Chapter 6

I wasn't feeling quite as cheerful as Jake. I glared at Erek, who shrugged sheepishly as his human hologram took shape over his Pemalite-constructed body.

"Impressive," Sub-Visser Thirteen purred. "Who, may I ask, is the one who attacked Visser Five?"

The Hork-Bajir on the screen did something very un-Hork-Bajir like. It smiled broadly, and seemed to laugh.

"My partner in crime," Erek sapid proudly as Tobias gave me a thumbs-up; or in the case of a Hork-Bajir, a machete-up.

Sub-Visser Thirteen walked past me and stood in front of the screen, looking intently at Tobias. "Pursue Visser Five," she said; it sounded more like a request than an order. I guessed she was softening up.

"I'd love to," Tobias said. "But he disappeared when I attacked him."

The Sub-Visser made a sound of disgust. "Then find him, you fool."

Tobias' borrowed Hork-Bajir eyes narrowed. "Firstly, Jake is my boss, not you," he said fiercely. "Secondly, when I say Visser Five disappeared, I mean it literally; he actually went invisible."

"Impossible," the Sub-Visser spat.

Erek moved behind the Sub-Visser to the computer that she and Ax had been using before. Using his Chee super-speed, Erek began typing things into the machine so fast that I couldn't keep up with his individual keystrokes.

"What are you doing?" the Sub-Visser demanded.

Erek ignored her, and Jake stood next to him, watching the screen.

"What's a Riyu?" he asked, looking first to Erek, and then to the Sub-Visser. Pointing at the screen, Jake looked around, hoping for an answer. "It says here that Visser Five's host is something called a Riyu. Any ideas?"

Sub-Visser Thirteen shrugged. "A new species, only recently discovered," she suggested. "I have been on Earth for some time, and I have had little contact with the Council of Thirteen. I have no doubt that many new conquests have been made recently without my knowledge."

"How useful," Tobias said wryly.

I stood next to Jake and Erek, peering over their shoulders. "What else does it say about this Riyu host? How does it go invisible?"

"I am uncertain," the Sub-Visser said from behind us. "It is likely, however, that the creature emits tachyon particles to camouflage itself."

Jake and I shrugged.

"The same things that the Yeerk cloaking devices use," Erek supplied helpfully. "Crude, but effective."

I threw my hands up in exasperation. I couldn't deal with everyone anymore. We'd just lost Marco and Ax, and they cared more about science and theories about invisible vissers?

"One thing at a time, guys!" I yelled. "We need to find Ax and Marco!"

Erek turned around from the computer. His holographic eyes made it look like he was genuinely concerned for Ax and Marco. "I have a theory, Rachel, but you're not going to like it."

Great, another theory, I said to myself. "Sure, what is it?" I asked amiably.

I think Erek picked up on my sarcasm, but before continuing, he looked at Tobias, who had decided to sit down on the floor, still in view of the screen.

"You might want to get down here too, Tobias," Erek said to him. "This is important, and I don't want to explain it twice."

Tobias promptly got up, and for just a second, it looked like he was melting. The Hork-Bajir body simply began to dissolve into goo, and Tobias become a featureless blob for just a moment, before his bird body began to reappear. Feathers just slithered out of the blob-like mass that was Tobias, followed quickly by raptor talons and a fearsome beak and piercing yellow eyes.

With a quick goodbye squawk, Tobias was gone, and the screen shut off, and I breathed a sigh of relief. It was nice not to have to talk to a TV anymore.

The next few minutes passed awkwardly. I stood with Jake, making small talk about what Ax and Marco might have gotten themselves into, while Sub-Visser Thirteen quizzed Erek about how he was created.

Despite him flatly refusing to answer any of her questions that related to his technology, she kept at it, until Tobias fluttered in through the smashed door, and perched himself on the big throne in the centre of the room, looking at us with a quizzical bird expression.

"Okay, I guess everyone's here," Erek said, giving everyone a look, one at a time. "As I said, I have an idea, and I'm gonna have to explain this fast, because Visser Three will be here in thirty minutes."

Sub-Visser Thirteen gave Erek a glare that could have melted steel. "Then please, explain," she said in the most sarcastic voice I'd ever heard.

Erek didn't bite back. Instead, he looked at Jake and started talking; slowly, in almost the same way as those guys who read out on audio books.

"There's an old Pemalite legend about a creature that steals people from spaceships, and even from planets. The information I have says that whenever someone disappeared, they vanished in a bright flash of light, and were never seen from again," Erek said grimly. "This creature announced itself to the Pemalites only once before the Howlers destroyed them, and called itself the Caretaker."