In Search of the Time and Space Mach (11 page)

‘Max, are you okay?' Linden asked.

‘Yeah,' she said. ‘Except we're going to die!'

‘Will you stop looking down!' Linden cried.

Max looked up but she was still breathing fast.

Linden thought hard about how he could make her calm.

‘If you could get rid of any vegetable in the world, what would it be?' he asked.

Max scowled.

‘What?'

‘If you could get rid of any vegetable in the world, what would it be?' Linden repeated.

‘I don't know,' she said, thinking Linden had lost it.

‘Nobody likes every vegetable. Even you. Now, what would it be?'

Max thought about it.

‘Cabbage,' she said, breathing a little slower.

‘I'd get rid of brussel sprouts,' said Linden. ‘I've never seen the point of those and I have to have a dad who grows them.'

Linden went on.

‘If you won a zillion trillion million dollars what would you do with it?'

‘Buy the biggest bar of chocolate I could,' said Max quickly.

‘Chocolate? But you're a health freak,' said Linden.

‘I know, but when I'm worried I like to eat chocolate,' explained Max.

Linden tried to think of another question.

‘If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?' he asked.

Max thought about this one.

‘Anything?' she asked.

‘Anything,' said Linden.

Max thought some more.

‘I'd have a mother and father who both lived with me,' she said in a much calmer voice.

‘Yeah, me too,' he said quietly.

Max and Linden looked at each other and smiled.

‘Max, what was it you wanted to say to me before we went through the waterfall?'

‘Oh, I just wanted to say …' Max began, but she was interrupted as the suspension bridge suddenly jerked downwards.

‘What's happening?' she shouted, panicking again.

‘We're being lowered towards the jelly,' cried Linden.

Max screamed.

‘We're going to die!'

In his office, Mr Blue sat with Ms Peckham and his bodyguards over cups of tea.

‘Not long now and I'll have the vital component I need to create history,' smirked Mr Blue. ‘Once the Time and Space Machine is finished, everyone will want it and we'll become the richest people in the world. Governments will want it to build economies and win elections, prisoners will want it to escape to safety in another era, rich people will want to take exotic holidays. I don't care what they use it for, as long as I make lots of money.'

Mr Blue, Ms Peckham and the bodyguards laughed while on the wall behind them, a monitor displayed the scared faces of Linden and Max being lowered towards the vat of green jelly.

Ms Peckham's mobile phone rang.

‘Hello?'

There was a pause while Ms Peckham listened.

‘Send him up,' she said and turned to Mr Blue. ‘Not long now until the past, present and future of the world is ours.'

The door opened and Francis entered the room.

‘How wonderful to see you again, Francis.'

Mr Blue stood up and held out his hand.

Francis didn't move.

‘Where are Max and Linden?' he said, his face looking stern.

‘They're busy for the moment, which gives us a chance to catch up and talk about old times,' said Mr Blue.

‘I didn't come here to talk, I came to get Max and Linden,' said Francis. ‘They have no business with you!'

‘Oh, but they do.' Mr Blue added with a smarmy grin, ‘Let me show you.'

Mr Blue pointed to the monitor where Francis saw Linden and Max dangling less than a metre above the jelly and getting lower each minute.

Francis lunged at Mr Blue but the bodyguards stepped in front and held him back.

‘They haven't done anything! What do you want with them?' yelled Francis.

Mr Blue sat down in his chair and took a sip of his tea.

‘Oh, I think you know that, Francis,' he said. ‘You're going to hand over the Time and Space Retractor Meter or Max and Linden will be on tonight's menu as dessert.'

Francis tried to wrestle free from the guards but they were too strong for him.

‘You only want the machine so you can use it
for your evil scheming ways,' he shouted.

‘Evil is in the eye of the beholder,' said Mr Blue with a sickly sweet smile.

Francis stared at the monitor not knowing what to do. He had to save Linden and Max before they drowned in the vat of jelly, but he also knew if Mr Blue got his hands on the Time and Space Retractor Meter, the world would never be the same again.

Mr Blue turned to the bodyguards.

‘Take him down to the Jelly Room where he can enjoy the show up close. Maybe that will convince him to help me.'

The guards dragged Francis away.

‘You'll never get away with this, Blue!' Francis shouted.

‘We're going to die!' screamed Max for what seemed like the tenth time.

‘Don't you have anything more useful to say?' asked Linden, sick of hearing her predict their end.

‘Not when we're going to die!' Max yelled.

She'd really lost it this time, Linden realised, as their shoes reached the top of the green jelly. It couldn't end like this. Not after they'd come so far and got so close to completing Mission Matter Transporter.

Again, he struggled to think of what they could do.

Why not use the CTR to call the top security forces in England so they could rescue them! But he didn't know the number or how they would find Mr Blue's hideout.

He did know Ella's number though!

‘Max?' asked Linden.

‘We're going to die,' sighed Max, watching the jelly seep into her favourite pair of blue sports shoes.

‘No we won't, I've got an idea,' said Linden. ‘We can get Ella to rescue us.'

Max stopped panicking and turned her head towards Linden.

‘Well isn't she just great?' said Max sarcastically.

‘What is your problem with Ella?' demanded Linden.

Max thought hard.

‘She … she …' Max floundered.

‘Well?' asked Linden.

‘She flirted and wasted our time when we had important work to do.'

‘You're jealous!' Linden said.

‘Me?' Max laughed. ‘Jealous?'

‘Yeah, and the sooner you get over it the better because the jelly has reached almost up to our shins.'

Max looked down, saw the jelly soaking into her jeans and forgot all about Ella.

‘We're going to die!' she called out.

Linden pressed the button on the CTR that sent a signal to Ella.

He waited a few seconds before a signal came back and he heard Ella's voice.

‘Linden, where are you?' she asked frantically.

‘We're at Mr Blue's hideout,' said Linden.

‘It works!' shouted Max. ‘That's great!'

‘Are you okay?' asked Ella, sounding worried.

‘I've been in more friendly places,' said Linden, trying not to let on they were about to become giant jelly babies.

‘We just need to talk for a few minutes to give the CTR a chance to get a reading of where you are,' said Ella.

‘We want you to do something first,' said Linden. ‘We've got a recording of Mr Blue that will prove to the world he is a fake. Is there any way we can get it to you?'

The jelly soaked up to Max's and Linden's knees as they listened to Ella's instructions.

‘Each recording is saved as a document,' explained Ella. ‘Enter the number of the document and using the main menu press
transfer
.'

Linden did what Ella said and the communication device hummed as it transferred the recording.

‘Got it!' Ella cried.

‘Take it to the top security forces as soon as you can and we'll finally stop Mr Blue in his tracks,' said Linden. ‘Has the reading of our location come through yet?'

‘Nothing. Mr Blue may have put some kind of magnetic force around his hideout to stop detection by devices such as radars and the CTR,' said Ella.

‘At least we've got him on tape,' said Linden.

‘Yeah. Mum and I will get it to the right people as soon as we can. Then we'll see you soon,' she said hopefully.

‘We'll be gone,' said Linden sadly.

‘Oh,' said Ella, unable to hide her disappointment.

‘We've got to get back to Australia. But I'll talk to you when we get there,' Linden added.

‘I'll miss you,' said Ella.

‘Me too,' Linden replied quietly. ‘Bye.'

Just then the door opened and Francis, with his arms held behind his back, was hustled into the room by the two bodyguards. Linden quickly turned off the CTR and tucked it into his pocket.

‘Francis! You came!' shouted Max.

The bodyguards stood over Francis.

‘When you're ready to help, just press this button here and the kids will be saved,' said one of the guards, pointing to a large red button on the wall.

‘It's all up to you, Mr Professor,' they sneered as they left the room.

Francis was shocked to see how deep in the jelly Max and Linden were.

‘I'm sorry I got you kids mixed up in this,' he said. ‘We have to find a way of getting you out of here.'

Max's face brightened, knowing exactly what Alex Crane would do in a situation like this.

‘That depends,' she said as the jelly squelched up to her waist. ‘Are you ready for a big trip?'

Linden smiled excitedly, knowing what Max was thinking.

‘We could use the Matter Transporter to take us to Australia.'

Max looked at Francis.

‘That's if you want to,' she said quietly.

‘That way we escape from here, keep the Time and Space Machine from Mr Blue and get back to Australia before Ben and Eleanor wake up,' cried Linden.

They sank deeper into the jelly as Francis's face grimaced in trying to decide what to do.

‘Only we have to go now,' said Max.

Francis saw the jelly rise still higher.

‘Let's do it!' he said.

‘Do you have the Retractor Meter with you?' asked Max.

‘It's somewhere safe,' Francis replied, pointing to the soul of his left shoe.

Linden and Max beamed.

‘Now for the control panel,' Linden said.

Max instructed Linden over her shoulder. ‘See if you can reach into my bag and get it.'

Linden managed to do as she said and manoeuvred the panel out, holding it so Max could see.

‘How does it look?' he asked nervously.

The red light beeped faintly.

‘The signal's really weak,' said Max.

She looked at Francis. ‘Do you think it will work?'

‘If Ben has made it following our plans, it will be fine as long as the jelly hasn't short-circuited the initialisation panel,' said Francis.

Max, Linden and Francis looked worried.

‘We have to try,' said Linden.

Max's fingers wriggled towards the rod at the side of the control panel.

‘Can you hold it out a little more?' she asked Linden. ‘I can't quite see the screen.'

Linden forced his hands to stretch as far as the rope would let him towards Max. An image of the room appeared before her on the LED screen and she did her best to draw an outline with the plastic rod around her, Linden and Francis.

‘Done,' she said breathlessly. ‘You might feel a bit of tingling when you make contact with the transporter capsule, but you'll be fine,' Max explained to Francis.

She moved the rod onto the
activate
key. There was a small
zap
sound and a quick flash of light. Francis held his arm out in front
of him as sparks ricocheted around him. His eyes brightened.

‘Ben, you did it,' he said quietly.

Linden held the control panel above the rising jelly. Max tried not to panic as she used the rod to type Ben and Eleanor's address in Australia.

‘See you all when we get there,' she said.

‘Happy flying,' said Linden, trying to smile, but worrying that transporting all three of them with a weak power signal was probably very risky.

‘Ready? Three, two, one.'

Max took a deep breath and brought the rod down onto the
transport
key.

The room shook and filled with noise. There was the whirring sound that got louder and louder, echoing off the walls of the Jelly Room. Max and Linden closed their eyes as the jelly wobbled around them and swirled across the room in green flying bits.

There was an explosion of sound and light.

And then they were gone.

Ms Peckham's eyes widened as she stared at the monitor.

‘Mr Blue, I think you should see this,' she said.

Mr Blue walked over to the monitor. He was smiling.

‘Have they finally decided to give themselves up?' he beamed.

‘Not quite,' said Ms Peckham shakily.

Mr Blue looked at the monitor and the smile fell from his face like a brick.

‘Where are they?' he asked, his voice shaking with anger.

‘They just,' Ms Peckham struggled to find the right word, ‘disappeared.'

‘Disappeared!' shouted Mr Blue. ‘They can't just have disappeared!'

He turned to the two bodyguards, who shrugged their shoulders.

‘Find them!' he barked. ‘Or you'll end up in something far worse than a vat of jelly!'

Mr Blue's face went beetroot red as the guards backed out of the room.

‘If Francis and those kids have escaped, this will not be the last they hear of me,' he said to Ms Peckham. ‘The day they met me will haunt them forever!'