The Venice Job

by Deborah Abela

  Max held onto her armrest with white-knuckled hands. She looked over at her mum, unsure why she wasn’t freaking out at the not-so-gentle conditions her prized car was being put through. Not only did her mother not seem to mind, she had a wide smile spread across her face, and as they drove into the yard in front of the house, she suddenly threw the car into a slide and skidded to a sideways stop.

  ‘Yeah!’ Her mum pulled on the handbrake, tossed her hair back and flicked open the boot. ‘Let’s get this party started.’

  Even though Max was enjoying the benefits of her mother’s better mood, the ‘I’ve been rescued from kidnappers and I’m going to live every moment to the fullest’ attitude was sometimes hard to get used to. Especially when Max felt her life was in danger.

  Max prised her fingers away from the door and stepped out of the car, happy to be on solid ground.

  They were at Mindawarra to celebrate her Uncle Ben’s birthday, and now that her mother had stopped the car, it seemed they were actually going to be part of it.

  Ben and Eleanor ran out onto the veranda. Eleanor threw her arms in the air, letting the layers of her shawls and skirt balloon out behind her. ‘Welcome back!’ She swept her sister into her arms, pulling her into a giant Eleanor hug before moving on and folding Max into a hug of her own.

  Max closed her eyes, grabbed hold of her aunt and whispered, ‘It’s good to be here.’

  When she unwound herself from Eleanor’s clothes, she looked around her. ‘Where’s Francis?’

  ‘I’m afraid my brother’s too famous to come to my birthday party.’ Ben pretended to be offended. ‘After years of being a hermit in London, he’s enjoying being in constant demand by almost everyone in the scientific community. I prefer the quieter life myself.’

  Max’s mum applied a fresh swipe of lipstick. ‘So where do I go to help with this party?’

  Eleanor gave Ben a look that told him she was impressed. ‘Right this way.’

  The two sisters climbed the stairs as Ben went to get the bags from the car.

  ‘You know, I like your mum a whole lot better this way,’ he said as he leant into the boot and hoisted out the bags.

  ‘Me too,’ Max said proudly. ‘Mostly.’

  ‘That was some entrance.’

  Max turned to see Linden and his wild hair standing behind her.

  ‘How do you do that?’

  Linden had this habit of seeming to appear from nowhere.

  ‘Light toes,’ he explained with a shrug. ‘Mum always said I could have been a dancer if I’d really wanted to, but I didn’t think I’d look good in tights.’

  ‘That was a good decision for everyone,’ Ben smirked.

  Max laughed before tensing up at the menacing sound of chickens behind her. For most people, chicken sounds aren’t menacing, but each time Max came to the farm, Geraldine the kamikaze chicken and her babies would figure out a new way to freak her out. This time she’d be ready.

  Max sprang round and assumed the spy action pose, preparing herself for the fowl ambush that would surely follow, but all she saw was Geraldine leading a couple of other chooks on a casual chicken stroll.

  Max assumed a more normal pose. ‘What’s going on there?’

  ‘Age has mellowed her,’ Linden said wisely.

  Max raised her eyebrows, wondering when Linden had become an expert on chicken psychology.

  ‘Well, that’s what Eleanor says.’

  But there was something else missing. Something that could be even more dangerous. ‘And where’s Ralph?’

  Ralph was Ben and Eleanor’s dust-ridden, oversized mutt who became so excited when saying hello that he put lives in danger. Ben juggled the bags and slammed the boot with his foot. ‘He’s … not well.’

  ‘Not well?’

  Even though she dreaded the half-crazed greeting, Max had grown used to the straggly canine’s tornado welcome, and for the first time since she’d been coming to the farm, found that she was looking forward to seeing him. ‘Is it serious?’

  Ben gave Linden a look that meant he was hiding something.

  ‘Is he going to be okay?’ Max felt her skin bristle.

  Ben knew he had no choice but to tell her. ‘Come and we’ll show you.’

  An uneasy Max followed Ben and Linden into the house. After dropping off the bags in the sleep-out, they made their way into the backyard and saw Ralph sitting huddled against the fence.

  ‘He’s been moping around and staring into the distance for days,’ Ben explained. ‘He’s even lost his appetite, and that’s something he’s never lost.’

  ‘Have you taken him to the vet?’ Max wasn’t sure why but she felt a small rising panic in her chest.

  ‘No point,’ Ben said with a resigned air.

  Max’s chest vice-squeezed even further. ‘So there’s nothing we can do?’

  ‘It happens to all of us at some point.’

  It was one of the saddest things Max had ever heard, but she couldn’t believe Ben could give up on Ralph like that.

  ‘We’ve got to do something.’

  ‘There’s no cure.’ Linden shrugged his shoulders. ‘Not for what he’s got.’

  Max reeled back at how insensitive they were being. If she had a dog who was dying she’d get him the best vet, send him to the finest animal hospital and give him whatever treatment was necessary to make him better. But just as she was about to blast them, Ben interrupted, ‘Whether you’re human or animal, there’s no escaping the power of love.’

  Max’s face creased up. ‘The power of what?’

  ‘Love.’ Linden pushed his hair out of his eyes but it flopped straight back.

  ‘He’s … in love?’ Max stared incredulously at the two until-recently-sense-making people.

  ‘Shhh,’ Ben whispered. ‘We don’t like to say it too loud. It makes him even worse.’

  Max was sceptical. The only things she had ever seen Ralph in love with was making a mess and eating.

  ‘Old Charlie from the other side of town came to drop off some chicken manure for the garden and he brought his cattle dog, Missy Blue,’ Linden explained. ‘Ralph hasn’t been the same since.’

  Max knew Ben and Linden sometimes saw the world a little differently from the way other people did, but love? ‘Maybe he just has a stomach bug.’

  ‘Oh, it’s not a bug,’ Linden shook his head. ‘When he gets those he becomes convinced he’s going to die and lies on his back with his legs to one side moaning like he’s about to breathe his last breath. He’s not very good with pain.’

  ‘I remember when I fell for Eleanor,’ Ben reminisced. ‘I couldn’t eat or sleep, and at one point I got these terrible pains in my side. I went to the doctor and he said it was wind, but I knew it wasn’t wind. It was something I’d never felt before.’

  Max stared at the pair of them, feeling very uncomfortable with all their talk of wind and love.

  ‘And you know what? There’s no way to avoid it.’ Linden spoke as if he was some Hollywood star who’d spent his life hounded by love.

  ‘Linden’s right. Once it’s got you, you’re a goner.’ Ben sighed. ‘Better go help the girls. The guests will be arriving soon.’

  Ben shuffled across the dusty yard and went inside. Max stared at the sluggish and morose dog.

  ‘There is no way I’m ever going to let that happen to me,’ she decided.

  ‘Oh, it’ll happen to you,’ Linden said with a knowing sigh. ‘When you least expect it, it just comes and gets you. Wham!’

  Ralph looked up as Linden clapped his hands.

  ‘Sorry fella.’

  Ralph let out a small whine and lowered his head back onto his paws.

  ‘Better leave him alone.’

  Max took one final look at the miserable dog. If that was what love was about, she wanted nothing to do with it.

  In a few short hours, and after a lot of cooking, Ben’s party was in full swing.

  People from all over town came and soon the house was full of
raucous laughing, bad joke telling and over-energetic dancing, with the music floating out of every window and across the paddocks, sometimes joined by the sad wailing of Ralph.

  After Max and Linden had filled themselves up with Eleanor’s food, they wiggled their way through swinging elbows, jiggling hips and tapping toes, to find Max’s mum in the centre of the lounge room. She was dancing as if she was on centre stage, and Ben was singing in his usual loud, off-key style.

  ‘They’re both in fine form,’ Max yelled to Linden over the music.

  ‘And there’s someone else who’s having a good time.’ Linden pointed his roast chicken leg towards his dad who was standing against a wall. ‘He’s got that smile again.’

  ‘What smile?’ Max asked.

  ‘The one Dad had when he last saw your mum.’

  ‘Do you think he likes her?’

  ‘Looks like it.’ Linden smiled. ‘Is your mum still going out with Aidan?’

  ‘No. She decided they were better as friends.’

  ‘Bet you were sad about that?’ Max and Aidan had never had a smooth relationship.

  ‘Devastated,’ she smiled.

  Linden reached into his pocket and took out his palm computer which had begun vibrating. ‘It’s Spyforce.’ He read the screen. ‘They’ll want to talk about the mission. Come on.’ He motioned Max towards the sleep-out where it’d be quiet.

  ‘No, I’ll stay here. There’s no use my knowing the details since I’m not going.’ She tried to make it sound upbeat, as if she didn’t care. It almost worked.

  Linden looked down at the computer as it vibrated again and knew he had to answer it soon. He tried to give Max a smile but it ended up looking as if he’d just stubbed his toe. He left the room without saying anything.

  As the music and Ben’s singing got even louder, for the second time that week Max found herself in the middle of a loud and noisy room feeling as if she was the last person alive.

  Count van Grandbottom was right where Agent Max Remy wanted him. Armed with her night vision, X-ray glasses and sound-absorbent shoes, she’d tracked van Grandbottom to the vault of the King and Queen of Denmark. Having eased his way into the court of the royal family by posing as a brilliant poet and TV repair man, van Grandbottom had sneakily dismantled the security TVs and alarms and was now standing in the middle of the vault surveying vast riches of gold, jewels and centuries-old books.

  ‘Look out, Grandbottom.’ Agent Remy smiled. ‘Your little plans are about to come undone.’

  Max reached out to open the door of the vault’s antechamber, when a hand landed on her shoulder.

  ‘That’s enough, Remy. We’ll take over from here.’

  Max turned to see two camouflaged and night-visioned Spyforce agents standing behind her.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Max was moments away from foiling the plans of a conniving thief and these two guys were ruining it!

  ‘You’re not part of Spyforce anymore, so we’ll have your shoes, your glasses and your medallion.’

  If Agent Remy hadn’t been a top-secret agent with the world’s most elite intelligence agency, she may have cried. But then she realised she wasn’t a top-secret agent anymore, just Max Remy, regular girl, and a single tear slipped down her cheek.

  She slipped off her shoes, took off her glasses and slowly lifted her medallion from around her neck. The two agents took the gear and turned towards the door of the vault.

  ‘He’s gone!’

  ‘What?’ It couldn’t be. Max had worked so hard to catch Grandbottom. ‘Get in there, quick. It’s urgent.’

  The two agents just stood there.

  ‘Now!’ Max shouted.

  Max’s breath caught in her chest. They had to move, and now, or the thieving Grandbottom would get away. It was urgent, really urgent …

  ‘Is it really that urgent? Can’t anyone else handle it?’

  Max opened her eyes, wiped away her sleep haze and tried to work out if the voice she could hear was real or in her dream.

  ‘Oh. He’s asked for me, has he? Well, aren’t I the lucky one?’

  The sun flickering through the curtains created a silhouette of whoever was talking in front of Max.

  ‘I’ll be there as soon as I can.’

  There was the click of a mobile phone being shut hard and a muffled thump as it was thrown onto a bed.

  ‘Mum?’

  The silhouette turned, walked across the room and sat down next to Max.

  ‘Hi, sweetie. I’m sorry I woke you. It’s just that …’

  ‘Your work called.’ Max had finally worked out what was happening.

  ‘Yes,’ her mother answered warily. ‘But I don’t have to go if you don’t want me to. You know we had a deal.’

  ‘No, that’s okay. You go. I’ll be fine here with Ben and Eleanor.’ Max sat up in bed. ‘As long as Ben doesn’t do any more singing.’

  Max’s mother laughed. ‘He is pretty bad.’ Then she had an idea. ‘Do you want to come with me? That way we can still spend time together.’

  Even though Max was enjoying her mother’s company, she’d had enough of the glitz and hair gel of the TV world for a long while. Probably even the rest of her life.

  ‘Ben and Eleanor will take good care of me. Besides, I think they’ll need an extra mouth to help eat all the food that was left over.’

  Within what felt like minutes, Max’s mother had packed and was standing by the car.

  ‘Say goodbye to Ben and Eleanor for me.’ She kissed Max on the forehead. ‘I wish I could stay.’

  There was a time when her mother hated everything about Ben and Eleanor’s farm life: their house, the animals and the fact that they were so far away from the nearest hairdressing salon. But this time her mother looked disappointed.

  The car slowly made its way out of the yard and along the drive.

  ‘Was it something I said?’

  Max jumped. ‘Why do you keep doing that?’

  Linden was standing behind her in his striped pyjamas with a head of even wilder than usual just-got-out-of-bed hair. ‘Should I start wearing a cowbell?’

  ‘Yes, and make it a big one.’ Max watched the last of her mother’s car disappear in a cloud of dust. ‘Mum’s work called. Looks like you’re stuck with me for the next few days.’

  ‘Sounds good to me.’

  Linden walked up to the swinging chair on the veranda and pulled out his palm computer.

  Max smiled and followed him up the stairs. Before she’d met Linden, boys were these weird people she’d always felt awkward around and had nothing in common with, but now she realised that wasn’t true. Well, it might be true for all the others, but not with Linden.

  ‘What are you looking at?’

  ‘Spyforce have uploaded our last few missions into the Archives,’ he answered casually. ‘Do you want to see?’

  ‘Linden, if you’re trying to get me back on the Force, it’s no good …’ Max accused.

  ‘No, no! I just think it’ll be great to see what they’ve done.’

  On their last few missions, Max and Linden had been inside an active volcano; had rescued her father in Hollywood; had overcome tarantulas, kissing bugs and raging waterfalls in the Amazon Jungle; and most recently had escaped a deadly Portal Room in a castle in Scotland. When a mission was over, Spyforce archivists would gather together all the information about the mission and put together a comprehensive computer record.

  Linden accessed the Guide to Spyforce Missions: How They Did It, which listed every Spyforce mission ever completed.

  ‘Look what they say about our mission in Scotland to save Harrison.’3

  Max reluctantly glanced at the computer’s screen. She wasn’t sure looking back on their past missions was good for her resolve to quit the Force.

  But Linden was right; the archivists had done a good job. It was like watching a documentary. Blue text swirled onto the screen above recreated photos of the mission while a smooth voice-over explained how the two spies were
almost crushed by the Pulverising Cell. The voice also talked about Blue’s Heart Stopper, a small glove-like device that was capable of stopping a person’s heart – a device that had almost killed their leader, Chief Harrison.

  The chilled feeling of that stormy night on Cape Wrath came back to Max as if she’d been transported straight back there.

  A photograph of Max and Linden appeared before them.

  ‘If it hadn’t been for the brave efforts of Max Remy and Linden Franklin,’ the voice-over announced, ‘the head of Spyforce may well have lost his life.’

  ‘Brave efforts,’ Linden said proudly. ‘Did you hear that?’

  Max couldn’t help but be impressed.

  Linden accessed other missions in the Guide, and Max saw that they’d added extra information about their Amazon jungle adventure, including photos of the Inflatable Foldaway Vehicles they’d used.4 There was also an exact computer recreation of the Invisible Jet crashing into the dense treetops of the Amazon Jungle.

  ‘How good is that?’ Linden pressed replay. ‘Not that I’d want to do it again, but you’ve got to admit, it’s pretty impressive.’

  Max also remembered how she’d almost stepped out of the crashed jet and onto the jungle floor that lay far below them.

  ‘I was lucky you were there to catch me.’

  ‘We had a pact,’ Linden said as if it was nothing. ‘I had to save you.’

  ‘So you wouldn’t have saved me without the pact?’ Max smirked.

  ‘There’s also a recreation of you saving Alex in the volcano at the Annual Spy Awards Night5 and your rescue of yours truly from certain death in Hollywood.’6

  Max watched as the screen came alive with a full-colour recreation of Max using her Personal Flying Device to rescue Alex Crane from a boiling volcano and then, with the help of Toby, rescuing Linden from a deadly plunge that would certainly have ended his life had they not been there.

  ‘You’re pretty good.’