‘Buon giorno,’ he said before turning to face the controls. He waited until they were all seated before slowly moving away from the wharf and into the canals.
‘Venice has around one hundred and seventy-seven canals,’ Luca began, ‘and is made up of about one hundred and twenty islands.’ The boat sailed beneath a small bridge. ‘There are four hundred pedestrian bridges like this one and no cars are allowed in the lanes of the old city.’
‘What’s with the costumes?’ Linden looked at a small shop whose windows were filled with masks and capes.
‘People are getting ready for Carnival,’ Luca explained. ‘It’s the festival that happens every year at this time, and people come from all over the world to party wearing colourful clothes and masks.’
Max saw a woman standing at the door of her house which was just above the water. ‘Does it ever flood here?’
‘Sometimes. There was a bad one in 1966 that caused a lot of damage. A storm or heavy rain can do it, or a very high tide, but you’ll hear warning sirens if that’s about to happen.’ Luca looked up at the grand houses beside them. ‘In some of the older houses, people don’t live downstairs anymore because of the flooding. Some people think the water eventually will ruin the city. It has sunk centimetres in the last century.’
‘Your city is sinking?’ Linden asked.
‘It has been, but the government has done a lot to stop it.’
Luca’s guard steered them carefully through many snaking canals filled with boats carrying food, people and even furniture. They passed barges filled with fruit and vegetables for sale, tourists on gondolas, and children playing soccer on the narrow paths between the houses and the water, until they pulled up beside a set of algae-stained steps.
Luca jumped out of the boat. ‘It is time to meet our contact.’
He waved Alberto off and led the way over the cobbled stone path to the Accademia.
‘Your guard doesn’t stay with you all the time?’ Linden asked.
‘No. Only when I need him. We will attract less attention without him today.’
Luca came to a stop in front of an old church-like building. ‘We are now standing in front of one of the finest art galleries in Venice. Where should we begin?’
‘I think it’d be better if we split up.’ Max grabbed Linden’s hand. ‘We’ll take the east and north of the building, you two take the west and south.’
‘How will we know who to look for?’ Luca asked.
‘He’ll find you. He’s very good,’ Max said before quickly pulling Linden inside.
After they’d paid their entrance fee and checked their packs with the gallery staff, they bought a floor plan of the Accademia and began looking at artworks while discreetly searching for their contact.
‘Tell me, Max, is it that you enjoy my company so much, or you don’t want to be close to Luca?’
Max pretended to be studying the floorplan. ‘I always enjoy being with you.’
‘But the answer to my question is …?’
Max sighed. ‘Luca makes me feel … strange, Linden. I’m not myself around him. He’s saying smooth, mushy things and I don’t feel like throwing up like I usually do – in fact, I can’t stop listening!’
‘I’d noticed,’ Linden smiled.
She looked around and whispered. ‘What’s going on?’
‘You sure you want to hear this?’ Linden asked.
‘Yes. I can’t go through a whole mission feeling like this.’
‘Do you stare into the distance a lot? Have you lost your appetite? Do your eyes have a dreamy glow?’
‘Yeah,’ Max admitted.
‘You’ve got what Ralph’s got.’
‘I’m sorry?’ Max turned her ear to Linden as if she hadn’t heard properly.
Linden braced himself. ‘I’d say that you, Max Remy, are in lo–’
‘No!’ Max cut him off. ‘No, I’m not. I know what you’re going to say, but that is something that old people do, and pets apparently, not me. It’s revolting and ridiculous and makes people act strange. Does that sound like me?’ Her hands were on her hips and her eyes flared wildly.
Linden knew when not to push it with Max. ‘No.’
‘And if you tell anyone I said any of this I’ll make sure your next mission is at the bottom of some really dark ocean.’
‘Okay.’
Max moved along a few paintings to the far corner. She stopped in front of a portrait and stared closely. There was something about it that didn’t feel right.
‘Linden, look at this. These eyes are so lifelike they almost feel real.’
Linden stared hard into the eyes. ‘They’re real!’
The eyes blinked.
‘Aaaah!’ Max cried before waving to the gallery guard. ‘Stubbed my toe,’ she said, clutching exaggeratedly at her foot.
A voice came from the painting. ‘How do I look?’
Max looked closer. ‘Agent 31?’
Agent 31 was Spyforce’s secret hidden agent. It was his job to relay information to agents from places no-one would think to check.
‘Good cover, 31.’
‘Thanks. I always fancied myself as a famous piece of art. How do I look?’
‘Eye-catching,’ Linden answered warily. ‘You know you’re wearing a dress?’
‘Yes, but green suits me, don’t you think?’
Max was keen to stop talking about the dress and start talking about the mission. ‘What have you found out?’
‘Spyforce have finished analysing the note sent to the mayor. And it’s … Are you okay, Max? You look different somehow.’
‘I’m fine. Why do people keep asking that?’ She scowled.
‘You’ve got this kind of dreamy glow.’
Linden tried badly to cover his laughter.
Max glared at the two of them. ‘Can we just get on with it?’
‘Sure.’ Agent 31 raised his eyebrows briefly. ‘The note was written on very expensive Italian paper and ink, so we believe we are dealing with someone wealthy and local. I’ve also seen the satellite data of the city, and it’s hard to make out, but it seems there has been some unauthorised work in the clay beds beneath the city. I …’
Agent 31 stopped dead. ‘Someone’s coming,’ he whispered.
Max and Linden pretended to study the floorplan again as a rich-looking man with a sweeping moustache and a woman in a long leather coat moved up beside them.
‘Not one of his best,’ the woman complained in a posh English accent. ‘He’s got the eyes all wrong for a start.’
She sniffed before they both walked away.
The eyes blinked again. ‘Eyes all wrong?’ Agent 31 sounded crestfallen. ‘My mum used to say my eyes were my best feature.’
‘Don’t listen to her. You’ve got great eyes,’ Linden tried to reassure him.
‘You think so?’
‘Yes,’ Max cut Linden off before the talk about the eyes got too much. ‘You were saying? About the clay beds beneath the city?’
‘Yes, yes, of course. It seems they have been tampered with, and we are concerned that explosive devices may have been laid beneath the city. The only way we can find out for sure is to look at one of the areas in question up close.’
‘Up close?’ Max didn’t like the sound of that.
‘Yes,’ Agent 31 answered excitedly. ‘You’ll need to go scuba diving.’ He said it like they’d won a million dollars. ‘Tonight.’
‘Does it have to be at night?’ Max wasn’t happy about diving, and she was even less crazy about doing it in the dark.
‘It has to be done at night to avoid suspicion,’ Agent 31 explained. ‘Luca’s guard, Alberto, will take you to the area I have marked on the maps in your palm computers. Luca will stay in the boat with Alberto to do any translation that’s needed and to give you directions. The rest of you will use your infrared waterproof watches to record what you see. Plomb’s bomb detectors will alert you to any explosive devices that may be nearby.’ He took an excited
breath. ‘This is going to be fun!’
‘You think so?’ Max asked sarcastically.
‘Oh, I know so.’ Agent 31 looked away. ‘Guard’s coming.’
The heavy footsteps of the guard brought him looming up behind Max and Linden like a towering building.
‘This guy really knew how to use a brush. It’s hard to take your eyes off it.’ Max laughed. ‘We better get going, Linden.’
They moved away.
‘Do you think he heard?’ Max asked.
‘No. I think he was too far away.’
When they’d grabbed their packs and were outside, Max took out her palm computer and looked up her map of Venice. She then spoke into her watch. ‘Toby, are you there?’
Within seconds Toby answered. ‘We’re still in the gallery.’
‘Linden and I have met the contact. Meet us at the bell tower in the Piazza San Marco in twenty minutes.’
‘Roger that,’ Toby replied.
But as Linden and Max walked away from the Accademia, the gallery guard stared after them suspiciously, watching their every step.
‘The campanile or bell tower of St Mark’s is ninety-one metres high and was built between 874 and 1150. It had been a watchtower and lighthouse for over one thousand years until it collapsed in 1902.’ The tour guide droned out his spiel as if he’d been doing it for over one thousand years. ‘No-one was hurt, not even a pigeon, and of course afterwards it was rebuilt.’
The four spies had met outside the bell tower in the wide square of Piazza San Marco and had joined a tour group in order to stay incognito.
‘What did Agent 31 say?’ Toby whispered as they followed at the back of the group.
‘Satellite pictures have shown something strange about the clay beds beneath Venice, and we have to go diving tonight to investigate,’ Max answered.
‘Excellent.’
Max stared at Toby. Excellent?
‘Luca, you’re to stay in the boat with the computer and direct us by our radios,’ she continued.
Luca could tell she wasn’t happy about the dive. ‘I can go for you, if you like.’
Max wilted momentarily at his accent. ‘Thanks but Agent 31 wants you by the computer to help with directions and translation.’
‘There are five bells in the tower,’ the guide continued in his couldn’t-care-less voice. ‘Each one has a different purpose. This one is called the maleficio, and signalled that there was to be an execution.’
‘What does 31 think is down there?’ Toby whispered.
‘Possibly bombs, but he isn’t sure, that’s why we have to dive.’
Each time Max said ‘dive’ it was like being dunked in an icy bath.
‘Why do we have to dive anyway?’ she complained. ‘Couldn’t they find out some other way?’
There was a longer than normal pause. Max looked up to see the tour guide staring at her.
‘Am I boring you?’ he asked in a bored voice.
‘No. I love bells. Who doesn’t love bells?’
The guide sniffed and turned to talk about the other bells.
Luca smiled and whispered into Max’s ear, ‘I don’t think he likes us.’
‘It doesn’t matter if he likes us,’ Max said indignantly. ‘What’s important is that we act like tourists and don’t do anything that attracts attention.’
She tripped on a cobblestone and fell forward into the group causing a domino effect as one by one each tourist fell forward until finally the tour guide fell into the bell, ringing out the executioner’s signal of the maleficio for all of Venice.
‘Mi scusi,’ Max said in some of the few words of Italian she knew. ‘Mi scusi, mi scusi.’
‘Did she say attract or not attract attention?’ Toby sniggered to Linden.
The tour group glared at Max from the floor as Luca helped her up.
‘I think this is where your tour ends,’ the guide seethed. The tour group picked themselves up, dusted themselves down and followed a limping tour guide as he led them out of the tower.
Toby looked through the window arches of the tower and down into the Piazza. The sky had swirled from cloudless blue into a grey bulging mass. The wind had picked up and prickled with a cold edge, but a few people still braved the chilled air as they walked in long coats across the ancient stones, took photos or sat with warm drinks in cafes. Across the Piazza, Toby thought he saw someone hiding behind one of the many columns of the imposing Doge’s Palace.
He turned to the others. ‘I think we’re being watched.’
‘Watched?’ Luca moved towards him. ‘But how is that possible? You have only just arrived in Venice.’
From out of the shadows of the Palace, Toby thought he’d seen a man looking up at them through binoculars. ‘He’s gone.’
Max shivered. ‘Let’s get out of here.’
‘That’s a good idea.’ Linden sounded like he had a plan. ‘Follow me.’
The four spies piled out of the bell tower and down the stairs to the Piazza San Marco.
‘What are we doing?’
‘We’re going to have lunch.’
‘Lunch?’ Max was annoyed. ‘We’re on a mission, we don’t have time to …’
‘Trust me, we do.’ Linden looked across the Piazza at a small restaurant. ‘How about that one?’
Now Max understood. The restaurant was in full view of the square. ‘Perfect. How about some postcards as well? That should give them enough time to get a good look at us.’
‘Shouldn’t we head for cover instead?’ Luca asked.
‘No,’ Max replied. ‘If we are being followed, it’s better that we know about it.’
‘Yes, I see. You are very clever.’
Max tried to wipe a rising goofy smile off her face while Toby scowled and stepped away.
After buying postcards, they entered the restaurant and kept up their cover of being tourists. They ordered food, pulled out tourist maps and took photos of each other with regular cameras. Then Toby spotted his man.
‘That’s him. Only this time he has a friend.’ He looked past Max’s shoulder and bit into a slice of pizza. ‘They’re looking at those masks in the window of that souvenir shop.’
Max looked over the top of her tourist map at two men in sunglasses, long leather coats and perfectly combed hair. ‘The ones who look like they just stepped out of a fashion magazine? How do you think they’d like a photo?’ Max bit into her focaccia.
‘The way those guys are dressed, I think they’d love it.’ Toby put his elbow on the table and leant his chin into his palm, so that his watch faced the souvenir shop. He pressed down on the camera button a few times. ‘Done.’ He dropped his hand into his lap. ‘I’ll get that to Steinberger to see if he can find out who they are.’
Toby took his palm computer out of his pack and kept it hidden under the table while he downloaded the photo from his camera and sent it to Spyforce.
‘You guys are good,’ Luca was impressed.
‘Thanks,’ Toby said with fake modesty. ‘If the world needs saving, we’re your team.’
Linden finished the last of his pizza. ‘And now it’s time to lose these guys.’
The four spies walked across the Piazza San Marco, careful not to appear suspicious, until they came to the edge of the canal near the Doge’s Palace.
Linden held a tourist booklet in front of them as a cover. ‘Luca, how well do you know the Palace?’
‘I almost grew up there.’
‘Know any secret exits?’
Luca smiled. ‘Sure.’
‘Good. We’ll all go into the palace to see if those guys have followed us. Max and Luca, you lead them further inside, while Toby and I sneak back out. You can then give them the slip using one of Luca’s secret exits, and we’ll all meet at Luca’s house as soon as we can.’
‘We’re going to split up?’ Max asked with alarm. ‘Is that necessary?’
‘Yep. It’ll be harder for these guys to follow us if we’re in two groups.’ Linden gave
a teasing smile that made Max think that wasn’t the only reason he’d teamed her up with Luca. ‘Let’s go.’
The woman at the ticket desk recognised Luca as the mayor’s son and let them enter the Doge’s Palace for free. Behind her, Max could see the two men in their sunglasses and leather jackets hurriedly buying tickets. She and Luca dawdled at the entrance to give the goons time to catch up, while with a nod Linden and Toby slipped away.
As Max and Luca made their way through the ornate interior, Max knew that any other time she would have been blown away by the Palace with its Golden Staircase, intricately painted ceilings and walls covered with famous artworks. But right now all she could think about was being so close to Luca and making a fool of herself again. She tried to act normal, but felt self-conscious about every part of her body and wondered which part would let her down next.
She snuck a look at Luca. He looked so relaxed and calm, so in control. He made it look easy, and Max decided she would do the same. She couldn’t think about him now. They had to lose these guys quickly so they could get on with the mission.
Every so often they stopped to look at paintings and sculptures, but mostly to see if they were still being followed.
‘They’re determined,’ Luca said as he continued through the vast palace.
‘And not very good. We can lose them. We just have to wait for the right moment.’
Max began to feel a little more relaxed around Luca. She was proud of herself. It was working. ‘How did you learn to speak English so well?’
‘School,’ Luca replied easily. ‘And from meeting wonderful people like you.’
Max tripped over her feet and would have fallen against a marble sculpture if Luca hadn’t caught her.
‘I think they want to keep that one.’ Luca smiled. ‘It’s about eight hundred years old.’
Luca let her go and kept walking, while Max slumped in a sigh of her own clumsiness.
‘I’ve visited this place a lot. Venice used to be ruled from here. And this,’ he stopped in a covered walkway that led over a canal, ‘is the Bridge of Sighs.’
Max was doing her best to ignore his accent and actually listen.
‘Look through here.’ Luca pointed towards a window that looked out into the Venetian Lagoon. ‘Many people come to Venice to sail beneath this bridge in a gondola and think it is very romantic.’
The Venice Job Page 7