Melinda Metz - The Vanished

"Ohmigod!" Isabel cried. Her startled shout was still lingering in the air when Kyle rammed them from behind. The crunch of metal and the screeching of tires rang out as Max fought to keep the Jeep steady

"Is he crazy?" Max shouted.

"Very possibly," Liz shot back, her heart going into high gear. She braced both hands against the dashboard.

Kyle bumped the Jeep again, shoving them to the left. He was playing for keeps, trying to force them into oncoming traffic.

"Do something!" Maria screamed. "Can't you blow out his tire?"

"I think he's close enough for us to aim, even though we're going so fast," Adam answered.

"Let's try it before he turns us into roadkill," Michael yelled, grabbing hands with Adam and Isabel.

A second later Liz heard a sharp report, like a gunshot, echo behind the Jeep. Liz watched through the rearview as Kyle's car started wobbling and then went careening off the highway into the shrubs and cacti of the desert. In moments they'd left him far behind.

"Good work," Max said.

"My friends, the superheroes," Maria added proudly

"Do you think he had any idea where we were headed?" Michael asked, still staring out the back window.

"I didn't tell him," Liz replied, "although he could pretty easily find out by asking my father, if he thought of it."

"I wouldn't worry about it," Max said. "The park is huge. He'll never find us in there."

"Yeah, he's history," Isabel said.

Liz hoped Isabel was right. But Kyle could be persistent. And if Sheriff Valenti had told him anything about alien powers, a blown-out tire wouldn't make him give up.

It would just make him more suspicious.

"Hey, Max," Adam said, pulling a small gray laptop out from under his feet. "Why did you bring your computer?"

"I thought I might work at decoding some of those files Isabel found at the Major's," Max answered. "I don't think I'm gonna have much luck, though. I don't have the right software. And I don't think it's anything we can pick up at The Wiz."

Adam flipped open the screen and hit the power button. The computer whirred to life. "You don't need software," he said. "I used to do this all the time at the compound."

He opened up one of the files, and it flashed onto the screen-a jumbled mass of gibberish.

"Wait a minute," Michael said, shifting in his tight seat. "What do you mean, you don't need software?"

Adam smiled. "You guys are going to love this," he said. He loved it when he could show his friends a new power. At least then he didn't feel like the world's biggest two-year-old, asking stuff like, "What's Elvis?"

"It's like that Magic Eye book Ray had in the living room," he explained. "All you have to do is stare at the code for a while and eventually your brain sorts through the garbage and you can read the file."

"Seriously?" Isabel asked. "It's that simple?"

Adam shrugged. "Well, it takes some concentration, but it's not that hard."

"Cool. We have a secret weapon," Maria joked.

Taking a deep breath, Adam gazed at the screen. You can do this, he thought. Sheriff Valenti hadn't exactly been a candidate for Father of the Year. But Valenti had been good at teaching Adam how to use his powers in many different, useful ways, even if most of those ways were violent. Adam had always been told that those practice exercises were "games," when actually Valenti was training him to be a living weapon or experimenting on him like a lab rat.

What a difference it was to use his powers to help his friends instead of to destroy Valenti's enemies.

For the next ten minutes Adam stared at the screen. His eyes started to burn, and a little pinprick of pain started digging into the back of his neck. But nothing was coming together. No pattern emerged. Frustrated, Adam closed the file and opened another in the folder.

"Tough going?" Michael asked.

"It's like the most complex code or cipher I've ever seen… times ten," Adam explained.

"Well, keep at it," Michael said. "You're the only one of us who can even begin to make sense out of that garbage."

Adam nodded, hoping Michael couldn't see how much what he'd just said meant to Adam. He concentrated on the new file and felt a little jolt as the symbols in front of him seemed to separate into distinct layers. The first four layers were just screens to confuse anyone who got their hands on this file, but the fifth layer…

The fifth layer had words.

As Adam read, his stomach turned over in revulsion. He couldn't believe that there were people on this planet who would do such a thing… plan such a thing. The very idea of what he was reading made him want to cry, scream, tear out his hair-and fight back.

When he had finished, Adam sat for a moment, absorbing the magnitude of the horror he'd just read. How was he supposed to tell his friends?

"Um… you guys?" Adam called out, interrupting various conversations floating around the Jeep. "I managed to decode one of the files."

Instantly he had everyone's attention. The way Liz's eyes focused on him made Adam swallow with nervousness, so he turned to look at Michael.

"It's plans for a weapon," Adam said. "A chemical weapon."

"What does it do?" Maria asked.

Adam closed his eyes.

"It recognizes alien life-forms-and destroys them."

Maria's heart was slamming against her rib cage as she dug in her woven purse for her vial of cedar oil. She knew it would calm her down, and she'd never needed calming more badly than she did at that moment.

"A chemical weapon?" Isabel said faintly.

"It looks like all they have to do is release this gas into the air and it takes effect immediately," Adam said slowly. "But only on extraterrestrial cells."

"What is wrong with these people?" Isabel asked. "Why do they hate us so much?"

Maria found the bottle she was looking for, unscrewed the cap, and inhaled. She tried to picture herself walking through a forest of the ancient trees, but all she could see was people she loved lying dead on the ground.

"Houston, we have a problem," Michael announced. "Another one."

Maria followed his gaze and caught a glimpse of flashing lights. Red and blue lights. A police cruiser was approaching up the highway. With a gasp Maria spilled the entire contents of the vial into her lap.

"Max, you'd better pull over," Liz said.

"Can't we just blow out the police car's tires, too?" Adam asked.

"Not a good idea," Michael answered. "They could just radio ahead and get someone else to stop us."

"Maria, can't you do something about that smell?" Isabel asked. "It's gagging me."

"We're in a Jeep. Deal," Maria snapped as Max slowed down and drove onto the shoulder.

The cruiser pulled up behind them, and Maria was stunned to see Sheriff Dodson climb out of the police car and stride up the road, carrying a lumpy, rolled package.

Is she Clean Slate? Maria thought frantically. Is that one of the Major's chemical weapons she's carrying?

"This is all we need," Isabel whispered.

The sheriff stopped next to Maria and nailed her with a cool glance that made Maria want to confess everything, even stuff she hadn't done. "Hi," Maria said in a rush. "I know we're not supposed to ride with two of us in the front seat like this, but the Jeep was the best car to take camping, and-"

"No, you're not supposed to ride like that," Sheriff Dodson said. "But that's not why I'm here." Then she handed Maria the package she was carrying. Maria just stared at it in her hands, unable to recognize it for a moment.

"It's your sleeping bag," the sheriff said. "You forgot it, and I told your mom I'd track you down and give it to you."

"Oh, thanks," Maria said. She wondered if she sounded as dumbfounded as she felt.