It was no contest. Bear against human. Morphed bear against human-Controller. It was hopeless. Visser One might as well have been a rag doll. With one sweeping blow of her daggered paw, Rachel could knock Visser One's head from her shoulders.
"NO!" I yelled.
Rachel swiveled her head and stared at me with nearsighted bear eyes.
"Shut up, Marco!"
"l said no! Don't do it!"
"She's a Yeerk visser," Ax pointed out calmly.
"No," I said again. "She's my mother."
It seemed like a very long time during which no one moved. Visser One, my mother, had heard nothing, of course. I'd thought-spoken only to Rachel and Ax.
"Your mother's dead," Rachel said.
"No. I thought she was. This is her. Or was her. And maybe will be again someday if... if she lives."
Rachel hesitated. Then, almost angrily, but really with very little force for a bear, she tossed my mother's body aside.
"Thanks," I said.
But Ax was not so easily convinced. "Marco, she remains a danger to us."
"Maybe not," I said. "Look." I pointed to the big round window that looked out onto the sea. There, just beyond the glass bubble, was a monstrous yellow serpent. Visser Three.
"He saw us spare her life," I said. "How do you think Visser Three would interpret that?"
"He'll think she's a traitor," Ax said instantly. "lt's what he wants to believe. And when he sees that we've let her live, it will be all the evidence he needs."
"l'm sorry, Marco," Rachel said. The violent frenzy of battle was drained from her now. "l didn't know."
"Shut up, Xena," I said harshly.
"Hey, I'm trying to be nice."
"l know. So shut up."
Ax had gone back to the computer. "She's locked me out. It could take me ten minutes to bypass."
The movement was just a blur out of the corner of my eye. I had no time to yell. I just saw Visser One - my mother - grab the Dracon beam she had dropped. She rolled with it, brought it up, and aimed it squarely at Rachel.
Too far away to grab her!
Instinct took over. Not gorilla instinct, but human instinct. The lightning-quick, intelligent, and ruthless decision-making that had allowed Homo sapiens to rule over all the other animals.
I snatched up a chair. It was heavy. Steel and leather.
And I flung it with all the power in my gorilla arms. I meant to throw it at my mother. I missed. Or maybe I meant to miss. Maybe I'll never know for sure.
But the chair flew fast and hard.
It hit the bubble window.
CRUNCH!
The glass wasn't shattered, only cracked. But the pressure of the water beyond was too great. It began to seep and then to spray through.
My mother flinched.
TSEEEEWWW! The Dracon beam missed.
Rachel reacted swiftly, slapping Visser One with the back of her paw. A nasty blow, but not a fatal one.
"That window is going to break!" Ax yelled.
"We have to get out of here!" Rachel yelled. "Now, now, now!"
"l have to save her!" I cried.
"Run, you idiot, or no one will be saved!" Rachel cried.
CRRR-UMPH! The window exploded inward!
FWOOOOOOSH!
It was like standing with your face two inches from a fire hose. The power of the water was insane! It was like getting hit by a log.
I was instantly knocked off my feet, swirling and swirling in the insane, foaming avalanche of water.
The room was a tornado. Water whipped everything around in a spiral. And then something long and brilliant yellow came shooting into the room.
Visser Three! The sudden suction had overwhelmed him and drawn him in, like lint being sucked by a vacuum cleaner.
The office door popped out like a cork. Rachel, Ax, me, and Visser Three's huge sea serpent morph went flying down the hall. It was like we'd been shot out of a cannon.
Down the hallway as the walls collapsed outward.
FWOOOSH!
Out through the annihilated wall of the building. The water spread out a little then and I could see where I was. I looked for her and saw her floating facedown a hundred yards away.
I tried to swim to her. But the current was too powerful.
"Morph!" Rachel yelled.
But I had already begun. I was halfway to hu-
man again. I saw Rachel, mostly still a bear, go spinning by.
I caught a glimpse of something with pebbly green-and-yellow skin moving easily through the raging tidal wave. Its tentacles seemed perfectly designed for resisting the current.
The Leeran!
He was heading for my mother.
To save her? To destroy her? To capture her so that Visser Three could enjoy watching her suffer?
I don't know. Because I was swept into the dock and sank down into the deep water.
I gasped desperately for air, my human lungs on fire!
And I searched for the shark inside me.
he sharks were waiting for us. The super-hammerheads. They were there, circling the facility. I don't know how, but somehow they'd been put on alert. Or maybe the destruction of the facility just had them agitated.
"Here they come!" Cassie warned.
If you have ever wondered what fear looks like, I can draw you a picture: It's a dozen hammerhead sharks looking at you and grinning their evil, down turned hammerhead grins.
On they came. And I didn't care. I didn't care. I wanted battle. I wanted pain. And I wanted to inflict pain. I wasn't the calm, emotionless shark. I was a boy who'd watched his mother die. Again.
I didn't wait for the sharks to reach me. I