by Melinda Metz
Make it stop, he begged silently. Someone make it stop.
And then it did.
Adam gasped in a ragged breath. His eyes felt dry and shriveled, but he managed to blink and look around. Max was pressing his hand to his chest hard, and Isabel was grasping Max's arm, her eyes closed. Michael's fists were clenched, and he stared at Adam, his eyes wide.
"What happened?" Maria asked, her voice trembling.
"You felt that one," Adam said.
"Oh yeah," Michael agreed in a low voice.
"If I never have that experience again in my life, it'll be too soon," Isabel said, still clinging to her brother. "What was that?"
"DuPris," Adam answered. "At least I think so. It sure felt like the Stone of Midnight to me. What else is that powerful? And it was pretty close this time."
Liz slipped her hand into Max's and looked into his eyes, brushing a lock of hair from his forehead.
"Are you okay?" she asked in a low, caring voice.
The pang to Adam's heart was almost as painful as the shock had been.
"We're losing the tour group," Adam said flatly. "Should we catch up?"
"No," Max said. "I think we're close to finding what we came here for. Could anyone tell where the power was coming from?"
Adam closed his eyes, blocking out the sight of Liz's concerned expression, and forced himself to remember the shock… to feel it again so that he could concentrate on which direction it had come from.
"That way," he said, pointing toward a path that led away from the Big Room. It was a walkway with a steep slope-so steep that the asphalt paved over it was made with textured ridges in it to help with traction. "It's down there."
"Let's go," Michael said, his tone grim.
Adam started down the path, his friends following close behind as they picked their way down the damp, slippery route. He braced himself for another sudden shock of stinging energy, but it never came.
Adam felt comfortable leading the group. He ducked under a low, misshapen overhang and skirted a stone "drapery" that ran down a wall, the rock patterned like hanging curtains. Then he came face-to-face with a swinging chain cordoning off a tunnel that led into darkness. The paved path ended there.
"What do we do?" Adam asked.
"We keep going," Max said. "We can't stop now."
Adam nodded. He swung his leg over the chain.
"Hey!" a deep voice shouted from up the corridor. "You can't go in there."
Adam yanked his leg back onto the asphalt path. A young ranger, dressed in his uniform of a brown shirt and green trousers, was hurrying toward them. His almost childlike features wore a stern expression.
Isabel stepped up to face the ranger, smiling flirtatiously and looking up at him with her big, blue eyes. "We're sorry," she said. "We didn't realize we weren't allowed in there. We'll stay on the path from now on."
"See that you do," the ranger said with less certainty. "It's dangerous in the back tunnels, and leaving the path is a felony."
"A felony?" Maria squeaked.
"These caves are a World Heritage Site and a natural preserve, miss," the ranger answered. "Foot traffic destroys them."
"No problem. We're not looking for trouble," Michael said, shooting Adam an ironic smile. Michael turned and started back up the slope.
Adam reluctantly followed the group back to the Big Room. They'd been so close. Why did that ranger guy have to wander along at that moment? But at least now they had reason to hope. They knew where DuPris was hiding.
And felony or no, Adam knew that his friends weren't about to give up that easily.
***
"Is it time yet?" Maria asked. She knew that she'd asked that question a dozen times in the last hour, but anticipating the showdown with DuPris was driving her crazy. Plus she was out of cedar oil to calm herself down.
Max glanced at his watch. "Yeah, we should be okay now," he said. "The last tour ended an hour and a half ago."
Maria nodded and tapped her foot nervously, staring out at the vastness of the desert.
She and her friends were standing a hundred or so yards from the cavern parking lot, behind a low mesa. It had taken them a few hours to walk out from the caves to this spot, but they wouldn't have to walk back. Not when they had Max around.
"Everyone ready?" Max asked.
Maria took a deep breath and reached out to grab Liz's hand. Adam took Maria's other hand, and Maria glanced across the circle at Michael. Part of Maria wanted to be holding hands with him, but that wouldn't do anything good for her resolve to be just friends. Touching him and still thinking of Michael as a friend was impossible.
"You okay with this?" Michael asked Max. "You've only moved us this way once before-"
"And you're still kind of weak," Liz pointed out.
"I can do it," Max said. His voice was so firm and sure that a tense knot of fear in Maria's shoulders loosened. She hadn't even realized how rigid she'd been holding them until the stiffness disappeared.
Michael nodded once, and then he grabbed Max's hand, completing the circle. The force of the connection surged through Maria, and she welcomed the comforting warmth that came with it.
Their auras-Max's emerald green, Michael's brick red, Maria's own sparkling blue, Liz's warm amber, Isabel's rich purple, and Adam's bright yellow-blended into one potent rainbow.
Maria wasn't sure what to call Max's bizarre method of transportation. She'd heard DuPris mention something called a lavila, which she'd assumed was a kind of teleportation, but Maria had no way of knowing if DuPris had been referring to the power Max possessed.
Then Maria silenced her chattering thoughts as she felt her body coming apart. Max was doing his thing.
He was disassembling them all, molecule by molecule.
For a long moment Maria felt like she was expanding, spreading like smoke dissipates in the air.
A disorienting sensation of vertigo overcame her as she realized she could see through the bodies of her friends. The feeling of her molecules drifting away was terrifying. Maria focused on Michael-on feeling his aura brushing against her own in the mixture-and felt calm.
A moment later she couldn't think at all.
***
Isabel heaved a sigh of relief when she'd re-formed in front of the chain deep in the caves. Max had pulled it off. Of course, she'd never doubted him for a moment. Still, it felt very good to have her body back in one piece.
"Good work," Michael said. He patted his body like he needed to make sure he was all there.
"Thanks," Max said, sounding tired. Isabel glanced at him, concerned. Max always seemed so in control of himself that it was easy to overlook how much he gave to their efforts. She was about to ask him how he was holding up but didn't. She knew he was sick of being asked.
"C'mon, you guys," Isabel said, rubbing her chilled hands together. "Let's find the maniacal twit and get this over with."
"Isabel, you never disappoint," Max said with a smile. Isabel grinned back, and Max turned to Adam. "You found this tunnel in the first place. Want to do the honors?"
Adam nodded, his eyes wary and alert as he stepped over the chain.
Maria and Liz flicked on their flashlights as soon as they entered the tunnel. Isabel smiled. She, Adam, Michael, and Max could actually see better in the dark, but she knew the trek was probably scary for her friends. She pulled out the flashlight she'd packed as an afterthought and turned it on to give them more light. Michael did the same.
"Does anyone feel anything?" Adam asked from the head of the group. "I'm not even getting the little twinges of power this time."
"Not a thing," Michael replied with a slight tremor in his voice.
Isabel could relate. She wasn't looking forward to another shock wave.
"The power surge came from this direction… generally," Adam said. "I think I'm going the right way, but I just don't know." He sounded frustrated, as if afraid to let the rest of them down.
"Just keep going," Isabel said. "We'
ll find him."
"Yeah." Max's voice was right behind her. "We have all night."
"Hey, you guys!" Michael called urgently. "Wait up a sec."
"You felt something?" Max asked.
"No, saw something," Michael said. He shined his flashlight on the damp, loamy path. "Look. Someone's been back here."
In the center of the beam of light was a footprint. Isabel's heart jumped to her throat.
"Good work, Sherlock," Maria joked nervously "Did you join the Boy Scouts while we weren't looking?"
"It could have been there for a while," Isabel said, glancing at Max. "There's no reason to think it's a fresh print. I've got a feeling stuff goes undisturbed back here for decades… maybe centuries."
"But maybe it's a good sign," Liz said, pulling her hair back from her shoulders. "Maybe it's DuPris's footprint." She paused and glanced around. "Or would that be a bad sign?"
Adam knelt down beside the shallow, shoe-shaped indentation on the ground. He reached out his finger and lightly touched the center of the footprint.
Isabel felt a tiny surge of energy as the air over the print began to shimmer. She stepped back uncertainly.
In a tiny shimmer of light a holographic image formed, hovering in the tunnels darkness like a phantom.
"Oh my God," Isabel said with a gasp. "How did you-" But she didn't finish her sentence. A cold finger of fear traced her spine. The hologram was of Mr. Manes. He was walking through the passage where they were standing.
Isabel looked at her brother and saw a grim expression cross his face as the holographic image dissipated.
"That was not a good sign," Maria said.
"What was the Major doing back here?" Liz asked. "Do you think he was looking for DuPris, too?"
"Who knows?" Michael said. "But after finding those chemical weapon plans in his files, Manes is definitely not someone I want to be trapped in a cave with."
A long silence hung in the air, suffocating Isabel like a cloud of thick smoke. One enemy had definitely been here. And the other-DuPris-might be very close, too.
"Do we keep going?" Max asked finally.
"We have to," Isabel said, swallowing her fear. The only route toward rescuing Alex was forward, and for him she could face her demons. Even if one of those demons was his own father.
"We might as well follow the footprints," Max said, looking at Isabel. "If the Major was looking for DuPris, he may lead us right to him."
"Oh, yay," Maria muttered.
"Let's go," Michael said.
Carefully Adam resumed picking his way through the convoluted passageways, following Mr. Manes's path. The caves felt infinitely more threatening to Isabel now… now that she knew a Clean Slate agent was somewhere up ahead.
Adam led them through a series of narrow fissures, and then they emerged into a larger cave. For a moment Isabel was glad for the open space.
But then she gasped as a sharp pain sliced through her heart like a saw. Isabel crumpled to the damp ground as fear clenched her lungs. Her throat burned, and she could barely breathe.
Isabel smelled something acidic. Fumes.
Vaguely, through her disorientation, she heard the painful, horrifying sound of Max choking next to her. She looked around wildly but could focus on nothing.
"It's the chemical weapon!" she heard Liz cry from somewhere far, far above her. Liz's voice sounded like it was spinning away, falling into the distance. "We have to get them out of here!"
And then Isabel heard no more.
TEN
For a split second Liz stood in horrified shock as Adam, Max, Isabel, and Michael crumpled to the ground, one by one. It was like something out of a nightmare, watching their eyes roll back and their bodies go limp as if someone had sucked the life right out of them.
Then Maria screamed, and Liz snapped into crisis control mode. If she and Maria were still standing, the chemical weapon Adam had discovered must be at work. Liz had to help her friends-now. She'd always wondered what she would have done if she'd been there when her sister, Rosa, overdosed, and now she knew. There was no way she was going to lose her friends, too, not if she could help it.
"Grab Max's leg," Liz barked at Maria. "We need to drag him to clean air."
Maria was obviously panicked, but she responded to the authority in Liz's voice and did as she was told.
Liz backed up as fast as she could while towing Max. She and Maria back-stepped up the passage they'd come down. Liz hoped that pulling Max to an elevation higher than the ceiling of the poisoned room would keep him safe. She knew most gases were pretty easily trapped at their own level, and she could only pray that the chemical weapon's fumes acted the same way.
For good measure they dragged Max through a few of the fissures in the cave walls that they'd passed on their way in.
Liz had no way of knowing if he would be all right now as she laid him out on the ground. The gas was odorless and colorless, and it didn't affect her at all. Max could be sucking it into his lungs right now.
She stared at Max for a long moment, waiting to see if he'd come to.
"Liz," Maria said, her voice low and urgent.
Liz jerked her head away from Max. She had to leave him. "Let's go," Liz said. She raced back to the others, her flashlight beam bouncing wildly as she ran.
"Isabel next," she called as she scrambled through one of the fissures.
"But Michael might-," Maria began, her voice cracking with emotion.
"No buts," Liz replied sharply without looking back. "We're pulling them out in order of danger, and Max was the weakest. Michael is stronger than Isabel, and Adam is stronger than all of them put together. Case closed." Adam's powers were certainly stronger than the rest of her friends'. She could only hope her assumption about his stamina was right.
When she burst into the room where they'd left the others, Liz ordered herself to focus on Isabel. Only Isabel. The only way to get through this was to decide on an action and not think about anything else. Not Max. Not Adam. Not anything.
She dashed to Isabel's side, crouched down, grabbed her ankles. Maria had Isabel's wrists a second later. And they were moving. Through the passage. Through the cracks in the cave wall. And over to Max.
The second Isabel was on the ground, Liz jerked her focus to Michael, flying back through the fissures, flying back down the passage, flying over to Michael's side. She ignored the burning in her lungs. Ignored the pain in her shoulder where an outcropping of stone had ripped through her shirt and what felt like a couple of layers of skin.
All that mattered now was Michael.
"Hurry, hurry," Maria cried as she grabbed Michael's feet. Liz tried to obey. But Michael was heavy, and it felt like it took years to maneuver him to the spot next to Isabel.
"Only one more to go," Liz called as she started back through the first fissure. Maria gave a grunt in response.
Adam, Liz thought as she ran. Adam, Adam, Adam. His name thudded through her brain with every footfall until she reached him.
Her shoulder screamed in protest as she grabbed Adam under the armpits and hoisted him. She ignored the pain as she and Maria half carried, half dragged Adam back to the others.
When Adam was in place beside Michael on the cold, dank floor, Liz fell to her knees beside Max. She was gasping for breath as she touched his face.
"Wake up, Max! Please!" she said, taking his hand with both of her own. There was no response, and Max's hand was as cold as ice. Liz's heart slammed to a stop. He couldn't be-
Max gasped for breath, his eyes opening. Liz burst into tears of relief.
Isabel started to sit up, and Michael stirred slowly. Liz quickly kissed Max's forehead and went to check on Adam.
He wasn't breathing.
"Oh my God," Liz choked out. They'd left him down there too long. They hadn't been fast enough. She held her ear to his chest, knowing with an awful certainty that she would hear no heartbeat.
Please, please, prove me wrong, she prayed. For a long moment
she heard nothing but silence in his body. Then Liz picked out a faint, irregular thump.
She held her fingers up in front of his mouth and nose. He still wasn't breathing. He needed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation or he would die.
Without a moment of hesitation Liz pressed Adam's nostrils closed with two fingers and covered his soft mouth with her own.
***
Adam woke to the bizarre feeling of his lungs being inflated by three short puffs of breath.
Then he realized that Liz's lips were pressed against his own. He didn't know why. He didn't know how it happened. All he knew was… soft. Liz's lips were so soft. He'd thought about Liz's lips a lot, but he'd never realized how soft they would feel.
How would they taste? Would they taste the way he'd imagined? He flicked his tongue across her bottom lip, and Liz pulled away, startled.
Adam sat up dizzily, not ready to give up the contact with Liz. She leaned forward, hugging him tightly. "I thought you were dead," she said softly.
Adam buried his face in her hair and hugged her back. "Are you okay?" Liz asked, pulling back to look into his eyes.
Adam tried to nod, which wasn't a great idea. His head was flooded with darkness the moment he moved, but it faded. Through his shaky vision he could see Max, Isabel, and Michael struggling to their feet behind Liz. "What… what happened?" Adam asked.
Liz smiled and rubbed his arm gently, which made Adam feel like curling up against her warm body and going to sleep.
"My guess is that you guys got a good dose of that chemical weapon you read about in the Major's files," she answered.
"That's a good guess," Max added softly.
Michael stood up, rubbing his temples. "Well, we've found out that the weapon works," he said ruefully. "I was out before I even knew what hit me."
Isabel coughed harshly. "Ugh!" she cried. "That's a taste I could do without."