startled cry on the other end of the line.
“Answer me, Mary Beth. Are you alone?”
“Well, of course, I’m alone. My God, Maddie, are you okay? How much trouble are you in?”
“Not nearly as much trouble as you’re going to be in when I get my hands on you,” Maddie seethed.
“Now wait just a minute,” Mary Beth protested. “I’ve been worried to death about you. Where are you, anyway? Tell me! I’ll come and get you this minute.”
“Come and get me?” Maddie shouted. “I’ve been carried off by aliens, remember?”
“Okay, okay. I admit things have gotten out of hand. But you weren’t the one being chased across the desert by jeep full of soldiers with bazookas on their shoulders.”
“God, Mary Beth, how could you do this to me?” Maddie broke in, no more impressed than she usually was with her sister’s outrageous dramatics.
“I swear, it wasn’t my fault, Maddie. I was petrified when I saw that soldier grab you. And then when I realized I was being chased myself, I headed for Roswell so fast I had to be doing a hundred miles an hour.”
“And?”
“Well, that was the problem. After I hit the main road, I was pulled over by the local police for speeding. The second the officer walked up to the Jeep, I blurted out that my sister had been abducted.”
“Dear God,” Maddie groaned.
“I know. Saying the word abduction in Roswell is like saying you saw something strange swimming around in Loch Ness.”
“But why didn’t you explain what you meant, Mary Beth?”
“I tried to explain,” Mary Beth insisted. “But think about the answers I had to give them. A weird-looking aircraft? Out near the old Air Force base? Everyone got so excited, I decided if I just went along with the hysteria, those goons who grabbed you would forget all about your trespassing and send you straight back to Roswell to clear things up.”
Wishful thinking, Maddie thought. “And what about Mom and Pop, Mary Beth? Have you at least had the decency to call and tell them the truth?”
“They’re up at the cabin for the next two weeks. Didn’t they tell you? And you know Pop’s rules when they go up there. No radio. No TV. No phone. No outside communication, period.”
Maddie breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, at least that’s one thing in our favor. Hopefully this will all be over once you make a statement to the press in the morning.”
“Statement?”
“Yes, Mary Beth, you have to tell them you were mistaken,” Maddie stuttered. “Tell them you’ve heard from me and that I’m okay.”
“And are you okay? You still haven’t told me exactly where you are. Why haven’t they let you go, Maddie? Tell me what’s really going on.”
Maddie hesitated. “It doesn’t matter, Mary Beth. Just call off the media.”
“What do you mean, it doesn’t matter?” Mary Beth yelled so loudly Maddie held the phone out from her ear.
“Of course, it matters. Tell me where you are and I’ll come and get you. Then we can both talk to the press. Don’t you realize we’re celebrities now, Maddie? There’s no telling where we could go with this. Think about it. Identical twin sisters? The media will love us. You could get a book deal. Maybe I could even get a picture out of this.”
“Have you gone crazy?” Maddie said through clenched teeth. “You have to call off the media, Mary Beth! Do it first thing tomorrow.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Just do it, Mary Beth.”
“Why? What’s really going on, Maddie? Tell me.”
“I can’t,” Maddie admitted, sending an anxious look in Hawk’s direction.
“What do you mean, you can’t tell me? You mean you’re being held against your will? By our own damn government?”
Maddie took a deep breath. “Something like that,” she said, but a warning look from Hawk told her she was already skating on thin ice.
“Then you can tell those camouflage-wearing morons for me that I’ll call off the media when I get my sister back!”
Maddie saw red. “Dammit, Mary Beth. My entire career is on the line here!”
“It’s always about your precious career, isn’t it?” Mary Beth accused.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“What about my career? Have you stopped to consider the exposure I’m getting right now?”
“Exposure?”
“Yes, exposure. This is finally the big time for me. I’ve had calls from Larry King. From Letter-man. Even Oprah’s people have been ringing my agent’s phone off the hook.”
Maddie didn’t answer.
“Don’t you see what this can mean to me? When all of this is over, you’ll still be Dr. Madeline Morgan and you’ll still have that impressive Ph.D. flowing behind your name. But what about me? If I don’t make the most of this opportunity right now, I’ll slip back into obscurity and spend the rest of my life scrambling around for occasional two-bit commercials.”
When Maddie still didn’t answer, Mary Beth said softly, “Don’t hate me for putting my career first, just this once. I’ve never hated you for always doing the same thing.”
“You know I could never hate you, Mary Beth.” Maddie let out a long sigh. “No matter what you did.”
“Then tell me the truth, Maddie. Are you really safe? Are you really going to be okay?”
Maddie took another look at the man who made her pulse race every time he looked in her direction. “I’ll be fine,” she lied. “I should be back at the hotel by the end of the week. Wait for me there. I’ll explain everything then.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be here. My agent wants me here in Roswell where I’ll draw the most attention. He’s even working out details for satellite interviews he plans to sell to the highest bidder. Can you believe this, Maddie? Me? Being interviewed by…”
Mary Beth was still rambling when Brad reached out and took the phone, then disconnected the call. He then promptly removed the battery and slipped it into his pants pocket before he placed the now useless cell phone on top of the bookcase. Maddie watched every move he made, but she never said a word.
He leveled a look in her direction. “What about your parents?”
Maddie shrugged a shoulder. “They’re up at our family cabin in the mountains. My father insists on total solitude when they’re up there. But since Mary Beth won’t call off the search, it’s only a matter of time until
