Read The Hollywood Mission Online
Authors: Deborah Abela
The Hollywood Mission
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Max Remy Superspy 04: The Hollywood Mission
ePub ISBN 9781742745091
Random House Australia Pty Ltd
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First published in 2003
Text copyright © Deborah Abela 2003
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Publisher.
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Abela, Deborah.
Max Remy super spy: the hollywood mission.
For children aged 9+.
ISBN 978 1 74051 912 0.
ISBN 1 74051 859 4.
1. Spies - Juvenile fiction. I. Title.
A823.4
Photograph of the author by Todd Decker
Cover and internal illustrations by Jobi Murphy
For Brian and Shirley Decker
The steep, snow-wrapped mountain plunged before her like a giant slide to white oblivion. A violent blizzard filled the skies and the risk of death was as real as the knife-edged cold filling the air. As Max Remy catapulted on her skis through this frozen wilderness, a crushing wind tore at the forest which swayed and lurched on either side of her. Then, in all this whitened chaos, Max was dealt her first blow.
A helicopter rose from the heart of the forest, its rotor blades creating an icy sprawl that left her momentarily blinded. One wrong move at this speed and Max knew she faced certain and instant death.
She raced through the storm, maintaining her balance, with the helicopter expertly following her every move as she navigated her way around protruding rocks as dangerous as landmines. She'd been on far more dangerous missions than this and some chopper pilot on a thrill ride wasn't going to stop her now.
That is, until she came to Devil's Run.
Devil's Run was a slice of the mountain that fingered into a narrow ledge overlooking a jagged, rock-filled chasm. If she went over the edge, search parties wouldn't be sent out. Bodies that fell into Devil's Run were never found.
She tried to ski away from the edge just as a
rabbit hopped in front of her. In an instant she swerved, avoiding the furry animal and earning herself a place on the powdery edge of the cliff. The hungry mouth of the chasm opened up below her. She fought against the image of death that filled her mind and regained her composure as the chopper moved into position for a final swoop.
âSo, that's how you want to play,' Max muttered through clenched teeth.
Now the pilot would make his move. If he'd come to kill her it would not take long.
Flurries of snow swept up from the chasm in waves, wanting to drag Max into its depths. She tried to pull away from the edge but the helicopter forced her even closer.
Then her fate took a fiendish turn. A man sitting next to the pilot pulled out a Stun Blaster and aimed it straight at her.
Max glimpsed the immobilising device and knew there was little chance of evading its life-sucking punishment. Her skis sent clumps of snow over the cliff beside her. If she didn't think fast she'd soon follow. Then she had it. A cunning plan that would end her enemy's menacing flight. A foolproof idea that
âMax! Let me in.'
Max jumped in her seat, her fingers plunging across the keyboard. She stared at the screen of her computer as snow billowed from Devil's Run where she'd just fallen to her death. Why did her mother instinctively know the worst times to interrupt her? It was as if she had some kind of Max Anti-Fun radar.
âPhone for you, sweetie. And why do you always lock this door?'
It was purely for health reasons. If her mother had unrestricted access to her room, Max stood a good chance of her brain exploding. She turned back to the computer.
âGotta go, Linden. I've got my own forces of evil to deal with.'
Linden's face appeared in the corner of Max's screen, beaming in from his home in Mindawarra. âToo bad.' He smiled victoriously. âWho'd have thought after all that you'd end up as a permanent ice block.'
âYou were about to be trounced by my great comeback plan. That is, until the abominable snow woman knocked on my door. See you on the weekend.'
âYeah. We'll see if those landings of yours have finally been sorted out,' Linden smirked.
Max had this unfortunate knack of messy landings whenever she used the Time and Space Machine. She'd landed in garbage compactors, pig troughs, compost bins and freshly laid cat poo. Ben and Francis promised they'd fix the problem and this weekend she was going back to Mindawarra to try it out.
âSee ya then,' Max said coolly, but in reality she missed the farm and couldn't wait to go back.
She shut down the Spyforce Ski Run game that they'd been playing. There were lots of great things about being part of Spyforce and access to virtual spy missions on their computers was definitely one of them. The games weren't as good as the simulation chambers in the Spyforce Training Centres, but they were still a great way to help Max forget she shared her regular life with the Fun Terminator.
âQuickly now.'
Max followed her mother to the hall, and as Max picked up the phone, she noticed her mother hovering nearby displaying a bad case of looking obvious while trying to listen in. Max took the phone to the lounge room and closed the door.
âHello?'
âSo how about it? Are you in?' Max's dad spoke
to his daughter from the other side of the world.
There was a pause as the scowl on Max's face was replaced with an enormous grin. âI ⦠that'd be ⦠um â¦' she stammered.
âIs that a yes?' Her dad lived in America with his new wife and had just asked her to visit.
âYes!' Max finally managed. She was finding it hard to speak, when all she really wanted to do was run into the middle of the street and yell, âMy dad wants me to visit him in America!'
âI've been trying to come out since last Christmas but every time it seems possible, I get more work, so I thought the best solution was for you to come here.'
Max felt so light with happiness it was as if she was floating around the room. Until she remembered a small problem and came crashing down.
âHave you asked Mum?'
âNot yet. I wanted to speak with you first.'
âOh.' Suddenly Max's rose-coloured world became murky grey.
âDon't worry, Max. Leave everything to me.'
She wanted to believe him but after eleven years of sharing the same piece of loony land with her mother, she knew she was going to be hard to convince.
âPut your mum on and we'll sign off on this deal.'
Max said goodbye and trudged to the lounge room door. When she pulled it open she faced the giant ear of her mother.
âI was listening for termites, sweetie.' Her mother fixed her hair in an attempt not to look awkward, which made her look even more awkward. âDoes your father want to talk to me?' she asked in a girlie voice.
Max handed over the phone while trying to find even a slight resemblance between her and the woman people said was her mother.
Her mother's voice danced across the tiles and marble surfaces of the kitchen. Whenever she spoke to Max's dad, she put on her Everything's Perfect voice. Max went to the lounge room to wait for the verdict.
After what felt like hours, Max heard her mother say goodbye. She raced to the kitchen to find her humming and preparing dinner. Something wasn't right. She never hummed and usually after long conversations with Max's dad, she walked around clanging everything and wore a face that had just sucked a lemon. This time her mother was happy and any time that happened, it usually meant bad news for Max.
âEverything alright, Mum?' she asked cautiously.
âEverything alright?' her mum replied.
âYeah. You seem a little strange.' Max watched as her mother polished a tomato so hard she was in danger of wearing it out.
âA little strange?'
âYeah, is everything alright?'
âOf course everything's alright.'
Now Max was really worried. âCould you stop repeating everything I say?'
âI'm not repeating everything you ⦠sorry. Everything's fine.'
This was how life was with her mother. Max felt as if she was on a stretching rack and her mother was enjoying every second of torturing her.
Just then the doorbell rang.
âOh.' Her mother walked towards the front door. âAnd Aidan will be joining us.'
What? Why did her mother never tell Max when she'd invited people over? And when were they supposed to talk about what her dad had said? Max bit into a carrot as she prepared to face another painful evening with her mother and her try-hard boyfriend.
Over dinner, the only sound accompanying the clinking of cutlery against plates was the sound of whales moaning on the stereo. Her mum found it relaxing. Max just wanted to scream. Eventually she couldn't take it any longer.
âMum, I know what Dad asked you and I'm almost twelve years old and I don't think it's right that you treat me like a kid when I'm almost not a kid anymore and anyway I can make up my own mind about what's good for me and â¦'
âMax,' her mother interrupted in a caramelly sweet voice. âThere's something I'd like to tell you.' She looked across at Aidan, who was smiling like a kid about to meet Santa. âAidan and I are getting married.'
Wham! Max felt the ground quake beneath her, like Dorothy when her house was sucked up by the tornado on her way to Oz. Things were suddenly spinning out of control and if they didn't stop soon, her stomach and everything in it was going to leap out of her mouth all over everyone. Her mother was talking so fast her lips were beginning to blur. Max heard none of it. It was as though someone had turned down the volume on her life, which had changed from barely tolerable into a twisting, tortuous nightmare.
She saw events unfold before her. Her mother would be wearing a hideous designer dress that would spill out from a gold-encrusted horse drawn carriage. The church would be filled with stylish people she didn't know sitting listening to soppy reject '80s music while flowers bloomed out of the seats like an overgrown jungle. The wedding party, of which Max would be a member, would be dragged into a hairdressing salon to be tugged, pruned and curled only to come out looking like extras from a horror movie. And she'd be forced to wear a dress! She could see herself now, marching down the aisle puffed up like a chiffon-covered blimp.
She couldn't let it happen. She'd been patient with this Aidan business long enough, but as she took a deep breath to tell them exactly what she thought, a clump of alfalfa was sucked into her windpipe.
âMax?'
Even though Max couldn't breathe it was a relief that her mother had finally stopped talking. Max's face became the colour of an eggplant as air struggled to pass the grassy salad.
âAidan! Quick, do something!'
Soon Max stopped being able to gasp at all. Then something weird happened. She felt as if she
was floating, not like when she was on the phone floating, but really floating. She rose above her choking body as if it belonged to someone else. The horror of being Aidan's stepdaughter suddenly became someone else's problem and she felt instantly calm, like those stories about people who have near-death experiences and float away from their bodies towards the light at the end of the tunnel.
But are then forcefully jerked back.
Max's eyes flung open as the shining teeth and bulging lips of Aidan came straight for her.
âDon't come any closer,' Max wheezed at Aidan's reckless attempt at mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. She'd left the floating sensation and landed back in the doom of her mother's impending marriage.
She was lying on the floor, covered in alfalfa, sun-dried tomatoes and seaweed.
âBut what about Dad?'
âThis has nothing to do with your dad, sweetie,' her mother said calmly, trying to pretend her only child hadn't nearly choked to death.
âYou can't just replace him like that.' Max sat up and pulled a piece of spinach from her ear. âI already have a father and I'm not going to call
him
Dad,' she managed, not sure if she wanted to yell or cry.
âYou don't have to, sweetie â¦'
But Max didn't wait to hear the rest. She'd had enough for tonight and was heading as far away from the happy couple as possible.
She climbed the stairs to her room and locked the door against the whole idea, desperately wanting to turn back time so that her mother's news had never happened. As she lay on her bed clutching her pillow against her sore throat, she slowly saw the best day of her life turn into the worst. From now on her life was as good as over.