doing permanent damage with each passing minute she spent in Kyle's subconscious.
Reaching back into herself, Isabel consciously willed her subconscious to return to her body. Closing her eyes, she prepared for the journey, but when she reopened them, instead of finding herself back in her room, she was still in Kyle's bedroom-or, more specifically, in the dream image of Kyle's bedroom.
She tried once again, closing her eyes and welcoming the sensations that she had grown so familiar with in her many past dreamwalks. She reached out for the floating
feeling usually associated with the freedom of traveling outside of her own body and sought the safety and recon-nection of her return. However, she felt none of those things as her mind remained locked inside Kyle's.
«Why can't I leave?» she asked the boy, trying not to panic both for his sake and her own. Kyle could wake up soon, she thought, incorrectly assuming that she was trapped in a nightmare when in reality it had already become a waking dream.
«I don't want you to go.» He finally spoke, with childlike innocence typical of his age.
«But I have to,' she calmly pleaded. «I've been here too long. It isn't safe. I could be hurting you.»
He just stared resolutely.
«Please, Kyle,' she begged with a little more agitation creeping up within her. «I promise I'll come back tomorrow night if you want to talk. And every night after that until you feel better.»
«No,' he said firmly. «I don't want you to go… ever.»
12
«Where are we going?» Liz called to Max as she tried to keep up with him.
«We're following a hunch.» Max stalked his way over the ranch land he and Liz had just traveled, heading back in the direction of the house. Circling around the front, he veered to the right and followed the driveway up the garage. Pulling on each of the two large garage doors, he found that they were both locked. «Do you know where the keys are?» He started to circle the outbuilding, looking for another entranceway.
«I think I saw a set in the kitchen.» Liz started to walk back to the house.
«Never mind,' he said as he turned the corner and found that a side door had been left wide open, presumably for their benefit.
Liz turned back and followed him into the garage.
Inside they found that it was large enough to fit four cars and was just as spotless as the house had been. There was currently only one actual car in it as well as a space for
the big SUV Aunt Jackie and Mr. Lyles had left in. The rest of the garage was taken up by two all-terrain vehicles that looked exactly like the ones in the photo Max had picked up in Jason's room the previous night. Making his way around the car and to the bikes, he immediately noticed that there was enough room between them and the wall to assume that the third bike had been taking up the space until recently.
«I heard a buzzing this morning.» Max bent to see a faint tire track on the concrete floor. «I thought it was a fly in my bedroom, but it must have been the sound of Jason's ATV drowned out by my closed window.»
«I didn't hear anything,' Liz said, wishing she didn't have to contradict him.
«You were probably in the shower,' he replied.
She thought that over and suspected he could be right. «Are you sure there were three bikes?»
«Jason has a photo of him and his parents on the bikes.» Max searched for more clues to confirm his suspicions. «He said they owned them. Besides, everything in this house is so precisely organized. Don't you think it's a little odd that there's a big empty space between the wall and the bikes, like there's room for a third?»
«Nice deductive work, Sherlock.» Liz was genuinely impressed.
A wooden key rack sat on the wall. It was carved in the shape of a dirt bike and had three empty pegs sticking out from it. «He took all the keys.»
«Why would they keep the keys right next to the bikes?» Liz wondered out loud. «It would make them pretty easy to steal if someone got into the garage.»
«I think that's the point.» Max looked at the two remaining ATVs and couldn't help but figure out which one belonged to Mr. Lyles. The bikes were almost identical with their red and black painted designs, but the one he assumed was the property of the head of the house looked like it had never been ridden. It was amazingly clean for something that was built to get dirty. «Although Jason made sure the bikes won't get stolen.» He checked the remaining bikes and confirmed that the two missing sets of keys weren't in their ignitions.
«Well, that really shouldn't be a problem.» Liz gave him a sly smile.
Wordlessly, Max placed a hand on each of the two remaining bikes, concentrating on the engines that powered them. A soft glow emanated from his palms to the starters. Within moments, the engines were buzzing a louder version of the same sound Max had heard only a short time ago from his comfortable bed. Why did I ever get up? he wondered.
Max grabbed a helmet and a set of safety pads that were neatly laid out on a nearby shelf and handed them to Liz. Turning back to the shelf, he grabbed his own equipment and strapped it on, taking a minute to get the bindings done up correctly. «I think I can give you a quick lesson on these things,' he said as he laced up the knee pads. «They can be a little dangerous.»
But Liz was already geared up and seated atop her bike revving the engine and looking ready to go. She couldn't help but notice the expression of surprise Max had on his face. «I did date Kyle Valenti for a summer. What do you think his idea of a fun day out would entail?»
In the same way he knew that Michael had a tendency to shock Maria, he hoped that Liz would never stop surprising him. «Let's go.»
Max aimed his right hand at a button on the wall, and the electronic garage door opened in front of them. They pulled the dirt bikes out of the garage and rode the loop of the driveway out to the street. Stopping, they looked in either direction to see if there was any oncoming traffic or possible clues to tell them in which direction Jason had traveled.
«If we go left, that takes us right into town,' Max noted skeptically.
«I doubt he'd go there on an ATV,' Liz agreed with his unspoken thought.
There was another property directly across the street from them, and Max crossed out that direction as a possibility. To the right they saw there were only a few more ranches to pass before the road opened up into the desert. «He must have gone that way.»
«Max, look at this.» Liz called his attention to the side of the road. Together they coasted their bikes over.
«Tracks,' he said, confirming what she had been pointing out to him.
The set of bike tracks had come off the Lyleses' property and continued down the dirt path along the side of the road. «Now that we know for sure that he left the grounds,' Liz said, «maybe we should call the police.»
«I don't know.» Max's mind was working on another idea as he stared at the tracks. They were fairly deep in the soft ground and seemed like they would be rather easy to follow, at least for a while. «Something's obviously wrong
with Jason. If we involve the police, he may never trust us enough to tell us the truth.»
Max tried to remember back to a time when he had considered the police to be the first people he could turn to in an emergency. When he was a child, Officer Friendly would often visit his school to give lectures on safety and what to do when strangers approach. He had always felt better knowing that the officer with the calming voice was keeping the town safe. Back then, the police were the good guys and, as such, he had always felt protected under their watchful eyes even when he'd realized that Officer Friendly's real name was Valenti and had actually been the father of one of his classmates.
He still did feel reasonably safe around the police for the most part, but things were more complicated now. Lately, the police were the last people he could go to for help. Max knew he couldn't trust anyone currently in law enforcement-not because they were out to get him, but because it was their responsibility to report anything out of the ordinary. And the situations that Max usually found himself in were certainly out of the ordinary. At least I know I can trust Officer Friendly again.
