I knew the look in their eyes. The look of the predator.
And me, their prey.
75 CHAPTER 24
It was not looking good for me. If I tried to fly off-that ship I would be Draconed ten different ways before I could get away.
It was an eerie scene. I stood on the vast metal plain while over my head they hovered, a swarm of deadly predators.
Then things got worse. A lot worse.
It floated up into my vision like a dark moon - the Blade ship of Visser Three.
It hovered just a few hundred feet up. I felt my last reserves of courage beginning to fail.
Tobias, old buddy, I said to myself, you are not going to get out of this alive.
But they just all hovered there. Slowly I began to realize the truth - they didn't know what to do about me. They couldn't shoot me without hitting the ship.
"Andalite!"
The voice in my head made me reel. I almost took wing out of sheer fright.
He had never spoken directly to me before. It was a voice of such absolute power. Such utter confidence. The mere silent sound of it in your head makes you want to obey. Makes you quiver and fear. It is the voice of dread. The voice of destruction.
"Andalite. Fool. Do you think I don't know what you are? A true bird would fly away." Say nothing! I ordered myself. Nothing! If I tried to reply, he might know me for a human. I would not tell him that. I would not give him anything.
I closed my mind. But I could not shut out that dark voice.
"Give yourself up, Andalite. I will give you a quick and painless death. As soon as you tell me where the others are."
I had seen what Visser Three did to the Hork-Bajir who displeased him. The memory was fresh in my mind.
"Have it your way, Andalite. I am patient. I can wait here for as long as it takes. And then you will die. Quickly by Dracon beam. Or, perhaps, if we can snare you, more slowly here in my Blade ship. Much more slowly."
Just then, I heard another voice in my head. A very different voice. It was faint. As if it were far away.
"Tobias? Tobias, can you hear me?"
Rachel!
"Yes, I can hear you!"
76 "Tobias! We're trapped! The tank is full, but the grate won't open. Cassie and Jake have already morphed back to human, but they can't get it open. We're trapped in here!"
"Rachel! I . . . What can I do?"
"We can't get out," Rachel cried. "Listen to me, Tobias. We're trapped. There is no way out.
This ship will take off soon. They'll find us when they get to the mother ship and unload the water. Tobias? We . . . we don't want to be taken alive."
My blood ran cold. My head was whirling. "What are you talking about?"
"Listen, Tobias, we can't be taken alive! Do you understand? If there's anything you can do .
. . anything!"
"Rachel! What can I do? I can't get you out of there!"
"I know," Rachel said. "We all know. But if there's some way to . . . if the ship could be destroyed. We know it's probably not possible. I . . . just if there was some way - "
"No! No!"
"I have to morph to human. We'll tread water here. We have to be ready for when we get to the mother ship. Then we'll morph into other animals and go down fighting."
"This can't be happening," I cried. "This can't be happening!"
"I guess Marco was right all along," Rachel said sadly. "I guess it always was insane to think we could fight the Yeerks."
"Rachel . . . I never told you . . . "
"You didn't have to, Tobias," she said. "I knew. Good-bye." She fell silent. In my mind I could picture her regaining her human shape. Treading water with the others, unable to escape. Expecting only the worst. Praying that I might find a way to make their end swift. As Visser Three had offered to make mine.
We had lost. The Yeerks had won, finally. And when we were gone, the last hope of the human race would die.
Above me the Blade ship waited like . . . like a hawk watching a rabbit. Ready to swoop down and finish me.
Only I wasn't a rabbit.
Visser Three was a predator? Well, so was I.
And I no longer had anything to be afraid of. If my friends were to die in the mother ship, I would be lost and alone in a world where I belonged nowhere.
77 I had nothing more to lose.
Just then I saw something that should have terrified me. Across the metal plain of the ship they crawled and slithered toward me. All around me. A dozen of them. Giant worms.
Centipedes with a hunger for living flesh.
Taxxons.
They had come from the inside of the ship on Visser Three's orders.
If I stayed put, they would catch me. If I flew, the hovering Yeerk ships would fry me.
The Taxxons closed the circle around me.
"It looks as if you have run out of time," Visser Three said in my head. He laughed, ft was not a nice laugh.
Ah, Visser Three, you ruthless predator, I thought Very clever. You have me trapped.
Trapped like a rabbit.
But a trapped rabbit is one thing. And a trapped hawk, a hawk with the mind of a human being, is a whole different matter.
The nearest Taxxon leveled a hand-held Dracon beam at me. He watched me with two of the circle of red globs they have for eyes.
I pushed off with my feet. I beat the air with my wings.
I flew straight for those red Jell-O eyes.
He raised one of his feeble forearms to shield his eyes. The wrong move! I trimmed a shade right, raked my talons forward and struck like I was hitting a mouse in a field.
My talons closed around the Dracon beam. The Taxxon's weak grip was no match for my speed.
The Dracon beam tore loose from his grip.
"Get him!" Visser Three cried. I could practically see the Blade ship rock from the force of his rage.
But I did not take to the air. I flew fast but hugged the surface of the ship's metal curve. They could not hit me without hitting their precious ship."
I knew just where I wanted to go. Wingtips actually hitting the ship on each downstroke, I raced toward the ship's bridge. Toward the tiny windows where I had seen the Taxxon crew.
I could not save my friends, perhaps. But I could try to grant Rachel's last wish. I could try to bring this ship down.
Even if it meant the end of my friends.
78 79 CHAPTER 25
"Take off! Move!" Visser Three commanded the crew of the truck ship.
Almost immediately, the huge thing began to move forward. Very slowly at first. But as it moved, it created a headwind. The bridge was moving away from me. The ship was rising as it went. A hundred feet up now. Two hundred!
"Ha! Not so easy, Andalite!"
Right then I had a powerful urge to shock the evil monster and say, "Guess what, creep? Not an Andalite at all. The name is Tobias!"
But I wasn't ready to start bragging. The truth was, it was looking bad. The ship was slowly picking up speed.
I flapped harder, harder. I gained again. But it was painfully slow. I was wearing out. The Dracon beam weighed me down. The headwind was building.
Ahead of me, just a few feet away, I saw the bulge of the bridge.
I gained a foot. Another. Another.
I landed and folded my wings. I couldn't fly any more. But I could still pull myself along with my talons, gripping the small edges and ridges that ran along the top of the ship's bridge.