Max Arena (31 page)

‘I get that a
lot with men,’ Kris replied.

‘Yeah, you’re
a real heart breaker,’ Kris said in return, smiling, ‘but really,
you should have seen him yesterday. He had one of your boys go find
a big enough ladder so he could climb up on top of the Pain Train
and jump off it again and again as fast as he could. It was all he
could think of.’

Kris raised
her eyebrows. ‘That’s not bad.’

‘Yeah, maybe,’
Elsa drawled, ‘but only to a point. He couldn’t think of anything
else after that, so he tried going up the ladder on his hands
instead.’

‘And how’d
that go?’

‘Poorly, but
it was pretty funny.’

‘I’ll have to
remember that next time I need a laugh.’

Elsa looked
back at Kris and studied her face. ‘You really do look good. We
were worried as hell about you. You went down real hard.’

‘Abdullah said
you’d all been to sit with me and I...’ Kris started, ‘...I think
it helped me. This might sound a little weird, but while I was
down, it was like being lost at sea in a storm, a really, really
bad storm and without a life jacket or anything. The waves just
kept crashing down on me and it was dark. So dark, the whole time,
but then, a light started to shine on the horizon. At first I lost
sight of it as the waves kept coming down on me, but slowly the
light lifted higher and got brighter and somehow it gave me the
strength to start treading water. My head stayed up more and more
and then I realised I was kicking my legs and paddling towards the
light because where there’s light, there’s hope isn’t there? So, as
the light grew brighter, I got stronger. The sky grew lighter and
the waves died down and then finally, at last, my feet touched the
bottom...and I woke up.’

‘And who did
you see?’ Elsa asked.

Kris flicked
her gaze sideways and almost whispered, ‘Abdullah.’

Elsa nodded.
‘That’s right because he hardly left your side the whole time.
Sure, Max and I and Joseph came in and sat with you a fair bit, but
Abdullah, he hardly left your room since he got to the estate the
morning after you crashed.’

Kris dipped
her head and turned to look out over the lawn to find Max doing
standing military presses with a barbell. Elsa continued.

‘The moment he
landed,’ Elsa added, ‘he came straight up and in the three nights
and two days you were down, he left your side maybe a couple of
times to freshen up and eat, although most of the time he ate out
on the balcony.’

‘Yeah, I think
it was the smell of his pancakes that actually woke me up,’ Kris
said smiling.

‘Maybe it was
the pancakes at the end, but if that light you saw in the storm
really was hope, that hope had a name. Abdullah. He sat here with
his prayer beads day and night and at night, he didn’t sleep. He
sat in that chair and he prayed and he prayed and he prayed. You
hear stories about people doing things like that, but he actually
did it. I swear he has not slept a wink in the three nights that
have passed and then during the day, he did no work. He’s left
everything up to Joe while he sat here with you. The man is a saint
or whatever the equivalent is in Islam, so if you’re looking for
someone to hug, it’s him. It’s absolutely Abdullah. He’s been lost
without you too.’

Kris stayed
silent, listening to Elsa’s deposition and feeling the depth of her
words as they touched her deep inside. She could still see that
light inside her mind, but now it had taken on a new dimension. The
light now had a feeling associated with it, an emotion more
powerful than any other, but Kris couldn’t bring herself to openly
admit it. Instead she kept her feelings hidden despite the
discomfort it gave her. The end of the world was not the time to
get all soppy. She had a role to play here and her own personal
desires had to come second.

Looking up,
Kris found Max standing down on the grass looking directly up at
her. Her mind was made up. She needed to focus. Sacrifices needed
to be made and Kris would sacrifice her feelings for Abdullah
because that was the right thing to do.

10pm, 5
^th
August (later that night).
Faith

Max watched
Elsa leave the dining room, on her way to check in on Kris before
going to bed.

‘Your wife has
a strong and kind heart,’ Abdullah said from across the table.

Max turned to
face him. ‘Yes, she does,’ he replied. ‘In most ways she’s stronger
than me.’

‘I think you
are as strong as each other,’ Abdullah said in return, ‘and I do
not consider it a coincidence that you have found each other.’

Max smirked.
‘You think it was God?’

‘Let’s just say
you deserve each other.’

Max nodded, his
smile widening.

‘Why do you
smile, my friend?’ Abdullah asked, his head slightly tilted.

‘Because I
can’t help, but smile when I talk to you.’

‘I don’t
understand.’

‘Let me put it
this way. I don’t know what
you
hear when you listen to
yourself
, but for everyone else, it’s pure therapy. You have
this natural ability to put people at ease and make them feel safe.
Take all of us for example. You’ve come into all of our lives and
in just a little over a month with the end of the world staring us
down, you’ve counselled us, settled us down and to be fair, saved
us from a world going bad. Fair enough, Joe has played a big role
too, but it’s been
you
Abdullah, it’s been
you
who
has quietly pulled all the strings in the background and got us
this far and that takes skills and patience the likes of which I
can’t fathom. That’s why I’m smiling. You make me want to
smile.’

Abdullah looked
down at his folded hands resting in his lap. ‘I have my faith to
help me,’ he said. ‘God is the bedrock on which I stand and labour
and that is all the support I need, but let me say this,’ and
Abdullah raised his head again to look across the table at Max.
‘While you, Max choose not to recognise Allah’s divine influence
and that is your fair and just choice, you do still follow a life
of faith.’

‘And what faith
would that be?’ Max asked, genuinely curious.

‘Faith in
yourself. The burden you carry now is perhaps greater than any
other burden in the history of mankind and yet you carry it as
strongly as you carry your weights. That is because of your
unbreakable faith in yourself,’ Abdullah said.

Max silently
held Abdullah in his gaze for a few moments and then said, ‘What I
say to you now, I know you won’t interpret as arrogant because it’s
not. This burden you mention, it’s easy for me to carry because for
a long time now I’ve known what I have to do. I’ve come to grips
with it.’

‘That is true,
but you do not place expectations on yourself either. If you win,
you win. If you fall, you fall, but it would not be because you did
not give it everything you have.’

‘That’s right.
It’s the only way I know how to do this.’

‘However,’
Abdullah said, then paused, leaning forward to rest his forearms on
the table in front, ‘despite your outward strength, you are afraid,
aren’t you?’

Max hesitated,
then nodded slightly. ‘Yes, but not about dying.’

‘No. Your fear
is not for yourself is it? It is not for losing your own life?’

‘No, it’s
not.’

‘You fear is
what will happen to your family if you fall in the arena and you
are not alive to protect them from whatever happens next. Is that
not so?’

Max nodded
again. Abdullah continued.

‘You say I have
counselled each of us with words of comfort and guidance,’ he said,
‘but in this matter, my friend, I have no words that can allay your
fears and I am sorry for it. You may well fall in the arena and the
fate of your family and indeed all of us will lie beyond our mortal
control and rest in the hands of God alone, so I will not shower
you with false hope. If you do fall in the arena, your family may
suffer in the aftermath. However, if you will permit my belief to
intrude...?’

‘Please, speak
your mind,’ Max replied.

‘...even if you
do not have faith in God, I believe he will reward you with what is
fitting.’

‘And what would
be fitting?’

‘Death finds us
all, Max. I do not have to tell you that. When and how it finds us
is a mystery, but there is no mystery about what happens after we
pass.’

‘You mean
Heaven?’

‘Yes and for a
good man like you and good people like your family, Heaven indeed
awaits. That is the only consolation I can give you.’

Max held his
new friend’s eye, not searching for anything, but rather trying to
imprint the moment in his mind. Max had never chosen to be close to
anyone other than Elsa and their children, but right now, right at
this moment, he felt compelled to know this man. It felt right. It
felt as though he and Abdullah were completely like minded, maybe
even kindred. Then Max spoke.

‘You speak of
mysteries, Abdullah’ he said. ‘Well, your faith is a mystery to me
and yes, you’re right. I do have faith in myself and yes, it is
unbreakable, but I can only believe in what I can see and what I
can feel. My hands, my legs and my heart. These are the instruments
of my faith and I know they are powerful. I know I can move
mountains if I choose to. That’s not hubris. It’s just the truth,
but even though I don’t understand your faith and God Himself, I
have to say, I admire
your
faith all the same. It’s as
unbreakable as my faith is in myself and I have nothing, but
respect for that.’

Sheikh Abdullah
did not say a word. Instead he nodded, his eyes slightly softening
and a tiny curl forming at the corners of his mouth. Max
continued.

‘You don’t just
wear your faith, Abdullah, you’re immersed in it and you’re not
only comfortable in that place, but it absolutely suits you and
there’s something else I have to tell you now.’

Sheikh
Abdullah’s gaze remained locked on Max’s. Max resumed.

‘I might be the
one in the arena saving the world, but you, your Highness, are the
one that is going to keep the world safe after I’m done. The world
needs me only right now, but it needs you forever more. You’re a
man separate from other men and for what you have done already for
my family, all I can say is thank you. Thank you for being here and
more than anything, thank you for being you.’

Abdullah did
not smile. He did not even move. A deep silence suffused the room
as both men held in place, looking wordlessly across the table at
each other.

Then Abdullah
smoothly rose to his feet. Turning, he glided around the table to
where Max sat. Max also rose and the two men stood before each
other for a moment before warmly embracing and for those few
moments, despite all the trouble in their worlds, doom slipped away
and two new friends set their paths and fates together in
stone.

8am, 7
^th
August (2 days later).
Unveiled

‘Do your
make-up this morning?’ Kris asked.

‘Yes, Ma’am,’
Max replied as he walked across the grass towards her with Jason
perched on his shoulders and Elsa and Millie walking along side.
‘Even got some product in my hair.’

Suddenly,
Millie broke out of her mother’s hand hold and sprinted towards
Kris, who held her arms out wide.

‘Come here,
you,’ Kris called out as the little girl charged into her embrace.
Sweeping Millie off her feet, Kris spun around, Millie’s legs
swinging outwards in unison as she giggled.

Max lifted
Jason off his shoulders and plonked him down on the grass, letting
him run over and wrap his arms around Kris’ legs as well. Elsa
smiled and slipped an arm around Max’s waist. A few moments later,
the sound of approaching aircraft made them all turn and look
towards the west.

‘Here they
come,’ Elsa said just as three helicopter silhouettes appeared over
the tree tops, heading right for the estate.

‘Show time,’
Kris said as she put Millie back down on the ground.

‘Yes, it is,’
sounded a voice behind them.

Everyone turned
to find Joseph and Abdullah walking up behind them, also looking up
at the incoming craft.

‘I pray this
works,’ Abdullah said.

‘No fear, Your
Highness,’ Kris said, still holding Millie’s hand. ‘One look at
what Max is just about to do and I guarantee the whole world will
sit up and watch.’

On the edge of
Kris’ training area on the southern lawn of the estate, Prime
Minister Joseph Tollsen stood in front of the assembled media and
waited for them all to fix their attention on him. All up, about
twenty press professionals stood restlessly in the warm winter’s
sun, cordoned together and clearly eager to get their first look at
this mysterious champion of theirs’.

After
disgorging from the helicopters, the men and women of the media
gallery had been herded into this particular space and instructed
to set up their cameras, which they all did quickly and without
question. Several individuals had also attempted to snatch a few
shots of the generous scattering of military security across the
broad lawn, but were quickly and forthrightly told to be patient,
or else. Joe cleared his throat and all eyes fixed on him.

‘Ladies and
gentlemen,’ he began, ‘firstly, thank you for accepting our
invitation to be here with us for the next few days. We will show
you to your lodgings in a short while and endeavour to make your
stay both comfortable and rewarding.’

A few heads
turned and looked around, mostly to remind themselves of just how
much security surrounded them. Some looked up to the constantly
circling Black Hawk high overhead, but most held their stance, eyes
in front and fingers cocked on the trigger buttons of their digital
cameras hanging around their necks.