Spyforce Revealed by Deborah Abela Read Free Book Online Page B

waited for Max to say something but she didn’t.
    â€˜See you tomorrow then,’ he said and left the room.
    Linden’s words floated around Max’s head like flying ants she wished would go away. When doors closed in Max’s life, other ones locked ever tighter. When her dad went away, her mum became bossy and never seemed as relaxed as she used to be. When she left her last school and best friend, she ended up at Hollingdale where no one liked her. She wanted to believe Linden but she knew her life too well to know things worked any differently.
    She shut down the computer and went to the kitchen to say goodnight but stopped when she was met with the three backsides of Ben, Eleanor and Francis, whose heads were poking out the kitchen window into the yard.
    â€˜What’s going on?’
    â€˜It’s Larry,’ said Eleanor. ‘He’s been building a haystack out here for an hour.’
    Larry was a pig who predicted the weather. Orat least that’s what Max had been told. She wasn’t convinced this wasn’t just Ben, Eleanor and Linden nursing a mild dose of lunacy.
    â€˜What does that mean?’ asked Max, curious despite her scepticism.
    â€˜Means there’s going to be a wind storm,’ said Ben, without a skerrick of doubt in his voice. ‘A big one judging by the size of that stack.’
    Max stared at all three rear ends as they continued to poke their heads out the window.
    â€˜Why a haystack?’ asked Max, not sure why she even asked.
    â€˜He likes to see them tumble down when the wind comes up,’ said Ben, chuckling. ‘Gets a real kick out of it.’
    That was all Max needed to know about Larry and his haystack for now. She suddenly felt tired and didn’t want to talk any more.
    â€˜Night then.’ She turned to leave them to their staring.
    â€˜Would you like me to come and tuck you in?’ asked Eleanor, bringing her head in from outside.
    â€˜No, I’ll be right,’ said Max and dragged herself to bed.

    When she woke up the next morning, Max didn’t open her eyes straightaway. The sound of Ben and Eleanor singing a soppy love song filtered into her room like the smell of rotting fish in the sun. Max loved Ben and Eleanor, but if they could sing in key it wouldn’t have been quite as terrible. To add to that, the morning was hot and steamy with a warm breeze blowing directly onto her face, which nearly made her pass out with the smell of the farm it carried with it.
    â€˜Country life stinks sometimes,’ she mumbled, referring to the smell and her memory of the broken Time and Space Machine. But when she opened her eyes she was met with something even more terrible. Two bulging, bloodshot eyes she was sure belonged to a weird, psychopathic alien.
    Her heart pounded as she faced the fierce creature and remembered something.
    She remembered to scream.
    â€˜Aahhh!’
    The alien eyes became bigger and even more bloodshot before disappearing under the bed as Ben and Eleanor rushed into the room.
    â€˜What is it?’ they asked, pushing their faces into hers.
    â€˜It was … I saw … I think …’ said Max, not knowing what it was.
    â€˜Take your time, Max. Tell us what happened,’ said Eleanor gently, just as a whimper was heard from beneath the bed.
    Max’s eyes narrowed. ‘Ralph,’ she whispered, as she saw images of the ragged mutt being packed off to the other side of the world on a very, very , slow boat.
    Ben plunged under the bed as Eleanor winced. ‘Sorry, Max. We told him to stay outside. Normally he’s very obedient but he’s taken such a liking to you he doesn’t seem to listen to a word we say.’
    â€˜Come on, Ralph. That’s your fun for the day over,’ Ben wheezed as he pulled the reluctant canine out. ‘It’s the doghouse for you, sunshine.’
    Ralph looked over his shoulder at a scowling Max as he crept outside after