‘More like dust, webs and spiders,’ Miya added.
Max couldn’t resist taking a big risk. He spoke before he really had time to think.
‘Spiders? I like arachnids. Especially scorpions.’ He sipped his drink, without looking at anyone directly. In the short silence that followed, he sensed just the slightest reaction in Kurt’s drumming fingers. Jay and Miya continued eating, oblivious.
‘So you’re into arachnids are you, Max?’ Kurt said. ‘In the States we had a few interesting ones. We were having a picnic once in Texas when a black widow crawled over the back of my hand. Remember that, Miya?’
‘Yeah. Mom screamed. You can get brown widows, too. Not many people know that.’
Max decided to push things even further. If he was to find out more from Kurt, it was time to signal that he knew something about him. It was a risk but he was going to set the bait.
‘Arachnids come in all colours but I think the brighter ones tend to be more dangerous.’ He paused before the punch line. ‘Scorpions as well. Especially silver.’
This time he looked directly at Kurt and immediately noticed a flash in his eyes. There was a startled stare and a look which clearly said, ‘We’ll talk later.’
Jay and Miya were too concerned with their chips to notice.
***
‘I suggest we head right back and watch a movie at home, how’s that?’ Kurt said when everyone had finished eating.
‘So long as you don’t run off again, Dad.’ Miya put her arm through his as they left the café and headed back to the street. Max and Jay followed behind as a few spots of rain freckled the pavement and a cool wind dribbled a plastic bottle along the kerb. Max jumped over it as they crossed the street to look in the window of a bike shop. Half-way across the street they heard the roar of an engine and squeal of tyres. A car was racing straight at them. Kurt yelled at the top of his voice and passers-by looked up in horror.
‘Run! Get to the sidewalk!’
Max and Jay grabbed each other and hurled themselves onto the path. But the vehicle was on them, mounting the pavement with a clatter of metal and a spray of sparks. Max dived into the shop doorway as Jay was snatched from his grip and smashed across the bonnet of the car. He thumped into the windscreen, which shattered in an instant, the glass crackling into a frosted mosaic.
Jay slid across the car and thudded onto the tarmac. The car swerved off the path and roared away up the street, leaving a shower of glass and smoke. Black tyre-marks smouldered across the pavement but the scream of the fast-disappearing wheels was drowned by Miya’s shrieks, as her father held her against the shop window. Max ran to Jay, who lay twisted and motionless in the road, with blood trickling from his head and nose. His face was studded with tiny slivers of glass.
A man called from across the street, ‘Did someone get his number?’
Max knew it wasn’t necessary. He knew who the driver was, all right. It was Potato-head, Nero of the Silver Scorpion…the hired killer behind the wheel of the dreaded white Volvo estate.
Chapter 6
HOROBOD BAL
‘I think it’s time we had that talk,’ Kurt said to Max in the hospital waiting room.
Looking down at a squashed fly on the lino, Max braced himself for what was to come next. He slowly looked up at Kurt, who sighed and asked with genuine concern, ‘How are you? Are you coping okay with all this stuff? I feel so responsible. This mess is all my fault. Jay’s mom still hasn’t spoken to me since he’s been in intensive care. That’s almost a week. She’s hardly left his bedside, which is understandable. I don’t know where I’d be without Miya keeping me together. She’s coping so well – especially after all she’s gone through lately.’
It was clear that Kurt was desperate to talk. But Max knew there was unfinished business between them, since that knowing look back in the café.
‘I know it’s horrible seeing Jay all wired up with tubes and things,’ Max said, trying to sound as positive as he could, ‘but since he came out of the coma, at least they’re now saying he’s “stable” rather than “critical” so that’s a step in the right direction.’
‘Yeah, a crumb of comfort, I guess,’ Kurt sighed again. ‘Despite a concussion, internal injuries and broken bones, he’s stable! Poor kid. I just want him home again.’
A woman in a pink overall slopped a mop over the floor and steadily squelched nearer, her wet arcs across the lino soon licking their feet and wiping away the splattered fly. The smell of disinfectant grew ever stronger, setting a man who sat opposite sneezing. He began flicking through a magazine and snuffling into a tissue but he was obviously listening to their conversation and giving them puzzled glances.
‘Look, we can’t talk here,’ Kurt said. ‘Shall we go somewhere?’
Miya appeared beside them, as if by magic, looking more cheerful than she’d been for a while. She’d been badly shaken by Jay’s horrific hit and run.
‘I’ve been having a little chat with Jay,’ she said. ‘They’re going to do some more tests. There’s also talk of putting a pin and stuff in his leg. It’s pretty smashed up – they showed us the x-ray. Can I stay here with his mom for a while? There’s no real point you guys staying all day. Why not come back in a couple of hours? Get some air – it looks like a nice day out there.’
‘We might do that if you’re okay staying here,’ Kurt said. ‘Max and I were thinking about what to do. We’ll go for a stroll and a chat. Maybe walk into town. What d’you reckon?’
‘That’s fine by me,’ Max nodded. ‘Miya, just tell Jay we’ll be back to keep an eye on him. Warn him I might tell him one of my jokes. Or a few dingbats.’
***
As Max walked out into the dazzling sunlight, he was in a swirl of strange feelings. Not many days ago he’d hardly known Jay and had never even heard of Miya or her dad. Now he suddenly felt close to them, sharing all their worries and fears. Thanks to a white Volvo everything had changed. A Volvo, and a maniac who was still out there. Max feared Nero would strike again.
A warm breeze stirred the trees, which were vibrant with colour – unlike the drab waiting room with its dull plastic spider plant, dead fly and grey sloppy mop.
‘Let’s sit on one of those benches,’ Kurt said. ‘We can speak here with no fear of being heard or being mopped to death by bleach.’
Max sat beside him and waited for whatever questions were bound to be coming his way. The time for clear speaking had obviously arrived.
Kurt sighed. ‘I’m sorry. I should have realised that I was putting you all in harm’s way. After all, I was the real target, you know. It was me he was trying to kill. I should have known better than to put you kids at risk.’
‘Well, I’ve been thinking about that a lot,’ Max said. ‘I reckon it was me he was after.’ Kurt looked puzzled but let Max continue. ‘I saw his face just as he struck the kerb. He was looking right at me and shouting. He’s got it in for me, I’m sure. You see, I’d seen him before. It should be me lying in that hospital bed being fed by tubes. Or if Nero had his way, I’d be in a coffin.’ Max could have kicked himself. He’d meant to keep quiet and let Kurt do the talking but now he’d let slip that he knew the man’s name. Kurt was quick to respond.
‘You know more about this stuff than I’d thought,’ he said seriously. ‘There’s more to you than meets the eye. That’s why we’ve got to talk. It’s no good us both having secrets when we’re both at risk. Divided we fall. United...who knows? I guess it’s time we both lay our cards out on the table and have a frank discussion. I can’t bear the thought of someone else getting hurt. What do you think, Max? Do you feel you want to talk to me? I quite understand if you don’t and I wouldn’t want you to feel under pressure. It’s just that…’
‘If you’re happy to tell me the whole truth about why you’re here,’ Max said, surprising himself with his own bluntness, ‘I’ll tell you what I can. I must admit I feel very confused. You haven’t turned out to be like I expected at all.’
Kurt put his hand on Max’s shoulder. ‘You’re a good kid. I like you. I’m not going to lie to you. Seeing how you looked after Jay while we waited for the ambulance. Seeing how you and Miya get on so well. I’m really impressed with you and I owe you the truth. And after what’s happened, I feel you have a right to know more.’
‘What about those ice creams in the cinema?’ Max was keen to get a few answers straight away. ‘I’ve been dying to ask you about all that stuff. You really did think they’d been messed about with, didn’t you?’ He waited for the answer, which took a while to come.
‘I didn’t want you to know about that. I don’t want to scare people unnecessarily. But you’re right. Yeah, I’m sure someone had just injected something dangerous through the wrappers. Mine definitely had a tiny hole in the seal. I smelt something nasty when I peeled it off.’
‘You mean poison?’
‘Exactly. Don’t ask me how or when he did it. I guess it was in the queue while I fumbled around for loose change.’
‘Venom, maybe?’ Max waited for a reaction. ‘Like a scorpion’s?’
‘How do you know?’ Kurt’s eyes flashed into Max’s like lasers.
‘Know what?’
‘Cut the bull. You know full well about the Silver Scorpion, don’t you? Who told you?’
Max had expected that question and he’d rehearsed a careful answer.
‘A man my dad knows works for the government and they’re worried that the Silver Scorpion is planning some sort of attack in this country.’
Kurt didn’t look satisfied. ‘But how did you know about me and the Silver Scorpion?’
Max knew he would have to lie and he couldn’t look Kurt in the face. Instead he turned to watch small children playing ‘catch’ round the flowerbeds and running barefoot across the grass with innocent squeals and giggles.
‘I put two and two together. Dad’s friend called round and said a man called Nero from the Silver Scorpion was following him in a white car. I saw him outside our house. I saw him again parked outside where you live, then in the cinema. So I assumed he must be following you, too.’ Max was impressed at how calmly he was lying and felt brave enough to ask the big question. He turned back to look Kurt straight in the eyes.
‘Are you a member of the Silver Scorpion, Kurt?’
Kurt paused. ‘The six-million-dollar question! But it’s not a straightforward answer.’ Even now he was looking around, staring uneasily at passersby or glancing suspiciously over his shoulder. ‘You can never be sure who might be listening. Let’s walk somewhere else. It’s best to keep moving.’
They walked through the park.
‘The thing is,’ Kurt continued, ‘I’ve gotten myself in a mess. When I was a student back in the States I was a hot-head. If there was a protest march or rally I was there. The police had me marked as a political activist. In other words they thought I was trouble. I was very anti-government. That was years ago. I’ve calmed down since then. Yasmin, Miya’s mother, was good for me and we settled down and got on with our lives. But then one of my old radical friends showed up. He wanted me to use my influence to get secret information for an organisation he belonged to.’
‘The Silver Scorpion?’ Max asked.
‘Correct. Not that I knew then who they were. They wanted Yasmin to pass on secrets from where she worked. She had an important job at the Pentagon library where she had access to all kinds of top secret material about defence and the President. Of course we refused to help but things got nasty. Threats and blackmail. So in the end…’
‘You ended up spying for the Silver Scorpion?’
‘Foolishly, yes…kind of. A few documents, that’s all. Just to keep them off our backs. Then, of course, we were in their power. If we didn’t help them again, they’d tell the FBI we’d stolen secrets. So it seemed easier to pretend we were friends of the Silver Scorpion. But when we realised they were behind some of the violent terrorist attacks in Europe, we wanted out. That’s when things got really nasty and they decided to dispose of us.
Yasmin was the victim. She went to work one morning and didn’t come back.’ He struggled to speak, taking deep breaths before he continued. ‘She fell under a train at the station. I was totally devastated. I know she was pushed but there were no witnesses so her death was declared ‘accidental’. I protested and made one almighty fuss but I couldn’t prove anything. The police didn’t want to hear from a guy with a reputation for trouble. It was a terrible time. It still is. I miss her more than you can possibly imagine.’
‘That’s terrible. Poor Miya, too.’
‘Listen, Max. Miya doesn’t know all this. She still thinks her mother’s death was an accident. I don’t want her scared so don’t tell her unless… unless something happens to me as well. I brought her to England thinking we’d be safer here but it seems Nero is after me here now. That’s why we’ve all got to be so careful. And I already know they’re planning a terrorist attack over here soon but I don’t know what yet. When I do I’ll be able to inform your government here.’
‘Can’t you warn the police or something?’ Max was concerned at how scared Kurt looked.
‘If only. Nobody wants to listen to the bad guy. I’m an undesirable and “high risk” according to Interpol. I guess I’ve just got to prove first that I’m not such a bad guy after all.’
‘I don’t think you’re a bad guy. I think you’re great!’ Max meant it, too and he couldn’t wait to send the message back to Tango that Kurt wasn’t a member of Silver Scorpion after all. Then everything would be cleared up, he thought. Kurt would be off the black list and Operation Code-Cracker would be over.
‘The thing is,’ Kurt continued in the softest of whispers, ‘this Nero guy isn’t the brains behind the Silver Scorpion. No one knows who the boss is. He’s a master of disguise and works undercover in the UK. Maybe a double-agent. All I know, he calls himself Telson.’
‘Isn’t that what a scorpion’s tail is called?’ Max was quite proud of himself for knowing.
‘Exactly. The tip of the stinger containing the venom. The deadliest part of the whole body.’
They sat saying nothing for a while, both lost in their thoughts about the evil Telson.
‘Give me a couple of minutes,’ Kurt said. ‘I’m just going into that candy store to buy a few gifts for you guys.’
As soon as he was on his own, Max sent a text to Tango.
Kurt is not a member of the Secret Scorpion after all. He is not a threat and I have discovered a lot about him. He is in danger from them.
Max wasn’t prepared for the reply that came within minutes.
Due to the serious error in your assessment we are closing this phone link. Your services are no longer required. You are dismissed. Get away from him immediately and have no more contact. Operation Code-Cracker is hereby terminated.
Absolutely furious, Max stuffed the phone back in his pocket. ‘I’ve got the sack! So that’s the thanks I get.’ His phone bleeped and another text came through. It wasn’t from a number he knew. All it said was:
HOROBOD BAL
It looked like one of Miya’s puzzles but it wasn’t from her phone. That was odd. Maybe she’d used her auntie’s mobile to send it. Max stared at the letters to see if he could decipher it. This was a tough one and he kept studying it as he and Kurt walked back to the hospital.
They were pleased to see Jay sitting up in bed smiling at the TV, with his mum beside him. ‘Isn’t Miya with you?’ Max asked.
‘We thought she was with you. We haven’t seen her for ages.’
That was strange, Max thought. He went to the door and peered down the long corridor. The woman who’d been mopping the waiting room earlier was now disinfecting a table. He walked back to speak to her.
‘Excuse me,’ he asked, ‘have you seen the girl I was talking to earlier?’
‘No, love. Sorry.’
A voice called out from behind a newspaper. It was the man who’d been snuffling and staring at them e
arlier. ‘Yeah, she left with a bloke. He came in here in squeaky old tennis shoes that left dirty marks over her wet floor. He took the girl off in a white Volvo. It skidded off at a right speed, too.’
Chapter 7
ENTURY
Miya closed her eyes under the glare of fluorescent strip lights in a stark whitewashed underground room. She lay sprawled on the floor, having been thrown onto the green carpet tiles. It looked like some sort of office but there were no windows.
Nero bent over her to rip the tape from her mouth. She whimpered at the pain, as he shouted angrily. ‘I’m not untying your wrists. I can see you’ve already tried to use my mobile. It’s no good trying to contact anyone, you fool. It will be too late.’
He looked at the message she’d sent. ‘What is this rubbish? You can’t even string a sentence together. They told me you were a bright kid but this is gobbledegook. You’re not so clever after all. Mind you, if I thought you’d told someone where we are, I’d shoot you right now. Instead I’m going to get information from you, before getting rid of you once and for all.’
He took an empty syringe from a drawer. ‘The first injection will be a drug to make you talk. You’ll tell me everything. The second will kill you. I’ll use the same on your father. I’m about to phone him to tell him where to get his daughter back. Except you’ll be dead by then. You’re just the sprat to catch the mackerel. It’s a trap. The Silver Scorpion doesn’t tolerate his sort.’ He left the room to fill the syringe.
***
As soon as he realised Miya had been kidnapped, Kurt phoned the police. ‘You’ve got to get here fast and find her. She’s in danger. Hurry!’
He paced up and down frantically, unable to speak, while Max tried to make sense of that text message. It must have come from Miya. It looked just the sort of puzzle she would send.
Within two minutes police cars screamed to a halt outside the hospital where Kurt stood waiting. Officers were soon asking questions and looking around the kidnap scene.
Operation Code-Cracker Page 4