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I saw backward over my green shoulders as two sets of wings, each
translucent and veined like a leaf, grew straight out to each side.
I was shrinking all this time, but I noticed something interesting. When
you shrink to housefly, pretty soon you can't make out anything further
than a few feet away. But with dragonfly eyes I could still see Cassie
quite clearly, towering above me like the World Trade Center. From down
on the ground I could see her face! Of course it was mostly purple, and
her eyes seemed to glow in an almost radioactive way, but it was still
Cassie.
I felt myself stop shrinking. I looked around. Something I could do
without looking around at all, if you understand what I'm saying. I
seemed to have completed the morph.
I waited patiently for the dragonfly's instincts to kick in. Waited . .
. noticed a tiny beetle
crawling beneath me. Waited . . . saw the way the fallen leaves
looked like starched blankets piled up. ... Waited . . .
Movement in the air above me!
MOSQUITO!
I don't even remember leaving the ground. It happened too quickly for me
to notice. One second my dragonfly vision had spotted something buzzing
and fluttering across my millions of tiny TV sets, and the next split
second I was in the air.
I was two inches long, going from zero to thirty-five miles an hour in
the blink of an eye.
The mosquito never saw me coming. He was helpless. He was a Piper Cub
and I was an F-. He had no moves. He had no speed. He lumbered around
in a kind of wandering, meandering nonpattern, and I came in on him like
a hungry shark on a kid in an inner tube.
I opened my powerful jaws and hit him going full speed. My bony head
smacked the mosquito's body.
My jaws closed on a crumple of legs. The mosquito struggled briefly,
legs kicking, wings still trying to fly.
It had all happened in a flash. Less than five seconds passed from
liftoff to swallowing half the mosquito.
That's how long it took me to regain control. At which point I
realized that there were parts of a mosquito sticking out of my mouth.
And unfortunately, I had a really, really good view of the parts.
Marco yelled.
You're a flea. You can't see squat,> I pointed out.
off we'll have to demorph right in the middle of the beach.>
I was still in dragonfly morph. The view back along my body showed my
long, blue-green abdomen. And crouching on my abdomen, sitting like
creepy passengers in disorderly rows, were five fleas.
I said.
mouthparts stuck into me?>
 Marco shrilled.
while you go zipping around playing Top Gun.>
Rachel said good-naturedly.
The wind whistling through the chinks in my body armor, rustling the
spikes on my legs . . .>
David said.
mean, did anyone ever read the Miss Spider books? Miss Spider's Tea
Party, Miss Spider's New Car? This could be Miss Spider Goes Flying.>
David repeated.
Rachel said with a laugh.
Ax pointed out.
of us to get aboard this insect. Added to the time it took for Tobias to
fly us here, we have no more than twenty minutes left in morph.>
He was right. It had sounded easy, getting five fleas onto a dragonfly.
It had ended up being a Three Stooges movie. Fleas don't jump all that
accurately. It had taken an hour of fleas catapulting like lunatic
trapeze artists through the air to get all five of them aboard.
Tobias was a few hundred feet overhead, doing everything in his power to
look like a hawk minding his own business. Unfortunately, red-tails
don't hang out by the water, usually. I needed Tobias to guide us into
the resort compound. The dragonfly eyes were very good for a bug, but
still not good enough to see the thousand yards that separated us from
the Marriott's outer wall. Whereas Tobias could easily keep track of a
two-inch-long dragonfly.
Yeah. That's good. You're on target and closing in fast>
like Tobias is the jet pilot, and we're the "smart" weapon going for the
target. >
Ax asked. He
sounded shocked.
Tobias reported.
I said.
The trees loomed up, more red than green in my dragonfly world. Huge
branches reached out for me. I zipped on through.
want to get out of range of that bald guy with the killer eyes.>
I saw the main hotel building ahead of me. It was suddenly psychedelic
red and orange, but it was definitely the building we were aiming for.
Just one problem.
Rachel suggested.
I said.
invisibles
Tobias said.
these kind of tall hats as part of their uniforms. And they keep tipping
their hats to the guests before they pick up their bags.>

take split-second timing. And then he'd have to not notice this
two-inch-long bug on his head.>
Cassie pointed out.
Ax asked.
I didn't have any better idea. Neither did anyone else. Believe me, I [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]