"Same difference," Michael said with a shrug.
"When you put it like that," Maria said, "the whole dreamwalk loses some of the coolness effect."
Michael looked at Maria. "Turning into a bird is cool?"
"Not just any bird," Isabel said again. "An owl. And yes, it was cool."
"Good for you," Michael said. "How does that help us?"
Isabel stood with Max's help. "River Dog showed me his cave. And where the… travelers… took him."
"They captured him?" Valenti asked.
"In a way," Isabel said. Her legs grew more steady. "His body is where he left it, but they have his mind. Actually they only think they have River Dog's mind. They don't know he was talking to me. Come on. I'll explain on the way."
Max rode shotgun in Valenti's SUV, staring into the lights of oncoming cars and feeling his eyes burn as if they were being microwaved. Anxiety thrummed within him.
Valenti drove a sedate five miles over the speed limit, handling the vehicle effortlessly. So far they'd passed two state police cars, a truck from the sheriff's department, and five Hummers filled with National Guardsmen. The radio and the scanner mounted under the dash continued to report poltergeist activity in and around Roswell. Law enforcement and military teams were responding.
"The area of effect is getting larger," Valenti commented.
Max nodded. Reports were coming in from the other side of Roswell now. At the rate of progression, the ghosts would be haunting other cities besides Roswell by morning.
"Is Isabel back with us yet?"
Turning, Max gazed into the backseat. Maria, Isabel, and Liz were sandwiched into the rear seat. Michael and Kyle sat hunkered on the rear deck.
Isabel sat between the two other girls. She was asleep, dreamwalking again, getting more information from River Dog that they would need to confront the travelers.
"No," Max answered. Before he could stop himself, he gazed out the window, looking for owls flying through the dark night sky. It was silly, he supposed. Maybe Isabel dreamed that she was an owl when she was with River Dog in the dreamwalk, but she didn't actually turn into one.
The car's greenish instrument lights painted Valenti's face in hard lines. "Do you believe she's really talking to River Dog? Or do you think those… things… the travelers are setting us up? Passing themselves off as River Dog to her?"
Max only thought about the question for a moment. "She's talking to River Dog. Isabel would know if she wasn't."
"I'm not so sure," Valenti said. "Today I saw the ghost of a woman I never thought I'd see again. Most people around here don't even remember her murder. If the travelers can find that out, maybe they do a pretty good River Dog imitation, too."
"No," Max said. "Isabel would know."
"We could be headed into a trap."
Max nodded. "We're headed into their stronghold. Trap or no trap, I don't think it gets any worse than that."
Valenti was silent for a moment. "The scary part is, you're probably right."
"But we don't have a choice," Max said. "If we don't try to stop this, events in the Mesaliko village and Roswell are going to get worse." He paused. "This situation has already attracted the attention of the government agencies. They may get interested in setting up an operation in Roswell again." The last one had almost caught them all, and would have if Nacedo hadn't stepped in.
"Max," Valenti said softly, "I don't think the government agencies ever got uninterested."
Max looked at him.
"It's nothing I've heard or seen," Valenti said. "But I've been around government agencies a lot lately. Got a really close look only a few months ago. Maybe not as close a look as you did."
Max silently agreed with that. He would never forget the things he had been subjected to in the white room where he'd been held.
"Government people like that," Valenti said, "never really give up. They just go away for a while. Till they find a new angle to use. Then they start all over again, digging and prying and pulling till something busts free."
"That's kind of downbeat, don't you think?" Maria commented from the backseat.
Valenti sighed. "Maybe it's the way things have been going on, or maybe it's just me. Kyle's been trying to tell me that I'm carrying around too much negative energy these days."
Max gazed at the front windshield. The instrument illumination created a reflection in the glass. He stared at Liz's image as she looked through one of the side windows.
"Maybe it would be better if a government agency or the military handled this," Maria suggested. "We could tip them off."
"No," Valenti said. "You've seen the government at work. Whatever these… travelers… are, a federal agency's first impulse is going to be to learn how to control them. To see if they can use the travelers. I don't know whether to be more concerned about them being able to control these things or not being able to control them."
"He's right," Max said. "We'll do this ourselves." If we can. If Isabel and River Dog can come up with enough information for us to act on.
Just knowing the location of the travelers wasn't going to be enough. That might only be enough to get them killed.
On owl's wings again, Isabel glided over the desert landscape. She had an owl's eyesight as well, and her vision turned the night into a confluence of light and dark that she could see through as easily as if it were bright as day.
She rode the dying thermals instinctively now, surprised at how quickly she learned the basics of winged flight. Of course, this was a dreamwalk. Pretty much anything she imagined in a dreamwalk was possible. Kyle had found that out when they'd experimented with a Playboy Playmate from an issue of the magazine. However Kyle hadn't found out as much as he'd wanted to about wish fulfillment.
Isabel's keen eyesight picked out River Dog sitting atop a ridge near where his physical body lay in a coma. Yet, he was miles away from the place where the travelers thought they had him trapped. If she had time to think too much about the situation, Isabel knew she could get confused.
On the ridge below, River Dog raised his hand in salutation.
Dropping a wing, Isabel lost altitude, stopping short of an actual plummet. The approach she had to take to reach River Dog was different from the one she'd used in the other dreamwalks she'd undertaken. Usually in those, all she'd had to do was link her mind with the person's she sought. But to get to River Dog, she'd had to journey.
Almost on top of River Dog, Isabel stretched out a wing to his outstretched right hand. Her feathers brushed his hand, but by the time her feet touched the ground, her feathers were fingers. He helped her step down from the air.
"Thank you," Isabel said.
River Dog inclined his head. "You have returned."
"Yes."
"The way was not difficult?"
"No. I had to look for you, though. That's not something I usually have to do."
River Dog let out a long breath, and the chill filling the desert night turned his breath misty gray. "You have brought the others?"
"They're on their way," Isabel assured him. "We're on our way."
"You told them the danger was grave?"
"Yes."
"Many would not take on such a dangerous undertaking."
"We didn't feel we had a choice," Isabel said. "I think you felt the same way. That was why you came up into the mountains looking for the travelers."
"Perhaps," River Dog agreed.
"We don't have much time," Isabel said. "What have you found out?" During their last conversation, River Dog had let her know that the part of him held by the travelers was learning things from the travelers that they weren't aware of. And, in turn, when his other self knew about the travelers, the part of him that he kept involved in the vision quest knew about them as well. However his conversation with Isabel was kept separate from the part of him that the travelers kept captive.