Max Arena (25 page)

‘I’ve also been
thinking,’ Kris continued, ‘about your offer to fund some more
training kit. We’re going to need some more advanced stuff like
timing equipment, video cameras and some iPads or tablets.
Basically, I need to start recording Max’s efforts a lot more
closely to monitor his improvements and work out how to keep him
challenged. There’s only so many burpees and push ups I can get him
to do before he starts doing them in his sleep. I’ll also need some
comms kit.’

‘Comms?’
Abdullah asked, tilting his head.

‘I’m not sure
what exactly, but some sort of hands free type stuff, so I can talk
to Max while he’s off running around on the other side of the lawn
or where ever he is and he can hear me without having wires or
cables getting in the way. I was thinking some sort of headset for
me and some sort of ear piece type thing for Max. Do you think we
could do that?’

Abdullah
remained silent and after a few moments pause, he nodded.

‘Cool!’ Kris
cooed, a wide grin adorning her face. ‘Thanks.’

'I am sure my
people can arrange all of these things,' Abdullah said, 'and if
there is anything else, please ask?'

'I will. Count
on it,’ Kris replied. Then, as she stopped talking, Kris’ eyes
dimmed a fraction and she dropped her gaze again, but this time a
frown forlorned her features. ‘I just wish...’

Abdullah let
Kris hold her pause and then softly pushed. 'What do you wish for,
Kris?’

The pause drew
on a few moments more and then Kris looked briefly up at Abdullah
and then off to the side, the faraway focus still in place.

'I've always
wanted to run a business,’ Kris started quietly, ‘and this thing
we’re doing, this Team Max thing, feels like it is kind of my
business and my chance to make that dream come true, except...it’s
not. It’s nothing like it. It’s
absolutely
nothing like it
and I just wish...'

‘And what do
you wish for?’ Abdullah gently asked again when Kris trailed
off.

Then Kris
snapped out of her malaise and straightened up to look back at
Abdullah. ‘I just wish it hadn’t taken the end of the world to make
my dream come true. That’s all.’

In return,
Abdullah’s features tenderly folded as he smiled and added, 'I have
found in life, Kris, that everywhere you look and especially in
tragedy, there is good. It sounds contradictory I know, but when
life is at its most desperate, at its most dire, there is light.
You may have to look hard to find it, but it will be there, waiting
to be found. You have your business now, better late than never and
God willing, we will all get time beyond the arena to fulfil more
of our dreams?'

Kris’ lips
crinkled into a little smile of her own as she looked into
Abdullah’s hazelnut eyes. After a few moments of comfort, she rose
to her feet and said one word. ‘Thanks.’

Abdullah also
rose and bowed slightly. Kris then turned and stepped out from the
gazebo and back on to the path.

'Oh,' Kris
said, stopping and turning back. 'I never did say thanks for
putting those security guards on my brother's house, so,
thanks.'

'You are most
welcome. Your safety and your family's safety is paramount to us
all. I trust they are still safe?'

‘Yeah, they're
fine, especially with Max’s guest appearances where he tears up the
entire neighbourhood. They couldn’t be safer.’

‘Please, let me
know if I can assist further?’

‘You know, Max
was right in what he said?' Kris added.

'And what did
Max say if I may?'

Kris looked
deep into Abdullah’s eyes again. 'It was a nice thing for you to
do.'

Abdullah
smiled, but this time he did not bow his head or look away, instead
he held Kris' gaze. She lingered her gaze also for just a moment
more and then without another word, turned and walked away, leaving
Abdullah to watch her go, his smile now matching the warmth
spreading through his soul.

Noon, 29
^th
July (7 days later).
Revelation

Kris walked
into the living room and plonked down onto the couch. Reaching
forward to the coffee table, she picked up the remote control for
the television and idly switched it on. The news appeared and she
rolled her eyes, immediately changing the channel before it became
depressing.

The screen
flickered and shifted and then she baulked. For a few seconds, Kris
sat unblinking and looking at the screen, not sure of exactly what
she was seeing and then it dawned on her.

‘Elsa!’ she
called out. ‘Get in here and look at this!’

‘Why?’ Elsa’s
voice rang out from the kitchen. ‘What is it?’

‘There’s an
alien on TV!’

Two seconds
later, Elsa charged into the living room, stopping behind the couch
where Kris sat as she too stared at the screen, her bottom jaw
dangling.

‘Is that...?’
Elsa started.

‘...an alien.
Yes,’ Kris finished for her.

The television
screen held a single image. A close-up of what could only be a
Nar'gellan, its rugged,
purplish-black features housing two baleful eyes, glaring out from
the Neanderthal type brow.

‘
Check the other
channels,
’ Elsa
asked.

Kris pressed the button once, twice, three
times and the vision remained the same.

‘They’ve hijacked all the channels,’ Kris
replied. ‘What’s going on?’

‘I don’t know.’

And then it spoke.

‘
I am Macktidas,’ the alien spoke, its
voice guttural and cruel. ‘Soon, I and my race will conquer your
world, but for now, I have given you a reprieve, a stay of
execution to prepare your champion for his defeat in the
arena.’

‘Cocky bugger,’ Kris said through gritted
teeth.

Elsa ignored the comment, her mind
analysing every inch of the creature that sought to kill her
husband and destroy the world. Macktidas continued.

‘
Use your remaining
days well, for in five months time, doom
comes at my hand. I have nothing more to say other than the only
thought I savour more than your race’s destruction, is the death of
Max Dyson. Ensure he lives through to the allotted time, so I can
kill him. That is my only demand.’

The screen flickered and a re-run of MASH
came on, all vestiges of the alien commander gone.
Both women sat and stood in
silence, the words of their foe recycling through their
minds.

Elsa suddenly jolted. ‘Max!’

Then Kris shot to her feet and turned.
‘Where is he?’ she barked.

‘I’m here,’ sounded a voice from behind
them.

Both Elsa and Kris flashed around to find
Max walking casually out from the hallway and into the
kitchen.

‘
Did you see that?’ Elsa asked
quickly.

‘
Yeah,’ he replied, walking across to open
the fridge. ‘Caught it on the TV in the bedroom.’

The phone
suddenly rang in its cradle on the kitchen bench.
Elsa dashed across and answered it.

‘Hello?’ she said. Then said, ‘Ok, hold
on.’

Elsa
then pressed the speaker button and put the hand set down
on the bench. Joe’s voice sounded.

‘
Thanks, Elsa,’ he said. ‘I’m here with
Abdullah in Canberra. Can I ask who is there with you?’

‘Kris and Max,’ Elsa replied.

‘Good. I assume you all saw the broadcast
just then?’

‘
Yes, we did.’

‘Right. I just wanted to see firstly if
everyone is ok?’

‘We’re fine,’ Elsa replied for everyone.
‘Just a bit shocked.’

‘
Understandable, but at least this was only
a broadcast with no physical action. Max, do you have any
thoughts?’

‘Nope,’ Max replied through a mouthful of the
sandwich he had taken out of the fridge. ‘He didn’t tell us
anything we don’t already know.’

‘
True,’ Joe said from the phone. ‘It did
appear to just be a reinforcement of the existing threat. A fear
inducing ploy if you will?’

‘
However, if I may?’ Abdullah
chimed in. ‘I think Macktidas
has inadvertently aided our plight, albeit in a somewhat painful
way.’

‘What do you mean?’ Kris asked.

‘
He has just removed any uncertainty and
denial around his threat. Since disappearing after the original
broadcast one month ago, a large portion of the population has
wondered if this alien scourge was real, but now it will be beyond
doubt. The advantage for us is now our plan to take Max to the
world has a firm base upon which to build. The disadvantage, the
painfulness of this latest broadcast however, is that Macktidas’
renewed vengeance has likely notched up the general fear levels and
the downward spiral of law and order is likely to also quickly
accelerate. We have to commence our plan without delay, so I am
proposing we contact media organisations tonight and begin the
marketing campaign immediately. Does this have everyone’s
blessing?’

Elsa looked at Kris’ nodding features and
then turned to see Max shrug and nod as well.

‘We’re all in agreement here,’ she called
out. ‘What do you need from us?’

‘
Nothing,’ Abdullah replied. ‘Just try to
get a good night’s sleep if you can? The media will begin to arrive
tomorrow, so prepare for a change in lifestyle on the estate.
Joseph and I will handle the logistics and be back in the morning
to assist.’

‘Okay. See you then,’ Elsa replied.

The line went dead and Elsa returned the
handset to the cradle.

‘Can’t wait for the media circus to come to
town,’ Kris drawled.

‘Yes. It’s going to get pretty interesting
around here,’ Elsa replied.

Elsa felt a hand on her shoulder and turned
to see Max next to her.

‘You got a sec?’ he asked.

‘
Yeah, sure.’

Max flicked his head sideways and started to
walk out of the kitchen and down the hallway to the formal dining
room next door, away from Kris. Elsa followed. Once alone, Max
stopped and crossed his arms, a stony look firming his
features.

‘
That’s not a happy look,’ Elsa said.
‘What’s up?’

‘Just before the broadcast,’ Max started,
‘Macktidas came directly to me.’

‘
Directly
to you?’ Elsa asked, her brow creasing.
‘What do you mean directly?’

‘He got into my head. Like telepathy or
something. I could hear him and even though I couldn’t see him, I
knew it was him.’

‘What did he say?’

‘
Well, for starters he outlined the rules
for the duels, so now I know what sort of extra training I need to
do and what weapons I can use, but other than that, nothing really
different to what he said on the TV. Just a little more bullish.
Bragging about how he’s going to kill me just like he did my
mother. That sort of stuff.’

‘Are you okay?’ Elsa asked, stepping forward
and placing her hands on her husband’s chest.

‘
I’m fine,’ Max said, clasping his wife’s
hands in his. ‘Takes more than a bit of bragging to get to me, but
there was something else. Something he showed me, inside my
head.’

‘Like what?’

‘Images, like I was looking through his
eyes.’

‘Images of what?’

‘Him torturing my mother.’

‘No!’ Elsa gasped. ‘He didn’t?’

‘Yeah, he did, but that’s okay. It wasn’t
nice, but I can handle it. I guess he thought it would rattle me,
but if anything, it’s worked me up even more because right after he
got out of my head, something else happened.’

‘What?’

‘
I can feel her, Elsa, my mother I mean. I
can feel her presence in my head.’

‘
What, as some sort of memory from when you
were a kid with her?’
Elsa asked.

‘No, not like that. One of the things
Nar'gellans are capable of is some sort of telepathy, like what
Macktidas just did with me, but I’ve never been able to do it. I
always figured my human genetics couldn’t support it or something,
but I think Macktidas may have woken it up inside me and now I have
the ability to link my mind to others and in this case, my mother’s
mind.’

‘
But she’s dead, Max. You said it yourself.
Macktidas killed her and
the images he just showed you of him torturing her are
proof.’

‘
Yeah, it looks like he tortured her
alright and that’s how he probably found out about me and where I
am, but this feeling I have inside my head, it feels real. It feels
like she’s actually in there, not talking to me, but just letting
me know that she’s there for me.’

‘But if she’s dead…’

‘
That’s just it, Elsa,’ Max cut-in, his
eyes perhaps the brightest and most fervent she had ever seen them
as they radiated right into hers’, ‘I think she’s
alive
. I think
Macktidas has her holed up somewhere out there,
alive
.’

Elsa’s mouth gaped, speech failing to cross
her lips. Max continued.

‘
No one needs to know this,’ Max added. ‘It
stays between us and I don’t really know why I’m telling you
because it doesn’t change anything we’re doing or how we’re doing
it. I just had to tell you because, well, because it’s kind of
important. That’s all.’

Elsa smiled and gripped Max’s hands even
tighter
as she leaned in
close to his face.

‘
Of
course
it’s important,’ she said. ‘She’s your
mother
and now you know she’s still with you, all
the way through whatever comes next and that makes you a little bit
stronger. Max, you’ve now got another reason to get through this
thing and keep living, so maybe one day you can save her
too?’