"How do you explain these babies?" He laid the wire rosette on the floor of the cave and tapped it hesitantly with a pudgy finger. Nothing happened. Of course.
"Huh? What's the matter?" he wondered, looking utterly baffled. He savagely ripped the silver shower cap in half, then tried to get the two ragged pieces to merge together again, which was not about to take place. Frustrated and upset, unaware that he'd been conned by a bit of extraterrestrial sleight of hand, Morton flung the torn silver segments at Liz's lap. "What's wrong with them?" he demanded. "Why won't they work?"I don't know," Liz mumbled, uncertain what tack to take. What would rile Morton more, finding out his artifacts were fakes or thinking that they weren't? "Maybe they're broken?" she suggested meekly.
"Fix them!" he barked savagely. The muzzle of his gun pointed straight between her eyes. Could Max heal me, she wondered instantly, if I was shot in the head? "I can't," she pleaded helplessly. "My hands…" If nothing else, the duct tape gave her an excuse to leave the phony gadgets alone. Morton looked unconvinced, though, so she tried something eke. "Besides, repairs aren't my…area of expertise."Morton's trigger hand dropped to his side as he gazed at her wide-eyed. "So you are one of Them." His booming voice dropped to a raspy hush. "I always knew You were out there-where else could the merchandise come from?-but 1 never thought I'd ever run into one of You for real." He wiped the sweat from his glistening, sunburned brow. His bald spot, Liz observed, was paler and less florid than the rest of his head. "I was just trying to make a buck, you know?"He circled her warily, keeping his distance now that he thought she was a visitor from another planet. This would be funny, Liz thought, if it wasn't so dangerous. Pretending to be an alien was a risky game, but if it kept Morton away from her…
"Is that your real form?" he asked apprehensively, looking her over from several feet away. He was still hanging onto his gun, but at least it wasn't aimed at her skull anymore.
"It is now," Liz said cryptically. Keep him guessing, she thought.
"Damn!" Morton exclaimed, getting over his initial fright. "This is incredible." He stared at her as if she had suddenly sprouted tentacles or something. "Where- where are you from?"Liz raised her eyes heavenward, hoping she wouldn't be joining the angels soon. Is he buying this, she marveled, and do I really want him to? "Good God," he exclaimed. "I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes." Liz assumed he meant Max's force field, the missing bullet wound, and everything else, not her nonexistent tentacles. She didn't think Morton was that much of a psycho.
"Please, you can't tell anyone!" she begged, mimicking Max, Isabel, and Michael. If there was one thing she knew about being an alien, it was that they didn't like their secrets revealed. "We come in peace. We mean you no harm!"Was that too corny? she worried. Maybe I should just speck when spoken to.
"Tell anyone?" Morton laughed heartlessly. "I can't decide whether to kill you on the spot-or sell you to the highest bidder." He started pacing again, thinking out loud as he pondered the fate of his "alien" captive. "If those metal spaceship parts are worth a couple million, how much could I get for an actual alien?"Bloodthirsty rage and confusion succumbed to calculating gteed as the ruthless gunman considered his options. Dollar signs replaced the manic gleam in Morton's eyes, which started looking on Liz like she was just another piece of contraband salvaged from the Crash, Liz guessed that was an improvement, but she couldn't imagine that her alien act was a workable, long-term solution. Somehow I've got to get sway from Morton, she knew, before he figures out that I'm nothing more than a completely human eyewitness to Okada's murder.
Her gaze shifted from the sunlit entrance of the cave to the impenetrable darkness farther within. Who knew how deep-or how far-this tunnel extended into the Earth? Iiz didn't relish the idea of escaping into the lightless depths of the unexplored cave, but it might be her only option, provided Morton ever stopped watching her for a second. She wondered how far she'd have to descend before she'd be safe from his bullets? "Listen up, spacegirl," Morton snarled, interrupting her desperate search for a way out. He planted himself on a squat rock formation between Liz and the exit to the desert outside. "I've thought it over, and here's what we're going to do. The way I figure it, you're too valuable to just throw away, even if you are some kind of spooky monster from outer space. I have contacts in Mexico who will pay good money to examine your alien carcass, so you're coming with me across the border."He toyed with his loaded semi-automatic as his voice and expression grew deliberately threatening. "Here's the catch. A live alien is worth more than a dead one, but I'll settle for the lower price if you give me any trouble. Got that?"Liz nodded, afraid to speak for fear of giving herself away. From the sound of it, she had just bought herself a few more hours of life.
"Good." Morton appeared satisfied with her response. Relaxing somewhat, as he settled in to wait for Ramirez, he regarded Liz with frank curiosity. "You have a name?" he asked brusquely. "What do I call you anyway?"Liz went with the scariest alien name she could think of.
"Tess," she said. "My people call me Tess."
23.
Yeah, Mom, we're having a little car trouble, so we might be getting home a bit later than planned." Max held the cell phone to his ear. "No, nothing serious. Thanks for the offer, but you don't have to send Dad down to pick us up. Don't worry, we'll definitely be back in time for school tomorrow."I hope, Max thought/Until they found Liz, nothing else mattered, but he could hardly tell his foster parents that. They didn't know anything about his alien origins, let alone the dangers he and Isabel often faced because of those origins. Max saw the miserable look on his sister's face as he wrapped up the call home; he knew she hated lying to their mom and dad.