The Amazon Experiment by Deborah Abela Page A

I’d never do anything to harm the Force.’
    Max felt her back stiffen. She knew Irene felt low, but she also knew it was time for a good talking-to. ‘Remember the time I received a parcel from Spyforce that had been bugged, and how it almost led to the infiltration of Spyforce? I felt really bad too, but in the end it was Blue’s malevolence that was to blame, not me, and noone blames you here either.’
    Irene offered a small smile as she dragged her feet across the meandering, moss-covered path. Linden had managed to untangle Steinberger, who had briskly walked on ahead through the increasingly winding paths of the Plantorium.
    â€˜Max is right, Irene,’ Linden smiled.
    â€˜Of course I am,’ Max said in a softer voice. ‘Noone doubts your loyalty to the Force, Irene. Ask anyone around here and they’ll tell you, Spyforce wouldn’t be half the place it is without you.’
    Irene’s legs jellied at Max’s comment. ‘Thank you, Max. I …’
    A panicked scream rustled through the Plantorium, followed by a muffled call for help.
    Max and Linden spun towards each other. ‘Steinberger!’
    They ran past snaking plants, frothing ponds of piranhas and plumes of prehistoric palms until they found him. Irene’s hands flew to her mouth, Max’s flew to her hips and Linden stared. This was not what they were expecting to see. They all blinked to check that it was true.
    Steinberger was being mauled by a giant plant.
    Frond appeared from behind a jungle of huge fern leaves in her long red coat and beehive hairdo.
    â€˜What happened?’ Worry rippled in her voice. ‘Steinberger?’
    â€˜I’m afraid so,’ Linden said.
    A giant, bulbous sack at the end of a pond-dwelling plant was munching on Steinberger’s head and shoulders, while the rest of his body poked unceremoniously into the air.
    â€˜What is it?’ Max asked.
    Frond pushed her rose shaped glasses along her nose and fished through her lab coat for a small glass jar. ‘It’s a giant Utricularia vulgaris. Aninsectivorous plant more commonly known as a bladderwort.’
    Linden’s face screwed up. ‘With a name like bladderwort, it can’t be good.’
    â€˜Normally it’s very good,’ Frond added guiltily. ‘But with all that’s been going on, I forgot to feed it today. They’re usually much smaller but we’ve been cultivating this one for years using a special fish fertiliser and it’s just … blossomed.’
    Frond opened the jar, which let out a pungent dead animal kind of smell.
    Max held her nose. ‘What’s in that?’
    â€˜It’s ground-up pieces of … actually, it’s not important what it is. I explained the ingredients once before and it ended up in a bout of unexpected fainting.’
    Frond waved the jar around the plant. Its long, skinny branches slowly uncoiled from Steinberger and he struggled free of its feeding bladder, which left whitish, dripping globs of plant gunk all over him.
    Max and Linden helped Steinberger to stand. He pushed his soaking hair out of his face and tried to straighten his plant-globbed suit.
    â€˜I’m sorry, Steinby. Are you okay?’ Frond winced as she surveyed his upper body.
    The look of shock on Steinberger’s face at almost being eaten by a giant bladderwort was replaced by a crushing look of awe.
    â€˜You’re not hurt in any way?’ Frond fed the bladderwort some bugs from her pocket. The plant immediately started to digest the bugs, far happier with those than the humany taste of Steinberger.
    â€˜I … it’s … you.’ He closed his mouth, deciding it was better that way.
    â€˜Why don’t we go to my work area?’ Frond suggested. ‘We can take care of you there and I can look over the sample and tell you what I discover.’
    At Frond’s work area, Max and Linden helped Steinberger out of his