Quarantine

2

Are you ready for Liz Parker to start?" Maris Wheeler asked.

Dr. Alan Sosa was pacing around the office, looking agitated. "I still don't see why she has to work here. We already have everything we need from this girl."

"She was the first one healed by the Healer," Maris said. "The guy literally repaired her gunshot wound just by touching her, at least that's the theory. So I'm thinking she must know something about him."

"Maris, you already have the waitress uniform with Liz Parker's blood on it. That's the most important thing she'll be able to contribute to your search for the Healer."

Maris regarded him coldly. "The name is Ms. Wheeler," she reminded him.

He threw up his hands. "Fine. Ms. Wheeler, I respectfully suggest that we're putting ourselves at risk bringing this girl into Meta-chem."

"I never realized you were such a coward, Alan," Maris remarked. "I'm simply trying to hedge my bets. If she

knows who the Healer is, maybe we can find out from her. And if not, we can use her as a guinea pig."

Alan stopped pacing. "What?" he said.

"I want you to test your serum on her," Maris informed him. "She'll be in your lab every day, so you'll be able to monitor what effect it has on her."

"That's crazy," Alan said. "We haven't even tested it on actual guinea pigs! We don't even know what it's made from."

"It's made from the Healer's DNA," Maris said.

"DNA taken from corrupted cells found on two-year-old fibers lifted from a waitress uniform," Alan said disgustedly. "You have no idea where that DNA came from!"

"Don't be so dismissive, Alan," Maris snapped. "It took millions of dollars and not a few criminal misdeeds to get that waitress uniform from the FBI. It's the only physical evidence we have of the Healer."

Alan frowned. "You don't know for sure that it's the Healer's DNA."

"It's unrecognizable DNA," Maris said. "We don't know what this Healer is… an alien, an angel, I don't care. But he doesn't have the same genes we do."

"Even if what you're saying is true, we don't know that his healing power has anything to do with his DNA," Alan protested. "We have no reason to think that turning his DNA into some sort of serum will have any healing properties at all."

Maris took a deep breath. Why did Dr. Sosa have to be so difficult? He was a brilliant genetic scientist, but not much of a strategic thinker. "Look, Alan, my husband is getting older and sicker by the day. I have to face the fact

that I may not find the Healer in time to save him. So I have to have a Plan B."

"The serum," Alan said miserably.

"Exactly. You were kind enough to turn the Healer's DNA into a serum for me. And now you're going to be kind enough to test it on Ms. Parker."

"You have money for lunch in the cafeteria, right?"

Liz stared at her father, trying to keep a straight face. "Uh, yeah," she said.

"And you'll call me when you want to come home?" Jeff Parker added.

Now Liz did laugh. "Yes, Dad," she said. "It's not the first day of kindergarten, you know. It's just a new job."

Jeff nodded. "I know. But it's so important! This is the first step to the career you've always wanted. This job could land you an acceptance to any college you want next year."

Liz kissed him on the cheek and opened the car door. She didn't want to think about next year, about leaving Roswell… and Max. "Bye, Dad," she said, climbing out and shutting the door behind her.

"Good luck, honey," Jeff replied.

Liz looked at him through the car window. He just kept grinning at her.

He's going to wait until I'm safely inside, Liz thought, amused. Her father was treating her like some fragile china doll. If he only knew the things she'd been through in the past two years, he'd realize she could take care of herself just fine. With a wave, she turned and headed into the new building.

Meta-chem even smelled new. The halls were bare, the

floors waxed and shiny under the soft fluorescent lights. About twenty feet away, some moving guys were unloading boxes of lab equipment in front of a thick steel door. A few of the boxes were labeled HAZARDOUS.

Liz wasn't sure what to do. No one had told her where to report, and other than the moving guys, no one was in sight. Taking a deep breath, she headed toward the moving cart. "Excuse me?" Liz called.

One of the guys… a short man, but solidly built… turned at the sound of her voice. In the process, he banged the box in his arms against the wall. From inside came the unmistakable sound of breaking glass.

Liz winced. "Sorry," she said. "I just… "

"What's going on out there?" cried an agitated voice from inside the lab.

The moving man took a step back, and a man in a lab coat appeared in the doorway. Liz recognized him immediately. It was Dr. Alan Sosa.

"Do you realize these are extremely delicate materials?" Dr. Sosa moaned. "You may have just undone months of work."

"I… I'm sorry," the moving guy mumbled.

"It's my fault," Liz said quickly. "I'm sorry, Dr. Sosa. I didn't know where to go, so I was about to ask this man. I distracted him."

Dr. Sosa glanced at Liz, then sighed. "Ms. Parker. Starting off your tenure here rather badly, aren't you?"

He turned and disappeared back inside the lab, leaving Liz horrified. She couldn't believe she'd made a bad impression already. And she couldn't believe how rude he'd just been to her!

The moving guy shot her a sympathetic smile as she squeezed past him into the lab. Dr. Sosa seemed to have forgotten about her already. He was busy arranging a complicated system of test tubes and jars on a lab table. Liz waited quietly just inside the door, not wanting to risk his anger by interrupting his work. After about two minutes, though, she felt she had no choice. "Um, Dr. Sosa?" She was dismayed to find her voice little more than a squeak.

"What?" he said without turning around.

"I was wondering what I should be doing," Liz said. "Can I help you with anything?"

Dr. Sosa whirled about so quickly that Liz jumped back in surprise. His graying hair was too long, and flopped when he moved, making him look like a mad scientist. He stared at Liz in silence, his eyes boring into hers as if he was trying to read her mind.

"Why do you want to work here instead of lying by the pool all summer?" he asked in a low voice.

Liz, taken aback, could think of nothing to say.

"You're young, you're free. Why don't you just leave right now?" he went on.

Liz felt awful. Did he think she was unqualified for this job? He seemed to believe she was some bubblehead with nothing on her mind but getting a tan. Or maybe he'd checked over her grades lately. Maybe he'd realized the wrong student had gotten this work-scholarship.

Liz opened her mouth to speak, but another voice cut her off.

"Liz!" Maris Wheeler floated into the room. She was wearing a gorgeous business suit, and Liz smelled expensive

perfume. She immediately gave Liz a warm smile and a little hug. "Welcome to Meta-chem!"

Liz forced a smile. "Hi, Ms. Wheeler."

"Maris, please."

"Maris," Liz corrected herself. She didn't really know what to make of Maris Wheeler. The woman was beautiful, and she seemed to belong in a mansion somewhere, not running a pharmaceutical company. But her steely blue eyes held a great intelligence.

Maris turned to Dr. Sosa. "Good morning, Alan," she said. "Are you helping Liz get settled in?"

His eyes shot down to the floor, and his cheeks turned white. He didn't reply. There was a strange, awkward pause.

Finally, Liz couldn't stand it. "I just got here," she said. "We haven't really had time to settle in."

Maris nodded. "Well, I'll give you the overview while I'm here. Obviously I'm no scientist like Dr. Sosa, so he'll have to fill in the details once you get to work."

Liz glanced at Dr. Sosa. He had turned his back to them, and his shoulders were hunched up as if he was stressed. There was something weird going on here.

"Dr. Sosa is doing some very important work for us," Maris was saying. "He's a cancer researcher, as I'm sure you know."

"Yes," Liz said.

"Most cancer treatments are designed to deal with the cancer once it occurs. But here at Meta-chem, we're working on a treatment that will attack the cancer at its source," Maris said. "Cancer, of course, is a mutation."

"Right," Liz said. "Regular cells mutate into cancer cells."

"Exactly. And what we want to do is prevent the mutation from ever occurring."

Liz frowned in confusion. "How is that possible? We don't know what causes the mutation."

"True. But we do a lot of work with DNA here. Our goal is to make human DNA resistant to mutation. Strengthen the resistance, protect the DNA… and the cancer never happens."

Liz knew this conversation was oversimplifying things, but she couldn't help thinking that it all sounded like a pipe dream.

"But if you make human DNA resistant to mutations, it could also be harmful," she pointed out. "Some mutations are good. Evolution is a history of mutations."

"Of course we're trying to isolate specific genes that are most likely to lead to the growth of cancerous cells," Maris said.

"Isn't it dangerous, though?" Liz asked. "I mean, once we start messing with people's DNA, who knows where it could lead."

"That's exactly right, Ms. Parker," Dr. Sosa said. It was the first thing he'd said since Maris had arrived, and Liz was almost surprised to hear his voice.

Maris smiled at Dr. Sosa, but her smile was a little forced. "There are ethical issues to any gene therapy," she admitted coldly. "But we at Meta-chem feel we know where the line is. And we'd like to eradicate cancer."

Now I've insulted her, Liz thought. What a terrible beginning}. "That's really impressive," she said aloud. "I had no idea you were working on such humanitarian things."

"We produce pharmaceuticals only to make money for our more important research," Maris said. "That's what Meta-chem is all about… helping people. Healing people."

Dr. Sosa coughed, and Maris shot him an aggravated look.

I guess Dr. Sosa doesn't buy the Meta-chem sales pitch, Liz thought, amused. It looked as if this job would be an education in office politics as well as science.

"I wanted you to be in the lab where our most interesting work is being done," Maris told Liz. "That's why I've placed you with Dr. Sosa. I'll leave you two to get started."

Maris headed for the door, then stopped and turned back to Liz. "I'm really happy to have you here, Liz. We both are. Right, Alan?"

Dr. Sosa met Maris's eye, then forced a smile. "Sure," he said.

The minute Maris was out of the room, his smile disappeared. Liz couldn't figure it out… he obviously wasn't happy to have her here. But why?

"I'm really excited to be involved with such cutting-edge research," she said. "What do you want me to do?"

"See that box?" he said, pointing to one of the crates the movers had left.

Liz nodded.

"You'll find about five hundred petri dishes inside. I want you to wash every one of them."

Liz gaped at him. Washing dishes? That was her fantastic new job? She could do that at the Crashdown!

"Just… wash them?"

Dr. Sosa rolled his eyes. "Did you think you'd be splicing genes for your summer job?" he asked.

Liz felt tears sting the back of her eyes. This guy was a jerk! "I'll get to work," she murmured.

Isabel stuck another grape into her mouth and sighed. "Are we really watching General Hospital?" she asked her brother, who sat next to her on the couch.

Max continued to stare at the TV

"Because I kinda had the impression that you'd rather be tortured in the White Room than watch a soap opera," she went on.

Max didn't answer. He just stared straight ahead, chewing thoughtfully on his lip. If he didn't get bored and leave, Isabel was going to have to take matters into her own hands. She needed him out of earshot before her new boyfriend, Jesse Ramirez, called. "In fact I thought soap operas gave you hives," she added.

No answer.

Isabel pointed her finger at Max and used her powers to shoot a tiny zap of electricity at his cheek.

"Ow!" he yelped, jumping in surprise. He glared at Isabel, then picked up the remote. "Just for that, I'm not letting you watch General Hospital," he said, changing the channel.

Isabel snorted. "You've been sitting here for fifteen minutes brooding and moping," she said. "And totally not paying attention to what's in front of your face. What's going on?"

"Nothing."

"Oh, please, Max. Don't make me resort to dreamwalk-ing"

"You can't dreamwalk me," Max said.

"Don't be so sure."

They sat in silence for another minute, now watching an infomercial on TV If Max hated anything more than soap operas, it was infomercials. "It's Liz," he said suddenly.

"Well, duh," Isabel replied. "What happened now?"

"I think she took that job at Meta-chem just to get away from me."

"Max, Liz won the job in a scholarship contest," Isabel pointed out. "It couldn't have been some premeditated way to avoid you."

"I guess not. But I'm afraid she's having doubts about us," Max said despairingly. He clicked off the TV and turned his big, sad eyes on Isabel.

Great, she thought. Now I'll never get rid of him before Jesse calls. It wasn't that she didn't care about Max's problem. But she wanted to talk to Jesse in private, and she could not let Max find out about him. Her relationship with Jesse was still so new, and she was sure Max wouldn't approve. In fact he might disapprove so much that he would tell their parents about it, and that would be a disaster. First of all, Jesse was older… eight years older. And second of all, he worked for Isabel's father. No, there was no way she could let her parents find out about Jesse.

Once upon a time she would've trusted her brother with this kind of secret. Once upon a time he was her best friend. But Max had changed over the past year. Learning about their alien destiny had been a shock to all of them, but Max had taken it the hardest. Because Max was the king, a king whose responsibility it was to save a planet he'd never even seen. And whose destiny was to love a girl

he barely even knew. Somehow, in the middle of all that, he'd lost track of who he was. He'd managed to alienate all his friends.

And about two months ago, he'd done the worst thing Isabel could think of: He'd turned on her. He took his role of king so seriously that he thought he could make decisions for all of them. He'd decided that he didn't want Isabel leaving Roswell to go to college, and he'd threatened to do whatever it took to make her obey him. Even if that meant lying to their parents, telling them Isabel was on drugs.

Max had apologized later, and she'd forgiven him. But Isabel wasn't sure she could ever trust her brother again.

And Jesse was too important to her to give up. If Max didn't want her with Jesse, he might try to tell her what to do, maybe even threaten her again. So she just had to keep Max from finding out.

Isabel didn't feel like talking about Max's troubles with Liz. Those two were never happy, and there was nothing anyone could do to help.

"Max, you and Liz are the interplanetary Romeo and Juliet. She's disgustingly in love with you," Isabel said.

"She got really upset after I had that flash of my son," Max told her.

Isabel sighed. Clearly she was going to have to help Max through this, even if it meant missing her call from Jesse.

"Well, you did sleep with Tess and get her pregnant," Isabel said. "And Tess killed Alex and lied to all of us. So it's sort of understandable that Liz would get upset when you have psychic flashes from Tess."

"The flash came from the baby" Max corrected her.

Isabel put her hand over his. "You can't know that for sure," she said gently. "You don't know anything about the baby. And you have to admit, if the situation were reversed, you'd be freaked out too."

Max nodded sadly. "What am I supposed to do about it?" he asked. "All I want is for life to go back to normal."

"News flash, Max: Life never was normal."

Max smiled wanly. "You know what I mean. Before we knew about Antar and being the Royal Four."

"Before Tess."

He shrugged. "But there's nothing I can do about it now. I can't escape the responsibility. I'm the king. And he's my son, Isabel. I have to find him, no matter what. Don't I?"

Isabel thought about it. Max's son. Her own nephew. It all seemed so remote, so unreal. Tess was gone, and she'd taken with her their only way to get back to their home planet, Antar. They were stuck on Earth now, with no means of fulfilling their duty to save Antar from its current, evil rulers. It seemed as if fate had taken it out of their hands. "I don't know, Max," Isabel said slowly. "I don't know if it's even possible to find your son. I think maybe it's time to admit that our lives are going to be here,, on Earth."

"I tried that," he replied. "And as soon as I started rebuilding my life here, I got that flash from my son. He's telling me that I can't give up… even if it means sacrificing my relationship with Liz."

The misery in Max's face was so extreme that Isabel felt her own eyes filling with tears. Maybe she'd been too hard

on him. He had problems on a universal scale. Maybe she should just let go of the past, try to trust Max again…

The phone rang.

Isabel froze. It was Jesse, it had to be!

Max grabbed the cordless from the coffee table and clicked it on. "Hello?"

She watched his face as he listened to the voice on the other end. Max's eyes sought out Isabel's, and he frowned. "Just a minute," he said into the phone. Then he held it out to Isabel, his eyebrows raised questioningly.

Isabel looked in Max's eyes, but she couldn't read his expression. Did he suspect her relationship with Jesse? How would he react when he found out? Max had always been compulsive about keeping their secret… he didn't want anyone else to get close enough to him, Michael, or Isabel to find out that they were aliens. Too many people knew already.

What would he do if he thought Isabel's new romance was putting them all in danger? Isabel knew the answer to that: He would make her end it. She couldn't let Max discover her feelings for Jesse. She couldn't trust Max. She took the phone from him. "Hello?"

"Hey, beautiful." Jesse's warm, loving voice filled her ears. "How's my girl?"

Her eyes still on Max, Isabel took a deep breath. "I'm not interested," she said. Then she hung up on her boyfriend before he could say another word.

Max was watching her with a frown. "Who was that?" he said.

"A telemarketer," Isabel lied. "Nobody important."

"Bye, Mom!" Maria called as she bustled through the kitchen of the DeLuca house. She wore a long, loose skirt and a spaghetti-strap tank top and she was pulling her hair into a ponytail as she went. "I'll be back around ten."

Sadie could hear pretty well from her hiding spot in the bushes outside the DeLuca house, and she managed to duck beneath the window just as Maria passed by inside. The bush she was hiding in had a few thorns, but nothing she couldn't handle. The only thing that mattered was that she get to watch Maria. She began to gather her things together so that she could follow Maria when she left the house.

"Maria!" Amy DeLucas voice called from inside. "Where are you going?"

Sadie slowly peered over the edge of the window again. Maria now stood near the front door, looking exasperated. Amy faced her from the other side of the kitchen.

"I'm meeting Michael," Maria said. "We're going to the movies."

"From one o'clock in the afternoon until ten at night?" Amy demanded.

Maria rolled her eyes. "What's with the inquisition?" she asked.

Sadie grinned. "What's with the inquisition?" she whispered. She loved the way Maria talked… always so sure of herself.

"I have to go to Hondo for the afternoon flea market," Amy was saying. "I wanted you to come with me and man the booth today."

Maria's mouth dropped open in astonishment. "Excuse me?" she said. "It's my one day off from the Crashdown."

"That's the point," Amy replied. "You have time to help me today." She tossed Maria a glow-in-the-dark alien puppet. "I just got a whole shipment in, so it will be a busy day. I can't handle it alone."

Maria held the puppet up by its webbed foot. "Look, selling this alien crap is your thing, not mine," she told her mother. "I have a job. And today is my vacation day, so that means I get to spend it doing what I want to do."

Sadie's legs were getting tired from squatting underneath the windowsill. This argument seemed like it might go on for a while, so she slid down the wall of the house until she was sitting directly under the window. This way, she could still hear every word Maria said, and she could add to her logbook at the same time.

"This 'alien crap' is what puts food on the table, young lady," Amy cried.

Sadie tuned her out for a moment while she flipped to a fresh page in the notebook on her lap. She took a pencil from her backpack and began drawing a picture of Maria, quickly filling in the details… the pattern on the skirt she was wearing, the way Maria's ponytail sat high up on her head.

"… this is a family business and you're part of the family," Amy was saying.

"You call this a family?" Maria replied. "There are two of us, you and me. You sell alien stuff at flea markets, I work at the Crashdown. That's it. We have no family business. We barely have a family!"

Sadie flipped to another blank page and began to write. Mom sells alien toys and stuff, she scribbled quickly. Maria doesn't like to help.

"… enough of Michael?" Amy's voice broke Sadie's

concentration. Was Michael Maria's boyfriend? Sadie got up and peered through the window again. Maria was standing with her hand on the doorknob, ready to leave the house.

"No, Mom, I haven't seen enough of Michael," Maria was saying. "I like to see him as much as I can. You might not remember this, but when you have a boyfriend, you actually like to hang out with him." She turned and pulled the door open so quickly that Sadie barely had time to duck out of sight behind the bushes.

Maria stomped down the driveway and opened the door of her car.

"There's more to life than Michael Guerin, you know!" Amy shouted after her.

Maria didn't answer; she just climbed into the car and peeled out.

Sadie sighed. So much for trying to follow Maria. She looked back down at the notebook in her lap and wrote some more. Maria drives a reddish Volkswagen. Her boyfriend's name is Michael. Michael Geerin.

That would do for now. Sadie closed the notebook and stared at the cover for a moment. Glued carefully to the front of the book was a large, glossy school picture. A picture of Maria.

"Soon I'll know everything about you," Sadie whispered to the picture. "Everything."