We had looked for Tom all morning, but still hadn't had any success. Jake had a pretty good idea of where Tom usually hung out, but after checking out the beach, the mall, and a couple of his favorite lunch places, we decided we had to check out the Community Center. We were reluctant, of course, to go into the headquarters of The Sharing, but it was the only plan we had.

We were tired and hungry from our morning's activities, so it was awesome when Rachel offered to pick up lunch from the taco shop that was just a short walk from the Community Center. Ax was going to be jealous that he missed out on tacos. Marco and I covered the side and rear entrances from the air, while Jake watched the front, looking like he was waiting for someone.

Twenty minutes later, we saw Rachel return, so we all demorphed out of sight and grouped up. I could tell something was wrong while she handed out tacos.

"Hey, Rachel," I said privately, after everyone had their food. "What's up? You look like something's bothering you."

She came with me to eat by the entrance I was watching.

"Yeah," she replied. "Something weird happened on the way to the taco shop. I was walking down the street, thinking about what morphs I got from you. I'm really excited about the cape buffalo, and I've got another one that I've actually practiced a few times now."

I laughed. "Yeah, that buffalo does seem like your style. What's the other morph?"

"We'll talk about it later," she said. "Anyway, as I got to the restaurant, this frazzled-looking blonde woman came around the corner. She was looking around like she lost something, and she came up to me and asked if I'd seen her cat. I told her no, but that I'd keep an eye out. She grabbed my hands, and started telling me what her cat looks like, and then trailed off and looked surprised. I asked her what's going on, and she told me that I have really soft hands."

"Huh," I said. "The crazy people around here are so polite."

"She ran off and I got our food, but the whole thing just made me uncomfortable," Rachel said.

I didn't know what to say to that, so we ate in silence, keeping an eye out for Tom.

"I've got to go back, and see what that lady's deal was," Rachel announced after we had finished eating.

"Why?" I asked.

"Something about the whole interaction just rubs me the wrong way," she responded.

"Then I'll come with you," I said, standing. "I'll let Jake know we'll be right back."

"If you want," said Rachel, and started walking.

I told Jake, and then caught up with Rachel. She had already crossed the street, and I would have had to jog to catch her if she hadn't stopped and ducked behind a parked car.

Rachel turned and saw me behind her.

"There she is!" she hissed, pointing at the woman in the taco shop's parking lot, still a few buildings away.

I watched as she approached a man in jeans and a blazer, a fearful look in her eyes. The man looked around for something. She had probably told him about her missing cat. She stepped closer, and grabbed his hands. Almost immediately, his posture relaxed, and she led him behind the restaurant.

A chill ran through me, and Rachel's legs buckled and she fell to the ground as we realized who we were looking at. The frazzled woman was Zenguh, and we had just seen him catch his latest victim.

"That was almost me!" Rachel breathed, hands shaking. Her expression of fear and shock was quickly replaced by one of realization, and then it turned to anger. "Let's get him," she snarled, balling her hands into fists.

"Hold on, Rachel," I said. "If we get him now, we might win, but he might get away. Plus, this is a pretty public area. If we follow him, he might lead us to his, like, base, or whatever you call it."

"But we can still save the blazer guy!" Rachel said. "And who cares about his base? It's probably just more clothes!"

"If it looks like Zenguh's going to Yeerk him, we can step in," I said. "I just don't want to risk missing out on some new base or whatever that he may have, now that we busted his apartment situation."

Rachel reluctantly followed me, as I followed Zenguh quietly. Zenguh, in turn, led the man in the blazer to a more secluded area. It wasn't long before the pair approached the back entrance of a building. Zenguh let go of one of the man's hands, and unlocked the door. The label on the door said "Honey Glazed Hams".

"The perfect spot," I said. "No one ever goes into those places."

"I'm going for it," said Rachel, breaking into a run as the door started to swing closed.

"No!" I yelled quietly, but Rachel got to the door just in time to keep it from closing. She went inside and I ran after her, only barely catching the door before it closed and locked me outside. I entered the building in time to see Zenguh start morphing Yeerk, skin already a sickly yellow-brown color, pressing his face to Blazer Guy's ear. I also saw Rachel leaping through the air, feet first, delivering a two-footed drop kick to Zenguh's ribs. Zenguh lost contact with Blazer Guy, and rolled a few feet away from the impact.

Blazer Guy shook his head like he was waking up, then screamed and ran straight past me, to the door they had come in through.

Zenguh got up, reversed his morph, back to the frazzled blonde woman, and looked to see what had hit him. "You!" he said, recognition in his face. "You're the one I couldn't put into the trance!"

Rachel stepped closer, swinging a fist and connecting full-strength with Zenguh's left eye. Zenguh spun, and crashed into a pile of boxes. Rachel didn't give him a chance to recover. She leapt on top of him, landing punch after punch to his face. Zenguh flailed his arms and legs, landing a couple of glancing blows on Rachel, but Rachel was unfazed.

I heard the rip of the blonde woman's clothes, and saw a leg turn furry and black. Rachel flew back into the middle of the floor, a huge gash across her face. Blood pooled on the floor where she landed, but to my astonishment, Rachel climbed to her feet and got into a fighting stance.

As I watched, the cuts on her face disappeared.

She lunged at Zenguh, who had now fully turned into a black bear. She dodged a paw swipe, and landed a knee strike to the bear's neck. It stumbled back, clutching at its neck, and Rachel jumped through the air and struck the bear right between the eyes with an elbow. The bear buckled over, now gripping its nose. Rachel swung again, and connected with the bear's ribs, but the bear countered with a paw swipe to Rachel's midsection. Her blood sprayed the wall, and I heard her scream in pain as she was thrown into a stainless steel refrigerator, but just like before, the wound healed and disappeared in seconds.

Rachel stood again, and her eyes found a knife. Apparently, they really did work with hams in this store. I still couldn't believe what I was seeing, but I shook it off and began to morph into my wolf.

Rachel and the bear ran at each other. I gasped as Rachel caught another brutal paw to the face, which spun her neck around a scary amount. Rachel fell to the floor and lay still. Full of shock and anger, I turned my eyes back to the bear and began to growl, now fully wolf. That's when I saw the knife stuck deep in the bear's chest. It had to be puncturing either the bear's lungs or heart. The bear fell to the ground, and grabbed for the knife. Its paws couldn't grip the knife, and with my vet training, I knew that wouldn't have been a good idea anyway.

Exasperated, Zenguh began to morph back to human, and I looked back at Rachel. I saw her head turning back to its normal direction, and she slowly sat up.

‹Rachel!› I cried. ‹You're alive! And I think I guessed what your new favorite morph is.›

"Yep! I got a copy of my DNA when I acquired you!" she said with one of her dazzling smiles. "It's also the reason he couldn't put me in the acquiring trance; you can't acquire someone in morph. I got the idea from Tobias and his other hawk. But let's deal with this guy first."

I stalked up to Zenguh, who was gripping the knife with human hands. He pulled it out, and screamed in pain.

‹Stop right there,› I told the Yeerk. ‹You're not going anywhere.›

Rachel joined us, then began to grow large and grey. The bleeding Zenguh was now cornered by a wolf and an African elephant. I finally looked around at the room, confident that he wouldn't escape us both. There were people handcuffed to a series of steel pipes that lined the wall across from the entrance.

‹What is all this?› I asked him.

‹I don't care what it is!› yelled Rachel. ‹I let him get away twice now. Not this time.›

She raised her massive front right foot over his head.

‹No!› I yelled. ‹If you kill him, you kill everyone he's trapped inside him!›

‹They're already worse than dead!› she said. ‹They're nothlits, trapped in Z-Space! We can't even get them out!›

Her weight shifted over her front right foot. I panicked at the thought of her doing something so irreversible, and I jumped between her foot and Zenguh.

‹We can't!› I yelled.

‹We have to!› Rachel said. ‹Move!›

Just then, an explosion ripped through the door we came through, filling the air around us with flame and splintered wood.