Chapter 9

Prince Jake's tiger morph bolted forward at Visser Three with his claws fully extended, only to be swatted aside by a lightning-quick attack by the Visser's tail.

Rachel roared furiously and ran at Visser Three. She grabbed the Visser by his front two legs and took him to the ground whilst Cassie jumped onto his face, and clawed at his eyes.

Visser Three screamed in pain, and with one muscular arm, he picked Rachel up by her hind legs, and threw her at Marco, knocking both of them down.

The Visser moved against Cassie, but she leapt off him before he could reach her. Then, in a flash of blades and scaly reptilian skin, Tobias' Hork-Bajir morph set upon him.

With an awesomely fast flick of his elbow, Tobias severed one of Visser Three's stalk eyes, and then stabbed the Visser through the chest.

I had never seen such a brutal assault against anyone, Yeerk or otherwise, but through it all, Visser Three was still fighting.

Visser Three punched Tobias in the face, nearly breaking the Hork-Bajir's snout, and just as he prepared to thrust downward with his tail blade, Prince Jake was upon him.

Tiger claws met the razor-sharp tips of Visser Three's fingers, and Prince Jake slashed the Visser across his face, drawing curiously coloured, yellow blood.

I had my balance again, and took the chance to move against Visser Three myself.

This creature, which made the Visser's epithet of 'Abomination' all too appropriate, despite standing over three-point-five metres in vertical height, was now within striking distance of my tail.

I thrust forward at Visser Three's left flank, but found myself foiled when the Visser stepped swiftly to the side. He threw Prince Jake at me with one hand, and I felt the breath escape my lungs as two hundred kilograms of feline smashed into me.

The battle was perfectly even.

None of us could break Visser Three's defences, and each time we seemed to press the advantage, he would counter us.

There was one person who could stop the Visser, but he would not.

I saw Erek King knelt down next to Sub-Visser Thirteen. He checked her pulse, and seeming satisfied, got to his feet and moved stealthily to one of the Sub-Visser's computers.

Tobias roared in the harsh, guttural Hork-Bajir tongue, and ran at Visser Three with Rachel at his side. Tobias slashed at Visser Three with elbow blades as Rachel pummelled him with grizzly bear fists.

Visser Three parried Tobias with his tail, and delivered a devastating kick to Rachel's gut with one of her hind legs, and then hit Tobias with a torf, slapping him harshly with the flat of his tail blade.

Tobias stumbled backward, and fell over. Visser Three laughed, and raised his tail up in what I knew to be the Mek'leth, or death strike. In seconds, Visser Three's fifty centimetre wide tail blade would fall, and sever Tobias' spinal column at the uppermost vertebra, killing him instantly.

I could not let that happen.

I quickly grabbed the Sub-Visser's Dracon beam from the ravaged floor of the laboratory, and fired it at Visser Three's face. He cried out in pain, and Tobias rolled out of the way as the tail blade dove into the concrete where he had been a second before.

Suddenly, the lighting in the laboratory went out, and was replaced by powerful scarlet light, and blaring alert klaxons.

"Unauthorised bio-signature detected in laboratory alpha-one," said the plaintive Yeerk computer. "Gleet bio filters beginning purge."

Erek King looked to me from a computer, and gave me what humans call a 'thumbs-up'; a sign of success or congratulation.

"You shan't defeat me this easily!" Visser Three roared. With one hand over his scarred and mutilated face, and the other in front of him, the Visser ran for the door very quickly.

Erek was faster.

The Chee braced himself in the doorway to block the Visser's escape. In seconds, the biofilters would vaporise Visser Three. I wondered how it would look…

"Foolish human!" the Visser screamed. "Get out of my way! The biofilters are programmed to kill everyone not a Controller!"

"No, Visser Three," Erek said sternly. "They're just programmed to kill you."

Visser Three roared madly, and grabbed Erek by the throat with one hand, and pulled the Android from the doorway.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Erek King had once single-handedly, and effortlessly murdered an entire battalion of Controllers, and a solitary creature was overpowering him!

The Visser threw Erek over his shoulder like a child's toy, and the android smashed into the floor with a metallic clang that disrupted his hologram, revealing the ivory and pearl coloured metal that all Chee were made of.

Visser Three bolted through the door with ferocious speed, and was gone, just as the room was filled with the green light and high-pitched whine that signified the Gleet biofilters were on.

Erek's hologram briefly flickered on to his human disguise, then back to his canine form, back to human again, before settling on his true appearance.

The biofilters shut off, and the normal, harsh white light returned.

"Uh oh," Erek said grimly.

(What's wrong with your disguise, Erek?" Cassie asked, licking both her own, and Visser Three's green blood from his claws. She paused as though to question what she was doing, but then continued.

I could see the problem. Erek's chassis had a small fracture in it, above his left shoulder. Sparks flew periodically from it, and though it appeared to be small, it was apparently causing large problems.

"My holographic matrix has been damaged," he said. "I can't receive the regulation signal from the Pemalite ship until it's repaired."

(Hence, uh oh,) Marco said.

"Indeed," Erek said, rolling his canine eyes.

Across the room, Sub-Visser Thirteen stirred and groaned.

(Erek, I recommend that you hide,) I said.

"I agree," Erek replied, somewhat sarcastically. He scurried away and hid behind the table that the Sub-Visser had me restrained on before.

Sub-Visser Thirteen's eyes fluttered open, and quickly surveyed the ruined remains of her lab.

"Oh my," she said groggily. "The Council of Thirteen is not going to like this," she said with a dismal chuckle. Then, with another surveying glance, she looked at me. "Where is the Visser?" she demanded, now standing up, and starting toward me. My tail twitched. "I don't see a corpse."

(If you take another step,) Tobias said, pressing up a blade to her throat. (We'll be seeing yours.)

The Sub-Visser smiled, and gently pushed Tobias's arms from her larynx. "Not if you still want to beat Visser Three," she said smugly. "He's running amok in the Yeerk pool now. If you think you can fight your way through six thousand Hork-Bajir, you are most welcome to try."

(Hey!) Rachel snarled. (We just saved your miserable life, you little slug! You're in no position to be making veiled threats at us!)

(And how are we to know that killing Visser Three is a good idea?) Marco asked. (For all we know, you could be twice as ruthless as he is, and if we take him down, you could finish us off at your leisure.)

Sub-Visser Thirteen simply smiled, showing pearly white teeth, and eyes full of both charisma, and darkness.

"You will have to trust me," she said slyly.

For the second time in a day, I found myself about to deal with a Yeerk.

"Is not the enemy of my enemy my friend?" the Sub-Visser asked. "And do not worry, Visser Three destroyed my thought-speak implant. I can no longer listen to you."

(You are not my friend, Yeerk,) I spat. (I will kill you at the first sign of treachery.)

"The feeling is mutual," the Yeerk sneered.

(How do you plan on killing Visser Three anyway?) Rachel demanded. (He just wiped us out, how are we meant to kill him?)

"That is a very good question," the Sub-Visser said lightly, waving a hand in a nonchalant motion. "To which I do not have the answer."

(Well that's just great,) Marco muttered.

"But I know someone who does," the Sub-Visser added. "I am certain that you noticed the somewhat ― unusual appearance of Visser Three's body?"

Everyone nodded.

"You will aid me in discovering what the Visser has been doing, and then we shall destroy him."