Free Spyforce Revealed by Deborah Abela

know he’s the best?’
    â€˜Linden, nothing is going to happen to you,’ she shot back, his questions pestering her like a small yapping dog.
    The figure got closer. The long object in his hand dangled like a slow pendulum with each step, like it was counting down the last minutes of their lives.
    â€˜I’ve also got a subscription to Spy Monthly that will need to be cancelled. And I have —’
    Max had had enough. ‘Linden. If you keep going, the only person you’ll have to be worried about is me.’
    He took her point and was quiet.
    The silhouette stopped a few metres before them. The light from the hatch formed an angelic halo all around him. Max and Linden huddled together, desperately thinking what to do. Then slowly, menacingly, the figure raised the long, slender object so that it was pointing straight at them.
    â€˜What are we going to do?’ Max whispered as her brief life flashed before her eyes like a video clip on fast forward.
    Then something happened to answer her. The figure moved the object even closer towards them and muttered one, short word.
    â€˜Mint?’
    Both of them frowned.
    â€˜Did you say “mint”?’ asked Linden, double checking that he’d heard right.
    â€˜Yep. They’re the chewy kind. My favourite,’ said the figure.
    There seemed nothing much else to do but accept.
    â€˜Thanks,’ said Linden, relieved to be alive as the figure dropped mints into their hands.
    â€˜No matter how many times I do it I can never quite get used to the effect this whole travel thing has on me. Leaves me sort of light-headed. Takes me a good few minutes to get my mouth working again. I guess it has something to do with the speed. Not quite as fast as light yet but they’re working on that. Even though some scientists think it’s impossible, what with the infinite amount of energy needed to push an object through space at that speed. But I guess people thought we’d neverwalk on the moon until Armstrong put on a spacesuit one day and up and did it.’
    The strange man who was getting stranger by the second, paused long enough to realise he hadn’t told them his name.
    â€˜Oh! How rude of me. I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Steinberger. R.L. Steinberger. Administration Manager of Spyforce. And you are Max Remy and Linden Franklin. Pleased to meet you both.’
    He held out his hand.
    It was hard to believe the person who had sent Max such brief and formal emails could turn out to be this man with a mouth like a running tap.
    Max and Linden held out their hands but before they could make contact, they heard a beeping sound.
    â€˜Oh.’ Steinberger looked down at a pager, disappointed to have to end the conversation so quickly. ‘Looks like the jet’s ready for take-off.’
    This was too much.
    â€˜The jet? What jet?’ Max wondered if perhaps this Steinberger person had lost a few rungs on the ladder when it came to the brain department.
    â€˜Oh, I haven’t mentioned that yet?’ Helaughed. ‘Silly me. The superfast, deluxe TXR-5 Invisible Jet that’s behind us.’
    He flung his arms out like he was a game show host introducing the grand prize.
    â€˜An invisible jet?’ asked Linden, looking at nothing but a well-lit hatch.
    â€˜Yep. Only one of its kind. Except for the TXJ-7, but we don’t like to mention that one because it tends to get Frond upset over the issue of fuel consumption. A little guzzler it was, but we soon fixed that so that now this one runs on a purely plant-based formula that creates no pollution whatsoever. In fact —’
    Beep, beep, beep, beep!
    Steinberger was again interrupted by the pager.
    â€˜It’s Sleek. He tends to get upset if we don’t keep to schedule and after that unfortunate incident with the weather balloon on the way here, we’re already a bit behind. Shall we?’ He took a notepad out of his pocket