The Intruder Read online

  “Isabel’s right,” Max said. “Let’s just use the drive to get focused.”

  Adam leaned his head against the roll bar and tried to take in every detail about the town as they drove through. If things went wrong, he wanted a lot of real things to remember.

  Then he realized that wasn’t true. He didn’t need a lot of things. He needed one thing. If he ended up locked in the compound again, he wanted to be able to remember every single detail of Liz’s face. He turned and studied her, trying to memorize the curve of her upper lip, the exact color of her eyes, the way her hair tumbled alongside her cheek. He stared at her until he was sure he’d never forget even one of her eyelashes, then he closed his eyes.

  Max said they should get focused, and he was right. Adam tried to picture himself walking into the compound, feeling unafraid.

  Will I see … Daddy? The thought slammed through his brain.

  Sheriff Valenti, Adam told himself. He isn’t your father. He’s nothing to you. You cannot let him stop you from doing what you need to do. You can’t let anything stop you.

  “You want to finish our game of truth or dare, Mickey?” Cameron asked.

  Today’s the day, she promised herself. Today is the day I get the names Valenti wants and get out of here. Pretending to be Michael’s friend while she was getting ready to screw him over was eating her guts out. She had to cut to the chase.

  “How do you know when you’ve finished a game, anyway?” Michael asked. “There are no points. No one wins or anything.”

  “Someone loses, though,” Cameron answered. “Every game of truth or dare I’ve ever played, someone breaks down crying. And that pretty much ends the game.”

  “Brutal,” Michael said.

  You don’t know the half of it.

  “Okay, it was my turn,” Cameron said. “How did you know you were an alien? Truth or dare.”

  There, that should get this going in the right direction. Unless Michael chose a dare. Maybe this whole truth-or-dare ploy was a mistake.

  “Basically I just started realizing I could do things that most people around me couldn’t,” Michael answered. “Then later I saw pictures of some pieces of metal found around the crash site after the Roswell Incident. The symbols on them matched a few of the symbols from my incubation pod, so that’s how I started figuring out the truth.”

  “So the Roswell Incident really happened?” Cameron asked. “I thought it was just a way for the town to sell a bunch of T-shirts and, you know, alien piñatas.”

  I can’t believe we’re sitting here talking about the Roswell Incident. This whole thing has got to be a joke, she thought. Or some kind of weird test.

  Yeah, that made sense, actually. Maybe Michael was an actor, and Valenti and that doctor were monitoring her reactions to him, trying to see if she’d really accept what Michael told her as real.

  A test. Of course. That had to be it, Cameron felt herself relax a little. If this was all just a test, then it didn’t matter if she gave Valenti the information he wanted once she managed to get it. It’s not like he’d round up a bunch of Michael’s actor friends and throw them in the compound. No, they’d just bring in the next test subject, and Michael would go through his whole act again while Valenti and the doctor made notes.

  “It really happened,” Michael answered.

  “So, are you really, like, more than fifty years old?” she asked. Let’s see how you answer that, actor boy, she thought.

  “What, you don’t like older guys?” Michael asked, then he shoved his fingers through his spiky black hair. “I actually didn’t break out of my pod until about ten years ago. I looked like I was about a seven-year-old kid. So, you tell me how old I am.”

  He’s not lying, Cameron thought.

  You wanted him to be lying, so you told yourself he was, she thought. That way you wouldn’t have to think about your own lies.

  “It’s your turn,” she told Michael. She had to keep the game moving so she could find out what she needed to know. If she didn’t do it fast, she wasn’t sure she’d end up being able to do it at all.

  “The other day, you knew I was going to kiss you and you pulled away. Why? Truth or dare,” Michael said, his gray eyes intense.

  “Truth,” Cameron answered. “I know if you touch people, you can read their thoughts, and I didn’t want you to read mine.”

  “It’s not thoughts, exactly – more like pictures, pieces of memories,” Michael answered. “And I wouldn’t have.”

  “It doesn’t just happen automatically?” Cameron asked.

  “Nope. Does yours?”

  “Mine?” Cameron forgot for a second she was supposed to have telepathic powers. “No, uh, I have to decide to use my juice.”

  “So is that the only reason you pulled away?” Michael asked.

  If I say yes, he’s going to want to kiss me, Cameron thought. And if he kissed her, she didn’t know if she’d be able to finish her little spying assignment.

  So say no, she told herself. Say that there’s another reason you pulled away. Say you have a boyfriend. Say you have a headache. Say something.

  “Yes,” Cameron said.

  Michael leaned toward her. You can still stop this, Cameron thought. Just pull away again. Kissing him is the worst-possible thing you could do.

  She reached out, ran her fingers through his hair, and gently pulled his mouth down to hers. And for a long moment she forgot everything but the taste of him.

  Then she pulled away. This was it. This was the moment where he was going to be the most open. She could feel it.

  “I never thought anyone who knew what a total freak I am would want to kiss me,” she said. She wasn’t even going to have to ask him anything directly. He was going to tell her everything all on his own.

  “You’ve never met anyone else who’s … like you?” Michael asked.

  “No,” Cameron answered. Her stomach twisted itself into a knot. She ignored the pain.

  “I had it so much easier than you did,” Michael said.

  Bring it to me, Cameron thought.

  “I had Max and Isabel. They’re … like me,” he continued. “Their parents aren’t. They don’t know the truth at all. But the Evanses are great. They even call me their other son.”

  Game over. Those were the names she needed. Cameron’s stomach cramped again.

  “Are you okay?” Michael asked.

  “No … no,” Cameron said slowly. She added, “Actually, I’m sort of nauseous,” she answered. “I’m going to see if the guard can get me some antacid or something.”

  Cameron shoved herself to her feet and knocked on the door. “I’m feeling sort of sick,” she told the guard who opened it.

  “Come with me,” he said.

  “We’ll finish our game later when you’re feeling better,” Michael called.

  “Okay,” she answered, without looking back. She didn’t want a last look. She had plenty to torture herself with already. She kept her eyes locked on the guard’s back as he marched her to Valenti’s office.

  “I want five thousand dollars, and I want you to tell my parents that I’m heading to New York,” Cameron announced the second she sat down in the chair across from Valenti’s desk. She didn’t want to give herself any time for second thoughts.

  “While you’ll be trotting off to California, I suppose,” Valenti answered.

  Cameron didn’t answer. Valenti seemed to remember he’d lost their last round of the silence game. “I’ll give you twenty-five hundred dollars,” he said. “And no more. As soon as you give me the names.”

  “The other aliens are Max and Isabel Evans.”

  14

  Max handed the binoculars to Adam. “There’s the surveillance camera. See, it’s in that crack at the top of the rock formation.”

  Adam nodded. He felt as if his body was freezing from the inside out, the coldness paralyzing more and more area with each moment.

  “All we need to do is crack the glass,” Max said. He g
rabbed Adam’s wrist. Adam could hardly feel the pressure of Max’s fingers. If their plan worked, in a few minutes he would be back inside the compound.

  And in less than an hour you’ll be back out, Adam reminded himself. The coldness invaded his heart. He knew there was no way it had stopped beating, but he couldn’t feel it anymore.

  “Everyone, get ready to run,” Max ordered. He turned to Adam. “On three.”

  Adam kept the binoculars up so he could focus on the camera. He didn’t need to see it, but it helped.

  “One, two, three.”

  Adam took the power that had been growing since he and Max connected and hurled it out, out, out. Was it strong enough to make it all the way to the camera lens? He heard a soft popping sound, and the camera exploded into metal and glass confetti.

  “Run!” Max yelled.

  “Nice shooting, Tex,” Alex called from behind Adam as they all raced toward the rock formation that hid the opening to the compound. Adam smiled. Or at least he thought he was smiling. He couldn’t quite feel his lips anymore.

  When he was about a hundred feet away from the formation, Adam slammed to a stop. He watched the others run past him and take up their positions. Then he waited. If Max was right, in a few minutes a couple of guards would come out to check on the camera.

  This could be my last minute in the sun, Adam thought. But he couldn’t feel the warmth. Even the New Mexico sun wasn’t strong enough to penetrate his cold skin.

  Come on. Come and get me, Adam thought. Just standing here, passively waiting to be led back into his prison, was the hardest part of the plan.

  It shouldn’t take them too long. It had only been a week since Michael and Isabel had broken into the compound. The guards would still be extra alert.

  Adam heard a low humming sound, and the rock formation slid apart in one smooth motion. It was time. He waited until he could see the guards moving toward the opening, then he ran toward them.

  “Stay where you are!” one of the guards barked.

  “I want to come back!” Adam cried. “I want to see my father!”

  “We’re coming out to get you,” the other guard called. Adam noticed that she had her hand on her electric prod.

  “Okay Hurry! I’m scared!” Was that too much? Adam thought as the guards hesitated.

  No, they were moving toward him. Side by side, they stepped through the opening in the rock formation. And Max and Isabel attacked. The guards never saw it coming. They fell to the ground, unconscious.

  Adam raced up to them. “Help me move this one inside,” Alex said. Adam hoisted the guard’s legs and Alex grabbed her shoulders, then they carried her into the massive elevator just beyond the entrance.

  Alex knelt down and quickly bound the guards’ hands and feet with duct tape. He slapped a couple pieces of the tape on their mouths. “I love this stuff. You can use it on anything,” he said.

  “They can breathe and everything, right?” Maria asked, stating from Alex and Adam’s guard to the guard Max and Isabel had just finished restraining.

  “They’ll be fine,” Max reassured her. He hit the elevator button, and they started down.

  Adam slid his hands under his armpits, trying to warm up his hands. How deep underground were they already? Ten feet? More?

  The elevator continued its smooth descent. Finally it came to a stop with a tiny bump. The doors slid open.

  Adam heard pounding feet. He scanned the small parking lot and saw a guard running away.

  “We’ve been spotted,” Max cried. “He’s going to sound an alarm!”

  They were here. Michael could feel them. Isabel, Max, and Adam. Coming to the rescue.

  What were they, insane?

  Michael sprang up from his cot and started to pace. They needed him. Something had already gone wrong. He’d just gotten a jolt of fear from all three of them.

  He shot a glance at the two guards outside his cell. They clearly had no clue anything unusual was happening in the compound. At least not yet. That was something.

  Michael took another lap in the small space to the right of his cot. He wished Cameron would get back. He didn’t like the idea of her being out in the corridors right now, even with her guard escort. It would be way too easy for her to get caught in some kind of crossfire situation.

  And he wouldn’t be able to do anything about it, sitting in this cell. He wasn’t exactly going to be able to back up Max and the others from here, either.

  His eyes flicked back and forth between the two guards. Was there some way he could take them both out?

  You decided your first day in here that there was no way to handle two guards at once, he reminded himself. Don’t do anything stupid, or your friends are only going to have a corpse to rescue.

  “I’ll get the guard. You go on,” Isabel exclaimed.

  She took off across the parking lot. She heard feet pounding behind her and threw a quick glance over her shoulder. Alex. Good. She might need some kind of backup.

  The guard had to hear them, but he didn’t turn. He kept running, veering off onto a long corridor. What was he doing? Why wasn’t he trying to stop them?

  Suddenly Isabel knew why. She spotted an intercom on the wall. The wall about six feet from the guard.

  She pushed herself to run even faster.

  Too late. The guard reached the intercom. “I have a situation here,” he barked. “aThere –”

  Alex shoved past Isabel and hurled himself at the guard’s knees. They both went down.

  Isabel reached them a second later. She saw the guard go for his prod. Without hesitation she slammed her foot down on his wrist. She heard a bone crack, and the prod rolled out of the guard’s hand.

  An instant later she heard the guard’s machine gun clatter down the corridor. Knew Alex would be a good guy to have around, she thought. She threw herself down on her knees and pressed her fingers against the guard’s forehead. Yeah, he was unarmed. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous.

  She pulled in a few deep breaths and made the connection. Images flashed through her brain. A boy proudly displaying his hall monitor badge. A parrot in an enormous cage. The boy at an even younger age screaming as a clown handed him a purple flower.

  Isabel heard a second heartbeat join hers. She was in. Now she just needed to find a good vein in his head. Their head. She chose a medium-sized one near the brain stem and concentrated. She could feel the pain she caused him. God, she hated doing this.

  The connection broke. The guard had lost consciousness. Alex tossed her a roll of tape, and Isabel started to restrain the man. She froze as she heard the intercom crackle. “What kind of situation?” a voice demanded.

  “Keep going,” Alex said. “I’ve got it.” He pushed down the intercom button. “There was some kind of power surge down here. One of the surveillance cameras went down for a few minutes, but it’s back up. I’ll do the report.”

  “Valenti will want a copy,” the voice answered. “Make sure he gets it today.”

  “Roger that,” Alex said.

  “Roger that. Your dad would be so proud.” Isabel slid a piece of tape over the guard’s mouth and shoved herself to her feet.

  “You okay?” Alex asked her.

  “Yeah,” she answered. “I want to keep going this way. I started feeling Michael a little more strongly once we turned down this corridor.” “Adam knows where Michael’s being held,” Alex reminded her.

  “But this feels like the right way. Maybe they moved him after Adam escaped,” Isabel answered.

  “Let’s check it out, then,” Alex said. They started down the corridor.

  “Thanks for coming with me,” Isabel mumbled, without looking at him. Now that they weren’t fighting for their lives, it felt a little strange to be paired up yet again.

  “No problem,” Alex answered.

  Isabel tried to zero in on exactly where the feelings from Michael were concentrated. “I think he’s somewhere to the left of us,” she said. The corridor
continued on in the same direction as far as she could see. But there was a door on the left a few feet away. Isabel didn’t think Michael was that close. But maybe if they cut through that room, they’d find another passageway.

  She rushed up to the door. It was one of those massive metal ones she remembered from the last time she was in the compound. She focused on the molecules and gave them a shove. The door squealed open.

  “I know it’s old-fashioned, but I always appreciate having a door opened for me,” Alex said as he stepped through.

  Isabel followed him, and her breath caught in her chest. It was like walking into one of her nightmares. There’s a door on the other side of the room, she told herself. All you have to do is walk over to it. Don’t look at anything. Just move.

  She kept her eyes locked on the door. But she couldn’t help catching glimpses of things. Scalpels, and scissors, and even a little saw.

  You’re halfway through, she thought. And it’s not like any of this stuff is going to jump up and start dissecting you all by itself.

  Another step. Then another. Then another. You can do it. She bumped into something hard and cold. She glanced down and immediately wished she hadn’t. It was a high metal table with troughs lining two of the sides. To catch the blood, she realized.

  She reached out and touched the back of Alex’s shirt. She didn’t want to grab onto him like some pathetic thing. She just wanted to keep two fingers on his shirt. That’s all.

  She couldn’t stop a long, shaky sigh of relief from escaping as Alex reached for the door handle. But before he could pull the door open, Isabel felt a sharp pain in the back of her neck. She reached behind her and felt something sticking out of her skin. She yanked it free. A syringe.

  She turned and saw a man in a white lab coat. “Where did you come –”

  Her body gave a violent jerk, then her legs started to spasm. The drain in the tile floor filled her vision as she fell.

  “That’s the door to Michael’s cell,” Adam whispered.

  “Are there guards inside?” Max asked.

  Adam shook his head. “They’re usually out here.”

  If they were usually out there, then why did Adam lead them down this corridor without any warning?