Spyforce Revealed (5 page)

As they drove through the rickety front gate that was only just managing to stand up (Ben and Eleanor were brilliant scientists, but they knew nothing about being handy around a farm), Max could see them all there: Ben, Eleanor, Francis and Linden. Her heart slammed in one enormous leap against her chest. She'd missed them so much since the Christmas holidays, but it wasn't until she saw them again that she knew how much. The last few days blew away in a trail of dust behind her and Aidan, Peasers, Hollingdale and Toby went with it.

When they pulled up, the following few minutes were pretty awkward and went something like this.

After the usual routine of Eleanor asking Max's mother to stay, her mother's eyes darted all over the place while she offered a few lame excuses of why she couldn't. Ben stood by not saying much as a few more awkward pauses made their way into the conversation before Max interrupted them all by saying goodbye to her mother and everyone waved her off. After that the car window was quickly wound up (so none of the country could creep in and dirty the polished leather seats) and Max's mother breathed a sigh of relief as she headed back to the city.

They all watched the car disappear down the dirt drive and Max wondered why her mother always had to make a quick exit when it came to her own family. She didn't even say hello to Linden or Francis.

‘Let me look at you,' said Eleanor, turning towards Max with a smile plastered all over her face.

She leant down and put her hands around Max's cheeks, the folds of her dress sweeping around them like sails and they were both on the high seas. ‘You're even more beautiful than I remember from the last time.'

No one had ever said that to Max before and she'd never thought of herself as beautiful. Ben saw that Eleanor's words made her feel uncomfortable and stepped in to save her.

‘Now Eleanor, Max doesn't need you embarrassing her in the first few minutes she's here.' He put his arm around her and swooped her into the air.

‘Yeah,' said Linden. ‘There's plenty of time for Max to embarrass herself later.'

Linden! It was so good to hear his jokes again. Only Max would never let him know it.

‘Good to see you haven't done anything about improving your sense of humour. Wouldn't want you to change just because I'm back.'

Linden smiled, glad to see Max could still be funny when she wanted to be.

There was one person left. Francis. When Max and Linden first met him in London a few months ago, he was scrawny and bent-looking, with hardly enough fat on his bones to count as anything. Now he looked fit and healthy, with his cheeks full of colour, his chest filled out and it seemed he stood a whole ruler length taller.

‘Hi, Francis.' Max suddenly felt very shy.

‘Hi,' he said quietly, looking down and not knowing what to do with any of his lanky body.

A silence sat between them like a giant clump of cow manure, until something happened to get rid of it. A great leaping sack of fur burst from the verandah, jumped down the steps and crash-landed on Max.

‘Aahhh!' she yelled as her body flew through the air like a splattered pancake. This was followed by a lot of muffled cries as a mini dust storm rose around the confusion of fur and what were once Max's upright limbs.

Ralph!

It took a few moments for everyone to realise the affectionate mutt had escaped from his lead and was so excited by Max's return
he'd forgotten all the rules of how to say a proper hello.

‘Gerr 'im orff meee!' they thought they heard Max cry.

Ben and Linden charged towards the dusty muddle and pulled Ralph away, but not before he'd done a good job of covering her clothes in a solid coat of dirt and fur and her face in enough dog slobber to fill a bucket.

‘I forgot about you,' she growled, as she wiped her sleeve across her mouth.

Ralph whined, suspecting perhaps he'd overdone his welcome.

‘Sorry about that, Max,' said Eleanor. ‘We tied him up but ever since he heard you were coming he's been falling over his own tail with excitement.'

It wasn't that Max didn't like animals, she just liked it better when they kept away from her. Ralph, unfortunately, never got the hint, no matter how hard she tried to let him know it.

‘Linden, would you mind taking him out the back?' Eleanor asked. ‘You can tie him to the peach tree. Make sure he has plenty of water. We'll go inside and welcome Max in a more pleasant way.'

Linden led the down-hearted Ralph away as Max followed Eleanor, Francis and Ben inside.
Before she closed the door, Max stopped and looked around the farm. When she first arrived here last Christmas, she was determined to hate it, but now she was back, it filled her with a warm, soft feeling in her stomach.

It was good to be back.

But as she turned to walk through the door, a squawking cackle of feathers exploded in front of her face like a feather pillow put through a shredder.

Max pulled her head back and only just avoided the soaring, screeching attack. The chicken! she thought angrily, realising she'd only just avoided having her eyes plucked out.

‘You think you're clever, don't you? Waiting until everyone has gone before you make your move,' she said to the clucking lunatic who was acting all pure and sweet and pecking seed from the ground like it hadn't done anything.

‘Don't think I'm not onto you,' Max warned.

The bird cackled quietly like it was smugly mumbling to itself.

‘Next time you pull a stunt like that there's going to be fried chicken all round.'

The chicken pecked and clucked louder, which made Max even more angry.

‘And don't think I don't know what you're saying either,' she hissed.

‘I didn't say anything.'

Max cringed as she turned around and saw Linden standing by the verandah.

‘I wasn't talking to you,' she said frowning, annoyed that she'd been caught talking to a chicken.

‘Well who were you talking to?' he asked, acting as innocent as the chicken.

‘No one.' Max hoped he'd accept that for an answer.

‘You were talking to Geraldine, weren't you?'

Max laughed. ‘As if I'd be talking to a chicken.' She tried to look convincing but even Geraldine stopped pecking and stared straight at her.

‘You were talking to someone,' he said persistently.

Why didn't Linden ever know when it was time to let something go?

‘Are you two coming inside?' asked Eleanor, popping her head out the front door.

Saved! Max thought. ‘Yep. Just having a look at the farm.'

‘A pretty close look,' said Linden, as he picked a chicken feather from her hair.

‘Let's go inside,' Max said quickly, wanting to
change the subject and suddenly remembering the other animal that had smudged itself all over her. ‘I need to de-Ralph myself.'

Max headed straight for the bathroom and after a complete scrub-down she went to the kitchen to find a ‘Welcome Back Max Feast'. Eleanor, Ben, Francis and Linden, all wearing big hats, stood around a table so packed with food there was hardly any room for plates. There were streamers and balloons, and candles on a chocolate-covered cream-and-strawberry-filled cake, and above it a bright red banner strung across the length of the kitchen that read, ‘We Missed You Max'.

It was another of those times in Max's life when she was looking at one of the best things ever done for her and the only thing she could think to say was, ‘Thanks.'

As if that was the signal to start, everyone sat down and dug in. Plates were passed over heads, gravy was poured over sausages, corned beef and vegetables, spoons clanged against bowls as mashed potato was scooped out and piled high next to beans, peas, beetroot, broccoli, pumpkin, yellow squash and honeyed carrots, making everything look like giant tubes of paint had been squirted everywhere.

Eating was so quiet in Max's home. There was the correct amount of matching knives and forks, small portions of food carefully arranged on plates and her mother always had on what she called her ‘dinner' music. Something classical or something filled with tiny bells and the sound of dolphins or whales. She'd read that it helped digestion, which Max could have told her wasn't true because it always made her want to throw up.

At the farm, dinner was filled with clanging and laughing and excited talk that flew around the table. Max was burning to know the most important thing.

‘Is the Time and Space Machine nearly finished?'

There was a brief silence as Francis and Ben looked at each other.

‘We've been busy lately and haven't been able to spend as much time on it as we'd have liked,' said Ben, shovelling another spoonful of peas and mash into his mouth.

Everyone kept eating but Max had to know more.

‘So it's only a little more ahead than when I was here last?'

‘In some ways, yes,' stuttered Ben, shooting a quick look across at Francis.

More clanging and silence and eating. This was getting frustrating.

‘In which ways?' Max was feeling a little nervous about how quiet everyone was being.

‘Well, you see Max …'

Max was instantly wary. When sentences started with ‘well, you see Max …' people were usually trying to avoid telling her something she wasn't going to like.

‘… there's been a slight hitch,' Ben continued.

‘What kind of hitch?' she asked slowly.

‘When Francis got back to Australia it wasn't long before people found out he was here and were keen to get him working again,' explained Ben. ‘We'd started work on the machine but had to stop because Francis kept getting called away for other projects.'

‘So how far did you get?' asked Max, not sure if she wanted to hear the answer.

‘Maybe it's best if we just show you.' Ben wiped his mouth and pushed back his chair.

When they got to the shed and Max stood in front of the machine, a few things happened. First, she felt numb and tried to focus on what she was
seeing, then she felt confused, which was followed by a swift feeling of anger and finally panic.

And all of this in about one minute flat.

‘What happened?' she asked when her mouth finally worked after the shock.

‘In order to get the machine right, we decided that we had to start from scratch. Especially as we had the Time and Space Retractor Meter Francis brought back from London.' Ben was speaking calmly, like it was no big deal and he wasn't ruining every chance Max had of getting to London for her Spyforce meeting. ‘And this is how far we got.'

In front of Max and spread from one end of the shed to the other, was the Time and Space Machine but in so many pieces, she wondered that they would ever go together again. It was like a huge asteroid belt of boulders and space junk, with bits of the machine strewn everywhere.

Linden was just as shocked.

‘I knew they'd had a setback but I didn't know it was this far back.'

Ben looked at their disappointed faces and tried to cheer them up.

‘In a few months, things'll calm down and the world will know the Time and Space Machine. Just not yet.'

Max and Linden sagged like two paper dolls left in the rain. All the colour and shape washed away.

Ben tried again to lift their spirits. ‘We have made one discovery that is very important. Francis is great at desserts and has made an enormous sticky date pudding he needs help demolishing. So who wants to help us out?'

Max and Linden heard none of Ben's talking. All they could see were their hopes of going to London spelt out in the chaos of the Time and Space Machine ruins. Max had never felt so sad in her life and apart from a total reality flip or being transferred into someone else's life, she didn't know how she'd ever be happy again.

Max and Linden sat at Eleanor's computer and wondered what to write. They'd been staring at the screen for ten minutes and nothing had come to them.

‘Maybe start with a joke,' Linden suggested. ‘Make them feel relaxed.'

Max took her eyes away from the screen briefly just to show Linden how unwelcome his suggestion was. ‘They're a major secret spy agency,' she said. ‘I don't think feeling relaxed is a priority.'

She turned back to the screen as she thought of the Time and Space Machine spread out across Ben's laboratory floor like a scarecrow with all its stuffing pulled out. Her body slumped over the keyboard, feeling the same.

‘We just have to tell them the truth,' she said sadly as she started to write.

Regards,

Max and Linden

 

‘What do you think?' she asked.

‘I'm not sure. You don't think it sounds a little too casual?' he asked sarcastically.

‘I want to show them we aren't kids.'

‘But we are kids,' said Linden, not under-standing why Max found it so hard to be herself sometimes.

‘You know what I mean,' she snapped and pressed
send
. The message was gone.

They both sat staring at the empty screen.

‘What do you think they wanted to meet us for?' asked Linden.

‘I guess we'll never know.' As Max said this, she felt even sadder than she did before.

Outside, Ralph whined like he was just as disappointed as they were.

‘Coming, fella,' said Linden as he leaned towards the window and waved. ‘Better go. It's my turn to have Ralph and he doesn't like getting home after dark.'

Linden stood up from the desk.

‘Don't worry, Max. My mum used to say when one door closes another opens. You'll see, something will happen next that will be great.'

He waited for Max to say something but she didn't.

‘See you tomorrow then,' he said and left the room.

Linden's words floated around Max's head like flying ants she wished would go away. When doors closed in Max's life, other ones locked ever tighter. When her dad went away, her mum became bossy and never seemed as relaxed as she used to be. When she left her last school and best friend, she ended up at Hollingdale where no one liked her. She wanted to believe Linden but she knew her life too well to know things worked any differently.

She shut down the computer and went to the kitchen to say goodnight but stopped when she was met with the three backsides of Ben, Eleanor and Francis, whose heads were poking out the kitchen window into the yard.

‘What's going on?'

‘It's Larry,' said Eleanor. ‘He's been building a haystack out here for an hour.'

Larry was a pig who predicted the weather. Or
at least that's what Max had been told. She wasn't convinced this wasn't just Ben, Eleanor and Linden nursing a mild dose of lunacy.

‘What does that mean?' asked Max, curious despite her scepticism.

‘Means there's going to be a wind storm,' said Ben, without a skerrick of doubt in his voice. ‘A big one judging by the size of that stack.'

Max stared at all three rear ends as they continued to poke their heads out the window.

‘Why a haystack?' asked Max, not sure why she even asked.

‘He likes to see them tumble down when the wind comes up,' said Ben, chuckling. ‘Gets a real kick out of it.'

That was all Max needed to know about Larry and his haystack for now. She suddenly felt tired and didn't want to talk any more.

‘Night then.' She turned to leave them to their staring.

‘Would you like me to come and tuck you in?' asked Eleanor, bringing her head in from outside.

‘No, I'll be right,' said Max and dragged herself to bed.

When she woke up the next morning, Max didn't open her eyes straightaway. The sound of Ben and Eleanor singing a soppy love song filtered into her room like the smell of rotting fish in the sun. Max loved Ben and Eleanor, but if they could sing in key it wouldn't have been quite as terrible. To add to that, the morning was hot and steamy with a warm breeze blowing directly onto her face, which nearly made her pass out with the smell of the farm it carried with it.

‘Country life stinks sometimes,' she mumbled, referring to the smell and her memory of the broken Time and Space Machine. But when she opened her eyes she was met with something even more terrible. Two bulging, bloodshot eyes she was sure belonged to a weird, psychopathic alien.

Her heart pounded as she faced the fierce creature and remembered something.

She remembered to scream.

‘Aahhh!'

The alien eyes became bigger and even more bloodshot before disappearing under the bed as Ben and Eleanor rushed into the room.

‘What is it?' they asked, pushing their faces into hers.

‘It was … I saw … I think …' said Max, not knowing what it was.

‘Take your time, Max. Tell us what happened,' said Eleanor gently, just as a whimper was heard from beneath the bed.

Max's eyes narrowed. ‘Ralph,' she whispered, as she saw images of the ragged mutt being packed off to the other side of the world on a very,
very
, slow boat.

Ben plunged under the bed as Eleanor winced. ‘Sorry, Max. We told him to stay outside. Normally he's very obedient but he's taken such a liking to you he doesn't seem to listen to a word we say.'

‘Come on, Ralph. That's your fun for the day over,' Ben wheezed as he pulled the reluctant canine out. ‘It's the doghouse for you, sunshine.'

Ralph looked over his shoulder at a scowling Max as he crept outside after Ben.

‘Why doesn't he get that I don't like him?'

‘He can't help it. It's that magnetic personality of yours.' Linden was standing at the door munching on a capsicum.

Sometimes Linden did that. It was like he never walked into a room but would somehow just appear.

‘How about some breakfast and you can try out more of your eagerly awaited humour then?' said Eleanor, looking at Max and smiling.

Linden opened his mouth to say something else but before he could, the phone rang. ‘Maybe I'll just get that.'

‘You'd be doing the world a great favour,' said Max. ‘Or at least this part of it.'

Eleanor sat down on the bed next to Max.

‘I'm sorry about Ralph. He's usually so shy. Looks like you've brought out the wild side in him.'

‘Great. I won't be chalking that up as one of my talents.'

‘Max!' Linden called from the hall. ‘Phone for you.'

Max froze. Maybe it was Spyforce ringing with a plan to get them to London. Or maybe they were going to bring the meeting here. Or maybe it was …

‘It's your mum.'

My mum! she thought, as she got out of bed and walked to the phone. What does she want?

Linden put his hand over the receiver and almost in answer to her thought said, ‘She wants to know how you're doing.'

‘How I'm doing?' Max asked incredulously. Her mother never called to see how she was doing. ‘She must have cooked up some other way to ruin my life.'

Linden handed her the receiver.

‘Hello,' she said, warily.

Pause.

‘Yep, I'm fine,' she said, not sounding fine at all.

Another pause. Longer this time.

‘Sounds great.' But the way Max said it, whatever her mother said didn't seem great at all.

An even longer pause and then, ‘Okay, bye.'

Max hung up and stared at the phone. ‘Peasers! That speech of hers really worked its way into Mum's head and I'm the one who's going to have to pay for it.'

‘What did she say?' asked Linden.

‘She wants to spend a lot more time with me when I get back. Wants to sit with me while I do my homework. Make quality time every afternoon to talk about our days and share our feelings.'

‘Are you sure it was your mother?' asked Linden.

‘Sounded like her. And she wants us to share time with Aidan.'

Linden had heard all about Aidan from Max's email.

‘So the forecast is bad?'

‘Couldn't be worse.' Max turned and made her way to the kitchen.

But after breakfast, something happened to
change everything. Max and Linden were sitting at Eleanor's computer when an email from R.L. Steinberger arrived. It had one simple message:

 

Don't worry about transport problems. All will be taken care of. Be in the back paddock at eight o'clock tonight.

 

And that was it.

‘What does it mean?' asked Linden.

‘Not sure, but I guess we better be in the paddock at eight o'clock to find out,' Max said slowly, letting the message sink in. ‘And that we're going to be at that Spyforce meeting after all.'

Max and Linden stared at the screen before turning and smiling at each other.

‘Aaaahhhh!' they both screamed excitedly.

Eleanor rushed in to see what was wrong.

‘What happened?' she asked, worried it was another animal attack.

Max and Linden looked at each other. They couldn't let Eleanor know what they were planning. She'd think it was too dangerous and try to stop them. Max had wanted to be a spy all her life and she couldn't risk anything spoiling it now.

‘Nothing,' she said, trying to think of a cover. ‘Linden just told another one of his jokes.' She
smiled, pleased she could have a dig at his humour.

‘Maybe you could hold over on being funny for the rest of the day, Linden. I think my heart has had about as much as it can take of it for one morning.' Eleanor gave a half smile, half frown as she left the room.

Max was chuffed. ‘Sorry. Just had to get that in.'

‘It's okay. It's your way of coping with being in the presence of great comedy.'

‘So that's what they're calling it these days, are they?' she asked.

‘You better believe it.' Linden smiled. Max did have a sense of humour when she wanted to.

They both turned to the screen. After all Max had been through in the last few days it felt like the world was finally going her way. She'd have given anything to go to London. Even spending more time with fashion-tragic Aidan didn't seem so bad now.

A smile trickled onto her lips as she knew her life was about to change forever.