"Wha-!" Morton's jaw dropped and his bloodshot eyes bulged from their sockets. He fired again, this time out of panic, but the radiant green barrier once again shielded Max from the gunfire. Visibly freaked-out, his blubbery jowls quivering, the berserk felon turned his gun back on Liz, shouting hoarsely at Max as he dragged Liz out of the dingy motel room. "Keep away from me, you freak! Stay back!"Trembling with fear and frustration, Max ground his teeth behind the translucent green energy, which added a bizarre emerald tint to the awful sight of a terrified Liz being carried off by the gun-wielding killer. His alien powers had saved him from almost certain death, but what about Liz? Morton had her!
20.
Oh my god, Alex! What are we going to do?"Maria was beside herself, sniffing rosemary oil like it was the elixir of life, to absolutely no effect. Beside her in the front seat of the Jetta, parked outside the Motel 6, Alex looked just as horrified and helpless. The whole plan was falling apart right before their eyes! First, Mortons blue Chevy had come squealing back into the parking lot, taking Maria and Alex by surprise. Then the two criminals had charged back into room #19, before either of the teens in the Jetta could do anything to warn Max and Liz that they were about to be caught in the act.
And what could we do anyhow? Maria realized, paralyzed with shock and uncertainty. Neither she nor Alex was armed with anything more potent than a half dozen miniature vials of scented oils, all of which she would have gladly traded at this moment for a working Uzi and the skill to use it. How were a couple of ordinary teenagers, like her and Alex, supposed to rescue their friends from a trigger-happy felon like Joe Morton? As they watched impotently, the other man-the lab tech from the university- rushed out of the motel, clutching what had to be the legendary black attache case. Gunshots sounded from within #19, causing Maria to almost jump out of her skin. Two shots, she counted, going pale. One each for Max and Liz- She clasped her hands over her mouth, holding back a scream, and looked hopelessly at Alex, to make certain that she wasn't hearing things, but the anguished look on his face made it clear that he'd heard the shots, too. Tears welled in her eyes as she imagined Liz and Max lying bleeding and dying on the floor of room #19.
' Where are Michael and Isabel? she wondered desperately, looking frantically for the Jeep, which she thought she spotted parked across the street, which was now filled with the noise and confusion of a multi-car pileup. It's not fair! She and Alex were both one percent human; neither of them had the power to heal Liz and Max if they'd really been shot. There's nothing I can do to save them.
So convinced was Maria that her friends had been gunned down that it came as an actual relief when Joe Morton backed out of #19, his meaty arm around Liz's squirming waist. She's alive! Maria rejoiced, then noticed the gun in Morton's free hand. But what about Max? The gunshots, along with the crashes on the highway, attracted plenty of attention. Numbered wooden doors opened up all along the length of the motel, as potential witnesses poked their heads out of their rooms to see what was happening, then ducked back inside at the sight of Morton and his smoking pistol. The imposing gunman fired a shot into the air to keep any onlookers at a distance as he tossed Liz into the backseat of the Chevy and, gun in hand, clambered in after her.
With the cowardly-looking science guy at the wheel, the blue convertible burned rubber out of the parking lot, passing the Jeep as Michael and Isabel suddenly arrived on the scene. Morton fired repeatedly at the Jeep, clipping one corner of the windshield and forcing the army-green vehicle to swerve across the parking lot, almost colliding with the parked Jetta. Sticking to the shoulder of the road, to avoid the accident blocking the highway, the Chevy sped away in a cloud of dust and gravel, taking Liz Parker with it.
Maria gripped the steering wheel in front of her, uncertain whether to take off in pursuit or to check on Max first. Her dilemma was solved when Max himself came running out of Mortons motel room, seemingly unharmed. A desperate look upon his face, he dived into the backseat of the Jetta, breathing heavily. "Max!" Maria shouted, twisting around in her seat. "Are you all right?"I'm fine," he gasped, "but you have to follow them!" His voice was ablaze with urgency. "They've got Liz!"1 know!" Maria told him. Afraid of losing her best friend forever, she fired up the Jetta even as Michael and Isabel, side-by-side in the Jeep, still wearing their faux military uniforms, pulled up beside them. Maria shuddered at the sight of the bullet hole in the Jeep's windshield. That could've been Michael's head, she realized.
In ten words or less, Max updated his fellow hybrids on what had just happened. "We can't lose that Chevy!" he stressed passionately. "We can't let Morton hurt Liz again!"Sirens sounded nearby, growing louder by the second. "The police," Maria realized, drawn by the gunshots, the auto accidents, or both. "Hang on!" she warned Max and Alex as she threw the Jetta into drive and peeled out of the parking lot, going from zero to sixty in a matter of seconds. With any luck, she hoped, the cops would be too tied up with the big highway pileup to chase after them right away. In the rearview mirror, she saw the Jeep zooming right behind her. Michael had already used his powers, she saw, to repair the damage to their windshield. Hold on, Liz, she thought, following Morton's escape route along the shoulder of the highway. We're coming for you! Pouring on the speed, they came within sight of the blue Chevy before long. At first, Iiz and her kidnappers were heading north on 180, toward Carlsbad proper, but they quickly veered off the main highway, turning left onto a less-populated side road that led west toward the mountains. Motels, souvenir shops, and fast- food restaurants soon gave way to flat, barren, desert scenery. Cacti and yucca provided sparse decoration to the arid landscape whizzing past them on both sides of the road. Keeping one eye on the road and the other on the speeding convertible carrying away her friend, Maria tried to figure out where Morton and his accomplice were heading. Geography wasn't exactly her forte, but she didn't remember much in this direction except the mountains and maybe the northern tip of the park.
Okay, she recalled, there was always Las Cruces, where the university was, but that was almost 150 miles away, on the other side of the Guadalupe Mountains. Surely the science guy wasn't planning to take a shanghaied teenage girl all the way back to his snazzy labs and academic colleagues? They must be planning to hide out in the mountains somewhere, she guessed, pushing the speedometer needle up to eighty and beyond. Not if 1 have anything to say about it! Morton knew they were chasing him, of course, especially after they followed him off the highway into the desert, where pretty soon they were the only cars on the road. He glared back at them from the back of the convertible, holding onto his cap with one hand and his gun with the other. Maria glimpsed the back of Liz's head, bizarro red hair and all, but she was too far away to tell how Liz was holding up. First the shooting, now this! she agonized silently, trying to imagine what her friend was going through now. This must be like her worst nightmare coming true.
"Can't you just blast him or something?" she asked Max in desperation. She had the air conditioner turned all the way up, but still felt covered in sweat. "Some sort of Czechoslovakian tractor beam maybe?"Max shook his head. "It's not that easy," he explained succinctly, "not at these speeds." Shunning seat belts, he perched on the very edge of the backseat, leaning forward between Maria and Alex, his head and shoulders straining to bring him as close to the fleeing Chevy as possible. "If that car crashes, Liz could be killed."So much for that brilliant idea, Maria thought. She desperately wanted to close the gap between them and the convertible, just so she could get a better look at Liz, but knew that she had to keep a safe distance between the Jetta and Morton's gun. He had already fired at them a couple of times, but without much success, the wild shots ricocheting off the asphalt ahead of the Jetta or whizzing by overhead. Don't take too many chances, she warned herself, knowing that Liz was depending on her. Morton had to run out of gas and bullets eventually. If I have to, III chase him all the way to Tucson.