The Venice Job (12 page)

‘Alberto?' Luca wondered why he just stood there.

‘It seems Toby's parents didn't teach him it was wrong to take something that didn't belong to him.' Alberto held up a map of Venice that held similar markings to the one Steinberger had sent them – the locations of the bombs!

‘That must be the map Toby found in Signora Antonelli's study.' Linden felt a shiver of fear. ‘Where is he?'

‘I told you, you don't need to worry about him.'

‘Tell us where Toby is,' Max demanded.

The sneezing guy's laugh ran down Max's spine like ice.

Alberto ignored Max's question and pulled open two scuffed and worn cellar doors set into the floor.

‘Please.' Alberto's smile lifted like a slowly rising cobra. It was then Max remembered where she'd seen that smile.

‘You're the one who tried to push me into the canal.'

Alberto simply smiled again. ‘This way, if you will.'

‘No!' Luca yelled, fury gripping his body. ‘We're not going anywhere. You were involved with the threat to Venice from the very beginning! That's how my father received the note and how our every move has been followed. How could you?' He screamed. ‘How could you?'

Luca ran at Alberto, pounding his fists into his chest.

Alberto's fingers dug into Luca's wrists. The two wrestled until Alberto flung Luca away in one solid push.

Luca fell backwards down through the cellar doors and landed with a hard thump.

‘Luca!' Max and Linden ran down the stairs after him.

‘I'm okay,' Luca gasped as he lay on the bottom step above a cold, ink-black canal.

The cellar doors slammed above them and Alberto and the sneezing man followed them down. ‘Now, I must insist.'

He signalled to a speedboat that was moored to the dock beside them.

Linden gave Max a slight nod, admitting that, for now, they had no other choice.

‘I'm not going without Toby,' Max shouted, but a bolt of panic shuddered through her as Alberto's gun nudged into her back. She reluctantly followed the others into the speedboat, when she heard Alberto mutter, ‘
Chi trova un amico, trova un tesoro
.'

Max's breath caught in her chest. They were Signora Antonelli's exact words. Toby was right, she was involved after all, and something terrible may have happened to him trying to prove it.

The two men laughed a mean and twisted laugh that Max felt was aimed at her for being so easy to fool. Her memories of Signora Antonelli – the rescue, her kind smile and her dark honey voice – clouded over like the darkened waters of the canal.

The sneezing man untied the boat and kept his gun trained on their captives as Alberto slid into the driver's seat and started the engine.

It was only hours until midnight and they hadn't found the detonator. As the boat slowly crept into the canal, the cold February wind forced its way against them, biting at their skin and carrying with it a moody warning of bad things to come.

The boat sped through the cold winds of the Venice evening, away from Signora Antonelli's palazzo and into the open waters of the Venetian Lagoon. The lights of the Piazza San Marco, the safety of Luca's home and, Max thought painfully, her trust in Signora Antonelli, were all quickly left behind.

Max looked at Luca's drawn face. Even though she'd hidden in coolrooms and fallen into wintry canals and vats of frozen ice-cream, for the first time since she'd arrived in Venice, she felt a deep, chilling cold that soaked straight through to her bones.

The journey was over in what felt like minutes.

Luca, who had been staring at Alberto's darkened silhouette for the entire journey, looked up and only then realised where they were. ‘San Michele. The Island of the Dead.'

‘I thought your plan wasn't to take us here.' Linden attempted a joke.

‘It wasn't.' Luca's voice was empty and distant.

A large brick wall ran around the island dotted by the powerful silhouettes of tall cypress trees that stood like an army of impassable sentinels.

Alberto slowly brought the boat in beside a badly damaged and closed wharf and secured it with a rope. It looked like years since the wharf had
been used and the entry gate had been boarded up. ‘Last stop,' he said. ‘Everybody out.'

The three spies climbed out of the boat while Alberto aimed his gun directly at them. The wharf swayed under their weight with each tidal swell. Max almost fell, but Linden caught hold of her. Luca turned back briefly to look at the boat.

‘It's the boat you and I escaped in,' he said to Max. ‘I asked Alberto to return it with an apology and some money.'

‘Why would he keep it?' Max looked down at the rising tide of the lagoon splashing through the gnarled and broken planks of the wharf beneath them.

The sneezing man scrambled onto the damaged wharf and tied them roughly to a support pole.

‘Easy,' Max said, quickly switching on the video recorder in her watch before her hands were bound to her sides. ‘I want to be able to use these arms after I've escaped from here.'

‘Oh, there will be no escaping.' Alberto almost giggled.

Another boat approached the island. Max squinted into the darkness but only made out the identity of the passengers when they reached the wharf.

‘Signora Antonelli?' Luca gasped. She was with
the second black-caped man who had been following them.

The boat pulled up beside them and threw a rope around a support pole.

‘Hello, my dears,' said the Signora from the boat. ‘I'm so sorry to drag you away from the party.'

‘Signora Antonelli. We know it was you who planted the bombs to destroy Venice,' Max replied.

‘Yes, it was. I was happy being the good girl for a while but I'm over it now.' She looked at them with fake sadness. ‘Just like I'm over you.'

Luca felt swallowed by disbelief and sadness at what Signora Antonelli was saying.

Max stared directly at her and spoke into the wind. ‘My “swim” in the canal during the storm? My fall into the ice-cream vat? That was all your doing?'

‘Yes, all mine. I was hoping to scare you off, but you were a little more persistent than I'd expected. And now I've come to say goodbye.' She paused. ‘And to make sure this time you don't have any more lucky escapes. But first, tell me who you really are.'

‘Just some kids on a holiday,' Max said defiantly as another wave surged through the wharf and almost tipped her into the lagoon.

‘If you waste my time with lies I will end this
conversation and you without hesitation,' she said pitilessly. The charming hostess was gone, replaced by a ruthless criminal who would stop at nothing to get the information she wanted. She signalled to Alberto, who grinned sadistically and aimed his gun directly at Max before slowly beginning to squeeze the trigger.

‘We're from an international spy agency, and we won't let you blow up this town,' Linden spelt out hurriedly.

‘Ah, I see. I have to applaud your cleverness and determination, even though it won't do you any good now.'

‘Why are you doing this?' Luca managed.

‘I saw the chance to become very wealthy and I took it.'

‘It's all about money?' Linden asked. ‘How can you endanger your own city and the people who live here, just for money?'

Signora Antonelli scoffed. ‘It is your father who is endangering this city, Luca Cavello, since he is prepared to ignore my request and risk its very existence,' she concluded with pointed malice.

‘My father loves this city and would do anything to save it!'

‘Well, he'd better be quick.' Signora Antonelli
tapped her ruby brooch. ‘Otherwise there will be precious little left to love.'

Something clicked in Max's head when Signora Antonelli tapped her brooch. She had to keep her talking! ‘So what's with the cemetery?' Max strained against the rope. If she could just reach one finger into her pocket to activate the bomb detector … ‘Anyone who crosses you ends up here?'

‘Perhaps.'

Luca looked up suddenly. ‘Is that what happened to Signore Georgio?'

Signora Antonelli was momentarily shaken. ‘Georgio and I were great friends. I was devastated when he died.'

Luca's voice hardened. ‘What happened?'

‘He didn't follow orders and we parted. Sadly. You saw the funeral I gave him, Luca, it was one of the finest Venice has seen.'

‘You killed him.'

For the first time Signora Antonelli squirmed at the accusation.

‘That is such an ugly thing to say. It was an accident.'

‘Which seems to happen a lot to people around you.' Luca's normally smiling eyes hardened. ‘He was a good man. He was my father's friend.'

‘Sometimes friends let you down. Let's go.'

Alberto and the sneezing man climbed into Signora Antonelli's boat. With very little effort, they leant over the side and, pressing on the back of the stolen boat, filled it with water. It sank in seconds.

‘That's why you kept the boat,' Luca said to Alberto. ‘When the police uncover it, they'll find my fingerprints are all over the wheel, whereas you're wearing gloves. It'll look like we stole it for a little joyride until it sank.'

Alberto looked away and said nothing.

‘I am sorry, Max,' Signora Antonelli said. ‘If we'd met in other circumstances, we would have been friends. I really did like you.' She paused for a few brief moments. ‘Now if you'll excuse me, I have a party to get back to. Oh, and just to let you know, I couldn't just let you ruin my plans and have the city think I wasn't serious. There is one bomb you didn't find, one that will unfortunately be a little messy for the Doge's Palace. It's going to be spectacular. There will be fireworks at midnight followed by an explosion unlike anything our fellow Venetians have ever seen. Maybe next time that will teach the authorities to ignore me.'

The goon at the helm of Signora Antonelli's boat started the engine and, thrusting the gears into
reverse, tugged at the wharf, destabilising it even more and sending half of it below the waterline. The prickly rope dug into Luca, Max and Linden as they jolted forward.

‘
Ciao
, my dears.' It was the last they heard from Signora Antonelli before her boat disappeared into the night towards the lights of Venice.

The wharf shifted and creaked with the tide that washed even higher over their legs.

Max's fingers stretched towards her pocket where they managed to pull out her bomb detector. She looked down. ‘The brooch!' Max cried. ‘The detonator is in the brooch. We've got to work out a way to get back to Venice and stop her using it.'

‘How long do we have before the tide is fully in?' Linden asked as his head slammed against the pole with another swelling wave.

‘A few hours,' answered Luca.

‘You think it'll rise much higher?' Max watched another even bigger wave splash over the damaged wharf.

Luca paused. ‘High enough to drown us.'

‘That high, eh?'

‘I'm not sure I want to spend my final hours tied to a cemetery.' Max felt her a vibration on her wrist. ‘My watch! Linden, can you reach it?'

Max twisted her watch face towards Linden. He pushed his arm against the rope and inched his fingers towards it. The rope ate at his skin like a chinese burn until finally he made contact and accessed the link.

‘Toby. You're okay! What happened?'

‘One of the guys who'd been following us found me looking at the bombing plan and chased me to a balcony. We had a bit of a tussle and I knew I had to get rid of him, so I pretended to fall back, hitting my head on a stone statue and falling unconscious into the canal. It was an award-winning performance.'

‘I'll bet.' Max smiled. It was good to hear Toby's voice.

‘Where are you?' He asked.

‘The cemetery.'

‘The cemetery?'

‘Don't ask. Signora Antonelli has another bomb planted somewhere in the Doge's Palace. It's due to go off at midnight and the detonator is in her ruby brooch. Call Steinberger to get the Italian Police to stop her.'

‘Will do, and what about you? Are you three okay?'

Another wave lashed over their legs. ‘Know how to drive a boat?'

‘How hard could it be?'

‘Use the locator on your palm computer to find us, and Toby …' The wharf again shifted with the tide and sank even further into the water. ‘Make it quick.'

‘Watch it!' Max yelled at the cameraman who'd stood on her toes. ‘I'm not invisible, you know.'

Max, Linden, Toby and Luca stood in front of Signora Antonelli's palazzo, Toby in his harlequin suit, Max covered in pasta sauce and Linden and Luca in their soggy jackets and capes.

Toby had contacted Steinberger who immediately sent Plomb's bomb squad to search the Doge's Palace, and contacted the two other Spyforce agents on the ground in Venice who travelled to San Michele with Toby to rescue an almost-submerged Luca, Max and Linden.

Once they were on the boat and could use both hands, Max sent the Italian Police the video from her watch of Signora Antonelli's confession, which, along with the photos Toby had taken of the bombing plan before he fell off the balcony, gave them plenty of evidence to arrest her before she could use her jewelled detonator.

‘How did the media get here so fast?' Linden ducked under a swinging telephoto lens.

‘It's a big story,' Luca said sadly. ‘They probably found out almost as soon as the police did.'

The street was awash with shocked costumed partygoers, waiting for the police to emerge.

‘I'm sorry.' Max placed a hand on Luca's arm.

Luca couldn't say anything, only offer a strained smile.

Signora Antonelli appeared from the house in her long white gown, wings and wig but minus the ruby brooch. Several police leapt forward, trying to keep the media back as the click of cameras and flashing of lights exploded around her.

She winced and scowled at them in anger. With her hair wild and unkempt and her gown creased, she looked like a washed-up version of her former self.

Alberto and the two black-caped men were bundled out after her and all four were packed unceremoniously into two police boats. They took off quickly from the bank and sped along the canal followed by the scrum of media and costumed Venetian locals.

‘Steinberger wants to talk to us,' Linden reminded them and the team began the slow and silent walk back to Luca's.

In Max's room, their mission debrief with Steinberger began.

‘On behalf of Spyforce and Mr Harrison, I would like to congratulate you on your excellent work in saving one of the most beautiful cities in the world from ruin.' Max could see Steinberger
turning up the volume on his tape recorder. The sound of a brass band rang out.

‘No-one uses tape recorders anymore,' Toby whispered.

‘No-one except Steinberger. It adds to his charm.' Max hoped Luca had heard the joke and it might cause him to smile. It didn't.

After the music finished, Linden asked. ‘What will happen now?'

‘That is up to the court but I don't see how Signora Antonelli and her associates can escape a very long prison sentence.' Steinberger paused. ‘I'm sorry, Luca. I know you liked the Signora and, of course, were very close to Alberto.'

‘Sometimes we see people for who we want them to be, not what they are. I'm proud to have been part of this mission.'

‘How's Agent 31?' Linden asked.

‘Fighting fit. Apparently he's keeping the hospital staff amused by disappearing from his bed and reappearing in confined spaces. They love it. Now, to get you all back home. Toby, a flight has been organised for you to Vienna, and Max and Linden, you will need to leave immediately for your plane to Australia. Max, I've made sure your food is vegetarian, and they have some very good in-flight
movies. For instance …' There was another message coming through on his palm computer. ‘That'll be Mr Harrison, I'd better get that. Goodbye, and thank you for your brilliant work,' Steinberger signed off.

In the foyer of Luca's house, the mayor and his wife had arrived to say goodbye. Max, Linden and Toby stood before them.

‘The city of Venice and all her inhabitants will be forever indebted to you and will always be here with arms wide open when you come back.'

‘Thank you for everything,' the mayoress smiled. ‘It is inconceivable to think of the world without this city.' She leant forward, took each of their hands and kissed their cheeks. ‘We will now leave you young ones to say your own goodbyes.'

Luca stood in front of his new friends. ‘I would like to come to the airport, but there is a mission in the Swiss Alps I've been asked to help with. Plus I'm not very good at goodbyes.'

He stood before Linden. ‘It was good to see another spy like you at work. I have learnt a lot from you.'

‘Thanks, Luca. If you're ever in Mindawarra, make sure you drop in.'

‘And Toby? Thank you for your humour and bravery.'

‘And my good looks?' he asked.

Luca smiled for the first time since Alberto's betrayal. ‘Most of all for your good looks.'

Luca moved on to Max. He held her hands. ‘It has been a pleasure to have worked with one of the best. I will always remember you, Maxine.'

There was a moment where Max worried her hands would be too sweaty or too cold, or she'd freak out and pull them out of Luca's hands and say something stupid, but she didn't do any of it.

‘Thank you, Luca. I will always remember you, too.'

He stared for one more moment before his hands slipped out of hers. He seemed so sad. Max wanted to tell him everything would be okay, that it wasn't his fault he didn't realise Alberto was bad.

But nothing came out.

Luca waved to the driver of the water taxi that had pulled up beside their house. ‘Safe travelling.'

‘After what we've been through, the next part should be easy,' Toby said.

They stepped into the boat and in a few seconds were off. Max turned to wave to Luca a final time, but he had gone.

Linden sat closer to Max, knowing it had been a tough goodbye. ‘He's a good guy.'

‘Yeah, he is.' She turned and pulled her coat up around her neck.

Linden and Toby's eyes met in silent determination to make her feel better. Toby nudged closer on Max's other side. ‘I'm sorry I thought Luca was involved.'

‘You were being a good spy and, don't tell anyone, but even though I was meant to be supervising you, I learnt stuff from you too.'

Toby beamed and threw his chest out. ‘Like I'm not going to tell anyone! Wait till the kids back at school hear about this. I might even make a website dedicated totally to your admiration for me.'

‘You'll never change, will you?' Max gave a half smile.

‘You like me like this, admit it.'

Max laughed. Even though he could be annoying, it was good to have Toby on their team. ‘That I won't admit, now stop sitting so close.'

‘Actually, now might be a good time to see if the captain will let me operate this baby.'

Toby stood up and made his way to the driver, trying out his best broken Italian to ask for a quick lesson in boating.

Max breathed in the fresh wintry air. There was chill all around them and even the finest sprinkling
of rain, but she felt none of it. Even though she felt sad about Luca, they'd completed their mission and Agent Remy was back, and there was no better place to be than as a secret agent for Spyforce.

‘Ben called.' Linden interrupted her thoughts. ‘Ralph is over his lovesickness. Turns out Old Charlie's dog, Missy Blue, has a liking for castles. Larry couldn't stand Ralph's moping any more, so he built him that castle and now she visits all the time. Sometimes even stays over. Looks like they didn't need the dog whisperer after all.'

Max laughed out loud. It was good being with Linden. There was none of the freak-out she'd had with Luca, or any of Toby's annoying fat-headedness.

‘You know, I was really afraid back there,' Linden admitted.

‘Yeah, I didn't fancy going to an early grave either.'

‘No, I mean when you decided to quit Spyforce. I know it's a dangerous business, but you're good at it. And I think it's knowing you're there with me that makes me the spy that I am.' He looked down at his hands. ‘Mum always said that sometimes it takes other people to bring out the best in us … and that's how I feel with you.'

‘Thanks, Linden.' Max smiled. ‘I would love to have met your mum.'

‘Yeah, you would have liked her.'

The two sank back into the leather seats of the boat and watched as Venice's buildings, piazzas, palaces and bridges flashed past, all safe. And if they survived Toby's first attempt at driving a boat, they should remain safe for a long time yet.