Instinctively I tried to snatch my hands up to cover my ears. The bands that circled my body and bound me to the bed held them back. I growled in frustration and dug my nails into the mattress.
"You're captured, just like your fellow Animorphs." He paused. "I sound so juvenile. But you know what, Rachel? I'm going to enjoy it anyway. You're captured, like Cassie, whose Yeerk is in charge of executing those traitors in the peace movement; like Marco, who had his father infested; like Jake, who brought his parents down to the pool himself; like Aximili- Esgarrouth-Isthil, who is at work adapting the Andalite technology in his brain to serve our purposes. And now we have you. We have won."
"You don't have all of us yet."
Tom shrugged dismissively. "We'll bring you in eagle morph to find Tobias. He'll be thrilled to see you -- he's been searching for you since you disappeared and the Animorphs tried to capture him. You'll say you've found a safe place and lead him straight to one of our facilities."
"He knows where your facilities are. He was the one who watched you, all the time."
"Didn't have much else to do, did he?" He snickered. "But at any rate, we'll devise a new one. There really is no limit to what we can do now. There are no Andalite bandits around to shut us down."
Tom grinned. "You killed off Ickthar and changed Xanos' schedule, but don't worry, Ms. Berenson -- I'm sure we can scrounge up someone who'll be willing to take you. The nurse is getting one out of the portable pool now, someone who can deal with you, someone who can rapidly ascend the ranks. Just think -- you'll probably be the host to a new visser within a week!"
"As excited as I am..." A cockroach's exoskeleton spread over my body. I began to shrink.
"Not so fast!" Tom fired his Dracon beam at me faster than thought. I waited for the vaporization but realized he was smarter than that; I was stunned, midmorph.
He jumped out of his chair and crossed to the side of my bed, flinging my hair into my face and staring at my ear. I heard a relieved chuckle. "Didn't morph far enough, Rachel. We can infest that. And the stun effect won't wear off for one minute, at which point if that idiot nurse hasn't returned I'll zap you again. It's hopeless; I'll save you the emotional strain of debating it with yourself."
"Sub-visser!"
"Right on time," Tom barked as he turned to the door. "Get over here. What designation?"
"Sub-visser thirty-four," whimpered a woman I could not see. I tried to turn my head to look at her, but I was incapable.
"Give the sub-visser to me," said the Yeerk in my cousin's body. I heard a snap as the metal pod opened and another snap as it closed. Now they were in my range of sight. A droplet of sludge fell off the Yeerk and splattered on the hospital floor. I was determined not to scream but then I realized I couldn't anyway.
Tom placed his left hand on my head, holding me still, just in case the beam wore off. His right hand pressed against the lobe of my ear, sloping gently so the slug could climb up and in.
No no no no!
Tseew.
I felt heat singe my ear. Tom screamed and jerked his hand back, a hand with a long black scar stretched across the empty palm.
I heard a soft click as someone thumbed the Dracon beam power switch. Tseew.
Tom dropped. The woman dropped. The stun effect began to wear off, and I craned my head to see my rescuer, the young man with dirty blond hair and stormy eyes shaking in the doorway.
"Tobias!"
"Rachel," he groaned, dropping to his knees beside the bed. "I thought I was too late..."
I was fully able to move; I started shrinking again, slithering out of the bands; with my half-human hands I shoved them away and began demorphing.
When I was human again, I threw my arms around his neck and cried.