The Intruder Read online

  “I’m okay,” he told Adam. “Any ideas on what we should try first? We’re looking for anything that will give us more firepower when we break Michael out.”

  He didn’t say “if.” There was no “if” in this situation. In two days the group was going in, and Michael was coming out with them.

  “Dr. Doyle, the guy who did most of the tests on me, had me try to explode things once,” Adam said. “The biggest thing I ever managed was a grape. But together …”

  “Let’s try it. So when you blew up the grape, did you just push the molecules apart or what?” Max asked.

  “I … I don’t know,” Adam answered. “I never really think about how I’m doing something – I just do it. Somehow it just comes out.”

  “Whoa. I’ve never experienced it like that,” Max said, feeling a stab of envy. “Maybe it’s because I’ve spent most of my life trying not to use any power if I didn’t have to, and you grew up pushed to find out all the ways you could use yours.”

  “You didn’t use your powers because you were afraid of scaring people, right?” Adam asked.

  He’s already figured out that’s not the only reason, Max realized. Adam had been out of the compound for less than a week, and he’d already seen enough to teach him that humans, at least some humans, would want him dead if they knew the truth about him. Max could hear that knowledge in Adam’s voice.

  Adam was waiting for an answer.

  “We don’t use our powers in front of people partly because it would scare them. But also because when they do get scared, they can lash out. There are definitely people out there who would hurt you, Adam, just because you’re different.”

  Adam nodded, his face somber. In that moment he looked like such a little boy. It was hard for Max to believe he’d actually been obsessing about whether Liz could possibly go for him.

  “So what should we try and blow up?” Max asked. He and Adam would have to have a much longer discussion about humans later, but now they needed to get some training time in.

  “Cactus?” Adam asked, nodding toward one about fifty feet away

  “Okay.” Max reached out and touched Adam’s arm. Instant connection. The only problem was, the images from Adam filled his vision. He couldn’t even see the cactus.

  Max tried to block the images, the way he’d been doing with the stuff from the collective consciousness. The images from Adam slowed, then faded. Max stared at the cactus.

  “Ready?” he heard Adam ask.

  “One second,” he answered. He still wasn’t sure how to do this. Adam said he just did it, but Max needed a method.

  Maybe you don’t, he told himself. Just stop thinking so much.

  “On three,” he told Adam. He could feel something growing between him and Adam, a force being generated. “One. Two. Three.”

  Max let the force loose, trying to aim it at the cactus. A second later he felt something wet against his cheek. He reached up and pulled away a hunk of mushy cactus. It had exploded so fast, he hadn’t even seen it happen. Lucky he didn’t get hit by a spiny chunk.

  “That was cool!” Adam cried.

  “Yeah, that could come in very handy at the compound,” Max answered.

  Adam’s happy smile faded. “Let’s try something else,” Max said quickly.

  “One time Dr. Doyle wanted me to set something on fire with my power. We could work on that. I couldn’t do it, but there were things I couldn’t do by myself that I could do with Michael,” Adam answered.

  “I’ll go put a ball of paper on the ground.” Max started to get out of the Jeep.

  “Why don’t we try that rock over there?” Adam asked.

  “A rock? Rocks aren’t exactly flammable,” Max said. “But sure, let’s go for it.” They could always try something easier later. Adam grabbed Max’s wrist, starting the connection.

  Max let the feeling of power build up until he could feel it practically screaming to get out. “Okay, on three. One, two, three.” He set the power free, and an instant later the rock began to smoke.

  Come on, come on, Max thought. He let more power build, preparing for a second blast.

  Out of the corner of his eye he saw a little brown rabbit hop over to a piece of the cactus remains and take a nibble. Then it hopped toward the rock.

  “Adam, be careful. We don’t want to hit the –”

  Max felt the power zing free. Then he heard the rabbit give a scream.

  Max ripped his hand away from Adam. “Stop!” he shouted. “You’re going to kill it!”

  The rabbit’s back legs jerked frantically, as if it were trying to run but couldn’t. “No! Adam, look what you’re doing! You’ve got to pull the power back!”

  Max grabbed Adam by the shoulders and knocked him out of the Jeep, tackling him to the ground like an angry football player. Max glanced up and saw the rabbit bound away.

  “Why the hell did you do that? Did you think it was fun? Did you think –”

  “What?” Adam asked. He shoved himself to his feet and brushed some of the dirt off his jeans.

  “What?” Max cried. “You’re asking me what? You almost killed that helpless rabbit –”

  “I did?” Adam cried. “I didn’t mean – I didn’t even know. I felt kind of … out of control.”

  Adam looked at the spot where the rabbit had been. Max had to admit, Adam looked genuinely devastated. But Max had seen his face when the rabbit had squealed.

  Adam had been smiling.

  12

  Liz twisted her hair into a knot on the top of her head. She noticed Adam following her every movement with his eyes. She could almost feel his fingers on the places his eyes touched. Sliding up her neck. Twining in her hair. She wasn’t sure how to react. One part of her was flattered at being so admired, but another part of her ached for privacy.

  She scooted down the sofa and cuddled up closer to Max.

  “Oh no. You guys aren’t going to turn into one of that kind of couple, are you?” Maria whined.

  “What kind of couple?” Liz asked.

  “Let me just ask you a few questions,” Maria answered. “Have you ever shared a piece of gum with Max – a piece of gum that you’ve already chewed for a while? Have you ever engaged in any kind of baby talk? Do you often hear shouts of ‘get a room’ when you’re out in public? If you’ve answered yes to any of the above, it may already be too late. You may already be that kind of couple.”

  “Don’t worry. We’re not going there,” Liz promised. “Are we, Maxie-waxie, my little googie face?”

  “Where are Alex and Isabel?” Max asked. “I want to get this done.”

  “This” being coming up with the plan to rescue Michael. Which more than explained how distracted Max was.

  “They’re only a couple of minutes late. I’m sure they’ll be here soon,” Maria answered.

  “How can you be sure of that?” Max snapped.

  “I guess we can’t. Hey, doesn’t Isabel have a cell phone? I could call and see where they are,” Liz volunteered.

  “I’ll do it,” Max answered.

  Before he could stand up, Liz heard the front door open. A moment later Alex and Isabel appeared. Isabel headed for the couch, and Alex perched on the edge of Maria’s chair, putting them pretty much as far away from each other as they could get and still be Sitting in the living room.

  Spending time alone on the stakeout obviously hadn’t led to any kiss-and-make-up action. Liz didn’t know if that was good or bad. Isabel’s personality always seemed completely opposite to Alex’s, but sometimes that could actually work for people.

  “We found nada,” Alex announced, obviously eager to get down to business and then get out of there.

  Max checked his watch. “Our parents could get home soon, and this isn’t a conversation I want them walking in on. Maybe we should take turns keeping watch for them. Adam, do you mind doing the first one? You can see the driveway from the kitchen window.”

  “Okay.” Adam stood up and headed out of
the room. As he passed behind the couch, Liz felt a whisper-soft touch on her shoulder. Guess Adam needs a stronger hint, she thought.

  As soon as Adam was gone, Isabel turned to her brother. “What’s the deal? We both know Mom and Dad are at their office in Clovis. They won’t be home for hours.”

  “Something happened when Adam and I practiced combining our powers,” Max answered.

  His tone jerked Liz out of her thoughts and pulled all her attention to him. Max almost sounded frightened. This wasn’t about coming up with a plan to get Michael out. Something else was wrong. Something major.

  “We were trying to set a rock on fire, and this rabbit hopped out,” Max continued. “Adam was just about to incinerate the poor thing, until I tackled him. One second its nose was twitching, the next second it was squealing. I think he’s got an evil side or something.”

  A small sound of distress escaped Maria’s lips.

  “Oh, man,” Alex muttered.

  No. The word exploded in Liz’s brain.

  “It had to be an accident,” Isabel exclaimed. “The power slipped out of his control or something.”

  Max shook his head. “You weren’t there. You didn’t see it. The rabbit screamed. It sounded almost like a person, really loud and high. And Adam was smiling like he was watching a good show on TV or something.”

  “I can’t believe Adam could do that,” Maria said.

  “We have no idea what he’s capable of,” Max answered, his voice flat. “We don’t know what they did to him in that place. Maybe they’ve spent years turning him into some kind of killing machine.”

  “Max is right,” Alex said. “We’ve only been around Adam a few days.”

  Liz got a flash of Adam spinning in her backyard, laughing as the grass tickled his bare feet. “Adam is about as far from a killing machine as you can get,” she told them.

  “Of course you’d say that,” Max answered. She felt his body tighten, and he shifted away from her.

  “Of course I’d say that because what?” Liz demanded. “Because Adam has a little crush on me? You really think that’s why I’m defending him?”

  “Yeah. I do,” Max said bluntly.

  “I’m glad to know you think so highly of me,” Liz shot back. She wrapped her arms around her waist.

  “Adam doesn’t have a crush on me, and I agree with Liz,” Isabel cut in. “He’s completely gentle and sweet.”

  Maria turned to Max. “Do you think he’s dangerous to us?”

  “That’s the question we need to decide before we go into the compound,” Alex said. “What do you think, Max? Do you think there’s any chance he could turn on us?”

  Michael paced around his cell. Sometimes only needing two hours of sleep a night totally sucked. In here, he wouldn’t mind needing twenty.

  Okay, maybe not twenty. Twenty would mean he slept way more than Cameron, and Michael wouldn’t want to miss any Cameron time. He shot a quick look into her cell. All he could see was the top of her head as she lay on her cot. He liked her hair, which was kind of weird because he usually went for long hair on girls.

  He also usually went for girls with a few more curves. Cameron was long, lean, and had more muscles, well, not more than he did, but she was definitely a hard body.

  Don’t go any farther in that direction, Michael told himself. It wasn’t a good idea for boys who lived in glass cells to think about sex stuff too much.

  He flopped down on his bed and stared up at the glass ceiling and the cement ceiling far above it. He wondered how far underground they were. Sometimes the idea of being underground completely creeped him out. It was like being buried alive.

  Michael jumped up, suddenly feeling way too much like he was lying in a coffin. He shot another glance over at Cameron. He would let himself look at her a little longer if the guards weren’t around. He didn’t like the feeling of having people out there going, “Look, Alien Boy wants the human girl.”

  Was that even true? Did he want Cameron? Oh, yeah.

  Okay, harder question, Michael thought. Would you want Cameron if she wasn’t the only girl in this place?

  The answer came just as fast. Oh, yeah.

  Even harder question. Do you want her more than you want Maria or Isabel?

  Isabel, whoa. How did she get in that question? Isabel was practically like his sister. He didn’t think of Isabel that way.

  Except, remember that day you were wrestling over the remote? he asked himself. He’d gotten this flash of what it would be like to see her in the non-almost-like-a-sister category, and it had been … intense. Body-burning intense.

  That explained how Isabel got into the question. Michael shoved his hands through his hair. He’d really been trying not to think about Maria down here. He had enough to deal with without trying to decide how he felt about Maria saying she loved him.

  The love word. It pretty much freaked him out. It felt too monumental. Maybe it didn’t feel that way to people who had real families. Max and Liz had their parents saying “I love you” practically all the time. So it’s like they’d had the chance to get used to hearing the words. Michael hadn’t.

  Okay, here’s another question, he thought. Do you love any of them?

  Isabel. He definitely loved Isabel, not that he’d ever actually told her that.

  Stop right there, he ordered himself. You know we’re not talking about an I-love-you-like-a-sister kind of thing. Or the you’re-a-great-friend-and-Ilove-you kind of thing. So what’s your answer? Do you love Maria, Cameron, or Isabel?

  Liz flipped her pillow over and pressed her face into the cool side. Why wasn’t she asleep? She needed to be asleep.

  Tomorrow they were going into the compound, and she couldn’t be all fuzzy and out of it.

  Well, she could be. She could also be dead if she screwed up.

  Oh, there’s a thought that would put her right to sleep. Liz decided that as long as her brain was spinning, she’d give it something to focus on. It was periodic chart time. Going over the chart in her mind always calmed her down. She’d do the rare earth elements first.

  There was yttrium, symbol Y, atomic number 39, atomic weight 88.9059. It wasn’t always classified as a rare earth element. Sometimes it was classified as a transition –

  A soft sound from the backyard grabbed Liz’s attention. Was Adam moving around down there? She swung herself out of bed and hurried over to the window – just in time to see Adam slipping back into the shed.

  Where had he been? Liz pulled on her robe and headed to the back door even while she was telling herself he probably just had to pee or something. She slid open the door, crept over to the shed, and gave a little knock. Adam answered instantly, a huge smile spreading across his face when he saw her.

  Oops, Liz thought. By visiting him in the middle of the night, I have now probably destroyed any of the I’m-with-Max hints that did manage to make it into his head.

  “Hey, I heard you come back in,” she said. “I just wanted to see if you were okay. Is there something you needed? Are you too cold out here or anything?”

  “Everything’s good,” Adam answered. “Do you want to come in for a minute? I could make toast.”

  Liz smiled. She had gotten him a toaster as sort of a housewarming present. How could a guy whose biggest love in life is making toast be dangerous? she thought. Max has to be wrong about what happened out in the desert. Killing the rabbit had to be an accident.

  “I better not. My parents will freak if they notice I’m gone,” Liz answered. She turned toward the house, hesitated, and turned back to Adam. “So where’d you go?” she asked.

  “Huh?” Adam asked.

  “You went out. I just wondered where you went,” Liz said.

  Adam scrunched his eyebrows together. “Where I went,” he repeated softly. “I don’t think I went anywhere.”

  “I’m not mad or anything,” Liz assured him. “Although you do need to be careful. I was just curious because, like I said, I saw you coming back
home.”

  Adam stiffened up. “I just went to the mini-mart for some butter to put on my toast,” he answered in a rush.

  It made sense. But there was something about the way he said it that made Liz think he was lying. Why? What was he doing in the middle of the night that he needed to lie about?

  Liz thought about asking to see the butter, but that seemed way too stupid. And if Adam was lying for some reason, maybe it was better to let him think she believed him. Better and safer.

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to make you some?” He smiled at her, his lips stretching up over his teeth.

  Liz shivered, and involuntarily she took a step away. Max and Alex were right. She didn’t know Adam that well.

  13

  Adam carried a piece of toast with him to the Jeep. He ate it as he and the others headed out of town. Even though melted butter had seeped into every inch of the bread, the toast tasted dry, scratchy against his mouth and throat.

  He was going back to the compound. He was going back to the place without sun. Without grass. Without anything that was real. And yet a part of him was looking forward to it. He was, technically going home.

  “Should we go over the plan again?” Alex asked.

  “Please, can we not?” Maria answered. “The more we talk about it, the more I realize there’s not much plan in our plan.”

  “Maybe we should see if we can come up with something better,” Liz suggested.

  “We already know we can’t,” Isabel said sharply. “We’ve gone over every possibility a million times.”

  Adam didn’t say anything. It didn’t matter to him one way or the other. He didn’t need a plan to know what needed to be done in the compound.