Max Arena (45 page)

‘So, Max,’ she
said a little thickly, ‘you mentioned God. Do you follow a faith?
Does Maximilian Augustus Dyson believe in The Almighty?’

‘No,’ Max
replied simply.

‘No? Not
ever?’

‘No, not ever.
I’ve never followed a religion and I don’t feel any inkling to
begin believing now.’

‘Why is
that?’

‘Let’s get one
thing straight. I have the utmost respect for anyone’s faith and
will never question anyone’s beliefs of any sort. In fact, I admire
the religious and theological beliefs that people hold dear and the
strength of many people’s beliefs, but it’s just not for me. I
don’t even really think about it. What I do believe in is myself
and those that I care about. My faith in myself is unshakeable. I
have never doubted myself and I’m in no mood to start now. As for
the people I love, they’re real. I see them every day and they give
me all the support I need and more and for that I will be forever
grateful. They believe in me and I believe in them. Let me also say
that while I’ll be the one in the arena beating off the bad guys,
if I win, these people are just as responsible for saving the world
as I am, if not more so. I can fight. You better believe that, but
I can’t get this done on my own. This is a team effort and though
you may never see everyone I’m talking about, if you do have faith
in God, send your prayers to them as well because they’re in this
just as deep as I am. You need them to be just as strong if not
stronger than me and you know what, they’re proving that to be
true. I’m not the hero in this. They’re the heroes. Win or
lose.’

Sally nodded
slowly and silently. The silence stretched for a few moments more
and Max wondered if he had broken the will of this media leviathan,
which would only be a good thing as he was starting to get
restless. His answers so far had come from the heart and it felt
good to get his thoughts and feelings out, but this last question
had started to stray a little too far out of his comfort zone .
Then she spoke.

‘So, Max,’ she
began, leaning forwards to rest her elbows on her knees, her
glittering face coming even closer, ‘can you tell us about your
childhood? What was your upbringing like and your mother in
particular, what was
she
like because I understand you never
knew your father as he left when you were very young?’

Now he was
right out of his comfort zone. His childhood was off limits. His
mother was off limits and as for his father, well, Sally was right
about him not ever being in the picture, but that wasn’t his fault.
The man didn’t know he had been used to spawn a human/alien hybrid
child then left none the wiser when his mother ran off the next
day. That didn’t make him a bad Dad.

‘Max?’ Sally
asked, pulling Max out of his thoughts. ‘Your childhood?’

Max tightened
his lips and looked down at his hands. How do you refuse Sally
Sainsbury an answer on live television and maintain your integrity?
Then he was saved.

‘Do you sleep
in the nude?’ shouted a female voice from out of the audience?

This reignited
the masses. Max turned away from Sally who immediately began trying
to waive the crowd back down again. The question was repeated by
another random voice from the crowd. Then another. Max smiled.
Sally was going into over drive.

Then Max said,
‘Sorry, Sally, but I think the question deserves an answer.’

Sally was
aghast. Her eyes flamed as she realised she was having her show
hijacked and worse than that, her biggest star guest of all time
was heavily compliant in the crime. Max stood up, looked down at
Sally and shrugged. Then he turned away and walked off the front of
the stage and past the line of cameras and stage hands. The cameras
rolled out of the way and spun to keep focus on him.

The audience
was baying like a zoo full of animals at feeding time. Max held up
his hands and waved them about. Slowly the noise died down and Max
was left standing alone in front of the massive bank of mostly
female patrons.

‘Okay,’ he
started. ‘Who asked the question?’

A hand
tentatively rose at one end of the audience. Max faced the young
lady, probably roughly in her mid-twenties and asked, ‘So, you want
to know if I sleep in the nude?’

Virtually the
entire crowd nodded. Max smiled.

‘No,’ he said.
Disappointment rippled through the masses. ‘I wear briefs…and
nothing else.’

Instantly the
crowd ratcheted up again. Max waved them down and as they were
quieting, another question shot out, this time from a
forty-something lady, jumping in her seat like a fifteen-something
teenager.

‘What’s your
star sign?’ she shouted.

‘Ahh, good
question. Gemini.’

The
forty-something squealed. ‘Same as me!’ and she started shaking the
lady sitting next to her.

‘Does that mean
you’ve got a twin brother and what’s his phone number?’ shouted
another voice from across the crowd.

‘No, sorry. No
twin brother,’ Max answered.

‘A cousin?’
came another shout.

Max grinned and
shook his head. ‘Uh, uh. No cousin either.’

‘Twin sister?’
called out a voice from the front row. Max looked and found the
source to be a tall, leggy blonde who clearly knew her way around a
gym. Max’s grin widened and he shook his head again. The lady
shrugged.

And now the
questions came thick and fast. Max took a couple of steps back and
let the crowd connection overwhelm him. Team Max wanted public
relations? Well, it couldn’t get any better than this. Holding his
arms out wide Max bowed once and everyone got to their feet,
jumping and cheering. Then Max bowed again and the chant rose even
higher.

‘Team Max! Team
Max! Team Max!’

This was so
much better than talking about his childhood. Finally turning away
from the crowd, Max walked back past the row of cameras and stage
hands and back up onto the stage where Sally was still sitting in
her chair, the fury now blooming across her whole face, her body as
tense as a snake poised to strike. Max knew there was no point in
trying to placate her, so he simply grabbed up Sally’s hand and
kissed the back of it.

Sally tried to
soften her features but failed, lancing Max with her glare.
Noticing the downward spiralling influence the situation was having
on the show, the studio director rallied the crew to rescue.
Suddenly, the Team Max anthem fired up and the crowd immediately
took over, clapping and stomping their feet so hard the entire
studio shuddered with the rhythm.

Max took the
cue and gave Sally one final smile before releasing her hand and
turning away. Walking off the stage, he couldn’t help himself as he
threw one final bow to the audience who by now were absolutely
unrestrained. Smiling like a lottery winner, Max walked towards the
studio doors and through them. The Team Max juggernaut was still
rolling. Mission accomplished.

7:30am, 12
^h
November (1 month later).
Arena Plans

Abdullah and
Joe walked into the mansion’s informal dining room and kitchen area
to find Max, Elsa, the kids and Kris all together. The rooms were a
bustle of activity, just like any family or group of friends
getting ready for the day ahead.

Max sat at the
table with Millie and Jason, a pile of bacon and eggs on his plate,
his second breakfast already half demolished after having been put
through an early morning training session by Kris. In the kitchen
Elsa moved from the cupboards to the bench, making the children’s
meals, while Kris poured milk into her bowl of muesli.

Joe looked
around and found Peter out on the balcony, his phone in hand as he
talked to someone. Joe waved him in and Peter wound up his
conversation.

‘This looks
ominous,’ Elsa said as she moved to the dining table to place
plates of buttered toast in front of Millie and Jason.

‘Nice to see
you all this morning,’ Joe said carefully, looking around at all
the activity, ‘and why exactly is our appearance ominous,
Elsa?’

Elsa moved back
into the kitchen to put four more slices of bread into the toaster.
Kris slipped past her with her muesli, while Max remained hunched
over his own plate of food.

‘It means,’
Elsa started, ‘that it’s not often we see either of you this early
in the day, so when
both
of you turn up together, it’s
ominous.’

Joe nodded and
glanced sideways to watch Peter come in off the balcony through the
sliding door.

‘That’s an
interesting assumption,’ Joe replied. ‘Perhaps we need to make a
concerted effort to come and share breakfast with you more
often?’

‘That’d be
nice, but we know you’re busy men,’ Elsa said, just as the toaster
popped up the four slices. ‘Toast?’

‘No thank you.
We both had our breakfast earlier while watching Kris put Max
through his paces this morning. Breakfast
and
a show, so to
speak.’

‘Yeah, I saw
you blokes up there, sipping your lattes while I broke a sweat,’
Max said as he swallowed his last fried egg and stood up to take
his plate back to the kitchen. ‘Kris even made me do some extra
plyometrics for entertainment value. You two blokes owe me.’

‘Don’t worry
about him,’ Kris chimed in as she paused in between mouthfuls.
‘He’s all talk. He’s just miffed about me nailing him with the
baseball pitching machine.’

‘My back’s all
purple polka dots right now,’ Max replied as he grabbed an apple
out of the fruit bowl. ‘In some countries you’d go to jail for what
you did to me this morning. Assault and battery comes to mind.’

‘Aww, see,
kiddies, what Kris puts your daddy through,’ Elsa said to Millie
and Jason as she came to sit at the table with them to eat her
toast. ‘She can be so mean sometimes.’

‘Wait till I
get that baseball pitcher upgraded to a medicine ball cannon,’ Kris
said, a grin in place.

‘A
what
?’ Max shot back.

Kris continued.
‘A medicine ball cannon. Abdullah promised me he’d get his
engineers to whip one up for us.’

‘Not for
us
,’ Max said. ‘For
you
.’

Kris shrugged
and got back to her muesli.

‘You were
saying, Joe?’ Elsa said, returning the focus to Prime Minister
Tollsen.

‘Thank you,
Elsa, and I must say it always make me feel at home seeing you all
together and enjoying each other’s company,’ Joe said, casting a
quick glance to Abdullah who shot one back with a slight nod.
‘However, your suspicions, Elsa have proven correct, we do have an
ulterior reason for calling on you all this morning and before I go
on, sorry for the late notice, but we are going to disrupt your
plans for today.’

‘Sounds fine to
me,’ Max said, tossing his apple core in the bin and grabbing a
second one. ‘Anything to get Kris away from cannons that shoot big
heavy things at me.’

‘What’s on your
mind?’ Elsa asked as she pushed Jason’s plate back in front of him
to better catch at least some of the crumbs tumbling from his
mouth.

‘We are going
to take a small excursion to see the progress of the arena
construction,’ Joe said.

Max slid a gaze
back to Prime Minister Tollsen, but held his tongue. Peter also
flicked a quick glance to Joe before returning to subconsciously
scanning the windows.

‘I will now
pass over to Abdullah to explain the operation,’ Joe continued,
‘and why it has taken so long for us to divulge anything regarding
the arena project.’

All eyes turned
to the Sheikh.

‘
As salam
alaykum
,’ Abdullah greeted. ‘Good morning, everyone and may I
also express how comforting it is to see you all together.’

‘To be fair,
Your Highness,’ Elsa said, ‘we’re actually not
all
together
unless Joe and yourself are with us too. We’re not Team Max without
either of you.’

Abdullah smiled
and bowed. Joe let his lips curl slightly and nodded, not to Elsa,
but more to himself as a gush of warmth spread through his
chest.

‘Thank you,
Elsa,’ Abdullah replied. ‘Your words are very kind and so now, as
Joseph said, I will outline to you where we are going and how.’
Everyone held quiet, either continuing to eat or pausing their meal
to stop and listen. ‘Deliberately, we have not discussed the venue
for the arena duels up until now. The reason for that is simple.
Security. There are still several factions and organisations in the
world that provide very real and credible threats to our safety.
They still distrust us and would prefer to disrupt our preparations
for New Year’s Eve and even kill us for their own reasons. Some are
political. Others are religious and some are totally unexplainable.
Regardless of the motives, the dangers of revealing the arena
location too soon were too great, but now as New Year’s Eve
approaches and the stadium construction matures, it is time for you
all to witness the site ahead of any other delegations.’

‘Is it far,’
Elsa asked, ‘and is it safe to take the kids?’

‘It is not far
and yes, it is safe to take Millie and Jason. Your protection is
assured.’

‘How far is not
far?’ Kris asked. ‘Somewhere on the east coast? Brisbane? Sydney?
Melbourne?’

‘It is on the
east coast of Australia, yes, but it is not in any of the capital
cities,’ Abdullah replied.

‘If it’s not in
a city, then I can’t think of any stadium big enough,’ Kris added.
‘I assume you’re inviting a crowd?’

Peter watched
the interplay between Abdullah and Kris, his own mind asking
exactly the same questions, but his voice remaining silent.

‘We are not
utilising an existing stadium,’ Abdullah replied. ‘Rather we are
constructing a new, fit for purpose stadium that will, yes, be able
to hold a crowd. Not too large, but large enough for a
representative audience to witness the event first hand.’