feeling of slighdy greater security now that she had Max and her friends to comfort and protect her. They were all clustered around her now, watching her with concerned and caring eyes as they waited nervously to find out what had frightened her so badly. 'It's him, Max,' she whispered finally. 'The man who shot me at the Crashdown. He's here.'What!' Max reacted explosively. 'Where?'Quickly, she told them about her chance encounter with the man at the gift shop, and how she had fled the scene in terror. Saying the words somehow made the entire awful experience even more real, and she had to pause for a second before continuing. Isabel thoughtfully handed her a napkin to wipe her eyes and nose with, and she dabbed at her face with the paper towel while she struggled to regain her composure. Now what do we do? she wondered, scared and uncertain. Is there anything we can do, or should do? Max, on the other hand, had apparently heard enough. 'That son of a bitch!' he exclaimed with uncharacteristic rage. His expression darkened and he clenched his fists before stepping back and glaring furiously at the way they had come. Without warning, he stalked away from the group, heading straight for the exit.
'Hey, Max!' Michael called out, taking off after him. 'Where do you think you're going?'The rest of you take care of Liz,' Max shouted, not even looking back. He was halfway out of the grotto by now. 'I'm going to get the slimeball who shot her!'Whoa there, man!' Catching up with Max, Michael laid a restraining hand on his friend's shoulder. 'Hold on! We've got to think about this.'Max spun around angrily. For a second, Liz thought he was going to punch Michael in the face; she couldn't remember the last time she had seen Max look so enraged. 'What's to talk about?' he snapped, brusquely knocking his best friend's hand aside. 'That bastard nearly killed Liz!'Michael looked around furtively. Max had deliberately selected a natural alcove off the beaten track, but he and Michael's tense confrontation was still starting to draw stares from the handful of other tourists present. 'Chill out, man,' he whispered intently, indicating with a gesture that they should lower their voices. 'We don't want to attract any unnecessary attention, right?'A lifetime of cautious anonymity seemed to supersede Max's seething fury, at least in part, and he weighed Michael's words carefully. His blazing eyes swung back and forth between Michael and the route back to the gift shop, as if torn between conflicting impulses. 'I don't know,' he said through gritted teeth, his fists remaining clenched at his sides. 'He might get away.'Let's just talk this over for a few minutes,' Michael insisted. Despite the upsetting circumstances, Liz couldn't help noting how bizarre it was to hear Michael acting as the voice of reason; usually, Michael was the impetuous one, while Max advocated common sense and caution. She didn't know whether to be flattered or alarmed by Max's violent reaction to her unplanned reunion with the shooter. I never realized he hated that guy so much.
With open reluctance, Max returned with Michael to where Liz and the others were standing, in the shadow of the colossal stalagmite. 'Make it fast,' he said impatiently. 'I don't want that trigger-happy scumbag to get away.' He looked back at the exit, then glanced at his watch. 'For all we know, he's already heading for Mexico.'Hey, how about if I keep an eye on him,' Alex volunteered, 'while the rest of you plot strategy or whatever.' He shrugged his lanky shoulders, as if it were no big deal. 'I wasn't there that day at the Crashdown so he doesn't know me from Adam.'Max frowned, clearly wanting to go after the shooter himself, but not seeing any obvious flaws in Alex's proposal. 'You sure you can identify him?' he asked skeptically.
'Big guy, red jacket, orange cap, bad attitude?' Alex re- cited, quoting the description Liz had given them. 'N (problem.'Sounds like a plan, then,' Michael agreed. Liz knew what he had to be thinking: If nodiing else, Alex seemed to| be in lot calmer state of mind than Max, and thus less likely to cause a scene that might attract undue attention. 'Go for it.'Be careful, Alex,' Isabel said as Alex took off back toward the gift shop. He grinned back at her, visibly de lighted by her concern. Liz hoped that Alex wouldn't take any unnecessary chances just to impress Isabel.
The remaining teens huddled beneath the giant calcite peak. 'Okay,' Michael said, looking around warily to make sure no strangers were listening. 'How do we want to handle this?'Are you kidding?' Maria asked incredulously. She had draped her own arm protectively over Liz, who was still trembling like a rabbit caught in a trap. 'We've got to tell the police right away!' She scratched her head with her free hand, puzzled by a new thought. 'Er, do park rangers count as police?'Not so fast,' Michael said. 'The last thing we want to do is call the authorities' attention back to that incident at the Crashdown. Officially, remember, there was no shooting. Max healed Liz before the cops showed up.'But I was shot, Liz recalled. Her hands strayed once more to the spot where the bullet had entered her body There wasn't even a scar there now, she knew, thanks to Max's miraculous powers, but that didn't mean she couldn't still recall the sudden burning pain in her belly, and the horrible way she felt her life slipping away through the hole in her stomach. Darkness closing in on me. Blood soaking through my uniform…
'Michael is right,' Isabel declared. She lingered at the back of the grotto, a strained expression on her immaculate face. 'It's too dangerous. We can't take the chance.'Maria stared at Michael and Isabel in disbelief. 'But we have to do something!' she objected, sounding totally appalled at the notion of doing nothing. 'We can't just let this guy walk out of here scot-free. He shot Liz, for pete's sake!'Liz appreciated Maria's loyalty, but realized that Michael and Isabel had a point. They had all spent two stressful years covering up what had really happened at the Crash-down the day she was shot; did they really want to drag all that up into the light again? There was only so far Sheriff Valenti could protect them from outside scrutiny. 'I don't know,' she said hesitantly. 'Maybe it's too complicated.'Right!' Michael asserted. 'What do we care about some lowlife, trigger-happy hood? We've got enough problems with alien invaders, rogue FBI agents, shapechangers, etcetera. I say we forget about him.'Easier said than done, Liz thought. She'd always known, intellectually, that the shooter was still out there somewhere, but now, having discovered firsdiand that he could reappear in her life at any time, she wasn't sure she would ever feel safe again.
Max seemed to feel the same way. 'You're all forgetting one thing,' he reminded the others. Liz could hear the brooding intensity in his voice, sense the pent- up fury contained in his coiled muscles and posture. 'This guy saw Liz, too. If he recognized her, he knows she can identify him. That puts Liz in danger.'I hadn't thought of that, Liz thought, feeling the panic flare up again. She shuddered violently, and received a comforting hug from Maria, who also offered her a sniff from one of her ubiquitous vials of soothing scents. 'I'm not sure I can face him again,' Liz confessed, dreading the very idea of running into the volatile gunman one more time. 'I'm afraid to budge from this spot.' Apprehension tied a knot in her stomach, and her legs felt like soggy french fries. 'What if next time he recognizes me for sure?'Well, we can take care of that easily enough,' Isabel declared. At least a foot taller than Liz, she reached out and ran her open palm over Liz's long brown hair. Molecules rearranged at the alien teenager's delicate prodding and Liz's cocoa-colored tresses turned a bright shade of scarlet. 'There,' Isabel stated, 'instant redhead.' With another pass of her hand, she shifted the hue of Liz's wool sweater from dark green to lemon-yellow, then stepped back to inspect her work. 'Not bad,' she pronounced. 'I doubt that anyone will recognize you now, let alone some jerk who only saw you once before, two years ago.'Maria whistled appreciatively. 'Boy, you must save a fortune on cosmetics and clothes,' she remarked enviously to Isabel.
'I could change her eye color and hairstyle, too,' Isabel said with a shrug. She produced a compact from her purse and offered the tiny mirror to Liz. 'But that might be overkill.'Probably, Liz thought, marveling at the startling transformation revealed in the mirror. So that's what I look like as a redhead. She had to admit that Isabel had done a good job of changing her appearance, which made Liz feel some- what safer and more secure. A good disguise works wonders, I guess.
'Thank you, Isabel,' Max said to his sister. 'That was a smart idea.' He eyed Liz curiously, no doubt trying to get used to her striking new look. 'It's still just a temporary solution, though. As long as this guy is loose, he's a potential threat to Liz.' Liz recognized the look of determination in his eyes; he had made his decision. 'I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm going to track this guy down and make sure he never hurts anybody again- even if I have to do it alone.'
3.
I think I'm starting to get the hang of this sneaky stuff, Alex Whitman thought. Who would have guessed? Except in his wilder daydreams, Alex had never imagined himself the James Bond type. Yet here he was, trailing a dangerous, possibly lethal, suspect through the exotic setting of a gigantic cavern, eight hundred feet below the ground. It's amazing, he thought, what hanging around with aliens can do to perk up an otherwise dull lifestyle.
Locating Liz's mysterious assailant had been no problem; Alex had found the scruffy, heavyset stranger milling
