Race to Witch Mountain Read online

  Behind the wheel, Jack watched Burke’s men race out of the restaurant, their guns drawn. Some hopped into their SUVs and started them up.

  “There are way too many of them to outrun,” Jack said.

  Sara took a deep breath. A moment later there was a series of explosions. Jack looked back and smiled as he saw that their windows and tires were all blown out.

  “Whatever you’re doing,” he told Sara, “keep doing it.”

  Burke reached the ground just as Jack and the cab were nearing. He lifted his gun and took aim. Just as he went to pull the trigger, a loud growl filled the air, and the junkyard dog leaped out from the darkness. The dog clamped its jaws tight around Burke’s arm, and the agent let out an agonizing scream as he dropped his gun to the ground. His job done, the dog jumped over a fence and away from the approaching agents.

  Jack wasn’t going to look a gift horse—or dog— in the mouth. “Say good-bye to Stony Creek,” he said and hit the gas. But something was wrong. Instead of speeding up, the cab came to a screeching halt.

  “Come on, baby, not now,” Jack pleaded to the cab. Then a thought occurred to him and he turned to face Sara.

  “Did you do that?” he demanded.

  Sara didn’t answer. She just opened her door, and the dog raced up to the taxi and jumped in beside her.

  “Absolutely not!” Jack exclaimed. “Junkyard does not go with us! I’m done picking up stray passengers!”

  Burke’s men started shooting, and Jack realized that Sara was not going to let the cab go without the dog.

  “Fine!” he relented. “Junkyard goes with us!”

  Sara smiled. In a flash, the taxi was racing down the road, away from the danger.

  Sara looked at Jack and smiled warmly. “Thank you, Jack Bruno,” she said as they drove out of Stony Creek.

  “Those men,” Jack said. “They were the same ones chasing us on the highway before.”

  “Yes,” Sara said simply.

  “It is vital we find their base of operation,” Seth added. “You must take us to them. Immediately.”

  Jack couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You want me to ‘take you’ to the guys who are trying to kill you? Let me explain how we do things here on Earth. People who want you dead, you avoid. That way you stay alive. Make sense?”

  “No one on your planet will stay alive if we do not return to our planet,” Seth responded. “And in order to return, we need our ship. And those men trying to kill us have stolen our ship. Make sense?”

  Jack felt like his head was going to explode. When had things gotten so complicated?

  “Where do you suggest we begin our search?”

  Sara asked, convinced Jack would help.

  “I don’t suggest I begin searching at all,” Jack answered.

  Seth scowled. “Just as I thought,” he said to his sister.“We only have each other. No human is going to help us.”

  Jack’s spine stiffened. “Easy on the human-bashing. And for the record, I wouldn’t even know how to help you.”

  Suddenly Jack had an idea that brought a smile to his face. Sara read his mind but didn’t know what it meant.

  “Who is Dr. Alex Friedman?” she asked.

  Jack laughed. “Someone who might be able to help you,” he said, aiming his cab toward Vegas.

  And Jack was going to need all the help he could get. Because outside of the restaurant, the Siphon watched in the shadows, waiting. He did not give chase. There would be time to act soon enough.

  CHAPTER 12

  In Las Vegas, Dr. Alex Friedman was halfway through her presentation—and it wasn’t going well. Unlike her, most of the people at the UFO convention had not come to have an educated, scientific discussion about the possibility of life on other planets. They wanted to talk about green spacemen with fuzzy antennae.

  She clicked a button, and a picture of space was displayed behind her on a large screen.“This was captured by a far-imaging telescope less than fortyeight hours ago,” she explained. “I want to direct your attention to this.”

  Using a laser pointer, she highlighted a blotch in the picture. She was obviously very excited about the blotch, but her audience could not have been more bored.

  “It looks like a smudge,” one person called out.

  “Yes, it does. Only . . .” She clicked another picture, which looked identical to the first one on the screen. “In the next image capture,” she said, pointing her laser at the same spot, “that ‘smudge’ is gone.”

  Her big announcement was met with still more blank stares.

  “Was it a spaceship,” someone called out hopefully. “ Did they abduct you?”

  The audience began to stir.

  “The aliens that abducted you, were they tall ones or short ones?” someone else called out.

  “Maybe the lizard people!” another audience member shouted.

  Alex couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “I wasn’t abducted by anyone,” she said, “much less by an alien.”

  “How do you know?” someone asked. “Dr. Harlan’s last book was all about how the aliens erase your memory with probes. Have you read it?”

  Dr. Harlan was the hero of the more “eccentric” convention-goers. Alex thought that he was something of an eccentric as well. He certainly wasn’t a true scientist.

  “Donald Harlan’s book?” she asked. “It’s pure science fiction. I’m talking about science fact. Hard data. Do you hear yourselves? This is why the scientific community doesn’t show us any respect.”

  “Dr. Harlan says the scientific community has been infiltrated by alien spies,” an audience member offered. “So you can’t trust them.”

  Alex had had more than enough. “That’s it,” she said, forcing herself not to throw her arms in the air. “I will not take any more questions dealing with alien abductions or Dr. Harlan.”

  Half of the audience got up and left. Shrugging, Alex pushed a strand of brown hair behind her ear and carried on. By the time she was finished, there was no one left. As she packed up, she heard a door open. She looked up to see a man and two teenagers entering. It was Jack, Seth, and Sara.

  “The cattle mutilation lecture doesn’t start for an hour,” she said. “But grab a seat now. This place will be packed. Always is.”

  “We’re here to see you,” Jack told her.

  She looked at him. The man looked familiar. She racked her brain, trying to figure out where she had seen him before.

  “It’s Jack Bruno,” Jack said with a friendly smile. “We met earlier.”

  “We did?” Alex asked, still drawing a blank.

  “Cab,” he reminded her. “Airport to hotel. Driver.” As he said “driver,” he made a little motion like he was turning a steering wheel.

  “The nonbeliever,” she said, remembering.“What are the odds?”

  “Is there a place where we could talk?” Jack asked her.

  She looked around the empty ballroom and gave him a look. “Crowds in here making you uncomfortable.”

  “Someplace more private?” Jack suggested.

  “Look,” she said,“no offense, but I’m pretty busy and . . .”

  Sara read her mind and completed her sentence for her. “Feeling stressed over her thesis on Gliese 581 and Alcubierre’s warp drive.”

  Alex was stunned. “How did you? I didn’t tell anyone.”

  Jack smiled. “It gets better, trust me.”

  Intrigued, Alex followed them to an out-of-the-way exhibit on Mars that was closed. While the kids became absorbed in images of the red planet, Jack told Alex all about them.

  “Are you insane?” Alex demanded when Jack was finished.

  “I thought you of all people would understand and want to help,” he said, shocked by her reaction.

  She looked over and noticed that Seth and Sara were no longer looking at Mars. They were now looking at her laptop.

  “Hey, please don’t touch that,” she said.

  “You captured an image of ou
r ship,” Seth said as he turned the laptop to face her. The image on the screen was the one she had shown at the presentation.

  “The smudge?” she said. “You’re telling me you think the smudge is your spaceship?”

  “We know it is our spaceship,” Sara corrected.

  Alex had been mocked enough for one day. “That’s it, I’m out,” she said. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll just grab my laptop.”

  As she reached to take the laptop from Seth, his hand phased right through hers. Startled, she jumped back and dropped the computer. Sara used her telekinetic power to “catch” it mere inches above the floor and then float it back up to Alex, who was totally speechless.

  “Oh, right,” Jack said with a smile. “They can also do that stuff.”

  “Who are you people?”

  Sara turned to Seth. “Show her.”

  Seth pulled the futuristic compass out of his pocket and held it up for the others to see. The device was glowing, when suddenly the glow exploded into a blinding white light and turned the room into a sort of living planetarium. Three-dimensional images of planets and stars swirled around them as if they were in the middle of a distant galaxy.

  Alex gave Jack a stunned look, but he just shrugged, as if to say, what did I tell you? She turned back to the kids. “I have so many questions!” she exclaimed. “Why did you come to Earth?”

  “Our planet is dying,” Sara told her calmly. “Millennia of neglect has rendered our atmosphere unbreathable.”

  “Our parents are scientists,” Seth went on, “who have studied Earth’s changing climate in hopes of finding a solution for our own planet’s future.”

  Alex and Jack looked at each other, confused. Wasn’t finding a solution a good thing? Seth shook his head. The leaders of their planet thought the answer would take too long, he explained.“It would be simplest,” he finished, “to abandon our dying planet and . . . occupy yours.”

  “Occupy?” Alex asked, suddenly concerned. “But Earth’s resources can barely sustain our own world population.”

  Seth nodded, his expression even more serious than usual. “Hence the need for . . . elimination.”

  This caught Jack’s attention. “Elimination? Wait! I’m helping you conquer my planet?!”

  “Not us, Jack Bruno,” Sara claimed. “Most people on our planet fiercely oppose the plan.”

  “But fear of extinction triumphed among our people,” Seth continued.“Invasion plans were drawn up. Fleets readied to launch an assault against Earth.”

  Jack and Alex shared another look. This did not sound promising.

  “But then our parents discovered a solution!” Sara cried. “An experiment at an outpost here was successful in regenerating life into all previous dying plants and trees.”

  Alex’s eyes widened. “Which would enable the re-oxygenating of your poisoned atmosphere,” she observed. “Brilliant!”

  “So what’s the problem?” Jack asked. He was beginning to wish he had paid a little more attention in science class.

  “Our military preferred a solution of invasion over science,” Seth answered.

  “Which is why we had to hurry and retrieve the experiment.” Sara held up the device they had recovered from the underground garden in the desert. “All the proof that our planet can be saved, and your planet spared, is here.”

  Suddenly, things were starting to make sense to Jack. But he still had questions. “Where are your parents? And what about the assassin?”

  “Assassin?” Alex asked in a sudden panic. “What assassin?”

  “Their work required them to stay behind,” Seth said, looking oddly nervous.

  Sara answered the second question.“The Siphon Warrior Series Deranian 75 were created by our military,” she told Alex.

  “They’re bred to hunt?” Alex asked, her heart racing.

  “They’re bred to kill,” Seth corrected.“And if we don’t return to our home in time, the invasion will proceed, and one Siphon will turn into a thousand Siphons.”

  Alex considered all of this for a moment. “We seriously have to find your spaceship.”

  Alex was right. Because at that very moment, a group of black government SUVs raced through Las Vegas.

  Burke and his team were closing in—fast.

  CHAPTER 13

  Alex was not looking forward to what she was about to do. But if Seth and Sara were going to get their ship back, there was only one person she knew who might be able to help. Unfortunately, Dr. Harlan was not someone she usually got along with.

  “How well do you know this guy?” Jack asked as they hurried out of the hotel and through the parking lot. They had managed to get Harlan’s assistants to bring them to where he was holed up.

  “We’ve done a few panels and debates together on opposite sides,” she explained as she walked.“But no one knows the shadow world of UFO government conspiracies better than Harlan.”

  At the edge of the parking lot, they reached a Winnebago. This was Dr. Donald Harlan’s home, office, and transportation. Alex knocked.

  “Go away,” Harlan barked from inside. “Book signing’s not until 4:30.”

  “Harlan,” Alex called, “it’s Alex Friedman.”

  From inside, they heard grumbling. The door swung open to reveal a disheveled older man.

  “Dr. Alex Friedman,” he announced victoriously. “Quelle surprise. To what do I owe the pleasure of the world’s greatest unemployed astrophysicist visiting my humble castle on wheels?”

  “Please, Harlan. We need to talk to you. It’s incredibly important.”

  Harlan let them in, and they told him just enough so that he could help. They were careful not to reveal that Seth and Sara were aliens.

  “So you’re saying the three of you ‘witnessed’ this reported UFO crash?” Harlan asked.

  “That’s right,” Jack said.

  Alex leaned forward. “We were wondering if there was any intel out there among your sources.”

  “I don’t like liars,” Harlan told them.

  Jack,Alex, Seth, and Sara all grew tense. Had they been discovered?

  “Thankfully,” Harlan continued, “your story matches up with reports out of SETI, NORAD, and NASA.”

  Harlan took a seat at one of his computers.

  “You’re lucky kids, that you never came face-to-face with the aliens in the craft,” Harlan told Seth and Sara over his shoulder. “They’ll eat your flesh.”

  Sara looked as if she were about to laugh.“I guess we are indeed lucky kids not to have our flesh eaten.” She paused.“. . . By the aliens.”

  Harlan continued to type, unaware of the sarcasm. “You got that right.” He punched something on the keyboard, and a satellite picture of the crash scene opened on his computer screen.

  “A source e-mailed me this sat-grab,” he explained. “The spot’s already a blur on Google Earth. How soon after you called it in did the suits come after you?”

  “Immediately,” Jack answered for them. “His name was Henry.”

  “Burke,” Harlan said with a nod. “Interesting.”

  Harlan typed in a quick search command, and another picture opened up on the screen. It was a grainy photo of Burke.

  “Burke was a rising star in military intelligence, chief investigator in a UFO sighting near Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana,” Harlan informed them. “Two weeks after he declared the sighting ‘unsubstantiated’ he retired to civilian life.”

  “Where would they take the spaceship?” Alex asked. “51? Nellis? Vandenberg?”

  Harlan shook his head.“Given the size and scope of the crash and Henry Burke’s involvement, there’s really only one possibility.” He glanced at his two assistants who had been silent until now.

  In unison they said, “Witch Mountain.”

  Jack gave Alex a confused look and she just shrugged. She’d never heard of it.

  Harlan flipped through a stack of black-and-white photos and pulled out a fuzzy aerial picture.

 
“California, fifty miles across the Nevada border,” Harlan told them as he handed the picture to Alex. She held it up for Jack and the others to see. “It’s one of our most top secret facilities.”

  Harlan got up and started rifling through a messy pile of paperwork. If there was any organization to it, the others couldn’t tell.

  “I got a schematic around here somewhere,” he continued. “But if you’re thinking about visiting, don’t. When I say it’s fortified up the yin-yang, it’s an understatement.”

  Amazingly, Harlan was able to find exactly what he was looking for in the pile. He handed Alex a set of old blueprints stamped TOP SECRET.

  “Thank you, Harlan,” she said, meaning it. “For everything.”

  “Whatever trouble you’re in,” Harlan warned them, “trust no one.”

  Jack nodded and they started out the door.

  “Freeze!” Harlan said, causing them all to stop in midstride.

  They turned, unsure of what to expect. Harlan smiled and tossed Seth and Sara each a small pin with an alien face on it that read, DR. HARLAN FAN CLUB.

  “Stay in school and keep your eyes on the sky,” he told them. “Remember aliens, they’ll—”

  “Eat your flesh,” Seth finished. “How could we forget?”

  As the four left to find Witch Mountain, Jack and Alex tried not to laugh.

  “We’ll spread the word,” Seth promised him.

  CHAPTER 14

  With time running out, the four, set on going to Witch Mountain, raced back into the hotel. Despite the rush, Sara wanted to make sure to tell Jack and Alex something.

  “Thank you, both of you,” she said. “Seth and I understand that you don’t have to go forward with us. Yet you choose to.”

  “You’re welcome,” Alex said with a warm smile. She turned to Jack.“Bring your cab around. I’ll grab my stuff and meet you in the lobby.” Next she addressed the kids.“Don’t worry. We’re going to get you home. I promise.”

  Her confidence and enthusiasm helped them relax, and they nodded. Jack tried to talk her out of coming, but there was no way she would miss it— or leave the kids stranded.

  “Just lay low till I get back,” Alex instructed.