Never Underestimate Destiny

Part 2

(Thursday, October 19)

The next day Max hurried down the hall, eager to get to the Physics class he shared with Liz.

Now that he'd figured out something was going on, he was anxious to discover what it was, and only Liz could tell him.

But Max wasn't sure where to start with Liz.

He had been so horrible to her, accusing her of betraying them when they were in Congresswoman Whitaker's office, and yelling at her when they had spoken in Copper Summit. And just a few days ago he hadn't even said a word to her when she had left the UFO Center with Kyle and Maria to try and destroy the alien device.

He'd been such a jerk to not notice that she was in pain too.

Yesterday he'd seen the cautious look on her face when she'd come into their class and it had broken his heart. Liz had expected him to lash out at her, and he was devastated by it.

In order to get Liz to open up to him, he had to get her to trust him again.

He took his seat in class and waited, facing the door, for her to arrive. It seemed to take an eternity, but finally he could see her down the hallway.

She walked with her head bowed, her arms crossed, clutching her books to her chest as if they would protect her. The light of happiness and contentment was gone from her as if someone had shut off a switch inside her. And he knew it had been switched off. He had done it.

She looked completely miserable, and it was all his fault.

As she walked through the door her eyes slid to his, and once again he saw her brace for his reaction.

His chest felt heavy, but he smiled at her. "Hey, Liz," he said softly.

For a split second he thought he saw a spark of something in her eyes as she smiled back. "Hey, Max," she practically whispered.

The heaviness inside him lessened just a little.

Their teacher, Mr. Seligman, walked into the room just as the bell rang, drawing Max's attention away from Liz. It was obvious to Max even in his distracted state that Mr. Seligman had something on his mind.

Instantly he began to speak.

"A black hole," he said excitedly. "That's what's left after a star dies. And that's exactly what happened last week, my friends."

"The spectacular, stellar, implosion of a red giant, unheard of in the history of astronomy. The first time a post main sequence star burning in its prime, suddenly and without warning, violently exploded in a supernova of a hundred million degrees and disappeared. A process that typically takes many thousands of years."

"What could have accounted for this, remarkable loss?"

Max felt a jolt of apprehension rush through him. He had a terrible feeling that they were all in danger.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

(New York, NY)

Lonnie and Rath arrived at the street corner for their meeting, looking around for their contact.

"He's not here," Rath grunted.

Lonnie shrugged. "We're early."

Rath shifted around, anxious for some action. He looked at Lonnie where she leaned against the building, waiting, and motioned to the hot dog vender a few steps away. When she shook her head he approached the stand. "Two with everything," he said with a jerk of his head.

The vender started to make his order, and while the man was distracted, Rath's skilled hands pocketed two bags of chips, a Snickers and a couple of cans of Coke.