Funny, it seems so much longer. The time when you're talking just drags on and on and on, Marco. On and on and on and--"; Very funny."; Actually, it has only been one of your hours and eighteen minutes,"; I said helpfully.

One of our hours,"; Marco said. ally know, they really are your hours now, too. This is Earth. You're stuck here. Go ahead and set your watch to local time."; Marco was bored. We all were. But Marco gets snappish when he's bored.

We were on the sill outside the private hospital room of Hewlett Aldershot the Third. This was our second shift on the windowsill. We'd done a shift earlier in the morning, waiting for close to the two-hour limit. Then Prince Jake and Cassie had taken a turn, then it was back to us.

This is so totally not what I want to be doing on a beautiful Saturday with major sales on at Express and Old Navy,"; Rachel complained. It's my turn to go fly around. Be right back."; She flapped away, leaving me and Marco.

We fluttered our wings a little and jerked our heads and marched back and forth on the stone sill. We were trying to act like seagulls. That's why Rachel had to fly off. It was the right thing for a seagull to do.

Is there something unusual about the name Hewlett Alder--look!"; I said, interrupting myself. A new human is entering the room. And I believe he is familiar."; Rachel!"; Marco yelled in thought-speak.

Go find Jake and Cassie and Tobias.

We have company!"; Who?"; Visser Three in his human morph,"; I said. The Abomination!"; Seagulls have eyes on the sides of their heads. So I turned one eye to stare in through the window. Yes, it was him. Visser Three, leader of the invasion of Earth.

Visser Three is, of course, the only Yeerk ever to successfully seize and infest an Andalite body. When he took that body, he also got the Andalite morphing power that went with it.

So only Visser Three, among all the Yeerks in the universe, has the power to morph.

I felt the slow rage I always feel on seeing the foul creature, my brother's murderer.

Once I came close to avenging my brother.

Once I almost destroyed Visser Three. But in the end, I failed, and he still lives.

The next time there will be no mistakes.

Whoa. Visser Three, and in human morph,"; Marco said nervously.

Definitely something major going on."; Two human doctors came into the room.

They spoke to the Visser. They spoke respectfully. Fearfully. Shaking. I could not hear them through the glass, but clearly they knew who and what Visser Three was.

Visser Three began to demorph. To return to Andalite form. From the human head, the twin stalk eyes appeared. From the human chest, the front two legs began to grow. From the base of the human spine, the long, swift, dangerous Andalite tail began to extend.

To my left, a swift flash of brown and tan with a hint of red. Tobias, swooping past. I kept my other eye focused through the glass.

The blue and tan fur rippled across the formerly human skin. Visser Three was on four legs now, tail cocked and ready.

He is very sure he's safe in this place,"; I said. Otherwise he would never demorph like this."; The doctors aren't too happy, though,"; Marco observed.

The doctors were shaking. Obviously, something was wrong. Then in a flash, Visser Three pressed his tail blade against one doctor's throat.

One twitch would send the doctor's head rolling across the floor.

Now that he was back in his Andalite body, we could hear Visser Three's unguarded thought-speak. I gave orders that this human be cured!"; he raged. There is no point placing one of our people in his head if he's unable to move."; The doctor said something. Something very respectful, very careful.

I don't care about his brain stem, I want him repaired! Do you have any idea how useful this human would be to us? He is the number two man in the organization that guards their president. He would have access to half the secrets on this planet. That's why I arranged for him to be injured and brought here."; Prince Jake and Cassie flew by, both in seagull morph.

What's up?"; Prince Jake asked.

Visser Three, Prince Jake."; Don't call me "prince." Yeah, I hear his thought-speak. I meant, what do you see?"; The Visser is busy terrorizing a pair of human-Controller doctors,"; I said.

Just then, Visser Three withdrew his tail blade. The doctor collapsed and fell to his knees on the floor. His fellow doctor looked at him with pity, but made no move to help him.

ally leave me with no choice: If I can't use this creature as a host, I'll have to acquire him and morph him. I can't spend all my time in his form. I can't live his life.

But using him, I can get close to his superior. I can use this morph to seize her instead!"; The doctor who was still standing spoke. He smiled. He looked encouraging and enthusiastic.

The Visser flicked his tail, hit the doctor with the flat of the blade, and knocked him across the room.

Don't tell me "It's all worked out for the best,""; Visser Three sneered. I still want this human repaired. That's the only reason I let you live. Three days from now this human will be well, or the two of you will be very, very ... very ... sick."; Then one stalk eye turned to stare directly at me. The second stalk eye followed. And I began to have a very bad feeling.

Visser Three moved away, out of sight.

Was he eyeballing us?"; Marco asked.

Then he answered his own question. He was eyeballing us."; Prince Jake,"; I said in thought-speak only my friends could hear. What should we do?"; What's happened?"; Prince Jake asked.

He eyeballed us, that's what happened,"; Marco said.

The Visser has moved out of our sight,"; I said.

Okay. Look, he may suspect you're not real seagulls,"; Prince Jake said. So don't behave suspiciously, or like you notice him. One of you fly off. The other one wait a few seconds, then fly off. Like normal--"; CRASH!

The glass window exploded outward as something came blasting out through it. Marco was knocked from the sill and went tumbling, out of control, toward the ground.

I was too shocked to react at first.

Then I saw what had come bursting through the window. A kafit bird! A six-winged kafit bird!

It had to be Visser Three in morph. But how?

Impossible!"; I cried in total shock.

The kafit bird only lives in one place in the universe: the Andalite home world.

The kafit shook off the glass shards and banked sharply back toward me. Its razor-sharp, killing beak was aimed at me like a missile.

I dropped from the sill, wings folded. The deadly beak missed me by a feather! I opened my wings, caught air, and flapped hard.

The kafit was on me! The six wings gave it terrific speed.

Ax, what is that thing?"; Cassie cried.

I didn't have time to answer. My human friends didn't understand. The kafit lives by spearing tree-living creatures. It is fast, accurate, and deadly to small creatures.

And at the moment, I was a small creature.

Everyone on that bird!"; Prince Jake roared. He can't take us all. Tobias!

Where are you?"; Too far away,"; Tobias said grimly.

I turned my head to look for the kafit.

Stupid! My head acted like a rudder and made me turn. Right into the path of the kafit!

I flapped wildly, crazily. Too slow!

The kafit's beak sliced through the underside of my wing.

Aaaahhh!"; I yelled.

I turned and flew in abject panic. I flapped my wings and skimmed twenty feet above the ground. I knew the kafit was faster. Was it more agile, too?