Nightscape

1

"Relax, I'll be just a minute," Michael said. Then he leveled a serious look at Max, who nodded. Something was going on… that much, Liz could see. And she was instantly alert. They had covered hundreds of miles in the last three days. They were in Washington State, and Roswell was far behind them now. When they had left town on the night of their high school graduation, they had assumed they had left many of their problems behind.

A small town on the southern border of Colorado named Stonewall had shown them that that wasn't true. Still, as they increased their distance from Roswell and Stonewall, Liz felt herself relaxing. The mood in the car had lightened, and the spirits in the car had been high… remarkably high, considering that they had just escaped assassination by the Special Unit on graduation night and an encounter with a new and malevolent alien race in Stonewall. They had done some real good in Stonewall. They had also taken on a powerful group of aliens and won.

They had won.

Four women were now back with their families, and the aliens would not likely return. Now what? Liz wondered, considering the look that had just passed between Max and Michael. "Max?" Liz said.

He simply raised his hand and shook his head, keeping his eye on the rearview mirror. Liz scanned the town around them but didn't see anything unusual. They were in a medium-sized town, where they had eaten lunch at a local deli and then picked up some supplies at the auto parts store.

It had all felt normal. In fact, it had all felt good.

In the days since their experience in Stonewall, Liz and the others had felt indestructible. Even at the time, Liz had known that the feeling was false… and dangerous. Alex had been one of them and he had died. Kyle had almost died again in Stonewall. Liz had been taken by the aliens, almost forever. And then Max and Michael had nearly been spirited away by their ship.

Liz knew they had not been indestructible then. They had been very, very lucky.

She watched Max's face for clues to what was going on. The others said he was a closed book, but rarely to Liz. She understood Max more deeply than even Isabel did, she knew. But now, he was unreadable, even to her.

When she heard the sound of the side door of the van opening, she nearly jumped out of her seat. She spun around to see Michael's face peering into the van. Like Max, his face was neutral.

"Well, are you going to just stand there, Spaceboy?" Maria called from the rear.

Then Michael smiled. Liz turned to Max and saw that he was doing the same.

"Nope," Michael said. But before he stepped inside, he pushed something toward Maria. "Here," he said, handing her a large gift.

For a few seconds, Maria was too surprised to speak any actual words. Finally, she took the guitar and said, "Oh my God, Michael."

Though Liz didn't know much about guitars, she thought that it looked like a good one. It was acoustic and had a rounded back, like one she had seen Maria admire many times at the music store near home.

Michael was smiling. No, he is beaming, Liz thought.

"I got you some picks, a tuning thingy, and a carrying bag," Michael said, holding out a bag. Then he stepped inside the van and sat next to Maria.

As soon as he sat, Maria gave him a firm kiss on the cheek. "I can't believe you did this," she said. Then she struck out quickly, smacking him in the chest. "I can't believe you did this," she repeated.

"What?" he said.

"First of all, we're short on room in here. And second, we can't afford this," she said, holding out the guitar.

It was true, Liz knew. They had made some money in Stonewall, but it was disappearing fast even though the six of them had always shared a single motel room at night and they had made sure they didn't spend too much on food.

"First of all," Michael said, his voice tight, "we can stow it in the back. And second of all, Maxwell and I came up with a new source of funds."

That surprised Liz. And she knew she wasn't alone. She shot Max a look. He responded with a smile.

"What new source?" Maria asked.

"Max?" Isabel said from the back.

"We should have thought of it sooner," Max said.

A sudden realization hit Liz. She turned to Max and said, "You made and sold some diamonds."

He nodded.

"When?" she asked.

"When we stopped yesterday. We picked up some coal and then sold the diamonds I made," Max said.

"That's dangerous. Selling loose diamonds is bound to arouse suspicion," Liz said.

"That's why we sold them at the pawn shop and not the jewelry store," Michael said. "The owner was happy to get them for a good price and didn't ask any questions."

"Do you still have yours?" Max whispered to Liz.

Liz's hand went reflexively to her pocket, where she kept the diamond he had made for her that night a few weeks ago on her roof. The night she had decided that any future she had would always include him. The night he had asked her to marry him. She smiled and nodded her response. "You should still be careful," she said.

"Always," Max said.

"I guess this takes care of our money problems for a while," Maria said.

"We spent most of what we made already. We didn't want to get greedy the first time," Michael said.

There wasn't much room there, Liz knew. It was already tight with the few supplies they had bought, including some tools and auto parts Kyle had chosen.

"We figured the guitar was worth it since it counts as entertainment for all of us," Michael said.

"Well, thank you," Maria said. "This was very… sweet."

Max started the van and they pulled away.

"Any other surprises?" Liz asked.

To her surprise, something flashed across Max's face. "What is it?" she asked.

"Ah… another entertainment expense. Kyle can explain it," he said.

"I picked up a new stereo. I thought I would install it tonight when we stop," Kyle said.

So that is what Kyle bought at the auto store, Liz thought.

"Not that we don't all enjoy listening to AM radio on a three-inch speaker, but we thought it was time to broaden our horizons," Michael said.

Liz shook her head. The guys had managed to surprise them. And she had thought secrets would be impossible given the close quarters they were living in now. Well, she and Maria had arranged a surprise of their own, but the boys wouldn't find out about that until later.

As Max found his way back to the two-lane road they were taking, Liz could hear Maria tuning the guitar.

"Michael, do you see that black SUV?" Max asked, his voice tight. Michael obviously heard the same thing and spun his head around to look back through one of the van's two rear windows.

"It was on the road this morning," Michael said.

"Before we stopped," Max said.

"Maybe they stopped too," Maria said, with uncertainty.

"For exactly the same amount of time as we did?" Michael asked.

"Coincidence?" Maria said, but there was no conviction in her voice.

"What's the plan, Maxwell?" Michael said.

Max hesitated for a moment before he answered. Just before graduation he had said that he was done making decisions for the group. He had said the same thing in Stonewall. Liz understood why: He knew that, under his leadership his, Michael's, and Isabel's home planet had fallen. And too many bad things had happened in the last few years. Max blamed himself for all of them, including Alex's death. It wasn't fair, but that was Max. Now he was determined not to take a leadership position.

"Too much traffic on this road for us to do much of anything. For now, I'll just slow down," Max said.

Max reduced his speed to fifty. Immediately cars started passing them. But not all the cars, Liz saw. The black SUV didn't pass them. It slowed down as well, falling farther back until Liz couldn't see it anymore out of her mirror.

"Can you see him, Michael?" Max asked.

"No," Michael replied.

"He might have pulled over somewhere," Liz said.

"Maybe," Max said, his voice even. Then he sped up, taking the van to sixty-five. At that speed, he passed five or six cars.

"Careful, Max," Michael said. "We can't afford to get stopped for speeding."

"Better the cops than… them," Maria said.

"It's all the same, Maria," Michael said. Then, before she could say anything else, he said, "Look, we don't

technically own this van. We don't even know where Jesse got it, but I guarantee you that it's on a list somewhere in every state. I bet the Special Unit's seen to that," Michael said.

"And even if the government doesn't know about the van and Jesse owned it legally, we can't produce a registration and we can't register the van using any of our real names," Max said.

"So even though we escaped the graduation night assassination and the aliens back in Stonewall, a simple traffic stop will put an end to this little adventure?" Maria said.

"Pretty much," Michael said.

"What do we do?" Maria asked.

"We think of something. In the meantime, Max and I have been changing the license plate number every day," Michael said.

Max reduced his speed to just a few miles an hour over the speed limit of sixty "Isabel, wait for my signal, then we'll need some camouflage," he said.

"I'm ready, Max," his sister said.

A few minutes later, the traffic cleared a bit and the van went over a hill. Even as Liz saw that there were no cars in sight on the other side, she heard Max say, "Now."

Isabel's hand reached up and touched the side of the van. There was a slight glow where her hand touched the metal and then nothing. "Blue," Isabel said simply.

Liz leaned out her open window and took a look at the side of the van. The nondescript faded gray color of the van had been replaced with a bright new blue. The van looked almost new, at least from the outside.

Max inched up the speed, putting even more distance between their van and whoever was following them. "Any sign?" he asked, scanning his own mirrors.

"No," Michael said.

"Maybe it wasn't the Special Unit. It could have been just a coincidence. A second SUV like the one from this morning," Kyle said.

Liz allowed herself to relax a notch. Maybe Kyle was right: There seemed to be no way that the Special Unit or anyone else could have tracked them… was there?

"Liz, do you see that?" Max said.

"What?" Liz said, leaning forward and scanning the road. She had twenty-twenty vision, but Max's was better thanks to the genetic engineering that had created him.

A few seconds later she saw what Max meant: It was another black, late-model SUV

"What is it?" Michael asked.

"There's a black SUV in front of us, up ahead," Max said calmly.

It didn't make any sense to Liz. "How did they get in front of us without us seeing them?"

"They didn't. It's another black SUV," Max said.

"Anywhere to turn off?" Michael asked.

"No," Max said, shaking his head.

Liz looked around. There was nothing but road and trees ahead of them. That, and some hills in the distance. "We could wait until dark to try to lose them," Max said. "We'll have a better chance at night."

"If they're willing to wait," Michael said.

"For now, they don't seem to be in a rush," Max said.

Liz couldn't believe it. This was no coincidence. Somehow,

the Special Unit had found them. Less than two weeks into their trip, less than two weeks after they had barely escaped from Roswell with their lives.

"Our friend is back, behind us," Michael said.

That's it, Liz thought. They're boxing us in.