Blues revenge, p.3
Blue's Revenge, page 3
‘Do you know if he is planning anything?’ Linden held his silver medallion close to his chest.
‘No, but he is being held in a maximum security prison and the second he breaks even the smallest rule, we will be immediately notified.’
The squeal of a loudspeaker system shot out above them.
‘This is your captain speaking. Express flight to Sydney courtesy of the Invisible Jet is ready for take-off. Please board the plane, take your seats and settle in for a new and improved ride through the skies.’
‘Is the Invisible Jet fixed?’ Linden looked behind him at where the jet would be if he could see it.
‘The crash landing in the Amazon gave it quite a nasty makeover but Sleek has been working night and day to repair it.’ Steinberger proudly gazed at the seemingly empty space where the jet was parked. ‘He has outdone himself this time. It is faster, more fuel efficient, and quieter on take-offs and landings. But I’m afraid there’s still the Automatic People Sanitiser.’
Max groaned. The Sanitiser was a balloon-walled room at the entrance of the jet that acted as an all-over human vacuum cleaner. After its passengers were jostled, bounced and cleaned, it felt like they’d had their brains sucked out. Or at least that’s how Max felt.
‘We thought after your mission in Morocco you’d be grateful of the jet’s hearty meals and time to rest before school,’ Harrison explained.
Linden’s eyes drifted dreamily. ‘Food. Yeah. That’d be great.’
The loudspeaker squealed again. ‘This is your captain speaking, take-off is in thirty seconds.’
‘Gotta run.’ Max and Linden caught sight of the interior of the plane through the invisible door and leapt inside. After the usual brain-sucking jostling of the Sanitiser, they hurriedly took their seats just in time for Roger the cabin-hand to lock the doors and take his own seat. The jet then lifted to hovering and shot like a catapult out of the VART and into the skies above London.
Linden immediately opened the Digital Think Amajig that was nestled in the armrest of his chair and ordered a hamburger with the lot, a chocolate milkshake and a bowl of chips.
Max doubted even Linden could eat that much. ‘You sure that’s going to be enough?’
Linden looked concerned. ‘You’re right.’ He added a side order of fish fingers. ‘That should do it.’
Max smiled until Harrison’s words came back to her.
‘Linden, do you think Blue is planning his revenge?’
Linden looked down the aisle, eager to spot Roger bringing his food. ‘He’s under maximum security. I don’t think he can plan much.’ He noticed Max hadn’t ordered her meal.
‘Aren’t you going to eat anything?’
‘Maybe later.’ Max looked out the window. She had suddenly remembered that her mother’s wedding was on the weekend, a thought even more unsettling than Harrison’s suspicions of Blue.
Later, as Linden finished the last mouthful of hamburger, the jet slowed down and Sleek’s voice floated over their heads.
‘This is your captain again. We will shortly be arriving in Sydney before heading west to Mindawarra. Please make sure your tray tables are stowed and your seats are in an upright position. I hope you enjoyed your trip and choose to fly again with Sleek.’
‘He’s in a good mood.’ Max had never heard Sleek sounding so happy.
‘Must be relieved to have the jet back together.’
The windows filled with the deep blue expanse of Sydney Harbour that lit up with the morning sun so that it looked like a dappled bed of diamonds. Lush green parks and wild bushland nestled snugly around its shores. Boats and ferries jostled on its surface and a passenger ship sailed under the world’s most famous coathanger, the Harbour Bridge.
The jet turned inland and slowed down to a hovering standstill, just above a large tree in a park near Max’s school.
‘See you on the weekend?’ Linden asked carefully.
‘Sure.’ Max tried to sound excited. Even though there was very little chance of the wedding being anything but a total nightmare, at least with Eleanor, Ben and Linden there, she might just make it through alive. ‘Well done on another successful mission, partner,’ she added.
‘Couldn’t have done it without you, chief.’
‘I know.’ Max spun around and pressed the exit button. The door opened upwards and she walked past the deflated Sanitiser walls to the edge of the hovering jet. After slipping on her super-grip gloves, she grabbed hold of an Abseiler rope that was attached to the roof.
Max took a deep breath before lowering herself into the thick camouflage of the tree. Seconds later, she landed safely on the ground.
She looked up and watched as the Abseiler rope moved upwards and disappeared. The top of the tree swayed slightly as if a gust of wind had stirred it, and Max knew the jet had turned and was headed to Mindawarra.
After she’d brushed herself down and removed her gloves, she flipped open the top of her red chrome Spyforce watch and smiled. There was just enough time to make it to school before the bell rang. She’d been late a few times during last term. So far she’d managed to keep Principal Peasers off her back with faked notes, believable-sounding excuses and Oscar award-winning limping on ‘sprained’ ankles, but she knew if she pushed it any further, her luck would run out.
But when she came out from behind the tree, she saw something she hadn’t expected.
Toby.
He was sitting on a bench only metres away.
Her heart did a weird flip as if someone had tossed it like pizza dough. Why was he here? And alone? And why did he look so sad?
It was then he looked up and instantly flashed her a wide grin.
Max faked a casual semi-smile that she suspected looked anything but casual.
She was about to give Toby a brief wave and keep walking, but his smile faded and there was something about his look that wouldn’t let her leave.
‘Great,’ she mumbled. Even though Toby had made her life a misery from the day they’d met, she couldn’t walk away.
‘Out walking with all your friends?’ Toby asked when she stood before him.
Max raised one eyebrow. ‘No, I thought I’d try walking with all your friends instead.’
Toby smiled. There weren’t many people who could give back like Max could.
‘At least this way you’re finally the smartest one in the group.’
Max winced through a smile. Toby was obviously fine. Why did she even bother stopping? ‘Yes, and now I have to get to school so I can become even smarter.’
When she turned to leave, she again saw his face fall. Something was up. She could feel it. And why was he just sitting here when they were late already? Then she did something she couldn’t explain.
‘Do you want to walk to school together?’
What? Max’s brain silently asked her mouth. Walk to school together? Was she crazy? What was it about this boy that made her act all weird?
Toby looked like he was going to accept. Max held her breath. Escaping from sword-wielding criminals in Morocco suddenly seemed easy compared to spending whole minutes side by side with Mr Popularity, where she’d only end up finding a new way to make a fool of herself.
As if he’d guessed her thoughts, Toby stood up and threw his bag over his shoulder.
‘Nah. I’ve gotta do something first. And I …’
He looked like he wanted to say something else but stopped himself and changed the subject. ‘What are you doing walking this way anyway? You live the other way.’
Max froze. ‘I … um. It’s just that … I wanted to have a walk before school.’
Good one, Max silently grumbled. Very convincing.
‘Oh.’ Toby answered like he didn’t believe her. ‘Me too.’
Max stared after him as he walked away, his feet shuffling along the gravel path. She was relieved he had refused to walk with her, but now she felt bad again. Toby could do that. Make her swing from not wanting to have anything to do with him to feeling bad about being mean to him, even though he was the expert when it came to being mean.
Either way, there was no time to think about it. She pulled her bag against her chest. If she ran all the way to school she might just be able to slip into assembly without being noticed.
‘Lovely day, Max.’
No, no, no. Max thought. Not Peasers. The principal of love and happiness. The queen of mush. Where did she come from?
‘Ahh, Peasers … I mean, Ms Peasley.’
Why was it Max could thwart criminals all over the world, make it through the Amazon Jungle and escape from a Nightmare Vortex, but she couldn’t sneak into school five minutes after the bell? She had to divert Peasers’ attention from her being late.
‘Aren’t you …’ Peasers lifted her wrist to look at her watch. Max had to think fast.
‘I don’t know if you get told often enough, Ms Peasley, but I just wanted to say how excellent it is to have you as our principal.’
‘Oh, thank you, Max.’ Ms Peasley blushed beneath her pink eye shadow and lowered her hand. ‘That’s very kind.’
Good start, Max thought to herself. Keep it up.
‘And that concert last Friday? We all owe its success to the direction we get from you. As everyone knows, that kind of talent radiates down from above.’
Peasers adjusted her hair, which was overloaded with frangipanis. ‘It is sweet of you to say, Max, but the students worked very hard.’
Max had on her sweetest smile. Now it was time to go in for the kill.
‘But Ms Peasley, a good performance comes from love, and it is your guidance that has brought us that love.’
For a terrible second, Max thought Peasers was going to hug her.
‘Yes, well, I always say a school that sings together grows together. Why, just last week I was at a seminar on fostering a harmonious playground and I –’
‘Actually, Ms Peasley, I need to go or I’ll be late for class.’
‘Of course. It’s always a pleasure talking to such a conscientious student.’
Max turned and walked down the corridor. She never thought she’d ever be this happy to go to maths.
After Max had explained she was late because she was talking to the principal, she sat down, took out her books and looked around. There was the same old Monday morning sleepiness over everyone’s face, but Max noticed something else. Toby was missing. He hadn’t made it to class. Maybe he got caught up in whatever it was he had to do. Or maybe he was in trouble. She couldn’t get his sad face out of her head, and the memory of those seconds when she knew he’d wanted to say something but didn’t.
Something was wrong. She wasn’t sure what or, more importantly, why she even cared. Mostly Toby did all he could to prove he had an oversupply of annoying genes, but there was also their mission in Hollywood he’d snuck onto where he actually seemed halfway decent.3 Even though Spyforce had erased his memory of the mission, something had changed between them. Something Max wasn’t comfortable with at all.
At recess, she found herself standing in the middle of the playground like a spindly tree in need of watering.
‘Why am I doing this?’ she muttered out loud.
She walked over to Toby’s friends, who were dividing up food from what looked like a post-tuckshop frenzy. As a firm rule of survival, Max never approached these guys, but when she did, it gave her the feeling of being thrown to a hungry pack of lions. Lions, of course, are much better-looking.
‘Any of you guys seen Toby?’
They stopped and stared, small glimmers of excitement replacing their scavenging scowls. Suddenly the possibility of a Max session was more exciting than chocolate and chips.
‘Why do you want to know were Toby is?’ Josh was always the acting leader when Toby was away.
Max gave Josh a withering stare. She knew this had been a bad idea. ‘I just want to know if you’ve seen him.’
‘Maybe she wants to kiss him?’ This was Zack. If you gave Zack and a monkey a maths test, they’d get the same results.
‘Yeah. Yeah. Kiss him,’ they all chorused, and then broke into hyena-like laughing. Max tried to stay calm.
‘I need to tell him something.’
They weren’t listening. Toby’s friends never did. They loved the sound of their own voices too much to listen to anyone else.
‘Maybe she wants to be his girlfriend.’ It was Zack again.
An angry shiver rattled through Max’s bones. She could feel her temper curdling into a bitter word-fest she wasn’t going to be able to stop.
Josh had this slimy smile that Max wanted to plaster with mud. ‘Or maybe she wants to marry him?’
That was it. Max took a deep breath and narrowed her eyes into two threatening slits. ‘And maybe you’ve got cow manure for brains.’
‘Ooooh!’ They hooted like excited owls, happy that Max had taken the bait.
‘And maybe you …’ Josh began but Max walked away, trying to block out their insults, as they pretended to spray the air for lovesick germs and sang songs about Max and Toby sitting in trees kissing. She could have stayed and fought it out but she had other things to worry about. Like Toby, facing an English exam she hadn’t studied for and, the biggest worry, her mother’s wedding.
She was heading for a seat as far away from Toby’s gang as possible when Sasha, Georgie and Grace spilled out of the corridor and turned towards her.
‘Tell me they’re not heading straight for me?’ Max asked no-one in particular.
She focused on the blue bread sandwich with pink cucumber filling and the carrot and honey hash brown that Irene had made for her lunch, hoping everything else would disappear.
It didn’t.
The three girls stood in front of Max like over-excited puppies. They always wore the right clothes, got the right marks and had parents who looked like they’d stepped out of a shampoo ad.
What did I do to deserve the way this day is turning out? Max thought as she bit into her sandwich.
‘Max! Max! Is it true?’
In any other playground this may have been just another day at school, but these girls never spoke to Max, and in fact, until now, Max hadn’t known they even knew her name. Either way, she was in no mood to start making friends with them today.
‘Is what true?’
‘You know!’ Grace was short and had this high-pitched voice that could have cracked glass.
‘Um.’ Max prepared to take another bite of her sandwich. ‘No, I don’t.’
Sasha took over. She was cooler and more in control of her screech factor than Grace. ‘That your mum is marrying Doctor Shannon?’
Dr Rex Shannon was Aidan’s soap character’s name. He played a psychologist and even had his own doll made in his image. And yes, despite how Max felt about it, he was marrying her mum. She tried to think of what to do next, of how she could make them go away. Then she had it.
Outright denial.
‘Yeah right,’ she scoffed, taking a bright red muffin from her lunchbox.
‘Well, what’s this?’ Georgie flicked a magazine in Max’s face and there, on the cover, was a picture of her mother and Dr Shannon posing in wedded bliss. Max swallowed to try to keep her lunch from flying out of her reeling stomach.
‘I … I …’
When had this happened? Why hadn’t she been told? Why was she always the last person to know anything her mother did?
‘You mean your own mum didn’t tell you she was getting married?’ Georgie’s eyebrows flew up so high they almost rocketed off her forehead. ‘You have one strange family, Max Remy.’
They then walked away, swooning over how gorgeous Dr Shannon was and what they’d give to be his new stepdaughter.
Max stared at her muffin and lost her appetite for the second time that day. She put it back in her lunchbox and pushed hard on the lid. The bell was about to go so she slowly made her way past clutches of whispering students towards class.
Until she was slapped with her next idea.
‘Georgie! Wait for me.’
The three princesses turned around with a confused, why-is-Max-talking-to-us look on their faces.
‘How would you like Doctor Shannon’s autograph?’
Grace squealed yes but Georgie simply stared at Max. She’d learnt early in life that whenever she was offered anything, there was always room to increase the offer to something better. ‘On a photo?’
‘Sure.’ Max guessed this was possible, considering how much Aidan enjoyed pictures of himself.
‘What do you want in return?’
‘I need Toby’s home number. Do you think you can get it?’
Georgie’s mum worked in the school office, where Georgie spent most of her time after school trying to look important.
‘Why do you want Toby’s number?’
‘If you want the autograph, you won’t ask.’
Max could see this was torture for Georgie, who lived for gossip, but she wanted the signature more, so she gave in.
‘I could do it in my sleep.’ She eyed off the office with a slowly rising smile. ‘Give me five minutes.’
Max, Grace and Sasha watched through the office window as Georgie went into action. She held her hand against her forehead and almost fainted. Her mother helped her to a seat while she disappeared in search of a cold pack.
Max was impressed.
The instant her mum left the room, Georgie was on the computer, operating the student database like she did it every day.
‘She’s obviously done this before,’ Max guessed.
‘Oh, lots of times.’ Sasha watched in admiration.
Georgie wrote on a piece of paper and moved back to her chair just as her mother re-entered the room. None of the girls were surprised to see Georgie suddenly feeling better, and within thirty seconds she was standing next to them with the number.
Georgie handed it over. ‘I expect the autograph by the end of the week.’
‘Sure. Thanks.’
‘Oh, and Max? Don’t think because of this you need to start talking to us.’
Max was relieved they were thinking the same thing. ‘Fine by me.’
As they walked away, the bell chimed for class. Max picked up her bag and folded the number into her pocket, frowning. She’d face the English test now and work out later how she was actually going to use the number without sounding like a complete idiot. Her life was sometimes very strange, and today was proving no different.
