The Visitor (13 page)

“The girl is no threat,” he repeated in a stronger, more confident voice. “But I am.”

Y
ou? A threat?> Visser Three laughed. He reached out with one hand to push lightly on Chapman’s chest. Chapman fell back, sprawled out on the dirt. His head was just inches from the door of my cage. Tears were streaming down the side of his face.

“If you harm my daughter, I will fight you. I will fight you forever. Ask your Yeerk if he believes me. He knows me better than anyone. Ask Iniss Two-Two-Six if I will fight for my daughter.”

Chapman closed his eyes. The tears stopped. Then his eyes opened again. He picked himself up quickly
from the ground and stood before Visser Three. The Yeerk slug was in charge again. He was once again a Controller.

Before he stood, I had seen something that frightened me all over again. It was Chapman’s watch. The time was now nine twenty-eight. I had about seventeen minutes before I hit the two-hour limit!

“Yes, Visser. And the woman as well. She is not as strong as this one, but she was able to gain control of one hand. Perhaps she has deeper strengths than we knew.” He hesitated before going on. I could still smell the fear on him. “I am of more use with a passive, voluntary host. But I am your tool, Visser. I will do as you command.”

Visser Three said. He nodded down at me.

Chapman didn’t need a second invitation. He jumped in the car and tore out of there.

Melissa was safe. As safe as she would ever be with Chapman as her father. That was something. Not much, but something.

Visser Three yelled. I saw the
Hork-Bajir respond instantly to his command. The nearest one snatched me up and suddenly we were moving fast toward the Blade ship.

In seconds it would all be over. I would be aboard the Visser’s ship. I would leave Earth. The only thing in my future was pain. Maybe I would die before I betrayed my friends. A depressing kind of thing to hope for.

“Mrrraaaoww!”
I jumped and spun around inside my cage.

The door of the Blade ship slid open silently. I could see dark red light inside. I could see a handful
of Taxxons that seemed to be standing over control panels of some sort. Hork-Bajir stood at attention.

Jake said.

Just at that moment I heard a strange sound. My cat brain didn’t recognize it. But the human me did. It was an engine. A big engine. Like a big truck. Or maybe a tractor. Or—

An earthmover.

The Hork-Bajir carrying me saw it, too. He ran into the Blade ship and tossed me down. Then he ran back to the Visser, who waited in the doorway.

I told Jake.

Jake said.

All at once, through the open door of the Blade ship, I spotted the earthmover. It lumbered at a
painfully slow speed. But it lumbered right toward the Blade ship.

Visser Three shouted.

The nearest Taxxon said something in their slithery snake-speech. It sounded like
“Sssree shway snerp snerrrrup ssreet.”

Visser Three said. His tail whipped forward. I saw a huge gash open in the flesh of the Taxxon. Greenish-yellow goo poured out.

The other Taxxons all looked kind of excited. They were waving their little upper arms and snapping their little claws.

Visser Three pointed at two of the Taxxons.

The wounded Taxxon emitted a wailing, slithery scream. Three other Taxxons rushed at him. Their circular mouths fastened onto their fellow Taxxon’s writhing flesh and began chewing and tearing at him.

The sound of the diesel engine grew louder. Visser Three was rapping out orders. Hork-Bajir ran through the door and back outside.

Then I saw something happening in the dark corner of the cabin, over past the horrific Taxxon feeding frenzy. Something was growing. A human being was growing out of nothing.

Visser Three was in a rage. You could feel the waves of his anger radiating around the small space. he ordered.

Outside, two Hork-Bajir took aim at the five tons of slow-moving steel.

Jake was still cowering in the corner, but he had begun to change once again. In the darkness my cat eyes could see the beginning of a pattern of stripes. Black and orange. The stripes of a tiger.

It was time for me to do my part. I concentrated. I felt the change begin. The cage grew small around me.

Rumble rumble rumble
. The earthmover closed in.

The near-dead Taxxon screamed as his fellow Taxxons ate him alive.

Suddenly I saw a brilliant red light. There was a sizzling sound. I saw the earthmover disintegrate. My heart was in my throat. Marco! Cassie! Had they gotten away?

I had to concentrate. I had to ignore the Taxxon’s screams. I had to stop wondering whether Cassie and Marco had been on that earthmover when it was hit. I had to control my morph. Not too far, Rachel. Not too much. I could not become human. Not totally human. I looked down at my paw. Short stubby
fingers had appeared. I stuck my stubby half-human fingers through the bars of the cage and found the lock.

One of the feeding Taxxons looked away from his meal just long enough.
“Yeerss srenn ssseere!”
It waved its creepy front legs in my direction.

Visser Three snapped around and glared at me with ferocious hatred.

I opened the door of my cage.

“Rrrrraaawwwrrr!”
Jake leaped through the air, his huge claws outstretched.

I flew out of the cage, a clumsy mass of fur and skin, a creature that was half cat and half human.

Jake hit Visser Three in the side. mine,
you jerk!>

Visser Three fell over, tangled up in tiger. His deadly tail flashed but missed. Jake ripped the Visser’s flesh with claws infinitely bigger than mine.

It was a great pleasure hearing Visser Three scream that way. But I had other things to worry about.

I couldn’t move in my half morph. I concentrated on regaining my cat form. I had only minutes left before the two hours would be up.

Jake rolled off Visser Three just as a handful of Hork-Bajir rushed to the Visser’s defense.

Jake yelled.

I agreed.

We ran. I was back fully in Fluffer’s shape. I could do thirty miles an hour, as fast as the fastest human being could run.

Unfortunately, Hork-Bajir are faster.

Jake was faster still, for short distances. Fast enough to outrun the Hork-Bajir that were after us. But he wasn’t going to leave me behind.

Jake turned and came for the closest Hork-Bajir.

I saw him flying over my head, a huge beast, orange and black striped. The Hork-Bajir went down hard.

But there was still another Hork-Bajir on my tail. Faster than me. Too fast!

I dodged left. The Hork-Bajir shot past me. I turned back sharply, my little pads scrabbling in the dirt. The Hork-Bajir grabbed for me but missed.

Something else was moving. Something big. The ground was rumbling….

A second earthmover was grinding forward on its tank treads. Marco and Cassie had started another earthmover!

I raced toward the nearest half-finished building. I had to get away. And I had to morph back. Time was up. In minutes I would be trapped!

I saw a dark hole. I flew toward it in a single leap.
The hole led under a wall. Then it opened into a shallow basement. There was a concrete floor about two feet over my head. I was safe! Safe, and with room enough to morph back to human shape.

I tried to concentrate. Out beyond my little concrete shelter I heard growls and alien cries. I heard the rumble of the earthmover. I thought I heard the sizzle of Dracon beams.

Human, I told myself. Return to human. Only minutes left!

Then I felt a shattering noise. Then another. Another. It was like some giant was stomping around.

The giant steps stopped. I was frozen, unable to even think, let alone morph.

Crash!

All around me pillars of rock-hard, scaled flesh, each as big around as a tree trunk, ripped into the concrete.

Grrrunch!

The concrete was lifted off me. Torn away, like it was paper.

I was exposed. Trapped. And standing over me, with the shattered concrete floor in its mighty hand, was a beast that seemed to be made of living rock.

Visser Three said.