"Izzy, you have to tell me where you are," he screamed. "Where did DuPris take you?"
Michael heard another sucking sound. The orb was going to shrink again. "Tell me!" he cried.
"Cameron knows," Isabel wailed, her voice like a squeaky hinge.
What? Had Cameron betrayed them again? Was she working with DuPris all along? "What do you mean? How does she know?" Michael yelled.
Before Isabel could answer, her dream orb shrank to the size of a marble, then to the size of a pea, and with a tiny pop, it disappeared altogether.
"The ticket guy remembered Cameron," Michael announced. He swung himself back behind the wheel of the Jeep. "She traded in a ticket to Hobbs for one to Albuquerque. That bus left more than two hours ago, but it makes a couple of stops, including the airport, which eats up some time. If we really motor, we should just be able to beat it to the station."
Was this the hand of fate trying to bring Cameron and Michael together? Maria wondered as Michael wheeled the Jeep around and sped out of the parking lot. Maybe the two of them were destined to be a couple. Maybe Maria should be really happy for them because they'd found their soul mates.
Maybe she should ask Michael to pull over so she could puke.
You shouldn't even be thinking about that stuff, she told herself. You should be thinking about Isabel and Adam. She managed to concentrate on sending them some positive thoughts for about two seconds before she started wondering why Cameron had left town in the first place. Did she and Michael have some kind of fight? Would they end up doing the whole joyful I-was-wrong-no-no-I-was-wrong thing at the bus station? Would she have to watch them kiss?
"Next time you work at the Crashdown, I'm sure my papa is going to ask you how you did on your life science test, okay, Maria?" Liz asked. "I told him you needed me for an all-night study session tonight or you'd flunk it."
Maria could hear the tension in her friend's voice. Maybe Michael would have to stop the car for her, too. Liz was always so careful to be the most perfect daughter. She wasn't as skilled as most about lying to her parents.
"Got it. I'll tell him that I never would have passed if not for your brilliant tutoring," Maria promised. "I hope the babysitter remembers the cover story I told her to give my mom." She gave a choked half laugh. "Actually, it probably doesn't matter. My mom's so in lust, she probably won't even notice that the babysitter isn't me."
Alex groaned. "Mom. Lust. 'One of these words is not like the others. One of these words just doesn't belong.'"
"Tell me about it," Maria answered. "New subject, please."
"I have one," Alex said. "What I don't get is how Cameron could know where DuPris took Isabel and Adam."
Cameron wasn't exactly the new subject Maria had been hoping for. But what did it matter? Whether they talked about her or not, Maria would be thinking about her. She couldn't help herself.
"And if Cameron saw them, she wouldn't have just gotten on a bus," Liz added. "She would have stayed in town until she found you and told you, right, Michael?"
"Look, there's something you have to know about Cameron," Michael said, his eyes locked on the road. "Everything I told you about her was a lie, and that's because everything she told me about herself was a lie." He rushed on. "She wasn't in the compound as a test subject-she was in there as a spy for Valenti."
"Spying on you?" Maria asked softly.
"Got it in one," Michael answered. "Valenti promised her if she got the names of the other aliens in Roswell from me, he wouldn't turn her back over to her parents."
He shot a glance at Max over his shoulder. "I told her." He spat out the words as if they tasted bitter on his tongue. "I betrayed you and Isabel."
Maria could imagine what had happened. Michael had believed Cameron was a prisoner, just like him. He saw the two of them as united against Valenti and the Project Clean Slate people. Why wouldn't he tell her the truth? She opened her mouth, wishing she could say something to comfort him, but she couldn't find the words.
"Cut yourself some slack," Alex told Michael. "She already knew the truth about you. It's not like you were telling her that there were aliens on Earth."
"And she helped Adam escape," Liz added. "Why wouldn't you trust her?"
It didn't matter what the rest of them thought, Maria realized. What would matter to Michael was what Max thought. She turned and looked at him. He still seemed totally wiped out.
"You didn't betray me," Max said. "Cameron betrayed you."
The tight, guarded expression on Michael's face didn't convince Maria that he believed Max.
"So what do you think Cameron's deal is in this situation?" Alex asked. "Why do you think she didn't say something if she knew where DuPris took Isabel and Adam? She can't have any connection to DuPris, can she?"
"Don't ask me," Michael answered. "It's not like I have a great track record knowing what's really going on with Cameron. I'm the one who told her-"
"Don't even go there again," Max interrupted. "Cameron betrayed you. End of story."
End of story for Max, Maria thought. But Cameron had torn something deep inside Michael. Even when it healed, there would probably always be a nasty scar.
Kind of like the one she had. Kind of like the one Alex had. Didn't anybody's love story get a happy ending?
She took another glance over her shoulder. Oh, right. Princess Liz and Prince Max.
Liz stared up at the sky as the Jeep sped down the long, straight stretch of highway to Albuquerque.
"Looking for binary pairs?" Max asked softly.
She hadn't been, but she said yes, anyway, remembering a night not too long ago when she and Max had sat in the parked Jeep, talking about the future, looking up at the star-filled sky. That night she had told Max that the two of them were like a binary pair, two stars so close together, they appeared to shine the same light. That had been the night Max had finally agreed they could be more than just friends, a night she'd never forget.
As if he could read her thoughts, Max reached over and took her hand.
Liz felt a little shiver whisk along her spine. She couldn't shake the image of that hand, Max's hand, covered in gore. Clawing open DuPris's body cavity.
"Max, do you trust the collective consciousness?" The question burst out of her.
"I don't know what you mean," he answered, his voice flat.
"I know what she means," Alex jumped in. "She means totally without your permission-no, more than that, totally against your will-the consciousness used you to try and kill someone. Not exactly a trust builder."
"I explained to you that the beings in the consciousness were furious. Basically they just lost it when they saw DuPris," Max said. His grip on Liz's hand tightened.
"And that's okay with you?" Michael demanded. "Because you had your akino and joined them, they can just make you do whatever they want whenever?"
Liz was glad to hear that she wasn't the only one who had some doubts about the consciousness. Hopefully hearing concerns from all of them would get Max thinking.
"Not whenever," Max protested. "It was just that one time."
He didn't answer Michael's first question, Liz noted. She knew the answer, anyway. What the consciousness had done to Max was not okay with him.
She twisted her hair into a knot on the top of her head, something that always helped her think better. And something that gave her a reason to slip her hand away from Max's.
"It's already turning out to be more than one time," she finally said, working to keep her tone gentle. "Now they've ordered you to open the wormhole and send DuPris back."
"Ray Iburg is part of the consciousness. My parents are part of the consciousness. You don't think that's enough of a reason to trust it?" Max exclaimed.
Ah, there it was, Liz thought. The reason Max wasn't letting himself acknowledge that he hated what the consciousness had done to him.