Mission In Malta (13 page)

‘Call that driving?' Max yelled from inside her bagged prison. ‘And you could have wrapped us in something a little less stinky. Don't think you're going to get away with this because –'

Max's threat was cut short by the breath being sucked out of her. She'd been thrown off her captor's shoulders and flung down a rough and slippery surface.

‘Lin … den!' she stammered.

But she heard no reply as her body hurtled towards an unknown and fast-approaching end.

‘Aaaah!'

The last thing Max and Linden felt before being thrown down a long and slimy passage was a violent push in the back followed by the echoing slam of wooden doors. The two spies slid over the uneven surface, twisting and turning through the innards of the slippery passage that was to deliver them at increasing speeds to an unknown destination.

‘We're … go … ing … to … die!' Max's echoing terror was only equalled by her fear of what would happen at the other end. But she didn't have to wait long to find out what that would be.

Like an oversized cannonball, she shot out of the tunnel and, landing painfully on her rear, slid unceremoniously across a damp and soggy ground to an even damper and soggier stop.

Linden slid in only seconds later and, like an overturned turtle, came to a slippery, spinning stop on his backpack. ‘That wasn't so bad. Are you okay, Max?'

Max's voice grumbled out of the darkness, ‘For someone who's just been thrown down a twisted funride, will probably be covered in purple and black bruises and had enough time to watch my life flash before me twice – yeah, I'm great.'

‘That's good then,' he smiled.

Within the tight confines of his bag, Linden sat up and twisted his arms from the straps of his backpack. He fumbled inside for his Swiss army knife and plunged it into the bag, creating a small opening. He grabbed at the torn material with both hands and ripped the bag from him.

Linden switched on the torch in his watch and found Max's slumped bag. He gingerly made his way over and cut her out. ‘Welcome.'

The place where they'd landed was dark and the air was stale and damp. The only natural light was a faint glow drizzling from the top of the tunnel. A gentle, lapping sound quietly echoed around them. With careful steps, Linden slowly extended his hand until he came across a wall covered in rivulets of dripping moisture.

‘Let's hope we haven't landed in an underground sewer,' he joked.

‘A sewer?' Max jumped up. She pulled her arms in tight across her chest and tried not to imagine herself surrounded by a giant underground toilet.

‘There's no smell though, so I think we're okay. It's more likely that we're in a cellar or even a crypt,' Linden guessed.

‘Crypt?' A meteorite of fear crash-landed into Max's voice. ‘Like where they keep dead people?'

‘There are a lot of burial chambers beneath this city, and this could be one of them.' Linden shone his torch around him, lighting up rows of wooden shelves that lined the walls. ‘But this one looks like a cellar or some kind of underground cool room. I think now might be a good time to call Stefan.' Linden lifted his watch to his lips. ‘Stefan? Come in, Stefan?' Nothing. ‘Stefan, can you hear me?'

Linden waited a little longer. ‘We must be out of range. We did fall pretty far.'

Max squelched to the end of the passage where they were spat out.

‘You won't get away with this, you overgrown lumps of creep,' she yelled. ‘I won't let you bury me alive in some kind of subterranean graveyard. We'll be out of here as soon as you turn around, and just when you think you've gotten rid of us – wham! – we'll be right behind you. And another thing …'

‘Uh, Max?'

‘Hang on, Linden. I haven't finished with these guys yet.' She turned back to the tunnel. ‘The next time you decide to pick on us, you'll regret every second that you thought you could –'

‘Max.' This time there was more urgency in Linden's voice.

‘Yes?'

‘Does something seem strange about the ground to you?'

The two spies watched as Linden's light swept over the floor, revealing rippled, shining mounds.

‘What is it?' Max shone her torch downwards and squinted into the low light.

Linden gave his less frightening suggestion first: ‘It could be cobble stones.'

The two remained silent for a few seconds, letting their ears tune-in to a low, almost inaudible sound.

‘As far as my memory from science class goes, cobblestones don't make squelching noises.' Max's eyes followed the sweeping path of her torch.

‘It is squelching, but what is it?'

‘Knowing me, it's probably some slimy creature from the bottom of the sea,' Max sighed. ‘And just when I thought being tied up in a room full of worms was as creepy as it was ever going to get.'
⁶

Linden blinked into the dim light and tapped a finger against his chin. ‘What is it?' As if in answer to his question, he stared at the back of his hand before slowly pulling it away from his face. ‘Ah, Max, I think I know what it is.'

‘If it's anything slimy, I don't want to know.' She turned away.

‘Okay.' Linden went quiet.

A dripping, echoing silence squirmed between them.

‘Well? What is it!'

Linden winced and kept staring at his hand. ‘You're not going to like it.'

‘There's a surprise,' Max muttered. ‘Tell me anyway. What did you find?'

‘I think we've just found Alfonzo's kidnapped leeches.'

‘Leeches?' Max threw the light from her watch towards Linden. ‘Aah!' Three coiled, bloodsucking creatures were stuck to his hand and lower arm.

‘I thought you said they didn't bother you?'

‘When they're in tanks I'm a big fan, but when the little suckers start invading my world, then they bother me. Aah!' Max flicked at an imaginary leech on her trousers in a phobia-rising panic. ‘What are we going to do?'

‘Got any salt?' Linden asked calmly.

‘Yeah, I always carry a bag with me for leech emergencies.'

‘They're everywhere,' Linden breathed as one of the leeches fell off.

‘Aaah!' Max watched a steady stream of blood flow from the wound. She snapped her head away.

‘Don't worry, Max,' Linden tried to reassure her. ‘Remember what Alfonzo said: the anticoagulant in a leech's saliva will make blood flow freely for a while.'

‘You're right.' Max did her best to reassure herself. ‘And you can't die from being bitten by a leech or even a couple of leeches.'

Linden was momentarily silent. ‘But I'm not sure what happens if you get bitten by hundreds of them.'

Max's breath quickened and her brow become spotted with beads of nervous sweat. ‘Hundreds?'

‘I'd say so.' Linden's torch made out more and more of them.

Max gave up trying to keep herself calm. ‘We're going to die!'

‘Maybe not.' Linden's eyes widened. He picked up his pack and rummaged through it. ‘Not while we have these!'

‘Peanuts? What are you going to do, use them as mini missiles and knock each one of them out?'

‘No.' Linden smiled. ‘They're
salted
peanuts. I kept some from the flight.'

Linden threw a bag over to Max. ‘It might just be enough until we figure a way out of here.'

‘Who would have thought your food obsession would ever come in handy?'

‘I always knew it would.'

Linden opened the packet and began to rub the peanuts between his hands, letting the salt fall into a groove in the top of his pack. He grabbed a pinch between his fingers and sprinkled salt on the leeches. Within seconds they fell to the ground.

‘It worked,' Max cried, but her joy wilted at the sight of a leech writhing on her shoe, its head searching for fresh flesh to bite. She emptied her entire stash of salt on the leech and it fell away.

‘Do you have any more?' she asked.

‘That's it,' Linden shrugged.

Max saw Linden's hand and arm, which was striped with dripping blood. She turned away and stared at the leech infested, slippery floor. Her chest tightened. Her brain sent warning shivers through her body, and her breath became short and scratchy.

‘Linden, just to warn you, I'm not going to be any good at this.'

‘I'm not sure it's going to be my finest hour either.'

Max gulped in huge breaths. ‘No, I mean, really not good. I faint at the sight of …'

Max fainted.

‘Blood?' Linden guessed.

No reply.

Linden tried again. ‘Max?'

He hurried over to where she'd collapsed, hundreds of leeches sliming and writhing only metres away.

He reached into his backpack and pulled out the Wake-Up Spray. ‘Sorry, Max,' he winced, ‘you're not going to like this, but …'

Linden pressed down on the top of the can and a stinking mist squirted over her face. She lay there unmoving. Linden waited a few seconds before he gave her a longer dose.

Max's body convulsed in a coughing outburst. ‘What the …' She blinked and gasped. ‘Are you trying to kill me?'

‘No, I was –' Linden tried.

Max saw the Wake-Up Spray.

‘And what's with Frond and her fish-smelling products?'

‘I'm not sure, but I think the fish oil component –'

A sudden echoing trickle interrupted their conversation.

‘Please tell me I'm not hearing that trickling sound,' Max pleaded.

The trickle became a more energetic gush.

‘No, now you're hearing more of a gush.' Linden put on his pack and flashed his light around the room, trying to find out the source of the noise, when the splashing became two.

‘There's more than one now, isn't there?' Max was doing her best to breathe through the fish face spray and not freak out about the possibility of dying.

‘Whatever you do, don't panic,' Linden said as if reading her mind.

‘Sure,' Max agreed. ‘Don't panic. We're trapped in an underground cavern filled with leeches, and we're about to be drowned by two very noisily gushing fountains.'

The light from Linden's watch landed on another. ‘Make that three.'

‘Can I panic now?'

‘It won't help.'

‘Can you think of a better plan?' Max tried to calm her breathing as the light from her swaying hand spotted something on her feet. ‘Aah!'

The water began to seep into her shoes, and along with it came biting, bloodsucking leeches.

‘Okay,' Linden conceded, ‘maybe you can panic now.'

‘Aaaah! Either I'm going to drown or be bled to death by leeches.'

‘It wasn't what I had in mind for my death either.'

The water rushed in around their feet, rising quickly up their legs and thighs, sending swimming hoards of leeches swirling in hungry swarms, mouths open for any chance of sinking their teeth into tasty human flesh.

‘Aaah! We're going to die.'

‘Max.' Linden saw another leech bite into his arm as the water swirled around his waist. ‘We're not going to die; we're going to think of a way out of here.'

‘Out of a leech-infested, flooding underground cavern at the end of a long inescapable chute? Aaah! Another leech.'

‘Inescapable chute,' Linden repeated in a whisper. ‘Inescapable chute.' He slipped his arms out of his pack and rummaged through it. ‘How about this?'

He held out a packet of Sherbet Liquefier.

‘You're going to liquefy the leeches?'

‘It's not for the leeches.'

Linden grabbed his bag and waded to the chute opening. He leant in, opened the packet of Liquefier and poured out a small amount. Lava-like, the rock immediately sizzled into a bright orange pool of molten material. It quickly cooled and dripped down the chute, leaving a perfectly formed, scooped-out hole.

‘See?'

‘No.' Max frowned. ‘Ouch!' She shook her foot. ‘Who said these little suckers don't hurt?'

Linden did it again a little further up the shaft.
‘Feel like a little rock climbing?'

Max saw it. By using the Sherbet Liquefier, they could create hand and foot holds so they could climb their way out. ‘That's brilliant! You're a genius.'

‘That's what Mum used to say.'

‘But what about the leeches? We can't just let them drown.'

Linden smiled and shone his torch on the wall near him. A cluster of leeches were backflipping up the wall to the safety of the shelves. ‘Looks like they'll be fine.'

Linden sprinkled more Liquefier further on. ‘And I bet the initial heat from the melting rock will stop the leeches biting too.'

Linden held his arm over the bright heat, and within seconds two leeches fell away. ‘It works.' He slipped his foot into the first hole and climbed up the shaft, creating more footholds that quickly cooled in the cold, damp chute.

Max followed closely behind, holding her arm over the melted rock to remove her leeches. ‘Okay.' She looked away from the free-flowing drips of blood and concentrated on not passing out. ‘Not good to watch.'

The Liquefier worked quickly to eat holes into
the rock. Linden shoved the empty packet in his pocket and pulled out another. As they climbed higher, the sound of the flooding cavern was left far beneath them.

Linden looked up to see skinny shafts of light spilling from between the gnarled planks of double wooden doors. ‘Looks like we're getting out of here.'

He slipped the second packet of Liquefier in his pocket, and pushed against the doors. They opened just enough to reveal a large bolt drawn across them on the other side. ‘Stand back,' he warned Max.

‘Linden, are you sure …?'

‘I'm not getting this far only to be stopped.'

Linden secured one foot in the final foothold and, taking a deep breath, kicked out with the other. The doors opened slightly wider, but the bolt didn't budge. Linden lashed out again, but this time with more force. ‘Open up, will you!' he said through gritted teeth. And with a final, body-flinging kick, the doors flew open.

‘Told you we're getting out of here.' Linden grabbed hold of the outer edge of the chute and hoisted himself out into a backalley cluttered with bins and garbage bags and lined with paint-peeled
wooden doors. ‘Hello world. Nearly had to do without me for a second there.'

Max scrambled out behind him. ‘That was … you were … I didn't think …'

‘Thanks,' Linden flicked his hair from his eyes, only to have it quickly fall back, ‘but we better find Alfonzo.'

‘Right.' Max flicked off a leech that was swinging from her shirt and held up her watch. ‘Stefan, can you hear me?'

Stefan answered immediately. ‘Loud and clear like the bells of a church.'

‘How soon can you be at …' Max hurried a few metres to the nearest intersection. ‘The corner of Republic and Spur streets?'

‘Seven minutes, maximum.'

‘Make it five. Oh, and we need a leech expert and someone who is good at navigating steep delivery chutes.'

She turned to Linden, who had disappeared. ‘Linden?'

At that moment he stepped out of a pokey café balancing on the corner of a very steep street.

‘How can you even think of food?'

Linden smiled. ‘Actually, I wasn't. Just stand still and look the other way.'

Linden tore open a sachet of salt and leant into Max. She backed away. ‘What are you –'

‘Trust me.' Linden poured the salt onto Max's neck and shoulders, and within seconds, three plump leeches fell to the ground.

‘Oh.' Max felt her face burn and her arms tingle. ‘That.'

Linden bent down and lifted the legs of her pants. Max saw even more leeches attached to her ankles like miniature eels during a feeding frenzy. She grabbed hold of a stone wall beside her to stop the world from spinning. Linden took a large hanky from his bag, tore it into strips using his knife and wrapped it carefully around Max's bleeding wounds.

‘You're okay if I stand here and don't help?' Max's voice cracked.

‘Sure.' Linden smiled. He finished the bandaging and dealt with his own remaining leechy guests before carefully placing them all in a rumpled paper bag he had in his pack.

Max and Linden first knew Stefan had arrived by the screeching of tyres and the scream of what they assumed was a pedestrian. Stefan's crumpled and scratched red car shrieked to a halt in front of them. He jumped out and stood before the rising steam of his engine.

‘Here I am, ready for action and in there is your leech expert.'

In the passenger seat was a cowering man in a suit, cradling a large glass tank on his lap. A coughing old wreck of a truck filled with ladders, ropes and a large toolbox pulled up behind.

‘And my cousin Joseph. For the handiwork.'

‘Good. I think,' Max replied.

With Joseph's help, Linden gently persuaded the leech expert out of the car. He handed over his paper bag and explained to both of them where they'd find the other leeches.

Max searched for Alfonzo on her Time and Space Machine. ‘Alfonzo's been kidnapped,' she explained to Stefan.

‘Kidnapped?'

Linden joined them. ‘Yeah, but luckily Max managed to put a Tracer Bug on him before his capture.'

Max held out the screen, which showed Alfonzo tied up in the back of a speedboat, surrounded by the open sea. She zoomed out and Alfonzo was replaced by a small red dot and the edge of a coastline. ‘Do you know where that is?'

‘A Tracer Bug?' Stefan nodded proudly. ‘You two really know your stuff.'

‘Yeah, but do you know where this place is and how we can get there?'

The red dot leapt forward.

‘That's the coastal town of Mellieha. It looks like he's headed to the island of Gozo.' Stefan smiled a gusto-filled smile. ‘I can get you there easily. Jump in.'

Max closed her eyes momentarily and sighed, ‘I was hoping you wouldn't say that.'

The two spies climbed into Stefan's car. In only a few minutes (and as many skin-crawling near-accidents later – one involving a truck carrying a float of the complete Nativity scene) they arrived at a small marina filled with bobbing boats.

Stefan jumped out like he was the Maltese equivalent of James Bond, which would have looked good had his car door not snapped off and fallen to the ground.

He heaved the door onto the front seat. ‘Follow me.' He ran down a narrow pier and stopped in front of a gleaming, sleek speedboat. ‘What do you think?'

Max's body filled with relief. ‘It's fantastic.'

‘I knew you'd like her.' Stefan moved to the edge of the pier and disappeared behind the speedboat where he prepared to step onto a small,
weathered fishing boat moored beside it.

‘Aren't you getting on the wrong boat?' Max pleaded.

‘Intelligent and funny. I like that. My boat isn't flashy like that one – it's discreet and can really move.' He hit the side in a series of hollow sounding slaps. ‘No-one would ever suspect we were spies in this baby.'

‘He's right there,' Linden whispered.

‘Does it even work?' Max asked.

‘Oh, don't worry about this baby; she's a lot faster than she looks.' Stefan leapt into the boat like he was bounding over a vaulting horse at the Olympics, except he landed badly on his ankle. ‘Ouch!'

‘Are you okay?' Linden climbed in after him.

‘Don't worry about me,' he strained through gritted teeth. ‘I'll be all right.'

He hobbled over to the wheel and started the boat's engine. ‘Alfonzo's life is more important than my old ankle injury.'

‘Stefan?' Max demanded from the shore. ‘How good are you at actually
driving
a boat?'

‘Are you kidding? Growing up in Malta, I was practically born at the wheel of a boat. It's just like driving a car.'

‘That's what I was afraid of,' Max sighed and stepped onto the boat, just as Stefan began to move away from the pier. With one foot on the shore and the other on the boat, Max was in danger of doing the splits until Linden reached out and hauled her in. Where she fell straight into his arms.

There was an awkward moment as they lay on the floor.

‘Good catch, wouldn't you say?' Linden joked.

Max lay in Linden's arms, staring again at his too-close lips.

‘Are you going to hold me all day or are we going to complete our mission?'

Linden stopped smiling. ‘Completing the mission sounds good.'

Stefan looked over his shoulder. ‘You two are close, eh?' He winked and slipped on a pair of sunglasses before turning back to the wheel. ‘You can't help but find love in Malta,' he cried.

Max disentangled herself from Linden. ‘It's not love, it's –'

Stefan pushed hard on the throttle, again forcing Max and Linden together.

‘You've got to stop throwing yourself at me,' Linden cried over the growling engine.

Max pulled herself away and hunched down
low, gripping the side of the boat with both hands. ‘Born at the wheel of a boat,' she grumbled into the body-blasting wind. ‘Right.'

The boat sped out of the marina into the open sea. It was hurled into the air off the tips of tangled waves. Stefan clung to the wheel with his chin thrust into the wind like a pirate bound for treasure.

When he finally slowed the boat to a stop, his Albert Einstein hair was plastered back into a slick, sea-salted hairdo that looked more like a grey, streamlined racing helmet.

‘That was amazing. Don't you think, Max?' Linden looked around. ‘Max?'

He found his partner crumpled under the seat at the back of the boat, her knuckles white, and it was only now that they'd come to a stop that she opened her eyes. ‘I don't know, am I still alive?'

Stefan stepped away from the wheel and pointed to the white speckled cliffs of the island skyscraping beside him. ‘We are at the island of Gozo, near a place called Ta Cenc. Where does your machine say Alfonzo is now?'

Max's fingers had cramped into clinging hooks. ‘Linden, can you get it?'

Linden tried not to smile as he reached for the Time and Space Machine in Max's belt. When
Max saw Linden's hand approaching, she changed her mind. ‘Actually, it's okay. I'll do it.' She slowly unhooked her fingers, took out the machine and stood up.

Stefan studied the screen. ‘He's near Azure Window. But that's one of the most popular tourist destinations in Malta. Why would he take him there?'

‘I bet it isn't to show him the sights,' Linden guessed.

‘The window.' Max flexed her fingers. ‘It's what one of the men said at the opening night of the Conference. “If he isn't at the window by the end of the week, you'd better start running”.'

‘How far away are we?' Linden asked.

‘Ten minutes.' Stefan started the boat.

‘And if we don't try and break any ocean speed records?'

Stefan laughed. ‘Funny and charming. That's what you are, Max Remy.'

Max resumed her crouched position while Stefan thundered into a high-speed take-off, riding the waves like a professional rodeo rider.

‘Yee har!' he yelled into the wind.

‘Oh boy,' Max mumbled. She shut her eyes bank-vault tight and didn't open them again until
Stefan weighed anchor outside a small bay circled by craggy cliffs.

‘That's the Azure Window over there.' Stefan pointed to an arched rock formation curving over the sea. He looked again at the machine with its red blinking dot. ‘But your machine says Alfonzo is in there.'

Max poked her head above the side of the boat towards the bay and saw a rough sliver of a cave worked into the fold of an overhanging cliff.

Stefan pulled an old hat from his back pocket, pulled it down low and unhooked a fishing rod clipped to the side of the boat. ‘I'll be here. Fishing.' He winked at them. ‘The moment you need my help, just call and I'll be there.'

Max stood up and, as much as she wasn't a fan of snorkelling, was happy to be getting off Stefan's boat. ‘If we need transport, you're our man.'

‘
Grazzi
, Max.' Stefan's eyes teared up. ‘That's a very nice thing to say.'

‘Yep, well, we'll see you soon.'

Max and Linden sat on the side of the boat. They pressed the red buttons on the sides of their shoes to activate the extendable flippers, pulled out their Mini Underwater Snorkels and clamped the nostril pinchers over their noses.

‘Ready?' Max asked nasally.

‘Ready.' Linden gave her a thumbs up.

They bit down on their mouthpieces and toppled backwards into the sea.

With each stroke, the gnarled and craggy coast of Gozo rose and fell before their eyes, bringing them closer to the narrow entrance of the cave, which hunched over them with the poise of a coiled snake.