Which, unfortunately, is about walking speed for an average adult human.
«Step on them!» Visser Three cried triumphantly. «Crush them!»
But we had one other skill, in addition to looking disgusting: We were agile little bugs. Ever try and step on a roach going full out? Ever try and step on a roach armed with full human intelligence?
It isn't easy.
WHOOOOOOOSH! Down came something so big it blocked out the sky.
I stalled the legs on my left, motored the legs on my right, and did a Bat-turn that would have left the Batmobile skidding.
BOOOOOMMMMM! A Hork-Bajir clawed foot the size of Arkansas landed behind me. Hah! Too slow.
Too slow by about three millimeters. Next one might get me.
Then . . .
«Opening up ahead here!» Jake yelled.
Opening to where? I didn't care. I saw a dark, horizontal band stretching forever to my left and almost forever to my right. It was just a seam
147 between one level of steel and another, but it was taller than a quarter was thick, and that's all I needed.
WHOOOOOSH!
BOOOOOMMM!
«Ahhh!» Suddenly I was running on five legs. One had been yanked out by the roots as the Hork-Bajir toe landed on it. The roach didn't care. It creeped me out, but the roach was indifferent.
We were in a two-dimensional universe. Below us, steel. Above us, pressing down on our backs, steel. We could go forward/back, and left/right. That was it. We were an Etch-A-Sketch drawing.
«Light ahead,» Ax reported.
We went for the light. But overhead was a pounding thunderstorm like nothing you've ever imagined. Dozens of humongous Hork-Bajir running above us, their massive impacts translating down through the steel. We might as well have been running around inside a drum.
BOOOM.'BOOOM.'BOOOM.'BOOOM!
«See, isn't this fun, David?» I said, trying out a little humor. «Ah, yes, life as an Animorph. It's not a job. It's an adventure!»
All the while, the dim light ahead grew brighter. And suddenly, the pounding footsteps above us died off. We had passed beneath some
148 kind of wall. Bulkhead, I guess it's called on a ship. Anyway, the thunder was behind us, the light ahead of us, and I was starting to experience a tiny ray of hope amidst the gibbering terror.
Say one thing for roaches: They don't wear out.
HSSSSSSSSSS.
«What's that sound?» David asked.
My whole body could feel that the hissing was behind us. And my antennae were already getting a sick, quivering feeling that they smelled something unpleasant.
I stopped. Spun toward my two-legged side and looked back. Through compound eyes I basically saw nothing. Nothing but a narrowness, a horizontal narrowness. And yet... something was coming nearer. I could feel it.
Something that smelled.
Something that. . .
«RAID!» I screamed. «They're gassing us!»
149
« The light!» Ax yelled. «Go to the light!»
«lf that gas reaches us we'll not only go to the light, we'll be saying "hello" to all our dead relatives and explaining our impure thoughts to Saint Peter!» I cried.
«What?» Ax asked, puzzled.
«JustRUUUUUN!»
The gas. The light. The gas. The light.
A pole, heading upward into the light.
Zoooom! A roach shot up the pole.
Zoooom! Zoooom! Zooom!
And then me. The little roach brain, which wasn't bright enough to add two plus two, was a world-class expert at running away. I jumped,
150 went vertical, hit that pole, and up I went. Zoooom!
The gas wave rolled by beneath me. I hauled straight up. Out into the light.
«Yeeeee-haaahhh!» I screamed in total, idiot glee at having survived. «Rachel is going to be so mad she missed this.»
We were in a very bright room. Steel floor all around, but just one distant pair of Hork-Bajir legs. And then, over my head I saw it: the Leaning Tower of Wing Tip. A gigantic shoe, cocked at an angle, totally still. It seemed so tall it was like it disappeared into the clouds. It may well have been a size thirteen.
More important, my weird-colored, fragmented, crazy, fun-house eyeballs managed to notice that the heel had a gouge in it.
«Slash-shoe man!» I said.
«Who?» Cassie asked.
«The President of the United States!» I said. «I've always wanted to meet him. But somehow I wasn't imagining this particular scene. I thought we'd shake hands. And I figured I'd have hands.»
The sound of approaching steps. Strange steps.
«Something with four legs,» Ax said ominously.
That meant only one person.
«Hide!» Jake said.
151 «Where?» I wondered.
«Up his leg!» Cassie cried.
We climbed the leg of the President. Up over the polished shoe. Up across the sock. Up to the leg hair. And we cowered there beneath gray wool amidst a sparse forest of leg hairs.
Clip-clop. Clip-clop.
Hooves walked into the room.
Visser Three.
«We're out of time,» the Visser muttered to the Hork-Bajir guard. «Insects were discovered beneath the helicopter. The Andalite bandits in morph? Or just insects? Either way, no time left. I'll acquire him now.»
«Acquire?» I echoed in my mind. «Huh?»
Then it occurred to me. Slash-shoe wasn't going to be infested. Visser Three was acquiring his DNA. He wanted to be able to morph the President!
Of course! How could I have been so stupid? Like Visser Three would ever let another Yeerk take control of the most powerful human on Earth?
He was going to acquire him. Then he could become the President whenever he wanted.
Suddenly, we were moving. The Hork-Bajir was dragging Slash-shoe along the deck.
«Now what?» David asked.
«Good question,» Cassie muttered.
152 Slash-shoe wasn't being dragged far.
«They're putting him back on the helicopter^ Ax said. «l believe they intend to return the helicopter to its original flight plan, replacing the hologram. They'll reverse the stun effect and all the humans on board will wake up, remembering nothing. It will be as if nothing happened^
«l agree,» Jake said.
«Do we stay with the hairy leg here, or do we bail and maybe do some damage here on the Blade ship?» I asked.
«Bail,» Jake said. «We can't just demorph in the President's helicopter. The President won't be alone. And even if he's straight, others may not be. There could be a shoot-out.»
«So?» David said boldly. «l thought we were supposed to kick butt?»
«Not on our own President, duh,» I said.
We bailed. Down the hairy leg. Across the sock. Down the back of the shoe to drop onto the steel deck.
«Back where we started from,» Cassie remarked. «Under the helicopter.»
It took about three seconds for us all to form a mental picture of what that meant. We were standing on the hatch. The hatch that would be opened to release the helicopter.
«L)h-oh,» I said, and then, the hatch began to
153 move beneath us. Directly beneath us. A bright line of daylight appeared in the floor not an inch away.
I turned to run.
The line widened.
And that's when I realized that not even a roach can outrun the wind.
The wind reached in, plucked me up, swept me into the escaping air, and sucked me down through the widening crack in the floor.
«Nooooo!» I yelled.
I saw two roaches fly past, like jets in the powerful wind.
I grabbed at the deck with my two front legs and held on. For about one millionth of a second.
And then I was falling.
Falling, twirling, twisting, down, down, down toward the ground below.
To be continued. . .
154 Don't miss
Animorphs
Trapped!
We had a simple choice: Surrender or die.
Only in reality, it was worse than that. Even if we surrendered, there was no guarantee we'd live. And at the very least we'd be made into Controllers.
«Let's get them!» Rachel said. «What do we have to lose? At least we can take a few of them down with us!»
«No, we can't,» Marco said flatly. «We'll never even lay a paw on any of them. We won't get two feet before they fry us.»
«Are we going to die?» David wailed.
Cassie nuzzled against him, comforting him - as much as a wolf could comfort a lion.
«Demorph,» Visser Three ordered. «Don't worry, I have no desire to kill you. After all, six Andalite host bodies? It would be a great accomplishment for me. All of my most trusted lieu-
155 tenants could have morphing power. That, plus making hosts of the most powerful leaders of this planet? I'll be Visser One before the week is out! Hah hah! I'll be sitting on the Council of Thirteen within a year!»
I swear the evil creep practically danced with glee. The urge to at least take a leap at him and maybe, just maybe, get my claws on him was so powerful I almost couldn't think straight.
But at the same time, something was bothering me about what he'd said. About several things he'd said. Starting with the fact that he'd said there were six of us. He couldn't have overlooked a lion, a bear, a tiger or a wolf. Certainly he didn't overlook Ax.
I tried to glance sideways and see the others. I could make out Tobias, sitting right out in the open where Visser Three had to see him. Which left. . .
Marco!
You might just overlook a snake. Especially if that snake was behind the stainless steel pool.
«Marco! Can the Visser see you?»
«Probably not, but about nine thousand Hork-Bajir can!»
«Marco ... are they looking at you? I mean, are any of them looking at you?»
«Actually, no.»
I felt like my brain was working in slow motion.
156 Visser Three didn't see Marco. His Hork-Bajir didn't seem to be looking at Marco. And Visser Three was still planning to go after the heads of state. All of which meant. . . what?
«I'm growing impatient,» Visser Three said. «Demorph. Do it now. If you refuse, I'll kill you one by one till you decide to comply.»
He raised a Dracon beam weapon and pointed it. The tip of it traveled from one of us to the other. Tobias . . . Rachel ... Me ...
«Who dies first?»
«Wait!» David cried. «Don't shoot me! I'll de-morph. I don't care about these - AAAHHHH!»
Cassie clamped her jaws around David's right hind leg. Sweet, gentle Cassie.
H H R R R ROOOOOWWWWWWR R R R!
David roared in rage and pain. A roar that made my skin vibrate and made Visser Three jump.
Instinctively David jerked around, reaching for Cassie's head with his own fangs. But Cassie was too clever for that. David spun around, trailing Cassie like an extra tail, but he could not reach her.
«Stop it! Stop it or I'll shoot now!» Visser Three yelled.
«David!» I yelled. «Get a grip! Stop it!»
The Hork-Bajir just kept watching, Dracon beams raised as the weird fight of lion and wolf continued.
157 And that's when it began to click. Even as I was yelling at David, the last puzzle piece fell into place. «How the heck did he get all those Hork-Bajir in this place?» I demanded suddenly. «We could barely get a dragonfly in here!»
If I was right . . . was I right? Or was I just desperate?
«Rachel! Explain to David that he needs to knock it off!» I snapped.
Rachel was on all fours. She half rose up to a sort of bear crouch. She reached out with her left paw and swung hard. She connected with David's snarling, snapping jaw. David staggered. Cassie released David and jumped back.
«Hah! Andalites fighting among themselves,» Visser Three crowed. «But as entertaining as it is, I order you to stop!»
«She bit me!» David yelled, outraged.
«I'm going to kill you first,» Visser Three said to David.
«No! I'll demorph! See? I'm doing it!»
«Shut up, you pathetic, gutless weasel,» Rachel screamed. «You won't have to wait for Visser Three to kill you!»
«They're threatening me!» David cried, running toward Visser Three.
And then I knew for sure. Visser Three turned his Dracon beam on David. He hesitated. But
158 more importantly, none of the Hork-Bajir even flinched.
«I'm on yoursde» David yelled.
«Bad choice, David,» I said coldly. «Ax?»
«Yes, my prince.»
«A hologram inside a hologram. That's what we had, right?»
«Yes. The hologram of the marble pillar was inside the hologram of the banquet.»
«Any reason - any technical reason, I mean - why it couldn't be a hologram, inside a hologram, inside a third hologram?»
«A third hologram?» Rachel said.
«Yeah. A hologram of a whole army of Hork-Bajir^ I said. «A projection. A fake. I don't think they're really there. I think Visser Three is here, and maybe he's got a couple of human-Controllers with him. But that army of Hork-Bajir around us? I don't think this is a live show. I think we're watching videotapes
«You sure?» Cassie asked.
«Marco? You're out of Visser Three's sight. Start moving toward the Hork-Bajir.»
«Attack them? All on my own? Jake, buddy, you better be right.»
«Yeah. I'd better be.»
Applegate, K A - Animorphs 20 - The Discovery Page 9
