The Nightmare Vortex Read Online Free Page A

huddled like roped and captured giants.
    The boats had sailed from Egypt and when Alex adjusted the focus on her X-ray microfilm binoculars, she knew her hunch was right. The crates were brimming with stolen treasures from the ancient world.
    She switched her binoculars from X-ray to regular to locate the snivelling Count Templar, the man with the fiendish taste for rare artefacts. He was sitting on a balcony with Max Remy, who was in disguise as a Transylvanian duchess eager to spend vast sums of money on the Count’s wares. With Alex’s microfilm and Max’s deal, the Count would be locked away for so long that he himself would become an ancient artefact.
    Alex looked at her watch. Max should have finished by now. She put on her supersonic earpiece and discovered the Count had finished the deal but had fallen for Max’s charms and wanted to marry her.
    Marriage! Alex watched as Max tried to evade the Count’s slimy moves and his wandering arms that held her around her throat, begging for a kiss. Alex knew she had to save her, but as she leapt forward, the cord of her binoculars snagged under her foot and she tripped, landing face first at the feet of the muscled men.
    Her arms were pinned against her as the men lifted her into the air like a small, tattered doll, before striding to the dock and dangling her over the side, just seconds away from a watery doom. What was she going to do? She had to escape these muscle-bound men before it was too late … before she drowned and before Max became a victim of the Count’s

    Brrrrrnnnnnggggg !
    Max sat up clutching her pillow and gasping for breath.
    â€˜You okay?’
    It took her a few seconds to take everything in. Linden was sitting on her bed holding the palm computer. She was in her pyjamas. Then she remembered. Today was the day they would start their spy training.
    Max was miffed that Linden was awake and she was half asleep with dreams of not quite saving the world.
    â€˜How long have you been there?’
    â€˜About five minutes.’
    â€˜What if I wasn’t decent?’
    â€˜I figured you would be since you said “come in” when I knocked. It’s alright.’ Linden looked around. ‘It’ll be our little secret that you’re not always perfectly dressed.’
    â€˜That’s not the point.’ Max began, trying to focus her sleepy eyes that were refusing to open. But it was exactly the point only, of course, she couldn’t tell him that.
    â€˜Steinberger’s waiting.’ Linden pointed to the palm computer.
    â€˜Already?’ Max looked at her creased pyjamas and pushed her ruffled hair out of her eyes. ‘Lucky those things see only one way.’
    â€˜Oh no, I can see you quite well.’ Steinberger smiled. Max drooped. ‘Ready for your first dose of spy training?’
    Linden’s eyes widened. ‘Sure am!’
    â€˜Most of being a good spy is instinct but there’s also fitness and agility and that’s what we’ll concentrate on this weekend. Ah, I remember myfirst spy training when …’
    Steinberger rambled on about his early days at Spyforce, while Max sat in quiet horror knowing fitness and agility were things her uncoordinated limbs knew nothing about.
    Eventually, Steinberger wrapped up his story and wished them luck. ‘And may the Force be with you.’
    Max switched off the computer without hearing Steinberger’s farewell. Putting her body through fitness and agility training was going to be like signing up for a trip to a medieval torture chamber.
    Linden wondered where the look of terror on Max’s face had come from. ‘Max?’
    â€˜Yeah?’
    â€˜You better get dressed. Ben and Francis’ll be here soon.’
    â€˜I know.’ She tried to look normal again. ‘I was just hoping getting dressed alone wasn’t too much to ask.’
    â€˜Oh,’ Linden said, a little embarrassed. ‘I’ll