By now, Max had the hood of the van opened and was looking inside.
Michael looked up and down the road to confirm that there were no cars approaching and said, "All clear, let her rip.”
Max nodded and raised his hand, which was now glowing with green energy. He put his hand on the engine, concentrating hard for a few seconds. "Try it," he said to Liz, who was in the driver's seat now.
She turned the key; the engine clicked, but refused to start. Max was immediately by her side. "Did you give it gas?" he asked.
She nodded.
"Let me try," he said as Liz moved over.
Max turned the key. Still nothing but a click.
"I'll fix it," Isabel offered, taking a position in front of the open hood. Raising her hand, she used her powers on the engine, and then nodded to Max.
This time, there was a loud snap, then the familiar clicking sound.
Max jumped out of the car and tried again.
Nothing.
Michael weighed in.
Then Max and Isabel tried together.
Michael was shaking his head, "Wow, once unleashed, our alien-powers are truly staggering.”
Kyle couldn't watch anymore and walked over to the front of the van, where Max, Michael, and Isabel were star- ing at the uncooperative engine.
"Let me try," Kyle said.
His three friends looked at him in surprise. Liz came around front and said, "Have you been feeling any… powers?”
"Why didn't you say something?" Max said.
Kyle gave an apologetic shrug and said, "Well, I wasn't ready to talk about it, but… well, I've been an auto mechanic for the last two years!”
For a minute, his friends looked at him in confusion; then, Max gave him an embarrassed smile. "Of course… sorry, Kyle," Max said as the others laughed.
Leaning down into the engine compartment, Kyle found himself laughing too. "Stand back, my auto mechanic powers are pretty incredible," he said.
Taking a quick look, Kyle shook his head. The 1960s VW van was a classic. It represented a whole generation of youth and idealism. It was also old.
"Where did Jesse get this thing?" he asked, turning to Isabel, whose only response was a scowl. Fair enough. I deserved that, he thought.
Checking the back of the van, he found a broken wrench and a screwdriver. "We'll need some more tools if we're going to keep the van," he said to Max, who nodded.
Worse than I thought, Kyle thought as he looked over the engine. Twenty minutes later he looked up and said, "Well, there's good news and bad news.”
"Good news first, please," Maria said.
"The good news is that we've just witnessed a miracle: the van making it to Colorado," he said.
"But what's wrong with it?" Max asked.
"How much time have we got?" Kyle replied. Then, before Max could reply, he said, "Well, just about all of the belts and hoses need to be replaced. I figure you could spruce them up with your powers. However, two of the pistons aren't working. Now, that could be a tune-up, but I would need a shop to be sure. 1 also have a bad feeling about the starter, and finally, the thing that stopped us cold is the timing chain. It's busted.”
"How bad is that?" Michael said.
"On a foreign car? This old? Out in the middle of nowhere? Pretty bad. Even if we could find the part, I would need a full shop and a few hours to put it in," he said.
"But now that you know what it is, can't we just zap it?" Maria said. "In case you haven't noticed, we've been driv- ing all night and all day. I'm hungry and tired.”
"I don't think it's going to be that simple," Max said.
"Compared with putting a windshield back together, this should be easy," Maria said.
"But they know what a windshield looks like," Kyle said.
"To rearrange molecules of something, we have to be able to see it in our minds, or have a sense of how it works.
I think I was engineered with an intuitive sense about how the body works, which is why I can heal people," Max said.
"Unfortunately, an old car is more complicated than a piece of glass," Kyle said.
"How long would it take for you to teach me everything I needed to know to understand all the repairs?" Max asked.
"More time than we have today, and I won't know everything that's wrong until I take some stuff apart. I think we're going to have to get the van towed," Kyle said.
The others looked at Max, who thought for a moment and nodded his head. "Okay," he said.
Isabel and Michael nodded their agreement. For all of Max's protests about not wanting to be in charge, he was still making decision. And the others were still looking to him.
"Well, great!" Maria said. "But we're still in the middle of nowhere." She reached into her purse to take out her cell phone. "Who knows how long it will take for someone to get out here?”
"No," Max said firmly as Michael quickly took the cell phone from Maria.
"Hey," she said, grabbing for it as Michael kept it out of reach.
"Maria, we can't use a cell phone," Liz said.
"What!" she exclaimed.
"They could track us," Max said calmly.
"Who?" she said.
"Take your pick," Michael said. "The various bad guys we're trying to avoid, but my money would be on our per- sonal favorite, the Special Unit.”
"So what are we supposed to do? Just wait around in the middle of nowhere for someone to drive by? Well, I have news for you: It's been a long time since we've seen a car," Maria said. "We could be here for a while.”
Before anyone could respond, a pickup truck appeared in the distance. All heads turned to watch it approach from the direction they themselves had come.
"Or not," Michael said.
Maria squinted at him but didn't say anything.
Max leaned into the road and waved as the truck got closer. The pickup slowed and came to a stop on the side of the road just ahead of them. The group moved closer, with Max in the lead.
There was a single middle-aged man inside. He leaned over and rolled down the passenger-side window as he gave the group and the van an appraising look. "Trouble with your van," he said. It was a statement, not a question, and his expression was neutral.
"Yes," Max said.
"Lucky for you I came by. We don't see a lot of traffic out here," the man said.
"We noticed," Max said. "How far is the nearest town?”
"Stonewall is about five miles," the man replied, point- ing up ahead.
Max gestured to the back of the pickup and said, "We would appreciate a ride.”
"No," the man said simply.
Kyle understood. The man was alone, and they were six strangers.
"I don't know you kids, but I will send Gomer back with the tow truck, though.”
"Thanks," Max said, and the man sped away.
"Well, thank goodness for Gomer," Kyle said, smiling. The others laughed.
"How long do you think, Kyle? For the repairs," Max said.
"Depends on how long it takes to get the parts. A nine- teen sixty-six VW van timing chain…," he said. "The actual repairs I could do myself in maybe a day. The ques- tion is, can we afford to have them all done now? How much cash do we have, anyway?”
"Cash…?" Max said.
"Yeah, I'm assuming that using the ATM is out," Kyle said.
"Uh-oh," Liz said.
Together, everyone started to reach into his or her vari- ous pockets and purses. A moment later they had pooled their resources and Liz had begun counting. "Sixty-eight dollars and forty cents," she said.
"And we'll need gas once we get going," Kyle said.
Michael took a quick inventory of their sour faces. "Don't forget," he said as he reached down to pick up a medium-size rock. Handing the rock to Max, he said, "Powers unleashed, Maxwell. How about whipping up some gold?”