Then Adam released an image into their combined selves. It showed the group sharpening their energy to slice between the molecules rather than pulling them apart like a loaf of bread. Michael had never tried that before, but since Adam knew how, now Michael knew how. In a moment they had managed to cut open the crust and peel it back in a long strip.

Underneath, the dirt was crumbly and dry and much easier to move. They pushed it up the sides of the opening they'd made so that the soil gathered like an anthill.

Max was starting to leak images of his bedroom along with a general sense of weariness. He wouldn't be able to keep this up much longer. Michael sent him a strong boost of energy, diverting some of his force from the task at hand.

Foot by foot, the wide cone of dirt grew around the deepening hole. Chunks of wood and cement came flying up along with the dust of plaster as they tunneled through the crushed roof of the hangar. Never breaking the connection, they all walked forward until they were standing on the lip of the hole, peering downward at the churning vortex. And then Michael saw it-they all saw it-the smooth, dark metallic gray crescent of the ship's hull. The unearthly metal gleamed and rippled in the sunlight as if it were alive.

Keep going, Michael urged Isabel, Max, and Adam. We're almost there. He tried to calm his excitement, which would only break his concentration.

"A car!" Liz called.

"Someone's coming!" Maria shouted.

Michael dropped Isabel's and Adam's hands and wheeled around to look. In the distance a plume of dust was rising over the dirt road, heading their way.

"Back to the Jeep!" Isabel cried. "Now!" She rushed up and over the hill of debris they'd made, and Adam, Max, and Michael scrambled behind her. When he reached the top, Michael spun back and gave the hill a mental shove, which started a small avalanche. He wasn't sure if it would cover the ship, but it was all he had time to do.

Michael turned and ran up to the driver's side door, where he saw that Isabel had already started the Jeep. "I'm driving," he told her.

"There's no way." Isabel fixed him with a look of panic and fierce determination in her blue eyes.

"You're right," Michael said. "You'll be faster." He climbed into the backseat beside Adam.

Maria let out a short scream as the Jeep lurched and screeched over the charred earth around them. Isabel took a sharp turn toward the open desert, and Michael twisted around in his seat to look out the back. In the bright sunlight he couldn't get a good look at the approaching car, but it was close enough to have seen them, and it looked like it was speeding up.

"It's chasing us," Liz reported. "Go faster, Isabel."

"I'm trying!" Isabel called.

"Blow out its tires!" Maria shouted. "Adam, can't you blow out its tires?"

"We're moving too fast for me to aim," Adam answered.

There was no way they could slow down. The car was gaining on them. Michael didn't care who the people in it were. They could be military, police, Clean Slate, reporters-nobody could discover the truth about Michael and his friends. He had to figure a way to protect them-his friends-his family.

"We need cover," Michael said, peering around at the loosely vegetated ground up ahead. Cacti and sagebrush grew in clumps all over the desert floor, and the Jeep was bouncing over them as Isabel sped along. Nothing Michael could see was tall enough to help them hide.

"Behind what?" Isabel argued. "There's nothing around for miles."

"There's got to be a ravine or something," Max said. "Someplace where we can lose them."

"They can see us," Liz said. "How are we going to get far enough ahead of them to lose them anywhere?"

For a second everybody in the Jeep was silent, thinking, as the desert whizzed by outside.

"Got it," Liz said. "Use your powers to whip up a dust storm or something. It'll give us some headway, and it won't even look weird. Dust storms happen out here all the time."

Max gave Liz a quick kiss on the lips. "I knew we kept you around for a reason," he joked. "Do you think we can do it?"

Michael shrugged. "We were just digging. Why not?"

"All right," Max said. "We're going to need all of us for this. Except you, Iz. You keep a lookout for anywhere we can hide for a while."

"Got it," Isabel said.

Michael reached out and took Maria's and Adam's hands while everyone else linked up. Liz and Maria couldn't focus their energy on their own, but adding their amber and sapphire essences to the mix strengthened the group overall. Together they spun the elements of the ground along their trail into motion, whipping the reddish dirt into the air until it clouded behind them in a haze.

It's working! Liz sent the message out to the others. I can't believe it's working.

More, Max urged them. Thicker, darker, more.

Luckily Isabel had located a low path into a wide canyon where the ground was covered with the eroded sand of the rock walls. The fine silt was easy to whirl into the storm they'd created. Michael could no longer see the car chasing them, which meant the mystery driver couldn't see them, either.

Isabel cut a hairpin turn down the flat slope of a dry riverbed off the canyon. The arroyo wound around an outcropping of sculpted tan rock before splitting into two branches.

Isabel careened the Jeep down the branch to the left, and after a hundred yards or so of wild driving, she brought the Jeep up short behind a grove of stubby trees growing at a bend in the arroyo. With the added cover their pursuers just might miss them entirely.

"Keep it up," Isabel said. "I think we lost them, but I don't want to take any chances." She connected into the group through Maria, adding her anxious energy to the mix.

Michael continued to concentrate on keeping the dirt molecules in motion, but it was draining. Other questions kept intruding, questions he shared with his friends through their link.

Who was that chasing us? Obviously whoever was in the other car didn't just stumble on the compound, or they wouldn't have raced to follow them.

So who was it?

And what exactly did they want?

Time to call home, Max thought. After cleaning the dusty day off his body in the shower, Max lay in bed, propped up by pillows. He was ready to go to sleep, but first he wanted to make a connection to the collective consciousness.

Max hadn't linked in since he'd combined power with the consciousness to open the wormhole. Building that passage had exhausted him nearly to the point of death, and tonight was the first time he'd felt strong enough to even make an attempt at connecting.

In truth, it had been a relief to take a break from visiting the collective consciousness over the past few days. The billions of voices demanding information from him could be overpowering.

But he thought he felt up to connecting tonight.

Max closed his eyes. Breathed in a shaky but deep breath. Let himself relax.

Let himself reach out.

Let himself open up.

The ocean of auras that made up the consciousness was waiting for him, expecting him. Max plunged into the chaos of intertwined beings and was inundated by questioning images.

There was a new ripple of disturbance in the collective perceptions, a shock wave of bright orange confusion. Alex. Confusion over Alex. Confusion and anger and fear and excitement.

Max felt a burst of relief. Alex was alive. He'd made it alive to the home planet. Max had never shared his doubts with his friends, but he'd never been sure if a human could survive the trip through space.

His awful mistake-sending Alex instead of DuPris through the wormhole-no longer lay like a heavy, wet blanket across his shoulders. Alex was alive!