EPILOGUE.

" just think," Alex said with a grin. "Joe Morton was at the center of an international conspiracy to hijack top secret alien technology-and he would've gotten away with it, too, if not for us meddling teenagers."The entire booth groaned out loud, but even Isabel looked like she was having a good time. "Somebody give Shaggy here a Scooby-Snack to shut him up," she quipped, giving Alex a playful look to let him know she was just kidding.

Liz couldn't believe how carefree and relaxed everyone seemed, especially after their weekend from hell in Carlsbad. Maybe the eventful road trip really had been just what they'd all needed, after all. Certainly, Michael and Maria, and Alex and Isabel, had come through for each other during their out-of-town adventures, and seemed stronger as couples because of that. Liz enjoyed seeing her friends so happy together, even as she watched the front door of the Crashdown, waiting eagerly for Max to get back from the sheriffs office.

Five Rigelian Ripple sundaes, and two bottles of Tabasco sauce, were consumed before Max finally joined them. He slid into the booth next to Liz, then brought them up to speed on what he had learned about the official police investigation of the events at Carlsbad.

"According to Valenti," he began, "the FBI wants to keep this case low-profile; after all, they can hardly announce to the media that Morton's rampage in Carlsbad was all about classified UFO technology stolen from the air force. The official story is that Morton killed Ramirez and Okada, possibly as a result of a drug deal gone bad, then fell to his death while hiding out in an unexplored cave."What about the foil and the other fragments?" Michael asked. After recovering the attache case from the bat cave, Liz and the others had safely stowed all of Morton's extraterrestrial "merchandise" in the hidden Pod Chamber, where they could be preserved along with other evidence of the teenage hybrids' alien heritage.

Max shrugged. "Officially, those materials never existed in the first place, so no one's making a public fuss about them being missing-although I imagine that the FBI and the Pentagon will be busy searching that cave for months." He smiled, clearly amused at the prospect of all those dogged Feds wasting their time.

"So that's it?" Maria asked. "No loose ends?"Yep," Liz stated confidently. For the first time in two years, she was no longer afraid of the man who shot her. At last, she could leave that trauma in the past where it belonged. "No more loose ends."

GREG COX is the New York Times bestselling author of The Q Continuum trilogy, along with several other popular STAR TREK novels, including Assignment: Eternity, The Black Shore, Dragon's Honor (with Kij Johnson), and Devil in the Sky (with John Gregory Betancourt). In addition, he has written many novels.