Chapter 25: Trust Issues

Michael

In two days, we were supposed to be heading out for the Convention. Kyle, Isabel, Alex, Max, Liz and I were figuring out last minute plans at Max's house the next day. We had already agreed that we weren't going to investigate the UFL quite yet. Liz didn't like it but she agreed.

"So we are completely clear on what each of us is doing?" Liz inquired-in leader mode.

We all nodded.

Liz's eyes narrowed and then asked again. "Are you guys sure because *everything* has to work for this to go right."

Max rolled his eyes and mumbled, "And you guys said *I* was the control freak?"

Liz sent him a glare and asked, "Just one more time, guys? Just humor me here."

We all sighed dramatically and Alex went first. "As soon as we're sure that all the officials are in the facility, I hack into the computer system and turn off all security cameras and systems. When I get that done, I call Isabel."

"When Alex contacts me, Max and I take out the security guards in the north corridor," Isabel added.

My turn. "I take out the guards in the south corridor and then tell Liz its safe to go to the officials."

Kyle groaned. "And I keep watch. I mean, really, guys. *Human* Kyle kept watch. I technically am an alien now. Don't I get the good jobs?"

Alex laughed but stopped when Kyle glared at him. "Even computer-geek over there gets to do like secret agent hacking stuff. And what do I do? *Keep watch*!"

"When we get back, we'll practice your powers. All we know you can do is put up a shield and you don't even know how you did it," Liz reasoned.

"Besides instinct," Alex mused.

"Anyway," Liz changed the subject. "I want to talk about Tristan and Serena. What do we suppose we do with them while we are in Albequerqe?"

Bristling, I voiced. "I don't trust them that much."

Isabel snorted. "Michael, you wouldn't trust the Pope."

Before I could comment back, Kyle jumped in. "I trust them. I don't know but there's this…thing…and I have this feeling we can trust them."

"What do you mean 'a thing'?" Max asked.

"Nevermind. It's stupid. It's just that when I saw them, I just got this sense about them. It was like I could *read* them."

I watched as Liz's face got the expression she got when she was thinking about something. Her eyes lit up and she exclaimed, "I think that that is one of your powers. It makes sense. It's kind of like heart reading. It's a Antarian basic power."

Kyle's eyes glistened in excitement. "See? Power! Now can I have a cooler job?"

Liz just ignored him and then said. "I trust them. I think we should take them to the Convention with us. Before you all argue, it's ideal that we have extra fire power. They are good fighters and you guys have mentioned numerous times that this is mission is risky. It's less risky with more people."

I knew she had a point but there was something off about Tristan. Besides, he kept making googly eyes at *my* Liz. Hoping someone else would be on my side, I noticed with much dismay that everyone else seemed to be actually considering this.

Liz caught this too and went in to finish the deal. "Their stories are straight. We can rent a bigger car and maybe the money will be running a bit tight in terms of the hotel stay but we can do this."

Damning Liz and her persuasiveness, I relented after everyone agreed but me.

Liz went out to lunch with her mother so I was the one who had to tell Serena and Tristan that they were coming with us to Albuquerque. I opened my apartment door to find Serena sitting in the kitchen with her face supported by her hands as she watched Tristan play.

*My* Play station.

My *beloved* Play station.

I was going to kick his alien ass.

I marched over to where he was playing and glared at him. Getting no response, I moved in front of the television and he looked up at me with an annoyed expression on his face. "Do you mind? I was playing."

Grabbing the controller from him and turning off the console, I remarked. "You aren't anymore."

"What crawled up your ass and died?"

Growing angry very fast, I tried unsuccessfully to calm myself down. "Watch your mouth, Toto. You aren't on Antar anymore."

Tristan rolled his eyes, "No duh, mullet-man."

Oh no he didn't.

Before I could remove some of his major body parts, Serena stepped between us. "How did the meeting go?"

Sighing, I went behind the kitchen counter and began to pull out some bread. Nothing cures anger like a sandwich. "Good. In fact, you guys are coming with us to Albequerqe in a couple of days. We have some business we have to attend to there. Hopefully, you can help."

Serena smiled at Tristan and then at me. "Sounds like a plan. May I ask what's in Albuquerqe?"

"The government," I said simply as I pulled out a Snapple from my refrigerator. "It's Liz's idea. She wants to ask the government for help. You guys do know what the government is right?"

"We have Antarians here on Earth that send us back information. Entertainment-stuff like that. You forget, we've been looking for Liz for a long time," Tristan said.

Narrowing my eyes I him, I replied, "I noticed."

Matching me with a glare of his own, he retorted. "We aren't stupid. We know what a government is."

"We've heard *things* about the government here. From what I've heard, they don't like us that much. Why would they help us?" Serena asked.

"Because for some reason, Liz thinks they will," I said.

Serena frowned. "I hope Liz is right."

"Me too," I mumbled with a deep frown.

Liz

I missed my mom. I felt bad having to push back our lunch dates because of all that was going on but I wanted to talk to her before I left for Albuquerqe. I don't think that its possible how grateful I was that my mom was handling this so much better than my dad.

"So how's Dad?" I asked once we were done eating and walking through the park.

We had avoiding talking about him but I just wanted to know. My mom looked at me sadly, "Not so good."

When I didn't reply, she put her arm around my shoulder. "He'll come around, Lizzie. He loves you."

"Mom, but that's the thing. I don't think he will."

"I've accepted it. I know he will too. So you have to finish your story."

"Ok. Well after Tess came things just got really complicated. Apparently she and Max…." And I told her mostly everything. I had decided to not tell her about the prophecy quite yet. When I was done, we settled on a bench and she looked at me.

"It's amazing how you managed to do that at your age. All the things you've been through-all the things you're going through now."

Sighing heavily, I replied. "It's hard but that's life, right?" and gave a small chuckle.

"You know, Lizzie, it feels like you're all grown up. You don't live with me anymore and you are just so mature. It worries me how much you've done that makes you mature so quickly."

I gave her a small smile. "Does it make a difference? You're going to call me Lizzie either way."

She hugged me and whispered into my hair. "You're still my little girl."

With tears in my eyes, I choked out. "Thank you."

She pulled apart from me and said. "Now this Michael boy. When do I get to meet him?"

Laughing I replied, "Never. He' s not a real people person."

As much as I tried to push the thought out of my head, it kept popping in how I was going to say goodbye to her. I had realized by now, that I had to think day by day. Right now, I was thinking ahead to the Convention.

And the UFL.

Leaving for Albuquerqe could possibly be more difficult than we had planned. There were two cars. Unfortunately, splitting the group up into two groups was an obstacle in itself. Tristan and Serena wanted to be in the same car. Michael and I wanted to be in the same car. Isabel and Alex wanted to be in the same car too. Kyle was perfectly content sitting in his porch listening to the Spice Girls in his iPod while we tried to figure this out.

Michael, Kyle, Tristan, Isabel and I ended up in the first car. I have no idea how it happened but it did. God help us all. Which left Serena, Max, and Alex in the second car. Luckily, it was only a 45 minute drive.

"Let's play that car game. Y'know where you count how many cars go by," Kyle suggested. I couldn't blame him. The tension in the car between Michael and Tristan was suffocating. All they did was glare at each other. Or scowl.

Isabel and I exchanged a look. "Not now, Buddha-boy," Isabel said to him.

Kyle slumped back in his seat. "This sucks. Next time, I'm not riding with Dumb and Dumber back here."

Michael and Tristan both sent glares his way.

When we finally reached a motel, we broke up into our separate groups. The Convention was tomorrow morning. Michael fell asleep the minute he hit the bed. I waited until he was dead asleep before I got up.

I have a plan. A possibly suicidal plan. Quickly grabbing the book bag from the corner and I checked my watch to see it was almost eleven o' clock. Slipping on a new pair of clothes, I left the room and ran into no other than Tristan.

"What are you doing here?" we both asked in surprise.

Tristan held his hands up in surrender. "I'm not the one in dark clothing with a backpack. You going to rob a bank?"

I laughed dryly, "Funny. Now leave me alone."

Turning around and heading towards the car, I heard the sound of my backpack unzipping. "Hey!" I yelped. I turned around to see Tristan clutching at a big piece of paper. "Give that back!"

"Care to share as to why you have a map of a building in your bag?"

Snatching it away, I said defensively. "Not really."

Smirking, he replied. "Then I'm sure the others will explain it to me. I'm going to take a guess here and say that they don't know you're sneaking off into the middle of the night."

Dammit! I couldn't let him run back and tell them. Growling, I came to a decision. "It's the map for the Universal Friendship League Building. I have evidence to believe that someone in that building knows about the prophecy. They were in contact with Tess and Nasedo-they crossed us. Now, I don't know what's in there but I want to find out. Are you in or out?"

Tristan smiled widely, "You bet."

"Good. Let's go."

It was huge. Not that I was expecting a tiny cottage but this was a corporate building. "Wow," Tristan said. "You want to break into one huge ass building."

"It has to be at least 20 floors," I said in awe. Breaking out of my stupor, I turned to him. "The only person in the building after closing is the security guard. With our powers, we should have no problem getting in and out."

He nodded and began to get out of the car. Sighing heavily and glancing at the huge building again, I got out too. Beginning to walk to the back entrance, he asked, "So do we have a plan or what?"

"Not really," I replied as I used my powers to melt the lock. The door opened with a small pop. "You ready?"

"It's a little bit too late now don't you think?"

"Good point," and I stepped cautiously through the door. Briefly listening for any voices or footsteps, I motioned for Tristan to follow me. Closing the door gently behind us, we creeped in.

"We must be in the lobby or something," Tristan observed. Nodding, I pulled out the map.

"The computers should be on the tenth floor. Let's find us some elevators," I proposed. "They should be on the left two hall down."

We broke out into a run and finally found the elevators. Tristan used his powers to get the elevator door to open. With a small beeping noise, the two doors pulled apart. Stepping in, I promptly pushed the button to floor ten. When we were about to get out, we both were on alert in case something was waiting for us on the other side of the elevator. After making sure no was there, I went to the nearest computer. "Keep watch," I instructed him.

He nodded and stood by the elevator but where I could see him. As soon as the computer turned on, I typed quickly to find what I was looking for. "Bingo," I said when I found it.

"What did you find?" Tristan asked.

"Their mailing list."

"Wouldn't that be secured?"

"It was until I hacked in. Oh my god. Look at this. There must be ten thousand names on this list," I said as I scrolled down the database. I kept going until I found Tess and Ed Harding on the database. I opened Nasedo's file. "This is weird, Tristan. It says he was terminated."

"Well you did say that he was murdered."

"But terminated? Something isn't right. Hold on, let me pull up Tess's file. This is strange too. It says 'stationed in Roswell, New Mexico' and than, down here, it says 'missing'. Why would they station someone?"

Tristan gave me perplexed expression and walked over to look at the screen. "Wait. What's that?"

"What's what?"

"That link at the end of her file," he said pointing. I went to click on it and several screens came up.

"That's us," I gasped.

They had files on Isabel, Michael, Max, and I. School records -everything. It also pulled up articles about the shooting and any strange happening that went on in Roswell. With wide eyes, I turned to Tristan. "They have everything. Who are these people?"

Tristan began to look nervous. "I don't know but I think we should get out of here soon. They know more about us than we know about them."

"Just one more thing. I want to try to pull up the prophecy. It's its on the mainframe system than not just one person sent it."

But before I could begin to search, we heard footsteps. Tristan and I both froze. Tristan and I exchanged a glance and he went to go check it out.

Quickly, I grabbed the floppy disk out of my backpack and shoved it into the computer.

Waiting impatiently for it to load onto the disk, I began to panic when a deathly silence occurred. What had happened? There were no footsteps-just silence.

Deciding to go to find Tristan, I pulled the disk out and put in my bag. Then suddenly, the room went black.