"Holy cow!" Okada exclaimed. For a moment, he sounded more intrigued than panicked, his scientific curiosity piqued by the two automobiles' inexplicable transformations. "How is that possible?"The switch occurred in seconds; only moments later, the red Jetta and olive Jeep had been completely replaced by their green and black counterparts. Infuriated by his inability to comprehend what he had just witnessed, Morton turned on Liz, jabbing his semi-automatic pistol under her chin. The steel muzzle felt hot against her tender skin. "Who are you kids?" Morton demanded, spittle flying from his blubbery lips. His face was so close to hers that she could taste his sour breath, see his yellow, tobacco-stained teeth. "What are you?"The blaring police siren, growing louder by the minute, spared Liz any need to reply immediately. "Oh crap!" Okada screeched, his voice cracking. Flashing blue lights were now visible behind them, passing the transformed Jeep and Jetta to chase after the speeding convertible and its passengers. "It's the State Patrol!"Later," Morton promised Liz ominously, before giving the cop car his full attention. "Faster!" he ordered Okada, yanking his face and gun away from his frightened hostage. "Give it everything you've got!"The Chevy shot like a rocket down the lonely desert road, leaving the Jeep and the Jetta far behind, but the black-and-white police car continued to gain on them. "ATTENTION: YOU IN THE BLUE CHEVROLET," an amplified voice addressed them sternly. "THIS IS THE STATE PATROL!" Liz heard Okada whimper pathetically; the distraught scientist was definitely not cut out for a life of crime. "SLOW DOWN AND PULL OVER AT ONCE. I REPEAT: SLOW DOWN AND PULL OVER!"The hell I will!" Morton snarled, aiming his pistol at the oncoming police vehicle. "Nobody's taking my merchandise away from me now!"He opened fire, unleashing an ear-splitting salvo of gunshots against the cops, who must have gotten nearer to the Chevy than the Jeep or the Jetta ever did, because Morton's bullets inflicted a lot more damage this time around. One shot perforated the hood of the police car, causing an eruption of steam and smoke from the engine below, while another shot tore apart the besieged car's right front tire. Morton chortled with vicious glee as the injured vehicle lost control and swerved off the road into the desert, bulldozing through a stand of thorny mesquite before coming to rest amid a miniature sandstorm generated by the car's own bumpy landing.
"Hah!" Morton gloated. "Serves them right!" Iiz crossed her fingers, praying that the officers were okay. She stared intently, hoping to see the troopers emerge unscathed from their wrecked vehicle, but the gritty cloud obscured her view, and the Chevy literally left the crash scene in the dust as they made their getaway, Okada still whimpering quietly to himself.
Liz searched the empty roadway stretching out behind them. She spotted no sign of either the Jeep or Maria's Jetta. Had the police car chased them off? She didn't need extrasensory perception to appreciate the dilemma her friends must have been in. I'm on my own, she realized, numb with horror. No cavalry was coming, not right away, leaving her alone and helpless with a man who had already come close to killing her once before. Maybe this time, she thought, my luck has run out.
Consumed by a crazed desire to get as far away from the stranded State Patrol vehicle as possible, Okada kept his foot to the. Gas pedal, tlov s\onnv!\%\xwqL \3ncj nwr. vte.U into the foothills of the looming Guadalupe Mountains. "I don't believe this! This can't be happening!" Okada kept repeating over and over, apparently unable to believe that his career as a legitimate scientist had led him to this bullet-strewn flight from justice; Liz would have felt sorry for him if her own future career prospects, along with her life, weren't also hanging by a thread.
"I've been thinking," Okada said, glancing nervously back at Morton. "Maybe we should just turn ourselves in, before anybody gets hurt." The Chevy slowed to under fifty mph, so that the reluctant fugitive could concentrate on persuading his volatile partner. "I mean, this whole thing is getting way out of control. Testing some spacy metal you liberated from the feds is one thing, but taking hostages, shooting at police cars-that wasn't part of the deal!"Forget it!" Morton said forcefully. "Nobody's talking to the police about anything." He gave Liz a murderous look. "Let me worry about the girl."But Okada wasn't taking no for an answer. "I'm serious, Morton. You're going to get us both killed, in a police shoot-out, probably!" Mustering all his courage, the rebellious scientist tried to lay down the law. "Well, no way. I'm a PhD, not a desperado. My life is worth more than that!"Why, you-!" Morton lunged from the backseat, losing his temper, but stopped himself before actually attacking the man driving the car. He took a deep breath, regaining control, then contemplated his mutinous accomplice with a calculating look upon his ruddy face. "Okay," he said eventually. "Pull over to the side so we can talk this over."Liz didn't like the sound of this, but she kept her mouth shut. If there was any chance that Okada could talk Morton into letting her go, she was all for it, even though that prospect struck her as extremely unlikely. Stay out of this, she told herself prudently. You don't want to get between two desperate men, especially when one of them is armed.
Coming to a halt next to some desert shrubs, Okada parked the Chevy, then turned to confront Morton. "About time you started seeing sense," he said, wiping the perspiration from his forehead. "Things are bad enough already. We don't want to let this disaster escalate into a full-fledged bloodbath!"Yeah, whatever you say," Morton grunted. He shoved Liz down into her seat. "Don't move a muscle!" he threatened her before swinging open the back door and stepping out of the convertible, where he then yanked open Okada's door as well. "Get out," he ordered the scientist.
"What? I don't understand?" Okada peered up fearfully at Morton, suddenly very reluctant to surrender the wheel.
His Adam's apple bobbed up and down like a sine wave as he made another stab at reasoning with the stocky gun man. "I thought we were going to talk about this "Get out, I said!" Morton bellowed. He plucked Okada's glasses off the shocked scientists nose and hurled them into the gravel at his feet. Liz heard glass and plastic shatter beneath the gunman's cowboy boot. "Talk time's over," Morton snarled, grabbing hold of Okada's collar and dragging him out of the parked convertible. He spun the smaller man around so that Okada's back faced the desert scrub, then pushed him away. Sneering coldly, Morton raised his gun. "Guess I don't need you anymore, professor."No, wait!" Okada cried out, trying to ward off death by throwing up his hands. He stumbled backward, almost tripping over a patch of plump cacti. "Let's work this out!"Liz knew she should look away, but all she could do was cover her ears as a single gunshot permanently ended Okada's scientific career. His crumpled body lay amid the cacti, a crimson stream irrigating the sun-baked soil. Morton gave the body a savage kick that sent it rolling into a deep ditch beside the road. "How much is your life worth now, Mr. PhD?" he remarked snidely.