They were through the transporter door, and to George’s surprise, it was nighttime and very dark. There were only a few stars visible. George saw that they were in a small gully with bushes on either side, and not much else to be seen. However, the air was noisy with many car horns blowing nearby, so he knew they must be near a road.

"Everybody here honks their horn all the time, even when they don’t need to,” said the protector in a raised voice so he could be heard over the blaring horns. “There’s so many people and bikes all over that cars and buses have to honk to let people know they’re there, so no one gets run over.”

Slowly, Ant Number 4 pulled the car forward over the rise of the gully. George saw a large number of lights in the distance and some low buildings. There was a road nearby and George could see that there were indeed a large number of people on bikes, even in the dark, heading in both directions along the road, with a few honking cars and buses weaving slowly between them.

"Gosh,” said George, “I didn’t realize it would be dark here.”

“Yep,” the protector replied. “It’s late at night here—around midnight. China is nine hours behind California at this time of year, but they’re a day ahead since you have to cross the international dateline to get here. So I guess you could say that California is behind China in time, not the other way around.”

“If it’s so late, how come there are so many people out?” asked George.

“The Chinese generally take a little nap after lunch, which refreshes them to stay up late into the night,” said the protector. “You’ll find the whole city is far busier than an American city at this hour.”

Suddenly, Emberly pointed at George. “Your hair changed color and your eyes have changed. But you’ve still got big ears!”

George stared at Emberly in shock. While the dim light from the nearby buildings didn’t allow him to see much, he could tell that her blond curly hair was now black and straight, her freckles were gone and in every other way she looked like a Chinese girl.

“We are now Chinese,” said the protector calmly. “Even Ant Number 4.”

George saw that it was true. Both Ant Number 4 and the protector looked like Chinese men. Looking in the rear view mirror, George saw that his own appearance had changed dramatically. He also had black hair and looked very Chinese.

“Our car has changed too,” said the protector. “Volkswagen Bugs aren’t as common here as they used to be, so we are now riding in a more typical vehicle for China.”

Looking around at the interior of the car, George saw that the Volkswagen Bug had apparently been transformed into some type of yellow mini car or van with bench seats.

The protector smiled at George from the front seat. “I’ll bet even your own mother probably wouldn’t recognize you now,” he said calmly.

At the thought of his mother, George looked impulsively at his cell phone. It was still on, but George doubted it would work if she tried to call from half way around the world. It was fascinating to think that he had come so far from home in the blink of an eye.

“Will we be here long?” asked George. “Not that I want to leave,” he added hastily. “I’m just afraid my Mom might try to call, and she wouldn’t be able to reach me.”

“That is a problem,” agreed the protector. “But we shouldn’t be here long. I’m just going to take a few pictures and do a few quick tests on the fallen star, and then we’ll need to ask around a little to see if anyone found an Uth rock like yours.”

Turning to Ant Number 4, the protector said, “Head for those lights over there.” He pointed to what looked like several spotlights in a nearby field. “I’ll bet that’s where the fallen star is.”

As they approached the field with spotlights, George could see street vendors pulling carts of food or clothing, and a large number of people on foot or riding bicycles. All of them had black hair and dark eyes, and George could see why the protector had set the gauge to transform them all so they wouldn’t stand out.

At the brightly lit field, they saw a large number of men in army uniforms carrying rifles. They were patrolling along a rope fence that had been set up along the edge of the field. A few curious spectators stood outside the rope, staring at the fallen star in the center of the field. It looked exactly like the one George had found. Two officials were examining it, with several armed guards standing behind them.

“Drat,” murmured the protector. “I should have known it would be heavily guarded here. I’m afraid we won’t be able to get very close to it. A few pictures from the outside of the rope fence will have to be good enough. But it looks just like yours, which I’ve been able to test and examine.”

“But what about the Uth rock?” asked George. “Does the army have it?”

"I don’t know,” said the protector. “If they do, they wouldn’t tell us. Let’s just hope if they do have it, they don’t find out how powerful it is.”

Ant Number 4 parked the car a short distance from the roped field. As they got out, the protector said, “Stay on this side of the rope fence, and don’t do anything to make the guards suspicious. If there’s any trouble, let me do the talking.”

George saw that the protector had put on a pair of glasses, but hadn’t taken anything else with him out of the car.

“What about the camera?” asked George. “Weren’t you going to take some pictures?”

The protector smiled. Raising his hand, he tapped his glasses. “This is my camera,” he said quietly. “I have a feeling they wouldn’t approve of my trying to take pictures of it with a regular camera. The army here is very protective and suspicious.”

Ant Number 4 stayed in the car while George, Emberly and the protector walked over to the roped field.

George could feel the eyes of several guards on him as he approached, and tried to act as normal as possible. This was hard to do with his heart thumping so loudly in his chest. Emberly on the other hand skipped along as if going to a picnic, stopping to look at the cart of each street vendor that was going by, and staring at each bike rider that passed.

George noticed that the protector seemed to spend a lot of time adjusting his glasses. The protector walked along the rope fence for a ways, getting a look at the fallen star from several different angles.

Looking back toward the car, George noticed a glow on the horizon that must be coming from the center of the city. The bikes and honking cars continued winding along the nearby road in a steady stream in spite of the lateness of the hour. Did people here ever go to bed?

Turning back to the field, George saw that the protector had gone all the way to the far corner where he continued to stare at the fallen star. Emberly was nearby, closely examining the contents of a street vendor’s cart, which appeared to be full of eggplants. She picked one up, turning it over in her hands. The street vendor looked at her expectantly, probably thinking that she intended to buy it. With sudden apprehension over what Emberly might do, George hurried forward.

He was too late. Without warning, Emberly took a huge bite of the eggplant. Almost immediately she screwed up her face in disgust and spit it out on the shirt of the shocked street vendor.

“Your purple rock tastes terrible!” she cried. Before any of the startled onlookers could do anything, she pushed the cart over and egg plants scattered in all directions. George stumbled on one and nearly fell as he rushed forward.

“Thief! Troublemaker! Brat!” cried the street vendor as he danced angrily around Emberly. “You’ll pay for this! You’ll pay for all of my egg plants!”

“Here, what’s the trouble?” said a guard, pushing his way forward.

“This child pushed over my cart of egg plants!” cried the street vendor.

“Those aren’t eggs!” screamed Emberly. “Eggs are white and taste good, but those purple rocks are awful!”

The guard took a menacing step toward Emberly, a dark look on his face. A sizable crowd seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, surrounding Emberly, the street vendor and the guard. George stood paralyzed at the edge of the crowd, not knowing what to do.

Suddenly the protector appeared, shoving his way in front of Emberly to face the guard.

“I apologize for the rude actions of my niece,” he said hastily. “I will pay for any damaged egg plants, I assure you.”

Emberly stood fuming behind the protector, but didn’t say anything. The guard hesitated. The street vendor had quieted down for the moment, on hearing that he would be paid for his produce. In fact, he had broken into a big grin at the prospect of selling more egg plants at once than he probably ever had.

“Emberly,” said the protector over his shoulder, while not taking his eyes off the guard, “please tell the nice gentleman you’re sorry, then go over to the car with George.”

Emberly looked sullenly down at her feet for a moment. She scuffed her toe at a nearby egg plant, cracking it open. Finally she said in a muffled voice, “I’m sorry.” Then she flashed everyone an unexpected smile and ran over next to George.

By this time several more guards had joined the first one. The protector quickly produced a wallet from an inner pocket and started pulling out colored bills of Yuen, Chinese currency. George wondered how the protector had known to bring any.

The street vendor smiled happily and held out his hands. He was about to make more money off the protector than he would have earned in a day on the streets with his cart.

After passing out enough bills to make the street vendor smile in glee, the protector slipped a bill to each of the guards. Then he signaled George and Emberly to follow him and headed quickly for the car.

When they got there, the protector wiped his brow and gave a sigh of relief. “That was a close one,” he said quietly. “Those guards can sometimes be a little bit difficult. It’s a good thing I transformed some money.” He opened the door of the car.

“Excuse me,” said a voice behind them. “Could you come with me please?”