She took another glance over her shoulder. Oh, right. Princess Liz and Prince Max.
Liz stared up at the sky as the Jeep sped down the long, straight stretch of highway to Albuquerque.
'Looking for binary pairs?' Max asked softly.
She hadn't been, but she said yes, anyway, remembering a night not too long ago when she and Max had sat in the parked Jeep, talking about the future, looking up at the star-filled sky. That night she had told Max that the two of them were like a binary pair, two stars so close together, they appeared to shine the same light. That had been the night Max had finally agreed they could be more than just friends, a night she'd never forget.
As if he could read her thoughts, Max reached over and took her hand.
Liz felt a little shiver whisk along her spine. She couldn't shake the image of that hand, Max's hand, covered in gore. Clawing open DuPris's body cavity.
'Max, do you trust the collective consciousness?' The question burst out of her.
'I don't know what you mean,' he answered, his voice flat.
'I know what she means,' Alex jumped in. 'She means totally without your permission-no, more than that, totally against your will-the consciousness used you to try and kill someone. Not exactly a trust builder.'
'I explained to you that the beings in the consciousness were furious. Basically they just lost it when they saw DuPris,' Max said. His grip on Liz's hand tightened.
'And that's okay with you?' Michael demanded. 'Because you had your akino and joined them, they can just make you do whatever they want whenever?'
Liz was glad to hear that she wasn't the only one who had some doubts about the consciousness. Hopefully hearing concerns from all of them would get Max thinking.
'Not whenever,' Max protested. 'It was just that one time.'
He didn't answer Michael's first question, Liz noted. She knew the answer, anyway. What the consciousness had done to Max was not okay with him.
She twisted her hair into a knot on the top of her head, something that always helped her think better. And something that gave her a reason to slip her hand away from Max's.
'It's already turning out to be more than one time,' she finally said, working to keep her tone gentle. 'Now they've ordered you to open the wormhole and send DuPris back.'
'Ray Iburg is part of the consciousness. My parents are part of the consciousness. You don't think that's enough of a reason to trust it?' Max exclaimed.
Ah, there it was, Liz thought. The reason Max wasn't letting himself acknowledge that he hated what the consciousness had done to him.
'There are millions of beings in the consciousness, though, right?' Maria asked tentatively. 'So what Ray or your parents want, that might not be what the consciousness makes you do.'
'They aren't making me do anything,' Max snapped.
Michael snorted. 'Tell that to DuPris,' he muttered under his breath.
Max wrapped his arm around Liz and pulled her closer against him. The wrinkled spot on his neck brushed against her cheek. She twisted around and ran her fingers over the patch of skin. It felt dry and hard, mummified. 'Do you know what did this to you?' she asked. She was almost positive she knew the answer, but she wanted to hear what Max would say.
'Huh-uh,' he answered. Liz felt like shaking him. She would have if she thought it would do any good.
'I know I'm not a science geek like the two of you,' Alex said, leaning across Liz to check out Max's neck. 'But even to me it seems significant that it appeared right after the consciousness had control of Max.'
'I guess,' Max mumbled.
'When they had control, it drained you,' Liz said, deciding to spell it out for him since he didn't seem capable of analyzing the situation on his own. 'You're still exhausted. What I want to know is-' She pulled in a deep breath. 'What's going to happen to you when you open that wormhole? How much is that going to take out of you? Are you going to end up like this all over your body?' She flicked the wrinkled spot. 'Are you… are you going to die?'
Max didn't answer, but Liz felt the tension filling his muscles.
'Didn't the consciousness bother to tell you what could happen?' Michael demanded.
'The knowledge I received-' Max stopped abruptly and turned his head away from Liz, peering out into the desert whizzing by.
'The knowledge you received,' Alex prompted.
Liz felt as if all the air was being sucked out of her lungs as she waited for Max to reply.
'It will take a lot of strength, from me and the consciousness. There's a… possibility it could take too much out of me for me to recover,' Max admitted. 'But I have no choice. DuPris is evil-none of you are going to try to argue with that, I hope-and I can't just let him wander around making the world his own private puppet show.'
Michael slammed his foot on the brake, and the Jeep squealed to a halt. He jerked around to face Max. 'When were you going to tell us this?' he yelled. 'What am I saying? You weren't. You were just going to be Saint Max and die for the good of humanity without a word of complaint.'
'I'm not planning to die,' Max yelled back.
Liz struggled to pull in a breath. Her lungs felt flat and useless, as if her chest had gotten too tight for them to expand. 'Maybe there are other ways to deal with DuPris,' she said.
'Ways where noone ends up dead,' Maria added.
'Let's talk about it on the way to the bus station,' Alex instructed. 'No matter what we decide to do about DuPris, we've got to find Isabel and Adam.'
Michael turned back around, and the Jeep jolted back down the highway. 'We could just kill DuPris,' he told them. 'I had a problem with the consciousness using Max to do it against his will, but I have no problem with going in there and doing it myself.'
'That's crap,' Max shot back.
Liz agreed. She could see Michael killing if he had no choice, if there was no other way to save an innocent life. But it wasn't something he would do casually.
'I don't know if you could kill him if you wanted to-no offense,' Alex added. 'It was DuPris's power combined with Adam's that turned Valenti into the Abominable Ashman, remember?'
'Too bad we can't use the ring,' Maria said. 'The Stone of Midnight might be strong enough to send DuPris back without using any of Max's power.'
'If we knew how to work it.' Liz loosened her hair and immediately reknotted it.
'And if it didn't send a signal to the bounty hunters that would not die,' Michael added. 'I thought I killed one of them, and it just divided into two parts. Both alive.'
'Hold the phone!' Alex exclaimed.
'Hold the phone?' Michael repeated. 'What are you, a dork?'
'A dork who's going to save Max's smooth pink butt,' Alex answered. 'The bounty hunters were hired by the beings on your home planet because they wanted DuPris brought back for judgment. Let them do their job.'
Suddenly Liz felt as if she could breathe again-deep, full breaths of the cold night air. 'So we give DuPris the ring. He won't attack because Max almost killed him the last time.'
'I don't think I could do it again even if I wanted to,' Max said. 'I would need the strength of the consciousness, and they don't want him dead anymore.'
'We have to pray DuPris doesn't know that,' Liz said. 'So anyway, we give him the ring.'
'We tell him it's in exchange for Adam and Isabel so he won't get suspicious,' Maria suggested.
'And then we stand back, way back,' Alex concluded. He gave a couple of little bows. 'Thank you, thank you.'
'So what do you think, Max?' Liz asked, feeling her chest start to tighten up again when she saw the somber expression on his face.
'I think it could work,' Max said. 'But if it doesn't…'
He let his words trail off, but Liz knew what he'd planned to say. If their plan didn't work, Max would open up the wormhole. Even if it killed him.
