Nightscape

16

It can't be you," Isabel said. For a moment, she couldn't say the name. When she finally did, she spat it out: "Nicholas."

"In the flesh, as it were," he said. Then he stepped closer to Isabel and smiled… at least the one side of his face that still had lips curled upward. "After all we've been through, I'm glad to see you recognize me."

Isabel couldn't believe it, but it was Nicholas: She could see the shadows of him in his ruined face and in his voice. "You should be dead by now," she said.

"I really should be," Nicholas said. "All the others are dead, thanks to you all. And this husk is way past its expiration date."

"Isabel, you know this guy?" Kyle asked.

"We all do," Isabel replied. "He was one of the Skins in Copper Summit."

"Not just one of them, my dear. I am Kevar's voice on this planet," Nicholas said. "You should show some respect. Kevar is your king."

"Just kill him, Max, and let's get out of here," Michael said.

To Isabel's surprise, Max raised his hand and seemed like he was about to do just that.

"Don't do it, Max," Nicholas said, raising one hand in the air. He was hiding a small remote control of some kind.

"If I die, your friends die," Nicholas said.

"He's bluffing," Michael said. "Do it."

"This controls the electrodes that are attached to your friends' heads," he said, then he thumbed the control and Isabel felt her head turn to fire. She could hear Michael call out as well.

"Okay, stop!" Max said, but he didn't put his hand down.

"See the electrodes on each of their foreheads? They are directly over the cerebral cortex. A mild charge disrupts your special abilities. That's a little trick I learned from your friends in the Special Unit. They know quite a bit about your physiology. Too bad you didn't stay long enough for them to do a proper dissection," Nicholas said.

"You're working with the Special Unit," Isabel said.

"We don't exactly work together, but they've been useful," Nicholas replied.

"You were the one who told them where we were," Max said.

"An anonymous tip," he said. "Like I said, they have been useful. Actually, I had wanted them to save me the trouble of capturing you, but you didn't cooperate."

Isabel felt the beginnings of an idea and decided to keep him talking. He was vain… a braggart, actually.

Maybe he would reveal something they could use.

"How did you find us?" Isabel asked.

"A happy accident. You wandered into the range of my equipment. Really lucky for me. I'm not feeling so well these days. I don't know if I would have had time to grow another husk," Nicholas said.

"You did something to our van?" Isabel said. Suddenly things were becoming clear to her, and she felt a rising anger.

"You were painfully easy to manipulate. When you escaped the Special Unit, a little bright light to attract you to this spot and a little car trouble, and you wandered right into my hands. You humans, even half-humans, are a depressingly simple species," Nicholas said.

"You set it all up. The Bentons? The book? Everything?" she said.

"Actually, my dear, there really was a family called the Bentons, and a crazy old man who raved through these halls for years. Fortunately, he kept this remote house in good condition. Perfect for me to grow some new friends," he said.

The Bentons had lived and died in this house. But how much of what she had felt had been real? She couldn't believe that he had come here, disturbed this house that had been such a good place… a comfortable place. He had brought his evil here, his rotting stink, sullying whatever the Bentons had left of themselves in this house. She wasn't just angry now, she was furious. "That was you calling my name?" Isabel said.

"And you came so quickly. Investigating ghosts, Vilan-dra? You were always flighty but I think you have let these

simple, superstitious humans get to you," Nicholas mocked.

"That's what the plastic is for," Liz said. "And the food. More of the husks."

Nicholas looked at Liz with approval. "Max, it looks like your taste in women is improving."

"Stay away from her!" Max said, his voice booming.

To Isabel's surprise, Nicholas took a step back. He's afraid. He doesn't want to die, she thought.

"You're right. New husks need a clean environment," Nicholas said, then he turned back to Isabel. "I'm growing a special one for myself, something I think you will like. Tall and strapping. Perfect for your shallow sensibilities."

He stared at her as if he knew something about her. In the past, he had claimed that she and he were lovers on their home world. But he had also claimed that she had betrayed her brother and her people, and she had learned that was a lie. "Kill him, Max," she found herself saying.

Nicholas turned quickly to face Max. "I wouldn't, Max. This device has what you might call a dead man's switch. If I let go of it, your friends will get the shock of their lives," he said, flashing his rotting grin. "Now, with your abilities, you might be able to heal them, save one, maybe two, before it's too late. But which ones?"

Isabel saw the pain on Max's face. There had to be something she could do to help. She tried to summon her powers, but found Nicholas had been telling the truth about them being blocked. And with her hands strapped behind her and attached somehow to the chamber, she could hardly move. Still, there had to be something…

Then there was the beginnings of an idea.

Isabel remembered seeing similar chambers in Copper Summit. The ones holding her and her friends looked different, more crude, but similar. She remembered the day in Copper Summit when she had seen them, when she had first met Nicholas.

"What's your plan? I don't think you're going to last until the new husks are grown. Doesn't that take twenty years?" Isabel asked.

"True"… he nodded… "but I've improved the process. Necessity is a mother, you know. And I don't mind saying that it was tricky with this planet's limited technology. You destroyed all of our best equipment back in Copper Summit. It was like using stone knives and bearskins to create a growth chamber… Still, I did it." Nicholas leaned into her. "Impressed, dear?"

Isabel spat in his ruined face. "You had fifty years to get us the first time. Do you really think another fifty will make a difference?" she said.

"Well, it looks like I won't even need that long," Nicholas said. "It looks like my mission is almost complete."

"Your mission?" she asked.

"Bring the Granilith back to Kevar, and with it, the head of Zan," Nicholas said.

"Well, it looks like you're going to have to go home empty-handed," Michael said, "because you'll get nothing from us."

"Really?" Nicholas said, and then he turned to Max. "You wouldn't sacrifice yourself for your friends? Give me a little artifact to save your sister, your friends and your

new mate? Gotten a little coldhearted over the years, have we, Zan?"

"Don't listen to him, Max. You can't trust him," Michael said.

Isabel could see the pain on Max's face. He would sacrifice himself for her, or for any of them, but she couldn't allow it.

"You think that if you do that, you'll return to Kevar a hero?" Isabel challenged.

"Mission accomplished, and for that I get one of the five worlds to control," he said.

Isabel nodded. "I'm sure Kevar values your services, but why didn't he recall you home before you fell apart?"

"This isn't the movies, Isabel. Space travel is not that simple," he said.

"Really? Kevar didn't mention that when he was here," she said.

"What?" Nicholas said. "Kevar was never here."

"Of course he was. He came to get me, said there was new technology for the return trip. He said I could go home," Isabel said.

Nicholas looked stricken, then furious. "You're lying!" he screamed. "This is a trick."

"He wanted me to come with him," Isabel said. "Odd that he would offer me a trip home just to get me in the sack, but not to you… his valued aid… when your life depended on it."

Doubt flashed across Nicholas's face.

"It's true, you know it is," Isabel said.

"Yeah, that's the problem with backstabbing weasels like Kevar. You just can't trust them," Michael said.

Nicholas was quiet for a long moment, then he raised his head and leveled his gaze at Isabel. "Kevar's a born leader. He does what he has to do," he said.

"You just keep telling yourself that," Isabel replied. "For all you know, he has no more use for you. If he even allows you to come home, you don't know what you'll find. Or what kind of welcome you'll get."

Nicholas only shrugged. "I know what happens if I stay here. I'm stuck on this backwater excuse for a planet forever. No thanks. I'll take my chances with our glorious leader." He spun around and said to Max, "It will be worth it to see his expression when I throw your head at his feet."

Isabel saw a twisted smile on his face and a wild look in his eyes. More than his body is falling apart, she thought. He's losing it. But he still had a cunning intelligence that Isabel didn't like.

He turned to Max. "It's time to stop playing games."

"Let them go, or I will kill you… right here, right now," Max said. There was steel in his voice.

Nicholas laughed, a grating sound from a decaying throat. "And watch your friends die? I know you too well. You never could make sacrifices. That's why you're here and Kevar is sitting on your throne. History repeats itself, Max. Destiny brought you here. Do you believe in destiny, Max? I do. I've always been a student of history… even Earth history, stupid and short as it is. And there is one thing that I've learned: There are always patterns and cycles. History does repeat itself, Max. You're here so I can defeat you again, so I can kill you again, just like I did last time. That should suit you, Max. You die, but you save your friends. It's so predictable, it's so you. A martyr's

death, but this time, no one but us will know or care. Of course, if you choose to fight, you will probably beat me. My powers aren't what they used to be," Nicholas taunted.

"Don't do it, Max," Liz called out. "End this now. If you give him what he wants, he'll kill us all, anyway."

Max looked from Liz to Nicholas, then to the rest of his friends. "You'll let them go if I go with you?" Max said.

"No Max!" Michael said.

"And show me where the Granilith is," Nicholas said. "Do that and they will all be free to live out their lives on this puny rock."

"Max, don't," Liz pleaded, tears running down her face.

Max looked at her for a moment, and then he lowered his hand. "Okay, how do you want to do this?" he said.

"First, I need you to do something for me. You see, I've been feeling a little under the weather lately. You need to fix that, or this husk won't last long enough to do what we have to do," Nicholas said.

"I don't know if I can," Max said.

"You'll have to, if you want to save your friends. That's the deal," Nicholas stated.

"What guarantee do I have that you'll keep your end of the bargain?" Max asked.

"Well, I can guarantee that if you don't do as I say, your friends will die," he said. Then he lowered his voice. "Once I have you and the Granilith, I don't need them. Kevar doesn't need them. I'm prepared to leave the non-combatants out of this, but it's up to you."

Max was quiet for a long time, then he nodded and said, "I'll do it."

Max felt defeated. I've failed them again, he thought, looking at Isabel and Michael. He had led them to destruction before, now he had done it again. And this time he'd led Liz there, too, along with Kyle and Maria.

They had all depended on him, whether he had wanted the job or not. Now they were in the hands of an alien who had had one purpose for the last fifty years: to find him. Well, Nicholas could have him. His life was worth Liz's, or Isabel's or any of his friends.

At least then his life would mean something, something more than it had up until now. It seemed like he had done nothing in his eighteen years but protect his secret, protect himself. Was that why he had come here? Was that why he had been re-created and sent halfway across the galaxy, to protect himself while others made the sacrifices that counted? Liz had sacrificed too much for him. Alex had sacrificed his life. Isabel had given up any chance at a normal life of her own.

Well, that would all change now. He didn't trust

Nicholas, but his friends were dead unless he gave Nicholas what he wanted. At least then they would have a chance. If something went wrong, maybe Michael and Isabel would find a way to save them.

"Then hurry, Max. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not getting any younger," Nicholas said.

His friends were calling to him, begging him not to. He ignored them. It would just make it harder for him to do what he had to do. Besides, he wasn't through yet. Maybe he could give Nicholas a surprise. But he couldn't do anything while Nicholas held his friends' lives in his hands.

"Now," Nicholas said, approaching him.

"Lie down," Max ordered. Even if this worked, it would be rough for Nicholas. His body was literally falling apart. If he was lying down, he was less likely to drop the remote control.

Nicholas lay down and looked up at Max. Looking down, Max could see that Nicholas was very close to death, maybe closer than Clayton Wheeler had been. Max had been able to restore Wheeler to youth, but doing it had cost Max his own life. He heard Liz's voice, but tried to shut it out. She knew what he was about to do, and what the effort might cost him.

He did not respond. He knew he couldn't if he wanted to keep his resolve and do what he had to do. It might mean he would not have a chance to say good-bye to her… or to any of them… but he had no choice.

Raising his hands, Max took one last look at Nicholas. A full third of his face was gone, and another major part of it was dead already. Nicholas's eyes stared up at him. They were full of malice.

Max didn't want that to be the last thing he saw. He glanced up at his sister, then his friends, and finally Liz. She was calling to him, but he ignored the sound. Instead, he studied her face, taking in every detail. Then Max closed his eyes and put his hands onto Nicholas's body, one on his head and one on his chest. As his hands touched Nicholas, he felt an instant revulsion. Beneath the clothes, Nicholas's flesh did not feel springy as a normal person's would. It felt tough, more like meat than living tissue.

Max knew he could kill him now, channeling his energy to tear apart Nicholas's body, but he knew he would not, because if he did, he would cost his friends any chance they had.

Taking a deep breath, Max concentrated and reached out with his powers, looking for what was wrong with Nicholas's husk. He was surprised to see that the husk was mostly human. Organs and flesh with an alien brain. There was a small, metal device at the base of the spine. That was where the husks were vulnerable, he knew. A blow there and they would literally turn to dust.

Max concentrated on the human portion of the husk, the decaying and dying part of Nicholas. He imagined the damaged parts of the husk healing, rejuvenating. The thought helped, but the process was not one of thought, it was one of will.

He willed the energy that gave him his powers to course through Nicholas's body. As Nicholas had said, his powers were centered in his cerebral cortex. Agent Pierce had said the same thing, and had used drugs to suppress that part of Max's brain. But Max didn't think that either of them had really understood.

Their brains might control the forces they manipulated, but they didn't create them. Something was working through Max, something bigger than the few pounds of tissue in his head. Maybe it was the power of the Granilith, maybe something else…

And right now it was doing its work on the evil person in front of him. No, not a person, a husk, as skin… a thing, Max thought. But that was all right, if this act saved the others. Max pushed harder. Willed harder. He felt it working.

And he felt it costing him.

He was losing something of himself, some of his power. It happened whenever he healed someone and it usually took some time for him to recover. Still, Max pushed harder, opening himself up. Though his eyes were closed, he could see light coming off Nicholas's body. There were sounds, voices, but he was barely aware of the noise.

As he put more of himself into Nicholas, he saw memory flashes. By now, he recognized them as flashes of home. Max realized he was missing an opportunity here. If he concentrated, he could be probing into Nicholas's mind.

Without breaking the healing connection between them, Max saw Nicholas's malice, his hatred of him and the others. His contempt for humans, and something else… ambition. Ambition that went beyond wanting to control one of the five planets.

He saw that Nicholas was telling the truth about the remote control in his hand. His friends would die if Nicholas let go of it. He looked for Nicholas's intentions toward the others. It was hard to see. His mind was full of twists and schemes.

Then Max felt Nicholas push back. Of course, the connection went both ways. Nicholas was getting stronger now, and probing him. He was seeing things, flashes of Max's life. And he was looking for something… the Granilith.

Max shut his mind, broke that part of their contact. He was almost certain that Nicholas had not seen the location of the Granilith and was grateful. But what else had he seen? Max felt sick knowing Nicholas had seen inside his mind.

He pushed the thought aside and concentrated on the healing. It was working. Max could feel the energy he controlled doing its job. Nicholas was nearly restored, and Max was weakening. The same process had led to Max's death with Wheeler. But it wasn't going to go that far this time. Max was different from how he had been when he had first healed Liz, different from when he had healed Wheeler.

Max was stronger now.

With a final push, Max allowed his energy to finish its work. Finally, he picked up his hands. Opening his eyes, he saw that Nicholas looked like he did in Copper Summit… like a normal, if creepy, teenage boy. He was healed, and it had taken nearly everything that Max had. Nearly everything…

But not everything.

Max felt a surge of hope. Maybe this wasn't over. Maybe there was a chance for him to save his friends and to defeat Nicholas once and for all. He had just survived something that would have killed him as recently as a year ago, so anything was possible.

Lifting his hands off Nicholas, Max sat back on the floor and took a deep breath. He was sweating and he knew he must look awful. Liz was saying something, asking him if he was okay… so were the others. For a second, he couldn't find his voice, so he just raised his hand to signal that he was all right. And he was all right. He wasn't well… he was a long way from that… but he was okay. Hope rose in his chest, faint but there.

He saw Nicholas open his eyes and touch his own face with one hand. Then he looked at Max and smiled.

"You did it," Nicholas said. "And you're still here. The way things felt there, I wasn't sure if you would make it." He got up, jumped to his feet. "You know, Max, I haven't felt this good in fifty years."

Max raised his head slowly; there was no sense in letting Nicholas know that he felt marginally better than he must have looked. Nicholas leaned down to him and grabbed him by the hair, lifting up his face.

"It's a shame you're not up to par. A few minutes ago, it was me who was under the weather. Now, it's you. Feeling weak, Max? Powers gone? Too bad, really. I always wondered who would come out on top if we went mono a mano, powers against powers. Oh well…," he said.

"As I recall, you were never much for a fair fight," Max said. It was a guess, but Nicholas twitched and Max could see that he had struck a nerve. Then the moment passed and he smiled. "That's the problem with you, Zan. You only know one way to fight, head on. You never had an appreciation for the value of subtlety, planning, real strategy."

"You mean dirty tricks and backstabbing maneuvers," Max said.

"Six of one hand, Max, half dozen of the other. But I will point out that you are the one who lost his throne and his kingdom and is now on the floor, barely able to sit up while I hold all the cards," Nicholas said.

"You got what you wanted, now let them go," Max said.

"Not yet. You will tell me where the Granilith is first, then you will die," Nicholas said.

"Let them go first," Max said. "You have me."

Nicholas shook his head and said, "Can't do that, but I will show you that you can believe me."

He hit a switch on the remote control and then tossed it aside. For a terrible moment, Max thought he had hit the switch to electrocute Liz and his friends, but nothing happened.

"We can deal, Max. Tell me where it is and I will kill you quickly," Nicholas said.

"Don't do it, Max," Liz said. "Don't tell him anything."

Max looked into Nicholas's eyes and remembered what he had seen when they were connected. Liz was right: He couldn't trust him to keep his word. In fact, if anything, he could depend on Nicholas to break it.

"Okay," he said. "Just let me say good-bye to my friends."

Nicholas nodded, and Max got up, slowly… more slowly than he needed to. He just needed to get close to Nicholas; he needed one chance to make this come out all right. One chance to do right by his friends and by Liz.

Nicholas stepped behind him and grabbed his arm to pull him up, and Max seized the opportunity. He twisted his body so that he was leaning on Nicholas's small, teenaged frame. As he came up, he balled his fist. He

heard Nicholas gasp as he realized something was wrong. The husk twisted in his arms, but Max held him firm as he brought his fist down hard and made contact with Nicholas's lower back.

As soon as he felt the contact, Max pushed the husk away from him and waited to see him disappear. For an instant, he saw terror on Nicholas's face, but the instant passed and Nicholas was still there.

Nicholas looked as surprised as Max did. "I think you missed. The spot you were looking for is a little to the right," he said. Nicholas smiled, but there was no humor in it. "You surprised me, Max. That was unusually… sneaky," Nicholas said.

Max stood as tall and straight as he could and said, "You'll find I'm full of surprises." In a quick motion, he raised his hand and blasted Nicholas as hard as he could. His powers were nowhere near full strength, but they were enough to knock Nicholas off his feet and onto his back. For a second, Max thought the contact with the floor might do the job that his fist had failed to do, but it did not.

Max summoned his powers again and tried for another blast, but before he could release it, Nicholas was on his feet and raising his own hand. He threw out his own force at Max. Instinctively, Max brought up his green shield, which absorbed the impact of the blow. It bowed inward, toward Max, but held. Max could feel his power fading, the shield weakening even as Nicholas increased the power of his own attack.

Concentrating, Max thought of Liz, of Isabel, of Michael, and of their friends. He thought of all their lives,

of all his failures, and summoned all the strength he had left.

And it wasn't enough.

The shields crackled brightly and then disappeared. Max's hand fell to his side, then he crumbled to the floor.

"You're just making me angry!" Nicholas said. But he wasn't just angry, Max saw. He was scared: Max saw that he had surprised and scared Nicholas. How close had Max come to destroying him with those blows? Pretty dose, he thought. But not close enough.

"You just don't know when you're beaten," Nicholas said. "I guess I'll have to show you."

Max felt an unseen force grab him and push him backward. He was sliding away from Nicholas. Curled into a ball, Max wondered how far he was from the rear wall of the room. A second later, he didn't have to wonder. He crashed into it, taking the impact first with his back, then with his head.

The pain was sudden and intense.

Then he was sliding back the other way. He could see the other wall looming.

"Stop it," Isabel said. "I'll tell you where the Granilith is. Just don't hurt him."

Suddenly Max felt the hold on him disappear, and he was lying on the floor in front of Nicholas.

Max raised his head and tried to say no, but his mouth wouldn't work. Nicholas approached Isabel and said, "So tell me."

"You have to let Max go," she said.

He shook his head, "No, I don't. See, before morning, I'm going to kill him and throw him in the freezer upstairs

until Kevar arranges for me to be picked up. Before that happens you will have given me the Granilith." Isabel started to protest, but Nicholas silenced her with a wave. "When I go to work on you and your friends, you'll tell me anything I want to know. Then I'll kill you and by then you'll be begging me to do it."

No! Max's mind screamed. He tried to push himself off the floor, but his body wouldn't cooperate.

Nicholas leaned down to him and whispered, "You failed them again, Max. Your sister, Michael, your friends, especially your girlfriend. And before you die, I want you to know that I am going to enjoy myself with your women. After all, you brought me back to health, and a person my age has needs. I will enjoy getting reacquainted with your sister. And I look forward to getting to know your current mate."

Pushing off the floor, Max lunged at Nicholas, who moved away easily. Max lay on the floor, panting. He had failed them, and his failure was much worse than he had feared.

It was over, Max felt it.