Chapter 10

Free Marco's mom. In other words, kill or imprison her Yeerk, Visser One. The highest ranking general of an invading alien army.

And there I was, waiting for a girl to take her clothes off for me. While looking through the eyes and sensing the thoughts of the girl I like.

So I had to agree with Marco. Weirdest day of my life. You don't make this stuff up. Really made me wonder how in the world I got to that point, but I didn't have time to think about that.

≺Marco just whispered the plan to me, what's everyone's status?≻ I asked.

≺I opened up an air duct thingy,≻ Rachel said. ≺I think I can shove the immunity stuff in through a grate once Ax gets back. It should be to the right of the door.≻

≺I see it. Ax?≻

≺The lab I went to was empty. The replicator is almost ready.≻

≺Okay, just hurry, I don't know how long we can keep Visser One busy here, how long do you need?≻

≺I should be back in about seven of your minutes.≻

≺There's no way I can distract her that long! She already told me to leave!≻

≺Rachel, you may be able to cut power to the door from where you are,≻ Erek said. ≺I will guide you.≻

≺Can't I just shoot something?≻ she complained. ≺I'm ready to shoot something…≻

Marco had long finished taking the uniform off at that point. I was just staring at it throughout the conversation.

"What is keeping you so long?" Visser One snapped at me from the other side of the room.

"I'm, uh, still getting the hang of my new host's motor skills," I said, while scrambling to pick up the uniform. "I'm having more trouble than usual, I'm sorry… Maybe there are some lasting effects from Jessica's immunity in this host…?"

"You can finish outside, get out of here," Visser One raged.

I intentionally fumbled trying to pull my pants up. "Uh…"

She walked towards me, roughly pulled me out of Marco's cell, locked it, and then pulled me to the door.

≺Got it!≻ Rachel called, just in time. ≺I hope. Let me know if I need to shoot it instead.≻

Visser One pushed the button next to the door that I'm sure would have opened it under normal conditions. She frowned, pressed it again a couple times, and finally whacked it with a fist. "The door seems to be malfunctioning," she said in a dangerously calm way. "Fix it."

≺Yes, that did it! Please don't shoot anything yet,≻ I said.

I was so relieved that I forgot to respond to Visser One.

"Ekfis twenty-one-five-eight! Fix the door and get out of my sight! Did I misplace my trust in you?"

Oh, you don't even know, I thought.

"I… With respect, ma'am, there is no way to fix it from here, it looks like the door was disabled by Command. I don't know why, but we're locked in."

There, that should keep her busy.

She stormed back to the table and started pressing buttons. Within seconds, a voice responded over the intercom. She demanded to speak to the captain, but apparently he wasn't available, so she was placed on hold. You can bet that whoever she had on the line scrambled to look for him for dear life.

≺Ax, how long?≻ I asked.

≺I am running back. Four of your minutes. This would have been much faster if I had not been in a human morph.≻

Visser One pushed some buttons again. Another voice over the intercom. But this one I recognized.

"Engineering," it sighed.

"I am locked in room B-G-thirty-three-five with Ekfis twenty-one-five-eight. She tells me the door has been locked by Command, but I think things are just malfunctioning, as usual on this pile of garbage!"

Ekfis four was silent for a second or two. "Request permission to speak to Ekfis twenty-one-five-eight?" he eventually managed to say.

"She's all yours!"

"Twenty-one-five-eight, what the hell did I just tell you?!"

I'm not sure he realized he was on speaker. I don't think he would've been so informal otherwise.

"U-um… Don't break anything and stay out of the way of Command and the Vissers' troops?"

I knew I was throwing gasoline on a fire. But I just couldn't help myself.

Ekfis four stayed silent for a few seconds again. I was a little worried he'd realized that my voice was different, but in the end he either didn't notice or didn't care.

"What exactly did you do?"

Visser One responded for me. "Well, Ekfis twenty-one-five-six through eight brought two of Visser Three's soldiers to me, at gunpoint, for snooping around on the level below me. I can't imagine what they had been doing there, if they had been commanded not to interfere." She looked at me coldly. "I do not appreciate insubordination."

"Visser One, ma'am, you have my sincerest apologies for the behavior of my subordinates. It will not happen again, I assure you."

"Just send someone capable to come fix it, you moron!" She whacked the table, which I'm pretty sure broke the connection. It might have broken the table, too, because the screen turned off.

≺I am here,≻ I heard Ax in my head. ≺Rachel, give these to Prince Jake.≻

I hunched down by the grate. "I-I think I found the problem!" I said. At that point I was just hoping Visser One wouldn't kill Cassie and me, although realistically, a morph-capable host would have been way too valuable for her to waste like that.

Rachel shoved three sort-of patch things through the grate. I quickly put two of them in one of my pockets, and looked at the final one, trying to make sense of it.

≺How do they work?≻

≺Push the light side of the injection patch against bare skin,≻ Ax informed.

"What are you even doing?" Visser One yelled at me from right behind me. "The access panel is over there!" She roughly pulled me up to my feet.

I whacked the patch right into the side of her neck. "This!"

She let me go. Although not because she realized what had happened, or because it was already working. She pulled the patch off of her neck, and then stared at me in utter shock and disbelief.

"What is the meaning of this? Visser Three sent you, didn't he?" She drew her Dracon beam and pointed it at my face, point-blank range. "What did you inject my host with?"

I put my hands up. ≺How long is it supposed to take before this stuff starts working?!≻

No one answered. For what had seemed like an eternity, the two of us just stood there. In reality, it couldn't have been more than a few seconds.

Then her hand started twitching. She looked at it, and slowly started to catch on. "You are making my host immune!" she cried out.

I'm sure she would have shot me at that point if she still had enough control. But she didn't. She dropped the Dracon beam two seconds later. I quickly grabbed it and pointed it at her.

≺You can't shoot her! That's Marco's mom!≻ Cassie cried to me.

≺I know, I'm not going to, but Visser One doesn't know that!≻

"You will die a slow, torturous death, t-traitor! A-as will V-Visser… Visser Three…"

She collapsed onto the floor. She was twitching at first, but then she stopped moving.

I stared at her for a few seconds. I wasn't sure if she was still breathing.

≺D-did… Did that kill her…?≻ Cassie thought to me.

≺I don't –≻

≺Prince Jake, we have used ninety-eight percent of our time!≻

Right!

≺Everyone demorph!≻ I yelled while pushing myself out of Cassie's head.

Thankfully, I was pretty sure Visser One never had surveillance turned back on.