"Adam, you're a wonderful guy. And I… I like you so much," Liz said. "Just seeing your face makes me feel better, no matter what craziness is going on. But-"
"But you're still in love with Max," Adam said, wanting her speech to end.
"I don't think Max…" A net of purple grief wrapped itself around Liz's aura. "Max and I aren't ever going to be together," Liz told him. "But I can't be with anybody else. At least, not-" She shook her head, leaving the rest of her thought unspoken.
"I understand," Adam replied. And he did. Weirdly, one of the things that drew him to Liz was the deep, powerful love she had for Max. To be loved by someone with that capacity for passion and emotion-it had to be the most wonderful thing anyone could possibly imagine.
"That doesn't mean I don't want to be friends," Liz continued, looking him in the eye. "Anytime you feel lonely, anytime you need someone, I'll be here for you." She reached forward and squeezed his hand. "You know that, don't you?"
Before Adam could answer, he heard the apartment's back door fly open.
"We have a way to find Isabel and Michael," Maria cried as she rushed into the living room, Alex right behind her.
"I scored an alien tracking device off my dad," Alex added, green eyes gleaming. "He was actually very cool about it. Although officially he knows nothing."
Adam grinned and scrambled to his feet. Liz followed, wiping her hands on her jeans.
"Maria, do you mind going and, um, waking up our sleeping beauty?" she asked. It was clear she was reluctant to do it herself.
"Sure. Yesterday I mixed up a batch of all the most powerful aromatic oils," Maria answered, pulling a little vial out of her jacket pocket and giving it a quick shake. "It's strong enough to raise the dead."
She slapped her hand over her mouth, shooting a horrified what-did-I-just-say look at Liz.
"Sorry," she said, then bolted for the kitchen.
Alex pulled a thin, square device out of his pocket. "Looks like a PalmPilot, doesn't it?" he asked. "The latest fashion in alien hunting," he added in a mock-announcer voice. "Classic black. And it leaves no unflattering line in the trousers."
He clicked a little button on the side. "Should be easy to use." He stared at the little screen. "Except it's not."
"Can I try?" Adam asked.
"Be my guest." Alex handed over the tracking device with a shrug.
In the Project Clean Slate compound Adam's powers had been tested on everything from starting a blender to defusing a bomb. It hadn't taken him long to learn how to sense the energy pathways in any mechanical or electronic device and figure out exactly how to make it stop or start functioning.
Adam ignored the buttons on the tracker and nudged one of the circuits with his mind. The little screen lit up with a soft green glow. Two black dots blinked in the lower-left corner.
Liz and Alex crowded up to Adam so they could see, too. "I think those two dots are you and Max," Liz said. "Can you make it pull back? You know, extend the range?"
Adam tweaked the tracker until the screen showed the city of Roswell. There were still only the Max and Adam dots on the screen.
"Go wider," Alex urged.
"What've you got?" Max demanded as he and Maria came into the living room.
"So far we've managed to pinpoint the exact location of you and Adam," Alex said sarcastically "And can I just say, it's good to be back on the team." He reached out and clapped Max on the back. "In case you hadn't noticed, I'd been experiencing some kind of ego malfunction."
"Yeah, who could resist the attentions of someone like Stacey Scheinin?" Liz complained. But she reached over and gave Alex a half hug.
"Four more dots," Adam announced, pulling his eyes away from Liz.
"You must have picked up DuPris and Trevor, too," Max said. "How are we going to figure out which is the right location?"
"Doesn't look like it matters," Alex said, leaning over Adam's shoulder. "All four dots are in the same place-about fifty miles outside of Santa Fe. Which means-"
"They're with DuPris," Adam whispered. His fingers spasmed, and the tracker slipped free. Alex caught it before it hit the ground.
"I can't believe this," Max said, pushing his hands up into his hair. "How could Michael be so stupid?"
"Max, he must have had a reason," Maria said, reaching out and squeezing his shoulder. "Calm down."
"We have to find them," Liz said, pulling her hair back from her face. "If Michael went to DuPris, Isabel must be pretty sick."
Adam saw Max's eyes flash with hurt, but the thought seemed to bring him back to the matter at hand.
"All right. If we're getting that close to DuPris, we're going to need firepower," he said, looking each of them in the eye. "We have to get that Clean Slate weapon from Kyle."
"Yeah, he knows the threat of exposing the truth is over. It was incredibly easy to get rid of the reporters he dragged here," Liz said.
"I guess you guys haven't heard," Alex said, his gaze locked on the tracker. "The girl I was with today, she told me that Kyle is getting shipped to a very nice, very quiet hospital in Albuquerque for a 'Boy, Interrupted' kind of deal. He's not going until tomorrow, but there's no way he's going to be left alone tonight, even for a minute."
So not only were they going to have to face DuPris again. They were going in pretty much unarmed. Their powers were useless against DuPris and the Stones. Adam tried to steel himself, but he couldn't help feeling small and pathetic, as helpless as he had been in the compound.
"Okay, plan B," Max said. "I get the crystals and teleport to give them to Isabel."
"Not by yourself," Liz told him. "You might-"
"Might what?" Max demanded.
"You might, um, stop to smell the roses." Maria started giggling and didn't stop until she pinched her own arm so hard, the skin turned white. "Sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry," she said.
"I can't believe you guys think I would zone out," Max said harshly. "This is Isabel we're-"
"Max," Liz said firmly. "Wake up already. You can't always control it."
"I am so sick-"
"They're right," Adam interrupted. It didn't feel like his place to contradict Max, but he had to. "I'll go-"
"We'll all go," Liz said, her dark eyes on Adam. "This isn't something you have to do alone."
THIRTEEN
Trevor knelt next to Isabel and placed his hands on the cement floor beside her. He tapped the molecules with his mind, urging them apart just enough for the floor to turn spongy.
"Better?" he asked.
But he wasn't expecting an answer. Isabel was deep in the akino, nearing the moment of crisis.
Michael hovered above them, pacing quickly. "If you're lying to me about her being able to survive-"
Trevor jerked up his head. "If you don't think you can trust me, why did you even come to me for help?" he exploded. Then he saw the fear in his brother's eyes. It spiked through his aura. "She's going to be fine, Michael," he said, his anger instantly gone.
"When I connected with her, I could see her organs, and they were all about to disintegrate," Michael said, his voice rough with emotion. He knelt next to Trevor. "Is that normal?"
"It's normal," Trevor reassured him. He reached out and pushed a strand of sweaty hair off Isabel's face. He didn't think he'd have recognized her as the vibrant, gorgeous girl he'd danced with such a short time ago.
"And her breathing. It's so… it's like it's going to stop any second." Michael shoved himself to his feet and started walking again, this time in a tight circle. Every few moments he stopped and looked down at Isabel, his hands curled in fists in front of his mouth.