11.
Doctor Garner sat beneath the swordfish looking at his two guests. "I'm not sure anything I tell you will have any value. My analysis on this case appears completely off."
Kitamura stood by the window while Colonel Jasper sat across from the Hanover overseer. Outside, teenagers played and chatted across the lawn. The scene looked as if it could have been a snap shot from his high school campus. From what they knew about their subject, it was also probably a step up for Max compared to his previous abode.
Colonel Jasper sipped his coffee then placed it back on the cork coaster with Carl Jung's picture on it. Kitamura wondered if Doctor Garner had a collection with all the great psychiatrists of the world. Who would think to make such a thing? He really needed to sleep.
"Max may be a danger to himself or others. Anything that gives us a clue as to his whereabouts might save lives," Jasper said.
Doctor Garner looked over the NSA order requiring him to provide all necessary documents and information to Colonel Jasper. He appeared reticent to say anything more.
"This isn't a witch hunt, and I assure you, your reputation will not be impaired in any way. I'm just looking for background. Anything you can tell me that would give a sense of who Max really is?" Jasper asked, dabbing his mustache with a napkin.
Garner nodded, his eyes drifted over to Kitamura. "I never saw any signs of rage in him. He has a kind soul. He didn't befriend any other residents, but he was cordial with them." He sat back, seemingly torn whether to reveal something more.
"Doctor Garner, anything you say here will stay with me."
"You might well think I'm insane after this," Garner said, pulling out his iPad.
"There's little you can say that will shock me," Jasper said.
"I'm not convinced ... I'm not quite certain Max is human." Doctor Garner said with a heavy sigh.
"Neither am I," Jasper responded simply. "What else?"
"While Max's intentions may be benevolent, he's had visions of an apocalypse. And I believe he's been in contact with three others ... let me show you," Doctor Garner said.
No one said a word while Doctor Garner played the video showing Max standing before the window in conversation with someone who wasn't there. Jasper took the device and watched it once more. "Anything you can tell me about this conversation?" Jasper asked.
"He said he spoke to a girl named Jamie. If it's the same one who helped get Max out, she has two male companions, all roughly the same age as Max." Doctor Garner skimmed through his notes, "Noah and Vincent. From Max's descriptions, each of them seemed –"
Kitamura leaned in, eager to hear what had made such an impact on the doctor.
"They seemed godlike," Doctor Garner said.
"Indeed. Well, thank you, Doctor. What you've told me will be kept in the strictest confidence," Jasper said, rising and heading for the door.
After they left, Jasper remained silent. Kitamura knew better than to interrupt his train of thought. Forty minutes later, the Intel team had located records of three foster care teens in the region that had run away in the last year. Noah Wyatt, Jamie Torrino and Vincent Barnes. Within a short time they had grainy school pictures of each. Kitamura conveyed the follow-up information that their mothers had died giving birth, all on the same day as Max's mother.
Jasper nodded as if the pieces were beginning to make sense. "The mothers may have been carrier vessels. Only question is what, precisely, were they carrying?"
*
Jamie crushed a peanut shell and tossed the empty husk on the floor. She and Vincent sat at the bar, bookending Max. They were eating greasy burgers in a biker joint deep in the Nevada Mountains. The scent of beer and charbroiled meat permeated the air. All the men had beards and, sadly, so did some of the women. Flannel and denim appeared to be the only fashion statement of choice.
There had been little conversation since his incident. The reminder of their mortality made the football game feel like a lifetime ago.
Noah sat alone in a dark corner spinning a knife around and around.
When Vincent and Jamie ordered a beer, the bartender rubbed his grizzly cheek with a doubtful grin. He asked to see their ID. Jamie waved her hand like Obi-Wan in Star Wars. She must have been feeling theatrical. "You don't need to see our ID's. We can have as many beers as we like." The bartender nodded as if this was precisely what he'd been thinking.
Max glanced at Jamie with a hint of reproach. She smiled cutely as if mind control were no big thing. "Live a little. Might not get the chance to later," she said.
"It was worse this time," Vincent said.
"No point dwelling on it," Jamie said, stealing one of Max's fries. "Just need to end it."
"It's like a cruel joke," Vincent said, watching the bar through the mirror.
Jamie took another fry. Max slid the plate over to her and took a drink. The beer tasted bitter. "What's the joke?"
"All our lives, we could do astounding things - Gods among men. But we had to keep it secret or we'd be outcast. Look where you ended up. Now it might be stripped away before ..." Vincent trailed off.
Condensation on the Heineken bottle slid down the side. "Time's winding down and you're the last key," Vincent said, taking a long swig.
Max looked at him. "What key?"
"Later," Vincent said, "when the time is right."
"Really? You're still holding things back?" Max said.
"Think we've been pretty straight," Jamie said as she pushed away from the bar and went to join Noah.
Vincent wiped his hands on the napkin. "We've gone pretty far for someone we only met a couple nights ago. Maybe you could show a little faith in us the way we have with you." He walked out of the bar.
Vincent was right. They were all under the same shadow, but the others somehow held it together - at least on the surface. He needed to find a way to do the same or he'd be useless to them.
The bartender dropped the bill in front of Max. He fished around in his pockets and realized he didn't have any money.
Noah's words about sharing the same basic abilities played over in Max's head. Maybe somewhere within him was the ability to plant the seeds of thought, too. A simple wave of his fingers like a magician with a hypnotic voice, all guided by a mind more powerful than anyone could possibly grasp – he could do this. "You've already been paid," he said, hand moving through the air. "The money is right there on the bar, as you can plainly see."
The bartender looked at him like he might be cerebrally impaired. "Something wrong with you?"
"I take it you don't see any money?" Max asked, hope fading fast.
"Do you see any money?" the bartender shot back.
Max admitted that he did not.
"It's like watching baby Godzilla trying to breathe fire for the first time," Jamie said.
*
For the last few hours, Jamie sent highway patrols and Nevada State Troopers off in different directions so they could keep moving. But they were pushing their luck.
Vincent moved them off the main road and onto slower but less obvious routes. He must have had the ultimate GPS navigator floating in space. Otherwise, Max was hard-pressed to understand how he knew when to turn in these remote areas.
Around midnight, the four motorcycles roared into the Twin Pines Motor Lodge. There was no sign of twin pines, let alone a single pine as far as the eye could see. There was, however, no shortage of degenerates. Max would not have been surprised to run across a dead body. Addicts rolled up, knocked on a door, and then furtively emerged, only to get high behind the wheel on their way out. It smelled like the world's ashtray. No one would be looking for them there.
Maneuvering between rusted pickups and El Caminos, they parked around back where they wouldn't be seen from the road. "Nice place," Jamie said, as she climbed off her bike. "Does it come with complimentary herpes, or do you have to pay extra?"
"You'll get the Four Seasons later. For now –" Vincent started.
"Yeah, yeah," Jamie cut him off. "Avoid the watchers. I get it. Just get me to a bed that won't make me vomit before I pass out."
Noah said something that made Jamie laugh while Vincent went to get two rooms, but Max missed it. For the entire ride, the only thought that went through his mind was that he wasn't human. He looked down and saw his hands trembled.
Jamie glanced his way. He didn't know what kind of look was plastered on his face, but her smile was gone the moment she saw it. "Max?"
Before he knew what he was doing, he slid his helmet back on and roared out of the parking lot.
The Triumph ate up the road like a ravenous beast. Max rocketed away from the motel until it was lost from his rear view mirror. There wasn't much in the way of a metropolis nearby. He passed a bait shop, gas station and diner in a blink. The windows of the few houses along the back roads were dark. The world was asleep, tucked in for the night, unaware of the alien blazing past, dying with each breath.
He no longer felt like an outsider looking in. At least outsiders were human. The needle crept past seventy. Not enough. With a turn of his wrist Max was going eighty, anything outside his headlight was nothing more than a dark blur.
The road curved ahead. Picking up speed, he angled dangerously low as he leaned into the turn. Why the hell not? He wasn't human – did it even matter if he survived?
One hundred miles-per-hour and climbing. If he hit a pockmark in the road, it could all be over. One hundred five, he couldn't see anything but the pavement flying by beneath him. If fate should want it that way, so be it.
Then he saw a headlight closing fast in his rearview mirror. He pushed it harder, lowering his body to cut wind resistance. One hundred ten. He didn't know who it was and he didn't care. The pursuing headlight gained ground. It was like being stalked by a hellhound.
He eased off the throttle, seeing the world again as the bike slowed. When it came down to fifty, it seemed like he could just step off the bike. Max brought the Triumph to a stop in the middle of the road.
Vincent skidded to a halt and took off his helmet. Max did the same.
It took Vincent three quick steps to march over and punch him in the jaw. Pavement rushed up at Max as he crashed down. It was like being hit by a boulder. Furious, he launched at Vincent. They tumbled, knocking Vincent's bike over. If he wasn't enraged before, now Vincent was wanted blood.
But for the briefest moment, it didn't matter. Max had the upper hand. His fist slammed into Vincent's nose and jaw before Vincent hurled him off. If nothing else, at least they were fighting as humans. The thought didn't make it feel any better when Vincent's fist slammed into his ribs. It felt like he'd been hit with a sledgehammer.
Max crawled back to his feet only to have an uppercut send him sprawling. Vincent's boot landed on his chest holding Max down.
"You running?" Vincent said, wiping away the blood dripping down his from his lip.
"Get off me," Max said.
"Or what, you going to kill me? Because that's what you're doing if you run." Vincent lifted his boot.
Max lay on the pavement looking up into the black sky. A sea of clouds blocked out the stars. He finally voiced what had been welling up inside him. "I don't know what I'm doing ... I'm not one of you, and I'm definitely not human so what the hell am I?" he said, sitting up, his back against his bike. Blood trailed down his hand and it hurt like hell.
Vincent came over and took a seat on the ground across from him. "You wish we had left you at Hanover? Think your life there would have been better?"
"Whether we do this thing or not, what does it matter? We'll still be hunted every day – we'll never be free," Max said. "And no, it wouldn't have been better. It would have just sucked in a different way." Vincent threw a pebble at him; it hit Max in the cheek. "What the hell, man?"
"I'm helping you wake up. You ever feel more alive than when you're with us? The four together – doesn't that seem like it's how it was always meant to be?"
"Yeah, but it doesn't change what's out there or what we are." Max got up, moving to Vincent's Triumph and brought it back to standing, trying to make it appear more effortless than it was. "I'm not human, and I'm not one of you, not really. So what am I?"
Vincent just shook his head. "For a smart guy, you're pretty stupid. Why do you think Noah drinks until he can't see straight? Or Jamie spends the night shaking? Or I worry about every single thing and it doesn't matter because most of it's outside my control anyway." Vincent came over and put a brotherly hand on his shoulder. "You're one of us. We're going to get through this. I promise you that."
"How? How do we get through every cop in the country chasing us down?"
"The Eye has a way. Like you said before, our fathers traveled a long way to create us. Let's give them credit for not leaving anything to chance," Vincent said, climbing onto his bike.
*
The room smelled of ash. Max came in and collapsed on the bed. All he wanted to do was pass out. Vincent followed, went into the bathroom and wiped the blood from his face.
Something like a gunshot exploded outside. Max rushed to the window, but saw it was just an old VW van backfiring as it pulled away.
Vincent emerged a moment later and took a seat in a cigarette-burned chair. "What do you think they were like?"
Max pulled himself away from the window. It took him a moment before he had a sense that Vincent meant their parents. "I would have thought you'd have seen them already. The Eye hasn't shown you home movies or anything?"
A smile sneaked across Vincent's lips. "Shockingly, no. You're the one it showed the movie to."
Max's hand still ached from their fight. He'd never had a brother, but he supposed the occasional fight was natural. "I'm in the dark same as you." The bed creaked when he came over and sat on it. "I'm sure they were advanced, but I doubt that they were terribly kind."
"Why do you say that?"
Max looked at him, surprised that there was any doubt. "I have no idea what happened up there. Maybe it was a solar flare disaster, or maybe they did it to themselves. But the way they dealt with it was sending the Eye to impregnate four women and left the kids with no idea who they are or where they came from. And if they don't change the atmosphere fast enough, they die. 'Welcome to your new world – fix it or say goodbye.' Doesn't seem very paternal."
"From that perspective, yeah, not so much." Vincent was quiet for a long moment, wheels turning. "But maybe they didn't have a choice? Maybe there was virtually no warning. They were dying, they wanted to live on and didn't have another way."
"Sounds like you just want to think the best of them no matter what," Max said, glancing out the window once more when he heard a dog barking.
"What if they knew that revealing the ship too early would be a danger to us? More than we're dealing with now. I'm not convinced the world is ready to know about life out there. And we do have a guardian - maybe not a loving one, but it looks out for us when we need it," Vincent said, as if the Eye was the only father he needed. Perhaps it was.
Max wondered if the Eye monitored his answers. Was it listening right now? Perhaps at some point he'd spontaneously combust if it deemed him unworthy. "We were left with nothing in a world that's killing us. What else do we really need to see?"
"Maybe we're supposed to prove ourselves, show that we could survive in a harsh environment," Vincent said. "Like the Spartans did with their kids. Doesn't mean they cared about them any less."
"I'm not trying to convince you they're evil. I'm just saying I'd do it differently. I think you would, too." Max realized Vincent still hadn't come to terms with the fact that they couldn't stay hidden forever. "The truth's going to come out. We're game changers. We're the answer to the questions people have been asking about the stars for thousands of years. We're going to have to face it – better we do it on our terms and start planning for it."
Vincent wearily took off his boots. "Why? People have been wondering what's out there, so let them wonder," he said, leaning back in the chair. "No one's caught us yet."
"We can't run forever," Max said.
"We won't need to."
Max expected Vincent to crash in the other bed. But his friend's head sunk down on his chest and he was out in an instant. Now that was a mind that knew how to quiet its fears.
*
Max's eyes shot open. He looked around with no idea where he was. The room was dark but for the glowing clock indicating it was almost six AM. Vincent still sat in the chair, his head lolling down as if someone had done a poor job chopping it off.
Quiet as a church mouse, Max got dressed and slipped outside into the cool dawn. A hint of sun showed on the distant horizon, but did nothing to alleviate the morning's chill.
The Twin Pines parking lot was mostly empty, its primary business hours apparently nocturnal. He noticed a dirt trail and a worn wooden sign indicating the Twin Pines Pond was just a quarter mile down the path. Max followed it through the bramble, his footsteps softened on the dirt. He expected to find something similar to the petri dish of a pool at the Paradise Motel, but when he got through the brush, he found a serene pond with a blend of brown and green water. A small island sat in the center, and there, to Max's surprise were the eponymous twin pines.
He took a seat against a dead tree at the water's edge and watched dragonflies skimming above the waterline. He didn't know how long he watched their morning ritual moving to the island and back, but he was so caught up in it that he missed the footsteps approaching.
"Boys are stupid," Jamie said, kneeling down to look at his shiner.
Max couldn't argue.
Jamie picked up a flat, gray stone at her feet and skimmed it across the pond's serene surface. Four bounces. "Beat that."
"What happens if I do?"
"I won't plant the thought to make you jump in the water," Jamie said.
That seemed worth it. Max got up, searched around for the perfect rock, and sent it skipping along the water. Five bounces before sinking down.
"Looks like fate's on your side," she said as they returned to the spot against the tree. "We all want to run. But it won't change anything."
His body still ached from the night's conflict. "It just got to be too much ... I didn't know what else to do."
Jamie grabbed a stick and drew a circle and another circle inside that. "Yeah, I get it. No matter how screwed up the world may have seemed before, at least you were human. Now everything you once knew is just wrong."
"That's what's been going through my head this whole time," Max said, relieved that she saw to the heart of it all. "I feel like I'm faking everything and the truth's going to come out that I'm different."
"I hate to break it to you," Jamie said, "but the truth's already out. And you're still here."
The dragonflies continued their dance while the sun warmed the air around them. Everything knew its place, except him.
"When I look at you, I don't think hybrid or alien. I think - Max. What else matters?" Jamie traced her hand in the dirt. "You see any weird tentacles there?"
Max smiled, took the stick and captured his own hand in the dirt next to Jamie's. "You think it'll stand the test of time?"
"Until the wind blows," she said.
When he looked back at the water, he couldn't find the dragonflies. "It doesn't matter how we see each other. Everyone else will see us as something else," Max said and hurled the stick into the water.
"We can't let that happen before we finish this trip."
"May not be up to us," he said.
Jamie went to the pond's edge. "If they stop us, they're not going to let us go."
If they were found, they'd be questioned. No doubt about it. Once they saw what each of them were capable of, even Max when pushed to the limit, walking free might be a naïve dream. And if they were held too long, the air would kill them. Jamie was right, they had to remain out of sight, at least until the journey was done. "We've made it this far, we'll finish, then deal with it the right way."
"That little trick you did with Vincent, when we were all going after you – would you do that with them?" Jamie asked. "Could you keep us safe if there was no other way?"
Vincent emerged from the edge of the trail. "We have to go," he said, already heading back to the motel.
Had Max's meltdown spurred new urgency or did something happen while they were down by the pond? Whatever it might be, Vincent wasn't offering any explanation.
Noah was waiting by his Yamaha when the trio emerged. His shades were down, his helmet on.
"What's going on?" Max asked as they drew near.
"We don't have time to stare at our reflections, or question everything that makes us uneasy. We ride or we die. Anything else you want to know?" Vincent snapped, starting his engine and roaring off.
The others shared a glance and followed, staying just a little behind. Max wondered if he had crossed a line or offended Vincent somehow. Whatever it might be, there was nothing but the roar of their machines for the rest of the morning.