Free The Final Curtain by Deborah Abela Page A

scanned the forest surrounds with her glasses and saw no sign of enemy agents. At the water’s edge, she slid her computer into her pocket, stepped onto a large rock and began to hopscotch her way to the other side. As she reached the soggy bank, Max smiled to see her Counter-Gravity Boots skimming the surface of the muddy slime. She stepped onto drier ground when she saw a rustle of movement in the scrubbyleaves at the base of a set of trees. She hid herself behind a mossy stump and took out her laser gun. She scoured the surrounds but, apart from a butterfly and an industrious group of bees, her glasses revealed nothing.
    Until she saw Linden.
    He wove through the thick forest, between scraggy bushes and under knobbly branches. Max smiled, then frowned. She kept her eyes locked on Linden and felt the slim fit of the laser in her hand. She lifted the weapon and trained it on him as he crouched down and checked his palm computer.
    She had him in her sights. Her heart beat fast. Her finger rested against the trigger.
    Linden put his computer in his pocket, looked to either side of him and kept moving. Max lowered her laser and watched him leave. She allowed a few minutes to pass to keep a good distance between them.
    As she was about to move, she heard another crunch of leaves, followed by a tremble of branches to her right. Her Counter-Gravity Boots made almost no sound as she closed in on the hidden intruder. Her muscles tightened all over her body, and her eyes swept through the forest and back to the quivering clump of bushes.
    She carefully trod over the forest floor, her laser gun ready in one hand, her other hand poised with one finger on the button of the web net. Her ears and eyes were alive to every noise, to every movement … when she tripped over the end of her overly long trousers and toppled forward. She clenched her fists before flinging her arms out to break her fall, releasing a web of silky netting into the air above her.
    â€˜Ouch!’ Max hit her head on a small rock.
    The web sailed upwards and ensnared a branch, just as a rabbit bounded away in a sudden bolt, disappearing into the trees.
    â€˜Chased by a killer rabbit.’ Max laughed quietly.
    As she went to stand, her face was covered from behind by a damp smelly cloth. She writhed and kicked and tried to prise the gloved fingers from her face. Their grip tightened. Her eyes felt heavy. Her nose stung from inhaling the bitter smell. Her body slackened into a crumpled heap.
    Two figures in black worked quickly.
    One remained on lookout while the other put the cloth in his pocket and took a small box from a belt concealed beneath his shirt. Inside the box were four moulded compartments: three held flat,square microchips the size of a child’s pinky nail. The last one held a miniature gun. With a pair of tweezers, he picked up one of the chips and inserted it into the gun’s chamber. He pulled up Max’s left pant leg, held the gun against her inner ankle and pulled the trigger. A soft whittt sound whispered into the air.
    He took an antiseptic sachet from his pocket, tore open the end and wiped the moist cloth across her ankle.
    He watched for any movement. Max lay perfectly still.
    He returned the gun to its box and closed the lid. The two figures crept further into the forest, away from Max’s unmoving body.

The jungle tangled in front of them like a sunken shipwreck – all twisted branches, bent, splintered and threatening, blocking out daylight like they’d been sucked down to the bottom of the ocean. The ground was a snare of fallen trees and gnarled roots, and cutting through the middle was a winding muddied track.
    â€˜Hey, watch it!’ The Aqua Buggy wrenched left and right, flinging Max and Linden across the backseat, barrelling them into the doors and each other. ‘It’d be great if we actually survived this drive.’
    The buggy lurched into a sharp, hairpin turn.
    â€˜Ouch!’