[Color,] the Yeerk said a little dreamily, ignoring me. [I haven't seen it for... months. Not since I saw it with my own four eyes.]
[Yeerks have four eyes?]
There was a moment of silence. [Yes.]
[But there weren't any in the picture of a Yeerk that you showed me.]
[They're very small.]
[You're lying.]
[I generally am.] He moved my arms up over my head, stretching. [The power.]
[Just a weak human girl.]
[Hah! Compare it to a slug! Stupid human, you don't know what you have.]
It felt right to be called a human, suddenly -- I was relieved. [What is... why... if Yeerks have four eyes why haven't you seen color in four months?]
[Nothing gets past you,] he mocked.
He raised my eyes -- his eyes -- to Melissa. She spoke.
"Zahir eight-five-one, are you in control of your host?"
"Of course."
[I thought you had no designation.]
[I killed another Yeerk to get a host. That's his designation. Or was.]
[How does a slug kill a slug?]
[By bludgeoning him against a jagged corner of the wall of the pool,] he said coldly. [Any other questions?]
[Impressive.]
[I'm resourceful.] He spoke through my mouth. "And you, Iniss one-eight-three?"
"Completely in control. Quite ironic that I and the Yeerk in her human father formed from the same union of three," Melissa responded.
[Union of three?] I was fascinated.
[Yeerk mating. Three Yeerks come together and bits bleed off, forming into grubs. Now shut up. I have more pressing things to worry myself with.]
Melissa's Yeerk continued. "I see that Iniss two-two-six encountered resistance from his host at the infestation?"
"In the human car, yes. Chapman is a strong host, but he was eventually broken," my Yeerk told her after quickly scanning my memories.
I saw the line of Melissa's mouth wavering. She was fighting her Yeerk. [Remarkably astute,] Zahir mocked. [So why aren't you, Kylie?]
[I couldn't beat you -- what's the point?]
[What's the point?] he demanded, suddenly irate. [To resist! Of course, you stupid fool, to resist! To know that you tried! Self-respect, if nothing else!]
[You just want to see me lose.]
He sighed, and resumed conversation with Melissa. With the Melissa-Yeerk. "Let's report. Sub-visser seventy-eight is no doubt waiting."
"Indeed."
My body spun. "Sub-visser," Zahir acknowledged, inclining my head, but not before I recognized Tom.
[Sub-vis --]
[It's a rank! Shut up!]
[Higher than yours?]
I was ignored.
"I will be taking you home, Zahir. The Chapmans will be driven by another of us. Iniss two-two-six's host is far too unstable for us to permit him to drive on his own. In all likelihood, Chapman would crash the car."
"And kill his daughter?"
Tom laughed. "He believes death is better than slavery."
"Good for him," my voice said dismissively.
"I'll need directions to the host's home."
Zahir paused, flipping through my memories until he found the obvious: [No address? No house? A run-down little shack? Great. My living conditions will be splendid.]
What he said out loud was, "She lives near the Chapmans. Drive all of us, and I will walk to her house."
The sub-visser accepted this. "Come," he said to the two Yeerks. Their new bodies obeyed.
[Why didn't you tell him?]
[Politics. I have a low rank, eight hundred and fifty-one units below the lowest sub-visser. If your lack of a human home was exposed, there would be questions -- leading to your race being exposed.]
[But for all purposes I'm human!]
[Hah,] he snapped. [They'd want to see what you know of technology, tactics, science, find out how advanced the Dalenites were. They're not going to give an eight-five-one a host like that.]
[I'm a kid. I know nothing. And what do you care what host you have?]
[I don't. But you, the first host I've taken, know I have no designation and that I killed one of my own. If you were infested, your new Yeerk would see this in your memories.]
[But that means --]
[Yes. Exactly. For my own safety, I have to remain in you as long as I live, forever, and other such dramatic phrases.]
We were at the car; my body slid in the front seat. I felt my hands touch the fabric of the seat. [Touch,] the Yeerk groaned. [After so long...]
Melissa and her father were both in the back. Chapman was shaking. "To the house," Tom said coldly, twisting the key in the ignition. "I trust you are both satisfied with your hosts."
Melissa nodded. She looked at me. "Zahir?"
"Quite," agreed my voice.
