The Amazon Experiment by Deborah Abela Page A

there were enough animal noises around them to suggest it might not be so safe to be alone in the jungle.
    â€˜With Frond’s medicine and Finch’s mini-respirator, he should be fine for at least the next forty-eight hours. I also added some Bug Repellent to him and spread Animal Dispeller sachets all around him,’ Suave said.
    Max looked at Agent Perfect and wondered if he ever got bored with being such a hero.
    â€˜What if we can’t find our way back to the plane?’ she asked.
    â€˜We all have our palm computers with us, including Sleek.’ Steinberger took out his. ‘So we will know where the jet is using his locator.’
    Thankfully all the computers had survived the bumpy landing.
    â€˜What did Alex say?’ Max asked.
    â€˜She took a reading of our area and confirmed we’re in the heart of triatoma territory. She’s also organising a transport carrier called the Goliath to make its way here. It will load the Invisible Jet into its hold and wait for us here until our mission is complete.’
    His voice had filled with the importance of what he’d just said, but another butterfly flew at him and he collapsed into a hand-waving mess.
    â€˜Maybe some of this will help?’ Max offered him her Bug Repellent.
    As both Steinberger and Suave applied their repellent, the noise and movement of the jungle increased. Max started imagining monkeys, snakes, lizards and spiders, all of which seemed to be hidden only centimetres away. Branches moved suddenly above them, bushes rattled beside them and the flapping of giant wings whomped somewhere in the jungle behind them.
    Steinberger was the least easy with their surrounds. He’d rarely been outside of England, and during his years of employment with Spyforce he’d hardly left London. His brow was speckled with sweat at the heat and the thought of the animals around them. The repellent seemed to calm him down, as it immediately sent insects and bugs away, but when he looked down, the colour fell from his face like a leaking thermometer.
    â€˜I … Is that …? Oh dear.’
    A thick green snake slid across his shoe.
    Max and Linden got ready to catch what they thought would be a fainting Steinberger until what happened next.
    Another message came through on his palm computer.
    He took out the bleeping device and stared at its miniature screen.
    â€˜Who’s it from?’ Linden studied Steinberger’s face, hoping the news wasn’t bad.
    â€˜It’s Frond.’
    The snake slithered away without Steinberger giving it another thought.
    â€˜How’s she getting her message through? It looked like her palm computer had been crushed.’ Maxfrowned as a wide smile filled Steinberger’s face.
    â€˜Clever girl,’ he whispered, almost to himself. ‘She’s using her video watch. It’s a new design of Quimby’s. She must have given it to Frond to test out. The watch is so small that even under close scrutiny it still looks like a simple watch, but it is capable of transmitting messages across the world from almost any location with perfect clarity.’
    Frond’s message contained a reference to a map, which Suave quickly located on his palm computer. She then gave the specific longitude and latitude points of where she was.
    â€˜Can you work that out, Suave?’
    â€˜Ten four,’ he snapped.
    While Suave worked out Frond’s exact location, Steinberger listened to the rest of the message. Frond explained that she was being held captive in a mansion where a lab was experimenting with stolen local plants and recipes that were hundreds ofyears old to create potions and serums. They were also conducting experiments using the triatoma bug. The message then ended with one simple plea.
    â€˜Take care, all of you.’
    Her last sentence lingered in the air. Steinberger ran a finger across his computer where Frond’s face had just disappeared. ‘So she