The Final Curtain (12 page)

Blue held Max's gaze. ‘On this, you have my absolute word, Miss Superspy.'

Max caught a glimpse of the maze far below. Her heart shuddered.

‘How is it fair that, after all you have done, if I win you just get to disappear?'

‘Because that is the only deal I am offering.'

Kronch's boots sank heavily into the muddy castle grounds. He stomped and heaved as he led Max to the beginning of the maze – a two-metre-high arched entrance of tightly packed, impassable leaves and tangled branches.

‘Ready, Maxine?' Blue's voice boomed into the wind and circled eerily above them.

She looked up to see Blue with a microphone, standing beside Peckham, lording over Max and smiling as if they'd already won.

‘See you at the other side,' Blue's voice echoed. ‘Or not.'

Kronch's breathy snigger disappeared behind her as she cautiously entered the maze.

The thick, leafy walls closed in on her with their perfectly manicured corridors and sharply cut turns and dead-ends. She waited until she was well inside before speaking to Toby.

‘Toby, how well can you see into the maze?'

‘Perfectly. This virtual search engine is great! I can zoom in on a bug on a leaf. This will be a cinch. While Blue was busy flapping his mouth up there on the balcony, I worked out a route that will get you out of there in under fifteen minutes.'

A sharp whiff of damp plant-life and rotting, mulchy earth swirled around her.

‘Can you make it faster, it's a little smelly in here. And watch my back, will you? I'm not quite ready to trust Mr Honesty yet.'

‘Don't you worry, I'll be watching your front and your back. Now, let's get you out of there. Turn right, then a sharp left.'

Max's Counter-Gravity Boots kept her light on the mossy, squelching ground. ‘What kind of evil world dominator has a maze in his backyard?'

‘A bored one?' Toby suggested. ‘Now the maze moves into a wide curve, and at the end you'll come to a T-intersection.'

Max turned into a swooping circle and came to the T. ‘What now?'

‘You need to –'

‘Uh-oh.'

‘What?'

‘I'm … sinking.' Max's boots were disappearing into the mud. ‘I think it's quicksand.'

Toby zoomed in. ‘It's only at the T-intersection. Turn left. Fast!'

Max turned, but the ground had already dissolved around her, sucking her down so that it was already up to her thighs.

‘I said
fast
, Max.'

Max strode through the gluggy sand towards
the hardened edge of ground ahead, forcing her legs to push forward.

‘Faster!' Toby shouted.

‘I'm going as fast as I can.'

The sand rose to her chest, pressing in on her, making it hard to breathe. She kept her arms above the slime. When she was close enough, she reached out to a rock in the hard ground beyond.

‘Now pull yourself up,' Toby ordered.

‘Why didn't I think of that?' Max puffed.

She gritted her teeth, reached forward with her injured arm and pulled.

The pain stabbed into her wrist like a hot knife. She clasped both hands around the rock, trying to concentrate all her strength into her arms. The quicksand dragged at her body like an invisible force hauling her under. She stopped to gather her strength. In seconds she felt herself sinking further.

‘I'm coming in,' Toby shouted.

‘No, you're more useful there. Or at least I was hoping you would be.'

Max gave one hefty tug. Her arm felt like it was on fire, but she kept pulling through the pain.

‘That's it, now harder.'

Max's shoulders lifted out of the sand. She stretched her fingers so that they were able to curl
around the lower branch of a hedge. She closed her eyes, gathered her breath and dragged herself up. She kept pulling until her knee made it onto solid ground and stopped to rest briefly.

‘Don't stop now.'

‘I just need a second.'

‘No, you'll sink.'

Max felt herself lose a little ground. Her wrist throbbed.

‘You have to keep going, Max.'

‘Just a minute.'

‘Now!'

With the last of her energy, Max held her breath and pulled. Her other knee lifted from the clinging ground, and she used it to lever her body out before falling on her back, gasping great mouthfuls of air.

‘Looks like Blue forgot to mention there'd be a few obstacles,' Toby said.

‘How'd you get so bossy?' Max panted, cradling her aching wrist.

‘Hanging around you so long, I guess. That's enough resting, you have to keep going. Turn left, then take the second aisle on the right.'

As Max's adrenalin rush subsided, her body felt gripped by the chill wind blowing onto her now
soggy Super Suit. She followed Toby's instructions, turning corners she felt she'd turned before, stepping into aisles that seemed all too familiar.

‘Are you sure I'm headed the right way?'

‘Trust me, I know what I'm doing. You need to … Knock-Out Spray. Now!'

Max held her wrist out and pressed the button for the spray. A billowing mist squirted into the air as a swarm of bees flew out from a nearby clump of bushes. The air darkened with the thick swarm and filled with their swelling buzz as they headed towards her. Max closed her eyes and looked away, her finger still firmly pressed on the spray button.

Until the buzzing was replaced by the sound of soft pattering.

Max slowly opened her eyes. The bees fell from the air in sleepy clusters.

‘Did I tell you about my bee phobia?' Max asked through barely open lips. ‘I fell into a hive when I was young and ended up in hospital for weeks.'

‘We only have half an hour before they wake and come after you again, so we better keep you moving.'

Toby continued with the instructions, leading Max through the tall plant maze. Sharp turns, circular twists and long aisles.

‘I've zoomed in on Peckham,' Toby said. ‘And it looks like she controls the maze obstacles with that hand-held device.'

‘Why does she follow Blue so blindly? I've never understood why – aaah!'

‘What?' Toby zeroed in on the maze. ‘Oh.'

‘Blades,' Max breathed. ‘Big ones. Swinging. Aaah!'

Max stiffened, holding herself as thin as she could, her arms pinned to her sides, as giant axe blades swung pendulum-like from the sides of the maze. One behind her and a line of them in front.

‘Take a deep breath,' Toby ordered.

‘I'm going to die!' Max cried.

‘You're not going to die. There's at least a metre between each blade. Now do as I say and take a deep breath.'

Max did as she was told.

‘Now focus on the end of the aisle. Are the blades swinging at different times?'

‘Yes.'

‘Concentrate on the blade in front of you. When you have the rhythm of the swing, move forward. Stop, take a breath and check the next one.'

Max didn't answer.

‘Max?'

‘Yes?'

‘One at a time.'

Max's muscles tightened and her skin goose-bumped all over. Keeping her head still, her eyes followed the movement of the next blade. She counted the swings. One, two, three. Toby silently counted with her.

‘Aaah!'

‘What?'

‘I made the first one.'

‘Couldn't you say, “
I made it
” instead?'

With her sights on the next blade, Max breathed to the rhythm of its swing and stepped through when it was clear.

She made her way past the next few until she faced the last blade. As she went to step forward, her foot caught on a rock.

‘Max!'

She straightened just in time to avoid a slicing collision.

‘Could you try and be a little more careful?' Toby asked.

Max waited until her breathing had calmed before she found the next blade's rhythm and dived forward. She felt her legs turn to jelly beneath her and fell to the ground.

‘You did it!' Toby yelled into her ear.

‘I can't hear anymore but, yeah, I did it.' She allowed herself a brief smile.

‘Just as well. I like you better as one large piece rather than in small bits.'

Max laughed. ‘Me too.'

‘I'm not sure Blue agrees. He's looking pretty annoyed right now. Let's annoy him even more by getting you out of there.'

‘I'd like that.'

‘Well, get off your rear-end and turn left.'

Max shakily lifted herself upright. She turned as Toby said and found herself facing the thick curved archway of the maze's exit. ‘There you are,' she whispered.

With only metres to go before completing the maze and saving Linden, Max felt her energy surge. She lunged forward, ready to claim victory, ready to show Blue she had won, but as she did a large square of earth fell away.

‘Aaah!'

She flung out her arms and caught herself on either side of a deep black shaft, kicking her boots in time to grip the earthy sides.

‘Sorry, Max. I didn't see that,' Toby said. ‘I'm coming in.'

‘No,' Max grimaced, ‘I have to do this by myself or the deal's off.' Her injured arm felt as if it was about to snap. From deep within the shaft, Max heard the faraway sound of the sea. She looked around to see what she could use to climb out. There wasn't much more than the thick maze walls and the arch. Without her backpack and no way to access any of her gadgets, her mind raced at what she should do.

She looked to her pained arm. ‘Please hold on,' she willed herself. ‘Just until I …'

Her eyes fell on her wrist. ‘The web,' she whispered.

‘Max, if you're not out of there in ten seconds, I'm …'

‘I'll be out of here before that.'

Max inched her arms and legs, one by one, around the mouth of the shaft, repositioning herself so that the web-slinging cuff pointed directly at the archway.

‘Okay, Max,' she whispered to herself. ‘You only get one chance at this.'

She dug each of her boots as firmly as she could into the earthy walls. She looked to her wrist, studying the exact position of the button on the cuff of her suit.

‘Here goes.'

She lifted both hands from the ground. The right hand snapped to the cuff and pressed the button.

‘Max!' Toby cried.

As Max slipped downwards, a fine web shot out from her wrist and wrapped itself around the curve of the arch, jerking her to a safe stop. She closed her eyes, gave it a tug and smiled.

‘You really know how to give a guy a heart attack,' Toby said.

‘I like to keep you on your toes.'

‘How about you just get out of there instead?'

Max drew on the last of her strength. Hauling herself upwards, climbing the web, grasp by grasp, lifting herself further and further out until she collapsed onto the ground beneath the sticky, webbed arch.

‘Yes! You did it! You're the greatest!'

‘It's about time you admitted it,' Max puffed.

On stumbling from the exit of the maze into the courtyard, Max looked up at Blue. Despite the cold and biting wind that pummelled into her, she felt warm, her body shrouded in relief.

‘This is the end of it, Blue,' she cried. ‘Your war with Spyforce is over.'

Blue snatched the control from Peckham. A wooden door in a wall of the courtyard flew open and a human-shaped hulk of a robot stepped through. It was easily three times the size of Max, with shoulders twice as broad, and ice-white disks for eyes.

‘You can't do this!'

‘Actually, I can. You broke the rules, Max. You were supposed to do this on your own but you've had a helper, haven't you, which means the deal is off!'

‘Toby, are you there?'

Max's question was met with silence.

‘Toby, answer me.'

Max stepped away from the approaching robot and tripped backwards. She tried to break her fall, but her wrist buckled and her head slammed against the ground. Her body sparked with sharp pains and her mind blurred. She struggled to stay conscious, to keep her eyes open as the metal feet of the robot marched closer.

From one of the robot's hands hung a metal rod attached to a chain with a large spiked ball dangling from the end.

‘A mace?'

The word formed in her mind as the robot began to swing the weapon above its head. Max
kicked at the dirt and tried to push herself away. The robot inched closer. The swinging ball gaining momentum.

Blue's voice echoed in the perishing winds, ‘I've given the order to destroy the hospital, and now I am going to destroy you!'

He pulled a toffee from his pocket, carefully unwrapped it and savoured it in his mouth as he prepared to enjoy the last moments of Max Remy's life.

Max lay flat against the ground, wheezing through shallow breaths. The only sound punctuating the swirling wind was the swish of the metal ball swinging faster and closer.

The robot held the mace with two hands and prepared to bring it down on Max. It swooped above her, reaching into the starless night sky. Max's heart stopped and her eyes clenched tight.

Then nothing.

Except for pieces of metal raining on the ground around her.

‘Sorry to ruin all your fun, metal boy.'

Max's eyes shot open. ‘Toby?'

Toby waved to Max from the top of the castle wall. ‘You looked like a damsel who needed help, and Plomb's silent pen bomb really did the trick.'

Max saw the rod in the robot's hand, with no chain or metal ball attached. Toby activated his Personal Flying Device and flew down beside Max, helping her to her feet.

‘How did they know you were there?'

‘When I wanted to come and help you in the quicksand, I turned off my force-field and forgot to turn it back on.' Toby paused. ‘Sorry, Max. Are you okay?'

‘I will be when this tin can is out of the way. And the hospital?'

‘My guess is it's just fine and, you know what, I've been patient with this guy long enough.'

Max smiled. ‘Me too.'

Toby waved at Blue. ‘Do you practise being a scumbag, or does it come naturally?'

Blue concentrated on the controls.

The tips of the robot's fingers flipped up and from inside each one a dart protruded.

‘Force-field!' Max cried.

They twisted the top buttons of their Super Suits. A slight shimmer flickered around their bodies as the robot's darts flew towards them. Each one bounced against the shields, ricocheting into the air before falling harmlessly to the ground.

Toby caught sight of Blue's face in a tangle of fury as his fingers manipulated the control again. The robot's fists clenched and it ran at them, its feet thundering into the ground.

Toby deactivated his field for agility.

‘What are you doing?' Max cried.

‘It's time for dessert.'

Toby pulled the box of custard from his pack, tore open the top and hurled it at the robot. A shower of yellowy goo slurped over its slowing frame
until finally, only steps away, it froze. Glued stiff.

‘He was very mobile for a robot.' Toby smiled.

‘You won't win, Maxine!' Blue screamed from above, his neck veins popping out. ‘Kronch!'

‘I forgot about him.' Max frowned.

Kronch ran at the spies from out of the shadows of the castle courtyard. They fled from the bounding building of a man slodging behind them, while their boots carried them lightly across the mulchy ground.

‘Should we split up?' Toby yelled.

‘No. Stay together. It'll be more fun. This way.'

Max ran into the dim recesses of the courtyard, jumping over logs, running past small stone sheds and down cobbled paths until she fell clutching her ankle near the far towering walls of the castle.

‘Aaah!'

Toby helped her up and offered Max his shoulder. She hobbled up and down on her good leg.

Kronch rushed closer, his chest gasping breaths and his face heaving into a wide, crooked smile. He flexed his fingers before clenching his fists into hardened weapons.

‘Can you run?' Toby flashed the light of his watch on Max's ankle.

‘I don't think I can.'

Kronch ran at them, his mouth sneered open, his eyes wide.

‘Now!' Max cried and the two spies sprang apart, leaving Kronch no alternative but to collide with the jagged stone of the shed. He staggered a few steps to the left and to the right.

‘And just to make sure he doesn't cause any more trouble.' Max sprayed Kronch with the netting from her cuff until he looked like a giant fish caught in a net.

His body swayed until his eyes closed, and he fell to the ground with a dull and very knocked-out thud.

‘Is your ankle better?' Toby asked.

‘You know, I think it's cured.'

‘Let's go get the big guy then. Do you think you can hold onto me?'

‘I'm not sure my wrist is up to it.'

Toby bent down and scooped Max off her feet. ‘Is this the most manly day of my life or what?'

‘Just fly,' Max muttered.

Toby pulled out the lever on his PFD, and the two flew into the black night.

‘You don't have to hold on to me so tight, I'm …' Max looked down. She closed her eyes
and folded herself into Toby's chest. ‘Tell me when we're there.'

They landed on top of a darkened corner of the castle wall. They crept closer to Blue, who was searching the courtyard with a floodlight.

‘Looking for us?' Max asked.

Blue swung round, dropping the light to the floor, where it smashed on the stones in clumps of glass and metal. He went to reach into his jacket.

Toby lifted his watch and pressed his laser. A sharp red light blasted into the stone wall behind him, blowing it into tiny bits.

‘Keep your hands where I can see them.' Toby trained the laser on Blue.

‘As you can see, I survived your little maze,' Max said. ‘Oh, and the hospital is fine too.'

‘Oh no,' Blue replied. ‘I gave the order. The hospital is gone.'

‘When you told Max about your plans to destroy it,' Toby said, ‘I recorded every word on my watch and emailed it to Spyforce. Harrison dispatched a team of agents to scour the hospital, and within ten minutes they found the device. Quimby used a supersonic listening device to detect a high-level but very quiet ticking. They were also on alert for a hospital employee entering
the building with an activator, who I'm sure they've caught by now and who has done some blabbing of his own. Oh, and when we landed I thought I'd send a photo of your supposedly crumbled castle, just so they know where you are.'

‘Bravo! You've saved the day.' Blue flicked his head and stuck his nose in the air. ‘But I'd hate for you to think you'd saved yourselves.'

‘Oh no, for that we thought we'd get a little help,' Toby said.

Blue cocked his head at a thumping noise that broke through the rush of wind. Max offered him a brief smile as two RX650 helicopters rose behind him.

Blue's face twisted into a panicked scowl. ‘We had a deal. I told you that I would disappear forever.'

‘What?' Max shouted over the noise of the blades. ‘You really thought I'd trust you? And enter a deal where, after all you've done, you walk free? You may have wanted me to enter the maze so I could be killed, but I needed to do it to allow Spyforce time to get here and put you away for good.'

Max stepped closer.

‘You said I'm very predictable in my loyalty and
that makes it easy to read my moves. Well, your fondness for being a lying rat makes you predictable and has finally led to your downfall.'

The wind slammed into them. A bright light from the choppers shone onto the balcony, momentarily blinding them. Blue thrust his hand into his pocket and pulled out a gun.

Before Max had a chance to activate her force-field, Blue pulled the trigger. A thick electric bolt shot out, just as a gust of wind lifted Max's shirt. Max felt a sharp blow to her stomach and was propelled backwards, hitting her head against the wall.

Toby rushed at Blue and kicked the gun from his grip. ‘I said keep your hands where I can see them.'

Max slumped over, her nostrils pinched by the smell of burning materials coming from the belt of the Time and Space Machine.

Blue fell to his side but tried to scramble away as agents abseiled onto the balcony. Toby ran to Max as four black-suited Spyforce agents stood with legs astride, their weapons trained on Peckham and Blue.

‘On your knees,' Agent Alex Crane shouted.

‘Hands behind your head,' added Agent Suave.

Blue and Peckham knelt down and did as they were ordered. Alex nodded to two other agents, who moved in and searched Blue and Peckham to make sure they had no other hidden weapons.

‘Are you okay, Max?' Alex asked over her shoulder.

‘I'd be better if I stopped banging into things,' Max said. ‘It's good to see you, though.'

She smiled. ‘You too.'

Toby helped Max up.

‘Bravo, you have me, Spyforce. You win.' Blue looked at Max. ‘From this curtain wall of my castle, I say goodbye to you, Maxine Remy. You really were an admirable rival, but you're wrong about me not getting away.'

Blue gave her one last look, etched with the smallest of grins. From his cuff he drew a remote the size of a stamp. He pressed the button and a trapdoor opened beneath him, dropping him into a darkened chute.

‘Theodoran!' Miss Peckham threw herself at the hole but was caught and handcuffed by two agents.

‘No!' Max cried.

Agent Suave fixed two ropes around stone merlons on the castle wall. He and Alex lowered themselves into the opening.

With the increasing wind of the chopper blades tearing into them, Max shivered as she stared at the blackened cavity, Miss Peckham's whimpering sobs stabbing the air.