Turnabout

set of problems.» He stood up and laid his hands flat on the table, looking at every person around the table, one by one. «The time to strike back against the Special Unit has to be now. But the question remains: Exactly how do we go about it?» «Don't forget,' Langley said to Max, «we have a very potent secret weapon, right here in this room. As long as we're not afraid to use it, that is.» The producer glanced significantly at both Isabel and Kyle. «What do you mean?» Max asked, frowning. Langley shook his head as though his notion should have been perfectly obvious. Then he offered a quick explanation. Reactions around the room were mixed as everyone began talking at once. Max sincerely hoped Langley's «secret weapon» would remain an untested idea. But he was quickly beginning to doubt that he'd be so lucky. 14. Over the past several months, Max had found himself growing more and more dependent upon Michael's innate strength and capacity to make decisions. After all, during his previous life as Rath, Michael had led all the military forces of Antar. Max had also become increasingly uncomfortable with the notion of being the groups default leader whenever life-and-death choices had to be made in a hurry. But today was different. Taking charge felt right to Max, as though he had finally begun living up to whatever destiny awaited him wherever that destiny, and his own careful choices, ultimately took him. «Okay, Langley's secret brain-bomb weapon aside, something tells me you've already cooked up a plan for taking on the MiBs,' Maria said, looking first at Max, then at everyone else assembled. «So how do you propose to deploy our little Slayer Army, O King of Antar?» Max saw in Maria's eyes a look of expectation that belied the flippancy of her words. The rest of the group Liz, Isabel, Michael, Kyle, Langley, Valenti, Jesse, Shelby, and Agent Duff stood about Max in a loose semicircle in Langley's luxurious study, each of them also watching him with evident anticipation. King ojAntar, Max thought, thinking of the previous life about which he knew so little. That life lay decades in the past and light-years away; despite his alien-hybrid powers, he was only Max Evans now. The butterflies of indecision began returning to his insides. «We really have only one good option,' he said, trying to inject confidence into his voice. He smiled with mild surprise as he discovered that the feeling was genuine. «And that option is?» prompted Michael, one eyebrow raised. Is he waiting for me to become indecisive so he can take charge again? Max wondered. That unseemly thought caused him a brief pang of guilt, and he pushed the notion away as unworthy. He knew that Michael only wanted whatever was best for the group, just as he did. «It's to attack the Special Unit on two fronts at once,' Max continued. «I'll lead some of you on a direct assault on the Special Unit stronghold. But some of you will have to stay here.» «We're stronger if we stick together, Maxwell,' Michael said. «Especially since this might just end up being our last stand.» «Way to be positive, Spaceboy,' Maria said, favoring Michael with a withering scowl. He shrugged, shaking his shoulder-length hair behind him. «I'm just saying.» «If it is our last stand, then I'm going to make damn sure it's theirs as well,' Max said, meeting Michael's intense yet somehow wistful gaze. Did his old friend really see so little hope in their future? It's up to me to do something about that, Max thought, taking a protracted moment to study each and every one of the silent faces of those who had gathered to fight on his side in the coming war. «You're right, Michael,' he said at length. «We are strongest when we're together. And we'll all be working together only not from the same place.» Liz nodded. «There's no point in putting all our eggs in one basket. But if you think I'm going to be anywhere except at your side, Max, then you've got another think com ' Holding up his hand, Max interrupted her. «I'm going to need you with me, Liz.» She blinked in surprise. «You will?» «Your precognitive powers and your other abilities might come in handy,' he said, feeling queasy about the possibility of putting his wife into harm's way. We're all in harm's way as long as the Special Unit is gunning for us, he reminded himself, and as long as they're holding Mom and Dad and the Parkers. «I hope so,' Liz said, looking pained. Maria noticed Liz's discomfiture. «What's wrong?» «I've had a couple of flashes over the past hour,' Liz said, shrugging. «But it's all a jumble. All I see is what looks like a pure white room. And I sense a feeling of fear. And anger.» «Nuts,' Maria said. «White rooms, fear, and anger are never good together.» «Are you sure you're the one who's in the white room?» Max wanted to know. Liz smiled weakly. «I'm not sure of much of anything at this point. It's all a confusing hodgepodge, like it was filmed by those Blair Witch guys. Looks like these new alien powers have failed me in the clinch.» «Speak for yourself, O Seer,' Kyle said, grinning. He was standing beside the table, idly examining the alien, stonelike communicator orbs that Eddie had given them while the group had been en route to Los Angeles. «I'm starting to feel like I can do practically anything. Like I'm ready to take on the entire Brotherhood of Evil Mutants all by myself.» «Calling all geeks,' Maria said, rolling her eyes. «We're in the real world here, Kyle. Care to participate?» «What's your specific plan for splitting up our forces?» Valenti asked Max, his craggy face somber as he stepped on Kyle's rejoinder in an obvious effort to get the conversation back on track. «And are you really sure it's wise?» Max knew he wasn't sure. But he also knew that he had to be, or had to seem to be, sure. «Absolutely,' he said. «No point throwing everything we have right at their front door,' Duff said, nodding in agreement. «Especially when the hack I just did on their computer might have warned them that we're coming.» «Don't forget,' Langley said. «I've got access to mercenaries as well as media folk. A small army, if you need it.» Max shook his head. «That's fighting them on their terms. We'll lose that kind of war.» And risk becoming just like them in the process. «So we don't take them on in a straight fight,' Langley said, nodding. «That implies doing something sneaky. I'm down with that. I can do sneaky, especially if it keeps the Feds from kicking down my very expensively carved tropical hardwood door.» Michael nodded as well, looking every inch the Antarian general, despite his rock-star haircut. «Asymmetrical warfare. I'm down with that, too.» The Valentis, junior and senior, looked at each other uncomfortably. Max could see that the lopsidedness of the coming battle was uppermost on the deputy's mind, while Kyle a practicing Buddhist was no doubt troubled by the thought of having to take part in serious violence. «This war may not be as 'asymmetrical' as you might think,' Duff said, pointing toward the black body armor that encased her torso. «I took the liberty of stashing a few extra Iron Man suits in the back of the chopper. Even if we go down fighting, our strike team is gonna give as good as it gets. We do it right, they won't even see us comin'.» «The question is, who goes on this little raid?» Jim Valenti asked, brushing a piece of lint from the body armor he was still wearing. «Besides me, that is.» «Try and stop me,' Duff said, grinning first at Valenti, then at Max. «I'm right beside you, Maxwell,' Michael said. «And I'm right beside you, Spaceboy,' said Maria. She turned to Duff. «Do those stormtrooper outfits come in any other colors? Accessorizing properly is half the battle, you know.» «Slow down, Maria,' Michael said, placing his hands on Maria's shoulders. «You are not coming with us. It's way too dangerous.» She swatted his hands away with both of her own. «Need I remind you that the MiBs might be on their way here even as we speak? It isn't like I'll be a whole lot safer here.» «I'll keep an eye on her while the rest of you are gone,' Langley said. «MiBs or no MiBs.» Max shook his head. «No, you won't. You're on the strike team too. I'm going to need your firepower.» «Firepower schmirepower. I'm an alien protector. A behind-the-cameras kind of guy. Watching over people is what I'm supposed to do. Not fight in guerrilla wars.» «One of the people you were supposed to watch over just died in that Special Unit facility,' Isabel said, her eyes flashing angrily at Langley. «Crap,' the producer said with a resigned sigh, gazing contemplatively into the deep pile carpet. His jaw muscles worked in silence for a moment, as duty, remorse, and fear appeared to wrestle within him. Then he turned to Max. «I don't suppose it would do any good to try to convince you that bringing me along would be a huge mistake?» «No,' Max said simply. «Complete waste of time, in fact. So let's just skip it.» «You know, being genetically programmed to follow your orders really bites. I feel like a freakin'Jem'Hadar soldier from Star Trefe.» '«Resistance is futile,'' Michael quoted with a smirk. «Wrong alien race,' Kyle said. «You're thinking of those cyborg guys who ' «Enough with the geek-off, already!» Maria shouted, interrupting Kyle. She jabbed an accusatory finger toward Max. «This is a clear case of alien chauvinism! You're trying to keep me sidelined because I can't shoot thunderbolts out of my fingertips, or play peepshow with other people's dreams.» Max saw Isabel begin a slow burn at that. «It has nothing to do with that,' he said, gesturing toward Jim Valenti and Agent Duff. «Last time I checked, the deputy and I were both plain old garden-variety humans,' Duff said. «Knock on wood,' Kyle added, sotto voce, looking straight at his father, obviously referring to the alien powers Max's healing ability had already bestowed upon both Kyle and Liz and that might one day also give the senior Valenti metahuman talents of some sort. Maria apparently hadn't heard Kyle, and wasn't buying the argument that Duff and Max were selling. «The only reason those two get a pass on your 'non-aliens need not apply' policy is the cool armor and weapons they're packing.» «That's not fair, Maria,' Max said, feeling his patience beginning to fray. «I can wear body armor,' she pleaded. «And I can handle a gun too. I still have one of the pistols we took from those federal agents in Cheyenne. I even figured out how to take it apart and put it back together again.» «Kind of amazing we haven't had more 'friendly fire' accidents, then,' Michael said, tossing a sideways grin toward Max. She glared daggers at Michael. «If you end up suffering a 'gun accident' while we're in the trenches together, Spaceboy, remember that friendly was your word, not mine.» Suppressing a smirk of his own, Max held up his hand in a gesture of peace. «I need you on my secondary team, Maria.» Her only response was a petulant pout. Max thought Duff might have been able to land her black chopper on Maria's lower lip. Standing between Isabel and Shelby, Jesse finally spoke up. His suit was rumpled from his harrowing day of travel.