A smile crawled up Blue’s face like a spider climbing towards a fly trapped in his web. Slow. Dangerous. Ready to devour.
Normally Linden had a body that leant with a kind of slouch and wild hair that even heavy-duty cement couldn’t tame. The Linden standing next to Blue looked like he’d been stretched out on a rack, made ten centimetres taller and had hair so smooth and slick, it looked like one solid, glistening piece.
‘You now have two choices,’ he continued, like he was some overpaid businessman about to bankrupt a small country and enjoying every minute. ‘You can join us and help the struggle of Blue against the unprogressive and selfish workings of Spyforce, or …’ and at this he paused, sneaking Blue a devoted glance, ‘you can enjoy the one-way thrill ride of the Moons of Mars confectionery room.’
Kronch let out a strangled snort.
Max and Ella felt like someone had wrenched them out of their lives and dumped them into a world they didn’t understand.
Nothing was familiar.
Nothing made sense.
Linden not only agreed with Blue, he was now one of his most loyal supporters.
The Moons of Mars confectionery room was filled with a highway of bright red conveyor belts going in all directions and large, rounded cauldrons filling the air like oversized silver balloons. The cauldrons were labelled ‘choc-biscuit mixture’, ‘toffee-caramel’ and ‘hundreds and thousands’. Each of the machines was churning away, like a mechanical army pouring, sprinkling and slicing to a rhythmic, ordered beat, busily making the confectionery delights. The machine that had everyone’s attention was the one in the centre, where two securely bound prisoners were about to become part of the biscuity process.
Max and Ella hadn’t accepted Linden’s offer of joining the ranks of Blue’s Foods. In fact, Max had been so opposed to it, she suggested Linden take the offer and put it somewhere that sounded really painful. As a result of her blunt suggestion, Max’s and Ella’s backpacks had been removed and they’d been tied up with rope and tossed onto one of the conveyor belts like sausages on a barbecue.
Framed by stacks of large cotton bags filled with choc-biscuit mix and hundreds and thousands, industrial ovens, mixers, temperature gauges, rising steam and pipes that ran around the room like long fingers hugging the walls, Linden picked up a finished biscuit from a rack nearby and took a small bite. Again this was unlike Linden, who would have finished the chocolate mound in one swift munch.
‘At the moment, with everyone having minds of their own, the world’s in a complete mess.’ He took another careful nibble. ‘I mean, look at it. We’ve got wars, famine, poverty, environmental collapse, banks, the GST. If only we had one unified way of thinking, the world would be without chaos and hatred for the first time in the history of mankind.’
‘Humankind,’ Max corrected.
Blue stood behind Linden, his hands held snugly across his chest, proud of his newest recruit and enjoying every minute of the crumbling friendships before him.
Linden finished the last of his biscuit. ‘You’re too cute, Maxine.’
He knew Max hated being called that. She clenched her teeth so hard, she only just avoided chipping them.
Ella stared at the boy who was once her good friend but who was talking like someone she normally tried hard to avoid.
‘You don’t really believe that, do you?’ she asked quietly. ‘What about all that stuff we found out about Blue last time?’
‘Ella,’ Linden said with as much condescension in his voice as it could hold. ‘At your age and with your intelligence, have you never heard of bad press?’
‘Bad press!’ Max shouted. ‘Spyforce are the good guys and you know it.’
‘Don’t talk to me about Spyforce!’ Blue shouted, his hands falling from his chest into two closed fists. ‘They’re the ones who can’t recognise good from evil.’
Max stared at the unusually flustered and rouge-coloured Blue.
‘It is they who walk around pretending to be the good guys and pointing fingers at the bad guys when they haven’t the least idea.’
Max watched Blue’s chest lurching in and out like he’d just run a marathon. A sprig of normally perfect hair fell in front of his face that had become distorted with anger. Max frowned as she tried to work out what she’d said that had upset Blue so much. Then she had it. It was something Steinberger had said to her at the Wall of Goodness.
‘You were the Spyforce agent who went bad, weren’t you?’ She said it through a small, quiet gasp.
Blue pounced forward and slammed his fist onto the conveyor belt beside Max’s head. He was so close to her, she could feel his rage trembling inside him.
‘It wasn’t me who went bad. It was them!’ The fury in his eyes lit the edges of his face with a dangerous glow. ‘It was I who had the ideas to turn Spyforce into an organisation to reckon with. We could still do the good deeds they wanted but with a few clever deals of mine, they could have had vast reserves of money to solve any crime they’d wanted. But they wouldn’t listen.’ Blue’s face crumpled into an ugly sneer. ‘Harrison’s do-gooding ways blinded him from seeing that what I was saying made perfect sense. We were a good team, Harrison and I, before he threw it away.’
Max knew she should have been scared but couldn’t hold back a widening grin.
‘So they threw you out of the Force?’
Blue’s eyes fixed on her malevolently like she was a target he was lining up. ‘They didn’t throw me out, I quit,’ he said in a voice that moved over her like a cold wind.
Just then the door of the confectionery room crashed open and a bound, gagged and struggling Alex Crane was hauled in by the bumbling, lumpish Kronch.
‘Alex?’ Max’s head spun round to see her hero being bundled in like a bag of potting mix.
‘Ah, you found her, Kronch. Well done.’ Blue straightened himself up, pushed his momentarily unruly hair into place and went back to being his usual, composed and evil self. ‘Where was she?’
‘On her way here, looking for these kids. But I nabbed her before she got too close.’
Alex flinched in his grip, desperate to release herself from his leaden hold.
‘That’s the most intriguing part about most humans,’ Blue puzzled, now back in control of his behaviour. ‘They have this terrible weakness for other people. They build up all these emotions and loyalties. Terribly icky stuff that just gets in the way of life. It’s such a design fault. If I was in charge of designing humans, that would be the first thing to go.’
Kronch hardly moved as Alex squirmed and moaned through her gag. Linden smiled as Blue continued with his devilish plan.
‘Don’t worry, Ms Crane. Kronch is about to help you get your wish of joining your young friends. Kronch?’
The oversized oaf nodded his bucket head and dragged Alex to the conveyor belt. After a brief struggle, she was securely tied to the belt between Max and Ella.
‘Take her gag away,’ Blue ordered. Kronch did as he was told as a smile filled with meanness etched into Blue’s lips. ‘Comfortable, Ms Crane?’
‘I’ve never been comfortable in the presence of snakes,’ she shot back.
Max smiled. Her hero was every bit as clever as she’d written.
‘Now now, Ms Crane. I don’t think there’s any need for insults.’
‘That was no insult, Blue. It was the best compliment I could give you.’
Blue’s smiled slipped a little, then he quickly resumed his composure.
‘Now that the whole gang is here, the Moons of Mars coating process can begin and we can be rid of three very pesky obstacles to making the world a better place. And this time I am going to stay and watch,’ he said, remembering the time Linden and Max had given him the slip. ‘Linden? Would you do us the honour?’
Linden walked past Blue and Kronch towards a large green button secured under a plastic cover. Max and Ella watched him lift the cover, unable to believe their friend was about to have them turned into life-sized, sugary swe
ets. He looked across at them and smiled.
‘It’s for the best,’ he said, and lifting his hand he rested it on the button.
‘Once Linden has started the machine,’ Blue began with an air of delight surrounding every snivelling part of him, ‘the conveyor belt will transport you under a delightful flow of choc-biscuit mixture, before you’re given a coating of warm toffee-caramel. You will then be covered in the multi-coloured sweetness of hundreds and thousands. Soon after that, you will come face to face with the sharpened blades of the slicer which will carve you up into tasty, mouth-sized mini agents. That’s my favourite part.’ He looked across at Linden who reflected an evil grin back. ‘You will have roughly two minutes to do all you’d like to do with the rest of your lives. Mind you,’ and at this he gloated even more, ‘in this position, your options are somewhat limited.’
Ella remembered all the times she and Linden had emailed each other and spoken on the CTR. Her heart drooped as she watched one of the kindest, funniest people she’d ever met prepare to bring about her end.
‘Linden!’ she cried. ‘You aren’t really going to do this, are you?’
He stared at her like he was in a trance.
Max looked up at the metal cauldrons and the shining blades of the slicer waiting at attention for the order that would spell their doom. As much as she tried to deny it, Linden seemed to have been totally sucked in by Blue’s cockamamie story about being the good guy. She looked at his blank face and struggled with the realisation that she was being betrayed by the one person in her life she thought was her friend.
‘Linden, what about our pact?’ For one instant she thought she saw a hint of hesitation in his eyes, but it was no good. He pressed his hand down on the button and the conveyor belt jerked to life, beginning the process that would take Max, Ella and Alex to their premature demise.
She frantically searched her mind for what they could do. When her backpack had been taken, she’d managed to sneakily grab a small satchel of sneeze powder. How could it be helpful?
Blue stared at his three bound prisoners like a hungry fox standing before a chicken coop.
‘Bon voyage, ladies, and farewell to your last attempt at foiling my brilliant plans.’
The clanging, whirring noise of the conveyor belt droned beneath Max, Ella and Alex as it transported them towards the cauldrons of the Moons of Mars confectionery machine.
Max swallowed nervously and shifted inside the snug-fitting ropes as she got closer and closer to the tilting vessels and the best friend she’d ever had stood nearby and watched. Her stomach twisted into a ball of sadness and fear. She spoke to Alex.
‘I liked what you said to Blue before. You really showed him,’ she stammered, still a little nervous about being so close to her hero.
Alex didn’t reply. She was deep in thought, trying to sort out a way to save them.
‘It was really brave of you to risk your life to find us.’ She blushed. ‘I always knew you would.’
Alex looked around like she’d only just heard Max’s voice. ‘Sorry?’
There was something about Alex’s tone that made Max feel she had it all wrong. ‘It was good of you to try and save us?’ she tried again uneasily.
The glooping, oozing, sprinkling and slicing got closer as the conveyor belt carried them ever dangerously forward.
‘I didn’t come back to save you. I came to get the SAM so I could take the reading of the new ingredient to send to Spyforce. I’m on a mission to save the world, not make new friends.’ And with that Alex went back to her thinking.
If Max felt sad before, she now felt like her heart had been tipped over and emptied of all the happiness it ever had in it. Her Danger Meter was going crazy while Blue, Kronch and Linden blissfully lapped up the prospect of their imminent demise at the hands of Blue’s Moons of Mars confectionery machine.
Ella hadn’t heard what Alex had said to Max because she’d noticed something strange about Linden.
‘Alex, Linden’s eyes are a bit weird looking.’
Alex turned her head towards Linden and focused on his eyes. They looked glazed with a slight blue tinge.
‘He’s been given the secret ingredient,’ she surmised. ‘Blue instructed his technicians to make the side effects of the ingredient as minimal as possible, so they created a substance that is side-effect free except for a slight blue colouring to the eyes.’
The sound of the slicer was getting louder and louder, like a hundred sharpened, plunging guillotines. But as they continued to look at Linden, another strange thing happened.
‘Look,’ Ella gasped.
Linden was slowly reaching into his pocket.
‘What’s he going to do?’ Max’s eyes widened, thinking perhaps Linden’s evil side had something else in store for them.
She looked over at Blue and Kronch. They hadn’t noticed a thing. Blue’s face was alight with a twitching, sickly smile and Kronch was indulging in a gross display of sniggering that was sending little balls of slobber spraying into the room. In fact, they were so preoccupied with the biscuity process that neither of them saw Linden pull the Spyforce RHINO from his pocket. He kept his eyes firmly pinned on the machine, looking like he too was enjoying the show, while, barely moving, he aimed the device at a large cauldron above Blue’s head labelled ‘toffee-caramel’.
‘What’s he doing?’ Max was confused, unsure of who or what to trust anymore, including what she was seeing.
‘He’s directing the RHINO towards that cauldron,’ Ella said as they edged closer to the squirting choc-biscuit mixture.
‘And he’s going to try and save us,’ Alex added without emotion.
Linden’s eyes swept discreetly across to Max and sent her a small wink. For an instant she was bewildered about what it meant until she realised he needed her to distract Blue for the next part of his plan to work.
‘Hey, Blue!’ she shouted above the mechanical noise. ‘You’re not as smart as you think you are, you know that?’
Slowly, she slid her fingers into the pocket of her pink dress.
Blue gave her a quizzical look, which made him turn his back on Linden.
‘Now Maxine, what can possibly make you say that? I’ve had you tied up and placed on a conveyor belt where you have barely a minute left before you will be no more.’
With his finger on the miniature joystick of the RHINO, Linden was manoeuvring the cauldron so it tilted towards Blue’s head.
‘And what makes you think you’re going to succeed?’ Max asked, reaching for the sneeze powder and carefully taking it out of her pocket.
Blue let loose a laugh just as a clump of choc-biscuit mixture blobbed right next to her ear.
‘You’re a feisty one, aren’t you Maxine? Even when you’re beaten. I admire that in you.’
‘It’s Max,’ she shot back, sick of people calling her that. ‘If you’re as smart as you think you are,’ she challenged, seeing Linden’s cauldron tip even further, ‘you’ll look up right now.’
Ella’s eyes widened as a large blob of biscuit mixture landed on Max’s chest.
‘Now Max, what would I possibly want to look up for?’
‘A final request?’ she said sweetly, her Danger Meter vibrating so hard it was almost pounding through her ribcage.
‘I guess it can’t do any harm,’ Blue said. And as he did, the cauldron of gooey, toffee caramel poured over him in one gluggy spurt.
His cries were muffled as he quickly became enveloped in the hardening mixture. He tried to pull it off but it stretched around him like gluey brown pieces of chewing gum. Kronch stood rooted in the same spot as his pea-sized brain grappled with what was happening, and just as he worked it out, Max hurled the bag of sneeze powder at him in a mini-explosion of white, nose-irritating dust.
‘Ahhchoo! Ahhchoo! Ahhchoo!’ Kronch sneezed and stumbling backwards bumping into machines, he landed head first in a fresh batch of toffee-caramel biscuit goo.
Linden picked up a biscuit mix bag a
nd pulled it over Blue’s head, causing him to fall in a sticky, mumbling heap. He then headed over to Ella and began untying her as another blob of mixture clomped on Max.
‘Ahhchoo! Ahhchoo! Ahhchoo!’ Kronch continued to sneeze.
‘What happened?’ Ella wriggled in her loosening ropes. ‘I was worried that you really believed all that stuff you said before.’
Linden untied the last of the knots and helped her off the moving belt. He then moved across to untie Alex.
‘I didn’t realise at the time, but I’d been given a drink that had the secret ingredient in it. When it began wearing off I realised what was happening. Ahhchoo!’ Some of the sneeze powder had worked its way into Linden’s nose.
‘Mmmm mmmm mmm,’ Blue mmmed from inside his biscuit mix bag as he spun around like a miniature tornado.
Linden struggled with the last of Alex’s knots before he moved across to help Max.
‘Ahhchoo! Ahhchoo! Ahhchoo!’ Kronch sneezed.
‘When did it start to wear off?’ Max flicked her head as the brown toffee goo began falling on her.
‘Mmmm mmmm mmm,’ Blue mmmed and spun around some more.
‘Around the time I took you to Blue’s office.’ Linden’s hands became covered with toffee caramel as he tried to undo the last of Max’s ropes.
‘Ahhchoo! Ahhchoo! Ahhchoo!’
There was a pause.
‘Blue’s office? Ahhchoo!’ Max had inhaled some of the powder as well.
‘Yeah.’ Linden was almost through the ropes as another glob of toffee landed on both of them.
‘You mean all the time we’ve been here, thinking we were going to die, you were pretending? Ahhchoo!’ Max could feel her temper rising.
Linden realised that his plan, which had saved their lives, may not have sounded too good.
‘I can’t believe you’d do that!’
‘Ahhchoo! Ahhchoo! Ahhchoo!’ Kronch’s sneezing attack continued as he bumped into Blue who mmmed like he was in pain.
Spyforce Revealed Page 14
