'Yeah. Many exciting avenues are available, fellow graduates. Salads, soups,' Liz muttered. 'Rabbit food.'
Alex sat up and blinked a couple of times. 'So I guess we should start making plans to search for the ship.'
Max gave a harsh bark of laughter. 'Maybe we should wait until Isabel and Maria have regained consciousness,' he said.
'I guess,' Alex answered. 'But it's not like you… It's not like we have a lot of time.'
Michael pressed a cold Lime Warp can against his head and pretended to listen to the plans for that night's search parties. He didn't have to do more than pretend to listen because he'd already decided that search parties were useless. They had to use the Stone of Midnight.
Correction. He had to use the Stone. He'd use it to watch Valenti and find the ship. And if using the Stone brought the bounty hunters down on him again, well, today was a good day to die. A friggin' perfect day. As long as he could get the ship's location first. As long as he could save Max and Isabel.
Of the three of them, he was the best choice to make the sacrifice. Max and Izzy had a family. Their parents would be destroyed if anything happened to either of them.
It wasn't like that for Michael. It's not as if the Pascals cared that much about him. Yeah, the group… they would miss him. But they'd still have each other. Izzy would still have Max. She wouldn't be left alone.
'What do you think, Michael?' Alex asked.
'Three teams of two. Plus Ray on his own. Fine,' he answered. He was pretty sure that's what they had just suggested. He just wanted this meeting of theirs to end so he could get out to the cave. He'd stashed the Stone out there. That pen he lifted off Valenti's desk, too.
'So we start tonight?' Maria asked.
'Yeah. Let's meet at the school parking lot at seven,' Isabel said.
No one objected to that plan, so Michael sprang to his feet. 'I'll see you all there,' he said as he hurried out of the room. By the time he made it through the front door, he was running. He climbed into the wagon and headed out of town, careful to keep his speed down. Valenti loved to stop teenagers, and Michael didn't have the time.
Michael focused all his attention on getting to the cave. Anytime a thought about Max weaseled its way into his brain, he shoved it right back out. He didn't need to think about Max, worry about Max, cry over Max. None of that. Because he was taking care of the situation. Right now.
Michael turned off the highway and muscled the station wagon across the desert. He pulled to a stop about half a mile from the cave. He didn't want anyone-like someone from Project Clean Slate-wondering what the wagon was doing out there and then poking around.
Michael jumped out of the car and sprinted to the cave. Taking care of it, taking care of it, taking care of it. The words pounded through his head in the rhythm of his footfalls.
When he reached the crack in the desert floor that opened into the cave, he swung himself down in one easy motion. Without hesitation he headed straight to the corner where he kept his sleeping bag. The ring with the Stone set in it was in the bottom. So was the pen.
Michael crouched down and pulled them out. He jammed the ring on his finger and clutched the pen in his hand. 'Okay, where's Valen-'
'Don't do it, Michael!'
He heard a scrabbling sound and Maria half jumped, half fell into the cave. She stumbled to her feet and raced toward him. She knocked the pen out of his hand and sent it flying.
'What the hell are you doing here?' he demanded.
'I followed you,' she shot back, her blue eyes blazing. 'Not that I needed to. The second you stood up from your chair, I knew where you were going.' She pulled in a gasping breath and rushed on. 'What is wrong with you? That's what you asked me when you found out I kept using the Stone when I knew it was dangerous. Now you're doing the same thing. So now I'm asking you. What is wrong with you?'
'It's not the same.' Michael strode across the cave and snatched up the pen. 'I'm using the Stone to find the ship so I can save Max's life. Save his life. That's what's wrong with me, Maria.'
'No, I'll tell you what's wrong. The bounty hunters are going to come after you again… and this time they're going to kill you!' Maria yelled.
'So what?' Michael asked. 'That means two alive, one dead. Not three dead, the way it will be if I don't use it.'
'Oh, fine. I should have thought of that. Two out of three. That's great,' Maria answered, tears choking her voice. 'Now I have no problem with you killing yourself.'
Great. She was crying. Really crying, the sobs shaking her whole body. He took a step toward her.
'No!' she exclaimed. 'Don't come over here. And don't try to touch me! I don't want you to touch me when you're just going to kill yourself the second I go away. Don't…'
Maria covered her face and broke down. Michael shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Her hysterical sobs grew louder.
He couldn't take it anymore, just standing and watching. He hesitated another moment, then crossed the distance between them in three long strides. He reached for her, but she lowered her hands quickly, and the expression on her face stopped him.
'I meant it-don't touch me,' she said. She wiped her eyes with her sleeve, then pulled a tissue out of her pocket and blew her nose.
'Are you okay?' he asked. 'I'm sorry I yelled at you. It's just… there's not much time.'
'You think you're being some kind of hero, don't you?' Maria asked, only the slightest tremble remaining in her voice. 'But you're not. You're being selfish. You get to feel so good about yourself for being the big man, making the sacrifice. You're not even thinking about how Isabel or Max would feel.'
'I don't care how they'd feel. At least they'd be alive to feel something,' Michael said harshly.
'Try to think how you'd feel if Max gave up his life for you,' Maria answered. 'Or Isabel. Think about how it would really feel if Isabel sacrificed her life to save yours.'
Michael couldn't answer that. He couldn't get close to imagining how he'd feel. His mind kept leaping away from the thought.
'They love you,' Maria said softly. 'Everything you feel for them, they feel for you. I know you think they have each other and their parents, so they can't possibly care about you the way you care about them since you have no one. But it's not true.'
Michael felt tears sting his eyes, and he blinked them away fast.
'Alex and Liz, they love you, too. Something else for you to deal with,' she added. 'Anything you do to hurt yourself hurts us. If you let the bounty hunters kill you, it would kill us. It would kill me.' She looked up at him. 'Because I love you, too. I love you, Michael.'
She wasn't saying she loved him as a friend. She was saying she loved him loved him. Whoa. He didn't even know what to do with that.
Maria reached out and slid the ring off his finger. He let her.
'So, is it okay if I touch you now?' he asked.
'Just don't mess up my hair,' she answered.
He choked out a laugh and wrapped his arms around her.
'We'll find the ship,' Maria promised him. 'All of us. Together. We can do anything.'
Michael didn't answer. He just pulled her even closer and held on tight.
'Can't you go any faster?' Isabel demanded. She was sure Michael had decided to use the Stone. She never should have let him walk out of the house. It's just that the movie screen inside her head showed Max lying in a coffin, his face pale except for garish smears of makeup. And the coffin being lowered into the ground by a creaking metal cable.
