The rancor responded with lightning speed. Its ma.s.sive head shot forward and its jaws snapped shut around Lando Calrissian.

CHAPTER 11.

"Lando!" Zak cried, jumping back.

"What happened?" Tash shouted, although she and Zak both knew very well what had happened. They had both seen Lando Calrissian swallowed whole by a rancor that was supposed to be nothing more than an illusion.

The rancor let loose a bone-chilling roar that shook the Fun World dome. Clots of gooey red gore spilled from its open jaws.

"Run!" Deevee shrieked frantically as the rancor's tiny eyes settled on the three remaining portions of its meal.

Zak, Tash, and the droid scrambled toward the doors to the administration building, but the portal refused to slide open.

"It's locked!" Tash cried.

"The Bothans must have locked it!" Zak guessed, pounding on the door. "Let us in!"

There was no reply, except for another triumphant roar from the rancor.

Deevee's caretaker programming took charge. "This way!" the droid ordered.

The two Arrandas followed Deevee as the droid churned his mechanical legs as fast as they would go across the plaza. The rancor hesitated a moment. Then it turned and thundered after them.

The beast had cleared the streets of real and holographic tourists alike. Zak, Tash, and Deevee were alone now as they ran from the rancor.

Zak veered away and pounded on the door to the nearby Volcano Slide.

That, too, was locked.

"What's going on here?" he panted, and continued running.

The rancor was gaining on them.

"Follow me," Deevee encouraged.

"Wh-Where?" Tash managed to gasp as they ran down one of Fun World's many lanes.

"To the lagoon," Deevee suggested. "The rancor will not like the water."

If the path to the lagoon had been straight, Zak and Tash would have been swallowed by the rancor's next bite. Deevee would have been crushed into sc.r.a.p metal by the carnivorous beast's next footstep.

But the path wasn't straight. Zak, Tash, and Deevee made a sharp turn to the left just as the rancor pounced. Unable to turn as fast as its tiny prey, the giant predator skidded and crashed into a building, toppling a wall.

"Hurry! This is our chance!" Deevee urged.

Zak was usually faster than Tash, and much faster than the stiff-legged droid. So he was surprised to see Deevee keep ahead of him as they ran. When had the droid gotten so fast?

The persistent rancor had recovered from his crash and was gaining once again. But by now they had reached the lagoon. All three kicked up white sand as they dashed across the beach and splashed into the water.

"Get beyond its reach!" Deevee cried.

Tash and Zak waded out until the water was almost to their necks.

They were a dozen meters from sh.o.r.e-much farther than the rancor could extend its ma.s.sive claws.

The rancor rumbled across the beach, sending huge sand clouds billowing into the artificial sky. The minute its foot touched the wet sand at the water's edge, the creature stopped.

Tash rubbed water from her eyes with trembling hands. "Are you sure this will work?"

"Yes," Deevee replied as water droplets ran down his metal plating.

"According to my information banks, rancors have an innate dislike for water."

The rancor growled, raised a foot, and took one mighty stomp into the ocean.

"Of course," the droid added, "I could be mistaken."

The rancor took another step. The weight of its body sent a huge wave rolling out from the sh.o.r.e toward them. The wave carried them farther out into the ocean.

"Great," Zak muttered. "We're still being chased, but now we can't even run."

"We may not have to worry about the rancor," Tash said gloomily.

"We're being carried out to sea."

She was right. The rancor was so big that every step it took caused a huge wave. Each wave pushed the two Arrandas and the droid farther away from sh.o.r.e. After a few moments, Zak felt the silty floor drop away beneath his feet and he began to tread water.

Zak accidentally swallowed a mouthful of salt.w.a.ter. He gagged and shouted, "How long can you stay afloat?"

"Awhile," Tash said shakily. "But my head is killing me. I don't feel well."

"I am equipped with internal air pockets," Deevee informed Zak. "I can remain buoyant for extended periods. But my circuits will short out rather quickly in this water, I'm afraid."

"I don't think we'll be around that long," Zak groaned, pointing toward sh.o.r.e.

The rancor came nearer. The water had risen above its snarling jaws now, making Zak realize just how far from sh.o.r.e they were. All they could see were two beady black eyes and a bony ridge atop its head as it waded toward its prey.

Then it sank below the surface.

"Where is it?" Zak called out, thrashing around in the water.

"Astounding," Deevee said, weirdly calm. "It's going to strike from below."

Zak thought he felt a cold current of water rush beneath his feet, as though something large had pa.s.sed through the water beneath him. He looked around frantically.

Farther out on the ocean, bubbles rose to the surface. Something was out there.

"Could it have pa.s.sed us?" Tash wondered aloud.

No one had time to answer. More air bubbles burst through the surface, and then a huge gray shape rose into the air, shedding an enormous tent of water. The gray shape was at least twenty meters off, but still it loomed over the two Arrandas and their droid. Zak saw one enormous blue eye focus on him.

"The Whaladon!"

"It will give us a ride," Deevee stated.

"No kidding!" shouted Zak.

Zak began to swim, then stopped. Something else had appeared near the Whaladon. He thought he saw two flashing red eyes just beneath the water's surface. Then the salt spray made him blink, and the image was gone.

The Whaladon, meanwhile, loomed closer.

The Arrandas had ridden the Whaladon two days ago by swimming out into the lagoon, where the sea creature patiently waited as they scrambled onto its back.

This time the Whaladon did not seem to be waiting. With a swipe of its ma.s.sive tail, the giant fish shot forward-straight toward them.

Tash stopped swimming. "What's it doing?"

A line formed along the Whaladon's jaw. The line turned into an opening, and the opening grew into a gargantuan gaping mouth. The lower part of the jaw was filled with churning ocean water. The top of the jaw-ten meters above the water's surface-reached toward the sky.

"Look out!" Zak cried. But it was too late.

They were swept into the giant mouth just as the jaws snapped shut.

The Whaladon had swallowed them whole.

CHAPTER 12.

Zak felt only water and darkness and heat and noise. For a moment he thought he had died. But when the rumbling did not stop, and the heat continued to press down on him like an enormous wet cloak, he knew that he was still alive.

Inside the Whaladon.

Zak was lying on something moist but solid, squishy but immensely strong. The spongy surface twitched, and Zak bounced into the hot, dark air, then landed with a wet splat.

I'm lying on the Whaladon's tongue, he thought. A chill of disgust ran through him.

A tiny noise reached his ears over the sounds of the Whaladon's body. He heard it again-"Zak!"-and squirmed toward the sound.

"Here!" he called into the pitch darkness.

A hand reached out and grabbed the collar of his tunic, pulling him easily along the Whaladon's slick tongue until he felt himself lying next to his sister. She was clinging to something hard and rough and pointed.

"Are you all right?" Tash shouted.

"I don't know," Zak said. "Deevee?"

"Here." Two dim round lights presented themselves. They were the glow from Deevee's photoreceptors. "We are inside the Whaladon's mouth."

Beneath them, the Whaladon's tongue surged and curled back away from the teeth. "Hold on!" Deevee said.

Zak felt a powerful force drag him backward, toward the creature's throat and stomach. He grabbed on to one of the Whaladon's teeth so hard that he felt his fingernails sc.r.a.pe its sides. Just as Zak felt he could hold on no longer, the tongue rolled back toward them, and Zak collapsed against the sea monster's gums.

"Hold tight," Deevee's voice warned from the darkness. "The Whaladon is sure to swallow again soon."

"I can't stand it!" Tash shouted. There was panic in her voice, the same terror Zak felt swelling in his own chest. "Why didn't it just swallow us and finish this?"

"Tash!" Zak yelled. "Don't give up! We've got to find a way out of here!"

"Why?" she said in despair. "What's the use? Things will only get worse."

Zak was worried. It wasn't like Tash to give up. Despite the thick heat, the darkness, and the droning sound of the Whaladon's body and lungs, Zak tried to calm his own fear and think clearly.

"Don't think that way, Tash," he began. "You can't."

"What difference does it make?" she said weakly.

"It makes a difference to me!" he argued. "C'mon, Tash! You're all I have left. And I'm all you have left. We've always helped one another.

You can't quit now!"

"Watch out!" Deevee called.

Once again, the ma.s.sive tongue rolled back. Zak hugged the hard, slippery tooth to keep from being pulled down the monster's throat.

Beside him he heard Tash sob. Then she cried out. Then she was gone.

"Tash!" Zak yelled. "Are you there?"

No answer.

"Tash!"

Under the roar of the Whaladon's noisy innards, Zak heard a faint moan. Tash had lost her grip on the Whaladon tooth and was lying somewhere on the monster's huge tongue. When the Whaladon swallowed again, she would be lost forever.

Zak did not want to give up his secure hold. But he did not want to lose his sister either. Releasing his grip, Zak let himself slide blindly back along the giant, wriggling tongue. He thrashed his arms about until one hand brushed along Tash's jacket, and he grabbed hold. Tash let out a short cry as they both slid another meter, then stopped.

"Come on!" he ordered. He got to his knees and, still holding Tash's jacket, pulled her back toward what he thought was the front of the Whaladon's mouth. Finally his free hand touched something hard, and he clung to the Whaladon's tooth.