Max Arena Page 4

  Both Elsa and Max nodded.

  ‘Very well,’ Joe added. ‘It seems we have six months, virtually to the day until you are expected to enter the arena. New Year’s Eve seems a rather melodramatic date, but so be it. We probably can’t change the schedule, so let’s use it in our planning. What I propose is that you and your family place yourselves under my protection and I will provide you with whatever means are at my disposal to ensure you are firstly kept safe and secondly, you receive all the freedom and tools to train in preparation for what is coming. The details we can work out in due course, but as part of this offer I will place two guarantees at your feet. One, you will be safe, absolutely and completely. That goes for your whole family. You will never need or want for anything and I will not restrict your freedom unnecessarily. You will have the best security resources surrounding you, all day, every day, all the way up to the arena date and if, dear God, you are successful, Max, my protection will continue beyond the arena for as long as needed. My second guarantee is you can leave my protection at any time, freely and completely. My protection is an offer and you can rebuke it at any time without repercussion and without giving reason. I will not have you living in fear or restriction. If you do decide to leave, you are welcome back at any time, again without reason. So, having said that, this is why I started with an offer of friendship. I want you all to feel safe and there is no better place to feel safe than in the company of those you trust and it is in our friends and family that we place the greatest trust. I promise I will be nothing but honest, respectful and as understanding as any person can be. So, it would be my honour to accommodate you from here on. Now, I’ll be quiet and you can have time alone to think or ask me any question you want.’

  With that, the Prime Minister leaned back in his chair. On cue, the door opened and a man bearing a wide silver platter entered. Walking across to the coffee table in the midst of the Prime Minister and Max and Elsa, he placed it down and quietly left. The Prime Minister leaned forward and gestured to the two bowls of chocolate ice cream. Elsa nodded.

  ‘Jason? Millie?’ Joe called out. ‘Your ice cream is here.’

  Squeals came back as the two kids jumped up and scampered across. Joe handed them both a bowl and a spoon.

  ‘Outside on the patio, please kids?’ Max said. ‘We don’t want to ruin the Prime Minister’s expensive carpet.’

  Elsa stood up and led both Millie and Jason out through the wide French doors and onto the broad patio overlooking the gardens. Once outside, Elsa again noted the liberal security presence surrounding The Lodge.

  ‘Just sit here, kids where mummy and daddy can see you okay?’ she asked.

  Both children plonked themselves down and started to hoe into their desserts. Elsa cast another glance around at all the armed soldiers and guards and while none of them directly returned her look, she had no doubt they were all cognisant of her and the kids.

  Inside, Joe had poured himself a cup of tea and was about to pour Elsa one when she came back and sat down. ‘Milk or sugar?’ he asked her.

  ‘One sugar, please?’ she replied.

  Meanwhile Max took up two roast beef sandwiches and promptly ate them both with minimum fuss.

  Joe noted Max’s relish and said, ‘I apologise if my staff onboard the jet didn’t offer you anything to eat?’

  ‘Don’t worry about Max,’ Elsa cut in. ‘They did give us something on the plane, but Max is always hungry, so he always eats like that. Costs a fortune to feed him.’

  The Prime Minister smiled and nodded. Leaning back, he stirred his tea in front of him. ‘So, do you have any questions?’

  ‘Yes, I do,’ Elsa replied after taking a sip of her tea.

  Max reached forward and took two more sandwiches from the plate. Joe’s gaze flicked to him and then back to Elsa as he silently held his cup up to his face, looking over the rim.

  ‘Firstly, thank you for coming to get us last night and even though it did seem a bit heavy handed at the time, I can now see why you had to do it that way. It makes sense that there might be...others looking for us that aren’t so friendly.’

  Joe nodded.

  ‘Secondly, thanks for the offer of protection and I know I appreciate it, but here’s my question. If we accept your offer, would you object to us living at home through all this? We need to make sure the disruption on the kids is as small as possible.’

  Joe considered an answer and then said, ‘I promised I would be nothing but honest and so, while my answer is yes, you can reside at home if that’s what you really want, but quite frankly, I cannot encourage you strongly enough to not do that.’

  Elsa paused. ‘Why not?’

  ‘There are two reasons, Elsa. The first is your safety. Again, while it has only been a matter of hours since your plight became public, we are already seeing a sharp rise in lawlessness across the country. Criminal activity has jumped. The potential for the end of the world will do that. People are frightened and reacting with violence. I don’t want you out in that world. You’re already the centre of attention. If the public knew you were at home, they would mob you, swarm your house and try to break in. Despite my security, your freedom would be greatly restricted and Heaven forbid, you may even be injured. Also, if any of these other rogue nations and factions scouring for you were to become aware of your location, they would try to kidnap you with lethal force and while my security would defend you against them, it would be dangerous for you and your family to be in any situation like that. The second reason for my discouraging you to go home is logistics. My team can protect you better if you are in a secret location that is fully self-contained. I propose a private estate that will not only be comfortable, but completely secure. It can be close to Brisbane if you’d prefer to stay local or it can be anywhere in Australia. I know that neither of you have any immediate family, but if you have friends that you want to stay close to, we can accommodate that. You can all live as normal a life as possible with tailored schooling for the children, provision of all your necessities and Max will have access to all the training facilities he requires, right on site without any need to go into the public forum. You would be free to come and go as you please with transport at hand. I know it wouldn’t be home and I would not treat you as a prisoner in any way, but I do think it is the best way to provide your protection.’

  Elsa stayed silent and then sipped her tea. ‘I have another question,’ she finally said. ‘Will you tell anyone that you’ve found us and you’re sheltering us? By that I mean other nations or even the Australian public?’

  ‘That’s a good question,’ Joe replied, ‘and the only way I can answer that is I won’t announce your location without your permission, but I think regardless of what we may want, information concerning your location will probably be gained by external parties within the next few days anyway. I can only keep you secret for so long.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Elsa asked.

  ‘Well, my security located you in about five hours, but it’s fair to say we had a head start with local knowledge. Other parties would naturally take longer, but probably not much. Any party with a half decent intelligence capability will by now have learned you are Australians, your home address and by now also where you were on holidays. In fact, I expect your home is currently being monitored by multiple parties and it would not surprise me if there are already eyes on this building right now because if anyone has tracked you to your holiday apartment, they will likely have followed the trail all the way here. To give at least the Americans the credit they deserve, they probably have a spy satellite overhead right now, so even if we wanted to keep your location secret, it is virtually impossible to do so for very long. However, the public are a different matter. We could hide you from them for some time longer, but the same outcome is inevitable. Information leaks, either intentionally or by accident. It just happens, but this is where I ask what you would like to do? Would you prefer to remain hidden for as long as possible or instead announce yourselves to
the world?’

  ‘You’re more of an expert on these sorts of things, so what do you think?’ Elsa asked.

  ‘I don’t know yet. It’s too early to judge the best course of action. We need to wait and see what the public reaction is to all this. Apart from the immediate spike in general unrest, denial might take hold yet and the whole matter might wash over or alternatively, public unrest might continue to escalate. Either way, I still don’t know what the best course of action is, but there are two things I would suggest. First, we secret you as quickly as possible into a secure estate, while I navigate the diplomatic waters with our fellow nations and secondly, we keep you under wraps for as long as possible until I understand exactly what our security situation is. Does that make sense?’

  Elsa nodded. ‘Max, what do you think?’ she asked.

  Max, who had been looking out the windows at the passing security guards, broke his silence.

  ‘That all sounds fine to me,’ he said, turning back to the Prime Minister, ‘but I’d like to know why you haven’t asked me anything about myself? Don’t you want to know who I am and why these aliens want a piece of me before they kill us all?’

  The Prime Minister looked across at Max over the top of his cup of tea. After a long pause he turned and put his cup down on the side table next to his chair.

  ‘I do want to know, Max,’ Joe said, fixing his gaze directly on him. ‘I want to know all those things, but it can wait for now. Those questions will come, soon. I already sense that you have little desire to divulge anything and that’s fine, but soon you will need to start sharing some fundamentals, mainly so I know how to help you. However, right now mine and your most important priority is to be safe and I’m confident that is the case right now, but today will be a long day. I expect a long list of international leaders and dignitaries to be calling me. Like I said, your whereabouts will stay secret for only so long. I just hope everyone behaves themselves and no one gets hurt. Fingers crossed.’

  Max held the Prime Minister’s steady gaze for a few moments longer and reaffirmed the same sense of honesty he had gleaned from the man so far.

  ‘Okay,’ Max said. ‘That’s fine with me too and while we’re being honest as new friends, let me share the first thing about us. We don’t have what you would call true friends. We pretty much keep to ourselves because we have each other and that’s all we’ve ever needed until now. So, we don’t let people into our lives very easily and to start doing that now will be difficult, but I have to say, Joe, I‘m a pretty good judge of character and you strike me as a decent, trust worthy bloke. I think we could be friends, but we’re a long way from that yet.’

  Joe nodded. ‘I appreciate that, Max. Thank you.’

  ‘And thank you from us too,’ Elsa said, clasping her husband’s hand. ‘We’re coming to terms with all of this just like you, but now having met you and you’ve explained why you’ve, you know, surrounded us with guns, thanks for protecting us. We realise now that we could be in a much worse place if you hadn’t found us so quickly.’

  ‘Anything I have is your’s and your family’s’ Elsa. Like I said earlier, my security will defend you with their lives if needed. The man who led you into this room, Peter, will be team lead for your own personal security detail and I can assure you, there is no finer person alive than he to keep you safe. Peter has until now been my own team lead, but I bequeath him to you from here onwards. Trust him like your own blood. He will not let you down and neither will I. You are now my responsibility.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Elsa said simply.

  ‘Now, I think I should probably go and check the state of play out in the world. I suspect my list of return phone calls is building, so if there is anything else?’

  ‘I have one more question,’ Elsa said.

  ‘Please?’ the Prime Minister replied.

  ‘We need to get back up to Brisbane tomorrow morning to see someone. Can we do that?’

  Max turned to look at his wife.

  ‘Of course,’ Joe answered. ‘Like I said, whatever you need is yours’. You don’t have to tell me who you need to see or why, but it would help plan the security detail.’

  ‘Oh, I’ll tell you. We need a personal trainer for Max and I know the perfect person.’

  Joe raised his eyebrows. ‘I hadn’t thought about it, but now that you mention it, you will have access to all of our military resources and in there somewhere is probably the ideal training solution.’

  ‘Thank you and maybe you’re right,’ Elsa said, ‘but like Max said, we don’t readily trust just anyone and this person I have in mind is the absolute right person for this job. Whether or not she agrees is another thing, but Max needs a trainer and I think it needs to be her.’

  The Prime Minister studied Elsa’s face for a few moments and then said, ‘As you wish. It obviously means a lot to you, so by all means. I’ll send Peter in to discuss the travel plan. As for the rest of today, you are welcome to stay here. Your rooms are made up and treat the house as your own. I will catch you when I can.’

  With that, the Prime Minister stood and left the room, leaving Max and Elsa to watch him go. The room was silent except for the giggles of the children outside.

  ‘I meant what I said,’ Max stated. ‘He has a good feel about him.’

  ‘I think so too,’ Elsa replied. ‘Funny thing is, I now feel guilty that I didn’t vote for him.’

  Max smiled and wrapped an arm around his wife’s shoulders to gently squeeze her.

  1st July (15 minutes later). A New Enemy

  ‘Are you sure that’s him?’ the younger man in the crisp, charcoal coloured suit asked, leaning back in his leather chair as he scanned the hardcopy photos spilling out of the manila folder on his desk.

  ‘Yes,’ replied the more elderly Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, US Army General Robert Stratton, from a lounge across the office, ‘and his name is Maximilian Augustus Dyson.’

  The man behind the desk looked over at the aging soldier from under his arched eyebrows. ‘For real? That’s his name?’

  ‘Yes, it is. Read it right off his birth certificate as my car drove through the White House gates.’

  ‘Wow. His mum and dad had a real Roman fetish thing going on. Must have sucked going through high school with that mouthful.’

  ‘Wouldn’t rightly know as we can’t find any evidence he ever went to school, let alone who his parents are,’ the Chairman added.

  ‘So, he’s a John Doe?’ the younger man asked, returning his attention to the photos.

  ‘Not exactly. His parents are a mystery, but we got all the routine stuff on him, no problem. He’s an average guy. Wife, two kids and lives in a regular neighbourhood. Runs a small landscaping business on his own. Pays his taxes every year and seems to keep to himself. Nothing special, until now.’

  The man in the suit, Charles Ingot the Third, dropped a photo back down onto the pile and rose from his chair. Walking around the desk, he crossed the room to a sideboard and lifted the glass coffee pot out from the percolator. As he picked up a mug he said, ‘General, I didn’t get all the way into the White House to be Chief of Staff to the President by being dumb.’ He finished pouring his coffee and replaced the pot. He then turned to face the Chairman. ‘I got here by knowing more than anyone else about everything and right now, I don’t know nearly enough about this Maximilian guy. You tell me he’s a regular Joe, but that clearly is not the case. You don’t get randomly selected out of a global population of over six billion to be champion of the world against an alien race. You get chosen to be champion because of something specific. No, he is not just a regular Joe. He’s somebody and you need to find out who. Now, tell me you know where he is?’

  ‘He’s with the Australian Prime Minister at his residence in Canberra,’ the Chairman returned, non-plussed by the Chief of Staff’s verbal belting. ‘Those photos are sourced from Prime Minister Tollsen’s own CCTV network at his residence, courtesy of our boys at the NSA, who hacked them out. The
pictures are an hour old, but we believe this Mister Dyson is still at the same location.’

  ‘So, our mystery man is being hosted by Prime Minister Tollsen?’ the Chief of Staff mused.

  ‘Is that a problem?’ the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs asked.

  ‘I don’t know,’ came the reply. ‘He’s a classic politician and while there’s nothing wrong with that, it means he’s a lot wilier than we want him to be. He might hand this Maximilian over to us willingly for the greater good because he knows we can manage him better or he might hold out because he doesn’t trust us. I don’t know him well enough yet to judge him.’

  ‘And I thought you said you knew more than everyone else about everything?’ the Chairman said as he rose from the couch, collecting his peaked cap from the coffee table as he did.

  ‘Don’t play with my words, Mister Chairman,’ the younger man said coolly. ‘You just get me what I need to know.’

  ‘And what about POTUS?’ the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs returned. ‘Now that you know where this guy is, what will you propose to the President?’

  ‘When it comes to the President, I’ve always found the concerned big brother approach works best. If the world needs saving, then the United States are here to lend a hand to our little brother, so why shouldn’t Australia hand this Maximilian over to us, so we can make sure he’s kept safe and fit until he needs to set foot in the arena? Who else would you trust with that job other than the only true super power left in the world?’

  ‘And if they do hand him over,’ the Chairman added, ‘while you’re busy keeping him safe, you’ll also interrogate him to get the truth out of who he is and why he’s so interesting to these aliens and in the process, see if there is any scope to access alien technology and get a jump on the rest of the planet. Does that match your thinking?’