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.