The Final Curtain

by Deborah Abela

‘Let’s see.’ He tapped his finger against his chin. ‘I told you I was here.’ He held out his hands. ‘And I am.’

  ‘And the eye patch?’

  ‘Oh, that is real. Damage from Harrison’s brutal attack.’

  ‘Attack?’

  ‘Don’t bite, Max,’ Toby said.

  ‘Here are the facts: after Harrison’s merciless attempt on my life and my subsequent fall into the blowhole, I was hurt badly – that was true – but thanks to the discretion of my friends at the Hotel Burj Al Arab in Dubai, I was able to disappear while the best of the world’s doctors patched me up rather nicely. Apart from my eye, but we’ve already discussed that.’ He rubbed his hands in front of the fire, turning his back briefly to Max. ‘They did such a fine job, I was able to carry out my plans against London and Spyforce.’

  ‘Careful, Max,’ Toby whispered. ‘I’m an expert in baiting people, and this guy is good.’

  ‘But I couldn’t have done it without your help.’ Blue had the ability, when he smiled, to fill it with a quiet malice.

  ‘My help?’ Max scratched her ankle.

  ‘Itchy?’

  ‘I was bitten.’

  ‘You really believe that?’

  ‘I was in a forest at the time.’ Max scratched. ‘So there’s a good chance that’s what happened.’

  ‘You don’t think it could be an activator for the transmitter we buried in Spyforce, the one that brought the place down around your little friend’s ears?’

  Max stopped scratching.

  Toby said nothing.

  ‘Oh,’ Blue realised, ‘you hadn’t worked that part out yet? Sorry, I’ve spoilt the surprise, haven’t I? I had two of my men meet you in the forest during your recent training, and they left you with a little memento of your time together.’

  ‘It’s not an insect bite?’

  ‘No, and it’s very undetectable, even from your brilliant Spyforce doctor. Clever, aren’t I?’

  Max felt sick. ‘And the activator …’

  ‘Sets off the transmitter to release high-frequency vibrations that weaken an object’s atomic structure.’

  ‘Like the structure is being torn apart from the inside out,’ Max whispered Quimby’s analysis.

  ‘I couldn’t have said it better myself.’

  Max felt as if she had swallowed lead. ‘So Linden and the others were hurt because …’

  ‘Of you. Yes.’ Blue savoured his answer, rolled it around in his mouth like a melting chocolate. ‘Your beloved friend and spy agency are now wallowing in a pile of their own ruin, and it’s all because of you. All those years of hard work to build it, all the tireless hours of research and invention, your cute little anniversary party. Gone. I should have thought of recruiting you years ago to carry out my deeds.’

  The fireplace spat and crackled.

  ‘How did you plant the transmitter in Spyforce?’

  ‘Oh, that is one of my favourite parts. One of the workers who was part of the recent upgrade installed it beneath a tile in the VART. For a very fine fee, of course. Then all I needed was to wait for a chance to have the activator installed in your ankle and for you to go to Spyforce to trigger the collapse.’

  ‘But I’d been at the Force for at least an hour before it started to crumble.’

  ‘Yes, that was interesting to me, too. Until I remembered that the walls of Spyforce are reinforced with titanium. My little device is very effective, and with stone it’s almost immediate, but it does take a little longer to react with strong metals. It is a shame about your little friend getting hurt, though, I –’

  Max lunged at him, grabbing him by the throat.

  ‘Max!’ Toby cried in her ear. ‘Stop!’

  She wrenched at Blue’s collar, squeezing it in her fists. Small gagging noises escaped from his reddening face until she was dragged off by Kronch. She threw her fists, trying to make contact with Blue, who clutched his throat.

  ‘You still have a temper that causes you to forget to be reasonable and think logically, and there you make mistakes. That is how Linden came to grief in Hollywood.14 And, once again, he’s in danger of losing his life and it’s all … your … fault.’

  ‘Shut up! Shut up!’ Max clutched her injured wrist.

  Blue straightened his collar and took in a scratchy breath. ‘It’s nothing less than they deserve. They had it coming after what they did to me, and now I have won.’

  ‘Max, I know it’s hard,’ Toby whispered, ‘but you’ll have a better chance if you stay clear and focused.’

  A strange calm came over Max. ‘Can I be put down now?’

  Blue nodded to Kronch, who opened his arms. She dropped to the floor with the Counter-Gravity Boots absorbing most of the impact.

  ‘You don’t get it do you?’ She stood firm. ‘After all these years, this is all you think that matters. Winning and being the best and loading your life with castles and palaces and money.’ She frowned. ‘Eleanor said you could have been a great man.’

  ‘Eleanor always was a very smart woman.’

  ‘But how can you be a great man when you don’t even know the first thing about being a human being?’

  Kronch moved forward but Blue held up a hand.

  ‘Apart from the lecture, Maxine, why are you here? Why put yourself in such danger?’

  ‘I’m here to make this war between you and Spyforce end.’

  ‘Then we have more in common than you’d care to admit.’ Blue’s face twisted into a sharp-edged grin. ‘Because that is my aim precisely. Except, there is one final task I’d like to complete before I say goodbye.’

  ‘Goodbye?’

  ‘Yes.’ Blue sat in his chair. ‘With most of the world’s “good guys” after me, I don’t intend to stick around any place where they will find me.’

  ‘They’ll find you.’

  ‘Let them try,’ Blue challenged. ‘Because where I’m going, they never will, but one thing I will promise: I won’t be resurfacing to cause any more trouble. You have my word on that.’

  ‘What’s this task?’ Max asked.

  ‘Come with me.’

  Blue walked briskly and effortlessly across the cold stone floor. Kronch bowed, holding out his hand like a waiter at the door of an expensive restaurant.

  Max turned her back on him and followed. She was led through grand empty passages; up darkened, twisting stairwells and across a blustery balcony where Miss Peckham was waiting for them.

  ‘I was wondering where you were,’ Max said. ‘You always do seem to travel in threes.’

  Peckham had a small hand-held device. Kronch stood behind her and did nothing more than offer a creeping smile.

  Blue nodded to Peckham, who threw a switch that filled the courtyard area immediately below in a blanket of light. ‘Look.’

  Max’s fear of heights swirled in her head like a nightmare. She tried to steady her heart and keep her eyes focused. She lifted her watch hand to her throat, as if trying to keep warm.

  ‘He wants to play games now?’ Toby asked.

  A series of enormous manicured hedges wound and twisted into a complicated pattern below.

  ‘Welcome to my maze. It is one of the grandest and most difficult in the world, with only one entrance and one exit.’

  ‘And what’s your little game got to do with me?’

  ‘It’s going to prove to me how good a spy you really are.’

  ‘And why would I want to prove anything to you?’

  ‘Because if you make it through, Linden doesn’t die.’

  ‘Max,’ Toby began, ‘stay calm until he –’

  Max threw herself at Blue, fists first. Kronch easily caught her from behind and hoisted her into the air under one arm.

  ‘You leave Linden alone.’

  ‘Oh I will, but I can’t be held responsible for what others may do to him.’

  Max’s stomach vice-gripped inside her. ‘You don’t even know where he is.’

  ‘He’s in a small private hospital in Highgrove Rd, S
pittlefield. From the outside it looks like a regular Georgian mansion, but beyond its creamy-white exterior and manicured front garden are some of the finest doctors, nurses and medical equipment laid out especially for the highest dignitaries in the world: the PM, the head of the UN and agents from such organisations as MI6 and your very own Spyforce.’

  Max felt as if her body had been drenched in ice water. ‘Small side streets of hidden treasures, so good for one’s health,’ she whispered.

  ‘Bingo! The little girl wins the fluffy toy for guessing the final clue of my speech.’ Blue narrowed his eyes. ‘Maybe you are as clever as I thought. The hospital employee, whom I have paid an extraordinary sum of money, will, on my say-so, enter the hospital and plant one slim but very deadly activator.’

  A sudden updraft swept across the balcony.

  ‘To test your natural spy talents, you’ll complete the maze without your backpack.’

  ‘Hey!’

  Kronch had slipped a knife beneath the straps of her pack and cut it from her.

  ‘And your watch,’ Blue said as Kronch held out his hand. ‘I can’t have you blabbing to Spyforce about my plan for the hospital – that wouldn’t be part of the deal.’

  Max slowly undid her watch strap, taking her time and staring at the camera in the red metallic face.

  ‘I’ll be here for you, Max,’ Toby said.

  Kronch tore it out of her hand before dropping both it and the backpack to the balcony floor and stamping them to oblivion.

  Max stood firm, her voice composed. ‘If I complete the maze, you will leave the hospital alone and end your battle with Spyforce and the world?’

  Blue held Max’s gaze. ‘On this, you have my absolute word, Miss Superspy.’

  Max caught a glimpse of the maze far below. Her heart shuddered.

  ‘How is it fair that, after all you have done, if I win you just get to disappear?’

  ‘Because that is the only deal I am offering.’

  Kronch’s boots sank heavily into the muddy castle grounds. He stomped and heaved as he led Max to the beginning of the maze – a two-metre-high arched entrance of tightly packed, impassable leaves and tangled branches.

  ‘Ready, Maxine?’ Blue’s voice boomed into the wind and circled eerily above them.

  She looked up to see Blue with a microphone, standing beside Peckham, lording over Max and smiling as if they’d already won.

  ‘See you at the other side,’ Blue’s voice echoed. ‘Or not.’

  Kronch’s breathy snigger disappeared behind her as she cautiously entered the maze.

  The thick, leafy walls closed in on her with their perfectly manicured corridors and sharply cut turns and dead-ends. She waited until she was well inside before speaking to Toby.

  ‘Toby, how well can you see into the maze?’

  ‘Perfectly. This virtual search engine is great! I can zoom in on a bug on a leaf. This will be a cinch. While Blue was busy flapping his mouth up there on the balcony, I worked out a route that will get you out of there in under fifteen minutes.’

  A sharp whiff of damp plant-life and rotting, mulchy earth swirled around her.

  ‘Can you make it faster, it’s a little smelly in here. And watch my back, will you? I’m not quite ready to trust Mr Honesty yet.’

  ‘Don’t you worry, I’ll be watching your front and your back. Now, let’s get you out of there. Turn right, then a sharp left.’

  Max’s Counter-Gravity Boots kept her light on the mossy, squelching ground. ‘What kind of evil world dominator has a maze in his backyard?’

  ‘A bored one?’ Toby suggested. ‘Now the maze moves into a wide curve, and at the end you’ll come to a T-intersection.’

  Max turned into a swooping circle and came to the T. ‘What now?’

  ‘You need to –’

  ‘Uh-oh.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I’m … sinking.’ Max’s boots were disappearing into the mud. ‘I think it’s quicksand.’

  Toby zoomed in. ‘It’s only at the T-intersection. Turn left. Fast!’

  Max turned, but the ground had already dissolved around her, sucking her down so that it was already up to her thighs.

  ‘I said fast, Max.’

  Max strode through the gluggy sand towards the hardened edge of ground ahead, forcing her legs to push forward.

  ‘Faster!’ Toby shouted.

  ‘I’m going as fast as I can.’

  The sand rose to her chest, pressing in on her, making it hard to breathe. She kept her arms above the slime. When she was close enough, she reached out to a rock in the hard ground beyond.

  ‘Now pull yourself up,’ Toby ordered.

  ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’ Max puffed.

  She gritted her teeth, reached forward with her injured arm and pulled.

  The pain stabbed into her wrist like a hot knife. She clasped both hands around the rock, trying to concentrate all her strength into her arms. The quicksand dragged at her body like an invisible force hauling her under. She stopped to gather her strength. In seconds she felt herself sinking further.

  ‘I’m coming in,’ Toby shouted.

  ‘No, you’re more useful there. Or at least I was hoping you would be.’

  Max gave one hefty tug. Her arm felt like it was on fire, but she kept pulling through the pain.

  ‘That’s it, now harder.’

  Max’s shoulders lifted out of the sand. She stretched her fingers so that they were able to curl around the lower branch of a hedge. She closed her eyes, gathered her breath and dragged herself up. She kept pulling until her knee made it onto solid ground and stopped to rest briefly.

  ‘Don’t stop now.’

  ‘I just need a second.’

  ‘No, you’ll sink.’

  Max felt herself lose a little ground. Her wrist throbbed.

  ‘You have to keep going, Max.’

  ‘Just a minute.’

  ‘Now!’

  With the last of her energy, Max held her breath and pulled. Her other knee lifted from the clinging ground, and she used it to lever her body out before falling on her back, gasping great mouthfuls of air.

  ‘Looks like Blue forgot to mention there’d be a few obstacles,’ Toby said.

  ‘How’d you get so bossy?’ Max panted, cradling her aching wrist.

  ‘Hanging around you so long, I guess. That’s enough resting, you have to keep going. Turn left, then take the second aisle on the right.’

  As Max’s adrenalin rush subsided, her body felt gripped by the chill wind blowing onto her now soggy Super Suit. She followed Toby’s instructions, turning corners she felt she’d turned before, stepping into aisles that seemed all too familiar.

  ‘Are you sure I’m headed the right way?’

  ‘Trust me, I know what I’m doing. You need to … Knock-Out Spray. Now!’

  Max held her wrist out and pressed the button for the spray. A billowing mist squirted into the air as a swarm of bees flew out from a nearby clump of bushes. The air darkened with the thick swarm and filled with their swelling buzz as they headed towards her. Max closed her eyes and looked away, her finger still firmly pressed on the spray button.

  Until the buzzing was replaced by the sound of soft pattering.

  Max slowly opened her eyes. The bees fell from the air in sleepy clusters.

  ‘Did I tell you about my bee phobia?’ Max asked through barely open lips. ‘I fell into a hive when I was young and ended up in hospital for weeks.’

  ‘We only have half an hour before they wake and come after you again, so we better keep you moving.’

  Toby continued with the instructions, leading Max through the tall plant maze. Sharp turns, circular twists and long aisles.

  ‘I’ve zoomed in on Peckham,’ Toby said. ‘And it looks like she controls the maze obstacles with that hand-held device.’

  ‘Why does she follow Blue so blindly? I’ve never understood why – aaah!’

  ‘What?’ Toby zeroed in on the maze. �
��Oh.’

  ‘Blades,’ Max breathed. ‘Big ones. Swinging. Aaah!’

  Max stiffened, holding herself as thin as she could, her arms pinned to her sides, as giant axe blades swung pendulum-like from the sides of the maze. One behind her and a line of them in front.

  ‘Take a deep breath,’ Toby ordered.

  ‘I’m going to die!’ Max cried.

  ‘You’re not going to die. There’s at least a metre between each blade. Now do as I say and take a deep breath.’

  Max did as she was told.

  ‘Now focus on the end of the aisle. Are the blades swinging at different times?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Concentrate on the blade in front of you. When you have the rhythm of the swing, move forward. Stop, take a breath and check the next one.’

  Max didn’t answer.

  ‘Max?’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘One at a time.’

  Max’s muscles tightened and her skin goose-bumped all over. Keeping her head still, her eyes followed the movement of the next blade. She counted the swings. One, two, three. Toby silently counted with her.

  ‘Aaah!’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I made the first one.’

  ‘Couldn’t you say, “I made it” instead?’

  With her sights on the next blade, Max breathed to the rhythm of its swing and stepped through when it was clear.

  She made her way past the next few until she faced the last blade. As she went to step forward, her foot caught on a rock.

  ‘Max!’

  She straightened just in time to avoid a slicing collision.

  ‘Could you try and be a little more careful?’ Toby asked.

  Max waited until her breathing had calmed before she found the next blade’s rhythm and dived forward. She felt her legs turn to jelly beneath her and fell to the ground.

  ‘You did it!’ Toby yelled into her ear.

  ‘I can’t hear anymore but, yeah, I did it.’ She allowed herself a brief smile.

  ‘Just as well. I like you better as one large piece rather than in small bits.’

  Max laughed. ‘Me too.’

  ‘I’m not sure Blue agrees. He’s looking pretty annoyed right now. Let’s annoy him even more by getting you out of there.’

  ‘I’d like that.’

  ‘Well, get off your rear-end and turn left.’