The Nightmare Vortex (14 page)

Linden and Ella slumped in their seats as the Invisible Jet smoothly navigated the skies above the orange force-field on their way back to Spyforce. Their tattered uniforms had been replaced by their own clothes and the Digital Think-Amajigs had programmed their seats into massage recline mode.

Irene and Steinberger sat behind them and in a rare moment, Steinberger was quiet.

Max, however, wasn't so much ‘slumped' as dumped at the back of the jet, strapped in a slime-proofed crate that Sleek had made up so she wouldn't soil the upholstery. Linden and Ella oohed and aahed at the lights of the cities beneath them and spoke in excited whispers about the success of their mission, while Max wondered about the similarities between her life and a garbage bin on recycling night.

Not long after, the jet decreased its speed as it entered the VART and with all the precision of the Hubble Telescope finding Mars, Sleek brought it down on its exact mark.

The intercom clicked into life.

‘Ladies and gedtlemen, boys and girls, welcobe to Spyforce. I hope you all had a pleasadt jourdey and we thak you for choosig to fly with Sleek.' The disembodied, flu-affected voice was followed by a
series of clicks as Ella, Linden, Steinberger and Irene undid their belts and made their way off the jet.

Max stood in her chewy coating waiting for someone to remember she even existed.

Linden popped his head back in the plane.

‘I knew there was something I forgot.'

Max's mind flooded with insults, but she couldn't use any of them. Linden motioned to Steinberger and the two of them wheeled Max and her crate off the jet and up to the Vibratron 5000. ‘Now, Max,' Steinberger reminded her, ‘until we get you the Slimer antidote, you're going to be very sticky so it would be advisable that you don't touch anything because you may find yourself quite attached.'

The sniggers from Linden and Ella acted on Max's temper like Blue's Electro-Magnetron on the volcano. She crossed her arms against her chest, or at least she did after great chewy clumps of purple slime extended from every tug and stretch. Why was it always she who ended up in these ridiculous situations?

After Steinberger wheeled Max into the terracotta pot elevators, the spies stood outside Harrison's office. Linden offered to open the door.
Max hated having the door opened for her, but that didn't stop him enjoying the look of annoyance on her face when she couldn't refuse. Linden, with an overacted gesture that should have won him an Academy Award, opened the door on an expectant Harrison.

‘Ah, here they are. My favourite spies back from saving the world from one of its greatest potential flosses.' Harrison shook his head. ‘I mean, potential
losses
. Not that I don't believe in flossing. I'm actually a great believer in dental hygiene, and flossing is high on my list.'

Harrison seemed much more relaxed now he was in his office and had slipped from official leader to clumsy bumbler in a matter of about a half an hour.

Steinberger had left the office and returned with super-sized drinks with mango, peach and strawberries lining the rim of the glass. Ella and Linden gripped theirs while Max once again stood there like a flag on a beach at sunset waiting for someone to notice her.

‘Oh, Max. Maybe it's best if you let me do that,' Linden happily obliged.

Max fumed inside her gummy coat of slime and wanted to refuse but couldn't resist the
fruity smells that were making her stomach flip over itself.

‘It seems Spyforce has once again defeated the gaseous plans of Blue and I want all three of you to know we couldn't have done it without glue … make that,
without you
. Not only that, we came away with quite a swag of awards, including Spy Agency of the Year for the fourth year in the snow … I mean,
row
.'

‘What happened to the island?' Ella asked.

‘The Electromagnetic Neutraliser worked just as Quimby built it, so that the increasingly volcanic magma settled back into the gurgling lava bath that it once was.'

‘And Blue?' Linden asked through a juicy slurp.

‘We didn't find him. The Spectral Hologram Mark III he built is a fed pig … sorry, I mean,
effective
. I have Quimby working on something that can counteract it so that next time we'll know exactly where's his fish.'

For the chief of a top spy agency, Linden thought Harrison was sometimes really hard to understand. ‘Sorry, sir?'

‘I mean to say, we'll know exactly
where he is
. Oh, and Max, you'll be happy to know Quimby has identified Blue's anti-matter coating around
the bugging device and she is working on an antidote. It's a tough game trying to stay one step ahead of evil.'

Max's desperation to ask her own questions made her look like she was constipated.

‘Max? Are you okay?' Harrison looked concerned. ‘Steinberger, maybe she can write it down.'

Steinberger leapt to action. He pressed a pen into her gooey hand and held out a notepad. Max pushed through the gum to write: ‘Alex?'

Harrison read the note. ‘Oh, she left. You know how she is. Never a fan of sticking around once a mission is over. And good news about your exams. You all received A's'

Ella and Linden beamed, while Max was disappointed that Alex had left without a word

‘Well Max, we better get you fixed up. Steinberger, take her down to Frond for the antidote, will you?'

Steinberger was instantly overcome with what Max and Linden now knew as Frond-fear. His hands started shaking, his brow broke into a sweat and his words came out like they were being spewed from a blender.

‘Of course … I'll just … why don't I … the Slimer antidote is … Plantorium …'

Harrison never quite worked out why Steinberger was such a brilliant manager but at times became positively strange.

‘Better still, Max, why don't you and Linden go down and Steinberger can take Ella to Sleek.' Harrison saw Ella's face fall. ‘He's waiting at the VART to take you home,' he added gently.

Once again, Max watched as Linden looked like someone who'd just been told all his holidays had been banned for life. Why couldn't he look like that when
she
was leaving?

Linden and Ella said a brief goodbye, but if anything could be read into it, it was more like a gushy Hollywood film condensed into about five seconds.

‘Bye, Max.' For once Max was happy the Silencio was doing such a good job and all she could do was smile. ‘I owe you a lot.' Max's smile dropped. Ella looked like she was going to cry. Why me? She thought. All she wanted was for Ella to be out of her life and the chewy slime to be antidoted away, not to be part of a snivelling crying fest.

‘Ella?'

Phew! It was Steinberger who gently led her out of Max's life. All she had to do now was get the antidote and everything would be rosy — except
when she arrived at the Plantorium, Max was wheeled into a small chrome cubicle where the antidote was sprayed on her from a million jets fixed into the walls like an all-over shower. And it wasn't the kind of shower that made a person feel refreshed.

‘What is that smell?' Linden debated whether holding his breath or breathing Max's new aroma would be more dangerous to his health.

‘It has a fish oil base,' Frond explained apologetically. ‘It'll wear off after a little while.'

Max took her slime-free, fish-smelling body out of the cubicle, mumbled what could have been a thank you to Frond and stomped her fishy way to the VART, where she couldn't wait to use the Time and Space Machine to take them home.

Linden packed his bag as Max sat on her bed and felt the familiar itch of missing him rise in her chest. Since arriving home, her voice had started to come back but it was small and scratchy. Her mother was convinced she had laryngitis and kept force-feeding her hot lemon drinks with chilli and garlic.

‘There you go, sweetie. Just a few more of these and your voice will be back sooner than you know.' Her mother kissed her on the forehead and put another of the stinky potions on Max's desk. ‘Bye, Linden. It was lovely having you stay. I'm off to work but Ben and Francis will be here soon.'

‘My social life's going to be ruined forever if she keeps this up,' Max whispered after she'd gone.

‘Don't worry. I'll still talk to you.'

‘Via email,' Max reminded him.

‘Yeah. Lucky me.' Linden flashed one of his smiles that made Max feel like she was going to collapse in a droopy mess.

‘I guess landing in the compost wouldn't have helped either.' Linden tried to cover his sniggering by leaning into his bag and packing some more socks.

Although the Time and Space Machine had been fixed, it still had some of the old hiccups. But only for her. While she struggled to remove herself
from rotting banana peels, mouldy oranges and sagging lettuce, Linden, of course, had landed comfortably on Max's bed.

In moments like this, Max usually said something sharp, but this time she smiled. Linden caught her eye and laughed even more, until he fell on the bed and they were both rolling around and giggling like they were never going to stop.

Max loved having Linden around. He made everything exciting. Now he was leaving, her house would go back to being its usual loonyland self. Linden made her life feel normal, like other kids. Suddenly she remembered Alex and sat up.

‘Linden?' she croacked. ‘Why doesn't Alex like me?'

Linden sat up and tried to catch his breath. ‘Why do you think Alex doesn't like you?'

Her words came out in a gurgling rush as Max remembered the last few days.

‘Because I tried really hard on this mission and during training and I know I'm not as great a spy as she is but I'm pretty good at some things and even though I was a little clumsy at it I did save her from a boiling pit of lava and helped stop Blue from blowing up the entire world's intelligence agencies but she never once said I was any good.'

Linden grabbed an apple that was sitting on Max's desk next to the garlic potion and munched into it. ‘She does like you.'

‘How do you know?'

‘She told me.'

‘What?'

Linden took another bite of the apple. ‘She said she was proud of you, especially when you used the Abseiler to get her out of that cage. She said it was really brave.' He turned the apple in his hands and took another bite like what he'd said was just something he'd been told and not the most important information in the world.

‘When did she tell you that?'

‘After you'd been slimed, I took the garbage out and saw her as she was leaving.'

‘Why didn't you tell me before?'

Linden didn't understand why Max was looking at him with bugged-out eyes. ‘It didn't come up.'

They sat together for a few moments without saying anything. Linden felt like he'd done something wrong but he wasn't sure what.

‘Why don't people just come out and say things?' Max mumbled to herself, but she was happy Alex had finally said something nice about her.

‘Yeah,' agreed Linden, glad the silence was over. ‘Like Frond and Steinberger. If he doesn't tell her he likes her, the guy's going to explode.'

‘You think that's what people should do? Just say when they like someone?' Max's stomach did this kind of weird flip as she waited for his answer.

‘Oh yeah,' he said through another crunch of apple. ‘My dad's always going on about how people should say what they mean and stop beating around the bush.'

‘He says that?' Max's heart was thumping so hard she was sure Linden was going to hear it.

‘Yeah. Don't get him started on it. He reckons most people know what they want to say but never say it.' Linden thought Max looked odd. ‘Are you okay? You look pale.'

‘Yeah. Fine. Good,' stammered Max.

‘Hope you're not getting that flu. Knocked down half of the northern hemisphere.'

‘It's not the flu,' she croaked. Her mouth went dry and the words she wanted to say were sticking to her tongue like peanut butter. ‘It's something else.'

This was it, Max's chance to say what she'd wanted to say for months.

‘It's just that … that …'

And as if on cue, the doorbell rang.

‘That'll be Ben and Francis,' Linden said. Max watched her chance of telling him how she felt disappear as he ran down the stairs.

‘Well, here she is. Saved the world again, I hear?' Francis smiled proudly as Max dragged herself into the lounge room.

‘Not exactly.' She blushed.

‘Harrison reckons you did.' Ben spotted a bowl of peanuts on the coffee table and started throwing them in the air and catching them in his mouth. ‘He also wanted to say how pleased he was with the Time and Space Machine.'

‘It works great, except Max might have something to say about the landings.' Linden grinned.

‘Yeah, sorry about that. We'll have it fixed before you ruin too many more clothes.' Ben had this way of being sweet but also couldn't help enjoying a funny situation. He finished the peanuts and plonked the bowl back on the table before standing up. ‘Right, Linden. Gotta go. Your dad's missed you and Eleanor's got this red-hot meal ready for us when we get back.'

Linden raced upstairs for his bags. Max's head filled with images of the farm, Eleanor's food and the party they were going to have without her.

Ben guessed the reason for her sagging.

‘Now, Miss. I've got something I want to say. Your visit's overdue. I thought I told you to come back soon.' He tried to look stern as he picked her up and swept her into one of his bear hugs. ‘And besides,' he winked at Linden standing ready with his bags, ‘once the Time and Space Machine has been adjusted, we'll need someone to test those landings on.'

Max laughed. Ben looked a little more serious. ‘Your room's always ready for you, you know that.'

He put her down beside Francis. ‘See you, Max,' he muttered. ‘Doesn't feel right when you're not there.'

‘Yeah,' said Linden. ‘Just as I get used to having you around I have to say goodbye. See you for our next mission, eh?' And with a wink and one of his blinding smiles, Linden walked out after Ben and Francis and they were gone. Max raced up to her room and waved as they packed the car.

How come other people can do it? Max thought. It happens all over the world. Every day. People saying they like each other. I can save the world but I can't say a simple thing to someone I really like.

Linden turned and waved and gave her a
salute. She saluted back and laughed. They made a good team and maybe, one day, she'd even work out how to tell him so.