Max looked up at her and frowned at her, "What are you still doing here Carrie? You’re not a student, and I don’t know anything more about Atherton than you. Go find your story somewhere else."

"I wish I could, My boss was pissed when he found out I blew my cover. But he had already sunk a bunch of money into this story, and he wouldn’t let me give up. His new plan is to have me cover the school dance, sort of a look back at what it’s like to be a teenager again. You remember that movie Drew Barrimore was in…"Never been Kissed"? Along those lines, but for real this time. You didn’t tell Kyle or the others about me did you? It would make it so much easier if they just continued treating me the same way." Carrie had been trying to think of a plausible story to ‘pretend’ to cover all night, and this was the best she had come up with. She hoped Max would believe it.

Max eyed Carrie, knowing that this was all a sham, but not wanting to let her know that he knew that she worked for the FBI. "Alex & Maria are practicing with the band in the music room, Liz & Isabel are working on hanging up fliers for the dance, and Michael is in the office. Seems all those missed classes last term have caught up with him. And No, I haven’t told anyone about you yet… I wanted to hear your story first. But do you really think it’s fair to Kyle to do this to him? How is he going to react when he reads about it in the paper?"

"You’re right about Kyle, I’ll tell him about it at the dance on Friday, and I’ll give him a chance to read the article before it’s published. I thank you for not saying anything Max." Carrie smiled, she couldn’t believe she had pulled it off.

Max looked up from is task of stuffing the guts back into the alien autopsy in time to see Alex rush into the room. "What’s up Alex?"

Alex looked around to see that they we alone. "Max, I found him. At least I think I have. I wasn’t even looking for him. I was looking for clues to the cave drawings." He held up the small disk for Max to see.

"What are you taking about Alex? And what’s that for." Max said chuckling at Alex’s exuberance.

Alex looked around the room and asked, "Where’s Milton?"

"He had to leave early today so he asked me to close up tonight." Max replied.

Alex led the way up to the computer in the Archive room, pausing briefly so that Max could unlock the door. Alex inserted the disk into the drive and pulled up a document on radio astronomy. The document showed several different images of spiral galaxies. Alex began scrolling through the document until he paused at a rather strange looking one it had two very prominent arms spiraling away from the center. As soon as Max saw this picture his mind flashed on images of space and worlds that could only be described as like something out of a science fiction movie. "Home", Max said as he let out his breath realizing that he had been holding it.

Alex pulled out a piece of badly crumpled paper and held it to the computer screen. Max recognized it as the image he had drawn at Isabel’s insistence the day after their trip to Marathon Texas. The arms of the Galaxy were visible through the paper and lined up perfectly with the ones Max had drawn. Alex then removed the paper and continued to scroll down the screen. At the bottom of the page there was a picture and a name. Max looked at the picture; the similarities were amazing, The photograph looked like the man in Carries locket, a male version of Carrie. Max scanned over to the name Steven J. Smith. He looked at Alex. "I could have sworn that was Carries brother he said. But the name’s aren’t the same."

"Max you give up far to easy. As I said, I was looking for pictures of spiral galaxies on the web during study hall, when I came across this… I first saw the picture of the galaxy and knew that this must be the one, it is even located in the constellation of Aries. I then scrolled down the page to see who was source of the picture and found Steven’s picture. I wanted to find out where he lived so I could talk to him, so I put his name into my search program and guess what it came up with… he lives in San Agustin New Mexico, and works at the VLA (very large array) radio telescope. But the most interesting thing is that when I did a background check on the name I found that his records only go back five years. About the same time period that Carrie’s brother Josh, disappeared. So I decided to do a bit of cross checking, and discovered that they are the same person, Josh legally had his name changed." Alex stopped and looked at Max, "do you think we should call him?" he added.

Max stood in stunned silence, imagining the probably against such a sting of occurrences ever happening again. " Yes, of course we should call him. He may be able to give us more information on this galaxy"

"Should we tell Carrie we found her brother? " Alex asked

"Let’s wait for a few day’s, No sense in getting her hopes up if he doesn’t want to see her. Let’s talk to him first." And there’s no time like the present" Max said as he picked up the phone and dialed the number Alex had given him.

"Hello, Mr. Smith?" Max asked when the phone was picked up. "My name is Max Evans, and I work at the UFO center hear in Roswell NM, and I was wondering if I could meet with you about a display we are putting together on the VLA, and it’s help in the SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) project." Max waited for the reply and responded, "you’re planning on coming to town on Thursday? Wonderful, I’ll be working at the center after school, feel free to stop by and I’ll give you the tour." Max hung up the phone and smiled at Alex.

The next few day’s of school few by, Carrie spent most of her free time watching Michael for any sign of trouble, even going so far as to check to see that he was attending all of his classes. She was getting desperate as her time was running out. On Thursday she decided that she had better make her move, so she arranged to have a copy of the English mid-term placed in his school locker (along with several personal items of the teacher’s) where it would sure to be found in the surprise locker search the called when the test was discovered missing.

Michael was called into the school office where Sheriff Valenti and the principal met him. The sheriff pulled out a small card and started reading; "You have the right to remain silent…."

Michael stood in stunned disbelief as the Sheriff finished reading him the maranda rights, "What have I been accused of this time sheriff?"

"Theft Michael, A test went missing from a teacher’s class room this morning, and when we searched the lockers guess where it turned up? The Sheriff stated "ordinarily I wouldn’t have been called in for the theft of a test because it’s considered a school matter, but you had to go step further and steal a watch, and wallet from the desk as well. That makes it theft. The teacher deciding to make an example of you has decided to press charges. So, I’ll have to take you into custody until your guardian can be found. Any idea where we might be able to find him?"

"Hank has left town for the weekend," Michael stated struggling to remember what bars Hank liked to frequent.

"Well now, I guess we will just have to hold you for the entire weekend then. We can’t release you into a guardian’s custody if he’s not here now can we."

Carrie watched from a quiet corner in the student center as the sheriff took Michael away. She felt terrible about what she had done. A few minutes later the final bell rang signaling the end of the school day. As she was getting ready to leave, Max stopped to ask if she had seen Michael in art class. "No, Michael wasn’t in art today." She said honestly, "Were you looking for him for something?"

"Yes, I wanted him to meet me after work at the Crashdown, will you tell him if you see him?" Max asked.

"Of course", Carrie replied.

That night shortly before Max and Alex were closing the UFO Center for the night two men walked in. "Hello, is one of you Max Evans?" the taller man asked?

Max looked up and saw Mr. Smith standing before him. "Yes, I’m Max Evans, You must be Mr. Smith."

"Yes, but call me Steve. This is my friend Mark. We were on our way to visit the Mescalero Reservation, Mark is hoping to collect samples of their writing and artwork for a dissertation he is working on. I was just going to be tagging along on this trip to keep him company when we got your call the other day and we decided to swing in here to answer your questions and check out your center."

"Well, to tell you the truth, we are mostly interested in a spiral galaxy you photographed in the Aries system a few months ago. We have heard reports that it may be somehow linked to the UFO crash in 1947." Max asked.

The men looked at each other before Steve said, "You’re not talking about the transmissions we have been picking up from there are you, That was supposed to be classified information"

"Yes, that’s was what the anonymous tip we received said." Alex said.

Max looked at Alex wondering if they should continue. "We were hoping you could tell us a bit more about what you have found? Transmission frequency, origin of the transmission etc.… This information will be kept in strictest confidence of course."

Steve & Mark chuckled to each other, "I have been sending out anonymous tips on these radio transmissions for weeks now, but I don’t recall sending one this way. The government moved in on my project a month ago, and has all but shut me out. The tips are just a little bit of ‘pay back’."

Steve placed a small white card on the desk in front of Max; the card was blank except for several lines of numbers. Max frowned until he suddenly realized that they were the coordinates and transmission frequency of the signal that the government was tracking. Max handed the card to Alex, who then smiled knowing instantly what it meant.

Mark suddenly spoke up, " Well, I don’t know about anyone else but I’m a bit hungry you wouldn’t know of any place to get a piece of pie would you?"

Max smiled and pointed to the Crashdown across the street. "As a matter of fact Alex & I were going to do have a slice as soon as we lock up tonight. Have you already checked into your hotel room? Why don’t you meet us over there in about 20 min?"

Max and Alex walked into the Crashdown a few minutes later, and sat down at their usual booth. Maria came up to the pair to take their order and ask, "have either of you seen Michael? I was going to give him a ride over to the formal house to pick out a tux for the dance tomorrow but he never showed."

Max frowned, "Perhaps something came up… I left word for him to meet us here later tonight. He may just be running behind"

"You’re probably right, I just worry over everything. Can I get you anything? Besides Liz that is." Maria winked at Max.

Blushing Max asked for the list of pies, and told Maria that they were expecting some company in a few minutes and they would order then.

Carrie walked in a few minutes later with Kyle and sat down at the small table in the center of the restaurant. They were chattering about a movie that they had seen and did not notice Max and Alex.

Liz came out from the back room with a book and asked if she could sit down with them while she took her break. "Alex, you might be interested in this… I found my Grandma Claudia’s journal, remember that camping trip she took us all on last summer? The one where you stepped on a rotten trunk only to discover that it contained a bee’s nest"

"How could I forget? I don’t think I’ve ever run that fast before. Pity the track coach wasn’t there to see it. Luckily your grandma new what plants to use to bring the swelling down." Alex said

Max asked if there were any stories about Liz in the journal, just as she was about to answer two young men walked in and stood next to the booth where they were sitting. Max looked up and smiled, "Liz, this is Steve & Mark. They stopped by the UFO center a little while ago to give us some more information on a project Alex & I are working on."

Alex moved to the other side of the booth, sitting next to Liz, allowing Josh and Mark to slide into the empty side. Maria arrived a few moments later with the pie menu. Before opening the menu Max looked at Liz and asked, "so, what’s the freshest pie today?"

Maria answered, "My mom just brought in a blackberry pie, it’s still warm"

"Well I guess that’s the answer then, is that what everybody wants?" Liz looked at the two men sitting across from her, when they nodded yes she said to Maria, "I’ll come in to help you get the pie."

Alex moved again to allow Liz to leave and sat back down, noticing that she had left the journal behind. He was thumbing through the pages when he noticed a series of sketches of petroglyphs and design motifs. He was examining the page when Mark suddenly let out an excited gasp. "Where did that book come from?" Mark asked.

Alex looked up from the journal; "This was Liz’s grandmother’s journal. I was just reading about all of the trips she had been on this last year."

"May I take a look?" Mark asked

Alex passed over the book, Mark started studying the journal intently, "What is it" Steve asked.

"These drawing’s, this is what I was going to visit the Mescalero Reservation for. Only some of these are from other parts of the world." Mark was about to say more when Liz returned with the pie. Mark looked at her and asked, "Liz, who was your grandmother and what was she doing when she was traveling?"

"Grandma Claudia? I think she was researching for her next book. She was an Anthro-archeologist. Her passion was ancient cultures." Liz replied.

"That wouldn’t be Dr. Claudia Parker would it?" Mark asked

Liz smiled, "You’ve heard of her?"

"I have read her book and all of her papers. She was the reason I made my thesis subject the ‘similarities of art and language in the western cultures.’ She was brilliant." Mark gushed.

As Liz and Mark were talking they suddenly realized that Steve was staring at someone across the restaurant, "Do you know who that is?" he suddenly asked

Liz turned to see were he was looking, "Yes, that’s Carrie she’s in my class at school"

"No, she couldn’t be, she would have graduated 3 years ago" Steve replied.

Liz and the others looked at Steve, "How do you know that" Liz finally asked.

As they were watching Kyle got up from the table he was sharing with Carrie and headed towards the restroom.

"Because she’s my sister", Steve said as he was moving to get up and go over to her.

The group at the table watched as Steve went over to where Carrie was sitting. As soon as Carrie saw who it was she leapt to her feet and threw her arms around Steve. They talked for a moment before he brought Carrie back to the booth with him.

"Carrie, I think you know everybody here except my friend Mark, Mark this is my sister Carrie." Steve said as he introduced them.

"What, How, Where… " Carrie was speechless with so many questions running around in her head. Max stepped in to explain.

"Carrie, Alex and I have been working on a project at the UFO center. And in the process of looking for information we ran across your brother’s name. We were unsure if he was your brother as he didn’t have the same name you had given us but he looked like the photograph in your locket." Max paused looking at the two siblings, "I didn’t want to say anything to get your hopes up but I was hoping that I could get the two of you together."

Carrie was wiping away tears of joy, "Max, Alex, I don’t know what to say, you have made me so happy. Everything that I have done since the day Josh left home has been for the goal of someday finding him." Carrie suddenly stopped talking and her pace paled, "oh no, what have I done? I set Michael up. The Police have him now for questioning. And if we can’t get him out in the next few min.’s they will have an expert interrogator working on the case. The interrogator was getting picked up from the airport within the hour."

The group sat in stunned silence; Max was the first to speak up. "We have to get him out now! I wonder why he hasn’t tried to contact us?"

"If the Sheriff is playing the same game he played with Liz and me, he probably wasn’t told that he had the right to a phone call." Alex announced.

Liz turned to Carrie, "How did you set him up? What was he arrested for? How could you! I thought you were our friend!"

"I going to fix that right now!" she said as she headed back to the table to get her coat and bag.

Kyle had just returned to their table and said, "Carrie, what happened? Where are you going?"

"Kyle, I’m sorry I need to go and fix a big mistake. I was mad at Michael, and I took some stuff from a teacher and blamed him. I need to go and explain what happened to your father."