Chapter 10

{I wonder if there's anything good on the radio?} Marco asked.

Hannah pressed a few buttons in the front of the limo.

A blur of human music seeped out of the speakers, and it rumbled in a most satisfying way.

{Really? Visser Three got premium speakers for his limo?} Marco exclaimed.

{Really makes you wonder how much money The Sharing has,} Cassie said.

Hannah switched channels a few times.

{Oh, this is good!} Hannah said. {It's The Who.}

{Really? I didn't know the World Health Organization made music,} I said.

Marco snorted a gorilla laugh. {Was that a joke, Ax?}

{No,} I responded. {I was expressing interest.}

{It's not the World Health Organization,} Hannah explained. {The Who is a rock band. The names are similar, but they are two separate things. This song is called 'Eminence Front'.}

{What is an Eminence Front, and how is it different from an eminence rear, eminence left, eminence right, eminence top, or eminence bottom?} I wondered.

{It's not literally the front,} said Marco. {A front is when you pretend to be something you're not. Like how The Sharing pretends it's not a slave entrapment organization.}

{Why do you humans do such confusing things?} I muttered.

{Is that you guys?} a faint voice asked.

{Rachel!} said Cassie. {It is us. How does the parking garage look?}

{There are three black SUVs on the roof of the parking garage, packed with human controllers. I don't see any Hork-Bajir, but remember we can't see inside the middle floors of the parking garage. You guys should be good.}

{Thanks, Rachel.}

{No problem.}

Cassie turned into the parking garage.

We traveled up in a spiral and were soon near the top.

{There's a gate up ahead,} Cassie said.

{Do you think there's a code word, or a pass or something?} Marco wondered.

{I don't know, we didn't see inside the parking garage,} Hannah admitted. {The privacy walls concealed the insides.}

{So we're going in basically blind?} Marco demanded.

{Don't complain, look for a pass or something!} Cassie said. She and Hannah began frantically checking the pockets of the clothes we had taken from the controllers.

{Nothing!} complained Hannah. {How did we not think of this?}

{Check the compartments built into the vehicle,} I suggested.

Hannah checked. {Nothing here either.}

{Maybe there isn't a pass, and we have to know a code word.} Marco speculated.

{We're pulling up,} Cassie said. {Everyone keep quiet and I'll try to bullshit our way through.}

{Get ready to take this guy out, just in case,} Marco advised.

{We will have to do so quietly, to avoid alerting the controllers on the roof,} I warned.

{Keep still!} Hannah hissed.

Cassie pulled up to the guard. It was just one human controller, who was above average in weight and with a large amount of facial hair. His artificial skin consisted of a white sleeveless upper garment and a thicker bottom garment depicting green worms that appeared to be made of pixels.

Cassie rolled down the front window.

"Greetings, Kermick One One Five, how was your journey?" The guard asked.

Cassie smiled with her morphed face. "Good, how has guarding this facility been?" Cassie responded with the deep voice of her morph that didn't sound at all like Cassie.

"It's been uneventful…so far," the controller answered.

An awkward silence.

{We're so screwed,} Marco said privately.

"Are you going to say the password?" The controller proded.

"What password?" Cassie asked innocently.

"Don't screw around, the Visser will be landing in two minutes," the controller hissed. "What are you supposed to say?"

"Oh, uh… it's in the back," Cassie jerked her thumb back. {Get ready boys,} she said privately. Cassie began to roll down the back left window.

The controller raised an eyebrow, a human expression of suspicion. "What game are you playing?" He demanded. He took a step closer to peer into the back of the limo.

{Surprise,} Marco said. His fist shot out and connected with the controller's forehead. The controller dropped like a bag of rocks.

{Let's head upstairs to pick up the Visser,} Hannah said.

{Do we want to hide this body?} I asked.

{Not enough time, you heard the man. Two minutes,} Marco said. {We'll have to risk him being discovered.}

Cassie rolled up the windows and drove forward.

{Tobias here,} I heard. {Jordan and I have arrived. Jake is a couple minutes behind us. We're going to land in the alleyway and morph elephant and rhino, but stay out of sight as planned.}

{Sounds good,} Rachel answered. {No changes up here.}

{We had a minor speed bump, but we're okay,} said Marco.

{What does that mean?} Jordan inquired.

{Some controller asked us for a password, so Marco knocked him out,} Hannah said.

{I see,} Jordan said simply.

{So where am I supposed to park?} Cassie asked.

{Last time the limo parked there,} Hannah pointed. {The bug fighter landed over there, and the Visser walks over to the limo.}

Cassie parked in the designated spot.

{Do we open the door for him?} I wondered.

{No, at least last time some humans got out of the SUVs and escorted him, one of them opened the door for the Visser,} Hannah answered.

{What a gentleman,} Marco commented.

{Did the humans ride in the limo with him?} Cassie asked.

{No, they got back in the SUVs. I guess Visser Three likes his privacy,} Hannah said.

{You guys are about to have company,} Rachel warned. {One human controller walking up to the driver's side.}

{Thanks,} Cassie said. She rolled down the window as the controller approached.

This controller looked a lot more intimidating. He was wearing a human garment known as a suit and black sunglasses. He was carrying an automatic weapon.

"The guard didn't radio ahead that you were coming," he said. "Why is that?"

"The batteries in his radio were dead," Cassie bluffed. "He told us to go ahead."

"Incompetent fool," the controller spat. "The batteries are always changed one hour before the Visser arrives. Visser Three will have his head on a stake."

"He said he's sorry, and it won't happen again," Cassie said.

"Of course it won't. Because he'll be dead." The controller racked a round into the chamber of his gun. "I'll go put the young fool out of his misery. It's better than what the Visser will do to him. Don't wait for me, when the Visser arrives, take him directly to the meeting location."

"Roger," Cassie said.

The controller walked away.

{We've got about two minutes until our cover is blown,} Marco announced. {What's the status out there?}

{Jordan and I have completed our morphs,} Tobias said. {We're out of sight, but it won't last long. Sooner or later someone will see us, an elephant and a rhino are hard to hide.}

{No sign of Jake,} said Rachel. {But sooner or later…hey, speak of the devil. The bug fighter just turned off it's cloaking device and is landing now.}

{We're ready,} I announced. {Marco has an hour left in morph, while Cassie and Hannah have an hour and a half.}

{I'm surprised you didn't say…} Marco began.

{Of your hours,} I added quickly with a glance at Marco. Marco grinned with his black gorilla lips.

{Jake's here,} said Rachel. {Six human controllers have exited the SUVs and are heading towards the bug fighter.}

{Sorry it took so long,} Prince Jake said. {Some guy accused me of trespassing, so I had to leave. It took a while to find another place to demorph and remorph. Rachel, are you good to follow the limo after we take the Visser?}

{Yes,} she answered. {I've got an hour left in morph.}

The radio changed to play a new song by a band called, 'Falling in Reverse.' I wondered why the band wouldn't call themselves simply, 'Rising,' or another easier to remember word. But, I decided, this was not the time to ask.

{The six guys have made two columns of three on either side of the bug fighter's ramp,} Rachel announced. {Visser Three is descending now, already in human morph.}

{Perfect,} Marco commented.

{They're heading towards the limo now,} said Rachel. {About twenty seconds out.}

{Copy,} said Cassie.

{I have the duct tape ready,} I said. I cocked my tail and mentally measured the distance to the door. A fast strike, turning the flat of my blade to hit the side of the Visser's head milliseconds before impact. It would have to be perfectly timed. Quick enough that none of the human controllers would be able to react.

{Some homeless lady just saw me!} Tobias hissed. {I don't think she's a controller, but she's making an awful racket.}

{The controllers aren't reacting,} said Rachel. {I don't think they can hear her. You've got like five seconds.}

My tail was quivering in anticipation.

At that very moment, the controller in the suit came running back upstairs waving his arms in the air.

Through the tinted windows, I could see the Visser and his guards all stop walking and simultaneously turn their heads towards the controller in the suit.

Will you figure it out, Yeerk? I wondered. Will you guess that you're walking into a trap?

The Visser's lips moved. I couldn't hear his command, but the way the controllers reacted made it obvious.

'Get me inside the limo'.

One of the humans reached his arm out to open the door.

My tail muscles burned from having my tail cocked for so long.

The door opened.

FWAAP!

Marco caught Visser Three before he even hit the ground.

A second later he was inside and the door was closed.

{Cassie, floor it!} Marco cried.

A squeal of burning rubber, and we were off with shocking speed.

Marco and I bound the Visser's hands with duct tape.

Visser Three was our prisoner.