The Visitor (10 page)

“I don’t think you should go back in there alone,” Jake said.

“How is anyone else going to go in with me?” I asked. “We can’t have
two
cats running around. I mean, as Fluffer I can go anywhere without any of them being suspicious.”

See … I hadn’t told anyone about Visser Three telling Chapman to kill me. I knew it was wrong to keep secrets like that from the group. But if I’d told them, they would have never let me go back in.

Unfortunately, although Jake may not be all that perceptive, Cassie is.

“Are you
sure
nothing went wrong while you were in there, Rachel?” Cassie asked me. She was looking at me with this kind of sideways look Cassie gets when she’s trying to figure someone out.

“It was scary,” I said. “But nothing happened.” It wasn’t exactly a lie. Kind of a lie, but not exactly.

Cassie thought for a moment. Her eyes went blank. Suddenly I knew what was going on: Tobias was talking to her privately. He was telling her something. She nodded like she was agreeing.

Tobias didn’t know what happened with Visser Three. But he did know that I was pretty freaked when I came up out of that basement.

“I think we should find a way for someone to go along with Rachel,” Cassie suggested.

“What are you going to do, turn into a flea and ride on my back?” I asked her.

She smiled and gave a little shrug. “I’m just saying we should think about it.”

“Okay then,” Jake said. “Rachel goes in one more time. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

“We haven’t gotten lucky since we walked through that construction site and met our first alien,” Marco said.

“Maybe that’s going to change,” I said. “I’m going in and I’m finding a way to hurt those creeps.”

Tobias said in my head.

“Same thing,” I said. I guess the others wondered who I was talking to.

I
t was a dark and stormy night.

Sorry, I’ve always wanted to write that. But it really
was
a dark and stormy night.

“Where is Jake?” I asked as we all got together down the street from Chapman’s house. Everyone else was there. Cassie and Marco were wearing raincoats, although it hadn’t started raining yet. Tobias was overhead, trying to hold on to a branch in a tree while the wind tried to knock him off.

“Jake had to stay home,” Marco said. “Something about his dad grounding him.”

“Why would his dad ground him?”

“How do I know?” Marco said, sounding grouchy.
“You know how parents are. Don’t ask
me
to explain them.”

I bit my lip. Somehow I felt more nervous with Jake being absent. The crazy wind whistling through the branches wasn’t helping my confidence, either.

Tobias said so all could hear.

“Look, I’m not a big fan of shrews just because I sort of was one.” I took a deep breath. “Okay, look, we can’t always count on all of us being together, I guess. So we go without Jake.”

I glanced at Cassie. She smiled blandly. Something was going on with her, but I didn’t have time to find out what.

Tobias volunteered. He opened his wings a little and was immediately propelled out of the tree by the wind. I watched as he rode it expertly, swooping quickly up into the air beyond the range of my weak human eyes.

After a while we saw something shooting over our heads at about fifty miles an hour. Tobias called down as he shot past.

I felt strange. A little nauseous. A little scared. Everything seemed strange tonight. The weird thing was, I knew I’d feel better as soon as I morphed.

I concentrated. The first raindrop fell just as I felt
my tail grow out behind me. By the time I had fallen to the ground, surrounded by the tent of my clothing, the rain had started for real.

“Oh, perfect,” Marco said. “This just gets more and more fun.”

you
have a raincoat,> I said.

Cassie squatted next to me. She’s just a normal-sized girl, but when you’re a ten-pound cat any human being looks like Godzilla.

“Be careful, Rachel,” Cassie said. And then she stroked my back. I started to move away, but she kept her hand on my back for a few seconds. Then, smiling mysteriously, she stood up.

I found I soon lost interest in Cassie’s expression. Cats really don’t have much interest in humans at all, unless food is involved.

I said. I took off at a medium run. Cats don’t like rain. I could feel the cat brain’s distaste. I’d always thought cats hated all water. But that wasn’t Fluffer’s attitude. See, to him it was all about the smells and the sounds. Rain washes away scents. Without scents, a cat feels cut off and lost.

Almost as bad as losing smells is the fact that rain plopping all around you makes it hard to listen for the
important sounds: the tiny high-pitched squeaks and the little furtive scritching noises.

Rain to cats is like being in the dark is to human beings. It just makes the whole world kind of boring.

So I ran toward the kitty door, actually looki ng forward to the friendly smells and sounds of home. At least, that’s what Fluffer was thinking. I was still wondering why Jake hadn’t come. And I was wondering if it was some kind of bad omen. There was a bad feeling over this whole mission.

I knew my way around the Chapman home, both as a cat and as a human. And I was pretty sure I knew the routine. Last time Visser Three had made contact right at eight o’clock. If Visser Three communicated with Chapman at the same time every night, then I had arrived right on schedule.

Chapman was sitting on the couch, same as last time. And just as I’d hoped, at three minutes till eight he stood up and headed down toward the basement.

My whole plan was to go down there with him. I remembered the layout of the little secret room. I remembered the desk. I knew if I could somehow follow him down without him seeing me and then get under the desk, I would be invisible to him, and to the Visser Three hologram.

The problem was that the whole plan counted on Chapman not noticing me.

He headed for the basement door. I fell into step right behind him. The trick was to stay just inches behind his feet. From there he couldn’t see me. But I had to watch his feet closely. If he hesitated, I could plow right into him. That would be a very un-catlike thing to do.

He walked. I kept pace perfectly, just behind.

He headed down the stairs. I figured this part would be easier. When people walk down stairs they usually look where they are going. They don’t turn around and look behind them.

But one sound, one clumsy move, and I was finished.

We reached the bottom of the stairs. Suddenly Chapman stopped dead.

I leaped behind the couch.

He looked around, like he’d heard a noise. Or maybe he just sensed something.

I froze. I didn’t move a muscle.

He started on toward the door. I fell into step behind him again.

I nearly had a heart attack.

My tail puffed up. My back fur went straight up. I almost bolted.

Chapman stopped and I nearly got entangled in
his legs. His left foot moved. I dodged. He backed up a little. I squirmed out of the way.

Jake?

Chapman opened the door of the secret room. He stepped through. I was right between his monstrously big feet. If he happened to glance down …

But he didn’t. He didn’t, and when he turned around to shut the door behind him, I bolted for the desk. I jammed my body as far back in the dark corner as I could.

I’d made it … barely. I was alive … so far.

He sounded concerned.

Me, I was just angry.

I yelled silently.

me? Jake, this is not the time to be playing jokes.>

Chapman sat down at the desk. His feet pushed beneath the desk, just narrowly missing me as I once again dodged nimbly out of the way.

I kept my eyes focused on Chapman’s feet. Cats have incredible powers of concentration. I focused hard on those big feet, each almost as big as I was. I had to stay out of their way. That was the key to staying alive.

Jake said.