Chapter 11


Yumi looked up from the chess game she was playing with William and glanced unhappily over her shoulder. "Jeremy, please tell me that's not your super-scan I hear."

Jeremy pulled his laptop out and opened it. Then he sighed. "I wish I could. Call Ulrich, would you? I hope he can think of some excuse to get Aelita out of there."

William jumped up. "I'll find Odd."

Yumi pulled her cell phone out and punched Ulrich's number as she followed Jeremy. "Lousy weather for a Xana attack," she commented with a glance at the sky; it had clouded over rapidly and was seriously threatening rain. "I think those clouds'll open up before we get to the factory."


William and Odd intercepted them at the manhole cover.

"Is there any word from the wolf party?" William panted.

Jeremy glanced at Yumi, a question in his eyes.

"It's still ring-" Yumi began, suddenly interrupted by the phone picking up. "Ulrich?"

"Ulrich can't talk right now," Aelita's voice gasped over the line. "We're being chased by the rest of the werewolf pack!"

For a second Yumi stood in silence, staring back at Jeremy's bewildered face as Odd and William entered the sewers. Then she asked, in a voice charged with more emotion than a human throat could put into four words, "What did you do?"

"Ulrich thinks the pack was possessed by Xana! I don't know what tipped him off, or what Xana did, or – but I'm having flashbacks to my nightmares right now!"

"Yumi," Jeremy began. Yumi waved him ahead of her.

"Just tell me you're on your way to the factory."

"I think so – I don't dare look around. Ulrich, we're going to the factory, right?" A snarl came over the line; one that, unfortunately, had no recognizable human words for even Yumi's keen ears to make out.

"Well, Ulrich's right – Xana's on the attack. Get to the factory as fast as you can. We'll meet you there." Yumi hung up and leaped after Jeremy. "Xana sure knows how to turn a family reunion sour."

"Tell me about it," Odd tossed over his shoulder.

"Is this the part where you tell us that we're being chased by werewolves now?" William asked in a voice that had given up on fear.

"Yeah, it's something along those lines."

"Is Aelita in danger?" Jeremy asked.

Yumi coasted up next to Jeremy and cocked an eyebrow at him. She didn't say a word, but…at that point, she didn't need to.

Jeremy groaned.


At the other end of the sewers Yumi leaped up the ladder and opened the cover. She was greeted by a torrent of rain, soaking her to the skin in a matter of seconds.

"I hope nobody minds getting wet," Yumi called back down.

"No problem – I'll be able to skip taking a shower when we get back to the dorm!" Odd called up brightly as he clambered up, gripping the suddenly slippery ladder with a death-grip.

Jeremy groaned again but voiced no other complaint.

Once on the bridge, everyone dashed for the cables. Yumi swung out on hers and landed easily. Odd and William landed with much less finesse; they didn't have the practice at good landings under slippery conditions. The three of them looked up at Jeremy…

Just in time to see him leap for a cable and miss by a good two feet.

"Jeremy!" three voices shouted in horror, two human male and one vampire female. Yumi dashed for where Jeremy would likely land, all the while cursing herself for a fool. Why didn't it occur to her that his glasses would fog over completely in the rain? He might as well have been blind.

Then the miracle happened.

A big brown werewolf with a screaming girl clinging to his back launched after Jeremy with a terrific snarl, grabbing the nearest cable in both hands and Jeremy's arm in his mouth. They spun wildly and the rope creaked, but all three of them remained suspended in the air.

"Ulrich!" Yumi sighed in relief. "You do have a way of making an entrance, don't you? Can you come down like that, or will you need to drop somebody?"

Ulrich growled some sort of answer and started a slow and erratic climb down the cable, dropping Jeremy as he chose to fall the last few feet.

"Everybody okay?" William asked.

"I lost my shoes," Aelita said numbly.

Jeremy struggled to his feet, only using his right arm. "I think my shoulder was dislocated," he gasped.

Yumi chirped an echolocation burst at his shoulder. "It is. I can put it back for you – come on, I'll do it in the elevator."

They all filed into the elevator. Ulrich was last, pausing to violently shake the water from his fur before trotting in under the closing door and hiding in a corner.

"What's with you?" Odd asked.

"Hey!" Jeremy protested as Yumi ripped the sleeve off his left arm. Then he fell silent for a moment as they both stared in surprise at the wild assortment of scratches oozing blood on his upper arm.

Yumi carefully lifted Jeremy's arm and studied the scratches. "Looks like Ulrich didn't grip hard enough to keep your arm from moving around in his mouth when gravity hit you." She glanced at Ulrich and lowered Jeremy's arm again, adjusting her hands to take a firm but careful hold on his shoulder. "You can relax, Ulrich, it doesn't look all that bad. Aside from the bleeding, it looks dry."

Ulrich didn't turn back, but he did sit up and look at the others.

"That makes a diff – aah!" Jeremy yelped as Yumi forced his shoulder back into alignment.

"Yes."

"So it's the drool that does that," William said, mostly to himself.

"Can we just hurry up and get this over with?" Aelita said wistfully, hugging herself tightly in a futile attempt to still her shivering.

"Right," Jeremy dashed out and claimed the chair, ignoring the scratches. "Get to the scanner room, pronto."

"Are you going in like that?" Yumi asked Ulrich.

Ulrich grinned up at her. "Why not?" he managed to growl, "I could use some enemies to sink my teeth into."