The Nightmare Vortex (11 page)

When Linden woke up, he found himself in a strange, blue-clouded world. His head hurt, like he'd been at a party the night before and eaten way too many lollies. He stumbled as he stood up and tried to stop his mind from spinning.

‘I've had smoother rides,' he said as he coaxed his feet to walk in a straight line. It felt as though he was walking on air as a blanket of marbled blue steam circled his every step. Wherever he was, it was damp and humid with the sound of dripping, like he was in some kind of underground cavern but he couldn't see any rocky walls or ceilings, just endless wafts of steam rising against a background of darkness.

‘Max? Ella?'

He brushed at the steam around him and up ahead he noticed a small blue light. His feet made their cushioned way towards it. He didn't know what to expect so he kept his Spyforce pack close.

But what he saw next would need neither a Slimer nor a Freeze Ray.

‘Dad?' Out of the blue light Linden's dad walked towards him. ‘What are you doing here?'

His dad didn't answer.

‘How did you get here? And how did you know where to find me?' Linden asked nervously.

He was worried his dad's silence was anger at
how far Linden was from home without his knowledge. He knew it was going to sound strange but he tried to tell his dad what had happened.

‘I know you must be angry with me but Max and I were invited here to help out with a really important …' Before he could finish, Linden's dad turned away without saying a word. Now he was really worried. He never liked it when his dad went quiet. It usually meant he was unhappy with him or really sad about something, like when Linden's mum died.

‘Dad?'

His dad kept walking away. Linden followed him through the blue steam until they reached what looked like the door to his dad's bedroom in Mindawarra.

‘Where are we?'

Again Linden's dad said nothing. Why was his dad here and why wouldn't he talk to him? Linden's stomach churned. He'd never seen him like this before.

Linden's father opened the door. Inside was his bedroom.

‘How could this happen?'

His dad sat down on the bed and started to cough. Softly at first, then deeply like he couldn't stop.

‘Dad?'

He climbed into bed, still coughing. Linden walked towards the bedroom, but before he could enter, the door slammed shut.

‘Dad!' He rushed towards the door, determined to help his dad, when a rising swell of steam exploded around him. He stretched out his hand to open the door but it landed on nothing. When the steam cleared, it was gone.

‘Dad?' he said in a quiet whisper. His dad was gone. Linden collapsed into the pool of steam and sat with his knees pulled against his chest.

‘Linden?'

It was Max. She sat down beside her friend, relieved at finding him after their weird experience in the vortex.

‘I don't know about you, but this is the weirdest place I've ever been in. What do you think happened? And where are we? If that Blue has been messing with us, he'd better watch out, because I've had enough of being pushed around by his evil-smelling, slimy-headed ways.'

Max stopped talking and realised Linden hadn't even noticed she was there.

‘Linden?'

He still didn't move. She tapped him softly on
the arm. When he looked up, Max knew something had happened. He seemed disoriented, like he couldn't remember who she was. His face was pale and when she looked at him closely, she noticed he was shaking.

‘Linden, what's happened?'

He tried to tell her but couldn't find the words. ‘I saw my … my dad. He's sick.'

Max tried to understand what he meant.

‘Your dad's sick?'

Linden nodded.

‘How do you know that?'

‘He was here.'

Max didn't know what to believe. The last few hours had been weird, but there was no way Linden's dad could have been here. Something was going on. Like they'd been transported to another world. One that didn't make any sense.

They sat in silence while Max tried to work it out. Linden's head was bowed and he was staring at his hands.

‘Max?' His voice was so full of sadness she could hardly stand it.

‘Yeah?' She was scared he was going say something terrible, like he was going away or he was sick too.

‘I kept having this bad dream around the time Mum died. I'd dream that I'd come home and couldn't find Dad. Then I'd check in his bedroom and find him sick in bed. Really sick.'

Max looked at Linden's fingers. They were white from being clenched so tightly.

‘Max, I don't want my dad to die.'

He said it like he was suddenly facing the biggest fear of his life and no one had given him any warning or anything to help him face it. They were the saddest words Max had heard in her life. She remembered the time Linden told her about his mum dying of cancer. It was the most important thing anyone had ever told her. That time she didn't know what to say, but this time was different.

‘Linden, your dad is going to be fine. He
is
fine.' Max said it because she wanted it to be true. Linden's dad couldn't be sick. He just couldn't be.

She had to work out what was going on. It wasn't possible that Linden had seen his dad. She tried to coax him back to normal by asking about Ella.

‘What about Ella? Have you seen her?'

He spoke slowly and quietly. ‘Not since we got separated at the entrance of the vortex.'

Max stood up and adjusted her backpack, ready for action.

‘We've got to find her and then we're going to find out what's going on and get out of here.'

Linden sat still. Max wanted to take away every sad thought he was having.

‘Linden, nothing is going to happen to your dad,' she said as convincingly as she could.

He looked up and gave a faint smile, but he couldn't shake the feeling inside him that something terrible was going to happen.

‘Come on, this place is creepy and Ella might need our help.'

Linden slowly stood up and they made their way through the humid, steam-filled cavern.

‘There she is.' Max was hoping finding Ella would cheer Linden up and she was relieved the three of them were together again. But when they sat down beside her, Max saw that Ella had the same disoriented look that Linden had.

‘Ella? Has something happened?'

She was quiet.

Max was starting to get spooked out.

‘Ella?' Max touched her hand. Ella flinched as though she'd been burnt and looked at them with fear in her eyes, like it'd been drawn there with a dark felt marker.

‘They were here again,' Ella whispered.

‘Who?' Linden asked as Ella's eyes were focused on her hands pulling at her shoelaces.

‘The men in coats.' She said it so quietly they could hardly hear her. ‘When I came out of the vortex I tried to find you both, but the men in coats found me first.'

‘Are they still here now?' asked Max, worried that maybe they shouldn't be sitting here.

‘They said they'd be back,' Ella's voice faltered.

Then, suddenly, she sat upright, her head snapping around her in every direction. Max and Linden watched in confusion.

‘Here they come!' Ella became agitated. ‘What are we going to do?' Before they could answer, her eyes ballooned open even wider. ‘They're here,' she gasped and jumped to her feet.

Max and Linden squinted into the steamy darkness.

‘Ella, what can you see?'

‘The men are back,' she gasped. ‘They're dressed in long dark coats down to their shoes and have hoods covering their faces.'

‘And what are they doing?' Linden squinted even harder, trying to see the men Ella was talking about.

‘They're coming closer.'

‘What do they want?' Max saw the fear soaking through Ella like rain.

Ella's eyes glistened with dread. ‘They're coming to take Mum away, just like they did with Francis.'

Linden saw a shiver jolt through Ella's body at what she had to say next. ‘And then they're coming to get me.'

Ella kept staring ahead at where she could see the men in coats. Then something else really strange happened. Max and Linden could now see them too.

‘When Mum and Francis left the Department of Science and New Technologies because they found out Blue was bad, men in dark coats followed them everywhere, threatening to make terrible things happen if they didn't give them information about the Time and Space Machine. I used to see them waiting outside our building every day when we got home from school.'

Max was frantically trying to work out what was going on. Where were they and why were they suddenly coming up against their greatest fears?

Fears! she thought. That's it! She whispered to Linden. ‘I've got it!'

‘Got what?'

‘I know what's going on.'

‘What is it?'

‘Watch this.' Max looked up. ‘Ella, what are they doing now?'

Ella took sharp, shallow breaths as she tried to describe what she was seeing.

‘They're coming towards me.'

Max took a deep breath and said, ‘Tell them they're not real.'

Linden's head spun round to Max.

‘That's it? That's your solution?' He was hoping for something more dynamic.

‘Trust me.' But even as she said it, Max crossed her fingers, hoping she was right.

‘They're not real, Ella. The vortex has taken us into some kind of world where our greatest fears have come to life.'

Linden frowned as he thought about what Max had said. ‘So that's why I saw my dad?'

‘Think about it. What is the greatest fear you have?'

What she said was true. The thing Linden feared more than anything was his dad getting sick just like his mum had. ‘So none of this is real?'

‘Not as far as I can tell. That's why we couldn't see these men at first. They're in Ella's mind but the more she became terrified by them, she brought them to life.'

‘Max? Linden? How are we going to fight them?'

Max tried again, knowing time was running out.

‘Ella, you have to believe me. We don't need to fight them. They're your fears that have come to life. The only way to get rid of them is to tell them they're not real.'

Ella heard Max's advice as the long dark coats swished around the shiny black shoes that brought the men closer.

‘Please, Ella. Do as Max says,' Linden pleaded.

There was something about the way he spoke that calmed Ella down and convinced her to do it.

‘You're not real,' she murmured as the men came even closer.

‘Say it louder,' Max ordered, worried that if Ella didn't stand up to these men she'd be done for.

‘You're not real,' Ella repeated a little louder, but the men kept approaching.

‘You have to mean it!' Max shouted, losing her patience. Just then, long shiny blades appeared at the end of the men's coat sleeves.

They stopped centimetres in front of Ella, their hot, stale breath pouring all over her.

Linden crossed his fingers. ‘You can do it, Ella.'

At Linden's whispered encouragement, Ella
straightened her shoulders and stood tall before the hooded strangers. But as she opened her mouth, ready to repel the men, the whoosh of steel rang around them as the long shining blades slid through the air high above her head.

‘Ella!' Linden shouted and tried to jump towards her, but Max grabbed him and pulled him back.

‘She has to do it herself.'

‘But they've got swords!' Linden couldn't stand doing nothing while a friend was in danger.

‘Linden, trust me.'

But Max was worried too. What if she was wrong? What if Ella was in serious danger and they were sitting here watching the very last moments of her life?

One of the men leant closer to Ella and bellowed a laugh that tore through the air like a thunderstorm. Max's stomach became a giant knot. She took a deep breath and tried one more time.

‘Tell them they're not real!' she yelled as loudly as she could as Ella stood frozen, the shining blades hovering above her head like guillotines.

Ella is done for, Max thought, and it's all my fault!

‘That's it. I'm going to help her.' Linden had had enough of seeing Ella in danger while he sat back and did nothing.

Max boiled inside. First, because Linden didn't trust that she had the answer to the vortex and second, because she always hated it when he seemed more interested in Ella than her.

Only, of course, she'd never say that.

‘The only way to help Ella is to get her to save herself,' she snapped.

Linden didn't seem convinced, so Max tried harder. ‘I
know
what I'm doing.'

‘I know you do. Usually. It's just that my guess is, this is the first time you've been in a vortex and maybe you don't know everything there is to know about one.'

What he said was true. Max was simply guessing when it came to the vortex. All she had to go on was this feeling inside her that she was right.

‘Maybe we should just fight the guys off?' Linden would have done it too, even though the guys were so much bigger than them, but it would have been about the most stupid thing Max had ever seen.

‘That won't work. We can't save Ella, only she can. That's the whole trick of the vortex. It's about
your own fears. We've got to prove to her that these men aren't real.'

Max thought hard as the men in dark coats held their shiny blades above Ella's head.

‘I've got it!'

‘I hope it's an improvement on your last suggestion.'

Max rummaged through her bag.

Linden watched Ella's shoulders vibrating with fear. ‘Hurry, Max.'

Then she had it. Max lifted the Slimer from her pack and aimed it at the men as they continued to stand menacingly over Ella.

‘The Slimer? You don't think we need something a little more substantial against sword-wielding, psychopathic maniacs?'

‘It's not for them. It's for Ella.'

Now Linden really thought Max had gone nuts.

‘I know you don't like her but Ella needs our help and I don't think —'

‘Linden, trust me.' The way Max said it, he knew that's exactly what he needed to do.

‘Please work,' Max pleaded silently as she took aim. It was true that she'd never liked Ella, but she also never wanted to see anything happen to her.

‘Take this!' Max pressed the trigger of the
Slimer so that it blasted a long sweeping wave of purple goo into the air. Linden watched as the slime glooped past Ella and headed straight towards the men in dark coats. Only instead of sticking to them with its gluey, chewing gum-like mess, it went straight through them.

‘Wow! Did you see that?' Linden blinked to check that his eyes had really seen what he thought they'd seen.

‘Yep. Let's hope Ella did too.' Max put the Slimer back in her pack. ‘You see, Ella. They're not real. The slime went straight through them!'

Ella said nothing. She shifted her feet as the hooded man closest to her waved his blade above her like a pendulum in a grandfather clock.

‘Why won't she move?' Max was running out of ideas and getting frustrated.

Linden spoke quietly. ‘Ella, do you want to make these men go away? Forever?'

He waited until he heard her whisper, ‘Yes.'

‘Then you have to do as Max says.'

Finally someone is listening to me, Max thought, eager to get out of wherever they were and to stop there being so much focus on Ella.

Then she did it. Ella swallowed hard and took a deep breath.

‘You're not real!' She yelled it as though she'd been holding it back for a long time and was finally letting it out. ‘You're not real and I won't let you come back to hurt me or my mother ever again.'

Max was impressed. Ella was a nice person but she really had it in her when it came to standing up for herself.

The men in coats began to waver, like mirages in the sun. Wisps of blue steam rose from their coats and small parts of them began to disappear. A deafening and terrible shriek tore through the vortex as the men were swept up in a raging swirl like ghosts trapped in a tornado. Max and Linden held onto each other as Ella stood her ground, her clothing and curls buffeted by the tearing wind. An ear-crunching howl screeched around them as the men disintegrated in an explosive burst, leaving nothing more than tiny particles of blue dust falling all over them.

Linden was the first to speak.

‘It's going to take a lot more to impress me now when I go to the movies.'

Max smiled. First at Linden's joke and then because her theory was right. The men weren't real. She waited for what she thought was a well-deserved apology from Linden for doubting her.

‘Isn't there something else you'd like to say?'

Linden's face rocketed into a wide, bursting grin.

‘Sure is!' He jumped up and ran to Ella, throwing his arms around her in an air-sucking hug. ‘You did it! You were great! I knew you'd beat those overdressed phonies.'

Max stared. She'd just saved their lives and yet she was the one standing by herself watching Linden hugging someone else.

‘Maybe I'll just sit over here and turn into dust like those hooded guys, shall I?' she muttered to herself as she stared at all the excited talking and hugging that was going on. ‘I might as well be the invisible woman for all anyone cares. I could disappear and no one would even notice.'

Ella broke away from Linden's hug and interrupted Max's self-pity.

‘You saved my life. I never could have beaten those guys without you.'

Max didn't know what to say and suddenly felt uneasy that Ella was standing so close to her.

Then, without warning, something really terrible happened.

Ella gave Max a hug.

Max knew she'd complained about being ignored but that was a million times better than
being wrapped in Ella's wholesome and happy vibes. Max glared at Linden, trying to give him the signal that she needed rescuing, but he simply smiled and enjoyed every moment. Max squirmed as she tried to think of how she could make a getaway. Ella's curls tickled her nose and made it hard for her to breathe and just when she thought she was going to pass out, Ella finally let go.

‘I'll never forget this,' she said with a creak in her voice and a tear in her eye.

Oh no, Max thought, now she's going to cry. This is enough schmaltz and Ella-closeness, she decided. She needed to change the subject. And fast.

‘We've got to find our way out of here and get back to the kitchen before Irene and the others start to worry about us.'

‘You're right,' agreed Ella, finally straightening herself out and, to Max's relief, gaining a little self-control.

‘And before Blue does anything terrible to the awards night,' Linden said.

Max's breath quickened, knowing that although they'd beaten the men in dark coats, that was nothing compared with what Blue might do if he infiltrated the island.

‘Which way do we go?' Ella looked towards Max.

‘It's hard to tell. Let's just start walking and keep our eyes peeled for some kind of exit. Whatever that might be.'

The three spies walked across the blue steam-filled floor, each step leaving small whirlpools behind them. Linden leant into Ella.

‘You really were amazing back there.'

‘Thanks, Linden.'

‘I really mean it.' Linden's voice lowered as his eyes focused on his feet. ‘The best.'

Ella let out a small laugh and blushed. Max thought that maybe saving her hadn't been such a great idea after all.

‘I never would have been able to do what you did.' Linden snuck a quick look at Ella. ‘Facing those guys was the bravest thing I've ever seen.'

Max gritted her teeth, desperate to escape this mush-ridden sludge. Her mind picked through all the things she had in her pack. Maybe she could use her Silencio on both of them. That way she'd be saving the world and herself from the ocean of emotional vomit that was building up around them. But Quimby's warning only to use Spyforce gadgets in the line of duty circled in her head like a magpie protecting its nest. She walked quickly ahead until
Linden's swooning at how great Ella was became faint goo-encrusted mumblings.

‘What would it take not to have to hear this sop anymore?' Max groaned.

As if in answer to her question, Ella's voice shot through from behind her.

‘What was that?'

‘What was what?' Max had been so drawn into her own mutterings that she hadn't seen the movement ahead that glued Linden's and Ella's feet to their steam-drenched spot.

No one answered her.

‘Now they're quiet,' she grumbled as she moved forward.

When she stared, Max could only just make out a billowing cloud effect, like steam churning over a massive cauldron. She crept forward towards what looked like the steam rising then falling away as though it was pouring over the edge of a cliff.

‘Maybe it's our way out of this place.'

‘Couldn't we wait until we find something normal, like a door?' Linden knew trying to reason with Max wasn't going to change her mind but he thought he'd try anyway.

Max edged closer to the chasm hoping she was
right. She was more than ready to get out of this place.

Ella and Linden followed cautiously behind.

‘Be careful, Max.' Ella didn't like how close Max was getting to the edge.

‘I just want to see what's on the other side.' Just as Max spoke the floor of steam erupted around her like a killer whale surfacing from under the ocean in one giant leap. She lost her balance and flung her hands up, trying to grab onto something solid, but there was nothing except air and steam.

‘Max!' Linden reached forward to grab her but the steam had billowed up around her in a wild frenzy and Max fell over the lip of the chasm with nothing more than a small, echoing gasp.