"Good work, Tobias," I said. But I don't think he could hear me. And I couldn't see out of the windows, so I didn't know if he or Marco or Cassie were anywhere close.

"Jake? You still with me?"

78 "Yes. Do you have a minute to fill me in? This flea existence is fine for hiding, but I can't tell anything about what's going on. "

"I'm in a cat carrier. Chapman's in the front seat. He watches me through the rearview mirror.

He still has the Dracon beam. I think maybe I'm in pretty big trouble here."

"We're not beaten yet," Jake said.

"Jake, time must be getting short. It's been at least an hour. You must have morphed before me. You need to get away and morph back."

"We still have time," Jake said.

"You have a watch, Jake?" I asked. "I don't think so. You're what, about twice the size of a period on the page of a book? You can't risk being trapped in a flea morph. Besides, there's nothing you can do."

We hadn't traveled far before the car started bouncing and rattling over rough road.

"As soon as we get outside you need to jump off, Jake," I said. "Just make yourself jump away from warmth and away from the smell of blood. You can do that " The car came to a stop.

"Rachel, there is no way I'm going to leave you alone. "

I knew he was trying to be brave, but he was making me mad. "Jake, we're trapped. He's got a Dracon beam and I'm in a cage. Visser Three is coming to get me. I can't morph back or they'll see I'm human. Chapman will recognize me. How long do you think it will take them to figure out who the rest of us are? It would be the end of us all. The end of the Animorphs.

The end of the only hope for stopping these guys. Come on, Jake, you know it's true."

"We're not beaten yet," Jake repeated stubbornly.

"The only hope is for me to stay in cat morph," I said. "They'll probably. . . you know . . .

but at least they'll never find out about the rest of you. Now jump off me. " Chapman got out of the car. He came around and opened the back door.

"Time to meet the Visser, Andalite. He'll have a wonderful time with you."

Chapman lifted me out of the backseat. I looked out through the bars.

"We're at the construction site," I told Jake. "Now get off me. "

"I'm not -"

I couldn't argue with Jake anymore. I was afraid now. Afraid. I could picture what Visser Three might do to me.

79 "Sorry, Jake, but this time I'm the boss," I said. I cocked my rear leg and started scratching in that rapid catlike way.

"What the ... what are you doing?"

"I'm scratching. I want you off me. "

"Okay, okay," Jake said. "Just stop it. It's like an earthquake here. Okay, Rachel. You're right. We've lost this battle. "

80 Chapman carried the cage into the construction site. I could see the ground go by beneath me.

I could see through the bars all the half-built cinderblock buildings. I could see the very spot where the five of us had cowered in terror while Visser Three had morphed into a monster and swallowed the Andalite prince.

The Andalite's last despairing cry came back to me. He had lost his fight. Now I was losing mine.

Maybe there was no hope. Maybe we were fools to even try and resist the Yeerks.

"Get out of here, Jake." I said.

"Okay, Rachel. Here I go. Look ... be strong, Rachel. "

"Yeah, Jake. You too. "

"Jumping . . ."

A few seconds later, Chapman put me down on the ground. He waited beside the cage. The two of us stared off into the darkness.

I decided to make sure Jake was gone. "Jake? Jake?"

No answer.

"Jake, answer me. I've changed my mind. I want you to stay with me. " If he had lied to me, he would answer now.

"Come on, Jake, I've changed my mind. I need you. "

No answer. He was truly gone. That fact filled me with grim satisfaction. If Jake and the others survived, there would still be some hope.

But the feeling of loneliness was awful.

Then I heard the sound of something large, moving swiftly in the air. I pressed my head against the door and looked up. Three craft were descending toward the construction site.

Two of them were smaller, about the size of one of those recreational vehicles, maybe a little larger. They had a cowled, insectlike look. They looked like beetles with twin long, serrated spears pointed forward on each side. The Andalite had called them Bug fighters.

The third craft was much larger, shaped like an angular battle-ax. It was black on black, sharp, and deadly looking. As it sank slowly to ward us I felt my fear grow.

It was not the cat that was afraid. It was me, the human. The cat didn't know what this ship was. I did. I had seen it before. The Andalite had called it a Blade ship.

It was the personal ship of Visser Three. And terror seemed to flow from it. I could smell the fear sweat on Chapman.

81 I guess I was glad he was scared, too. Maybe Visser Three would become the Vanarx and suck the Chapman Yeerk out of Chapman's head. Maybe the true Chapman would experience a few seconds of freedom before he was killed. Maybe the Chapman Yeerk would suffer before Visser Three finished him off.

Maybe.

Fear is like a worm inside you. It eats you. It chews your guts. It bores holes in your heart. It makes you feel hollow. Empty. Alone.

Fear.

The Blade ship landed between two half- finished buildings. The Bug fighters came to rest on either side. They looked so strange, parked between the yellow-painted earthmovers and graders in the construction site.

The earthmovers looked like toys. The alien craft looked like deadly weapons.

I was afraid. I tried to borrow the cat's courage, his indifference. But then the door of the Blade ship opened. I had no courage.

Only fear.

82 Chapter Seventeen

Visser Three in person is worse than Visser Three as a hologram. There's nothing horrible about him. Not when he's in his normal Andalite body, at least. Andalites are strange-looking, that's for sure. But they aren't frightening.

But I had met a real Andalite. You could feel the difference between a real Andalite and the evil beast that was Visser Three. It was like he glowed with some dark light. A light that cast a shadow over your mind.

Visser Three. Even Chapman feared him.

Around the Visser, two Hork-Bajir guards deployed. Each was holding a Dracon beam, not that Hork-Bajir ever looked like they needed weapons. They were weapons. Marco had called them walking Salad Shooters. They were living razor blades. Wickedly curved blades raked forward from their foreheads. More blades were at their elbows and wrists. Their feet were like Tobias's talons, only much bigger, like Tyrannosaur feet.

They were seven feet tall, maybe a little more, with a spiked tail. The Andalite had told us that the Hork-Bajir were a good people, enslaved by the Yeerks, just the same way the Yeerks wanted to enslave humans. But it was hard to look at a Hork-Bajir and think they had ever been anything but killing machines.

Behind the Hork-Bajir came four Taxxons.

Imagine a centipede. Now imagine a centipede twice the length of a man and just as big\ around. Imagine that the centipede holds the upper third of its body erect. Imagine pointed legs like steel pins below, and smaller legs with little claws as you get closer to the head. Not that it has a real head. There are four separate globs that look like chopped-up red Jell-O that are the Taxxon's eyes. And at the very top , a mouth. The mouth is perfectly round an lined with row after row of small, needle teeth.