"Visser! The Andalite bandits have turned the heavy equipment toward us!" someone yelled.
"Then turn on the force field!"
"But ... but Visser... our own people will be trapped outside of the force field."
The Visser's voice suddenly became very quiet. A very dangerous kind of quiet. "Did I just hear you question my order?"
"No! No Visser! I'm turning on the force field!"
Farrand moaned. He moved his head a little, but then became quiet again. Okay, Cassie, think. Think.
Obviously, my friends were still fighting. They must be winning, or the Visser would not turn on the force field.
They had seized control of some of the machines and turned them against this building. As soon as the force field went up, the heavy equipment would be useless.
And time was on the side of the Yeerks. Visser Three would have called in more help. The Bug fighters full of fresh Hork-Bajir could be landing any minute. When that happened, all would be lost.
We were done for.
No! Think, Cassie!
78 This was the game of predator and prey. This was war. What was the Yeerks" weakness?
What did they need that I could take away?
Farrand moaned again.
Of course!
I took a deep breath. I began to morph quickly out of the pain-wracked osprey body, back to my own human form. Morphing works on DNA, and DNA is not affected by injuries. My reconstructed human body would be normal.
It was cramped in the box, with two humans in there. I was hunched over Farrand when his eyes fluttered open. I was already beginning my next morph. What the man saw was the face of a girl. But a face that was sprouting luxuriant black-and-white fur.
His eyes closed again. He would think it was all a dream. Hopefully.
"Hah!" I heard Visser Three crow. "The force field has stopped them!"
"Visser! The first Bug fighters will land here in fifteen minutes."
"Got them!" Visser Three said. "This time, I've got them!" He was using thought-speak. The Visser had demorphed.
I focused all my thoughts. I knew what I had to do. But it was dangerous. I had to communicate with the Visser in thought-speak. And I had to do it without giving him any hint that I was a human.
No long conversation. Monotone voice. As few words as possible. No images of any kind.
"Visser," I said. "I'll kill the human. "
That was Visser Three's weakness -- he needed Farrand alive. That was the pressure point.
By threatening to kill Farrand, I threatened the Visser's plan.
See, you can't make a Controller out of a corpse.
The Visser instantly understood.
"Everyone in this room! Weapons on the box! Be prepared on my command to shoot the Andalite without hitting the human! It may be in any sort of wild, deadly animal morph! Do not let it escape. "
I got into position. The human me was scared. But the skunk me was perfectly calm. The skunk knew it had the ultimate weapon.
Suddenly, the door of the box flew open.
79 Visser Three stood there in his Andalite body, with his deadly Andalite tail cocked and ready to strike.
Beside him, on either side, stood half a dozen armed human-Controllers. And in between the humans, towering above them, five huge Hork-Bajir warriors.
The human-Controllers leveled their weapons.
The Hork-Bajir had weapons, too, but they didn't need them. Hork-Bajir are weapons, seven feet of ankle blades, knee blades, elbow blades, forehead spikes, and armored tail-- like Stegosaurus meets Klingon.
All this awesome deadly destructive power stared down at me.
Visser Three aimed his Andalite stalk eyes at me. His main eyes were already staring in amusement.
"This is the best you could do, Andalite scum?" He laughed. "Such a terrifying beast you've morphed!" He laughed again.
He laughed at the chubby, cat-sized black- and-white animal in the box. Laughed at the way I stood with my back to him, tail raised, looking over my shoulder.
A skunk can fire its scent with amazing accuracy up to about fourteen feet.
The Visser was only six feet away.
"Kill it," Visser Three ordered coldly.
But I fired first.
80 Chapter twenty
A skunk can fire its scent in five to seven shots.
I fired once and hit the Visser in the face.
I fired again and hit the nearest Hork-Bajir on the left. Again and hit two human-Controllers.
Again and again, all within about three seconds.
"Aaaarggghh!"
"Oheaguheaguheaohhhhh.ohhhh!"
"Heruntgahal! Stink! Arrrr!"
The Visser staggered back, blinded and reeling from the mighty stench. The human-Controllers covered their mouths with their hands. Some even dropped their weapons.
The Hork-Bajir I was worried about. I didn't know if Hork-Bajir even had a sense of smell.
Turns out they do.
Turns out they have an excellent sense of smell. Too bad.
The Hork-Bajir were the first to panic. One fired his Dracon beam wildly.
"Don't shoot, you fools!"
Visser Three screamed. "You'll hit the human! Or me!"
Actually, what they had hit was the floor. A big, smoldering hole appeared in the wood.
"Reeking fernallgahall" one Hork-Bajir kept bellowing in the odd mix of English and their own tongue.
Then the Hork-Bajir lost it completely. They turned and ran for the door.
Personally, I didn't see what they were so excited about.
It didn't smell bad to me.
They ran. The human-Controllers, the Hork-Bajir, and Visser Three. They ran from the horror of my skunk smell.
I waddled as far as the doorway.
I saw an amazing scene. The force field was still on. Three massive tree-cutters, diesel engines roaring and billowing smoke, were straining against the force field like mad dogs on a leash.
Inside the force field, the totally demoralized Yeerk forces.
81 Outside the force field, a bizarre zoo -- a tiger, a grizzly bear, a gorilla. And something no human zoo had ever held -- an Andalite. Jake, Rachel, Marco, and Ax.
Around the clearing, a handful of human- Controllers and Hork-Bajir warriors sat nursing wounds. Some were just lying in the dirt.
It was a weird and tense scene. If the force field came down, the tractors and tree-cutters would hit the building within seconds.
On the other hand, even though they were reeking of skunk smell, and staggering and half-blind, the forces inside the field were stronger than Jake, Rachel, Marco, and Ax.
Of course, if the tree-cutters hit the building, they would probably kill Farrand. The Yeerks didn't want that. Neither did we, but Visser Three didn't know that.
"What happened?" Jake asked me in a private thought-speak whisper.
"I sprayed them," I said. "They didn't like it. "
I'm pretty sure tigers can't normally smile. But I could have sworn Jake did.
Jake must have privately told Ax what happened. Ax was the only one we could trust to speak to Visser Three. He was the only true Andalite.
"Visser," Ax said.
"It seems to me that we have a standoff."
"Don't try to bargain with me, fool," Visser Three sneered. "I have forces on the way. " Ax nodded. "I wonder how your Blade ship will smell after you spread your newly acquired stench through it?"