Melinda Metz - The Watcher

Michael felt like he could stand here for hours, just staring at it. The construction was awesome. He didn't see a seam. Not a bolt. Not a rivet. Nothing. Talk about aerodynamic. The metal itself was even more mind-bending. In places it looked almost liquid. Molten. Rippling as if alive.

Isabel elbowed him. "We have a timetable to keep, Sheriff," she said.

"Right." Michael strode over to the ship, then hesitated. Where were the doors on this thing? He didn't see a handle.

Ray reached out and touched a small raised circle, and a door appeared. Isabel took a deep breath and stepped across the threshold.

"Go ahead," Ray told Michael.

Michael started inside. He'd pretty much given up the hope that this day would ever come. But he was standing on board the ship. He reached out and lightly ran his fingers across the closest wall.

Then he crumpled to his knees, pain clawing through him. Pain from Max, stronger than anything he'd ever felt.

"Sheriff Valenti, are you all right?" a guard shouted.

Footsteps rushed toward him as another slash of pain hit. He felt his face… moving. Twisting. He couldn't hold on to the changes he'd made in his molecular structure.

A guard grabbed Michael by the shoulder-and saw his face. His face. Not Valenti's.

"Something's up," Alex told Maria.

Valenti had just burst out of his house. He strode over to his cruiser, his face set and grim. This was not a man on his way to the grocery store.

"What are we going to do?" Maria demanded, her voice high and shrill.

"Follow him," Alex answered.

Maybe he found out that his girlfriend was cheating on him, Alex thought as he waited for the cruiser to pass their stakeout spot. Or that Kyle had been busted for smoking a joint behind the school.

Not likely. It would be a pretty big coincidence for either of those things to happen right during the few hours when Michael, Isabel, and Ray were breaking into the compound.

"Go!" Maria cried. "You're going to lose him."

"Let me do this," Alex snapped. "I don't want him to notice us." He waited a few more seconds to let another car get between him and Valenti, then pulled out onto the street.

Valenti headed straight to the main road out of town. And yeah, he passed the grocery store.

"He's heading out of town! He's going to the compound! You said you would stop him! Why aren't you stopping him?" Maria shouted.

"I want to wait until we get a little ways into the desert," Alex answered. "It's too dangerous in town. I don't want to accidentally cream someone."

"Okay, okay. Okay, sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to yell. I just-"

"I know," Alex answered. "Me too."

Alex kept his eyes locked on Valenti as they reached the edge of town. Not that he had any doubt where Valenti was heading.

"Okay, I'm going to pull up next to him. You yell… something. That there's been a robbery or whatever. Any sheriff thing you can think of. Maybe that will be enough to make him turn back. Project Clean Slate is a secret. Valenti has to give at least an impersonation of a regular sheriff."

Maria nodded. "Ready when you are."

Alex hit the gas and pulled up even with Valenti. Maria leaned out the window. "The 7-Eleven was robbed," she yelled. "The owner was shot. You have to get back there."

Maria ducked back inside. "He didn't even turn his head. He had to see me, don't you think?"

"Yeah," Alex answered. "Time for plan B."

"Which is?" Maria demanded.

"I don't know exactly. But you better roll up the window and buckle your seat belt just in case," he told her.

As soon as Maria was strapped in, Alex jerked the wheel to the right. Metal screamed against metal as his Rabbit gave the cruiser a hard shove.

They definitely had Valenti's attention now. And he wasn't happy. He gave the Rabbit a sideways slam that sent it into a half turn across the lane.

Alex expected Valenti to take the opportunity to put some distance between their cars. But that wasn't his style. With a squeal of tires he jerked his cruiser around so that it was aimed at the Rabbit.

"Hold on, he's going to ram us!" Alex warned Maria.

A second later the cruiser bulldozed into the back of the Rabbit, slamming it out onto the desert. Valenti backed up, preparing for another slam. Alex saw him doing it. But he couldn't get out of the way in time. And there was no chance he could somehow circle to the side of Valenti and start ramming him.

Alex braced himself against the wheel as the cruiser took its second shot.

"The arroyo! He's pushing us toward the arroyo!" Maria cried as Valenti backed up again.

The narrow canyon wasn't that deep. But it wasn't going to be a fun landing. And once they were down there, there was no way they'd be able to stop Valenti.

Alex spat out a curse as he jerked the wheel to the left and floored the gas. Too late. The cruiser smashed into them again.

And the Rabbit sailed over the edge of the arroyo.

The pain sweeping through Isabel subsided. What did that mean? Now that she couldn't feel pain from Max, did that mean… did that mean he was dead?

Get the crystals, she told herself. That's all you can think about right now. She rushed down the ship's narrow walkway, her feet making a grating sound on the metal mesh of the floor.

Ray said the crystals were kept in one of the slots under the control panel. But where was the control panel? And where were Ray and Michael?

She couldn't risk going back to look for them. If she was the only one who'd made it onto the ship, she was Max's only hope.

She wished she had a map of the ship's interior. It was a lot bigger than she thought it was. It was as if the ship was larger inside than out, the walkways branching off in all directions. She wasn't sure she was even on the right one. She could be rushing completely the wrong way. She'd only picked this walkway because it looked slightly wider than the others.

Isabel's walkway widened and widened until it formed a large room with huge windows. She couldn't see anything out of them. She didn't know if it was some kind of cloaking mechanism or what. And she didn't care. She didn't see any controls of any kind, so she was obviously in the wrong place.

Two more walkways branched off the observation room. They looked pretty much identical. Isabel chose the closest one. She ran down it with her head ducked. It got wider and wider until it opened into a room that had something Isabel figured could be a control panel. Thank God.

Now where were those slots Ray mentioned? She didn't see anything that could be called a slot or a hole or a cubby or anything. She dashed over and slid her fingers over the smooth metal beneath the controls. She felt a little raised spot and hit it. A slot opened up. No crystals.

Isabel heard footsteps approaching. "Finally," she called. "I can use some help in here." She felt for another raised spot, then jammed it so hard, she broke a nail.

She started searching for another spot. Then she realized the footsteps were getting closer, but no one had answered her. Isabel felt the hairs at the back of her neck stand up. That meant that whoever was moving toward her wasn't Ray or Michael.

Oh, that was very smart, just announcing your exact location, Isabel thought. She slid both hands over the metal, searching for the next trigger. Found one. Hit it. No crystals.

The footsteps were very close now. Isabel swept her hands back and forth, leaving smears of sweat behind. She found another trigger spot. Punched it. And saw three crystals glowing softly in the dim light. She snatched them up and jammed them in her pockets.

"Hold it right there. Put your hands over your head," a voice commanded.

Isabel put her hands up and slowly turned. A guard stood blocking the center walkway. A guard with a machine gun over his chest.