Michael was the first to break the silence. He cleared his throat, voicing the question on all their lips.

“So, what the hell is it?” he asked, his frustration palpable.

Max circled the granolith, his outstretched hand not quite touching its surface.

“Lonnie said it was a religious artifact, some kind of Holy Grail,” he replied thoughtfully. “How much of that we can believe is anyone’s guess, but…I don’t know, that feels right, somehow.”

Max turned to look at Liz. She had remained by the entrance, just barely within the chamber.

“Liz, you told me the granolith was powerful, but you wouldn’t say how you knew that. I’m asking again—from where did you get this knowledge?” he inquired.

The others collectively turned away from the granolith to stare at Liz. She froze under their scrutiny, her throat closing in fear. Her eyes sought out Maria, the one person to whom she had entrusted her secret.

Maria looked back at her, her torn feelings clearly displayed in her face. Liz could almost see her thought processes—to tell or not? Liz gave her a look, one she knew well, and Maria began to fidget. At last she capitulated with Liz’s silent plea and dropped her gaze, giving an imperceptible nod.

Not imperceptible enough, it turned out, because Michael had witnessed their exchange.

“You told Maria, but not us,” he practically growled. The angry statement brought everyone’s eyes to Michael…everyone’s but Max’s. His eyes never left Liz’s face.

“Liz, is that true?” he asked, too softly. Liz could feel the anger radiating from him as he came towards her, stopping directly in front of her. She said nothing, refusing to look at him, which was all the answer Max needed.

“Why, Liz? Why would you tell Maria something so important to us, and not tell me?” he asked, fighting to get the words out through his anger and hurt.

Liz opened her mouth to answer, but nothing came out. She took a deep breath and tried again.

“Max, it—it isn’t what you think. Please. I—I can’t tell you; I promised,” she whispered, her eyes filling with tears. She couldn’t bear that she was the cause of all the pain in his beautiful eyes—again. Liz made a helpless motion with her hands. “Max, I don’t think I should be here. I—I’m going to go,” she said, and she turned from him, struggling to hold in the tears. Max caught her arm.

“Liz,” he began, only to be silenced by a flare of white light from the granolith’s base. Startled, Max whirled to look at the granolith, letting go of Liz’s arm, then turned back to her.

The light faded, returning to its customary faint glow. Liz’s mind was already racing as the questions began to flow.

“What made it do that?” wondered Alex. He, Michael, Maria, Isabel and Tess approached the granolith, all echoing the same basic question. Kyle stood a little apart, his wariness evident in his posture. It was his first visit to the granolith chamber as well as Liz’s, and it made him a little nervous.

Only Max and Liz ignored the granolith. Instead, they were looking at each other, communicating silently. Max had a pleading expression on his face, and Liz’s resolve began to crumble under what she could read in his eyes.

“I’m as surprised as you are,” she stated quietly. “My—informant told me only what I have already told you, that it was extraordinarily powerful and could be dangerous in the wrong hands. I guess, like any other kind of power, it can be abused,” Liz continued, her voice taking on an air of speculation. “Anything that bestows power is an object of desire for all the wrong people,” she mused absently.

The corners of Max’s mouth quirked up as he tried not to smile at this proof of the engagement of Liz’s facile mind. She saw the tiny movement, though, and laughed self-deprecatingly.

“Yeah, I’ll admit I’m all curious now,” she said, still smiling at Max.

By this time the other 6 had realized that Max & Liz had some idea as to the cause of the flare up of light, but no one wanted to intrude. Finally, Alex decided to poke his nose in.

“So I take it that you two know why all of a sudden it was daylight in here,” he remarked. “Would you mind sharing, because the rest of us are still in the dark over here.”

Max’s gaze swept the group.

“The light brightened when I touched Liz’s arm,” he declared quietly. “We’ll have to set up some experiments, see if this happens for anyone or anything else, and go from there. We should approach this scientifically,” he added, smiling wryly at Liz.

“Yeah, um, we can try different combinations of people holding hands or linking arms, that kind of stuff,” she said, already focusing on planning the experiments.

Michael and Isabel exchanged a look, and Isabel spoke up.

“That’s great, but before we do that, could we just, make sure it wasn’t a fluke?” she asked, looking back and forth between Liz and Max. “Would you guys just, you know, hold hands? Just as a test?”

Liz hesitated, then nodded and reached for Max’s hand as everyone watched the granolith.

The second their hands touched, the granolith began to grow brighter. As Max interlaced their fingers, its light intensified till they could barely look directly at it.

Eyes watering, Liz held onto Max’s hand for another moment, then squeezed it and let go.

The granolith’s reaction was just as immediate. The light died back down to its customary level in a matter of seconds. Max cleared his throat, carefully not looking at Liz. He’d gotten a brief flash from her mind, an image of himself with shoulder-length hair, dressed in black leather. He wondered if it was another fantasy, but it was neither the time nor the place to ask about it.

“I think that’s enough for tonight,” Max said, amazed his voice was so steady. “We can come back later, when we have a plan. Tomorrow’s Friday. Can we all meet at the Crashdown after close to discuss this? Does that work for everyone?” he asked.

There were nods all around, and Liz said, “Yeah, that’ll be OK. Maria, Michael and I all work the closing shift tomorrow night anyway, so we’ll already be there. And my parents never mind us hanging out.”

Max nodded. “OK, then we’ll see you all tomorrow.”

Everyone began to file out the door. Liz turned to go too, but stopped when Max spoke to her.

“Liz, please stay for a moment. I need to talk to you,” he said quietly.

Liz sighed, knowing she had this coming, and turned to face Max.

“OK, Max, but not here. It seems like that is, well, listening or something. I don’t really want to talk in front of it till I have a better idea of what it is,” she declared with a dramatic shiver.

Max smiled. “Yeah, we kind of feel like that too. Where would you like to go, then?”

“Let’s just go to the Crashdown. My parents are at this party tonight, they won’t be home till late, so it’ll be private, and we can get warm,” Liz replied, rubbing her arms.

Max ached to take her in his arms and tell her that he would keep her warm, but instead he just nodded.

“All right, let’s go then, before Isabel leaves us stranded. It is too cold to be out here all night,” he stated, starting to walk out of the chamber.

They got back to the cars to find the Jetta already gone, and Alex and Isabel waiting for them in the Jeep.