No! LaBerge, shouted in his mind. You can’t destroy all my work!
Still, he didn’t dare move.
“But so many have seen all this,” Rachel pointed out. “Surely they’ll talk.”
“We can erase certain memories from their minds,” Judy said, “as easily as our own memories were erased. But we want to give them the chance to escape. We aren’t murderers.”
“Tell that to Raoul Henley,” Wil said.
No one answered him.
“But how are we going to destroy this place?” Steven asked.
The wails of the sirens woke Lorraine up, and she began to fuss. Judy rocked her back and forth.
“We must all work together,” she said. “Lorraine? Lorraine, listen to me.”
“Yes, Mommy?”
Samantha gasped. It was the first time one of the children had acknowledged an adult as her parent. For a moment she wondered what it would be like for Julie to call her the same.
But there was no time for that.
“Lorraine,” Judy was saying, “think of that secret tunnel you found. Think of the water at the doorway.”
Lorraine nodded. She closed her eyes and imagined the place. It came to her mind as clearly as if she were right there. She could even feel the cold water on her body.
“Everyone, concentrate on that tunnel,” Judy commanded. “Concentrate on bringing the water into the building.”
“You’re going to flood the place!” Eric said. “How will we get out? Last time I looked, Barbara and Wil and I didn’t have magical powers.”
“We’ll get out,” George promised. “The building will be empty when the water crashes through. It will destroy everything, and everything above will collapse and bury these lower floors. “
All the Ixtaurans in the room did as they were told, calling for the flood to come even as they readied themselves to evacuate.
Eric pointed to LaBerge.
“What about him?”
Everyone looked at the fat man on the floor. They hated him for what he had done, and yet they were too peaceful a race to let him die.
“We should wake him up,” Rachel said.
“Somebody better get Marty too,” Samantha said.
“I’ve got him,” Wil said, hurrying to pick up the little alien being. By now he was neither fascinated nor afraid of him. He cradled Marty in his arms like a baby.
George and Eric went to LaBerge and attempted to shake him. Suddenly LaBerge rolled onto his back, thrusting their hands away.
“Don’t touch me!” he screamed. “Don’t touch me, you alien freaks!”
“He wasn’t asleep!” Julie cried, turning to Samantha. “He heard everything!”
LaBerge was on his feet now, moving back toward the display case.
“Yes, I heard everything!” he said. “It was the pods! The pods are my answer! You aren’t going to obliterate all my work! If they gave you power, they’ll give it to me!”
With that, before anyone could stop him, he picked up an oxygen tank and threw it at the case.
“Don’t do that!” Samantha cried, thinking of what had happened to Raoul Henley.
Wil and Eric rushed for the man, but he was already climbing into the case. He moved with a grace that seemed impossible for such a big man, reaching into the pod and fumbling with the controls. A few hours earlier, he would never have allowed anyone to have direct contact with the structure. But he was beyond control now, desperately trying to finish his work before it was taken away from him. He turned knobs and pushed buttons and frantically ran his fingers over the control panel. The others tried to stop him, but no one could.
A bright orange glow filled the broken display case. Samantha felt something tighten in her stomach. She remembered the glow. She had seen it surrounded by darkness, under the water. It was the glow that had changed her into a human being.
For some reason, the power had been delayed in Marty’s pod. What should have happened days ago to change him into a human boy was now doing something horrible to Walter LaBerge. His screams filled the room, competing with the sirens.
Julie covered her ears and turned to Samantha.
“Make it stop!” she cried.
Lorraine was wailing loudly. Steven hurried to her and knelt beside Judy.
Don’t be afraid.
They all heard the voice. They turned to Wil, who felt Marty stirring in his arms.
Don’t be afraid. We’ll be all right. But we . . . we have to get out now!
“Come on!” Rachel shouted. “Let’s go!”
George opened the door. The hallway was empty—the guards had been mesmerized to leave with everyone else. Already they could hear rumbling from the floor up above.
“The water’s coming!” Samantha shouted over the din of the sirens.