The Vanished (13 page)

Michael watched in shock as Adam crumpled to the ground, smoke rising from his chest. Slowly he raised his chin to glare at his two greatest enemies, wondering which to go after first.

DuPris, an alien like himself, with no sense of decency or honor, or even right or wrong.

Or the Major. An agent of Project Clean Slate, dedicated to eradicating alien life on earth.

He wanted them both. But Adam was down. For now that was all that mattered. Michael rushed over to Adam and knelt beside him. He had to connect now.

Confused shouting filled the large cave, but Michael blocked it all out and concentrated on joining himself with Adam. He felt the pulse of Adam's blood, and he shifted his energy to match Adam's aura.

He was in; he and Adam were one. Now all Michael had to do was repair the damage the Major's taser had done to Adam's body.
Their
body.

And hope Mr. Manes didn't decide to fire that taser at him.

The collective consciousness roiled with venomous rage at the sight of DuPris. For a moment Max was scared that the consciousness would surge forward in his mind and take control of him once again . . . like the time he'd encountered DuPris in their cave.

Max waited for the overwhelming rush of force of the consciousness taking him over, but it didn't come. For whatever reason, they remained separate. Although they still filled Max's mind with furious, violent images that he was afraid to inspect too closely.

Isabel stepped up behind him. Max knew she was ready to join powers with him. But it wouldn't be enough. With Michael, Adam, Liz, and Maria it might be enough. But just him and Isabel. Forget about it.

DuPris raised one eyebrow, as if he knew exactly what Max was thinking. Then he casually glanced to his left, toward the sound of footsteps pounding across the cave floor.

Max followed DuPris's gaze and saw Mr. Manes running toward DuPris.

“I wish I could take the time to play with all of you,” DuPris said, “but I just have too much to do today.” He raised his hand, the Stone glowing purple-green in his fingers.

“No!” Mr. Manes yelled, lurching forward in an obvious attempt to grab the Stone. But he was too late.

The Stone of Midnight flashed, and Max found himself flying through the air. Literally flying. He sailed across the long cave toward the ship, too startled to even scream.

Out of the corner of his eye Max saw Liz tumbling through the air, too. Her hair covered her face like a flapping veil.

In front of him a portal gaped open in the side of the ship, just in time for him to fly through it. Max somersaulted once and landed hard on the seamless metal floor of the ship's interior.

A split second later Liz rocketed through the door and crashed into Max, knocking the wind out of him.

“Are you hurt?” Max asked breathlessly. Liz shook her head, and Max struggled to get out from under her, but before he could extricate himself, Isabel came flying through the door, too, followed by Adam, Michael, and Maria. They landed in a tangled heap atop Max and Liz as the portal swirled shut — without leaving so much as a seam.

In the moment of calm that followed, Max managed to pull himself to a sitting position. Isabel shifted, and suddenly Max's heart gave a painful kick. Mr. Manes was sitting right behind Isabel. DuPris had thrown him in with the rest of them.

“You're dead!” Michael shouted, scrambling across the ship and hurling himself onto the Major. “You tried to kill Adam — you die!”

“I didn't mean to —” “Shut up!” Michael shouted. He frisked the guy, Mr. Manes not making any attempt to stop him, and came up with a small metal canister. Michael tossed it to Max.

Max caught the canister as Michael pulled back his fist, aiming for the Major's face.

“Stop!” Max shouted.

Michael froze.

Max scrambled to his feet. “That's Alex's dad you're about to pound on,” he told Michael, his voice sounding unnaturally calm to his ears. “You might want to reconsider.”

“Why?” Michael shot back. “He's a Clean Slate agent . . . and he just tried to kill Adam!”

The Major cleared his throat. “Can I say something here — ”

“No!” Max and Michael both shouted at the same time.

“You should probably just shut up,” Isabel added.

At that moment Max's ears rang with a huge metallic crunching sound and the floor convulsed. He had to sidestep to stay on his feet. His eyes widened as he realized that the
walls
had just shifted closer, making the space in the ship significantly smaller.

Almost immediately another resounding crunch shook the ship. And again the walls closed in. The floor buckled under Max, and this time he was thrown to the ground.

“DuPris is crushing the ship,” Adam said in a tired voice. “He's compressing it with his mind.”

Michael released the Major and scrambled to the center of the room, turning from side to side to study the walls. “It's okay,” he said. “Nothing can hurt this material.”

“Yeah. The ship always returns to its original shape,” Adam added.

Isabel laughed frantically. “Oh, goody,” she said. “That's nice for the ship. But if you think for a
second
, you might notice that by the time it does, we're going to be nothing but ugly splats on the floor! Or the ceiling!”

Everyone in the ship was struck silent for a moment, realizing the horrible truth of Isabel's words.

“Or both,” Maria said.

“So what do you propose we do?” Michael asked Isabel.

“We bust out of here,” she answered instantly. “We blast a big hole in the wall and get the hell out!”

“We can't hurt this metal,” Michael told her. “It's made for intergalactic travel. I don't think we can compete with that.”

“DuPris opened the wall,” Liz said. “So it's possible.”

“Yeah,” Michael said. “Possible if you have the Stone of Midnight.”

“Well, we have to do
something
,” Isabel shot back as the walls crunched ever closer. “I'm not going to just sit here until DuPris squishes us like snails. We can at least
try.
Let's link up.”

Adam hurried over, and Isabel grabbed his hand and Michael's. Max hooked up with Adam, and then they were one unit again, a single force with the power of all four of them combined.

Isabel concentrated. She imagined the side of the ship, pictured its shiny, shimmering wall, and then she pictured that same wall with a big hole in it. They
urged
the molecules of the wall to separate, to stretch, to stand aside. It was exhausting. The alien metal was stronger than anything Isabel had dealt with before.

Then she felt a slight give in the wall's integrity. A space opened, about as big as a pea.

Wider, Isabel screamed. Wider!

But the hole slid closed without leaving a mark.

Isabel groaned in frustration.

“We need more power,” Adam said.

“Maria?” Max asked. “Liz?”

Without any hesitation they rushed over and joined the circle.

This time the six of them managed to open a hole the size of a quarter.

Which closed again almost immediately.

The ship crunched again. Isabel could now touch both walls at once with her outstretched hands. “What are we going to do?” she cried.

“If you can open that hole again,” Mr. Manes said, “I might have a solution.”

Isabel turned to glare at the Major. As if he even had a right to speak! “We don't need help from you!”

“C'mon, Isabel,” Maria shouted. “He doesn't want to be smushed, either!”

“What is it?” Max asked.

“If you can open that hole again, I could activate a chemical weapon and aim it out the hole into the cavern,” Mr. Manes said. “That should take care of DuPris.”

“Not a bad plan,” Michael said. “Maybe even a decent plan. But I'll be the one to activate that canister, not you. I'm not going to risk you killing us all.”

The Major swallowed hard. “The weapon is keyed to my DNA,” he told Michael. “It won't function for anyone but me.”

Another forceful crunch rocked the ship as DuPris squeezed it like a lemon from the outside. Isabel noticed with alarm that the ceiling was now pressing down against Max's head.

“He's already tried to kill us once with the gas that comes out of that thing,” Isabel yelled.

“I didn't know you were in the caverns,” Mr. Manes protested. “Those weren't set for you — I placed them around DuPris's cave so that he couldn't escape. . . .”

The Major's voice trailed off, and he paused a moment before speaking again. “Wait a minute,” he said. “If those weapons worked on you . . . and all this talk about ‘linking up'. . .”

“So you've figured us out,” Isabel said. “Good for you. But I know the truth about you, too, Mr. Clean Slate. At least we don't go rounding people up in order to lock them away . . . or kill them!”

The Major blinked at Isabel, looking confused. “What do you mean?” he asked. “It has never been Clean Slate's agenda to — ”

The ship quaked again, knocking them all to the floor. Isabel gasped as Max got back on his feet. He could no longer stand upright. There were now less than five feet between the floor and the ceiling.

At that moment panic overtook Isabel's indignation. If they trusted the Major, they could die. But if they didn't trust him, they'd definitely die.

Once again the ship let out a metallic squeal as DuPris compressed it further. Isabel was thrown onto Adam, and she didn't bother getting up again. There was no place for her to go. The walls around them were so close now, it was painful just to be in the ship. There was no time left.

“Let's just do it!” Isabel shouted.

Max handed the canister to Major Manes, and all Isabel could do now was hope that they'd made the right decision.

Quickly Isabel grabbed Michael's leg, and Adam grabbed Max's arm. Maria and Liz were already connected through Max. Together they opened a hole large enough for the end of the canister.

Mr. Manes thrust the tip of the weapon through the hole and squirted a long stream of chemicals into the cavern outside.

He pulled the spent canister back in just as the group could hold the hole open no longer.

Isabel slumped against Adam, feeling more drained than she'd ever felt before. They were in here. The chemicals and DuPris were out there.

Now all they could do was wait.

And hope.

Max waited. He waited for the crunch of the ship that would let them know they hadn't been successful in neutralizing DuPris. The final crunch that would end their lives.

Then a thought struck him — a disturbing thought. Something none of them had even considered.

DuPris had opened the wall of the ship and jammed them inside. If the chemical killed DuPris and the walls stopped closing in, who would let them out?

Panic started to squeeze Max's heart the same way DuPris had crushed the ship — in sudden, painful jolts.

But then, miraculously, the walls of the ship began to fade.

Max climbed onto his knees, peering at the wall closest to him. It definitely seemed less substantial than it had a moment before. It was becoming transparent!

It was dissolving.

In less than a minute the ship had melted away, leaving Max, Liz, Isabel, Michael, Maria, Adam, and the Major lying on the slick floor of the cavern.

“The gas!” Isabel cried, sitting up. “Is it still in the air?”

“Don't worry,” Mr. Manes said. “I only used a minuscule amount. It should have dissipated by now.”

Max took a deep breath and glanced quickly around the cave.

DuPris was nowhere to be seen. He had vanished.

Taking the ship with him.

Max's first reaction was disbelief. DuPris was unbelievably strong. He had survived the chemicals and managed to transport himself away with the ship. How were they ever supposed to fight someone that powerful?