The Vanished (12 page)

“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 tunnel's 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.

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.”

Adam still felt pretty ill himself, but his head was starting to clear. “You saved us?” he asked Liz. His heart lurched. “You pulled us away from the gas?”

“Well, Maria and I did,” she said, her eyes meeting his quickly, then flicking away.

Max shuffled over to Liz and wrapped his arms around her. She clung to him, closing her eyes tightly. Adam forced himself to look away. He didn't need to torture himself.

“What now?” Max asked the group.

“We go home, right?” Maria said. “You beam us out of here, and we all go home until you've recovered enough to try again.”

“I say we keep going,” Isabel countered. “This might be our only chance to get to DuPris. We have to do this for Alex.”

“You almost
died
,” Maria reminded her.

“Not for the first time,” Isabel shot back. Her words sounded tough, but Adam could see from the bleached white squiggles in her purple aura that she was terrified of what lay ahead.

“And probably not for the last time, either,” Michael added. “I, for one, want Alex back here as soon as possible. I say we go ahead.”

“I'm with you guys,” Max said. “That gas is quick, but its effects don't seem to linger very long. I say we go for it.”

“Yeah,” Liz said. “Let's get this over with.”

“Adam?” Max asked. “What do you want to do?”

A shot of guilt struck Adam like a shovel. Max was treating him like an equal, and all Adam could think about was getting him out of the way. At least far enough out of the way that Adam could taste Liz's lips again.

“Let's go get DuPris,” Adam said, looking Max in the eye. “And the Major. They've gotten away with enough.”

“Fine,” Maria piped up. “I'm not going to be the only holdout here. Let's go get Alex back.”

Adam led again as they searched for another, untainted passage through the jagged maze of hollowed-out, intertwined tunnels. Maybe it was because he'd spent his life wandering down the labyrinthine corridors of the Clean Slate compound, but Adam didn't hesitate as he forged ahead.

As Adam scrambled over a wide, convoluted mass of hardened limestone deposits, he felt it again — the violent surge of power that had knocked him senseless back in the Painted Grotto. But this time he was prepared for the torrent of energy and closed his mind to it before it could hurt him again.

He glanced back to see how the others had fared. Isabel, Max, and Michael looked pained and weakened, but they had weathered the intense flood.

“It's close,” Adam said.

“Very close,” Max agreed.

Once he had cleared the deposit of limestone, Adam ran toward the source of the surge, the others keeping close behind.

Then he stopped in his tracks. He'd hit a dead end.

“It's this way,” Adam said. “I know it is.”

“We need to go through the wall,” Michael said. “You guys feel strong enough?”

“Let's connect,” Isabel suggested.

Adam held out his hands to Max and Isabel, and Michael took Isabel's other hand. Their connection was forged as easily as if they'd been doing it their whole lives.

Ready? Adam asked.

Ready, came the reply.

They had to be careful not to blast away too much, or the cave ceiling would come tumbling down and bury them all. Adam used his trained skills to focus their energy down to a single beam of pure force. They collected their power for a moment, building up a reservoir.

Now! Adam ordered. They released the built-up beam at the center of the cave wall.

The explosion was deafening. Clouds of dust and debris billowed around them, and for a second the only sense of his surroundings Adam had was the pressure on his hands from Max and Isabel.

Finally Adam's ears stopped ringing and the dust settled.

“The ship,” Isabel exclaimed.

And there it was. The ship was docked directly in front of them, its otherworldly metal hull shimmering and rippling. It looked as unreal and out of place as an animated cartoon character walking down the main strip of Roswell.

Adam dropped Isabel's and Max's hands and started toward it. But then he saw something that made his heart freeze in fury and fear.

Elsevan DuPris was standing across the room, glaring at them. The Stone of Midnight was glowing in his hand.

“Mr. Manes!” Liz shouted.

“What?” Adam asked. He turned around to see what Liz was talking about.

It was the man from the hologram — the Major. Adam watched in horror as Liz hurled herself at him and grabbed the Major's arm, struggling with the man, who was twice her size.

Adam didn't hesitate. He ran straight toward Liz.

“Adam, no!” Liz screamed as the Major pushed her out of the way.

It was only then that Adam noticed that the Major was pointing a taser at Adam's chest.

A bright flash of white light blinded Adam just as he realized that Liz had been trying to save his life — again.

And then everything went black.