Looks like the blades are okay.’

  He then turned and walked away in a ‘trying to look calm’ kind of way that just made him look awkward.

  ‘Right,’ Steinberger began. ‘I guess we’d better get started.’

  But before he could take a step, a message came through on his palm computer. He took the gadget out of his pocket and his face fell into a serious scowl.

  ‘Anything wrong, Steinberger?’ Max felt his mood fall like a rockslide.

  ‘It’s Irene.’ He tried to say it as calmly as possible. ‘There seems to be,’ he looked up, ‘an emergency in the canteen.’

  ‘What kind of emergency?’ Toby asked.

  ‘I’m not sure, but we’d better find out.’

  Steinberger pushed through the swinging double doors of the canteen and found the room dark and silent.

  ‘Stay close,’ he whispered, unable to keep the sound of dread out of his voice.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Max asked.

  Steinberger said nothing.

  ‘What did Irene say? Is she okay?’ Linden had a special fondness for Irene, and after she’d almost been killed by a potentially fatal sleeping sickness7 his fondness for her had only increased.

  Steinberger took out a small red gadget. ‘This is an enemy detector.’ He whispered again. ‘If there is someone here who has managed to evade Spyforce security, this will track them down.’

  Steinberger activated the device and a small, melodic sound hummed out.

  ‘Oh.’ He sounded even more worried.

  ‘What is it?’ Max was getting spooked.

  ‘It’s …’ Steinberger began but was interrupted by a blinding flash and frenzied cry.

  ‘Surprise!’

  Max stared at the streamer-strung, balloon-filled canteen. A giant banner that said ‘Welcome back Max!’ was strung across the back wall. A mirror ball descended out of the roof sending out sparkles of coloured light, and a three-piece band started up in the corner.

  ‘Sorry, Max,’ Steinberger apologised, as secret agents wearing black suits and silly hats sprang from behind chairs and blew squeaky party horns. ‘I did tell them low-key, but I guess …’

  He was interrupted by another call on his palm computer. ‘I need to take that.’ He looked relieved to have an excuse to move away from Max’s accusing scowl.

  Secret agents moved towards her and muttered what Max guessed was ‘welcome back’ before moving quickly away.

  Irene lunged forward and enveloped Max in the floury floral swirls and baking smells of her apron. ‘You’re back! Oh, I can’t tell you how pleased I am you’re here.’

  Max tried to breathe as her nose filled with puffs of flour and bits of pastry.

  Finally Irene let her go and looked Max square in the eye. ‘I ruined whole recipes for days after you left. Soufflés kept collapsing, pies kept going soggy and all my cakes refused to rise.’

  She reached over to a passing waiter and picked up a glass of swirled vanilla and mango mousse covered with shaved orange chocolate. She stared at it as if it had been designed by Leonardo Da Vinci. ‘Now everything is perfect.’

  Irene had really outdone herself. Trays of food kept coming out of the kitchen in a never-ending human train, layered with mini red and purple cherry tarts, towers of chocolate-and toffee-smothered profiteroles and mini sculptures of castles made out of rich white and dark Belgian chocolate.

  ‘You have got to try these.’ Irene grabbed two castles and handed them to Linden and Toby.

  ‘This secret agent thing just gets better and better.’ Toby eagerly bit into his castle but Max just frowned.

  ‘Linden?’ Irene always valued his opinion on her new recipes.

  He bit into the chocolate creation and closed his eyes. ‘Smooth. Creamy. With a hint of hazelnuts, nutmeg and …’ He thought about it. ‘Freshly ground cinnamon.’

  ‘Perfect. You are still my favourite food connoisseur.’ She hugged him before turning to Toby. ‘And Mr Jennings. How’d those training sessions go? I hear you’re quite the secret agent.’ She gave him a hug too and only just avoided crushing what was left of his castle.

  ‘You heard right,’ he said, popping the last bit of chocolate in his mouth before there were any more hugs.

  ‘You don’t think you went a bit overboard?’ Max asked Irene as the room filled with happily munching spies.

  ‘Me? Go overboard?’ she said indignantly. ‘Special occasions deserve being celebrated with the best food I can muster, and this is one occasion worth celebrating.’ She kissed Max on the forehead. ‘Better get back. Lots to do before this party is over.’

  Irene swooped away to the kitchen, leaving Max and her scowl to stand in her wake.

  ‘I know it’s hard for you, Max, but it looks like we’ll have to enjoy ourselves.’ Toby looked pained, then spotted a waiter with a tray of fish and chip baskets. ‘And one of those is definitely going to help.’

  ‘Besides,’ Linden said logically, ‘it can’t hurt to begin a mission with a full stomach.’ He had a grilled lamb chop in one hand and a prawn skewer in the other.

  Max smiled. ‘Thanks, Linden.’

  ‘Any time you need food advice, I’m your man.’ His eyes flicked from one hand to the other, trying to decide what to eat next.

  ‘Not for that,’ Max said quietly. ‘For asking me to come back.’

  ‘You would have done it eventually, I just had to hurry you up.’ He smiled.

  In the far corner of the canteen, Dretch, the maintenance operator, entered the room. Wearing his usual rumpled maroon coat, he was holding a drill and sporting a sour smile that held whole buckets of misery.

  ‘I didn’t think Dretch was the party type.’ Linden bit into a huge barbequed prawn.

  ‘Me neither.’

  Max and Dretch had had an icy relationship from the instant they’d met, but after he’d helped save her mother from perishing in Blue’s castle at Cape Wrath8 she’d realised he was, as Steinberger had always told her, one of the most loyal agents the Force had ever had.

  She walked over to him. ‘Hi.’

  Dretch hugged the drill to his chest. He gave a slight nod of his head and looked away awkwardly.

  ‘Thanks for coming to the party.’ Max blushed. ‘That was really nice of you.’

  He looked towards the door behind Max. ‘The elevators are playing up again,’ he grumbled. ‘I need to fix them.’

  ‘Oh.’ Max felt as if someone had taken the trampoline away mid-bounce and she’d landed smack onto the ground. Realising she was in his way, she stepped aside and watched him pass.

  He’d only taken a few steps before he stopped and turned around, clutching the drill like it was his favourite pet. ‘Um … it’s, ahhh … good to see you. Back here, I mean. Ahhh …’ he muttered, unable to look Max in the eye. ‘It’s, ahhh …’

  Dretch wasn’t the world’s best speaker and Max decided to put him out of his misery.

  ‘Thanks.’

  He groaned and walked away.

  ‘He’s not staying?’ Linden appeared beside Max with a giant chocolate-covered strawberry.

  ‘Doesn’t seem like it.’ She frowned. ‘You know, Linden, the scary thing about Dretch is that sometimes he annoys me because he reminds me of … well … me.’

  Linden stopped mid-chew. His cheek bulged out with strawberry and his eyes flicked about trying to find something that would get him out of saying anything.

  Max folded her arms across her chest. ‘You’re supposed to say, “No, Max, even at your grumpiest you were never that bad.”’

  ‘Ohhh aah aah eee oooh.’ For the moment the strawberry saved him from saying anything she might understand.

  ‘You’d better finish chewing that before you choke,’
Max said with a raised eyebrow.

  Steinberger had finished his call and made his way back to Max. ‘Everyone having a good time?’ He asked nervously, unsure if Max had forgiven him yet.

  ‘Yeah.’ Max smiled. ‘We are.’

  Steinberger’s tense shoulders relaxed. ‘That’s a relief. A mission should always begin in good spirits, I always say. With your mood lifted high and your …’

  ‘Speaking of mission …’ Max was keen to avoid another Steinberger talkfest. ‘Shouldn’t we start ours?’

  Steinberger looked at his watch. ‘Yes. Quite.’

  He motioned to Toby who was busy trying out a sample plate of gourmet sausages. Toby quickly bundled a few into a serviette and hurried over.

  ‘You waved?’

  ‘It’s time for your mission brief and our journey to the inner sanctum of the Force.’ He placed a hand over his heart. ‘Mr Harrison’s office.’

  Steinberger stood like that for whole seconds.

  ‘Was it going to be any time soon, because I didn’t get to try out all the sausages.’ Toby bit into another one.

  Steinberger came to. ‘Yes, of course.’ He grinned. A new mission always put him in a high state of excitement. ‘Right now, in fact. Follow me.’

  After a ride in an elevator disguised as a terracotta pot that stalled twice and groaned to a slow stop, Toby, Max, Linden and Steinberger plunged past the many secret levels of Spyforce to arrive at Harrison’s office.

  ‘Have … a … nice … thank you … for … rrrrrr … raaaaa … orrrrr.’ The melodious elevator greeting system slowed to a drawled stop.

  ‘For a top spy agency, you don’t think you might need better elevators?’ Toby squeezed through the half-open doors.

  Steinberger seemed preoccupied by other thoughts and didn’t answer. He straightened his tie, brushed over his hair and ran his tongue along his teeth before he stepped carefully into the richly carpeted, opulent foyer. Together they passed the glass cabinet with the Original Spyforce Manual and came to the doors of Harrison’s office.

  Steinberger wiped his hands on his hanky before carefully turning the doorknob. They entered a darkened room with tall ceilings and long stained-glass windows. There were sunken leather lounges crowded with cushions, lush red velvet curtains, and a fireplace with twisted marble sides like faded candy-canes. Clinging to every measure of wall space were paintings of secret agents with their faces obscured, certificates, awards, accolades, diplomas, the odd tennis racquet and fishing rod, and shelves crammed with books. All around them were terracotta pots of all sizes and shapes.