Get Smart 4 - Max Smart and the Perilous Pellets Read Online Free Page A

sand.
    When they reached the top of the dune, they halted. “I wish we had a pair of binoculars,” Max said. “I’d like to get a look at that installation before we approach it.”
    “Try the black bag, Max,” 99 suggested.
    Max raised the black bag to his eyes. “Nope. Can’t see a thing.”
    “I mean look inside the black bag. Maybe R & D sent some binoculars.”
    “Oh . . . yes.” Max opened the satchel. “Ah, here we are—a pair of binoculars. Good old R & D!” He put the binoculars to his eyes. “That’s odd,” he said, “I can’t see a thing.” He lowered the binoculars.
    “Max,” 99 said, “you have two black, sooty rings around your eyes.”
    He dropped the binoculars back into the satchel. “R & D is having its little joke again,” he said disgustedly. “If there’s anything more useless than an R & D department with a sense of humor, I don’t know what it is!” He bent down to the satchel again. “Wait a minute—what’s this?” When he straightened, he was holding a foot-long aluminum rod. “Collapsible pole for vaulting over high walls,” he said, reading the label on the rod. “Good old R & D!”
    “Then we won’t have to pose as camel-herders,” 99 said.
    “Exactly. We’ll use this pole, vault over the wall, and land on the inside.”
    Crouching low, Max and 99 approached the wall. When they got nearer they saw that the wall was patrolled by guards.
    “This will call for perfect timing,” Max said. “If you’ll notice, 99, you’ll see that there is a period of about three seconds when all of the guards are out of sight. That’s KAOS’s one mistake. In that three seconds, we will gallop toward the wall, vault, and disappear inside.”
    “I’m ready, Max.”
    “This will be tricky,” Max said. “It will be a two-vaulter vault. In other words, we’ll both have to vault at the same time, using the one pole. And, in addition, one of us will have to carry the black satchel.”
    “We can do it, Max,” 99 said stoutly.
    “All right—ready? There go the guards. They’re out of sight! Let’s go, 99!”
    Holding the pole between them, Max and 99 raced across the sand toward the wall. In addition, Max was carrying the black bag.
    “Now!” Max cried.
    They plunged the end of the pole into the sand and rose up, up, up, up—then, slowly, down, down, down.
    “I think there’s been a slight miscalculation,” Max said.
    “Yes,” 99 nodded. “The pole is sinking into the sand. And we’re still outside the wall.”
    “Well, we’ll be inside very soon,” Max assured her. “Here come the guards.”
    As the pole sank further and further into the sand, the guards gathered at the base, waiting for Max and 99 to reach the ground. They shouted, in a language that neither Max nor 99 could understand.
    “That explains something that’s been puzzling me,” Max said. “I wondered why they were dressed like Arabs. Now I know.”
    “They are Arabs, Max.”
    “Yes, that’s what I’ve decided, too.”
    When Max and 99 had descended to within a few feet of the ground, the guards grabbed them and hustled them inside the wall. They were taken to a large building, then into a huge auditorium-size room. The room was richly decorated. A thick red carpet stretched from the entrance to the far side. It ended at a large, jewel-encrusted throne. And seated on the throne was a plump, apple-cheeked man who was dressed in a white burnoose. The guards prodded Max and 99 toward the throne.
    “Ah! Here you are—at last!” the apple-cheeked man greeted them happily.
    “Yes, well, we would have been here sooner, but we had a slow pole,” Max replied.
    One of the guards spoke up, but the apple-cheeked man silenced him. “Don’t babble at me!” he scolded. “I don’t have to be told who these two are.” He smiled at Max. “You are my American Advisor, right? You have been sent to me by the U.S. State Department—is that not correct.”
    Max nodded. “Yes, that is not