A Lesson in Sacrifice
Part 11
“How is he doing?” Al asked, looking through the observation window at the young man in the Waiting Room. Max was sitting in the room’s only chair, reading a book. Al couldn’t make out the title of it from where he was standing.
“The same,” Verbeena Beeks answered him. “He’s calm most of the time. Quiet, too.” She thought for a moment. “And he always has his guard up.”
“Can you blame him? This blue room must bring back nightmares of that ‘white room’ he was in.” Ziggy had found some files that had miraculously survived the destruction of every record related to the FBI’s special unit. Among them was Agent Pierce’s report of the capture and questioning of Max Evans. Al couldn’t believe that his government authorized that kind of action. If they had known that Max Evans was the best chance this country had of surviving an alien invasion, would they have acted differently? ‘Probably not,’ Al thought. They surely would have blamed Max for leading the aliens to Earth in the first place. The poor kid couldn’t catch a break. You would think, with all he was willing to sacrifice for the good of this planet, that the authorities could cut him some slack. But no. That was probably too much to ask. Al sighed heavily and noticed that Dr. Beeks was looking at him expectantly.
“I’m sorry, did you say something?” he asked her.
She repeated the question Al had missed. “Are you going to talk to him?”
“And tell him what?” Al said, shaking his head.
“You don’t have to tell him anything. I just think that he could probably use the company.”
Al turned his attention back to Max, who was still reading. The doctor was probably right. It could get rather lonely in there, Al imagined.
He made his way to the Waiting Room door and stepped inside. When he heard the door open, Max quickly stood up and put his right hand up in front of him. Al stopped and just looked at him. Upon recognising his guest, Max relaxed a little.
“Oh. Hi, Admiral,” he said, his hand still up. Al wondered what that meant. Could he shoot deadly laser beams with that hand? Or was it just merely some kind of protective reflex?
“Hi, Max,” he said finally. “Do you mind if I join you?”
Max looked at him suspiciously, but indicated the chair for the Admiral to sit in, while he lowered himself on the bed.
“So, how are you doing in here?”
“Okay,” was Max’s answer.
“What are you reading?” Al bent down to pick up the book Max had dropped and smiled when he saw that it was Cervantes’ “Don Quixote”, one of Sam’s favourite. “Is it good?”
“Yes.”
Al realized that yes-no questions were not going to get him anywhere. He took a good look at the boy in front of him. He looked as tired and worn out as his reflection in Sam’s mirror, Al noticed. This poor kid had the weight of two worlds on his shoulders, and Al felt a tinge of guilt at the idea that his current situation probably wasn’t helping him much in the stress department. But if things turned out as they should, and by God they had to, then it would save Max a lot of heartache in the future.
Max was starting to get uncomfortable under the Admiral’s stare. He pursed his lips and looked at his hands, trying to ignore the fact that whomever was keeping him here still hadn’t come up with a reasonable explanation as to why they weren’t really his.
Contrary to everyone else, Al could really see Max and not Dr. Beckett when he looked at him, the same way he saw Sam where everybody else saw Max. It had to do with the fact that his and Sam’s neurones had been used to create Ziggy and with other laws of physics Al sometimes wished he didn’t understand. It made his head hurt to think about it too much. And the last thing he needed was a headache.
Taking notice of Max’s discomfort, he put the book on the table and leaned in toward the bed, folding his hands on his knees.
“Liz misses you very much. She can’t wait for you to get home.”
Max’s eyes lit up and suddenly the boy didn’t look so tired anymore. Al smiled in spite of himself.
“You talked to her? Is she okay?”
Ah, so that was the secret to get the young Mr. Evans to talk, Al thought slightly amused. “She’s fine. She’s doing great. She misses you, but you’ll see her soon,” he promised.
Max nodded and just stared off into space, a little smile on his lips. Coming back to the present he asked Al, “What else did she say? They know I’m gone, now?”
“Well, only Liz knows.” Catching Max’s curious glance, Al wondered briefly if he should break the Project Number One rule and tell the Visitor exactly what was happening to him. Liz already knew, what would it hurt to tell Max? Besides, wasn’t it a safe guess to assume that Liz would tell him anyway once he got back to his own time? It occurred to Al that Liz had kept much bigger secrets before, and that if they asked her, she would probably keep this one as well.
“Remember how I told you the others didn’t know you were missing?” Max nodded. “Well, that’s because we have someone from the project who’s in Roswell right now, pretending to be you.” Max’s eyes widened but Al resumed talking before the boy could say anything.
“It’s for the good cause, I promise. And I’m not supposed to tell you how it’s done, so don’t ask, ok? I could get in trouble just for telling you this much,” he added. Max was very still, waiting for more of what the Admiral could tell him.
“So this guy we have replacing you, he’s very good at his job. No one he’s come in contact with has figured out he wasn’t really you.”
“Except Liz,” Max said, a smug smile on his lips.
“Except Liz. She’s a smart one, that girl, isn’t she?”
“That she is,” Max said, obviously proud. He tried to stifle his smile with no success.
“Oh, go ahead and smile,” Al said. “It’s not everyday you get a girl like that. You lucky dog.”
Max’s expression sobered a bit, with the memory, Al realized, that he didn’t have a girl like that anymore.
“Don’t worry,” he told the young man. “I have a feeling you two will be back together before you know it.” He winked. Max looked at him curiously. “I hear you have an ‘eraser room’ at school? I’m a veteran of eraser rooms myself. And janitor’s closets. And that little space behind furnaces…”
Max blushed slightly and let out a little laugh. He hadn’t felt this good since he had first came to in this blue room.
Al’s smile widened. He had come in here trying to relieve Max of some of his stress. ‘And it looks like another successful mission for Admiral Calavicci,’ he congratulated himself.
*************
Liz was waiting impatiently on the front steps of Jim Valenti’s house. She had knocked many times and could tell there was someone inside, but no one was coming to answer the door. She knocked again, trying to see through the closed curtains. She needed to talk to Kyle about the eraser room incident. She had to know what Tess had done to him in there.
Frustrated, she gave up knocking and went around the house. Maybe she’d have more luck with the back door. As she walked by the kitchen, she heard bits of conversation floating through the open window.
“I know Mr. Greer, but how could I have guessed she would kill her?”
It was Tess’s voice. Who was she talking to? Liz gingerly made her way to the window, avoiding the bushes underneath the sill, and cautiously peeked through it. A very animated Tess was on the phone, going back and forth from the living room to the kitchen, as far as the telephone cord would let her.
“No, YOU don’t understand, Mr. Greer. I have everything under control here. There is no need to get them to Copper Summit right away.”
Get who, where? Liz wished she knew who this Mr. Greer was. The bush under the window made her position very uncomfortable; she had to crane her neck just to see inside the house. She tried moving around it. She froze when a twig snapped under her foot.
Tess stopped dead in her tracks and turned towards the window. Liz ducked as quickly as she could. But was it fast enough?
Apparently not. Tess quickly said goodbye to her mysterious new friend with promises to call back within the hour and made her way to the window. Liz knew there wasn’t enough time to get away, so she tried to get as close to the wall as possible, hoping that Tess would not see her. She wondered briefly if she would fit behind the damned bush. She didn’t have time to try. She heard the back door open, and Tess came out of the house.
“Parker!”
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