given that they used to be very close, until Josh's life as Max Steel started to interfere. Laura Chen was Josh's girlfriend but she soon broke up with him due in part to his increasingly close relationship with Rachel Leeds. He also kept his activities as Max Steel a secret from her and this would affect dates and other commitments which made him somewhat unreliable. Even though she broke up with Josh, she sees & speaks to his alter-ego Max instead. Pete, in the season two premiere, found out about Josh's dual identity after being captured by John Dread and agreed to keep it secret. Yet he hitchhiked with him on one mission in Alaska once. He was not seen in season 3. Jean Mairot (voiced by Keith Szarabajka) – Smith's second-in-command at N-Tek in season one and head of operations, briefing agents on their missions and coordinating their progress. A soft-spoken man, he is cool and calculating and a good judge of character — putting Max in charge of a major rescue operation even though the boy himself did not feel up to it. At the end of season one, Mairot turned out to be a spy working for villain John Dread, N-Tek mainly winning because Dread kept underestimating Max. His fate is unknown, though it is presumed that he was caught in the explosion of Dread's base. His treachery was a bitter blow to the N-Tek staff since he had been a popular figure. story editor Greg Weisman has stated that Mairot was actually on N-Tek's side and in the final episode of , was going undercover into Dread's organization on Jefferson Smith's orders. Weisman also stated that Mairot did survive the explosion of Dread's base. Weisman was not involved in , and thus this storyline was never revealed in an actual episode. Mairot spoke in a French accent. Charles "Chuck" Marshak (voiced by Edward Asner) – An N-Tek division chief who's in charge of Behemoth, the massive flying fortress used as a mobile base to support Max in the TV series. He's a senior, probably around 60 years old, who assists N-Tek with his expertise. He was a close friend of Big Jim and acts a bit fatherly with Max. Despite his age and butler-like appearance, he can move extremely fast, and is an experienced hand-to-hand combatant. He does not appear in season 2 or 3, with