Chapter Thirty:
I was fully eel when I first felt the suction. Something had changed in the water. Instead of a controlled, gentle tug, I began to feel a desperate strain in the current. It wasn't pulling me. It was yanking. Clawing. Hauling.
The water was moving faster and harder.
Tobias! I gasped, passing water over my gills and searching with my dim senses for Rachel. What happened?
The National Guards had their weapons loaded. Jake . . . he grabbed a bazooka. He just grabbed it right out of the hands of one of the guards. Fired it into one of the legs of the tower.
The tower was made up of a main pipe that ran into a vast steel tank. The only thing holding the tank in the air was the pipe and the four legs of the tower.
Three legs, now.
Ssssssssccccccccccchhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeee.
I knew what the sound was. It was metal bending. Crumpling. Breaking.
It was the tower beginning to fall.
WHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHH!!!
The pull in the water had ceased to exist. It was all pull, now. The water was nothing but current. It was all fall. Every drop of water in the tower was coursing down the pipe. The tower was breaking, dying. The water was being freed.
Funny how I pictured it in that moment. Freed.
I became aware of a presence next to me. I couldn't see them in the furious water, but I knew. Rachel and the Yeerk were there.
In that moment, of all things to think about, my mind ranged to a character from an old book. Captain Nemo. Why was I thinking about Captain Nemo? It was strange, how silent everything was beneath that rushing water.
Silently we were carried, in a headlong rush we could not stop, down towards what could only be our death.
Some corner of my mind noticed that by a trick of the water, the eel that was Rachel and the eel that was myself were spiraling down around each other. We were still circling one another.
We will be separated, the Yeerk laughed. I will emerge at one pipe, you will emerge at another. We will crawl out of our respective drains and demorph. And then you will be captured.
I didn't respond. I didn't want to give the Yeerk the satisfaction of eliciting a reply.
Or maybe I knew it was right.
WWWWHHHHHOOOOOOSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH!!!
The water sped up. I could feel the pipe rushing past faster past me.
I began to scream. The noise came from the place between fear, exhilaration, and despair.
Down. Straight down. Faster. Faster! Our speed seemed insane, beyond anything a human could experience without blacking out. We seemed to fall forever, in our tiny, frail eel bodies.
Darkness had swallowed us. All was now silence and speed. Except for our cries. Except for the noise that was ripped out of our souls as we were pushed to the edge.
Jake says to get out! called Tobias, obviously addressing the whole team. Cassie, Ax, move! Get clear of the mob!
So the crowd had become a mob.
We coursed down, silently.
"The sea does not belong to despots," I murmured.
What? panted the Yeerk.
"Thirty feet below its level, their reign ceases, their influence is quenched, and their power disappears."
What?
WWWWHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSHHHH!!
Our path had suddenly twisted. Left, right, left, up. Up. Up. Up! Up, up, up!
A sound like the loudest thunder deafened me, and I was utterly blinded by startling, terrifying light. All around me! My eel body felt strange. Dry. The wind was screaming past me.
Wait, the wind?
I was in the air!
Tobias! I called. Tobias, do you see two very sorry eels trying to grow wings?
Marco?
Tobias, I have no clue how, but Rachel and I are so totally in the air! We're talking ninety feet up, here! Think we could get some help, Bird-boy?
I could feel myself slowing. Soon I would begin to drop.
Why in the world was I in the air? I couldn't see a thing. What had happened?
I began to drop. I was going to die. I was going to hit the ground, and my soft body would . . .
I felt talons close around me, constricting my slippery body. My momentum was arrested, and I felt a jerk as Tobias's wings pumped as he fought for altitude.
One and . . . two! Yes! I *am* the original Air Force pilot! He dives, he scores! All bow!
I was safe.
Rachel was safe.
The Yeerk was exposed.
No! No! Nooooo! it screamed. Stupid of me. Stupid! Why didn't I report them all? I could have! I could have been a Visser! I should have, it should be mine! Why? So stupid!
It knew it was trapped, now. It knew it would die.
Yeah, I agreed. You're stupid. Hey, Tobias!
Yeah?
Why am I in the air?
You shot out of a fire hose, man! Like a bullet from a gun!
Is the projector . . .
Marco, the projector is gone. So gone. Utterly, completely, totally obliterated. And so, while we're on the subject, is the water tower.
I realized then that I was not in the water, and my gills were not taking in oxygen. Good, I gasped. Now, would the original Air Force pilot drop us off somewhere so we can demorph before we suffocate?
I was fully eel when I first felt the suction. Something had changed in the water. Instead of a controlled, gentle tug, I began to feel a desperate strain in the current. It wasn't pulling me. It was yanking. Clawing. Hauling.
The water was moving faster and harder.
Tobias! I gasped, passing water over my gills and searching with my dim senses for Rachel. What happened?
The National Guards had their weapons loaded. Jake . . . he grabbed a bazooka. He just grabbed it right out of the hands of one of the guards. Fired it into one of the legs of the tower.
The tower was made up of a main pipe that ran into a vast steel tank. The only thing holding the tank in the air was the pipe and the four legs of the tower.
Three legs, now.
Ssssssssccccccccccchhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeee.
I knew what the sound was. It was metal bending. Crumpling. Breaking.
It was the tower beginning to fall.
WHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHH!!!
The pull in the water had ceased to exist. It was all pull, now. The water was nothing but current. It was all fall. Every drop of water in the tower was coursing down the pipe. The tower was breaking, dying. The water was being freed.
Funny how I pictured it in that moment. Freed.
I became aware of a presence next to me. I couldn't see them in the furious water, but I knew. Rachel and the Yeerk were there.
In that moment, of all things to think about, my mind ranged to a character from an old book. Captain Nemo. Why was I thinking about Captain Nemo? It was strange, how silent everything was beneath that rushing water.
Silently we were carried, in a headlong rush we could not stop, down towards what could only be our death.
Some corner of my mind noticed that by a trick of the water, the eel that was Rachel and the eel that was myself were spiraling down around each other. We were still circling one another.
We will be separated, the Yeerk laughed. I will emerge at one pipe, you will emerge at another. We will crawl out of our respective drains and demorph. And then you will be captured.
I didn't respond. I didn't want to give the Yeerk the satisfaction of eliciting a reply.
Or maybe I knew it was right.
WWWWHHHHHOOOOOOSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH!!!
The water sped up. I could feel the pipe rushing past faster past me.
I began to scream. The noise came from the place between fear, exhilaration, and despair.
Down. Straight down. Faster. Faster! Our speed seemed insane, beyond anything a human could experience without blacking out. We seemed to fall forever, in our tiny, frail eel bodies.
Darkness had swallowed us. All was now silence and speed. Except for our cries. Except for the noise that was ripped out of our souls as we were pushed to the edge.
Jake says to get out! called Tobias, obviously addressing the whole team. Cassie, Ax, move! Get clear of the mob!
So the crowd had become a mob.
We coursed down, silently.
"The sea does not belong to despots," I murmured.
What? panted the Yeerk.
"Thirty feet below its level, their reign ceases, their influence is quenched, and their power disappears."
What?
WWWWHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSHHHH!!
Our path had suddenly twisted. Left, right, left, up. Up. Up. Up! Up, up, up!
A sound like the loudest thunder deafened me, and I was utterly blinded by startling, terrifying light. All around me! My eel body felt strange. Dry. The wind was screaming past me.
Wait, the wind?
I was in the air!
Tobias! I called. Tobias, do you see two very sorry eels trying to grow wings?
Marco?
Tobias, I have no clue how, but Rachel and I are so totally in the air! We're talking ninety feet up, here! Think we could get some help, Bird-boy?
I could feel myself slowing. Soon I would begin to drop.
Why in the world was I in the air? I couldn't see a thing. What had happened?
I began to drop. I was going to die. I was going to hit the ground, and my soft body would . . .
I felt talons close around me, constricting my slippery body. My momentum was arrested, and I felt a jerk as Tobias's wings pumped as he fought for altitude.
One and . . . two! Yes! I *am* the original Air Force pilot! He dives, he scores! All bow!
I was safe.
Rachel was safe.
The Yeerk was exposed.
No! No! Nooooo! it screamed. Stupid of me. Stupid! Why didn't I report them all? I could have! I could have been a Visser! I should have, it should be mine! Why? So stupid!
It knew it was trapped, now. It knew it would die.
Yeah, I agreed. You're stupid. Hey, Tobias!
Yeah?
Why am I in the air?
You shot out of a fire hose, man! Like a bullet from a gun!
Is the projector . . .
Marco, the projector is gone. So gone. Utterly, completely, totally obliterated. And so, while we're on the subject, is the water tower.
I realized then that I was not in the water, and my gills were not taking in oxygen. Good, I gasped. Now, would the original Air Force pilot drop us off somewhere so we can demorph before we suffocate?