Max Arena (15 page)

‘I have one,’
Kris said. ‘How involved do you want to be in managing Max’s
training? Joe has promised to stay out of it other than to provide
us what we need to get the job done. Would you want anything more,
like maybe exclusive access to Max?’

‘No and no,’
Sheikh Abdullah said. ‘My involvement in Max’s training will be
exactly the same as Joe has promised to provide. I will not
interfere and will only assist in whatever way you make requests
for additional resources. As for access to Max? No, I do not desire
to have exclusive or privileged access to him or to anyone else. I
will spend most of my time with your Prime Minister, navigating the
treacherous waters of international diplomacy and security. I am a
statesman and a dignitary by trade. I am not a soldier or a
physical trainer. Those disciplines are yours’ to command. I am in
the humblest sense of this venture, your servant. Nothing
more.’

Kris nodded
slowly and then looked down at the table and away from Abdullah at
the other end. Abdullah continued to appraise Kris for a few more
moments before speaking again.

‘So, what can I
provide and how?’ the Sheikh said. ‘I have access to financial
reserves that are largely unequalled by anyone else or any
organisation or country in the world. If I were to say that I had
billions of dollars at my disposal, it would not be an untruth and
I can access it immediately. These funds are not locked in
complicated trusts or stocks and bonds. It is real money.
Effectively cash and as much as you will need. Perhaps more
importantly though, I have access to an extensive international
intelligence network. I have resources hidden deep within many of
the highest and mid tier security organisations throughout Europe,
North America and Asia. My people are very well connected and very
secure. They can remain undetected and still provide to me secrets
that even their own national rulers do not have knowledge of. I
also have similar resources in the world’s most powerful and
influential corporations and non-government organisations. There is
very little that happens in the world that I do not have visibility
of either beforehand or immediately after. I must also indicate
that none of these assets can be traced back to me or anyone close
to me. I am effectively anonymous to them, but I in turn, know
all
of them. Now, how is it I have ownership of all these
resources and means? Oil and gas. Vast amounts of it.’

‘As soon as you
said you’re from Balasti,’ Elsa interjected, ‘I think we all
figured you were wealthy, but just how much money do you have?’

‘The answer is,
I do not know and it is likely too much to ever know,’ Abdullah
said simply. ‘There is no boast in my words. It is merely the
truth, so I no longer ponder this question. Money is now a tool for
me to gain what is truly important to me.’

‘And what
is
important to a man with more money than he can count?’
Kris asked.

Sheikh Abdullah
turned to Kris again and held her even stare, not aggressively, but
curiously.

‘The safety and
prosperity of my people and to prevent, where I can, hardship and
injustice in the world,’ he said.

‘Looking after
your own people I get,’ Kris added, ‘but tell us what hardships
you’ve helped with and what injustices you’ve prevented across the
world?’

Joe flicked his
gaze between Kris and Abdullah. Kris’ rising tension was obvious
and it stood in stark contrast to Abdullah’s even, relaxed
demeanour. Joe quietly continued to sip his tea.

‘It is a
reasonable challenge,’ Abdullah began, ‘and in answering it, let me
ask if you can recall all of the world’s largest natural disasters
in the previous ten years? The Chilean and Italian earthquakes? The
volcanic eruption in the Philippines? The devastating floods in
Brazil and Turkey and of course the horrific drought and poverty
across the Horn of Africa? I have contributed more than three times
as much aid to those humanitarian causes than any other country or
organisation and they are but a few of the sum total of causes I
and my people have benefited to.’

Kris nodded
silently. Abdullah continued.

‘As for
injustice, many of these acts have to remain secret to prevent the
existence and effectiveness of my clandestine network becoming
known. However, I will freely tell you of some. You may remember
four years ago that genocide threatened to tear through the African
nation of Rwanda for a second time, but I, let’s say, donated
substantial funding to the French government for military
provisions, which allowed the foreign legion to enter the conflict
and put a swift end to it. Also, six years ago, the independent
island state of Sakoyna in the Aleutian Islands almost became a war
zone as the both the United States and the Russian Federation sent
warships to secure the newly discovered offshore gas reserves. The
conflict reached flash point with both nations prepared to invade
and second the independent state into their territories and in the
process, likely annihilate their sovereignty and much of their tiny
population. Fortunately, I managed to broker a peace deal by
providing both nations with excess gas supply from my country’s own
reserves at a highly discounted rate. My network also managed to
prevent a nuclear calamity three years ago when a rogue terrorist
group secured a weapon of mass destruction and were transferring it
to South Africa to detonate in retaliation for the escalation and
seeming return of an apartheid regime. You will be completely
unaware of that incident, but I assure you, it almost resulted in
the single most calamitous loss of life since the blasts at
Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end the Second World War.’

Kris remained
silent and after a moment, looked across to Joe, who nodded.

‘Okay, I
believe you,’ she said at length. ‘Nice to know someone’s out there
looking out for us.’

‘So, your
highness,’ Elsa asked, ‘what exactly can you bring to us that will
help us that Joe can’t already provide?’

‘You are
correct in assuming that your Prime Minister can amply assist you,
but what I will bring is security on a level that will far exceed
his military provision. Not only will I provide additional security
directly around you, but I will provide a remote cover that ensures
any plots to disrupt your preparations will be identified in their
formative stages and dismantled. My network runs wide and deep and
they are loyal to me. I can also tell you that my people are
already aware of several factions seeking to cause you harm. The
wheels are already in motion to bring them down.’

‘Why would
anyone want to hurt us?’ Elsa asked, looking between Joe and
Abdullah. ‘We’re the good guys aren’t we?’

‘Fear,’ Joe
replied, shrugging his shoulders. ‘Uncertainty. We’re facing the
end of the world and we’ve been given only one way out. A stranger
called Max, but no one knows anything about him or if he’s even
capable of victory. So, in some cases these other factions want
simply to kill Max off and replace him with their own champion that
they know and trust. Other factions would like to remove Max and
attempt to broker a peace deal with the aliens. On their own, these
are rational options considering the circumstances, but we all
know, they are not truly viable and so, Max and by extension, all
of you need the best protection possible.’

‘Unfortunately,
that is true,’ Abdullah added. ‘The entire world is in crisis and
even though all seems calm enough here on this estate, out there,
as Joe has said, fear and uncertainty hold sway. My network and my
funds can help navigate us safely through these troubled times to
arrive at the arena unharmed and ably prepared to fight.’

‘How bad is it
out there?’ Kris asked, her face sullen and hooded. ‘The news is
full of all sorts of trouble, but really, how bad is it?’

Joe and
Abdullah both held quiet for a few moments. Then Abdullah lifted
his hands from the table and leaned back, lowering his hands to his
lap and his head slightly. Joe took the cue.

‘People are in
pain,’ Joe said. ‘People are dying.’

‘People are
dying
here
or in other places?’ Kris asked, her tone
rising.

‘Right here,’
Joe replied quietly, ‘
and
everywhere else. Nowhere is
immune.’

‘What do you
mean?’ Elsa asked. ‘What’s going on?’

Joe lowered his
gaze for a moment and then looked directly up at Elsa.

‘Anarchy is on
the rise, everywhere,’ he said. ‘It’s only been a few days since we
received Macktidas’ threat, so there is still widespread denial of
any pending doom, but in many places, panic is breaking out. Civil
wars, religious conflicts and general unrest are on the rise all
over the world.’

‘What about
here
?’ Kris asked, her urgency clear. ‘What sort of unrest
is happening
here
?’

‘It is only
local at the moment,’ Joe said, turning to face Kris, ‘and the
state emergency services are managing the unrest adequately, but
the tension is growing. Incidents of assault and battery, break and
enter and arson are common, but we have seen an overall rise in
general crime and violence. Like I said and I will not hide it from
you, people are in pain and people are dying. The spectre of the
end of the world is rising over us all and while we are not yet on
the brink of irrevocable chaos, that unimaginable concept is now
visible on the horizon. That is why, more than ever, we need
Abdullah’s assistance. He has the resources to help us and keep us
safe. If we, the human race, are to survive this ordeal, we have to
at the very least make sure Max survives long enough to make it
into the arena, but with Abdullah’s help, we all stand a chance of
ensuring he is also fit and prepared. I welcome his service and I
encourage you all to try to feel the same.’

11pm, 4
^th
July (later that night).
Fear

Kris sat alone
on her bed, the massive wall mounted television on, but the
appliance not grabbing her attention in the slightest. Instead she
was numb. Her mind and body under siege.

Joe and
Abdullah were right. The world was coming apart at the seams and
the media were broadcasting it as an endless stream of images of
violence and pain, but it was not this media driven assault of
global mayhem that had her struck low. It was the news that she had
received and missed during dinner. News that stabbed right into her
soul.

While at
dinner, Kris had received a voice message from her brother. Her
parents were staying with him and his wife to keep safe. Her
parents weren’t invalids and were entirely independent under normal
circumstances, but the world had skewed a long way from normal in
the last couple of days and so, in just being sensible, they had
all decided to shelter under the same roof and keep an eye out for
each other. Turned out, that notion had been an illusion. Violence
had found them anyway and hit them hard.

Late that
afternoon, four masked men had smashed their way through the back
door of her brother’s home with steel bars and baled her brother
and his wife and her parents up in a bedroom. After locking them
in, the men had proceeded to smash their way through the house and
ravage through their belongings to take whatever they wanted,
mainly loose cash and some jewellery. Fortunately, no one had been
hurt. That at least was a blessing, but it was still abuse, cruel
and cutting.

The experience
had left them all shaken, but Kris’ mother had fared the worst.
Even while they had all huddled in the corner of the bedroom
listening to their lives being violated, she had turned inwards and
buried her consciousness deep inside herself, rendering herself
effectively comatose and non-responsive.

The men had
robbed them quickly and left without a word, but their damage now
looked like it would linger with them forever more. Her brother had
tried to sound strong on the phone, but Kris could tell, beneath
his brave words, he was struggling, on the verge of losing it
himself. Kris had enormous respect for her sibling, who had in fact
pulled her through some tough times as well, but this time, the
world was a different and much more awful place. He needed help and
she was stuck here, powerless and remote.

As soon as Kris
had found the message she had called her brother, but there was no
answer, the phone turned off, or something else. She called again
and again and again. Thirty times all up, but nothing and now, with
no idea what was going on, all Kris had was her guilt and it had
struck her numb.

The television
in her bedroom was on, but it was as far away as the other side of
the world. Kris had shut out the stories of pain and horror on the
screen and instead focused inwards on her own anguish. It was late
at night and even though she knew countless security staff
patrolled the grounds outside, terror had slipped into her bedroom
and just like it had done to her family, it had baled her up. The
world inside her head was quiet, deathly quiet and in that silence,
Kris’ fear started to swell.

In her own
solitude and now with the added anxiety of her family’s suffering
and her powerlessness to help, the night had begun to press in on
Kris. The background buzz, which never really went away, grew in
intensity. First it blocked out Kris’ hearing, like a swarm of bees
inside her head. Then she could feel her fingers start to tremble
and her feet twitch. Slowly the shakes spread throughout her body,
causing Kris to shake all over like she was having a fit. By now,
voluntary movement had become difficult and all she could do was
sit on the bed and let her fear overcome her.

Finally, Kris
heard a new sound in her head, a low roar, like surf gently
swashing on a wide sandy beach. Steadily, the roar grew to larger
and larger waves, pushing the buzzing aside. Kris forced her chin
down until her face was buried as low as she could get it into her
chest. Straining like she was half frozen, Kris then brought her
hands up to her face, her fingers clawed. The waves pounded harder
and harder. The wide sandy beach was now a rocky, jagged, line of
teeth and the surf crashed down upon them like a tempest let loose
in her head. The world outside her mind was gone, dashed upon the
rocks and washed away into the vastness of a broiling, dark
ocean.