The Venice Job Page 8

  Max’s skin prickled at the word romantic. Stop it, she warned herself silently.

  ‘But the people who once walked along the bridge were prisoners being led from the courts in the Palace to the prisons. As they passed, they say you could hear their sighs of sadness as they knew they were seeing their beautiful city for the last time before they were locked away.’ Luca was quiet. ‘It will be very sad if anything happens to this place.’

  Max had heard every word that time. ‘Nothing will happen to Venice. That’s what we’re here for. Now, where’s that exit?’

  ‘This way,’ Luca smiled, and the two of them took off, running along a narrow and twisting passage past small, cramped rooms. ‘These were the prison cells and this leads to a secret set of stairs.’

  Luca pushed into a heavy door. ‘After you.’

  Max heard the heavy tread of their two pursuers as she bolted through the door and down the stairs with Luca behind her. The echoing of their footsteps swirled around them as they flew over three steps at a time until they reached a small, dark exit.

  ‘And here we are.’

  Max and Luca ran out onto a small street, flying over the cobbled stones. Behind them they heard the door slam shut.

  ‘They’re still coming!’ Max looked over her shoulder. ‘This way.’

  She ran into a narrow street, wide enough for only a few people to stand. She jumped over flowerpots and baskets of washing and squeezed past a box of oranges.

  ‘In here.’ Luca dived into the open door of a house. ‘I know them.’

  He ran up a set of small circular stairs to the second level, where he ran into a short, round woman.

  ‘Buon giorno, Signora Pucci,’ Luca said, puffing. ‘Come sta?’

  ‘Bene, grazie,’ the woman smiled, happy at the unexpected visit.

  But apart from asking how she was, Luca had no time to talk. He glanced down at the street and saw the two men, who at that moment looked up. Luca said something to Signora Pucci Max didn’t understand.

  She nodded and said, ‘Bene.’

  Luca ran to the opposite window. It looked down on a small passageway, with a clothes line strung from the windowsill to another house across the way.

  ‘Care for a ride?’ Luca smiled.

  ‘We can’t leave Signora Pucci to face those men.’

  ‘Don’t worry, she is very good at taking care of herself. Ready?’ Luca asked.

  Max looked down into the alley below and felt herself pulled foward. Her head started to spin and her breath caught in her throat.

  ‘Max? Are you okay?’

  Max’s fear of heights gripped her like one of Uncle Ben’s bear hugs.

  ‘Sure,’ she lied. ‘Let’s go.’

  She climbed onto the windowsill and grabbed hold of the clothesline as Luca spun the rope outwards. With her eyes jammed shut and a large pair of trousers flapping in her face, Max swung her way towards the open window on the opposite side of the lane. When she felt the window ledge, she began breathing again, opened her eyes and climbed inside. She turned to pull the clothes line towards her and helped Luca follow her across.

  They looked back just in time to see the two men being beaten over the head by a saucepan held in Signora Pucci’s small but strong hands.

  ‘Told you she could look after herself.’ Luca smiled and looked around the bedroom they’d landed in. ‘Hopefully no-one’s home so we can make an unseen getaway.’

  But as Max went to open the door she was met by the open mouth and raised eyebrows of an elderly Italian woman. One who wasn’t quiet for very long.

  ‘Aaaaahhhh!’

  She tried to shush the woman and explain in a very broken Italian that it was okay. ‘Scusi … mi dispiace … arrivederci …’

  ‘I think we should just go,’ Luca said. ‘Mi scusi, signora.’

  They each ran around the woman and barrelled through the door. They flung themselves down the staircase, but when they’d reached the bottom they saw the two goons running along the passageway towards them.

  ‘Is there a back way?’ Max asked.

  ‘Usually.’

  With the woman screaming above them, they ran towards the exit at the other side of the house, but when Max tried to open the door she found it locked. Behind them, the front doors of the house were flung open and the two men stood before them.

  The screaming woman, unable to cope with even more intruders in her house, fainted.

  ‘I was hoping she’d stop screaming,’ Max said.

  One of the men smiled and said something in Italian.

  ‘What did he say?’ Max asked Luca.

  ‘He said our little chase is over.’

  ‘Oh yeah?’ Max shot back in one of her less impressive comebacks.

  The men smiled even wider.

  But Max had other ideas. She dug into her backpack and pulled out the first thing she found: Plomb’s silent bath bomb.

  She hurled it at the door’s lock which easily crumbled in a puff of silence, except for the sound of the metal clunking against the stone floor.

  The two men looked on in surprise, not sure what had just happened.

  Max and Luca gave each other a let’s-get-out-of-here smile and turned to make their getaway. They stepped from the door, only to find that something was missing.

  The ground.

  ‘Aaaah!’

  The door opened directly onto a canal. Max and Luca sailed into the air and straight into the cold water.

  Max held her breath and swam underwater, holding her hands in front of her, hoping to find something that would offer her a hiding place from her two pursuers.

  Then she found it. She’d nudged into what felt like the bottom of a wooden boat. With the last of her strength, she held her breath long enough to swim to the end. When she’d carefully positioned herself out of sight, she gulped in a lungful of air and tried to work out where she was.

  The canal they had jumped into was lined with quietly bobbing boats and tightly packed houses, speckled with the signs of age. Max poked her head around the side of the boat to see the two men give up their search in frustration and hurry back into the building.

  Her shoulders sank in relief until she realised she couldn’t see Luca.

  ‘Luca?’ she whispered.

  She shivered from the cold water and from a slowly rising fear. Her heart raced and her breath shortened.

  ‘Luca?’ She looked around, hoping he’d emerge from behind one of the other boats. ‘Please don’t let anything have happened to him.’

  Her teeth began to chatter as the icy water swirled around her.

  ‘Luca, please come up. I know I’ve been acting strange around you but that didn’t mean I didn’t like you. In fact, I think it was only because …’

  ‘Because of what?’ Luca swam up behind her.

  Max stared back at him like a wide-mouthed fish. ‘Because …’ she thought. ‘We need you for this mission. Who else is going to help me with my Italian?’

  Luca gave her a knowing smile. ‘I’m glad to be needed.’ He swam towards a set of steps and held out his hand. Max followed and reluctantly accepted his hand only to trip on the draping wet leg of her trousers and fall straight into his arms.

  Aaaahhh! For a moment Max wasn’t sure if she’d screamed out loud or not.

  ‘If I was a fisherman,’ Luca said, ‘I’d talk about this for years as my best catch.’

  Instead of feeling ridiculous, Max giggled. She pulled herself carefully out of his arms and squeezed water from her jacket and jumper. ‘I knew if I came to this city I’d spend a lot of time in the water.’

  Luca laughed. ‘You have a wonderful sense of humour.’

  Max’s heart did a ridiculous flip. She wasn’t known for her sense of humour and no-one had ever said it was wonderful. She had to get out of there before Luca said anything else and she really did scream.

  ‘We’d better get on with it.’

  ‘Those guys were serious,’ Luca frowned. ‘What d
o you think they wanted?’

  ‘Not sure, but I don’t really want to stick around to find out.’

  A man’s voice singing in Italian came out of a nearby house.

  ‘In here,’ Max whispered as they ducked around a corner.

  The man walked over to a powerboat, lifted out a basket of tomatoes and walked back into the house.

  ‘Let’s go.’ But as Max stepped out, the two men who’d been chasing them appeared from around a corner only metres in front of them.

  ‘Don’t you ever give up?’ Max complained.

  Luca saw keys in the ignition of the singing man’s boat. ‘Jump in.’

  ‘We’re going to steal a boat?’

  ‘You have another idea?’

  Max didn’t, especially as the two guys had started running towards them. She jumped in after Luca and he started the boat.

  ‘Can you drive this thing?’ Max shouted over the engine.

  ‘No, but I will try.’

  ‘Hey!’ The singing man came out of the house and ran towards them yelling and shaking his fists. Max knew they had no choice.

  ‘All right, but if you get me killed you’re in big trouble.’

  ‘It’s a deal.’

  Luca pressed hard on the accelerator and the boat veered away from the side of the canal sending a spray of water into the air behind them.

  ‘Aaaah!’ This time Max knew she’d screamed out loud as she crouched down low and clung onto the passenger seat. She turned back to see the two men lift a young guy out of his boat and throw him into the canal. Within seconds, they were in pursuit.

  ‘They’re coming!’

  Luca looked over his shoulder. ‘Looks like our little chase isn’t over.’

  He tore through the water of the narrow canal, swerving to avoid a bucket of water thrown by a young girl, and a house painter standing on a ladder in a boat. He swung into a smaller canal and turned sharply to dodge a remote-controlled yacht that was sailing in the middle.

  But what he saw next wasn’t so easy to avoid. A lavishly decorated gondola with reclining honeymooners had drifted across the canal.

  ‘We’re going to die!’ Max looked up, then quickly sank back down again, shutting her eyes tight.

  ‘Look out!’ Luca shouted but it was too late, their boat crashed straight through the gondola, slicing it in two.

  The honeymooners slipped into the water and only just managed to swim out of the way before the two goons tore into the canal, leaving the angry gondolier shouting to the sky as the two halves of his boat disappeared beneath the churned waters.

  Luca was horrified and called back apologies, but when he turned back, he had other things to worry about as he sped towards an overloaded barge stacked high with boxes and crates. ‘Uh oh.’

  He spotted a ramp that was being used for loading the boxes.

  ‘Hold on!’ he called to Max.

  ‘No kidding.’ Max gripped even tighter.

  Luca pressed harder on the accelerator and steered the boat onto the ramp so that it lifted into air for whole seconds before splashing in a canal-soaking shower.

  ‘Woah! That was great.’ Luca flicked his dripping hair out of his eyes and turned the boat into a hard spin. It rose on the wash and then settled on a wave just in time for Max and Luca to see their pursuers slam into the barge, sending a volcano of boxes and crates into the air before raining down all over them.

  ‘This boat thing is pretty easy. You can let go of that now.’ Luca pointed to Max’s white knuckles clutching onto the seat.

  ‘Sure. I knew that.’ Max stood up.

  ‘And now it’s time to get back.’ Luca took the controls and manoeuvred the boat into a smaller canal. ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘Remind me not to put my life in your hands again.’ Max shivered from the cold and the thought that her life had nearly ended.

  ‘Yes, but after a little practice I could be a speedboat champion?’

  ‘Maybe.’ Max admitted. ‘That boat ramp was good thinking.’

  ‘Thank you.’ Luca smiled. ‘But I can do better.’

  Max laughed as her watch vibrated on her wrist.

  ‘Hello, Linden, and before you ask, yes, we finally lost those two guys, with a lot of help from Luca’s crazy boat driving. You should have seen …’

  Max was quiet and her smile drained from her face. ‘Okay, we’ll be there straight away.’

  She lowered her wrist.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Luca didn’t like the concern in Max’s voice.

  ‘We have to go back to your house. Steinberger has something urgent he needs to tell us.’ Max wasn’t sure why, but she had a bad feeling about the message. ‘Let’s go.’

  Luca didn’t ask any more questions, and as a crack of thunder pounded overhead, the rain that had been threatening finally began to fall. Luca grabbed a raincoat that was at his feet and draped it around Max’s shoulders.

  In the narrow surrounding streets, parents grabbed small children, swung them into their arms or covered their heads with handbags as they ran to their homes. The few remaining tourists scrambled into restaurants and churches, or, if they were close enough, scurried back to their hotels.

  Sirens began to wail throughout the city.

  ‘There will be a high tide. We must get back quickly.’

  Max braced herself against the rain as Luca steered the boat carefully through the many winding canals towards his home.

  ‘You were in a boat chase?’ Toby asked Max.

  ‘Yes, and you should have seen Luca, he handled the boat like he was a racing champion.’ Max felt better now that she was warm and dry.

  Toby frowned. He was used to being the centre of attention, the one the girls all chased and whispered about in giggles at school. Being overlooked for someone else was new to him and he didn’t like it.

  ‘But …’

  ‘It’s time to talk to Steinberger.’

  The agents sat on the lounge in Max’s room. Linden activated the Shush Zone and Max turned on her palm computer so that Steinberger appeared immediately before them.

  ‘Agent 31 has been hurt.’

  The news washed over Max like a cold wind. ‘Hurt?’

  ‘He was to meet two other agents we have on the ground in Venice, but he failed to turn up. They used the locator on their palm computers to find him dumped in the grounds of a fish yard. He was knocked unconscious.’ Steinberger spoke carefully. ‘He has a broken arm and a knife wound to the side.’

  ‘Is it serious?’ Linden asked.

  ‘He’ll be okay. He’s being taken care of in hospital.’

  Max was having trouble believing Steinberger’s news. ‘But how was his cover blown?’

  ‘We’re not sure. Agent 31 is one of the best in the business when it comes to being discreet. But we do feel this is a warning that the people behind the threat are very clever, and very dangerous.’

  Steinberger fell into a heavy silence.

  ‘Don’t worry, Steinberger.’ Max wanted to reassure him. ‘We’ll complete our mission.’

  ‘Yes, the mission,’ Steinberger reluctantly continued. ‘I’ve spoken to Mr Harrison who wants you to abort the minute you think you’re being followed.’

  ‘Abort?’ Max had never heard Steinberger suggest aborting a mission before, no matter how dangerous it was becoming. ‘But sir, what about Venice?’

  ‘We have other agents briefed who can take over within an hour. Once your cover is blown, your lives will be in great danger and it will be vital that we get you out of there as soon as we can.’

  Luca went to speak. ‘Actually sir, we are …’

  ‘Being very careful,’ Toby interrupted. ‘If we think we’re being followed, we’ll let you know.’

  Luca frowned at Toby who gave him a warning look in return.

  ‘That makes me feel better,’ Steinberger mustered a half smile. ‘I’ll be in touch as soon as I know more. Oh, and those two men you asked me to I.D., all we found was small-time crime, b
ut nothing to get too worried about. Why did you want them checked?’

  ‘We happened to spot them behaving suspiciously in the Piazza San Marco,’ Toby jumped in. ‘But if they’re petty criminals that probably explains it.’

  ‘Oh, okay then,’ Steinberger replied. ‘I don’t want any of you to take unnecessary risks.’

  ‘Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Goodbye,’ said Max as she closed the connection.

  ‘We should have told him.’ Luca was annoyed that Toby had lied.

  ‘So he could take us off the mission?’

  ‘He is the boss, we must trust what he says.’

  ‘Do you do everything you’re told?’ Toby was beginning to lose patience with Signore Charming.

  Luca said proudly, ‘Yes, I do.’

  ‘Then life must be very boring for you,’ Toby muttered. ‘And why are we being followed, Luca? The only people who know we are here are some high-ranking Italian police, Spyforce … and your family.’

  Luca looked away. ‘I don’t know what to say.’

  ‘We all heard what Steinberger said,’ Linden reasoned. ‘The people behind this are very dangerous and are probably following anyone with even the slightest connection to the mayor or the city authorities.’

  Toby frowned. Linden made sense, but that didn’t mean Luca was in the clear.

  ‘From now on, we all have to be extra cautious about who we talk to,’ finished Linden.

  There was a knock at the door. Linden deactivated the Shush Zone and Luca opened the door to face one of the house staff who handed him a note. There was an exchange of Italian before Luca closed the door and turned to the others. ‘Another note.’

  ‘We can see that,’ Toby responded pointedly.

  ‘The housekeeper found it under the front door. It is addressed to Maxine.’

  Max unfolded it. ‘It says, “I have news about the threat against Venice. Meet me at the Rialto Bridge at one p.m.” That’s in less than an hour!’

  ‘Who is it from?’ Toby asked.

  Max turned over the note. ‘It doesn’t say.’ She looked at Luca. ‘How long will it take to walk there?’