The Final Curtain (7 page)

‘Aaah, I'm going to die!' Max dangled from the rope that was to drop her into a small clearing amidst a thick canopy of trees.

‘You won't die,' Linden cried over the noise of the chopper blades. ‘Your harness will keep you safe. All you have to do is enjoy the ride.'

‘Enjoy the ride?' Max yelled. ‘How can I enjoy the ride when …' She looked down. ‘Aaah! I'm going to die!'

‘And try not to look down,' Linden shouted. ‘See you in the middle of the forest.'

‘What if I don't even make it to the middle?'

‘You won't if we keep hovering here.' Toby released the cable lock that lowered Max down with an abrupt jolt.

‘Aaah!' She shut her eyes tight and clung onto the harness rope. The wind from the chopper's blades buffeted her into a corkscrew entry into the forest. She approached the ground swinging and spinning until, in a last final jolt, the rope quickly released and she fell with a hard thud.

‘Ouch!' She rubbed her backside and looked up to see a grinning Toby. ‘Wait till I see you next, Toby Jennings.'

Max slipped out of her harness and gave the okay to reel it in. Toby wound the rope upwards
and blew her a kiss. She was about to let him have it when Linden waved and mouthed the words ‘good luck'.

‘You too,' Max said as the chopper swept away into a large arc, headed for its next drop-off point.

Max fixed her cap to her head with Quimby's hairclips and slipped on her Heat-Sensitive Glasses. The world before her became tinged with green, but when she held her hand in front of her it was a bright red blur, just as Quimby said.

She pulled her palm computer from her pocket, opened the map and a compass appeared beside it. It was clearly marked out with her starting point and destination. She needed to head north. After looking around for any movement or signs of life, she stepped out of the clearing and into the forest. Treading over the leafy floor, she stopped and smiled. She lifted her foot and placed it down again on the crunchy, dry leaf bed. There was barely a sound. ‘Good one, Quimby,' she whispered.

She gave a start when she felt her palm computer vibrate in her hand. ‘Stop being so jumpy,' she warned herself.

‘Max.' A beaming Steinberger stared at her from the corner of her screen. ‘You've arrived A-okay?'

‘Almost in one piece.' Max rubbed her aching backside again.

‘Have you found the map and compass okay?'

‘Yep, I've got it open now and I'm heading into the forest.' Max continued walking silently forward in her Counter-Gravity Boots.

‘So all you need to do now is reach the flag without being tagged by a laser. Any questions?'

‘Is there any way we can have Toby transferred to Siberia?'

‘Ha, ha, ha. Very funny, Max.'

‘Who's being funny?' she mumbled.

‘Just remember,' Steinberger said, ‘stealth is the key, so don't do anything that's going to attract attention.'

‘I'll be as quiet as … Aaah!'

‘Max, are you okay?'

‘Aaah!

She flung her arms around wildly, caught in the sticky strands of a spider's web. Just above her, a plump golden spider oscillated wildly.

‘I'm being attacked by a giant spider.'

‘What kind?'

Max jumped backwards and held the computer's in-built camera towards the bulbous arachnid, while still trying to extricate herself from its web.

‘It's only an Orb Web Spider. Perfectly harmless. Unless you're an aphid or some garden pest, and lucky for you you're not.'

Max calmed down. Slightly. ‘Sorry, I'm not very good with spiders.'

‘You'll be fine from now on. Better be off. The others should have landed by now. Good luck!'

Steinberger's face disappeared from the screen.

Max stepped away from the spider and took a deep breath. ‘Try and do this with a little less screaming.'

With the palm computer in her hand, she began her task. She navigated her way under low-hanging branches, over fallen logs and down into damp, marshy ditches, all the while looking out for any movement or noise that might be enemy agents.

She was about to climb out of another ditch when she heard the snap of a twig. She crouched low. Her boots dampened every sound as she crept under cover of a nearby bush. Seconds later she heard a rustle of branches. She slipped her computer into her pocket and pulled her laser gun from its holster, holding it before her, surveying the forest above.

Then she saw it. Through the huddle and twist of trees. A red human-shaped blur moved slowly
towards her. She crouched even further into the bush, hardly breathing, and trained the gun on their every move.

The enemy agent approached the ditch and stopped on the edge, no more than a few metres above Max. She held her gun firm, her finger on the trigger, and waited until she had a clear view. Then she struck.

A brief alarm sounded and the agent dropped to the ground.

Max allowed herself a slight grin before carefully backing out of the bush.

She followed the direction of her compass north, making quick progress towards the middle of her planned route, her eyes and ears alert to any movement or sound. She came upon a narrow stream. The gushing water made it difficult to hear if anyone was following her. She scanned the forest surrounds with her glasses and saw no sign of enemy agents. At the water's edge, she slid her computer into her pocket, stepped onto a large rock and began to hopscotch her way to the other side. As she reached the soggy bank, Max smiled to see her Counter-Gravity Boots skimming the surface of the muddy slime. She stepped onto drier ground when she saw a rustle of movement in the scrubby
leaves at the base of a set of trees. She hid herself behind a mossy stump and took out her laser gun. She scoured the surrounds but, apart from a butterfly and an industrious group of bees, her glasses revealed nothing.

Until she saw Linden.

He wove through the thick forest, between scraggy bushes and under knobbly branches. Max smiled, then frowned. She kept her eyes locked on Linden and felt the slim fit of the laser in her hand. She lifted the weapon and trained it on him as he crouched down and checked his palm computer.

She had him in her sights. Her heart beat fast. Her finger rested against the trigger.

Linden put his computer in his pocket, looked to either side of him and kept moving. Max lowered her laser and watched him leave. She allowed a few minutes to pass to keep a good distance between them.

As she was about to move, she heard another crunch of leaves, followed by a tremble of branches to her right. Her Counter-Gravity Boots made almost no sound as she closed in on the hidden intruder. Her muscles tightened all over her body, and her eyes swept through the forest and back to the quivering clump of bushes.

She carefully trod over the forest floor, her laser gun ready in one hand, her other hand poised with one finger on the button of the web net. Her ears and eyes were alive to every noise, to every movement … when she tripped over the end of her overly long trousers and toppled forward. She clenched her fists before flinging her arms out to break her fall, releasing a web of silky netting into the air above her.

‘Ouch!' Max hit her head on a small rock.

The web sailed upwards and ensnared a branch, just as a rabbit bounded away in a sudden bolt, disappearing into the trees.

‘Chased by a killer rabbit.' Max laughed quietly.

As she went to stand, her face was covered from behind by a damp smelly cloth. She writhed and kicked and tried to prise the gloved fingers from her face. Their grip tightened. Her eyes felt heavy. Her nose stung from inhaling the bitter smell. Her body slackened into a crumpled heap.

Two figures in black worked quickly.

One remained on lookout while the other put the cloth in his pocket and took a small box from a belt concealed beneath his shirt. Inside the box were four moulded compartments: three held flat,
square microchips the size of a child's pinky nail. The last one held a miniature gun. With a pair of tweezers, he picked up one of the chips and inserted it into the gun's chamber. He pulled up Max's left pant leg, held the gun against her inner ankle and pulled the trigger. A soft
whittt
sound whispered into the air.

He took an antiseptic sachet from his pocket, tore open the end and wiped the moist cloth across her ankle.

He watched for any movement. Max lay perfectly still.

He returned the gun to its box and closed the lid. The two figures crept further into the forest, away from Max's unmoving body.

The jungle tangled in front of them like a sunken shipwreck – all twisted branches, bent, splintered and threatening, blocking out daylight like they'd been sucked down to the bottom of the ocean. The ground was a snare of fallen trees and gnarled roots, and cutting through the middle was a winding muddied track.

‘Hey, watch it!' The Aqua Buggy wrenched left and right, flinging Max and Linden across the backseat, barrelling them into the doors and each other. ‘It'd be great if we actually survived this drive.'

The buggy lurched into a sharp, hairpin turn.

‘Ouch!' Max's head crunched into the ceiling. ‘Where did you get your licence from, a cereal box?'

The driver stared straight ahead and said nothing.

For a brief moment, a blinding white light filled the car.

Max and Linden turned to see two beams of light threading their way along the track, gaining on them fast.

‘What makes me think they're not the welcoming committee,' Linden said.

The driver of the Aqua Buggy wore a black-brimmed hat pulled so low that his face lay hidden in shadow. He took one brief look in the rear-view mirror and pressed hard on the accelerator.

Max gripped her armrest even tighter as she was churned around in the back seat like she'd fallen into a washing machine. Great walls of ancient tree trunks were only narrowly missed as he swept the steering wheel one way then the other. Any small miscalculation would mean certain death for them all.

Ahead was a huge tree root snaking across the ground.

Until they realised the snaking tree root was actually a snake.

‘Anaconda!' Linden cried.

The Aqua Buggy swerved along the kinked and buckled track towards the snake. Max held on and closed her eyes.

The driver's hand crept towards a small red button on the dashboard marked ‘airborne' and, within a micro-second, the Aqua Buggy sailed into the air above the snake before it came crashing down, front wheels sending a spray of mud over the vehicle.

Max turned in time to see the anaconda dash into the forest, just as their pursuer slid into view.

She frowned. The person in the other vehicle reminded her of someone she knew. The heavy
features, the look of pure malice on his face, the slightest hint of a grin as his eyes locked onto hers.

Linden called out over the noise of the engine, ‘Something tells me this guy isn't happy to see us.'

‘I think I know him,' Max called back.

‘You know someone here in the Amazon?'

They were hurled forward as the Aqua Buggy came to an abrupt stop. The road had ended at the edge of a plunging cliff. Max and Linden jumped out of the car to see remnants of a bridge protruding from the swirling waters of the river below.

‘What do we do now?' Max asked.

‘About the cliff or about that?'

The vehicle pursuing them skidded to a mud-slinging stop only metres away. The man with the malicious grin got out and stepped towards them like a hulking spider approaching the centre of its bug-filled web. He was a tall log of a man, with heavy features and limbs like miniature tree trunks.

‘Kronch!' Max recognised Blue's assistant: the sausage fingers, the overstuffed arms, the Neanderthal plod and no neck. He pulled his trousers up over his bulging belly.

She took one step towards him. ‘I guess you
never know what animal you're going to meet in the Amazon.'

‘Careful, Max,' Linden whispered.

Kronch sniggered and pulled from his pocket what looked like a bulbous toy gun.

‘And what are going to do with that, water-pistol us to death?' Max folded her arms across her chest.

A door opened on the Aqua Buggy. The driver stepped out wearing his black driving hat, still sitting low.

‘And besides, there are three of us and only one of you.'

Kronch kept moving forward.

Max threw a look over her shoulder into the chasm behind them.

‘Come on, big guy, give it your best.'

Kronch aimed the gun at her and pressed the trigger. A rope arrowed into the air and snaked around Max in a firm, mummy-like hold. ‘Hey!'

He walked to Linden.

Max struggled and turned to their driver. ‘Do something.'

Slowly, he lifted his hat and smiled.

‘You,' Max whispered.

Mr Blue gave a brief nod. He and Kronch
latched onto Linden's arms. ‘Say goodbye to your little friend. Your relationship has been lovely, I'm sure, pally and helpful, but even good things have to end sometime.'

Max fought even harder against her ropes as Blue and Kronch carried Linden to the edge of the cliff.

‘Did you know,' Blue said, ‘the river below moves at such a quick pace and over so many boulders that if an object were to fall into it, it would all but completely disintegrate by the time it reached the sea? If the piranhas don't get you first.'

‘Let him go!' Max fought against her ropes. She lost her balance and toppled over, slamming her head into the rocky ground. She looked up groggily and saw feet dragging someone away. She saw the edge of the cliff and heard one final cry of

‘Max!'

Max's body felt heavy.

‘Max?'

She moved her head a little. And groaned.

‘She's okay,' a voice said. ‘Max, what happened?'

She tried to open her eyes but they felt weighted down.

‘Max, you're in the forest. We were on a training exercise.'

‘That looks like it went a bit wrong,' another voice added.

Max opened her eyes to see two boys dressed in camouflage suits leaning over her.

‘Can you hear me, Max? It's Linden.'

‘Linden?'

‘Your spy partner. Remember?'

‘And I'm Toby, your other, good-looking spy partner.'

‘Linden,' she mumbled. ‘The cliff. The river. They didn't get you?'

‘Who didn't get me?' Linden threw Toby a worried look. ‘We were training, only Toby and I finished a while ago, and we were sent to find you. There are loads of agents looking for you, actually.'

Max saw a flag sticking out of Linden's top pocket.

‘You won.' She smiled.

‘He was lucky,' Toby added. ‘I was only seconds behind him.'

Linden took out his palm computer.
Steinberger immediately appeared on his screen. ‘We've found her.'

‘Oh, thank goodness.' Steinberger's shoulders rolled forward in relief. ‘Is she okay?'

‘I think so. She was lying on the ground in the forest. She has a gash on her forehead.'

‘Is it bad?'

‘No. The bleeding has stopped.'

‘Good. I've got you on our radars now,' Steinberger said. ‘I'll send the coordinates to all the agents and get the chopper there with Dr Finch so he can examine her as soon as possible. They'll lower a stretcher for Max, and I'll send a jeep to collect you two. Keep her awake until they get there.'

Steinberger signed off.

Linden took a hanky from his pocket and scrambled down the bank to the stream. He plunged it into the water before hurrying back and dabbing Max's bloodied forehead.

Max groaned again. She tried to get up but slumped back, covering her head with her hands.

‘Maybe you should stay where you are,' Linden said. ‘You might have broken something.'

Max closed her eyes.

‘Do you remember what happened?' Linden asked.

‘We were being chased. In the Aqua Buggy and …'
⁹

‘Chased?' Linden asked.

Max winced. ‘No, wait. I must have been having a nightmare.' She rubbed her head. ‘I was in the forest. Following the map with my compass and … I stepped across the stream. On some stones. I thought there was an enemy agent. In the bushes.' She paused. ‘But it was a rabbit.'

‘Rabbits can be very dangerous when they get going,' Toby said.

‘I don't remember anything after that.' Max tried to move again. ‘Ow! My head's killing me. And I'm cold.'

Linden took off his shirt and laid it over her. Toby watched him reach out and hold her hand. ‘Steinberger's sending a chopper to get you out of here. Don't worry,' Linden said.

‘You're in good hands now that we've found you.' Toby puffed up his chest.

‘My hero. Ouch. Don't make me smile. It hurts.'

From the distance they could hear the blades of the helicopter. It swooped into position, hovering
above them, and a stretcher was lowered. It had a hard case reinforced with strips of metal around the lower half. Toby held it steady on the ground. He undid the straps across the top and took out a blanket that was inside.

‘Do you think you can stand?' Linden cried over the noise of the blades.

Max tried to sit up again but lay back, holding her forehead. She shook her head.

‘I'm going to have to pick you up,' Linden said. ‘I'll be as careful as I can, but it might hurt a bit.'

Max nodded.

Linden tucked his hands under her knees and around her neck. He carried her to the stretcher and laid her inside. Toby tucked the blanket around her before they tightly strapped her in.

Linden gave a thumbs up. The agent inside the chopper waved and began winching the stretcher slowly from the ground. It swung in the wind, shunting Max into the side.

‘Ouch.' She winced.

Linden's fists clenched and unclenched.

‘She'll be okay.' Toby tapped him on the back.

The stretcher lifted higher.

‘I'm going with her.'

‘We were told to wait here,' Toby called, but Linden had already stepped onto the lower metal casing and grabbed hold of the cable.

‘You don't mind if I get a lift?' Linden asked.

Max shook her head before passing out.

The stretcher wound upwards to the aircraft. Linden took the hand of the agent and was helped inside the belly of the chopper before they eased in Max's stretcher. The agent stepped aside for Dr Finch, who immediately began examining her.

Toby watched as the chopper swung into a sharp left turn and disappeared beyond the forest.

 

Dr Finch's infirmary at Spyforce was more a mini hospital than an infirmary, complete with blinking and beeping machines, an operating theatre and white-uniformed nurses and doctors quietly checking tubes, pushing medicine carts and carrying out routine check-ups.

Toby was driven back to the VART and hurried to the infirmary, where he was met by a large nurse called Hilda.

‘Hey there. My name is Toby and I'm here to see …'

‘I don't much care who you are here to see. What I
do
care about is that you lower your voice
and speak quietly at all times. This is a hospital and, unless you want to be mushed into small spy pieces, you will act as I instruct and in accordance with the rules of the hospital, which are,' she consulted a clipboard, ‘one: you will at all times …'

‘Ah, Hilda.' Steinberger popped out from a nearby room. ‘It is always the most exciting of pleasures to see you. I see you've met our agent, Toby Jennings.' He put his hands on Toby's shoulders. ‘One of Spyforce's finest.' Steinberger turned Toby towards the room and gently shoved him inside. ‘In fact, they don't get much finer than him. Courageous, smart –'

Hilda held up her clipboard. ‘But I haven't finished –'

‘I'll make sure he knows the rules so well that he'll be able to repeat them in his sleep.'

‘But it is my –'

‘Dear Hilda. You have so many other more important things to do, please let me take this one small job off your hands so you can continue with your fine work.'

‘I
am
rather busy, Mr Steinberger.' Nurse Hilda patted down her crisp uniform, straightened her already straight cap and returned to her station.

‘Well done,' Harrison greeted Steinberger when he entered the room. ‘Hilda means well, but she can't seem to shake off her time in the Special Forces.'

‘Did you get the rules of the hospital?' Linden was seated in a chair close to Max.

‘Steinberger saved me from too many of those.' Toby sat on Max's bed and took a chocolate from an opened box. ‘Looks like you've come good and, who knows, that bump on the head may have finally made you realise I'm the best looking guy you've ever met.'

‘I wasn't hit that hard,' Max said. ‘And, yes, you can have one of my chocolates.'

‘We heard you two were quite the heroes.' Steinberger beamed.