The Vanished by Melinda Metz Page B

out.
    Max let go of Isabel’s hand. “Do you have any idea where that cave was?” he asked.
    â€œNot a clue,” Isabel said, her mind still reeling. “But we have to figure it out.”
    â€œThere are a million caves like that around here,” Max said, rubbing his forehead.
    Isabel grabbed his hand and looked him directly in the eye. “I know it’s practically hopeless,” she said. “But it’s the only chance we’ve got to save Alex.”
    I should have thought of coming here myself, Liz thought as she climbed through the first-floor office window of the Astral Projector, the tabloid newspaper DuPris had published before he disappeared. She fell through the window and landed on the floor at Adam’s feet.
    Adam had found a copy of the Astral Projector, with its pages of doctored photographs of alien encounters, in Ray’s museum. Apparently Ray subscribed — probably to give himself a good laugh every month. As soon as Liz explained to Adam what the newspaper was, he’d been sure the tabloid’s office was the perfect place to search for clues to DuPris’s whereabouts. And he didn’t want to wait for Max and Isabel to be done upstairs.
    Liz didn’t want to wait, either. She was glad to have something to do. Anything that might lead to getting Alex back home.
    â€œWhere should we start?” Adam asked.
    â€œYou take the desk,” Liz said as she looked around the dark office. “I’ll go through DuPris’s file cabinet.” She shut the blinds and flicked on the overhead light.
    Adam started rifling through the desk, and Liz opened the top drawer of the file cabinet, marked Abyss–Humidity. She pulled out the first file and scanned it.
    â€œAbyss” turned out to be a bunch of articles about a hole in Colorado that led to the center of the earth, where an alien race had built a civilization. This was according to some questionable sources that DuPris had interviewed. It sounded insane to Liz, but then the Astral Projector’ s stock-in-trade wasn’t exactly reality. DuPris had just used the newspaper as a cover for his investigation of Michael, Isabel, and Max and his search for the Stone of Midnight. Liz was amazed that he’d kept records at all.
    Diligently Liz skimmed every article in the drawer, even though there were hundreds of them. She didn’t want to miss anything that might help Alex. By the time she reached the file titled Humidity, she was struggling to contain her giggles over the ridiculousness of it all. “Humidity” was an article about how aliens from some planet called Neutron-6 needed to keep their skin moist at all times or they’d shrivel up like worms on the sidewalk after it rained.
    â€œThe scary thing is that people believe this stuff,” Liz muttered to herself as she replaced the file. She had just closed the top drawer of the filing cabinet when she heard footsteps in the hallway outside the office.
    The hair on Liz’s arms rose as the doorknob started to turn. She glanced at Adam, and his eyes were wide with fear.
    â€œQuick!” Liz hissed. “Under the desk!”
    A second later the two of them were smashed together in the small space in front of DuPris’s desk chair. “The light,” Adam whispered as the door creaked open.
    Liz squeezed her eyes shut. There was nothing to do about it now.
    Liz strained her back until it hurt and peered under the metal edge of the desk. She stretched and managed to glimpse a pair of sensible shoes and a set of wheels on a cart. An odor of disinfectant wafted through the room.
    It was the cleaning service. Liz’s heart calmed in her chest. Although it still wouldn’t be good to be discovered, she’d take the maid over DuPris any day.
    â€œAlways leaving the light on,” the cleaning woman mumbled to herself.
    As the cleaning lady emptied a garbage can near the door, Liz started to