He looked almost gently at Alfonzo. ‘What do you say, Alfonzo? You’re the mastermind behind this project. It would be wrong of you not to be here to continue the beauty of your work.’
‘Futura was hoping to create a better world. To save it from mistakes caused by greed and human egos.’ Alfonzo looked at his knotted fingers in his lap. ‘It was to give power to all, not to a few.’
Syphon bit into a golden leg of baked chicken before throwing the stripped bone onto his plate. He dabbed his chin and dropped his napkin on the table.
‘All very noble, of course, but what I want to know is: your answer. Your choice is to work with me, or the rest of the desalination plants on this island will be destroyed, and my little box of capsules will consume the remaining available water so that, in a few days, the people of this country will perish. And it will be all your fault.’ He smiled gleefully. ‘Oh, and not only the leeches but the kids will get it too.’
‘The leeches,’ Max remembered. ‘They’re fine, Alfonzo. We found them and they’ve been rescued.’
Syphon fixed Max with a hardened gaze. ‘But I still have you and one very crowded jellyfish pool.’
‘Jellyfish pool?’ Max wanted to sound stern, but her voice betrayed her with a slight wobble.
‘Yes, a pool of stinging jellyfish that you two will be suspended above whilst trapped in a metal cage. If your friend here doesn’t agree to work with me, you and the jellyfish will have the chance of becoming very … close.’
‘While locked in a cage?’ Linden clarified.
‘Yes,’ Syphon gleamed, ‘while locked, as you say, in a cage.’
‘You can’t work with this guy, Alfonzo. You can’t,’ Max pleaded.
Alfonzo sat in a suffocating silence.
Syphon’s black eyes blinked, just once. ‘Take them to the jellyfish pool.’
A reckless smile skidded all over Kenneth’s face.
‘Oh, and Kenneth,’ Syphon added. ‘Be sure to remove their backpacks.’
‘Aaah!’ Max crouched low and clung to the metal bars of the cage that dangled above a large inland pool bulging with blobs of bulbous jellyfish. ‘There’s height, water and jellyfish,’ she breathed. ‘All you’d have to do is add leeches and all my favourite phobias would be here.’
‘It’s okay, Max.’ Linden spoke as if he was sitting on the lounge at home watching TV, not on the floor of an about-to-be-dunked cage. ‘We’ll figure a way out.’
‘How?’ Max looked at a rock platform beneath them where their bags lay, confiscated and discarded by a smiling Kenneth. He’d left them teasingly in full view of the two young spies, along with Max’s belt and the Time and Space machine. When he and two other thugs hoisted them above the inland pool, Kenneth was the final one to leave, with one last echoing crack of his neck.
‘Keep your head up and breathe slowly. It always helps me whenever I’m freaking out.’
‘When have you ever freaked out,’ Linden advised.
‘Plenty of times.’
Max screwed her face into a scowl. ‘Like when?’
‘Like when I had to give a speech at the regional finals of the national Eisteddfod, and when my dad showed me how to help a cow give birth.’ He paused. ‘When I realised my mum was never coming back.’
Max’s shoulders eased downwards. Linden’s mum had died of cancer a few years earlier. ‘What did you do?’
‘I gave the speech. I helped the calf being born.’ He paused again. ‘I ran away a lot.’
‘You ran away?’ Max loosened her hands. A little.
‘Yeah. Never very far. Just to the other side of town or to the end of the back paddock. Once I nearly made it to the next town about thirty kilometres away. That was in the beginning. After she’d died. I never went so far after that. It was enough to scare Dad, though. I never wanted to run away – I just wanted to run. Not to go anywhere or get away from Dad, but I couldn’t breathe when I was standing still, and the only thing that seemed to help was running.’
The cage swung slightly in a breeze that swirled into the cave.
‘I was the opposite,’ Max said quietly. ‘When Dad left to live in America, all I wanted was to stay still. I closed my bedroom door and stayed there for days, lying on my bed, listening to music on my headphones to block everything out.’
‘What happened?’
‘My last battery ran out and I got up.’
Linden smiled.
‘I went through a pack of twenty.’
Linden laughed. It caught Max like a downward curve on a rollercoaster. She smiled and tightened her grip on the bar to stop her from falling.
‘I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you before,’ she said. ‘We should have called Stefan before we went to follow Alfonzo.’
Linden shook his head. ‘You went with your instincts, which most of the time I’d say are pretty good.’
‘You would?’ Max frowned.
‘Yeah.’
‘How about the cupcake bomb at the luncheon?’
Linden shrugged. ‘Okay, that wasn’t so good.’
‘And the time I thought Dretch was a double agent just before he was given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Annual Spy Awards.’7
‘He was acting a little strange that night.’
‘And when …’ Max bit her lip and looked away. ‘When I almost got you killed in Hollywood?’8
‘I’m here now, aren’t I?’ Linden held out his hands in a grand ta-da gesture. Max narrowed her eyes. ‘All right, there was that too,’ he admitted. ‘But mostly you’re spot on.’
Max face’s became caked in a bright red blush.
‘And you heard Stefan – he said we were courageous and that it was an honour and a privilege to work with us.’ The speckled blue light from below sparkled across Linden’s face like tinsel.
‘Do you think that? Of me, I mean.’
‘Yeah. I do.’ It was Linden’s turn to blush. ‘Max?’
Max’s stomach tightened. ‘Yes?’
‘I … I … I just wanted to say …’
‘Aaaah!’
The cage jolted downwards.
‘I guess that means Alfonzo said no.’ Linden gripped the bars of the cage. ‘Which is good, of course, that Syphon won’t get his way.’
‘Except we’re going to die!’
‘Not yet we’re not.’ Linden reached into his pocket and pulled out the two opened packets of Sherbet Liquefier. ‘There may be enough left to at least weaken the bars.’
The chain suspending them above the inland sea unwound with a sickening series of clangs. Linden sprinkled a skerrick of the remaining powder onto the base of one of the bars. When it began to sizzle, he slammed his shoe at it in a hard kick and it broke free.
‘Look, Max.’ Linden pushed hard against the bar and bent it outwards.
Max had her eyes shut tight trying to ignore the fact that they were being lowered to their death.
‘I need you to help me.’
Max opened her eyes a sliver.
‘Take this and do the same with the bars next to this one. We’ll only need to break a few and we can squeeze out of here.’ Linden handed her one of the packets. ‘There’s not much left so we can’t waste any. Oh, and don’t look down.’
Linden poured the remaining few specks of Liquefier onto the next bar. As the sizzling started, he again kicked at the metal and it came free. He bent it away so it protruded upwards like a crooked tooth.
Max smiled briefly, then went back to quietly panicking when she noticed they were only metres from the water.
‘Think of Syphon when you do the kicking,’ Linden prompted. ‘I find it helps.’
Max smiled and sprinkled what was left from her packet. She leant back, pulled her knee towards her and, when the sizzling started, she kicked into the bar so hard it broke away from the cage and fell in a tumbling freefall into the water.
‘Remind me not to get in a kickboxing match with you.’ Linden measured his body against the newly formed g
ap. ‘I think that might do it.’
The cage lowered closer to the bulging, blobbing surface of the pool.
‘The hover capability of the shoes should be strong enough for us to walk over the water. Ready?’
‘Are you serious?’
‘Okay,’ Linden smiled, ‘maybe no one’s ever ready for their first time of walking on water.’ He watched as Max became hypnotised by the rising sea beneath them.
‘I’ll go first.’
Linden pressed the green button on the side of his shoes and began floating above the base of the cage. ‘It’s good so far.’ He moved carefully to the edge where he hovered briefly before stepping over the water. He sank instantly downwards, but the stream of air strengthened, lifting him safely above the clamouring waves and stinging jellyfish.
‘It works!’ Max cried.
With a few near tumbles, Linden air-walked over the water to the rock platform at the pool’s edge. ‘Your turn, Max.’
The cage jolted in a violent thrust. Max clung to the bars, her feet cemented with fear.
‘Max,’ Linden called, ‘trust me. You’ll be fine.’
Jellyfish and seawater spilled into the bottom of the cage, but Max still couldn’t move.
‘Look at me,’ Linden offered. ‘Don’t look anywhere except at my face and you’ll be fine.’
The cage cranked lower still. Jellyfish blubbered onto the cage floor. Max felt a jolt of fear slam into her chest. She reached down, pressed the green button on her shoes and rose above the cage’s watery floor.
She stared at Linden’s face and slipped between the bars.
‘That’s it,’ Linden smiled, ‘you can do it.’
‘Aah!’ Max lowered briefly towards the water before the shoes lifted her above the restless surface. She felt as if she was stepping on rubbery jelly as her feet stumbled through the air. Her breathing was short and her stomach ached, but all she looked at was Linden’s face as she made it safely to the platform.
‘I told you you could do it.’
Max blushed and looked away as the final splash of the disappearing cage sank beneath the ocean’s surface.
‘That Syphon kid better be ready for us, because I’m not leaving without Alfonzo.’ Max picked up her belt and took out the Time and Space Machine. She activated the screen to reveal the virtual earth. ‘Alfonzo?’ she breathed.
The screen zoomed in to an image of the leech expert, this time bound and gagged and slumped on the floor of what looked like a lab. ‘He’s not far from here.’ She zoomed out to reveal the exact location. ‘Let’s go.’
Max’s head snapped upwards at the echoing slap of footsteps coming towards them. She fastened the belt round her waist and slipped the machine inside. ‘No-one is stopping me now.’
Max and Linden reached for their packs and took out their Somniferous Pens. They stood ready, Pens poised at the sound of the approaching steps.
‘Now!’
When the two men appeared from around a craggy bend of rock, the darts found their targets. The men stopped and swayed briefly before thudding to the floor in a deep sleep.
‘Sweet dreams, fellas.’ Max turned to Linden. ‘Did you get the footage of Syphon?’
‘It’s all here.’ Linden tapped on his watch.
‘It’s time Spyforce and the world knew about Syphon’s little plan.’
Linden plugged his watch into his palm computer and transferred the vision of Syphon discussing his plot. Max did the same with her MP3 recording before calling Steinberger.
‘Max, is everything okay?’
‘We’re on the Island of Gozo and Alfonzo has been kidnapped by Louis B. Syphon. We’ve sent vision and a voice recording of him talking about a plan to destroy Malta. We need you to edit the two together and send it to my palm computer. It’s only a few minutes long. How fast can you get it back to us?’
‘Consider it already there.’ Steinberger smiled. ‘I’ll send agents for backup. Give me details of your exact location.’
Max activated the locator on her computer and emailed Steinberger their location coordinates. ‘Done. We’ll see you at Spyforce with one rescued leech expert.’
Max shut down the connection and turned to Linden. ‘You get Alfonzo and meet me at the entrance of the cave. I have a date with a microphone and Kid Syphon.’
‘Remember the pact,’ Linden said.
Max smiled. ‘I remember.’
The two spies retrieved their packs and jumped over the snoring men, Linden heading to rescue Alfonzo and Max to the security room.
When she arrived at the platform, she saw the back of a guard through the glass. Max stood firm and took a calming breath before leaping into the air and landing outside the door. ‘I’m getting pretty good at using these.’
The startled guard turned and faced Max and her Somniferous Pen. With one click, the guard gripped his arm with a pained groan before tipping sideways and slumping back into his chair. Max wheeled him out of the way and opened the connection on her palm computer. She had one message. ‘That was quick, Steinby.’
Before her was a desk with a control panel and a microphone and positioned above were several monitors: one showed an image of Syphon pacing the dining hall, berating his cowering assistant, Kenneth.
In the corner of the security room was a camera looking straight at Max. She picked up the microphone and pressed a button that said Universal Address.
‘Syphon, it’s Max here, that annoying kid you tried to kill in the jellyfish pool.’
Syphon stopped yelling at Kenneth and looked around.
‘I’m in the security room.’
Syphon looked up. Max waved.
‘As you can see, your little plan for me didn’t work. Not only that, I have a short video I’d like to play you.’
With the microphone in hand, Max walked over to the camera, held her palm computer before it and played Steinberger’s edited footage. Max didn’t watch the vision but enjoyed the look of sheer horror that leeched onto Syphon’s face.
When the vision had ended, Max slipped her computer into her newly recovered pack. ‘So your little game is up, Syphon. Unless you release Alfonzo and the capsules, your little dinner speech will be broadcast all over the world, where once again you will be known for who you really are.’
With a murderous look twisting into his face, Syphon grabbed Kenneth by the sleeve and dragged him to the moored red speedboat beside them.
Max spoke into her watch. ‘Linden? Are you there?’
‘Alfonzo and I have just left behind a few sleeping guards and are on our way to the entrance of the cave.’
‘Meet me at the jet skis.’
‘Yes, boss.’
Max leapt from the ledge of the security room and landed with a rubbery thud on the rock platform below. She ran to the jet skis, where she met Linden and a rumpled Alfonzo.
‘Alfonzo, are you okay?’
‘I couldn’t give in to their demands, Max.’ He stared at her through his good lens. ‘I tried to reason with –’
‘You made the right decision.’ Max smiled. ‘We’ll prove it. Jump on.’
Max leapt on one jet ski while Linden and Alfonzo climbed on another as an ear-staggering wall of engine noise filled the cavern. Syphon, Kenneth and the red speedboat raced past, typhooning a wall of water into the narrow passage and over Max, Linden and Alfonzo. Max spoke into her watch. ‘Stefan? There’s a red boat about to exit the cave. He’s our man.’
Stefan’s voice leapt to attention. ‘Bravu, Max! I’m on the case.’
Max and Linden started their engines and Linden quickly took off in a wash of go-get-’em confidence.
Max’s exit wasn’t so graceful.
‘Aaaah!’
Her jet ski jumped forward in a series of clumsy hops. ‘Oh, you’ve got to do better than that,’ she complained before plunging forward into an accelerated take-off she couldn’t stop.
‘Aaaah!’
Max sped out of the cave and onto the cho
ppy waves of the open sea like she was on a bad-tempered bull. ‘Please, please, please don’t kill me!’
Stefan’s boat and Linden’s jet ski were in front of her, keeping Syphon in their sights. Max fell behind as she cut through the bulging swell, pounding into the belly of each wave with a heavy thud, whereas Syphon’s speedboat cut through the water like a warm spoon through ice-cream.
She pushed harder on the throttle, determined to catch up, when one wave caught her in its deep rounded swell. Her jet ski slid down into the wave like a snowboarder into a half pipe, sending her and the machine sailing into the air in one smooth curving arch. ‘Aaaah!’
The jet ski landed much like an elephant dive-bombing into a pool. Great clumps of water veiled up around her as Max sunk below the waterline. ‘I’m going down!’ she yelled before being trampolined back towards the surface.
She gripped the jet ski even tighter and shook her hair out of her eyes in time to see Syphon signalling to Kenneth. He held his arm up and made a circling motion in the air with his finger. Syphon’s boat began to turn in a wide arc.
And headed straight at her.
At first he skimmed in front of her, throwing her into a tidal wave of whitewash. The jet ski flipped backwards, spinning in the air in one smooth revolution. Max clung onto the handles, unable to breathe, dangling beneath the ski as it turned in the air above her, leaving a sprawling ocean below. She shut her eyes as the world spun out of control. Her life flashed before her like a crazed music video. Missions in Hollywood, the Amazon and Venice. Her mother, her father. Linden, Toby and Luca. Spyforce and …
‘Ooph!’
The jet ski landed with a crashing slap, sinking into the ocean before springing into the air again like her Flea-powered Shoes. She opened her eyes. The jet ski had done a complete revolution before it stalled.
Max slumped over the handlebars in a lung-emptying sigh.
Until she saw Syphon’s face. He again turned his finger in the air, holding Max’s gaze in hardened fury.
Max tried to restart her engine. Syphon’s boat swept into its curved turn and manoeuvred straight for her.
Max turned the key. ‘Start. Start!’
Syphon’s boat accelerated. Max looked up, jamming the key in the ignition. Turning it with nothing more than a quiet click. ‘Come on!’
Mission In Malta Page 14
