Blue's Revenge by Deborah Abela Page A

into her bones even further.
    â€˜Aren’t you going to look at it?’
    There was something bossy but soft about Dretch that was hard to understand. And now that he’d seen the ring and knew Max shouldn’t have it, why wasn’t he saying anything about it?
    â€˜Oh. Yeah.’
    â€˜It was at the end of the disk Blue sent,’ Dretch said awkwardly. ‘The others thought it would be too upsetting for you, but I thought you should know.’
    Max and Linden had a bad feeling about what they were about to see.
    Max took out her palm computer and plugged in the memory stick. The image of a darkened room appeared before them. ‘It’s the picture of Mum.’
    As Max whispered the words, her mother called out.
    â€˜You can’t keep me in here! Do you hear me? As soon as the police find out where I am, you will be spending the rest of your miserable, brain-dead days in a prison much worse than this.’
    â€˜Mum,’ Max said quietly. ‘Don’t upset them.’
    The image then pulled away as if the camera was backing down a long corridor. Max’s mother kept up her angry abuse. Then there was an explosion. Max flinched as if she’d been hit. The image filled with smoke and flying bits of debris. Then it went black.
    They stared at the computer. Dretch’s hands made fists in his coat pockets, clenching and unclenching. His lips moved as if he was trying to speak.
    â€˜Max?’ Linden said gently.
    A dull, greyish colour filled Max’s face.
    Dretch looked quickly between the two young spies.
    â€˜Max?’ Linden wanted her to say something, do something. Anything but keep quiet.
    â€˜I think I’m going to be sick.’
    Dretch caught the palm computer that flew from Max’s hands as she ran from the VART into the closest bathroom.
    Linden ran after her and pushed open the door.
    â€˜Max!’ His voice echoed around the tiled room. ‘Max? Are you in here?’
    He looked in all the cubicles until he saw Max huddled on the floor. Her hands cradled her knees, which were pulled tightly into her chest. Linden sat next to her and watched as the shock of what she’d just seen sank into her. She felt like she was in a nightmare she couldn’t wake from.
    The door of the toilets creaked open and Dretch slunk in with his head down, so that hisspaghetti fringe dipped over his scarred face more than usual.
    â€˜I … ah … I …’ he mumbled.
    Max started to cry. ‘It can’t be true, Linden. It can’t be!’
    Dretch stared at her folded body bobbing up and down with each sobbing breath. He watched as her tears made small circular stains on her suede trainers, her sniffles reverberating off the walls so they sounded even sadder.
    â€˜Remember, this is Blue,’ Linden said firmly. ‘What we see isn’t always what is happening.’
    Dretch took an awkward step towards Max but then stopped, unsure of what to do. His spindly fingers came out of his pocket and he reached over and patted her head.
    â€˜I think Linden’s right,’ he said gruffly. ‘I worked with Blue long enough to know he’s up to something, I just don’t know what it is yet.’
    Max wanted to disappear forever from who she was and what she’d just seen.
    â€˜I want to go home.’ Her voice fluttered around the room like a broken-winged butterfly, but after she’d said it, she realised she didn’t have a home anymore. Not now that her mother wasn’t there.
    Suddenly she had this itching, breathless needto run. To get away from Spyforce. To get away from what had happened.
    She stood up as another wave of nausea swiftly came over her, but it was then she realised it wasn’t being in or getting away from any one place that she needed. She needed to get away from what she’d just found out and, no matter where she went, she knew she never could.

The Sleek Machine swayed and lurched in