He started on toward the door. I fell into step behind him again.
"So, what's happening?"
I nearly had a heart attack.
My tail puffed up. My back fur went straight up. I almost bolted.
Chapman stopped and I nearly got entangled in his legs. His left foot moved. I dodged.
He backed up a little. I squirmed out of the way.
"lt's me, Jake. What's going on, Rachel?"
Jake?
Chapman opened the door of the secret room. He stepped through. I was right between his monstrously big feet. If he happened to glance down . . .
But he didn't. He didn't, and when he turned around to shut the door behind him, I bolted for the desk. I jammed my body as far back in the dark corner as I could.
I'd made it ... barely. I was alive ... so far.
"Rachel? Can you hear me?"
"Jake! Where are you? You scared me half to death. "
"Are we okay?" He sounded concerned.
Me, I was just angry.
"What do you MEAN are WE okay?" I yelled silently. Where are you?"
"Well ... I'm kind of on you."
"On me? Jake, this is not the time to be playing jokes. " Chapman sat down at the desk. His feet pushed beneath the desk, just narrowly missing me as I once again dodged nimbly out of the way.
69 "Sorry. I can't exactly see."
I kept my eyes focused on Chapman's feet.
Cats have incredible powers of concentration. I focused hard on those big feet, each almost as big as I was. I had to stay out of their way. That was the key to staying alive.
"Jake, we're in kind of a situation here. In like ten words or less, where are you"
"In ten words or less, I morphed," Jake said. "I'm a flea."
"Excuse me?" It would have been funny if I hadn't been so terrified. "Are you telling me you morphed into a flea? A flea?"
"Yeah. I'm on your back. Or your head. I can't tell. I don't really have eyes. At least not eyes that see anything I can understand. I mean, all I know is warm or not warm. I ... I think I can sense blood. That's about it. And I can kind of sense motion. Like when your hair stood up, I knew there was something going on around me."
"Jake, this is sick. This is beyond sick. What is the matter with you? A flea? Are you insane?
Just being a lizard made you sick. This is way worse. "
"Actually, it's kind of okay," he said. "I mean, I don't know how to explain it, but the flea mind is so limited it's not hard at all to control. All it knows is to move toward the sense of warm blood, and eat. It's like ... I don't know, like in a way I'm not even really in the flea because I can't see much or sense much. I expected it to be horrible, but when Cassie and Marco and I tested it out -"
"They're in on this with you?" Of course! That's why Cassie had made such a point of patting my head. She was depositing Jake on me.
"Rachel, we were worried about you. We figured someone should go along with you. Tobias said -"
"Ah, so Tobias is in on this, too. "
"Tobias said you were not telling us every thing. He wasn't sure why, or what it was you weren't telling. "
I sighed inwardly. I guess it's good to have friends who care about you. But on the other hand, Jake had practically made me run into Chapman. Besides, the idea of Jake morphing into a flea and crawling around in my fur just gave me the worst creeps you can imagine.
Suddenly the brilliant light went on.
Visser Three appeared in the room.
"Jake. The Visser is here in hologram. So don't distract me, okay? We're hiding under the desk about half an inch away from Chapman's foot. "
70 "Oh. But it doesn't matter if he sees you, right? I mean, he'll just figure you're the cat. No biggie. So you shouldn't be acting suspicious. "
I hesitated. Oh, well, it would have to come out sooner or later. "Um, Jake? That thing I didn't tell you? It's that Visser Three saw me in here last time. He told Chapman he should probably just . . . you know . . . kill me. He was worried I might be an Andalite in morph. " For a while Jake didn't say anything. I had the feeling he was trying to keep himself from yelling at me. He failed.
"Rachel, are you CRAZY? You came back down here after that? Are you INSANE?" But just then Chapman began to speak. "Welcome, Visser. Iniss two two six of the Sulp Niaar pool submits to you. May the Kandrona shine and strengthen you."
"And you," Visser Three said curtly. "Report."
"I have four new voluntary hosts, Visser," Chapman said. "Two are children recruited through The Sharing, the front organization. Of the two adults one is an agent for the FBI, a sort of policeman. He may be very -"
"FOOL!" Visser Three's artificial voice was flat, but still carried a load of anger. "Do I care about a handful of hosts? What have you learned of the Andalite bandits?"
"Visser, what can I do ... unless they show themselves?"
"They used Earth animals in the attack on the pool," Visser Three said. "They used powerful, dangerous Earth animals. Find out how they obtained such morphs. My experts here tell me such animals are rare on this part of the planet."
"Yes, Visser. I will do -"
"Yes. You will.
And we have another matter. We need six more human-Controllers, suitable for work as guards. They will be used to increase the guard around the Kandrona."
"What's happening?" Jake asked.
"Chapman is getting reamed by Visser Three. "
"Too bad Marco isn't here. He'd enjoy seeing Chapman get chewed out."
"He wants us bad," I said. "Or at least he wants the Andalites he thinks we are. He's put ting extra guards around the Kandrona. Human-Controllers."
"That's interesting, maybe he'll -"
The foot moved too quickly. The point of the shoe hit me in the ribs.
71 "Mrrrraaaoowwww!"
Chapman pushed back from the desk. He passed right through the Visser Three hologram.
For a\second I saw them united, as if they were one horrible creature.
"What's happening?" Visser Three demanded.
Chapman stared at me, horror and fury in his eyes.
I flattened my ears back against my skull. My claws came out. My teeth were bared.
"It's the animal, Visser. The cat," Chapman said in a voice full of loathing and fear.
Visser Three seemed to make a seething, half-hissing noise.
"You should have killed it when I told you to, Iniss two two six."
"But Visser -" Chapman protested.
"And yet it all works out to my advantage," Visser Three said. "Now there can be no doubt that this cat is one of the Andalite bandits."
"Jake? We're busted," I said. "We're busted really bad." 72 Chapter Sixteen
"We will no longer have to search for the Andalites," Visser Three said. "We have one right here with us."
"Shall I kill it?" Chapman asked.
"No. Don't kill it. Seize it. Seize it now, be fore it can morph back into Andalite shape. By the time I am done with this one, we will have them all! It has been a long time since I tortured a proud Andalite warrior. But I know how to break them. Seize it and bring it to me!"
Chapman knew better than to argue.
Chapman dived. His hands were open wide, grabbing for me.
I was trapped! No way out. No way to open that door and escape.