The Predator (11 page)

We all just stared.

Tobias said.

I said.

Jake said.

Ax pointed out.

Cassie said, with a laugh.

“You will have to deal with any of Visser Three’s troops you encounter between here and the escape pod,” the gold-clad Hork-Bajir said. “Leave. Now.”

Jake asked.

Visser One’s troops turned and marched away.

Rachel said.

Jake said.

Rachel squeezed her massive tonnage into the hallway.

W
homp! Whomp! Whomp! Whomp!

Rachel made the steel floor vibrate with each massive step. Her leathery sides scraped the corridor walls so that I could only catch occasional glimpses past her.

The hallway was empty until we reached the guard station. Just as the Hork-Bajir had said.

Rachel didn’t even slow down.

Whomp! Whomp! Whomp! Whomp!

I saw a flash of a Taxxon, foolishly running as if to cut her off. A few seconds later I had to jump over the crushed remnants of the big centipede.

Cassie yelled. He exploded out of a side corridor, a red-uniformed Hork-Bajir. Swooosh!

A razor-bladed arm sliced the air inches in front of my face.

Tobias warned.

Rachel moaned. She was too big, too tight a fit in the corridors to turn and help, as half a dozen Hork-Bajir in Visser Three’s livery came screaming onto the scene.

I said.

Ax said, sounding like he was announcing a party.

I felt the same way. I was ready. I was mad and tired of feeling helpless.

The closest Hork-Bajir swung at me again and sliced a six-inch-long cut in the matted fur of my huge shoulders.

That was all it took. Like I said, gorillas are peaceful, almost gentle creatures.

But don’t go making one angry. Especially not when a boy who wants very badly to hurt some Yeerks is sharing space in the gorilla’s head.

“Hoohoo hoo hhawwwrr!”
I cried, and swung a fist the size of a cinder block into the stomach of the
Hork-Bajir. I gave it all I had. I put every ounce of the gorilla’s muscle into the blow.

The Hork-Bajir was lifted clear up off the deck. His head slammed the ceiling. He was down and out of the game.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw another Hork-Bajir leap at Ax. The Andalite’s tail flashed forward so fast you didn’t even see it move. The Hork-Bajir staggered back, minus an arm.

I decided right then — I kind of liked Ax.

Jake yelled.

Just then, right on cue, two more Hork-Bajir came up from behind us. Jake said.

The Hork-Bajir rushed us.

“RRRRRRROOOOOWWWRRR!”

Jake let loose with a roar that must have been heard from one end of the mother ship to the other. It even scared me. And it sure made the Hork-Bajir hesitate.

He was on them, while they were still thinking about what to do next.

Hork-Bajir are very fast. But so are tigers.

One Hork-Bajir was down, with Jake sinking fangs into his snakelike neck. The other Hork-Bajir looked around to make sure no one could see him, then decided he’d like to live. He kept his distance.

Jake backed away but kept his face turned to the Hork-Bajir behind us. We trotted as fast as we could down the hallway, now a scene of devastation.

It was like the ant tunnels. We could only try to escape. The longer we tried to fight, the more the odds would turn against us.

Suddenly …

I heard Tobias cry.

I asked.

Rachel answered.

Then I was there, at the edge of a long shaft that went down and down, maybe forever. Rachel already looked small. Which was not easy for her to do.

I reminded her.

Ax
instructed. Then added, our
ships.>

Cassie yelled.

I said. I took a look down the dropshaft and jumped off into empty space.

You know, if it hadn’t been for the fact that I was just a few minutes from being trapped forever in a morph, and if there weren’t a dozen or so walking SaladShooters after me, it would have been fun.

I fell, but not too fast.

I thought as floors zipped past me.

Twelve levels down, I plummeted past a Human-Controller who was getting ready to step into the dropshaft. He had a very human look of total amazement on his face. Possibly because while standing there, he’d seen a flying elephant, followed by a gorilla, a wolf, an Andalite, and a tiger.

Tobias warned.

I looked up the shaft. A big Hork-Bajir warrior was gaining on us. But there was nothing I could do until he reached us.

Tobias said. He flared his wings, flapped hard, and was shooting back up the dropshaft toward the falling Hork-Bajir.

“Tseeeeer!”

Tobias’s talons came forward, outstretched, and slashed the alien’s eyes.

“Ghaahharrr!”

The Hork-Bajir clutched at his face. I guess he was too distracted to think about what floor he was heading to. He shot past us as we slowed to step onto the fifteenth level.

Hard floor under my feet again! A very good feeling.

I reminded her.

she said.

She was shrinking even as she lumbered along.

Ax cried.

They were only a dozen feet from us. A few seconds more and we would make it.

Rachel stumbled. She was half-human, half-elephant. A nightmare of pink and gray, with huge ears and human hair and fat arms and legs that had no feet.

I reached down and swept her up with my powerful arms. She was still large, maybe three hundred pounds. But not too much for me to carry.

We reached the door of the escape pod.

It closed behind us as we wedged our oversized bodies inside. Jake yelled.

There was a surge as the escape pod ejected from the underside of the Yeerk ship.

My dense black fur was already starting to disappear by the time the pod rotated. I could see Earth below.

Earth.

And as the tiny ship turned, I could see the Yeerk mother ship.

It was kind of a joke now, I thought. The Yeerk mother ship. My mother on the Yeerk mother ship. Hah hah.

Before I became fully human again, before I lost the ability to thought-speak and had to return to words spoken out loud, I said,

he said.

Someday, somehow, in some way that I could not foresee, we would win this
battle. Humans and Andalites together would defeat the Yeerks. And we would free all of their slaves.

All of them.

I whispered again.

Jake said.