The Hollywood Mission (12 page)

Max clenched her fists and pushed her arms against the ropes of the stretching rack. She felt as if she'd been dragged beneath the surf by a huge, thundering wave, dumped into a murky, swirling oblivion. Her hearing and sight were muffled and all around her was chaos.

Linden lay at the bottom of the pit. Unmoving.

Everything became still, as if time had stopped and left Max stranded in the eerie aftermath of Linden's fall. She couldn't tell what was the beating of her heart and what were the warning signals from her Danger Meter. She tried to block out the look on Linden's face as she'd watched helpless, unable to stop him from falling.

The sound of dripping echoed around the stone chamber.

‘Linden?' It snuck out as a frightened whisper.

Nothing. He lay on the stone floor. Motionless.

They'd made a pact. Max knew Linden would have done anything to save her, and all she'd done was put his life in danger because she couldn't keep her temper under control. She turned away, tears clogging her eyes. ‘Please. I'm not sure who is listening right now, but I'll do anything to get Linden back. He's the only real friend I've ever had. Please don't let him be dead.
I'll do anything if you'll help me save him. Anything.'

‘Anything?'

Max looked down to see the smiling face of Toby who'd stepped out of the shadows from a secret entrance in the lower wall. ‘What are you doing on that …' he began, but Max's shoulders shivered and as much as he told himself he was wrong, Toby thought she was crying.

‘Max?'

She didn't answer. Something wasn't right. Toby followed Max's gaze towards the gloomy darkness of the centre of the chamber. It took a few moments until he made sense of what he saw.

‘Linden!'

Linden's face was pressed against the floor, and as Toby moved closer, he saw a small trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth.

‘Is he …?' Toby turned towards Max.

‘He won't move.' Then Max remembered something. ‘There are some heat-sensitive glasses in my pack. They locate life by emitting a red glow.'

Toby ran to Max's bag and found the glasses. He gave her a hopeful look as he put them on and saw the red glow from her body. He stared down into the pit. His heart lurched, desperately hoping
Linden was okay, but no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't see it. There was no red glow.

‘Well?' Max was petrified of what he would say.

He took off the glasses and gave a small shake of his head.

Max began to quietly sob as Toby climbed the stairs and stood beside her. He felt as if he should put his arm around her or touch her shoulder or something, but he couldn't work out what. ‘What happened, Max?'

‘This guy Blue was here with some goons and he … he …' she couldn't say it.

‘I'm sorry.' Toby's eyes itched with tears. He blinked to drive them away and to drive away what the glasses had shown him was true. He liked Linden. He was smart, had a great sense of humour and wasn't scared of anyone. And now he was dead.

Max gasped back a choked sob. ‘I was so horrible to Linden just before he fell.' Her words caught like burrs in her throat. She'd been so mean to him when all he'd ever been was a true friend. ‘I yelled at him and called him a hypocrite.' Max saw herself shouting at Linden over and over again and was saddened by every second of what she'd done. ‘How could I have said that? Linden was the best friend I've ever had.'

This time she couldn't hold back. She turned her head into her shoulder and wept.

Toby hated seeing Max like this. His heart twisted as he looked down at Linden and knew he had to do something — he couldn't let Linden die.

He put Max's glasses in one pocket, pulled a pen knife from another and cut through her ropes.

‘I know what we're going to do,' he said. ‘This new Time and Space Machine, does it really travel through time?'

Max nodded limply like a doll whose batteries were running low, not even wondering how Toby knew about the machine.

‘How does the time bit work?'

She stared at him in disbelief, silent tears falling down her face. She didn't want to talk about the machine. She didn't want to talk about anything. ‘Linden was my best friend and now he's … I've lost my best friend.'

‘I know,' Toby replied carefully. ‘But there's somewhere we have to be.'

Max's body was so heavy she couldn't imagine ever moving again.

‘Max,' Toby said with more force. ‘Tell me how the time part works.'

Max gathered the last amount of strength she
had and explained how to travel through time using the Transporter Mark II, including the part about being invisible.

‘Where is it now?' Toby asked.

‘With Ben and Eleanor.'

‘In the truck at the back of Studio 23?'

‘How did you …?' Max was starting to wonder how Toby knew so much.

‘You kept disappearing from the set. I didn't want to miss out on anything, so the last time you left I followed you. First to the truck, then I hopped on the back of the van until it drove through a remote-controlled door. A man got out of the van and watched to make sure no one entered with them, so I had to find another way in, which took me a little time. I guess that's when … when Linden …'

Max's eyes widened as if she was seeing it all over again.

‘Come with me,' Toby said softly. ‘And on the way, you can tell me what's been going on.'

Toby led Max down the stairs and out the secret entrance.

‘Where exactly is the Transporter Mark II?' Toby asked as they reached the truck.

Max struggled to think. ‘Ben had it in a leather bag on the floor.'

‘I need you to distract them while I grab the bag.'

There was a look of defeat about Max that Toby had to drive away if his plan was going to work. ‘Max? Do you understand?'

She looked up slowly and nodded.

‘They can't know what has happened, okay?' He knocked on the door.

Ben saw who it was on the security scanner and leapt up to open the door.

‘Max, good to see you. And Toby. Filming finished already?' He looked nervous. So did Eleanor. Max stood there and said nothing.

‘Are you okay?' Eleanor asked quietly.

Please, Max, Toby begged under his breath, please don't lose it, but just as he thought this, she flung herself into a seat on the other side of the truck and filled the small area with wailing howls.

Her uncle and aunt swept over and hugged her. ‘What is it? What's wrong?'

Toby waited anxiously for what Max would say.

‘I'm sorry I was angry and walked out on you before.'

Relieved that nothing more had happened, Ben and Eleanor hugged their niece and told her it was okay. Toby caught Max's eye underneath their fussing and hugging. Then he understood. She wasn't
losing it, she was doing what he'd asked. His eyes scanned the floor and saw the leather bag. He tucked it into his oversized street kid clothes and gave her a wink in return. She calmed down and sat up.

‘Thanks for being so great. You're the best aunt and uncle anyone could have. Better get back.' She hugged them even harder and quickly left the truck.

‘Bye.' Toby waved and ran after Max into the street. ‘You were great in there.'

Max said nothing and Toby sensed that her crying hadn't simply been a decoy. ‘Let's get back to the chamber.'

After sneaking back in, Toby picked up the discarded packs and handed one to Max. ‘Are these PFDs hard to operate?'

Max suddenly pulled away. ‘Why do you keep asking me questions?' she shouted. ‘Stop bossing me around.' She'd never felt so much like giving up in her life. Without Linden, there didn't seem any reason to do anything.

‘Max, trust me. I really need your help with this.'

Max didn't move. Toby tried again. ‘How do these work?'

‘The lever pulls out and takes you whichever way you move it.'

‘Sounds easy.' He held Max's PFD out to her.
She took it reluctantly and put it on. Toby adjusted his PFD and held the Transporter in front of him. Knowing he had no time to be nervous, he followed Max's instructions and entered the destination into the Transporter. ‘Hold my hand.'

Max slowly raised her hand and put it in Toby's.

‘Here we go!' he called, and in a few seconds they were being shot like cannonballs through time.

‘Aaaaaaah!'

The tunnel-like whoosh flew past them as they travelled faster than the speed of light, until they stopped and bubbles of reality floated around them. The image of where they were slowly pieced itself together.

‘And to think you wanted to keep that from me,' Toby breathed. His shirt was torn open and his dark hair danced upright.

Max looked equally as dishevelled, but after their day as earthquake victims, it was hard to tell if they really looked that much different. ‘Where are we?'

‘About twenty minutes ago. Are you sure they can't see us?'

Max nodded as the image of the chamber formed before them. She shivered as she realised she was standing on the balcony with her younger
self tied to the rack and Linden below them, facing the last minutes of his life.

‘The UN has a hard enough job trying to bring peace to the world, and you're going to wreck that?'

‘Oh, Linden, there you go on your goody-goody crusade again. The UN are a bunch of old fogies dominated by a few countries working for their own benefit. You're smart enough to know that. It's time I benefited as well.'

‘This Blue's got some issues from childhood I think he needs to work on.' Toby adjusted his backpack. ‘Get your PFD ready.'

Max pulled down her lever and watched as her younger self insulted Blue.

‘You'll never be half the man my dad is, Blue. You're just a snivelling excuse for a man who wouldn't know the first thing about loyalty or elegance.'

Blue looked up at the younger Max. ‘I've warned you before about pushing me too far. And now you'll see why. Release him.'

Linden was released. He tipped out of the iron cage, struggling to hold on.

‘Maybe next time you'll learn to stay quiet,' Blue told the younger Max before leaving the room with his two goons.

Max's stomach became a tangle of guilt and nausea at what was about to happen next, only now, she realised, she wasn't going to let it happen again.

Then Linden fell.

‘Let's go!' Max called to Toby. Instead of the usual bumbling and toppling, her PFD took off effortlessly. Toby followed, glad to see the old Max was back, and they both expertly flew their PFDs in tight formation to grab either side of Linden's plum-meting body. Their hands partly disappeared into his arms, just like when Max and Linden had visited prehistory, but they kept as firm a hold as they could.

Linden could feel a kind of pressure on his arms but couldn't see anything. All he knew was that his rocketing fall had become a gentle floating to the bottom of the pit.

‘I guess this is how guardian angels must feel,' said Toby proudly.

Max smiled. Not at Toby's joke but at having Linden back. ‘Let's get out of here before Blue finds out what's happened. Hold on.' They both grabbed Linden's hands as Max took the Transporter Mark II and wrote
return
on the LCD screen.

‘Aaaaaaah!' all three of them yelled as the whoosh through time took hold.

When they'd landed and the pieces of reality
had formed around them, Linden could see his friends.

‘Why do I feel like something weird just happened?'

There was no time for Max to explain. ‘Beats me,' she lied as she pulled out her palm computer. ‘We've got to find out where Dad is, return the Transporter to Ben and Eleanor, and finally expose Blue before his plan is complete.'

Toby was impressed. ‘You're pretty scary when you get going.'

‘You should see her when she really wants to get things done,' Linden joked, despite feeling as if he'd just stepped off a high-speed jet.

‘Maybe you could both stop talking and just get on with it?' Max raised an eyebrow and tried to look annoyed, but she was secretly overjoyed to have both of them with her in one piece. ‘Let's go.'

Using the locator on her palm computer to track down her father, Max led Toby and a still slightly confused Linden down dark, shadowy back lots to a disused section of the film studios.

‘The locator says Dad's in this warehouse.'

All three looked up at a crumbling building with peeling paint and faded signs. It had no windows, only a single door with a sign that read: ‘Danger. No Entry'.

‘Now, that's not very friendly,' Toby joked.

Linden held his breath. He knew that Max hated jokes while she was working, but then something weird happened. She laughed.

Toby frowned. He was used to saying things that upset Max, not made her smile. He could handle the spy stuff — the gadgets, the goons, the bad hair — but Max laughing at one of his jokes freaked him out.

After an awkward silence, they all silently decided to ignore what had happened, and using her laser to break the lock, Max led the way into the warehouse. She and Linden took out their torches and walked through the dust-laden air of a cluttered foyer. They passed dead potted plants, torn lounge chairs and offices with broken blinds and murky windows.

Max had been trying to get the image of Linden's fall out of her head. ‘Linden?'

‘Yeah?' he asked warily, still uneasy about her being furious with him earlier.

Max wanted to apologise for the way she'd behaved, but she wasn't sure how she was going to break it to him that he'd been killed. And the fact that it was her fault.

‘Nothing.' She sighed.

They walked on with Toby following behind.

‘Max?' Linden threw the beam of his torch over boxes, crates and objects hidden by large pieces of material which made them look like giant melted statues. ‘Are you sure nothing weird happened before? I know this is going to sound strange, but I feel like I'm not in my right body.'

She tried to look convincing. ‘You really have to cut down on the sugar, Linden. It's affecting your thinking.'

Linden smiled and instantly Max was filled with an explosive urge to throw her arms around him. Her face filled with a smile that was so wide it started to hurt her cheeks. Linden was back and she'd never do anything to jeopardise his life again.

‘Max?' Linden frowned.

‘Mmm?'

‘Why are you staring at me like that?'

‘I wasn't staring,' Max replied, knowing she had been. She walked on ahead.

Her torch lit up ancient-looking camera equipment strung with cobwebs, broken light stands and racks of old clothes and a large row of tiered seats. There were also some old sets that imitated a palace ballroom, a New York street, a sideshow alley and a mountain range.

‘Is your Danger Meter okay?' Max asked Linden.

‘Yep. Yours?'

‘Not a whimper.' She smiled, happy to be working with him again.

‘Where does it say your dad is now?'

Max looked at the locator on her palm computer. ‘That way.' She followed the direction indicated until they reached a tall, cement wall.

‘Maybe he's on the other side.' She took out her heat-sensitive, X-ray glasses and examined the wall. ‘I can see a red glow. It must be him.' Her breathing quickened.

‘He'll be fine, Max.' Linden read her mind before reaching into his bag and taking out one of Plomb's bombs.

Toby looked at the innocent-looking cube. ‘What's that?'

‘It's a dustless, noiseless bomb,' Linden explained as he primed it. ‘It was made by Plomb, the Spyforce bomb expert. Because of his dislike of noise, all his bombs are silent.' He stood up and handed the detonator to Max. ‘The bomb's set.'

Max noticed Toby looking at his watch. ‘What are you doing?'

‘Waiting for something.'

‘Maybe you could concentrate on saving my dad instead,' Max suggested.

‘Well?' Max's hands flew to her hips. Toby then gave Linden a nod.

‘Happy birthday.' They both smiled broadly. Linden pulled a muesli bar from his pocket and stuck a candle in it while Toby lit a match.

‘Exactly twelve years ago today the world first heard how well the lungs of Max Remy worked,' Toby said importantly.

Max's hands fell slowly from her hips. ‘How did you know?'

‘Your dad,' Linden said as if it was no big deal. ‘We promised not to say anything. He'd organised a big party for you but I guess it won't happen now.'

Max looked at the mangled muesli bar and its crooked candle.

‘Well?' Toby said. ‘Blow it out before the wax ruins it. I'm starving.'

Max blew. Linden broke the bar into three pieces which they shoved quickly into their mouths.

‘Dad was going to throw me a party?'

‘Yeah,' Toby mumbled through an oaty mouthful. ‘He'd hired an entire amusement park just for us.'

Max smiled. So her dad had remembered her birthday after all.

‘Stand back,' Max commanded. Toby and Linden ran behind a life-sized whale and Max took cover beside a giant inflated cloud. She held the detonator in her hand. ‘Three, two, one.'

The bomb exploded just as Plomb had said it would. Noiselessly. Toby and Linden raced out to inspect the damage.

‘Plomb has made a beauty.' Linden admired the collapsed wall before them.

‘They really are soundless and dustless.' Toby exclaimed, before he realised something was missing. ‘Max?'

From behind the deflating cloud, which the force of the bomb had burst, Max appeared covered in a white chalky substance looking like a ghost in
a bad mood. A small dust cloud followed her as she walked past them and climbed through the wrecked wall. Toby and Linden exchanged smirks and followed quietly behind.

‘There he is!' Max ran forward and shone her torch on a bound and gagged figure lying on the verandah of an old homestead movie set. ‘Dad?' She knelt beside him as he slowly opened his eyes. He looked tired and dishevelled, as if he'd been tied up in this crumpled position for days.

‘Max? Is that you?' he whispered through the darkness.

‘Yeah.' She wanted to make sure this was her real dad. ‘Is that you?'

‘Ask me something only I would know.'

‘What is your middle name?'

‘Reginald. After my grandfather.'

‘What food do you hate most in the world?'

‘Mushy peas, but I've added jellied eel to that since I saw you last.'

It seemed like her dad. At least her old dad, not the angry new one, but after all she knew about Blue she wasn't ready to trust him yet. ‘What did you say the moment I was born?' she whispered so Toby and Linden wouldn't hear.

He smiled. ‘I've just seen my first angel.'

‘Angel?' Toby said way too loudly.

Linden bit his lip and tried not to laugh as Max's head flung around for a death stare. Toby looked away and tried to look innocent. He'd keep, Max thought, as she turned and threw her arms around her father. ‘It's good to have you back, Dad.'

Then he remembered something. ‘There's this bad guy called Blue who's using the studios to leak secret information to the world.'

‘Ah, we know,' Max admitted as she took out her knife and cut through his ropes.

‘You do? Do you also know about the scientist who's here?'

‘Fartie?' Linden asked excitedly.

‘Yeah. He's over there.' Max's dad pointed to a man equally as crumpled as he was, lying in a fake petrol station nearby. Linden ran to see if Fartie was okay.

‘We have got to get you both to safety and put an end to Blue's evil plan.' Max pulled her palm computer out of her pocket before remembering she needed to be more discreet about being a spy. ‘I mean, someone else can put an end to Blue's evil plan.'

Her dad was curious. ‘What's that?'

‘A computer,' she stumbled. ‘A friend of Ben and Eleanor's gave it to me.'

Toby smiled at Max. She was doing a great job of covering, but he had to stop her dad from asking any more questions. ‘Let me help you up, Mr Remy.'

As he distracted her dad, Max turned away and called Ben and Eleanor. She quickly explained that they'd found her dad and Fartie but avoided saying anything about all the other stuff that had happened: the stolen Matter Transporter, Toby, Linden dying. She knew that when she did tell them she was going to be in big trouble, but for now, her dad was safe, Linden was alive and that was all she cared about.