“Our parents are scientists,” Seth went on, “who have studied Earth's changing climate in hopes of finding a solution for our own planet's future.”
Alex and Jack looked at each other, confused. Wasn't finding a solution a good thing? Seth shook his head. The leaders of their planet thought the answer would take too long, he explained.“It would be simplest,” he finished, “to abandon our dying planet and . . . occupy yours.”
“Occupy?” Alex asked, suddenly concerned. “But Earth's resources can barely sustain our own world population.”
Seth nodded, his expression even more serious than usual. “Hence the need for . . . elimination.”
This caught Jack's attention. “Elimination? Wait! I'm helping you conquer my planet?!”
“Not us, Jack Bruno,” Sara claimed. “Most people on our planet fiercely oppose the plan.”
“But fear of extinction triumphed among our people,” Seth continued.“Invasion plans were drawn up. Fleets readied to launch an assault against Earth.”
Jack and Alex shared another look. This did not sound promising.
“But then our parents discovered a solution!” Sara cried. “An experiment at an outpost here was successful in regenerating life into all previous dying plants and trees.”
Alex's eyes widened. “Which would enable the re-oxygenating of your poisoned atmosphere,” she observed. “Brilliant!”
“So what's the problem?” Jack asked. He was beginning to wish he had paid a little more attention in science class.
“Our military preferred a solution of invasion over science,” Seth answered.
“Which is why we had to hurry and retrieve the experiment.” Sara held up the device they had recovered from the underground garden in the desert. “All the proof that our planet can be saved, and your planet spared, is here.”
Suddenly, things were starting to make sense to Jack. But he still had questions. “Where are your parents? And what about the assassin?”
“Assassin?” Alex asked in a sudden panic. “What assassin?”
“Their work required them to stay behind,” Seth said, looking oddly nervous.
Sara answered the second question.“The Siphon Warrior Series Deranian 75 were created by our military,” she told Alex.
“They're bred to hunt?” Alex asked, her heart racing.
“They're bred to kill,” Seth corrected.“And if we don't return to our home in time, the invasion will proceed, and one Siphon will turn into a thousand Siphons.”
Alex considered all of this for a moment. “We seriously have to find your spaceship.”
Alex was right. Because at that very moment, a group of black government SUVs raced through Las Vegas.
Burke and his team were closing inâfast.
A
lex was not looking forward to what she was about to do. But if Seth and Sara were going to get their ship back, there was only one person she knew who might be able to help. Unfortunately, Dr. Harlan was not someone she usually got along with.
“How well do you know this guy?” Jack asked as they hurried out of the hotel and through the parking lot. They had managed to get Harlan's assistants to bring them to where he was holed up.
“We've done a few panels and debates together on opposite sides,” she explained as she walked.“But no one knows the shadow world of UFO government conspiracies better than Harlan.”
At the edge of the parking lot, they reached a Winnebago. This was Dr. Donald Harlan's home, office, and transportation. Alex knocked.
“Go away,” Harlan barked from inside. “Book signing's not until 4:30.”
“Harlan,” Alex called, “it's Alex Friedman.”
From inside, they heard grumbling. The door swung open to reveal a disheveled older man.
“Dr. Alex Friedman,” he announced victoriously. “
Quelle
surprise. To what do I owe the pleasure of the world's greatest unemployed astrophysicist visiting my humble castle on wheels?”
“Please, Harlan. We need to talk to you. It's incredibly important.”
Harlan let them in, and they told him just enough so that he could help. They were careful not to reveal that Seth and Sara were aliens.
“So you're saying the three of you âwitnessed' this reported UFO crash?” Harlan asked.
“That's right,” Jack said.
Alex leaned forward. “We were wondering if there was any intel out there among your sources.”
“I don't like liars,” Harlan told them.
Jack,Alex, Seth, and Sara all grew tense. Had they been discovered?
“Thankfully,” Harlan continued, “your story matches up with reports out of SETI, NORAD, and NASA.”
Harlan took a seat at one of his computers.
“You're lucky kids, that you never came face-to-face with the aliens in the craft,” Harlan told Seth and Sara over his shoulder. “They'll eat your flesh.”
Sara looked as if she were about to laugh.“I guess we are indeed lucky kids not to have our flesh eaten.” She paused.“. . . By the aliens.”
Harlan continued to type, unaware of the sarcasm. “You got that right.” He punched something on the keyboard, and a satellite picture of the crash scene opened on his computer screen.
“A source e-mailed me this sat-grab,” he explained. “The spot's already a blur on Google Earth. How soon after you called it in did the suits come after you?”
“Immediately,” Jack answered for them. “His name was Henry.”
“Burke,” Harlan said with a nod. “Interesting.”
Harlan typed in a quick search command, and another picture opened up on the screen. It was a grainy photo of Burke.
“Burke was a rising star in military intelligence, chief investigator in a UFO sighting near Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana,” Harlan informed them. “Two weeks after he declared the sighting âunsubstantiated' he retired to civilian life.”
“Where would they take the spaceship?” Alex asked. “51? Nellis? Vandenberg?”
Harlan shook his head.“Given the size and scope of the crash and Henry Burke's involvement, there's really only one possibility.” He glanced at his two assistants who had been silent until now.
In unison they said, “Witch Mountain.”
Jack gave Alex a confused look and she just shrugged. She'd never heard of it.
Harlan flipped through a stack of black-and-white photos and pulled out a fuzzy aerial picture.
“California, fifty miles across the Nevada border,” Harlan told them as he handed the picture to Alex. She held it up for Jack and the others to see. “It's one of our most top secret facilities.”
Harlan got up and started rifling through a messy pile of paperwork. If there was any organization to it, the others couldn't tell.
“I got a schematic around here somewhere,” he continued. “But if you're thinking about visiting, don't. When I say it's fortified up the yin-yang, it's an understatement.”
Amazingly, Harlan was able to find exactly what he was looking for in the pile. He handed Alex a set of old blueprints stamped
TOP SECRET
.
“Thank you, Harlan,” she said, meaning it. “For everything.”
“Whatever trouble you're in,” Harlan warned them, “trust no one.”
Jack nodded and they started out the door.
“Freeze!” Harlan said, causing them all to stop in midstride.
They turned, unsure of what to expect. Harlan smiled and tossed Seth and Sara each a small pin with an alien face on it that read, DR. HARLAN FAN CLUB.
“Stay in school and keep your eyes on the sky,” he told them. “Remember aliens, they'llâ”
“Eat your flesh,” Seth finished. “How could we forget?”
As the four left to find Witch Mountain, Jack and Alex tried not to laugh.
“We'll spread the word,” Seth promised him.
W
ith time running out, the four, set on going to Witch Mountain, raced back into the hotel. Despite the rush, Sara wanted to make sure to tell Jack and Alex something.
“Thank you, both of you,” she said. “Seth and I understand that you don't have to go forward with us. Yet you choose to.”
“You're welcome,” Alex said with a warm smile. She turned to Jack.“Bring your cab around. I'll grab my stuff and meet you in the lobby.” Next she addressed the kids.“Don't worry. We're going to get you home. I promise.”
Her confidence and enthusiasm helped them relax, and they nodded. Jack tried to talk her out of coming, but there was no way she would miss itâ or leave the kids stranded.
“Just lay low till I get back,” Alex instructed.
“Laying low,” Jack said with a nervous shrug. “How hard can that be?”
Alex rushed off to her room, and Jack turned to face the two kids, who were both smiling. He eyed them suspiciously.
“She thinks you are very handsome,” Sara told him. “And potentially much smarter than you act.”
“Really?” Jack said, suddenly smiling, too. After all, Sara wasn't just a gossip.“She was thinking about me?”
J
ack wouldn't have been smiling if he knew that Burke and his team had arrived and were entering the main lobby, greeted by a friendly concierge. “Welcome to Planet Hollywood. Are you gentlemen here for the UFO Space Expo?”
“Wouldn't miss it,” hissed Burke as his eyes started searching the crowd for aliens far more authentic than any of the convention-goers could ever have imagined in their wildest dreams.
Meanwhile, Jack's smile had faded when he noticed Seth and Sara had disappeared into the crowd. Frantically, he began searching the exhibit hall and found them watching a play. “Is this a reenactment of a piece of Earth's important history?” Sara asked, motioning to the play in progress.
Jack looked up and saw the poor quality sets and the bad alien costumes and just shook his head. “No. This is nerdy.”
Seth gave him a look.“What is
nerdy
?”
“You know nerdy,” Jack said trying to think of a good description. “Like people who believe in all this alien stuff.”
Seth smiled. “Like you?”
Before he could answer, something caught Sara's eye.
“Jack Bruno,” she said pointing to the other side of the stage.
It was the Siphon. He was stalking his way through the crowd, his robotlike armor blending in perfectly with the costumed characters.
“Impossible,” Jack said, shocked. How had that thing survived the explosion?
The Siphon climbed up on the stage to get a better look at the faces in the crowd. Everybody assumed he was just part of the play.
“Oh, no!” said one of the actors doing a bad job ad-libbing a script change on the spot.“It is the arrival of the space creature from planet Gitoffthestage! Thankfully my weapon can destroy him.”
The actor pulled out a phony light saber and posed like he was going to engage the Siphon in battle. The Siphon had no idea what was going on. He used one of his real lasers to slice the toy in half.
The actor was furious. “Dude, that's not in the script. You are so fired.”
Just then, the Siphon spotted what he was looking for. He locked his deadly stare on Sara, Seth, and Jack and started shooting at them.
“Look out!” Jack screamed, diving for cover.
Sara used her telekinesis to move props from the play into the path of the oncoming blasts. Assuming this was all part of the show, the crowd cheered wildly as each prop exploded in midair.
Sara looked above the stage and spied a very large, very heavy-looking lighting grid hanging from the ceiling. Refocusing her energy, she broke some of the cables free, and the entire metal structure swung down and slammed into the Siphon.
When the metal in his armor came into contact with the wires in the grid, countless volts of electricity started coursing through the Siphon's body. He was knocked off the stage and into a giant glass Planet Hollywood globe. Everything exploded in an amazing display of colored glass and sparking electricity.
“Best convention ever,” one of the observers shouted to his friend.
Meanwhile, Jack hurried Seth and Sara down the escalator and into the casino, where he noticed a group of black-suited government agents ahead of him. He turned the kids in a different direction and started snaking through a maze of slot machines. But there were agents in every direction! In the middle of the group was Burke, smiling triumphantly as he moved toward them.
Jack frantically looked for an escape route. Suddenly an idea came to him.
He turned to Sara. “You listening to what I'm thinking?”
Sara smiled and nodded, message received. She focused her concentration, and after a moment, all the slot machines in the huge casino hit the jackpot. Hundreds of bells and sirens went off. Lights flashed wildly. Money started pouring out of the machines.
A riot erupted as gamblers deliriously scooped up piles of money. In the pandemonium, Burke lost sight of Jack and the siblings.
In the lobby, Alex stepped off the elevator, totally unaware of what had been happening. She heard all the noise and turned to see the casino in chaos. From the middle of it all, Jack and the kids came sprinting toward her at full speed. Grabbing Alex by the arm, he pulled her along with them.
“What happened to laying low?” she asked, running to keep up with them.
“Who lays low in Vegas?” Jack asked rhetorically. “Let's go!”
They hurried out of the casino.
By the time Burke and his men made it to the parking lot, they had no idea which way Jack and the others had headed. Burke was fuming.
As they raced to their SUVs, Burke saw something that changed his mood. It was Jack's cab swerving through the traffic, chased by the Las Vegas police.
Within seconds, Burke's SUV joined the pursuit and was quickly followed by the other SUVs.
The taxi jumped a curb and raced down an alley. As it hurtled toward the other end, the cab ricocheted off garbage cans and Dumpsters, tossing trash everywhere.