The Spy Who Went Out to the Cold

Max, 99 and von BOOM leaped, landing on the camels.

“Head for the dunes!” Abdul shouted.

The camels galloped through the streets, with Max, 99, von BOOM and Abdul hanging on precariously, and with the sound of the police whistle and the shout, “Stop! Thief!” becoming dimmer in the background. Finally, nearly an hour later, the town far behind, the camels slowed to a joggling walk.

“We got a good start,” Abdul said happily. “Only five-hundred-and-ninety-six billion pounds of sand to go.”

“When will we reach our destination?” 99 asked.

“Sooner or later, give or take a day,” Abdul replied. “That is, of course, if the water holds out. Which it should. I brought a ten-gallon canteen.”

“How many billion pounds of sand do you get to the gallon out here?” Max asked.

“Sometimes more, sometimes less, give or take a billion,” Abdul replied. “Anybody thirsty?” He halted his camel. “Yes, now that you mention it, I am,” he said.

The others stopped their camels, too, and the whole party got down and Abdul passed around paper cups of water.

99 pointed. “What’s that dark cloud in the distance?” she asked.

Max, von BOOM, Abdul and the camels looked in the direction in which she was pointing. The camels suddenly reared up, then galloped away, heading back toward town.

“I’m a lit-tle disappointed, Abdul,” Max said. “I’ve been using the rental system for transportation for a good many years now, and never in my life has a Chevrolet ever done that to me.”

“What does a Chevrolet know about a sand storm?” Abdul answered. “Those camels have got good sense. If they’d stayed here, they’d’ve probably got buried alive right along with us.”

“Max! It’s a sand storm!” 99 screamed.

“I gathered that, 99,” Max said. He turned back to Abdul. “All right, guide, how do we protect ourselves?”

Abdul looked wistfully back toward town. “I guess it’s a little late to jump aboard our camels and hightail it out of here,” he said. “I’m open to suggestion.”

“A fine guide you are!” Max said.

“Would you put that in writing?” Abdul asked. “I might want a job with an American again, and a good reference could tip the scales, one way or the other.”

Von BOOM headed off across the desert.

Max grabbed him and escorted him back. “Don’t use that word ‘tip,’ ” he said to Abdul. “It sends him out looking for a restaurant.”

“Tip, tip, tip!” Abdul said.

“Don’t do that!” Max snapped, holding fast to von BOOM.

“I’m trying to save our lives,” Abdul explained. “If he finds a restaurant, we can all go in and sit out this sand storm.”

“Max! The storm is almost here!” 99 wailed.

“All right. . everybody behind that big dune over there,” Max said. “Maybe it will protect us.”

Abdul raced toward the dune. “Follow your guide,” he called back. “Everybody behind the dune.”

Max, 99 and von BOOM hurried after him. Just as they reached the huge hill of sand, the storm hit. The wind whipped the sand, swirling it into their eyes, blinding them. Grains of sand bit painfully at their faces.

“Max!” 99 cried above the wild howling of the wind. “It’s getting deeper! We’ll be buried alive!”

“Even a camel knows that, 99!” Max shouted back.

“Think of something, Max!”

“I am thinking of something-my office back at headquarters. I wish I were there!”

“I mean think of something to help, Max!”

“How can I think, 99, with you shouting at me!”

“Max! Help! The sand is up to my neck!”

“Stand on tippy-toes!” Max suggested.

“Frabbersink bon sprottlepump!” von BOOM cried.

“You’re right, even that doesn’t help if you’re short and dumpy,” Max replied. “Try this-climb up on my shoulders.”

Von BOOM scrambled up Max’s body.

“Pommerdink!” Abdul shouted.

“All right, you climb up on his shoulders,” Max said.

Quickly, Abdul pulled himself upward on Max, then on von BOOM.

“Rowgerschmidt!” Max screamed.

“Max! Max! Get on Abdul’s shoulders!” 99 shouted.

Max clambered upward. “I’m all right now, 99,” he called down, after reaching Abdul’s shoulders. “How are you making out?”

“Razzerflinklebrump!”

“Climb, 99, climb!” Max shouted.

A few moments later, safe on Max’s shoulders, 99 said, “Max-isn’t it Professor von BOOM’s turn?”

“Okay, von BOOM,” Max called. “Up on 99’s shoulders now.”

There was no reply.

“Max. .” 99 said worriedly, “. . do you think. .”

“Let’s hope for the best, 99. Maybe he’s angry about something and just isn’t speaking to us.”

“The storm, Max-it’s letting up.”

“The Chief is going to be very unhappy about that, 99.”

“About the storm? Why?”

“Not exactly about the storm,” Max replied. “More about what we’re going to discover, I’m afraid, when the storm ends. I just stuck my hand down into the sand and found out that I’m not sitting on anybody’s shoulders.”

“But where’s Abdul?”

“That’s part of what the Chief’s going to be unhappy about. If Abdul is gone, I should be sitting on von BOOM’s shoulders-right? But I’m not. And that means-unless I’ve suddenly lost my powers of deduction-that Professor von BOOM is gone, too.”

“Max, you don’t mean-”

“Apparently so, 99. My guess is that Abdul is a KAOS agent, and that he took advantage of the storm to kidnap Professor von BOOM.”

“Max! That’s terrible!”

“It certainly is. Although, of course, it could be worse.”

“I don’t see how, Max.”

“If I’d paid him his guide fee in advance, I’d really be feeling silly about now,” Max explained.

The storm ended as suddenly as it had started. Max and 99 looked around. There was nothing but sand, sand, sand, sand as far as the eye could see. The sun blazed down on them.”

“Max, I wonder if Abdul left us any water,” 99 said.

“No. But I think he left us his share of the sand. None seems to be missing.”

“Max-what are we going to do?”

“There’s only one thing we can do, 99-try to find our way back to town. The chances are mighty slim, but, we have no other choice.”

“Which way is it, Max?”

“I’m not really sure, 99. But, in this case, we do have a choice. It’s either that way or that way or that way or that way, or somewhere in between.”

“Then, all we can do is just start walking and hope for the best.” 99 sighed woefully. “I suppose we might as well get started.”