RACHEL

Visser One was absolutely livid. Once Raúl said the name "Sam" she struggled violently in her chair as she tried to scream and yell, but it was muffled because of the gag. Marco stared at her in horror. I'm sure he'd never seen his mother act this way, but I'd come to expect it. I never met his mom before she "died," so to me she had always just been Visser One. Always been the enemy. I couldn't imagine what he was going through right now, but it was probably a good thing he couldn't speak.

Raúl – or Sam – laughed when he saw her reaction. "That's right," he told her. "I know how long you've been hunting me, and I admit it was difficult for me to keep my cover for this long, but I finally have you. And you and your host are going to share in the most unimaginable torture for the things you've put me through."

((What about us?)) Tobias asked him.

"The three of you will be contained," he replied simply. "I trust you won't do anything stupid. After all, we wouldn't want to become enemies, would we?"

((Given the fact that you forced us to demorph by using physical harm, we might be already.))

"Don't talk like that. I just knew you wouldn't take orders from me unless you had a good reason."

The door opened and Raúl entered, holding a gun up, aimed and ready. Behind him, Manny and the other two Spaniard boys. I didn't know where they'd come from; they must have been tailing us. That didn't surprise me. To be honest, at this point nothing would surprise me.

Raúl/Sam was smiling. The black Spaniard shut the door and stood in front of it as Manny and the other Spaniard approached Marco and I. Manny went to Marco and the nameless Spanish boy walked up to me. They didn't touch us, but they were close enough where they could stop us if we did anything stupid. I wondered if they had guns, too, but didn't really want to find out. They didn't pay any attention to Tobias; Sam walked right up to Visser One.

"You've been looking for me for a long time, haven't you?" he asked her. She didn't reply; she couldn't, she was gagged. But she'd calmed down by now, realizing that she couldn't do anything while she was tied up. I couldn't imagine how angry she must have been. Vissers tend to get angry pretty fast, especially when they're helpless, and even more when it's by a foe they've been searching for. "Finally, here we are. It's a pleasure to meet you, Visser One."

He held the gun right up to her temple so that it pressed against the skin. "This is a Magnum," he explained. "Your host should be familiar with the concept of a gun to the head if you aren't already, you alien scum. You thought you could take the human race with your superior technology, but we are so much stronger than you will ever be, and we will prevail, and use all means necessary."

He turned around and looked to the rest of us. "Get them out of here," he told his boys. "Nobody should see this."

I looked at Marco. No reaction.

The Spanish boy grabbed my wrists harshly and pulled them behind my back. "Hey!" I said. "Not so hard!"

Handcuffs. Maybe they'd been in Raúl's front backpack pocket. Maybe the other guys brought them.

He made it so tight that it hurt my wrists. I hoped they wouldn't be on long, but I didn't figure I should complain. He grabbed the handcuffs by the chain that connects them and yanked me towards the door, which the black Spaniard opened promptly.

I looked at Marco. He was eyeing Tobias, and so was Sam. I wondered-

"Beto, the bird," Sam said sharply. Beto – the black guy – approached Tobias.

But Tobias wasn't about to give up. He took off and flew right into Beto's face. Beto waved his hands in the air trying to grab something, but he only got ahold of feathers, which flew out. I thought it would be a good time to escape, but my captor was holding tight onto the cuffs.

Sam wasn't into the hawk chase. He jumped and grabbed onto one of Tobias's legs. He pulled him down from the air and Tobias moved his feet and claws around as best he could, but Sam's hand was too high on his leg to be hit by one, and the free leg only caught air.

Sam brought him all the way down to the ground, got down on his knees, and then grabbed Tobias by the neck. He pressed his hands down so that Tobias couldn't duck out of grip. Tobias took a very submissive stance, crouching as low to the ground as he could, trying in vain to slip out of Sam's grip. But it was useless.

Beto was tearing the office apart, searching for something to contain Tobias. It took awhile, and finally he pulled out a file drawer.

"There's no top for that," Sam said, able to tell what he was thinking.

"We can put something on it and hold it shut," Beto replied with an authentic Spanish accent.

"You can't get it ou-"

Beto ripped the drawer out of the rest of the cabinet. He dumped the papers and folders onto the ground and handed it to Sam. Sam carefully placed it upside-down over Tobias.

"I hate to do this to you," Sam told Tobias as he held the drawer in place while Beto searched for something to put over the one side. "I know it's demeaning to be treated this way, but you know we have to."

((No, you don't,)) Tobias answered. ((We had a deal on what to do with the Visser. We're all working towards the same goal, so what are you hoping to accomplish?))

"This isn't the movies," Sam replied. "This isn't some storybook. There aren't two sides in this war. It's so much more complicated than that."

((I'm sitting in a file drawer, and I've got time.))

"I'm not explaining myself."

Beto brought over a darkly-stained slab of wood that had been used in a bookshelf. Sam carefully lifted the drawer not an inch off the ground, just enough for Beto to slide the wood underneath it. "Careful," Sam told Tobias. "Don't get your feet pinched."

((Believe me, worse things have happened.))

Sam laughed, then nodded to Beto. Beto picked up the wood, drawer on top of it. He put his chin on top of the drawer to make sure Tobias didn't lift it up to leave.

"If you drop that, I'm going to kill you," Sam warned. He was serious.

"I know," Beto answered. "I'll be careful."

"Leave me with the Visser."

The boys nodded and escorted Marco and I out of the room, Beto and Tobias trailing us. When the door shut, I heard Visser One begin to yell and rant. He must have ungagged her.

I bit my lip. Her voice was so full of hatred, and soon she was going to be silenced by Sam's torture. I looked at Marco. His eyes looked more moist than usual, but the rest of his face showed no emotion. He knew he couldn't give anything away. Sam already knew way too much about us.

It was the first time I'd seen Manny so incredibly serious. So incredibly distressed. He looked as trapped as Tobias was.