Mission In Malta (16 page)

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!'

Water sprayed from the sides of Syphon's boat like giant wings as he sped closer.

‘Max!'

Max turned to see Stefan, who was steering his boat on a direct collision course with Syphon. ‘What is he doing?'

Syphon sneered. He reached below the boat's windscreen and pulled out a spear gun. He cut the rope joining the spear to the gun and pulled the
trigger. The spear flew through the salty air and pierced Stefan in the shoulder with a force that threw him into the water.

‘Stefan!'

Stefan's boat slowed instantly as the Maltese agent struggled between the smothering waves.

Syphon concentrated his efforts again on Max's stalled jet ski.

Max saw the giant dragonfly-like rise of two helicopters flying towards them from the coast. Helicopters that, despite their speed, wouldn't reach her in time. She tried once more to start the jet ski before stepping up onto the seat.

‘Max, what are you doing?' Linden watched helplessly from a distance as Max stood on the jet ski.

Max could see the glinting eyes of Syphon as he gripped the side of the boat, ready for impact. She waited until Syphon was only metres away. She bent her knees and jumped.

Linden watched the two vessels collide in a fierce crunch. Splinters of jet ski were thrown into the air, broken up like a hurled box of matches.

One that, seconds later, ignited in a fireball of orange light.

‘Don't worry about me,' Stefan wheezed and pushed himself up with his one good arm. ‘I'll be all right.'

The Maltese agent lay in his white hospital bed, his shoulder bandaged and his Einstein hair lying in a shock halo around his head.

‘You could have been killed,' Max scowled. ‘What were you thinking?'

‘Are you kidding? I haven't felt that alive since I spilt coffee over Steven Spielberg the last time he was shooting a film here. I'd do it all again – the boat ride, not the spilling coffee – and there'd be nothing you could do about it.'

‘You spilt your coffee on …?'

Max was interrupted by the vibration of her palm computer. ‘That'll be Harrison.'

Linden activated the Shush Zone around Stefan's hospital bed while Max opened the connection on her computer.

‘Ah, you're all there. Well done on another mission successfully completed. Alfonzo is safe at home, Greenfield Incorporated has been shut down and is under investigation and Syphon and his sleepy friends are safely behind Mars … Oh dear, I mean
bars
.' Harrison smiled. ‘Not a bad few days' dirt … Blast, I mean
work
.'

‘Thank you, Mr Harrison.' Max smiled.

‘And I hear you were quite the hero, Stefan.'

Stefan's face blazed. ‘Why I … sir, it was … I've never …' Stefan couldn't finish as he wobbled into a teary mess.

‘He means thank you, sir,' Linden translated.

‘I know you two are packed and ready to go home, so I won't keep you. Leave your gadgets with Stefan and we'll have them brought back to Spyforce. Once again you have done the Force proud, and for that we spank you … Oh heavens, there'll be no spanking, of course, just
thanking
… Oh dear. Goodbye.' Harrison paused. ‘And thank you for saving my friend.'

‘You're welcome,' Max replied.

Harrison disappeared from the screen.

Linden deactivated the Shush Zone. ‘We better go.'

Max and Linden emptied their packs before lifting them onto their shoulders. ‘Goodbye, Stefan.' Max said softly. ‘And I'm sorry for what I said before, you know, about falling asleep in the carriage and …'

The old man's lower lip wobbled and his open mouth released no words. Max leant over his bed and kissed him on both cheeks. ‘What you did was really brave.' Now it was Max's turn to blink her tear-smudged eyes.

‘I … you … it was …'

‘We know.' Linden kissed Stefan on both wobbling cheeks while Max prepared the Time and Space Machine. A picture of the Mindawarra farm zoomed into focus. She waved one last time, said ‘transport' and, with a small
fffttt
sound, they were gone.

When the two spies landed in Ben and Eleanor's yard fifteen seconds later, Max settled onto the ground and sighed. ‘I'll miss him.'

‘Even the driving?'

Max slipped off her pack and dangled it over a shoulder. ‘Maybe not the driving, but all the other stuff.'

Linden laughed. ‘Thanks, Max.'

‘For what?'

‘For not getting run over by Syphon's boat.'

‘Don't worry, it was my pleasure.'

Max paused. ‘What were you going to say? Before the cage started being lowered?'

‘I … that …' Linden stumbled. ‘I can tell you things. Things I've never told anyone.' He smiled his deep-down Linden smile. ‘I like that.'

Linden leant in and, before Max could object, kissed her on the cheek. Max smiled. It wasn't that bad after all. The sky didn't fall in, the world
didn't stop turning and, like her dream, it wasn't nearly as slimy or as octopus-filled as she thought it would be.

‘Do you think Alfonzo and his team will do it?'

‘Do what?' Max asked.

‘Stop the spread of cancer?'

Max was caught by Linden's downcast eyes. ‘He seemed pretty confident.'

‘That'd be good.' Linden smiled. ‘Mum would like that.'

He whistled to Ralph. ‘Come on, fella. Time to go home.'

Ralph appeared from a snooze by the back shed and the two walked into the distance of Ben and Eleanor's paddock. ‘Things I've never told anyone,' Max repeated as she watched Linden and Ralph become small specks and then disappear.

When her mother picked her up from the farm a few days later, the two flopped together on the lounge after dinner, pyjamas on, and the table in front of them filled with DVDs and chocolate.

‘I can't tell you how good it is to know that these feet don't have to run after Georgio anymore!' She smiled. ‘Or at least until Monday.'

Max laughed and yawned.

‘I thought life in the country was supposed to be relaxing,' her mother asked.

‘It is, usually I …' Max had to change the subject. She was too tired to think properly and didn't trust her mouth not to say anything about the mission. ‘Larry's learning Morse code.'

‘The dog?'

‘No, the pig.'

‘Oh.' Her mother looked confused before turning to pick up two DVDs. ‘Action or romance?' she asked. ‘No, let me guess. Action, right?'

Max thought about it as her mother went to place the DVD in the player.

‘Maybe romance.'

Max's mother frowned.

‘I know you like them.' Max broke off a piece of chocolate and threw it into her mouth in an effort to get her mother to stop staring at her.

‘You never like romances. Has something happened?'

‘Nothing's happened. Why do you think something's happened? Does anything have to have happened?'

‘No,' Max's mum smiled and grabbed at some chocolate. ‘But you know you can tell me if it has.
Oh, and I just remembered the craziest thing. While I was in London I saw a girl who looked exactly like you.'

‘Yeah?' Max laughed nervously.

‘It was nice, though, because I was thinking about you at the time, and it felt like you were almost there with me.'

‘That is crazy.' Max nodded as her mother picked up the remote control and pressed
play
. ‘Mum, how was it for you when you first met Dad?'

Max's mum snuggled even further into the lounge. ‘It was a disaster.'

‘It was?'

‘On our first date your father had this bomb of a car. It broke down in the middle of nowhere, so we walked to the nearest phone box just as it started to rain. Your father twisted his ankle in some mud, and when we went back to get the car the next day, he'd forgotten to put the handbrake on and it had rolled into a dam.'

‘And you decided to see him again?'

‘I'd never had so much fun in my life. We laughed the entire time, so I thought if we could survive all that and still enjoy ourselves, I wanted to be with him.'

‘Do you miss him?'

Her mother paused, a sad smile lifting into her lips. ‘Yes. He had this way of making me feel that I could say things to him I couldn't tell anyone else. And I think that's important when two people care about each other.'

Max smiled and snuggled further into her mother. ‘Me too.'

A few nights later at Spyforce Headquarters …

The flickering sparks from a welder leapt into the darkened air of the VART. It was late and most of the interior sections of the Force lay in the muted light of desklamps of agents recently arrived for night duty. Inside the VART, security agents were stationed at all exits, waiting for the last of the renovations to be completed.

A worker in dark overalls, thick glasses and protective helmet concentrated on the last Vibratron tile to be laid in place.

He lifted his mask. The smell of molten metal rose into the air alongside the last wisp of rising smoke. He patted the tile protectively.

‘Rest easy, little one.' His voice poured out like melted chocolate into the quiet hangar. ‘You won't
be called upon yet, but when you are, this wretched place will finally be brought down.'

The worker stood, picked up his leather tool bag and walked to the exit. Behind him, beneath that final tile, a red glowing pulse beat silently, secretly, waiting for its moment of destruction.

Photograph by Todd Decker