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12 11 10 9 8 7 789/9012/0 Printed in the U.S.A. 40 First Scholastic
printing, February 1997

For Michael

1 .I'm Jake.

Just Jake. You don't need to know my last name, and I can't tell you,
anyway. My story is full of small lies. I've changed people's names.
I've changed the names of places. I've changed small details here and
there.

But the big stuff is true.

All of it.

The Yeerks are here. On Earth. That is true.

The Yeerks have made Controllers of many humans. They have inserted
their gross, sluglike bodies into people's brains, and made them into
slaves - Controllers. That is true.

Controllers are everywhere. My town. Your town. Everywhere.

2 They can be anyone. The policeman on the corner. The teacher in your
school. Your best friend. Your mother or father. Your brother.

I know. Because my brother Tom is one of them.

Tom is a Controller. A slave to the Yeerk in his head. If he knew who I
really was - what I really was - he would have me killed. Or turned into
a Controller, like him.

That's what my world is like now. A world where the enemy is everywhere.
Even sitting across from me at the breakfast table on a Satur day
morning, which is when this part of the story begins.

"Hey, midget, what's up?" Tom asked as I sat down. That's one of the
things he calls me. Actu ally I'm kind of big for my age. Almost as big
as Tom. But it's a joke we've had for years. You know how it is.

"Not much," I said. "What's up with you?"

"Oh, I'm going to a meeting."

"The Sharing?" I asked, trying to sound casual. The Sharing is this
group that tries to pretend like it's some kind of combined Boy Scouts
and Girl Scouts. It's really a front organization for Controllers. The
leadership council of The Sharing is made up of high-ranking Controllers.

"Yeah. We're doing some cleanup in the park.

3 You know, do our part for the community and all. Then we're having a
barbecue afterward." He gave me a serious look. "You really should join,
you know. We'd get to spend more time to gether."

I felt a wave of sickness. I tried not to show it. It wasn't Tom
talking. It was the Yeerk in his head. The Yeerk who wanted to take my
body and use it as a host for one of his fellow slugs.

As I sat there across the table from him, I was trying to decide
something. I was trying to decide whether I would have to ever destroy
him. Destroy my brother, who was not my brother. Not anymore.

"Maybe I will join some day," I said. Like when hell freezes over, I
added silently. I poured myself some Wheaties and milk. "So you'll be
out for a while?"

"All morning. Mom and Dad are out playing tennis, you'll have the house
to yourself. Throw a party."

"Uh-huh," I said, and spooned up some ce real.

It was hard not to just yell at him. To let him know that I knew all
about him. What he was. What he was doing.

At least, some of what he was doing. I had been spying on my brother. He
was rising fast in

4 the leadership of The Sharing. He was a very loyal Controller. The
Yeerk in his head had been promoted.

And he was involved in some new plan. A very big new plan.

A plan I had to stop. Even if ...

"Well, take it easy, midget," Tom said, sounding just like he'd always
sounded.

"You, too."

I waited till Tom was gone. I was alone. It was time.

I went through the house, room by room, making sure no one was there.
Then I got the little matchbox I'd hidden in my desk drawer. I could
hear a scrabbling noise coming from in side. I slid the matchbox open.

I shuddered.

It was a nice, big cockroach. Brown and glossy and about an inch long.

Its antennae waved eagerly. The roach tried to force its way out of the
box, but I held my hand over it.

I could feel the roach antennae tickling the bottom of my palm. It was
pushing, trying to get away.

I focused on the roach. Thought about it. Pic tured it.

The roach stopped moving and lay still. Not

5 dead, just quiet. The way animals always get when you "acquire" them.

I slid two fingers into the box to get a better contact with the roach.
It felt hard and dry. I shuddered.

I absorbed the cockroach's DNA pattern. It was becoming part of me. The
DNA - the ge netic pattern - of many animals was a part of me now.
Tiger. Dolphin. Flea. Falcon. Trout. Green anole lizard.

I have the power to morph. To become any an imal that I can touch. The
power was given to us, to me and my friends, by an Andalite prince mo
ments before he was murdered by the Yeerks.

I have flown through the sky on my own out stretched wings at more than
a hundred miles an hour. I have been a dolphin locked in deadly battle
with sharks. I have felt the awesome power of the tiger, and experienced
the terrible loss of self, the emptiness and horror of becoming an ant.

It was the gift of the dying Andalite. A power ful weapon for us to use
in resisting the Yeerks.

It was also a dangerous, deadly curse. Like any weapon, I guess.

And now I was preparing to become a cock roach. It would be the ideal
way to infiltrate The Sharing's new headquarters building. The leader-

6 ship meeting was in a couple of days. I wanted to be there. But the
Yeerks had grown cautious lately.

They knew we were out here. They believed, wrongly, that we were a group
of Andalite war riors, but they knew that morph-capable enemies were
hunting them. Opposing them. Hurting them.

Sometimes hurting them very badly.

Tom. My brother. Could I destroy my own brother?

"You don't have to make that decision yet," I said aloud. "All you have
to do now is try out this roach morph."

All I had to do now was become a cockroach.

7 Cockroaches are not my favorite animals. But I knew a cockroach would
be ideal for pene trating a guarded building. Roaches can go any where.

You may have noticed that fact.

I put my dog, Homer, out in the yard. I closed the curtains in my
bedroom, making it dark as possible.

"Oh, man, the things I do with my spare time," I muttered. I thought of
calling Marco and asking him to come over. Marco is my best friend. He's
the one who actually came up with the word "Animorph."

"No," I said. "Do this yourself."

The others were all tired. We'd had a rough

8 time lately. Too many close calls. We needed a rest. Time to deal with
normal stuff, like school. Our grades had been suffering since we'd be
come Animorphs.

Besides, this had to be my decision. Tom was my brother.

I took a deep breath. I braced myself. I took another deep breath.

"Okay, Jake," I said. "Let's do it."

The first mistake I made was standing in front of a full-length mirror.

It was dark in the room, but there was still enough light for me to see
the changes.

Big mistake. Morphing is never pretty. It is al ways unpredictable. In
fact, if you saw it happening and didn't know what was going on, you'd
end up screaming for about two weeks straight.

The first feeling was of shrinking. It's exactly like falling. Like
you're falling forever. I watched myself shrink in the mirror. It didn't
look as bad in the mirror as it felt.

But what really did look bad was my skin as it began to be covered by an
armor plate of brown cockroach shell.

"Aahhh!" I yelped in surprise.

My fingers melted together and formed a sin gle, many-jointed bug leg.
Antennae jumped out of my forehead. They seemed to stick out forever,

9 then curl back, like they were being blown by a wind.

My waist was squeezed, and the lower part of my body swelled, forming a
swollen insect abdomen. Swollen and brownish yellow with rip ples, sort
of like the Michelin man.

Then, when I was about a foot tall, I felt the last of my bones
dissolve. I could actually hear it happening. My spine had been grinding
as it shrank. Then, suddenly, I heard a squishy sound, as all my
internal organs lost their bone support.

My skull melted away. It was the last sound I heard clearly, as my ears
and human sense of hearing faded.

I was a bag of loose guts. Almost deaf. Half-blind, as my human eyes
shrank and the lenses became distorted.

My exoskeleton got harder and stiffer and stronger. My wings, glossy and
crisp, covered my back. They overlapped at the edges, like the metal
plates of a suit of armor.

Extra legs suddenly sprouted from my chest. Only it wasn't exactly a
chest anymore. I was a stunted, six-inch-long bug, with a few disinte
grating strands of brown hair and shrunken, but still somewhat human, eyes.

Not attractive. Not even slightly.

Then I lost my eyes. It took a second to even

10 realize that I could still see. Then, oh yes! Yes, I could see. But
not the way I saw with human eyes.

A weird, wavy mountain seemed to wrap all around me - my clothes. They
looked different, blue and green and gray. Kind of. It's hard to de
scribe, exactly. I couldn't see very far, just a few feet. And what I
could see was shattered into dozens of little images. I saw little bits
of vast fibrous walls - my socks. And dark tunnels made of thick slabs
of what could have almost been wavy, corrugated concrete - the legs of
my jeans.

The fibers of the carpet looked gray-green to me, and as big as ropes.
My hairy, jointed roach legs would catch in the fibers as I tried to move.

I felt the roach brain surfacing. I'd been through it before. It's
different each time, de pending on the animal.

Sometimes it's a bunch of raw energy and fear that takes over your own
mind so you think you're going crazy.

But not the roach brain. I didn't feel great hunger. I didn't feel great
fear. The roach was . . . calm. Confident. Unworried.

I laughed. I mean, in my head I laughed, be cause I no longer had a
mouth or a throat or any thing at all that would make a laugh.

I was so tensed up, expecting the cockroach

11 to be a bundle of energy and fear. But mostly it just felt like resting.

The roach brain wanted to take a nap.

Cool, I thought. It's gross. It's disgusting. Marco and the others will
hate the idea, but when I tell them how easy it is to handle -

VIBRATION!

Get ready. Get ready. What was it? Get ready.

LIGHT! LIGHT! LIGHT!

12 C 44-R-F T £ -R

R

UN! Run from the LIGHT!

Imagine being in one of those race cars at the Indianapolis 500.

Now imagine that instead of sitting in one, you are strapped facedown
underneath one. Your nose is about a tenth of an inch from the road and
you're going 180 miles an hour.

That's what it was like when I ran. My roach legs powered like something
from a Roadrunner cartoon. I blew out from under the folds of my own
clothing. I blew across that carpet. I was rocket-propelled.

Someone had put the light on in my room. And when that light came on, my
roach brain stopped being calm and relaxed.

13 Zoooom! Three miles an hour. That's very fast when you're only an
inch long.

Vibration . . . vibration . . . vibration . . .

Heavy steps rattled the floor. They vibrated up through my legs. My tiny
roach brain knew what they meant. Something very, very big was walk ing
around.

Chasing me! RUN!

Zoom! across the carpet. Suddenly, a wall!

Up? Left? Right? Which way?

Vibration . . . vibration . . . vibration . . .

Wait! A crack. It wasn't much of a crack. Just enough space to slip a
quarter through. No way I could fit.

Or could I?

My underside scraped the floor. My hard brown wing cover scraped the
bottom of the baseboard. But I barely had to slow down.

I was in the wall! Hah! The big things that rat tled the floor would
never catch me now. I was safe here. A nail as thick as a tree trunk
stuck up from the wood. I went around it.

On either side of me I saw bright, straight lines of light that seemed
to go on forever. They were the cracks beneath the baseboards. To one
side a thick, shiny slab with irregular edges intruded into the wall -
the edge of the kitchen linoleum.

High above I could see other lights, more cir-

14 cular and dimmer. These were the holes where pipes entered the wall.

AHHHH!

Something moving! Close by. Oh, gross! A cockroach!

Get a grip, Jake! I told myself. You're a cock roach, too! But still,
you just don't want to be face-to-face with a roach as big as you are. I
mean, he was right at eye level. The other roach's antennae felt me,
sweeping over me, tangling briefly with my antennae.

We said "hi." At least, we said the roach ver sion of "hi." Which wasn't
really "hello." It was more like, "Oh, you're a roach, too."

Now, in the darkness inside the wall, I felt calmer. The electric fear
was gone. The suddenness of the light had been the problem. That and the
vibration.

I could still feel the vibrations, but they were different now. Further
away.

Okay, I'd had enough of being a roach. It was time to get to some safe
place, demorph and find out who had been in my room.

Why was someone in my room? A few minutes earlier, and they would have
caught me in mid- morph. Stupid of me. Stupid, stupid.

Where could I go to demorph? The garage? Yes, the garage. There weren't
any mirrors, and I sure didn't want to watch myself morph again.

15 Through the kitchen, out under the back door; that was the way.

I went to the bright crack ahead of me, the kitchen. I scampered up on
the ledge of linoleum. I stuck my head and antennae out beneath the
baseboard. The vibrations were all far away. In some other room.

I emerged from the crack. Over my head was an incredibly high canyon. It
went up and up, far higher than I could see. Two parallel walls, just a
few body lengths apart. Of course. The refrigerator. I was behind the
refrigerator. One side of the "canyon" was the kitchen wall, the other
side was the back of the refrigerator.

Someone really should sweep back here. There were dust bunnies the size
of couches.

But no problem. I was getting the hang of it now. Follow the baseboard.
To the next wall. Turn right, and then there would be the door.

No problem. I was in charge.

Some big barnlike structure was ahead of me. It looked like one of those
old-fashioned covered bridges.

Huh. Probably an old matchbox.

I went in, trotting along on my six jointed legs.

Wait. I wasn't moving anymore.

What the . . . ?

I tried to run.

16 I was stuck!

I tried again. One leg was free, but the others were frozen in place.
What was ... I felt around with my antennae.

Now my antennae were stuck!

I couldn't move. I couldn't move at all!

I was trapped!

17 5o?" Rachel demanded. "What was it? How did you get trapped?"

"I'll bet I know," Marco said, grinning sardon ically, which is the only
way he knows how to grin. "Jake checked in, but he couldn't check out."

I nodded. "Roach Motel. I walked into a stu pid Roach Motel. I ran right
onto the sticky paper and, man, I could not move. Very frustrating."

"You know, you could do commercials for the Roach Motel company," Marco
suggested. "Take it from me, Roach Boy, these things really work."

It was later in the day, and we were in Cassie's barn. Rachel, Marco,
Tobias, Cassie, and me. As usual, the place was filled with wire cages, and

18 the cages were filled with animals. Rabbits, foxes, baby deer,
eagles, opossums, mourning doves, all of them injured or sick. Some of
them feisty and ready to be released.

We were lounging around on bales of hay and piles of feed sacks. All
except Tobias, who was up in the rafters high overhead, and Cassie, who
was feeding some of the animals.

Everyone seemed to think my roach experi ment was funny.

Except for Cassie. Cassie was the only one not smiling. She was giving
me a very disapproving look. "Jake, you of all people should know bet ter."

She was right. I knew she was right. But that just made me stubborn.

"Look, I was just trying out the morph to see if it would be good for us
to use."

Cassie totally did not buy my argument. She put down the bucket she was
carrying. She took off her heavy work gloves. She came over and stood
about a foot from me. Then she stuck her finger in my face.

"Uh-oh," Marco said in a loud whisper. "Jake's in trouble."

"Big time," Rachel agreed.

"Jake," Cassie said, "don't ever do that again. Now, you are sort of the
one in charge, but I am telling you, don't ever do that again. Don't

19 ever try some new morph without one of us there. Do you understand?"

"Cassie, I was just - "

"Uh-uh. No. Don't tell me what you were just. Don't ever do that again."

<Um, Jake? I think this is the point where you just say 'yes, ma'am,'>
Tobias said, in the thought-speak that comes with being in a morph.

I hung my head. "Okay, Cassie. Sorry."

Rachel whistled appreciatively. "It's a new, tougher Cassie. I approve."

"I remember when she used to be so sweet," Marco said. "I didn't know
her voice could even sound like that. Plus, look! She now comes with a
Kung Fu grip."

Cassie ignored them. Instead she gave me a private look, just between
the two of us. I knew what the look meant. It meant / care about you.
Don't be dumb.

And the look I sent her meant / know. I care about you, too.

Okay, I realize it sounds corny. But give me a break. We'd been through
a lot, Cassie and I. And all of us. We'd grown pretty close.

To me, Cassie is an amazing person. For one thing, she handles all kinds
of responsibility. Her barn is actually the Wildlife Rehabilitation
Clinic. Her parents are both veterinarians and her dad runs the clinic
as a way to help injured wild

20 animals. Everything from seagulls to skunks. And Cassie helps with
all the work, except for doing surgery. But I'll bet she could do that,
too.

As for how she looks, well, she's very pretty. Kind of short. She only
comes up to my chin, but then, I'm fairly tall. But she's not one of
those wimpy-looking short girls, you know? Not all prissy. She's
strong-looking. Mostly, when I picture Cassie, I think of her wearing
overalls and boots because of working in the barn so much.

I guess most guys would say Rachel is pret tier. Personally, I don't
think of her that way be cause she's my cousin. But Rachel does look
like some kind of blond supermodel.

Not that Rachel acts like Ms. Fashion. Just the opposite. If there's
danger, Rachel is right there. Usually a few steps ahead of anyone else.

Marco says Rachel's enjoying it all. That she's actually glad about all
that's happened in our lives since that night when we saw the Andalites'
damaged spaceship land in the construction site. Marco refers to Rachel
as Xena, Warrior Princess.

But that's Marco. For him, everything is a joke. Except for his family.
Or what's left of it.

Marco is small, with dark eyes and dark, long brown hair. Cassie says a
lot of the girls at school think he's cute. I wouldn't know.

21 Most of the time Marco and I totally do not get along. He says I'm
too serious. Personally, I think he's just a little too immature sometimes.

We disagree about everything. He actually tries to tell me that college
hoops are better than the NBA. Yeah, right! Please. What are you going
to do with a guy like that?

We get on each other's nerves a lot of the time.

We're also best friends and have been since we were babies. I would do
almost anything for Marco, and he would do the same for me. Of course,
he'd complain the whole time. Oh, man, can that guy complain when he
wants to.

The last member of our original group is To bias. Tobias used to be this
kind of sweet guy with wild blond hair. A dreamy sort of person with a
really terrible home life.

Used to be.

I glanced up at him. He was perched on a rafter overhead. He was
preening his wing feath ers, carefully combing them out with his beak.

It's an amazing beak. It has a wicked, cruel- looking hook at the end -
the better to tear open the mice and rats and other small animals he eats.

Tobias is a red-tailed hawk. I guess maybe he will always be a
red-tailed hawk.

22 See, there's one problem with morphing. A time limit of two hours. If
you stay in morph more than two hours, you stay forever.

Which is why Rachel asked me, "So? What's the rest of the story? How did
you get out of the Roach Motel before the time was up? I notice you are
human again."

"More or less," Marco added.

I shrugged. "Well, I sat there for a while, trying to squirm .out, but
it didn't work. I was stuck good. But it was okay, because as I sat
there I realized I could start to make sense of some of the vibrations I
was hearing. Some of it was sound. People speaking."

"What people?" Marco asked.

"My parents. My dad twisted his ankle playing tennis, which is why
they'd come home early. They were the ones who'd gone into my room,
looking for the Ace bandage I have in my drawer. They were the ones
who'd turned on the light. Anyway, what could I do? I wasn't about to
get stuck in roach morph. And I could tell my parents were up in their
bedroom. So I de- morphed."

<Wait. Weren't you behind the refrigerator?> Tobias asked in thought-speak.

"Yeah. And it was very tight. But as I grew, I could push the
refrigerator out an inch at a time. Still, I thought I was going to
suffocate back

23 there. And then, just as I was getting human again, my mom walks in."

That made them all lean forward.

"What?" Cassie demanded. "Your mom? What did she see? What did she say?"

"Well, all she could see was my head. It was normal, fortunately. And
what she asked me was, 'Jake? Why are you back there? And while we're at
it, why do you have the top of a Roach Motel stuck in your hair?'"

Everyone got a good laugh out of that image.

Marco was the first to stop laughing. He was looking at me kind of
sideways. The way he does when he thinks I'm hiding something.

"Very funny and all, Jake," Marco said. "But you haven't told us why you
were morphing a roach. And don't give me that 'I was just trying it out'
routine."

I stopped laughing. Sooner or later I would have to tell them. I would
have to tell them every thing.

"Okay. Look, I've learned something. For one thing, Tom is getting more
important to the Yeerks. I think now he's just below Chapman as a
Controller."

Rachel gave a low whistle.

Chapman is our assistant principal at school. He is also the most
important Controller we know about.

24 "Tom is careful about not letting my parents or me overhear anything
suspicious," I said. "But he does make phone calls using our phone some
times. I've been checking the automatic redial when he's done. So I know
some of the people he's calling."

Marco laughed. "Cool. Jake the superspy. Nice trick."

<And who is Tom calling?> Tobias asked.

"Doctors. Five different doctors. I looked them up in the phone book.
They all practice at the same hospital. The same wing of the hospi tal,
at something called the Berman Clinic. Berman is one of the doctors Tom
calls."

It took a few minutes for the facts to sink in.

"Wait a minute," Rachel said. "Are you say ing the Yeerks are running
that hospital? Or at least a part of that hospital? Why would they want
a hospital?"

I hesitated before answering. I wasn't sure my guess was right. Maybe I
was just being para noid. But Marco, who could teach a class in
paranoia, had already figured it out, of course.

"Oh, man. They're going to use the hospital to infest host bodies. You
check in to have your ton sils out or to have a cast put on your broken
arm. You check out as a Controller."

25 Tom came home late that evening. He smelled like wood smoke and
barbecue sauce.

My mom and dad and I were already at the table, eating dinner. My dad
had his injured ankle resting on a stool. We were having broiled chicken
and potatoes and veggies.

As he walked in through the kitchen door, my mom said, "Tom, how was the
big cleanup? They showed some of it on the news."

Tom came into the dining room and took a chair across from me. "It was
okay. We filled two Dumpsters full of garbage and dead branches and
stuff. Hey, what happened to your leg, old man?"

26 My dad winced. "I tried for a shot I shouldn't have tried for.
Twisted it."

"Did you have enough to eat?" my mom asked Tom.

Tom patted his stomach. "Burgers and dogs and chicken. Not as good as
your chicken, of course."

"Actually, your father cooked. He cooked by calling Gourmet Express and
having it deliv ered."

"But I did microwave the sauce," my dad said. "That counts as cooking."

Tom winked at my dad. "Well, the stuff at the barbecue had to be better
than dad's chicken. Good thing I ate there."

"Just for that you get no dessert," my dad said. "And it's cheesecake.
From Santorini's."

"Oooh, Santorini's?" Tom groaned. "I take it back. I apologize. I
grovel. I beg. I love Santorini's."

Homer came in, sensing it was time for table scraps. "Hey, Homer," Tom
said. He scratched him behind the ears and Homer got his happy- moron
look, the look where his eyes glaze over and his tongue lolls out of his
mouth.

A totally normal scene. Around a totally nor mal dinner table. No one
would ever have guessed the truth. In my brother's head was an alien. A
creature from another planet.

I asked Ax about how it works. Ax is the An-

27 dalite we rescued from the bottom of the ocean. He's one of us now, I
guess.

Anyway, I asked Ax about how the Yeerk slug lives in a person's head.
He'd explained it to me. How they can flatten their sluglike bodies. How
they can sink between the crevices and cracks of a person's brain. How
they melt like a liquid into every available space. How they wrap their
bod ies around a brain and attach their own neurons to human neurons.

Tom must have noticed me staring at him.

"What's your malfunction?"

I snapped out of my daze. "What? Oh, noth ing. I was just thinking of
something."

"You were staring at me. You were staring at my forehead."

I forced a laugh. My mind raced to think of a joke. "Really? I thought I
was just staring blankly into empty space. But then again, empty space,
your head. What's the difference?"

It worked. Tom snatched up a dinner roll and chucked it at me. I caught
it in midair a split sec ond before it would have hit my face.

For a moment we just glared at each other.

"Don't throw food," my dad said. "It's undig nified."

"It's okay," I said. "Tom's not fast enough to hit me anymore. He's
slowed down. Lost his touch."

28 Tom raised an eyebrow. "Don't push it, midget."

I smiled. It was a fake smile, but it was the best I could do. "You used
to be faster when you were still on the basketball team. I guess hanging
out at The Sharing all the time, eating barbe cue and potato salad, must
have slowed your reflexes."

You know, in the old days, Tom would not have put up with that. He would
not have let me challenge him and get away with it. He would have had me
in a headlock and given me a mas sive noogie till I begged for mercy.

But now he just gave me a cold, uncertain smile.

Maybe it was because he had changed. Maybe it was because I had changed.
The si lence stretched between us for a few minutes, and my parents,
feeling uncomfortable, made small talk.

"I have homework to do," I said at last. "May I be excused?"

"Come back down for cheesecake later," my mom said.

Tom caught up to me on the stairs. "I don't know why you're so against
The Sharing," he said. "A lot of the kids in your school have joined."

"I guess I just don't like to join things."

29 "Yeah? Well, don't dump on what you don't understand. What were you
doing that was so im portant today? While I was out cleaning up the park?"

I stopped and turned to face him. I was one step higher than he was. We
were eye to eye. "Me? I wasn't doing much of anything. Hanging out with
Marco."

"Your loss," he said. "There are things that are cooler than hanging out
with Marco. Cooler than being on some bogus team. Important things. You
could be a part of something . . . big ger. You could be part of
something great, not just another nothing kid."

He gave me a look. Like he could tell me incredible things. Like he
could open up a whole new world for me.

I could be part of something bigger. Some thing important.

I knew that kind of stuff worked on some people. That was the first step
toward becoming a voluntary host. That was how The Sharing started you
out: talk of bigger, more glorious, more interesting things that you
could be part of.

"Thanks, Tom," I said. "But I don't want to be a part. I guess I'd
rather just be one person. On my own. One little nothing kid."

For a split second after I said that, he let the

30 mask slip. For just a moment I saw an expression of pure arrogance
and contempt. Yeerk arro gance. Yeerk contempt.

The look said "We will have you, sooner or later. You and all the rest
of your weak race."

Then it was gone, and Tom was shrugging like it was all no big deal.

I went to my room. I did some homework. Later, I went back downstairs
and ate cheese cake along with my folks and my brother. One big happy
family watching TV and pigging out.

That night, I had the dream.

A dream that had begun to appear almost every night.

31 "T

X can't believe we are actually going to

practice a morph," Marco said. "We never practice. We just do it, and
when it's a huge disaster we try and deal with it then."

"We need the practice," I pointed out. "We're going in as spies. We're
going to this thing to try and hear what they are saying. And it takes a
while to learn how to use the cockroach's senses to understand sound."

"This would be a great horror movie. Or at least a book," Marco said.
"Roachman."

We were in Marco's new apartment. It was the first time we'd ever used
it. Probably because now that Marco's dad was back at work, they had

32 moved to a better place. I guess Marco used to be embarrassed over
his old place.

In fact, his dad was out, working late at his new job. I hoped the job
would last. Marco had been carrying a big load of family problems for a
long time.

"Is it possible to die of total willies?" Cassie asked. "I mean, do you
think we could someday just gross ourselves right out of existence? I
didn't even like touching a cockroach. How am I going to stand becoming
one?"

"Just don't be near a mirror," I suggested. "And don't look at each
other while you're mor- phing."

<Are these creatures frightening to humans?> Ax wondered.

It's amazing how quickly we'd all gotten used to the fact that this guy
from another planet was with us. I barely even thought about the fact
that an Andalite was standing there, looking like a cross between a blue
deer, a mouthless human, a goat with eyes on the ends of his horns, and
a scorpion.

The scorpion part is the Andalite's tail. It has a curved, scythe blade
on the end. The Andalites can whip that tail forward so fast you don't
even see it move.

I sat on the edge of Marco's bed. Tobias

33 perched just inside the window, looking fierce and angry - although,
of course, he wasn't.

Speaking of odd things I was getting used to. I mean, I was there with
an alien, my cousin, my best friend, and Cassie, and they were all
getting ready to become roaches.

Except for Tobias.

And the weirdest thing of all was that it didn't seem weird anymore.

I watched as they all began to morph. I looked away when it began to get
disgusting. When I looked again, there were four cockroaches on the carpet.

<0kay,> Marco thought-spoke to me. <We're bugs. Let's get this over
with, because I have to tell you - I have a major urge to step on my self^

"Okay," I said. "Can you guys hear me?"

<Go ahead. We're ready. Say something,> Marco thought-spoke. I couldn't
tell which roach was him. All roaches look alike.

"Hello," I said loudly.

<Wait. I felt something,> Cassie said.

"Tobias, tell them that was me."

<That was Jake,> Tobias translated into thought-speak. < He said 'hello.'>

<0kay, Jake. Do it again. Say 'hello' again,> Marco instructed.

34 "Hello."

<Yeah, I felt some vibrations there,> Rachel confirmed.

"Hello."

<That sounded like hello,> Cassie said.

<Jake?> Marco said. <Say I'm a huge dork.' I'll see if I can understand it>

"You're a huge dork."

<Very funny,> Marco said. <l couldn't actu ally hear what you said. But
I know you.>

We spent about an hour with Marco, Cassie, Rachel, and Ax learning to
translate vibration into human speech. They were repeating the learning
I'd done while I was stuck in a Roach Motel behind my refrigerator.

When they demorphed I looked away again. My dreams had been weird enough
lately. I didn't need any help having nightmares.

Cassie is the best morpher in our group, even better than Ax - who's an
Andalite, after all. Usually she can kind of control the process a lit
tle. Once, when we were morphing birds, she managed to turn totally
human except for keeping huge bird wings for a few seconds.

It was really cool.

But even Cassie couldn't do anything to make a cockroach morph attractive.

It was disgusting. Flat-out disgusting.

<You have such wonderful animals on this

35 planet,> Ax said when he had returned to his normal form. Not that
his normal form looked very normal, standing there in Marco's bedroom.

"Cockroaches are not wonderful," Rachel said, shuddering a little. "I
mean, I'm sorry, but I don't like those bodies."

"They're easy to handle, though," Marco said. "Not I like ants."

We all exchanged a look. We'd had a very bad experience with ants. That
was one morph no one was going to be repeating.

"You know, guys, this mission doesn't really require all of us to go," I
said.

"Look, I just said roaches are disgusting," Rachel protested. "I didn't
say I didn't want to do it. We need to know what's going on with that
hos pital. The best way to do that is to crash this lead ership meeting
of The Sharing. And the best way to do that is with roach morphs. End of
discussion."

She looked around belligerently, like she was daring anyone to disagree.

"Yeah, but I can do it alone," I said.

"What's going on with you?" Rachel asked. "You know we're the Five
Musketeers. One for all, and all for one. Six Musketeers now," she
corrected, looking at Ax.

<What are Musketeers?> Ax asked.

No one answered him. They were all just look ing at me like I'd done
something wrong.

36 "Normally, I'd be all for staying out of trouble," Marco said, "But
I'm just curious about why you're acting this way."

"It makes sense. One of us can go it alone."

"Are you worried about Tom getting hurt?" Cassie asked.

Count on Cassie to figure it out. I looked down at the ground. "Look, he
is my brother. You guys are my friends. What if we get into it and it
comes down to a fight?"

Marco raised his eyebrows thoughtfully. He understood. "We don't hurt
Tom, that's the first thing."

"It's not that simple," I said. "He's involved in this big time. He's
one of them. And he would . . . look, he would kill any of us."

I hated having to say that. But it was true.

<Not Tom,> Tobias said. <The thing that lives in his head. Never Tom.>

I sighed. "I had this dream." I almost stopped talking right there,
because I felt like a fool bringing it up. "I know this is stupid. I
know dreams don't mean anything. But I've had this dream a couple of
times."

"So? Tell us," Rachel prodded.

"Okay, but don't laugh. In the dream I'm in my tiger morph. And I'm
stalking Tom. Following him. On his trail. I'm feeling the tiger's eager-

37 ness. You know, that predator feeling. The hunger. The desire to kill."

Tobias turned his head away. I knew why. To bias was a predator now. He
felt that eagerness, that killing desire, every day. It still bothered
him, I guess. He had always been such a gentle guy. Back when he was
fully human.

"Anyway, in the dream, I'm hunting my own brother. Only, when I get
close ... he turns around. And it isn't Tom anymore. It's ..." I stopped
myself before I finished the sentence. I'd already said too much.

"I just don't want anything to happen to Tom," I said lamely. "It's not
just about what might happen if there's a fight. It's. . . . Look, I
think Tom is important to this whole hospital plan somehow. I think
maybe he's in charge. If we manage to stop this thing, who knows what
they'll do to Tom? I mean, maybe Visser Three just kills Tom's Yeerk.
But we've all seen Visser Three in action. He likes to make examples out
of anyone who fails him. He could kill Tom."

Rachel whistled softly. "If we succeed, Tom fails. If he fails, Visser
Three may kill him."

"That's about the way it is, yeah," I said.

"So, what do we do?" Marco asked.

"We forget this mission," Cassie suggested.

"And leave the Yeerks in control of a hospital?

39 A little factory for making Controllers?" I coun tered. "Why? Because
my brother may be hurt?"

"Yes," Cassie said simply.

I hesitated. I wanted to agree. But how could I justify backing off for
selfish reasons?

"We don't have to make a final decision now," Marco said. "We can go in.
Learn what they're up to. Decide then what to do about it."

I met Marco's gaze. I wondered what he was thinking about me. Only Marco
and I know about his mother. To everyone else, she's dead. Only the two
of us know that she's really a Controller. That her body is the host
body of Visser One.

Marco, of all people, understood what I was dealing with. He had given
me a way out of de ciding.

"Yeah," I said, nodding at my friend. "Marco's right. This is just a spy
mission. There's plenty of time to decide what to do, when we know more
about what they are up to."

I should have felt relieved.

I didn't.

38

How long do you think this will take?" Rachel asked. She checked her
watch. "I set the VCR for two of my favorite shows, but I forgot to tape
the movie of the week."

"I'm taping it in case you miss it," Cassie said.

It was dark out, but not very late. The moon was up, but hidden by the
clouds. We were walking along the street, doing our best to look like a
normal bunch of kids just hanging out.

Normal.

<This sucks,> Tobias said from high above. < l'm half-blind at night.
Especially without moonlight. I should have gotten myself stuck in an
owl body. Owls are so cool. Aside from the fact that some of them try to
kill and eat falcons.>

40 "How can you ever run in these bodies?" Ax wondered. "Two legs? It is
absurd. Surd. Ubsurd. Ubzerd. Not even a tail to help you stay up."

Ax was in his human morph. It's a combination of DNA from me, Marco,
Rachel, and Cassie. The result is kind of like looking at all of us at
once, but in one body. It's really weird.

Ax had almost gotten used to having a mouth when he was in his human
morph. Almost. He still had a tendency to want to play with sounds,
repeating them. Plus, the boy was dangerous when he got around food. The
sense of taste was just overwhelming for him.

"You know, Ax, now that you mention it ..." Marco started gyrating
wildly, like a guy out of control. "I only have two legs! I'm falling .
. . falling!"

"See? I knew it must happen sometimes," Ax said, adding, "Happen. Hap.
Hap. Pun."

I wasn't sure if Ax knew Marco was being funny or not. Ax might have a
very dry sense of humor. Or he might have no sense of humor at all. I
hadn't figured it out yet.

"There's the place," I said. It was up ahead, at the end of the block.

It was a residential neighborhood, with older houses and a few kind of
low-budget shops mixed in. You know, thrift shops and car parts places
and small restaurants.

41 Our target was a single-story, whitewashed building. There was only
one door, and the win dows were high up, narrow and long. They were
blocked off so that no one could see inside. There was a small parking
lot with a dozen cars in it.

Over the door was a sign: "The Sharing. Building a Better Life."

"Yeah, right," Marco sneered. "A better life for slugs from outer space.
You notice the guy standing by the door? He looks like he's ready for
trouble."

A very large man stood by the door, muscular arms folded over his chest.
But we'd expected that. Marco and Rachel and I had scoped the place out
ahead of time.

"Okay, we cut down this alley," I said. "That building down there is
abandoned. The basement is empty and unlocked. That's where we morph."

The basement was dark and depressing and smelled of mildew. I guess it
used to be part of a restaurant. There were still some old tables strewn
around. There were also a lot of old beer bottles and bits of garbage.

"Wonderful," Rachel said in a whisper. "This whole Animorph lifestyle is
so glamorous."

Tobias fluttered in through the open door. Then we heard a thump.

42 <0w! Man, who put a pillar there? Banged my right wing.>

"Great. This is the guy who's supposed to be looking out for us," Marco
grumbled.

Ax had instantly begun to morph back to his Andalite body. It is not
possible to go straight from one morph to another. Just like we have to
return to human form between morphs, he had to resume Andalite form.

"Come on, let's do this and get it over with," Rachel said. "I'm going
to be a roach in a filthy basement. My mother would be so proud if she
knew."

"Wait," Cassie said. "We agree on how this works, right? We're not
looking for a fight. This is a spy mission. No one do anything dramatic,
like morph into an elephant and go on a stomping spree."

Cassie was looking at Rachel. Rachel has an elephant morph. She's very
fond of it.

Rachel laughed. "Absolutely. Spy time. Stealth is my middle name."

"Okay." I was a little embarrassed that Cassie had brought it up. She
was trying to remind everyone that Tom was one of the Controllers in
that meeting. Trying to remind everyone that we were just there for
information.

"Let's morph already," Rachel said. "Come on. I'll miss the movie."

43 "Five little roaches. We'll be right at home in this dump," Marco
said as he began the transfor mation. "You will keep the rats from
eating us, won't you, Tobias?"

<Hey, I may not see that well in the dark, but I can still catch a rat,
light or no light. I am the rat-killer of the universe.>

"Ax? You ready?"

<Yes, Prince Jake. I am fully Andalite and ready to become your roach.>

A few moments later, we were five cock roaches amid the scattered
garbage on the bare concrete floor.

<Wow. That is one big beer can,> Marco said.

A blue and white can towered over us, curving away into the sky.

<Let's, urn, scurry,> I said. <Ax? You keep track of the time.>

We took off, a little knot of fast-moving roaches, all running in the
same direction.

<You know, if this wasn't so gross, it would be kind of cool,> Rachel
said. <Stairs! All right. A little vertical rock climbing.>

Tiny pincers on the end of my six legs grabbed the small protrusions of
concrete and wedged into invisible cracks. It all happened so fast and
so automatically that I could run straight up the cement step, almost as
fast as I could move hori zontally.

44 Up the riser. Over the edge. Zoom, to the next riser. Up. Over.
Across. To the top of the four stairs.

<You know, you guys still give me the willies,> Tobias said. <You should
see your selves. The urge to step on you is pretty strong - if I had
shoes. I never did like roaches.>

<This from a guy who disembowels live mice for lunch,> Marcosaid.

<Don't knock it if you haven't tried it,> Tobias shot back.

In some corner of my mind I noted the fact that Tobias seemed more and
more at peace with his weird life - half-bird, half-human.

But mostly my mind was on the job at hand. We had reached the threshold.
We scampered across it and out into the alley.

The alley was a mix of gravel and cracked, torn-up blacktop. The
blacktop was like running across hard oatmeal, all bumpy and uneven. The
gravel was more difficult. The pieces of rock were as big as we were,
and even with our six clever legs, there was a lot of stumbling and
slipping.

<l'm going airborne,> Tobias said. <You're out on the sidewalk. Turn
left. There's better light out here so I'll be able to watch you from
the top of the telephone pole.>

<0kay, we'd better spread out. Don't forget, these are Controllers.
Yeerks. They believe there

45 is a group of Andalite warriors running around loose. In other words,
they'll be on the lookout for morphs. So act like normal roaches.>

<You mean I should crawl inside an open box of cereal?> Marco asked. <l
had that happen once. I almost ate the bug. Yuck.>

We fanned out, staying several inches apart as we moved toward the
building. I stopped when I reached the whitewashed cinder block of the
exterior wall.

<Crack!> Cassie called. <l found a big crack here. I'm going in.>

The rest of us waited. I felt obvious, just sit ting there. Obvious and
helpless. The big guy at the door could decide to step on me. I couldn't
see him, but I knew he was there.

<This is good,> Cassie said from deep in the wall. <l think we can
follow it all the way inside.>

One by one, we scurried to her location. I felt better when I was inside
the crack. Until I thought about what would happen if I tried to
de-morph in such a tight spot.

I didn't even want to start thinking about that.

<We're going in, Tobias,> I called to him. <Get somewhere safe.>

<l'm cool,> he said. <Good luck.>

We were traveling single file, sideways, along the crack. It was like
exploring a cave. There was

47 no light, but my antennae felt the way, picking up the scent of the
others, reading the tiny air currents, sniffing for familiar aromas.

Then I saw a faint light that grew brighter as I advanced. Cassie was in
the lead. < lt worked. It goes all the way through. I'm inside.>

I sidled up beside her. I could see through the crack opening now. I
could see brilliant light. And I could feel vibration.

The vibration of sound. Of speech.

I concentrated. It was impossible to tell much about the voice. Who it
was. It seemed too high to be someone old.

Was it Tom?

I listened to the words.

". . . the day is here at last. It is time to strike the decisive blow
in the invasion of Earth."

46

< What is this, a Yeerk pep rally?> Marco wondered.

Cassie started giggling - well thought-speak giggling - , and pretty
soon all of us, except Ax, were laughing silently. It was very nervous
laugh ter.

<We need to get out of this crack,> I said. <Spread out a little. We
look too obvious just sit ting here, and we should try to see if we can
identify some of these people. Move out. But wait! Not all at once!>

Too late. We were all scampering down the wall from the crack to the
floor. To anyone watch ing it would have looked like "Invasion of the

48 Roaches." Five roaches, moving all together, is an easy thing to notice.

But I had forgotten one thing. Humans hate roaches. A human will spot a
roach very quickly. But Yeerks couldn't care less. Even though these
were all human-Controllers, they were with their fellow Yeerks now. They
didn't have to keep up the "human" act.

No one stomped us. Although I waited for a big shoe to drop from the sky.

We separated a little, then headed along the edge of the wall, where
bare concrete floor met painted cinder block walls.

<Hey, guys? Can you hear me? It's Tobias.>

<Just barely, but I can still understand you,> I called back.
Thought-speak gets weaker over distances. Same as regular speech.
Although walls and so on aren't a problem.

<There's a car pulling up outside here. A limo. And there are two other
cars with it, full of very tough-looking dudes.>

<What are they doing?>

<Getting out, now. Like six guys. They have guns! I can see them under
their coats. Now there's a guy getting out of the back of the limo.>

<Who is it? Or should I say, what is it?>

<He's a human. He staggered a little, walking toward the door. He looks
like a normal guy, but all the others are acting very nervous. And ... I

49 know this sounds dumb, but I get a bad feeling from this guy .>

Now I could hear the vibrations of many feet walking fast. <They're
coming our way now, To bias. Thanks for the warnings

I tried to use my eyes, but they were hopeless at any kind of distance.
All I could tell was that several men had arrived and were marching
through the room.

"My brothers-in-arms," some loud, booming voice said, "I present to you,
our leader. Visser Three."

There was a gasp from the group. There was a silent gasp from us, too.

Visser Three?

Visser Three had an Andalite body. He was the only Yeerk ever to obtain
an Andalite body, with all its morphing power. But surely, Tobias would
have mentioned seeing an Andalite getting out of a car.

"I see that some of you are surprised," a new voice said. "Surely you
must know that I can morph a human, as well as any other body."

<0h, man,> Marco said. <Visser Three can morph a human?>

<Certainly,> Ax said. <Just as I do. Humans are animals, after all. You
have DNA.>

The voice we now knew as Visser Three spoke in a hard, curt tone. It was
odd, hearing his

50 words. We had only heard him thought-speak before. Now he had a
voice. And, if we could only see it, a human body. But he was too far
away for our weak and distorted roach vision.

"This mission has two parts. One. We will use the front hospital to take
involuntary hosts. I ex pect to be able to make two hundred new Con
trollers per Earth month. We will concentrate on police, broadcasters,
writers, teachers, people in finance, and especially anyone in a
position of political power."

There was a murmur of excitement from the assembled crowd.

<Just what we were afraid of,> I said.

<Unfortunately,> Marco agreed. <Man, two hundred new Controllers a month?>

"You have done well recruiting human doctors and nurses, so that we now
control the hos pital facility. But this brings me to the second part of
the mission," Visser Three said. "Until now this secret was known only
to me and a very small group."

The room was almost totally silent, listening, anticipating.

"The second part of my plan is even more im portant than the first. In a
few days, the governor of this state will have some minor surgery
performed. His secretary is one of us, and she has steered him to our
facility. He will check in for

51 the minor surgery. When he checks out ... he will belong to us."

<No,> Rachel gasped.

<What does it mean? What is a governor? Is this some sort of prince?> Ax
asked.

<Yeah. A prince. The governor controls the state police,> I said. <And
the National Guard. And the schools.>

< lt's worse than that,> Rachel said grimly. <Don't you guys ever pay
attention to politics?>

<What are you talking about?>

<Don't you know? Our governor is getting ready to run for president next
year. A year from now there could be a Controller in the White House.>

<A White House? What does all this mean?> Ax asked.

< lt means that one of them could be the most powerful man in the most
powerful nation on Earth,> I said.

<And that would be the ball game,> Marco said.

<Then ... all would be lost?>

<Yeah, Ax. All would be lost.>

52

< Let's bail. We've learned all we need to know,> I said.

<Back to the crack?> Cassie asked.

<Yeah. We know the way.>

I turned and headed back to the crack. It was only a foot or so away. In
a few seconds we would all be safe.

I could not believe what I had heard. It was insane! If the Yeerks
succeeded, we were toast, pure and simple. As long as it was a secretive
war between us and Yeerks who did not want to be discovered, we could
maybe stay alive. But if all the power of the state police were turned
against us, too? The situation would be out of -

53 Suddenly, a strange vibration in the air above me.

DANGER!

RUN!

WHHHAAAMMMPP!

It was like someone had dropped an entire three-bedroom house an inch in
front of me.

The impact was awesome. The wind it caused was like a small but intense
hurricane. It whipped my antennae back.

<Someone almost stepped on me!> I yelled to the others. <Look out!>

"Visser! Forgive my interruption. But there are several small insects
here!"

A general murmur from the crowd, then one voice saying, "Don't worry,
they are only cock roaches. They are everywhere on this planet."

"Fool!" Visser Three exploded. "Do you think Andalites cannot morph
creatures so small? Someone kill this fool for me."

BLAM! BLAM!

I felt the world spinning around me. Someone had been shot! Was it ...
Tom? Could it have been?

A new rush of air overhead. I could see some thing monstrously huge
falling toward me, speeding down, ready to crush me.

I bolted.

54 WWHHHAAAMMMPP!

Millimeters from my tail.

"Kill those insects!" Visser Three screamed.

<Everyone for himself!> I yelled. <Spread out. Run! Get into cracks! Let
the roach brains guide you!>

I took my own advice and relinquished control to the raw instincts and
cunning of the tiny cock roach brain.

Say what you will about roaches. They're gross. They're disgusting. But
man, when it comes to staying alive, that primitive roach brain knew its
business.

WWHHAAAMPPP!

WWHHAAMMMPP!

<Aaaahhh!> Ax yelled.

<Ax! Are you okay?>

<Yes. Yes. Barely.>

Huge feet, each the size of a Greyhound bus, stomped the ground. But
each time, the roach brain moved me in just the right way at just the
right speed. They missed me by so little that I could feel the leather
and rubber scrape my sides and tail as they impacted around me.

I made it to the corner of the wall and hugged in there as close as I
could get.

<They're on me!> Cassie screamed. <l can't get away! Oh, man! I don't
want to die like this!>

<Get to the wall! Get off the floor!>

55 I was blazing along at top speed as shoes tried to kick into the
corner. But all I needed was a tenth of an inch and I could scrape past,
unin jured.

SQQQUUUUEEEEEGGGEE.

A running shoe was being dragged along the corner, straight toward me.
The soft rubber melded perfectly into the space. It would crush me!

I saw it coming, a black wall. A black locomotive rushing at me.

I jumped!

I landed on the shoe as it came near.

Whooosshhh! I was flying through the air on a magic carpet made of
canvas. The man kicked. I lost my grip and went flying through the air.

<l'm clear! I'm clear!> Cassie called. <l found another crack!>

I felt like I was going supersonic. Like a jet, tumbling out of control
through the air.

Wait! I had wings!

Too late.

Fwappp! I hit the wall. It should have killed me. It would have killed
me if I had been a hu man. But I weighed less than an ounce. The impact
was hard, but not enough to hurt me.

I fell to the floor.

A tent of some sort - gray, black ... a newspaper! It was a crumpled
piece of newspaper on the floor. I dove beneath it and froze.

56 I looked up and saw that it was a photograph. I couldn't make sense
of the photo, of course, it was just big black dots of ink. I could make
out letters, each as big as my head.

<l'm clear,> Ax called. <l am with Cassie.>

Good. That was two of them safe. <Rachel? Marco?>

<l'm on a guy's sock,> Rachel reported. <He doesn't know I'm here. Wait.
We're outside! I'm going to drop off! Clear! Clear! I'm outside!>

<Marco?>

<Yeah,Jake.>

<Where are you?>

<l am in a place where I really, really hope no one flushes, Jake.>

<You're in a toilet?>

<They have a bathroom. It seemed like a nat ural place for a roach. I'm
chilling for a minute, then I'm going to try for the hole in the wall
where the pipe goes. How about you?>

<l'm not so good. I'm under a newspaper, but they're still stomping all
around. Sooner or later they'll stomp here. I have to make a run for it.
I'm going to try for the door. Once I get outside they'll never get me
in the dark.>

<Good luck, man,> Marco said.

<Yeah. You, too, my friend.>

Then, my antennae picked up a strange new scent. Sweet. Oily.

57 Dangerous. Somehow, I sensed that . . .

It hit me in a flash!

<Marco! They have bug spray!>

I blew out from under the paper.

"There! There's one!"

Vibrations of a dozen feet running after me. And in the air behind me, a
vast fountain that seemed to be explode from thin air.

An upside-down fountain. Like a rainfall that came from a single point
and spread out to fill the air.

A droplet landed on me.

Then another.

I felt my legs stumble.

The door. I could sense it, just ahead.

WWHHAAMMPP!

A foot! A near miss. I was slowing down! I could feel my roach instincts
becoming scrambled.

I was poisoned. The nerve gas was beginning to work. My legs were
tangling up. My antennae were waving frantically, unable to smell
anything but the deadly rain of poison.

"That got him!" a voice said.

"Don't crush him," Visser Three yelled. "He may demorph to save himself
and we'll have our selves an Andalite!"

I was starting to twitch. I couldn't breathe.

And then, faster by far than the feet that had chased me, some new shape
swooped down.

58 I tried to run, but I no longer could.

Three monstrous cables closed around me, and I was up, up, off the floor.

<Hang in there, Jake,> Tobias said. <lt's me. Red-tailed Airline
welcomes you aboard, and I am hauling my feathered butt outta here!>

59 Morph , Jake! Morph now!>

Tobias had set me down on the roof of a Boston Market restaurant. It was
the closest safe place he could find.

I was lying helpless on tar paper and gravel. My legs were twitching. My
antennae waved in sanely. I was twitching and jerking and losing all
control over my roach body.

But the human me understood what was go ing on.

I was dying.

I had watched roaches die from poisoning. I had stood over them and
thought, "Ha, serves you right."

60 Now it was me. Now it was my body that was failing. I was the one
suffocating and jerking.

<Jake! You have to morph out of this. Do it! Concentrated

I knew he was right. It was the only way to stay alive. But it was so
hard to focus when I was trapped inside a dying body.

I tried to picture myself human. I tried to form a mental image of
myself. But that picture was all mixed up with dolphins and birds and
tigers.

And the dream . . .

I was in it now, as the delirium swept over me. In the dream . . .

I was the tiger. Moving with perfect silence. Each muscle like liquid
steel. Every movement controlled, calculated.

I could smell my prey. I could hear his clumsy human movements in the
dark forest. He was slow. He was weak. He could not escape me. I would
destroy him. I would bring down my prey.

My prey . . . Tom.

I saw him turn to look at me. I saw fear in his eyes. Fear of me.

I settled back on my haunches, preparing for the final lunge. The
killing lunge that would end with my teeth sinking into his neck. My
jaws crushing his spine.

He looked at me and held up his hands. "No!"

61 I leapt, uncoiling unbelievable power. I leapt, a huge, unstoppable
hunter. I roared, a thunder ous cry of triumph that could be heard for
miles.

And then I saw the tiger. Saw myself. Saw orange striped fur and
ruthless yellow eyes and saber teeth and claws that could rip open a buf
falo, hurtling toward me.

Tom had become the tiger. And I was his prey.

I closed my eyes. And when I opened them again, I saw, right above me,
fierce eyes staring down from just a few inches away. The eyes of a hawk.

<Are you okay?> Tobias asked.

I raised my hand to look at it. Fingers. Five of them.

"I don't know? Am I okay?"

<You seem to have all your major limbs and so on,> Tobias said. <But it
was a weird morph. You got poisoned pretty badly, I think. You seemed to
be unconscious while you morphed.>

"I'm alive," I said, feeling a little surprised. But of course the
amount of poison that had almost killed me when I was a roach was
nothing to me as a human. "Where are we?"

<0n the roof of a fast-food restaurant.>

"You saved my butt, Tobias."

<No problem. I am your own personal Air Force, dude. Just call in the
air support anytime you need it.>

62 I sat up. "How are the others?"

<Worried about you. I checked up on them while you were coming out of
morph. They're scattered around, but okay. Everyone morphed back. Ax is
already in human morph again. Cassie has him with her.>

"I guess I should get down from here," I said.

<Yeah,> Tobias agreed. <So. Marco told me what you found out. This is
major.>

"Definitely major," I agreed. I stood up and began to look around for a
way to escape from the roof. I was too tired and rattled to morph again.

<Marco says Visser Three was there. In a human morph. The guy who showed
up in the limo, right?>

"Yeah, I guess so. I mean, roach eyes are pretty lame. I can only go by
what I heard."

<l saw him leave, right after I lifted you out of there,> Tobias said.

I stopped looking for a ladder to the ground. Tobias was being too
talkative. Too persistent.

"Tobias? What is it? What are you trying to get around to telling me?"

<When Visser Three left, Tom was with him.>

My first reaction was relief. Visser Three had ordered someone executed
in that meeting. It had not been Tom.

63 "How, um . . . how did they look together? Visser Three and Tom?"

<Tom was the only one from the meeting who went with Visser Three, aside
from his guards. Tom was acting sort of careful around Visser Three. But
he looked like he was pretty cocky around the guards. It's hard to say,
Jake. But if I had to guess, I'd say Tom and Visser Three are tight.>

"Yeah," I said. "I have a feeling maybe Tom is kind of responsible for a
big part of this hospital plan." I shut up and thought for a second.

"What will Visser Three do to Tom if this great plan is destroyed?"

Tobias said nothing. He knew the answer.

Those who fail Visser Three die.

64

J. saw the lane open up between Juan and Terry. A clear lane to the basket.

Thonk. Thonk. Thonk. My right hand dribbled the ball. I stuck my left
arm out, ready to ward off Juan if he came after me. I powered ahead.

Sneakers squeaked on the polished wood floor of the gym. One of the guys
on my team yelled, "Go, Jake!"

Juan saw my move and came after me. But I was just a little too fast.
Thonk! Thonk! Thonk!

Stop. Pivot my back to Juan. Lock on to the basket, focus, focus . . .

I jumped and arced the ball toward the hoop.

It hit the backboard. It hit the rim. It bounced away. No score.

65 I fell back against Juan and Terry - the three of us ended up in a
tangle on the gym floor, arms and legs everywhere. The ball rolled out
of bounds.

"No wonder you never made the team," Terry said, laughing as he helped
pull me to my feet.

I had tried out for the team, but I didn't make the cut. At the time it
had bothered me. Mostly because Tom had been the big basketball hero
when he was at our school. I wanted to live up to that.

Now, I realized I didn't have time for after- school sports anyway. And
playing during gym class was enough basketball.

"Yeah? Well, I beat Juan with some of my ex cellent moves, and he /son
the team," I said. I reached back to help pull Juan up. "Although I
can't figure out why they would want some guy who looks like he's made
out of straws."

"I'm just saving my best stuff for the finals," Juan said. "I don't want
to waste my secret, killer moves on you, Jake. And now you practically
crushed my legs, you big ox. Man, you ought to be playing football."

"Good idea." I grinned at Juan. He's about five-eleven and weighs like
ten pounds. "Let me practice my tackling on you."

Just then the coach whistled, which was the signal to hit the showers.

"Saved by the whistle, Juan," I said.

66 "You should have inherited some of Tom's moves," Terry said. "That
brother of yours has a jump shot."

"Man, Tom could have been in college ball easy. At a good school, too.
If he would have stuck with it," Juan chimed in. "That boy has the gift."

They were right. Tom did have the gift. But he had dropped out of
basketball. The Yeerk who controlled him had other plans, I guess.

I showered and got dressed for my next class. Marco was waiting out in
the hallway. He had gym next period.

"B-ball today?" he asked. "Cool. I thought it was going to be more
wrestling. I hate wrestling. Getting up close and personal with sweaty
guys? Not my idea of a good time."

"The ancient Greeks used to wrestle with no clothes," I pointed out.
"Just be glad this isn't Greece."

"And no deodorant," Marco agreed. "It's go ing to be next Tuesday."

"What's going to be next Tuesday?"

Marco looked over my shoulder and then, very casually, around the
hallway to make sure no one was close enough to overhear. "The governor.
That's when he's going in the hospital. I'll bet you a hundred bucks
it's for hemorrhoids." He

67 grinned. "That's why it's kind of secret. No one is supposed to know."

"So, how do you know?"

"Well, we know from the meeting the other night that he's going, right?
So all I had to do is find out what his schedule is going to be. Turns
out it's no problem. I told them I was a reporter and they faxed me a
copy."

Marco pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket and opened it for
me to see.

"See? Saturday he gives a speech. Sunday he goes on a TV interview show.
Monday he gives another speech. Tuesday . . . oops! Suddenly on Tuesday
he begins a five-day vacation, and they don't say where he's going."

"Why would he keep it a secret, I wonder?"

"Oh, puh-leeze. If it is hemorrhoids? A politi cian getting his
hemorrhoids operated on? The jokes are just too easy. Letterman would be
talking about it in his monologue."

I smiled. "Yeah, okay. Good work."

"Tomorrow's Saturday," Marco said. "Should we do it then?"

I guess the expression on my face showed how I felt. Marco cocked his
head and looked sideways at me. "You okay, man? You had a close call
last night. I've been there, so I know it isn't easy to just get past it."

68 "No, I'm cool," I said. I gave him a push. "Besides, since when are
you all psyched to go?" Marco had always been the most reluctant mem ber
of the group.

"You know since when," he said softly.

I nodded.

Marco was no longer reluctant to fight the Yeerks. It had become a very
personal battle for him.

"Yeah, sorry," I said.

"As far as the others are concerned, I'm still the same old Marco," he
said. "I don't want them thinking anything is different. I don't want
them feeling sorry for me."

"Now, Marco, how is anyone ever going to feel sorry for you? You're so
totally obnoxious."

"And I plan to stay that way."

The bell rang, signaling the next class.

"Okay," I said. "Tomorrow. We'll need to think of some way to get inside
that hospital, though. They'll really be on the lookout."

"Actually, Cassie already suggested some thing to me," Marco said.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, man. You know, I like Cassie. But this is the
girl who suggested we try an ant morph."

Marco started to head into the gym. I headed toward class.

69 "Not ants," he said over his shoulder. "I don't even want to know."
"Think dog poop."

"What?" I demanded. But by then he was through the door and gone.

70 CH

Something nice, but for fifteen bucks or less," I said. "My dad's
birthday is in two months, so I have to spread my money pretty thin."

It was after school. We had headed to the mall. Me and Cassie and
Rachel. My mom's birthday was coming up. I had about fifteen dollars to
buy her something, and the last time I'd bought her a present it hadn't
turned out all that well.

Who would ever guess that she wouldn't appreciate a classic Spiderman #3
in almost mint condition?

Okay, so I was a year younger then. Plus, I had asked Marco to help me
find something.

71 This time I asked Cassie if she would help me shop. Which was almost
as dumb, since Cassie isn't really into clothing and cute little stuff.

So Cassie had asked Rachel to help.

"How about that store?" I asked, pointing at one that had women's clothing.

"Yeah, right. Good choice, as long as you have at least a hundred
dollars to spend," Rachel said.

"Okay. How about ..." Cassie began.

"Uh-uh. Cassie, think about it," Rachel said, looking slightly perturbed
by our stupidity. "Look at the name of the store. It might as well
scream 'fat, middle-aged ladies.' Jake? Do you want to tell your mom you
think she's fat?"

"No." I shook my head vigorously. But then I thought it might be a trick
question. "I mean, I don't, do I?"

Rachel rolled her eyes. "No, you don't. Duh. Have you two ever shopped
for anything? I feel like I'm dealing with Ax here. I mean, are you two
from this planet? We're looking for something on sale. Something that
says 'Mom, I still think of you as being young and cool.' Something
classic, understated. Most likely, we're talking a department store."
She pointed. "That department store. Second floor. Toward the front, on
the right. That's where we want to be. Look for sale signs. They'll be
red with black letters."

72 Cassie grinned at me. "See? Rachel owns this mall."

"Shopping and kicking butt. Rachel's spe cialties," I said affectionately.

We cruised the department store and in about ten minutes, Rachel had
found a silk blouse.

"It was thirty-three dollars originally," Rachel crowed. "Thirty-three,
marked down to twenty-five. Then, a thirty percent discount for this
one- day sale. We got it for seventeen fifty! Do you realize that's
almost half off the original price? Seventeen and a half bucks! For that
blouse! Yes! She shops, she scores!"

"Yeah, but I was only going to spend fifteen," I said meekly.

"You didn't spend too much. Don't you know anything? You saved fifteen
dollars and fifty cents. You came out ahead by more than fifteen bucks!"

"Wait a minute. How did I save, if I spent?"

Cassie put her hand on my arm. "No. Don't ask. Rachel uses a whole
twisted math involved in shopping. Don't even try and understand it."

Rachel ignored Cassie's teasing. "Hey. While you pay, I have to go check
something in Juniors. Meet you at the food court."

Rachel peeled off, leaving me and Cassie alone in the racks of clothing.

73 "So when are you going to tell me your idea?" I asked.

"I thought Marco already told you."

I shook my head. "Nope. He just said 'think dog poop.' I did. I got a
very bad feeling as a re sult."

Cassie looked a little pouty. "Look, it was the only animal I could
think of that could get in and out of a hospital without getting stepped
on or poisoned. We wouldn't even be seen, probably. I mean, they go
everywhere. Who even notices them?"

"Cassie, so far I have done three insects. Flea, that was okay. Ant,
that was definitely not okay. And roach. I'm starting to feel jealous of
Tobias. I mean, he's stuck as a hawk, but at least he doesn't have to go
around turning into bugs."

"Do you have a better idea, Jake? Because I respect your feelings. I was
just trying to help. It's just a suggestion."

I drew a deep breath. "No, I don't have any great suggestions. I'm just
... I mean . . . it's just, whatever happened to the good old days when
we would be tigers or wolves or something fun? I don't want to be a fly.
I saw that movie. The Fly. Both versions. The old one, and the new one
with Jeff Goldblum. I mean, a fly? A fly?"

"The movie. I forgot that movie," Cassie said.

74 She made a face. "The one where the guy has a tiny little human head
stuck on a fly body and he's trapped in a spiderweb and he's going 'h-e-
e-e-l-p m-e-e-e' in this little tiny voice? And that guy is so grossed
out he just crushes him?"

We both just stood there, looking kind of sick.

"Moths?" Cassie suggested.

"Too slow," I said. "And too big. They would spot us."

"Okay ... um ... bees?"

"No way. No social insects ever again. Bees could be as bad as ants that
way. No social in sects. No hives. No colonies." I shuddered at the
memory of the ant morph. It had been like dying. The ant had no
individual self. It was just a part of a bigger machine.

"Flies aren't social," Cassie said.

"Can I help you?" a saleswoman asked.

"No," Cassie said. "Thanks, anyway."

We started walking, heading to the food court to hook up with Rachel.

"It would just be to get into the hospital," I said, thinking out loud.
"If they are using the hospital to transfer Yeerks into hosts, it will
mean they have some kind of a Yeerk pool in there. That's what we are
after. Find that Yeerk pool, wipe it out."

"So we would just be in fly morph for a brief

75 time," Cassie said. "I mean, if we decided to do it. We'd have to
demorph to do any damage."

"And then, if we create enough confusion, we can escape in some other
way. We wouldn't have to do flies again."

"True," Cassie agreed. "We'd probably only be in the fly morph for a few
minutes."

"Yep."

"So it's flies," Cassie said.

"Yep."

Then, both of us, at the same time, said "H-e-e-e-l-p m-e-e-e!
H-e-e-e-l-p m-e-e-e!"

76

Here's the thing about flies.

Being a fly is fun. It really is.

Turning into a fly ... that is a whole different story.

I guess it's no big secret that I kind of like Cassie. I think she's
really pretty. But when I saw these two huge, glittering, bulging,
compound eyes come popping out of her eye sockets, I screamed.

I mean, I screamed like a baby.

"Yaaaaahhh!"

"Great, Jake. That's going to make her feel good," Marco said.

"Marco, you have your eyes closed," I pointed out.

77 "And they're staying closed, too."

"Excuse me," Rachel said. She raced for the door of the barn and ran
outside. A few seconds later we heard the sound of barfing.

You have to understand. Cassie was mostly still human at the point where
the fly eyes showed up. She was about two feet tall and shrinking fast,
and the extra legs had already popped out of her chest, and the gauzy
wings were growing from her back, but her face was still a human face.

Until the eyes popped out.

Oh, man. You think you've seen scary stuff? Maybe in movies or on TV?
You haven't seen any thing scary till you've seen fly eyes pop out of
someone's head like a pair of balloons.

She was pretty small by the time her fly mouth appeared. I was grateful
for that. Because later, when I became a fly, I saw what a fly mouth
looks like.

The eyes were bad. But if I'd seen that long, tubular, sucking,
tonguelike thing come rolling out. . . that thing that spits on the
food, then sucks the spit mixture back in ...

Rachel came back inside. "Sorry," she said shakily. "Anyone have some
gum? A Tic Tac?"

Ax was puzzled. <Does the morphing process disturb you?>

"Sometimes," I said, still fighting the urge to

78 look away as Cassie shriveled down to a few inches. "Some animals
give me the willies."

<The willies? What are the willies?>

"Well, it's just this feeling of being grossed out. Sickened. Nauseated.
Creeped. Like your skin is crawling. Willies."

<ls she done?> Tobias asked. <l'm not com ing in there until she's done.>

"Tell Tobias it's okay, will you, Ax?"

<Tobias. Prince Jake says it's cool.>

I smiled at Marco, who was now peeking through his fingers. Ax was
learning to sound semi-normal. At least in thought-speak. When he was in
human morph and spoke out loud, he still played with every sound and
drove everyone crazy.

Tobias flew in through the open hayloft above.

"Can you hear me, Cassie?" Rachel asked.

"Tobias. Do you see her?" Cassie was a true fly now.

<Got her.>

"Keep a sharp focus on her," I said. "Don't lose sight."

<Relax. It's broad daylight, she's ten feet away. At this distance I can
see the hairs on her little fly legs. Unfortunately. Ooooh. Oh, man. Oh,
that's just not even slightly attractive.>

"Cassie?" Rachel asked again.

"Tobias? Try her with thought-speak."

79 <Cassie? Cassie, can you hear me? There she goes! She's flying!>

"Don't lose her, Tobias. Don't lose her."

"She won't go far," Marco said. "All the horse manure in this barn?
Where would she go that's any better for a fly?"

Suddenly, in my head I heard <Yeeeeee haaaaahhhh!>

"Cassie?"

<Cassie?>

<Whooooo hoooooo!>

"Cassie! Answer us!"

<Cassie? You okay?>

<0h, man! Man! Can this thing fly! You guys have got to try this. This
thing flies like a rocket. Yaaaah haaaahhh!>

<Are you able to control the fly brain?>

<Yes, yes. Don't worry, you guys. I'm fine. Sorry. But it's just such a
complete, insane rush! Come on, let's go, time's a-wasting.>

I sucked in a deep breath. I had been hoping everything would be fine.
That Cassie would not have any problems. But at the same time, I was
utterly disgusted at the idea of becoming a fly. And now she was saying
it was okay.

You'd think it would get easier, slipping in and out of strange shapes.
But you'd be wrong. Gross is gross, and always remains gross.

"Okay, guys. It looks like we're doing this," I

K

80 said, trying desperately to sound cheerful and optimistic.

"Oh, goody," Marco said.

<Yes! Goody!> Ax said, totally unaware that Marco was being sarcastic.

"Sounds like Cassie's having fun," Rachel said.

"Uh-huh," I said. "Let's just do it."

We did it.

Morphing was as gross as we'd expected.

But Cassie was also right. Once you were in the morph; once you got used
to the fact that your vision was like a thousand tiny TV screens, each
showing a slightly different picture; once you got done freaking about
the way your nasty fly tongue stuck out; once you got past the bizarre
combination of hooks and bristles and hairs that made up your fly leg;
once you got past the fact that nothing looks right or familiar when
you're only about an eighth of an inch long; and mostly, once you
stopped thinking about that stupid fly movie . . .

Well, then, it was cool!

I have flown before. As a peregrine falcon and as a seagull.

Both are cool. I mean, the falcon can go like 175 miles an hour in a dive.

Faster than a stock car. Faster than small planes.

81 But flying as a fly is totally, completely insane.

A housefly beats its wings 200 times per sec ond.

Say "hello, there" out loud. In the time it took you to say that, a
fly's wings beat 200 times.

A fly moves at about four miles per hour. Which doesn't sound very fast,
compared to a falcon hitting almost 200 miles per hour. But trust me,
when you're only an eighth of an inch long, four miles an hour is like
warp factor nine.

And what's really cool is you can do that going down, going left, right,
or straight up.

And you can change directions in no time. One minute you're shooting
straight ahead like a bullet, the next tenth of a second you're going
straight up.

Cassie was right. It was gross, but it was fun.

<Yeeeee haaaaahhh!> Ax yelled.

<Whoooaaaa hooaaahhh!> I cried as I blasted straight up at what felt
like the speed of light.

<We are ugly as sin, but we are so cool!> Rachel exulted.

<Let's go find some dog poop!> Marco said. <Kidding,> he added a second
later. <Just kid ding^

<0kay, okay, we have important stuff to do,> I said after we had all
spent a couple of minutes getting used to the fly's simple instincts and
pretty decent senses. <Time to get on the bus.>

82 Tobias was the bus. The hospital was a couple of miles away. Flies
are fast in relative terms, but in actual speed, Tobias was a lot
quicker. It would have taken us hours. Tobias could carry us there in a
few minutes.

<Hop on the big feathery guy,> Cassie said. <Aim for the back of his
neck. We don't want his wings or tail knocking us off.>

<lt's just a good thing I know you guys,> Tobias said. <My own little
necklace of houseflies. It's enough to gag a maggot.>

<Gag a maggot?> Marco echoed, <Gag a maggot? Hey pal, don't be dissing
our kids that way.>

<Yuck,> Tobias commented. And then we were off.

83 1 clung to Tobias's feathers. It was easy enough to do. Fly legs can
grab onto glass, or hang upside down on a ceiling.

I could feel the wind whipping around me. It rattled my wings and
actually whistled through the chinks and joints of my tiny exoskeleton.

An incredible array of aromas assaulted my sensitive antennae.
Unfortunately, the main things my fly brain seemed interested in were
anything sweet, anything rotting, or anything de cayed and putrid.

<This is a little like that shrew morph I did early on,> Rachel pointed
out. <The same interest in dead meat.>

Suddenly, a monster! It loomed huge in my

84 compound eyes. Smaller than me, but still way, way too big.

<What the . . . !> I yelped.

<What? What is it?> Cassie asked.

<0h, man. I think it's a flea. It looks about the size of a poodle. But
not even slightly cute.>

<Wait a minute!> Tobias cried. <Are you telling me I have fleas?>

<Just one that I've seen,> I answered. <Now he's gone. He probably
jumped off.>

Actually, I was lying. The flea was working his way along Tobias skin,
beneath the feathers, looking for a good place to sink his penetrating,
bloodthirsty tongue.

But somehow I didn't think Tobias would want to hear that.

<0kay, we're at the hospital,> Tobias said. <l'll take a low pass, then
tell you guys when to jump off. Kind of like an old war movie. You guys
are the paratroopers.>

<Good example,> Marco said. <Ever notice how in those old movies the
paratroopers mostly get shot?>

<Jake?> Cassie whispered to me in thought-speak so that no one else
could hear.

<Yeah?>

<You could still drop out of this mission,> she said. <Everyone would
understands

<Thanks. But no. Tom or no Tom, the Yeerks

85 have to be stopped.> That's what I told myself, anyway. I guess it
was true.

<0kay, everything looks fine to me,> Tobias said. <l see an open window
on the third floor. No screen.>

<You're sure?> Marco asked.

<Marco, in light this bright I could tell you if there was a single
strand of spiderweb across that window, let alone a screen.>

<He said spiderweb,> Rachel moaned.

<H-e-e-e-l-p m-e-e-e!> Marco mimicked.

By absolutely terrible luck, the old version of The Fly had been on TV
the night before. Like fools, we'd all watched it.

<l don't understand what this means,> Ax grumbled.

<Get ready,> Tobias said. <Three . . . two . . . one . . . bail!>

I leapt from his back. I opened my wings. The slipstream was so fast it
sent me tumbling, end over end through the air. But as my speed dropped
I quickly gained control.

<Everyone okay?>

<Yee hah!> Rachel said.

<l see the window opening,> Ax said.

I saw him fly past me like a buzzing, wob bling, careening jet fighter.
At least I think it was him. I fell in behind, following his wake.

It turned out Ax was wrong. What he'd

86 thought was a window was actually a small sign on the side of the
building. With fly eyes you had to get pretty close to see anything. So
we blazed along the face of the building for a while, trying to spot it.

<Keep going,> Tobias called to us. <You're al most there.>

Suddenly, I could feel a rush of cooler air, bil lowing out at us.

<Here we go,> I said.

I turned into the current of air and seconds later was in the relative
darkness inside the building.

<0kay. We're looking for anything that might be a miniature Yeerk pool,>
I reminded everyone. <Everyone except Ax has been near a Yeerk pool, so
try to remember that smell, and see if your an tennae pick up anything
similar.>

<l'll tell you one thing. I'll bet I know where the maternity ward is. I
smell large numbers of dirty diapers,> Rachel said.

<0kay, let's split up, like we planned. Ax and Cassie, you're with me.
Rachel and Marco, be careful.>

Rachel and Marco peeled off and soon disap peared from sight.

The three of us flew out into what we figured was a hallway, since it
seemed very long and had bright lights all along it.

87 <l smell poop. I smell a banana. At least, I think it's a banana.
And, I smell more poop,> Cassie said. <Say one thing for flies. If you
ever need to find poop, hire a fly.>

Below us, barely visible, we occasionally caught sight of big, moving
oval shapes - the tops of people's heads. But with our limited sight,
they seemed like floating islands of hair moving on a blurry sea.

<How's our time, Ax?> I asked.

<We have used twenty percent of our time,> Ax reported.

<Good. That's right on plan,> I said, trying to reassure myself as much
as the two of them.

<Yaaaahhh!>

<What is it?>

<That human tried to reach up and hit me!> Ax said. <But he was very slow.>

<Hey,> Cassie said. <Hey. Do you guys smell that?>

<More poop?>

<No. Similar to poop, but different. A strange smell. My fly brain
doesn't know what it is. I'm trying to remember . . .>

<l too am smelling something,> Ax reported. <But not very strong.>

<l'm thinking we turn right,> Cassie sug gested.

<Right turn,> I agreed. Now I was getting the

88 scent, too. A dark, deep, rich aroma. Sweet and oily.

<Marco, Rachel,> I called to them in thought-speak. <You guys have
anything?>

<Barely hear - : - must --- away. Noth ing --- >

<We are at the limits of the thought-speak range,> Ax said.

Now the scent was more powerful than be fore.

<ln there,> I said. <l think that's a door.>

We landed. My six legs, each armed with sharp talons and sticky pads,
gripped the smooth surface of the door.

<Here's a question,> Cassie said. <How do you open a door when you're
like an eighth of an inch long?>

<Down to the floor. We can walk or fly under the crack.>

Seconds later, we were on the linoleum, marching jerkily forward. We
passed beneath the door, then instantly took flight again.

<0h, man, there is definitely something in here,> Cassie said. <0ver
there. Do you see a big, shiny-looking superdome kind of thing?>

<Yeah. I agree. I think that may be it. Does anyone see anyone in the
room? Any humans?>

No one did.

89 <0kay, Ax. You demorph first. If someone barges in, your Andalite
body will be more useful than the two of us as humans.>

<Yes, Prince Jake.>

<Ax? You really, really don't have to call me that.>

<Yes, Prince Jake. I am beginning the change.>

<Cool. Cassie and I will hang out on the ceil ings

A few moments later I saw a vast eyeball, stuck on the end of a long
stalk, come shooting up toward us where we hung upside down. One of Ax's
extra, stalk-mounted eyes. The eye turned to look at us.

Then, a violent vibration in the air. The eye disappeared from sight.

And a second vibration, like something heavy falling.

<Ax? Are you okay?>

<Yes. There was a human here. But he is un conscious now.>

90

We demorphed as quickly as we could. When my human eyesight returned, I
saw Ax, standing calmly in his Andalite form. Against the far wall was a
man in a white coat, holding a clip board.

He was crumpled and unconscious, but alive.

<Knowing your brother is a Controller, I did not kill this creature,> Ax
said. <l feared it might be him.>

"No. It's not. But that's a good instinct, Ax. Whoever this guy is, he's
someone's brother or son or even father."

I took a look first at my own body. I was barefoot, like I always was
when I came out of a morph. And wearing only my silly-looking bike

91 shorts and tight T-shirt. (Even Ax can't figure out how to morph
anything more than the most minima! clothing.) But I seemed to have all
my usual legs and arms.

"You okay, Cassie?" I asked.

"I'm fine." She pointed at what had looked like a shiny superdome to us
as flies. It was a stainless steel vat about eight feet across.

I laughed. "You know what this is? This is a whirlpool. A Jacuzzi.
Someone just put a lid over it. Why would they have this in a hospital?"

"For therapy," Cassie said. "You know, for people with muscle strains or
back problems."

I stepped to the side of the whirlpool. I grabbed the handles on the lid
and lifted. It opened easily on hydraulic hinges. I looked in side. I
recoiled.

The water was sludgy, brown, and viscous.

And roiling with slugs.

Yeerks. In their natural state.

"Well, well, well," I said.

<Yeerks,> Ax said, with that combination of disgust and pure hatred
Andalites always showed. <A portable Yeerk pool. There must be a small
Kandrona nearby.>

Yeerks must leave their host bodies every three days to return to a
Yeerk pool. In the Yeerk pool they feed by soaking up various nutrients,
but especially Kandrona rays, which are like the

92 rays of their home sun. Kandronas are artificial sources of Kandrona
rays.

"Can they see us? Now, I mean?"

<No, Prince Jake. In their natural state they are blind.>

I walked slowly around the whirlpool. My foot hit something solid. The
pump for the whirlpool action. It was disconnected, with a wire pulled
out of the wall socket. The control panel had been ripped away, exposing
bare wires.

"Ax? What do you think would happen to all those Yeerks in there if the
temperature of the liquid suddenly went up to say, one hundred twenty
degrees? And the liquid was all agitated?"

Ax looked puzzled. <l believe the heat and the agitation might destroy
them.>

"Well. That would be a pity." I made a quick decision. "Ax? Watch the
door to the hallway. Cassie? We may need you in some more danger ous
morph. What have you got?"

"Wolf?"

"Perfect. But no howling."

"What are you going to do?" Cassie asked.

"We came here to stop this sick operation, right? Well, wiping out a
hundred or so Yeerks might be a good way to start. I'm going to hook
this thing back together, and Jacuzzi these filthy creeps to death."

There were no tools in the room. But I did find

93 some tape and a pair of tweezers. That was all I needed. I began
reconnecting wires, red to red, blue to blue, green to green. Without
the switches, the settings would all automatically be at maximum.
Maximum heat, maximum jets.

But all the while, in the back of my head, was this nagging feeling.

It couldn't be this easy.

I connected the last wire.

Cassie had finished the transformation into her wolf body. She stood by
patiently, like a very big, very tough-looking dog.

"Okay. Time to boil some Yeerks."

I reached down and stuck the plug in the out let.

It took a few seconds, then the boiling sound began. The familiar
Jacuzzi bubbling.

The door opened. A man and a woman, both wearing white lab coats. For a
split second they just froze and stared.

"Andalite!" the woman yelped.

Cassie was on her in a flash. She leapt, hit the woman hard, and knocked
her to the floor.

Ax moved toward the man, but the man was fast. He dodged, staying out of
range of Ax's tail.

I was still behind the whirlpool, out of sight. I was trying to focus on
morphing into tiger form for a fight.

But then, two more men, dressed in uniform

95 as guards, came plowing into the room. The first one leveled a gun.

"Ax!" I shouted. "A gun!"

Ax's tail flashed.

"Aaaargghh!" the Controller screamed.

The hand that had been holding the gun was no longer attached to the
man's arm.

"Get backup to the pool area! Andalites!" the second guard screamed into
a walkie-talkie. Then he drew his gun.

BLAM! BLAM!

They told me later there was a third shot. But I didn't hear it.

A sledgehammer blow struck the side of my head. A ricochet. For a brief
second I clung to consciousness. But then, I swooned. I fell.

Facedown in the whirpool.

Facedown in the bubbling, boiling mass of dying Yeerks.

94

"Pacedown, unconscious, in the superheat ing Yeerk pool.

I don't know for how long.

When I woke I had two terrifying, overwhelming feelings. One was
suffocation. I had breathed in a lungful of the liquid from the pool.

I came to, gasping and hacking and gagging. I was alive, but I could
hardly breathe. Each breath was a struggle. I coughed and I think at one
point I threw up.

The second feeling was of pain in my head. Pain like nothing I had ever
even imagined be fore. It was like someone was drilling a hole in my
ear, drilling straight into my brain.

96 I wanted to scream, but I was still choking. I was on my knees on the
floor of the hospital room, wanting to cry from the pain and gasping for
every half-breath of air.

All the while, a battle raged. They were trying to get in the doorway.
But it was too narrow for more than one or two human-Controllers at a
time to attack. Ax's tail and Cassie's long wolf teeth were enough to
hold them off.

BLAM! Another gunshot!

"Stop firing, you fool!" someone shouted. "The pool is in there! Visser
Three will eat your guts!"

Even in my condition I could see that Ax and Cassie couldn't last. I
needed to morph, to join the battle. But I could not seem to do it. The
pain ... or maybe the lack of oxygen ... I couldn't concentrate. My
brain was fuzzy, drift ing ...

I heard a rumbling, pounding noise from the hallway outside. There were
cries and screams of rage. Suddenly, into the room burst a huge black
gorilla and a second wolf.

Marco and Rachel.

They had driven the attackers away, but only for a few seconds.

<Jake's hurt,> I heard Cassie say. <He fell in the Yeerk pool.>

<Marco, grab Jake,> Rachel ordered. <Get

97 something to cover his face. Ax, Cassie, keep holding the door. I'm
going to change morph. We need more firepower.>

I felt myself lifted up off the floor. A white cloth was wrapped around
my head. One of the lab coats from an injured Controller, I guessed. I
was cradled in the huge arms of a gorilla.

<Rock-a-bye baby,> Marco joked. <Hang in there, man. We're getting you
out of here.>

I was still coughing and gasping, but my breathing was at least
improving. Not enough to speak, but I could breathe enough to keep from
passing out.

At the same time, something had happened to the pain in my head. It was
diminishing. And yet, instead of feeling more clearheaded, I felt more
confused.

"Get them!" a Controller was yelling outside the door. "Attack. Attack!"

<lt doesn't look like I'm gonna fit through this doorway.> It was
Rachel. <So I guess I'll have to make the door a little bigger.>

I caught just a glimpse through the fabric that hid my face. A flash of
something huge and gray.

Rachel's elephant morph.

<Rachel?> a voice in my head wondered. The voice was surprised. <A human?>

BOOOM! WHUMP! CRRRUUUUNNCH!

<Now the door is plenty big,> Rachel said.

98 Wild screams! Panic! Cries of pain!

I was bounced and slammed against walls and even dropped at one point. I
felt us go down a set of stairs. I felt hands grabbing at me and
slipping away.

Finally, fresh air. We were running like mad for the shelter of a stand
of trees that fronted the hospital.

<Cassie!> Marco said. <You have a horse morph, right? Quick. Before they
figure out how to follow us.>

I was tossed onto the dirt.

The gorilla peeled back the coat that was over my face. <You alive? Man!
That was intense. That is one hospital that's going to need some
redecorating. We're gonna put you on Cassie. Then we'll try to cover
your retreat.>

"My . . . head ..." I said.

<Headache? No surprise, dude.>

"Something . . . wrong ... I can't. . . think."

<Don't worry. Take a break. We have it under control. More or less.>

<Unbelievable,> said a voice in my head. <Can it be? Humans?>

What was that voice? Where was it coming from?

Marco lifted me and slung me over a horse's back. Cassie.

99 <Cassie? A human, yes. And Rachel? The cousin? Human as well.>

My hand tried to pull the coat away from my face.

What was happening? There was a voice in side my head.

We were running now, running and running at full gallop, through trees,
across lawns, down suburban streets where Cassie's hooves clattered loudly.

We jumped a fence. I flew through the air and landed hard on the dirt.

I felt pain, but it came from far away.

The coat was loose. I looked around. Trees, everywhere. A panting horse
standing nearby.

I saw all this, but in a distant way, as if I were watching it all on
TV. My eyes moved left, right. They moved all on their own. Like someone
else was focusing them.

Cassie. I tried to say her name. Cassie.

But no sound came from my mouth.

<Don't struggle, Jake, a voice in my head said. It's pointless.>

What? Who was saying that? What was . . . ?

Then, a laugh only I could hear. <Put that primitive human brain to
work, Jake. Jake, the Animorph,> it sneered. <Jake, the servant of the
Andalitefilth!>

100 Then I knew.

I knew what the voice was.

A Yeerk!

A Yeerk in my own head.

I was a Controller.

101 Very good. You figured it out,> said the silent voice in my head,
mocking me.

<NO! NO! N0!>

<Jake, are you all right?> Cassie asked. For a moment I thought she had
heard me cry out. But no, she was just concerned.

Tobias landed on a branch overhead. <ls he okay?>

<l can't tell. He's alive. He's breathing. But it's like he's zoned out
or something. We may have to take him to a doctor.>

I wanted to tell them both. To scream "They have me! They are inside
me!" But I couldn't make my mouth move. It was like there was a

102 roadblock. Like I could form the thoughts, give the order to my lips
and tongue to speak, but the order never got there.

<Struggle all you like, human. Fight me!> the Yeerk gloated. <Go ahead.
It won't matter, in the end. I am in your head. I am wrapped around your
brain like a living blanket.>

<NO!>

<l can read your thoughts. I control your body. I am tapped into your
memory. I can read it like a book.>

<Get out of my head! No! No!>

<0h, I don't think I want to do that, Jake. Why would I abandon such an
interesting host? So you are the one who has driven Visser Three
half-mad with rage. A kid. The midget.>

<Midget? How do - >

<You're surprised I know what Tom calls you? Ha ha ha. Oh, the irony
really is sweet. Don't you get it, clever Jake? Don't you see what's hap
pened, my little Animorph >

Cassie had become human again. She knelt down beside me and looked down
into my eyes. "He's alert. His eyes are tracking. Jake? Jake, can you
talk to me?"

It was a nightmare. That's what it was. Another nightmare. I would wake
up soon. I would wake up and laugh and laugh.

<l am Temrash one-one-four,> the Yeerk said

103 proudly. <Formerly Temrash two-five-two, of the Sulp Niar pool. I
have been promoted. No doubt you are happy for me.>

<You filthy slug! Get out of my head!>

<Do you know what my last host was? Who it was?> the Yeerk taunted.

<Shut up! Shut up! Stop talking to me! Go away.> It wasn't real. It
couldn't be real!

<lt was Tom, of course. Your brother. I am the Yeerk who controlled your
brother.>

That cut through my growing hysteria. <What?>

<Ah, I thought that might interest you. Yes, Tom was my host.>

<Then . . . he's . . .>

<Free? Ha ha ha.> The Yeerk laughed in my head. <You're even stupider
than your brother. No, your brother's body has been given to a new
Yeerk. Someone with a lower rank. I am too important now to be wasted on
Tom. I am to take on a new and important project. A very special host.>

<The governor!>

<Jake,> Tobias tried thought-speaking to me. <lf you can hear me, move
your hand.>

<Well, well. Not a complete idiot, are you?> the Yeerk said. <Yes. I was
to be given the most important post on this planet. But this is better
still. Visser Three is very determined to catch you

104 and your friends. He will be surprised to learn that you are human.>

<l'll never tell you who the - >

<The others? You mean, Cassie, Marco, Rachel? Tobias, who's sitting in
the tree over our heads? And of course the one remaining An- dalite,
Aximili Esgarrouth lsthill?>

"We have to get him to a doctor," Cassie told Tobias.

Just then, Marco arrived. He was fully human again. He was dressed in
his morph clothes and walking gingerly without shoes. "Doctor? He needs
a doctor? What's the matter with him?"

"Nothing is the matter with me," I said, quite suddenly. "I'm fine."

Only I didn't say it. My mouth spoke the words. But I didn't say it.

The Yeerk had spoken through my mouth.

"No way," Cassie said. "We're taking you to a doctor. You didn't answer
me for like five min utes. Maybe you have a concussion."

My body sat up. "Sorry I scared you, Cassie. But I'm fine. And where are
you going to take me? Back to that hospital? What if some doctor does a
blood test and he sees something that shows him I'm an Animorph?"

"Like what?" Marco asked, sounding skeptical.

"How do I know? Maybe some leftover roach DNA. Look, I'm fine, okay?"

105 <l'm going back up,> Tobias said. <Make sure no one is after us, and
see if Rachel and Ax are okay.> He flapped his wings and flew away
through the trees.

"As soon as we know Rachel and Ax are safe, we need to break up and go
our separate ways," my mouth said.

The Yeerk was considering his next move. I could not "hear" his
thoughts. But I could feel him using my brain. He was digging through my
memory. Trying to learn quickly about the others.

He was using my brain. Using me.

I had to do something quick. Something to warn Cassie and Marco. Surely
they would guess what was happening. They were the two people in the
whole world who were closest to me.

Surely they would realize that I was no longer myself.

Wouldn't they?

"I don't think there's all that much the Yeerks can do right now," Marco
said to Cassie. "We're deep in the national forest. It would take a
while for them to organize a search. They'd need helicopters and lots of
human-Controllers. And they don't even know what they're looking for."
He laughed. "After all, they still think we're An- dalites."

"Yeah, but it means we're going to have to be very careful with Ax," my
mouth said. "We'll

106 need to hide him. I think we may have parboiled quite a few Yeerks
in that whirlpool. They're go ing to be very upset."

It was incredible. It was shocking to listen to. The Yeerk was using my
voice. My inflection. He was saying the words I would have said.

Marco and Cassie would never guess. As far as they could see or hear,
the Yeerk in my brain was me.

<Yes, little human,> the Yeerk sneered silently. <Your body is my home
now. Mine. Body and mind, under my control. Forget resistance. It is
futile. No host has ever overpowered a Yeerk. It is impossible.>

I felt a dark wave of terror wash over me. He was telling the truth. I
knew he was. No host had ever defeated a Yeerk.

Resistance was futile.

Futile.

I would never be free. Just like Tom. If this Yeerk moved on, they would
give me to another. I was a slave.

Forever.

There was a noise behind me. Footsteps on the pine needles and leaves.
At the same time, Tobias came swooping down to land on a nearby branch.

I turned around. Rachel.

107 "Hey, cousin," I said. "I see you made it okay."

Then, a touch on my shoulder.

I spun suddenly. I hadn't heard anyone else arriving.

Ax! Just behind me. His Andalite face close to mine. His big eyes
watching me.

And in that split second, hatred revealed itself. A hatred that had
crossed light years of space to play itself out on planet Earth.

<Andalite!> the Yeerk hissed silently. And in that one word I heard the
same fury and contempt I heard whenever Ax said the word "Yeerk."

Only I heard it. The Yeerk did not say a thing.

But surprised, unaware, unprepared, he did curl my lip in an instinctive
expression of revul sion.

It was a small thing. It lasted only a second. And then the Yeerk was
using my mouth to say, "Hey, Ax. You did great back there when - "

In a movement too fast for me to see, Ax whipped his tail forward. In
the blink of an eye, his scythe blade was leveled a quarter-inch from my
throat.

<Yeerk!> he said.

108 " Ax

What are you doing?" Cassie de manded.

"Are you NUTS?" Marco cried.

"What's your problem, Ax?" my voice asked the Andalite.

But he did not waver. And he did not pull that deadly tail away from my
throat. <Prince Jake has been taken. He is a Controllers

"What?" Rachel snapped. "Back off, Ax. You're crazy."

<His head was in the Yeerk pool long enough for a Yeerk to enter his
head,> Ax said. <And just now . . . you all saw his expression when he
was surprised to see me. I am not human. I do not

109 know every human expression. So tell me. What was that look?>

"This is crazy." The Yeerk tried a disbelieving laugh. "Marco . . .
Cassie . . . would you please tell this nut that I am okay?"

But I saw doubt in Marco's shrewd eyes. "Yeah, I'm sure you're fine,
Jake. But Cassie? Didn't you say Jake seemed zoned out? Like he wouldn't
answer for a few minutes, even though he was awake?"

Cassie nodded her head. She, too, was looking suspicious. "Yeah. He
seemed normal and all, but he wouldn't answer me." She shrugged. "Sorry,
Jake, but you did act funny."

<lt takes a while for the Yeerk to take full con trol of the host
brain,> Ax said. <During that time the host will be passive. He may even
seem to be in a coma.>

I swear, I could have kissed the Andalite right then. I wanted to yell
"Yes! Yes!"

"You guys can't possibly believe this," my mouth said. "I mean, okay, we
have to be careful. But it's me. It's me, Jake, all right?"

"Being Jake and all, you'll understand if we take a minute to think this
through," Rachel said. "Ax? How are we supposed to know one way or the
other?"

Tobias answered for him. <The Yeerk needs to

110 return to the Yeerk pool and absorb Kandrona rays every three days.
If we hold him for three days, we'll know.>

Now I felt just the slightest edge of fear from the Yeerk. He was
measuring the odds. Trying to decide what to do. But with Ax's tail
blade at my throat, the Yeerk kept my body very still.

"We can't hold him for three days," Cassie ar gued. "His family would go
ballistic. They'll call the cops. Chapman will realize he's not in
school. The bad guys will put two and two together."

"Look. Hello. Hello-o-o? It's me, Jake. Re member? I am not a Controller."

Marco shook his head. "If he is ... if there's a Yeerk in his head, then
he knows all our se crets. If he gets in touch with any other Yeerk, we
are all dead. We can't take the chance. Maybe Ax is right. Maybe not.
But we can't guess wrong."

<l agree,> Tobias said. <lf he's still Jake, he'll understand. If he's a
Controller, well, I guess we'll find out, won't we?>

"Rachel?" Marco asked.

Rachel met my gaze. "Sorry, Jake. But we have to play it safe. You know
that."

"Look," I argued. "It's like Cassie said. My folks will go nuts. They'll
call the police. They'll go on TV asking if anyone has seen me. They'll
be putting up posters all over town. I mean, no offense, Tobias, but I
have an actual

111 family, not some messed-up aunts and uncles who didn't want to be
taking care of me in the first place. People will notice if I
disappear." I turned to Cassie. "Cassie, come on. Explain it to them."

Come on, Cassie, I thought. Come on, be hard for once. Don't feel for
me. Don't be sweet, just this once.

"There is a way," Cassie said hesitantly.

"To be sure whether he's a Controller?" Rachel asked.

"No," Cassie said. Her voice grew stronger. "A way to keep his family
and the school from knowing he's gone. Ax could do it. Ax could morph
into Jake."

Cassie. The amazing Cassie. She had hit on the one possible solution. I
wished so badly I could tell her right then what an amazingly smart,
incredibly cool person she was.

The Yeerk in my head was not happy.

<What's the matter, Temrash one-one-four of the Sulp Niar pool?> I
asked. <Not feeling quite so cocky anymore?>

Ax reached one of his delicate, many-fingered hands toward my face. He
pressed his fingers against my forehead.

<l will acquire your DNA now Prince Jake,> he said.

The Yeerk could not stand it anymore. The

113 Andalite's touch made him so furious it was like a physical illness.

"Get your hand off me, Andalite filth!" he screamed aloud in a distorted
version of my voice.

But Ax's tail was still within an inch of my jugular. And the Yeerk knew
very well how deadly fast that tail was. He did not move.

The others all stared, wide-eyed.

"Well," Rachel said. "At least now we're sure."

"No, you're wrong," my voice pleaded. "He's just making me mad. Hey,
it's been a stressful morning, all right? Give me a break."

<'Andalite filth'?> Tobias repeated the Yeerk's words. <We're supposed
to believe Jake would say that? Jake? Because he was stressed out? Nah.
Not in this universe.>

"Jake," Cassie said, looking into my eyes. "I know you're still in
there. I know you're probably afraid. But we will get that thing out of
your head, Jake. We will."

112

Okay ," Marco said. "We need a place to keep him."

"We can't use anyone's home," Cassie said, thinking aloud. "We can't use
my barn. My dad is in and out of there constantly."

<l know a place,> Tobias said. <lt's not far from here. An old shack
back in the woods.>

"We can tie him up," Rachel said. "But we'll still have to have at least
one of us there all the time, to make sure he doesn't get away."

<l cannot help very much,> Ax said. <l will be pretending to be Jake.>

"Okay," Marco said, "then the rest of us, Cassie, Rachel, and I, will
rotate shifts, along

114 with Tobias. Tobias can stay the whole time, except when he has to
go hunting."

"Okay, let's go," Rachel said. "Come on, Jake. Get up. We're out of here."

Cassie came over and gave me her hand. She helped pull me to my feet.

It was an odd moment, because I could feel Cassie's touch. And yet I had
no power to squeeze her hand, or give her any assurance.

The Yeerk did that for me. He deliberately held her hand an extra few
seconds.

<She cares for you,> the Yeerk said. <She is their weak link. Rachel
will be strong. So will the hawk and the Andalite. But Marco ... he
thinks too much. And he has an interesting history. He is open to
persuasion.>

I felt sick. The Yeerk was opening my mind at will. Reading whatever he
wanted. I had no secrets from him. None. He already knew everything I
knew about my friends. If he got away . . .

My feet began walking. Tobias led the way, appearing and disappearing in
the trees above.

Rachel walked ahead of me. Behind me, Marco and Ax. Cassie stayed at my
side.

"From all we know, Jake, you can still hear me and understand me,"
Cassie said. "I know you can't answer. Or if you do answer it won't be
you, anyway - "

115 "But it is me," said the Yeerk. "Who else would it be?"

"The Yeerk," Cassie said calmly.

"You think I'm a Controller just because I yelled at Ax? Like I've never
lost my temper be fore? Come on. It was a bad day. For all of us, but
especially for me."

<Not so bad a day,> Ax piped up from behind. <How many Yeerks were in
that pool? How many survived those temperatures? Only you, by getting
inside Prince Jake. How many of your pool-fellows died today?>

I could feel the Yeerk boiling with rage. It was shocking and bizarre to
feel so much emotion. It was something he could not hide from me. I
could feel his emotions, even though I could not penetrate his thoughts.

"Ax," the Yeerk said, "I'm never happy when any creature has to be
destroyed. But I don't feel any pity for those Yeerks. They are out to
enslave us. We did what we had to do."

It was perfect. Exactly what I would have said. Because it was exactly
what I felt.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cassie look ing at me with a puzzled
expression.

<See? Already she has doubts,> the Yeerk said to me. <She is bothered by
the Andalite's bloodthirstiness. She liked what I said more.>

116 Was he right? Would all of my friends stand firm? How could they,
when every word I spoke sounded exactly like me?

We marched through the woods for what seemed like a very long time. None
of us could move very fast because we were without shoes. Tobias knew
these woods well and led us around brambles and rough patches, but
still, my feet were tender after an hour of walking on pine needles and
twigs.

But the pain was so far away. ... I was feel ing it from a distance. It
was like I was shackled. Chained to a wall. I could not move a hand, or
even a finger. I did not blink my own eyes. I did not decide which
direction to look, or what sounds to focus on.

The Yeerk's control was absolute.

<Almost there,> Tobias said. <l'm going higher to make sure the area is
completely clear.>

<AII this walking. Such a waste of effort,> the Yeerk commented to me.
<They cannot possibly hold me against my will. Not even for three hours,
let alone three days.>

"You heard Tobias, right, Jake?" Cassie asked. "Almost there. It's a
good thing. My feet are killing me. I need to walk barefoot more often.
Like I did when I was little. Toughen up, for times like these. Getting
home will be easier. I can just use my osprey morph and fly home."

117 "Cassie, listen," the Yeerk said. "I know you guys think you're
doing the right thing. But there's no way Ax can pull off being me. My
parents will figure it out. Or worse yet, Tom will figure it out. Then
we'll all be dead. Don't you see what's happening here?"

"Shut up, Yeerk," Rachel snapped. "I've known Jake all my life. Marco
has known him since they were kids. And Cassie has known him for years.
Between the three of us, we can teach Ax to pass for Jake."

"It will never work," the Yeerk said.

Rachel stopped walking. She turned to face me, blocking the way. She was
smirking, but she seemed to be looking past me, over my shoulder. "No?
You don't think so, Yeerk?"

The Yeerk stopped walking. "Rachel, you don't have to try and impress me
with how tough you are. I know you're too smart to really believe any of
this. And you know as well as I do, this is not going to work."

"I disagree," a voice behind me said. "Hu mans believe what they see."

The Yeerk whipped my head around.

There, standing a few feet from me was . , . me.

Totally, absolutely, me.

118

Tie was a perfect copy of me. Like looking in a mirror.

"I morphed a while back," Ax said. "I've been watching the way you walk
and move. To copy you better. Ter. Bet. Ter."

The Yeerk grinned. "You may look like me, but that isn't going to be
enough. I give it an hour before Tom figures it out."

Marco looked at Rachel and cocked an eyebrow. Rachel looked at Cassie,
who sighed and nodded her head.

"See, that was a stupid way to play it, Yeerk," Marco said. "If you
really were Jake, you might be frustrated that we wrongly suspected you.
But

119 you'd figure the smart thing would be to help Ax play the role. If
you were you, so to speak, you'd have to hope Ax pulled it off."

Rachel curled her lip contemptuously. "You just blew final Jeopardy.
You're still trying to make us let you go. By now Jake would have real
ized he had to help us succeed."

The Yeerk said nothing. I think he knew he'd made an error. But I still
sensed absolute confidence from him. Like a poker player holding an
extra ace.

We reached the shack. It was a depressing, half-fallen-down mess with a
wood floor and log walls and a roof that only covered half the place.

There was a bird's nest of some type in the rafters. Bushes had grown in
through a hole in one wall. There were beer cans and soda cans strewn
around, but they all looked pretty old. Nothing recent.

Tobias had chosen well. We would probably be left alone for the three days.

Tobias, with his laser vision, had found a few feet of rope in an old
campground. He flew back with it in his talons and Marco and Rachel tied
my hands behind my back.

"Sorry, Jake," Marco said. "But that's the way it is. If you're still in
there, you understand."

"We'll loosen the rope every couple of hours

120 so the circulation isn't cut off," Rachel said. "I'll be here for
the first shift. Cassie and Marco are going back with Ax, to get him
prepared to play you." She smiled. "He already has the serious,
responsible-sounding thing down. They just need to give him a sense of
humor and stop him from playing with every sound he says."

It sounded fairly good to me. But I was ner vous that only two of them
would be around to guard me.

Of course, one of those two was Tobias. I could never run fast enough to
hide from him. And Rachel could morph into a wolf and run me down.

But it bothered me that the Yeerk in my head had not lost his cockiness.

In fact, he was reveling in a fantasy of promotions and power. <Within a
few hours I will be back with my kind. I will personally tell Visser
Three all I know. It will be the end of your little band. The end!
Visser Three will promote me again. It will be the fastest series of
promotions ever. I'm already in the one-hundreds. I could rise to the
nineties. I will be an Under-Visser. In a few of your years, who knows?
I could be a Visser!>

But it was more than just talk. I could see the pictures, too. The
images his mind conjured up.

121 They were sketchy, but I saw Visser Three nodding his head as my
Yeerk, still in my body, showed him my friends. They were all bound and
gagged and lying helpless on the floor of Visser Three's Blade ship.

Why was I seeing this? The Yeerk was able to shield his other thoughts.
Was this fantasy too emotional for him to hide from me? Or was he ac
tually showing off for my benefit?

<Do you have these fantasies a lot?> I said, as cruelly as I could.

<You want to laugh at my fantasies? Shall I delve into a few of yours?
Let's see what's hidden deep in your brain, human.>

And then, to my horror, I was no longer in the cabin. It was a bright,
huge gymnasium. But not exactly a gym. A sports arena. Yes. With
thousands and thousands of fans.

I felt like crawling away. I knew this fantasy. It was kind of lame, I
guess. But I could not escape. The Yeerk could play my fantasies as
easily as sticking a cassette into a VCR.

In my fantasy people were cheering. And there I was. In a pro uniform. I
was older. But I still looked pretty much like myself.

The game clock was at five seconds. Four. Three. I set up and took an
incredible three-point shot from mid-court.

122 Swish!

The stadium went crazy! Cheering. Horns sounding. People chanting my name.

And there was Cassie, in the stands. Smiling at me. She was sitting with
my parents.

And there was Tom.

He walked out onto the court and threw his arms around me. He patted me
on the back.

"Great game," he said. "As usual."

End of fantasy. The images disappeared.

I felt very small suddenly. Very unimportant. Very weak.

<Ah, yes,> the Yeerk said, and laughed. <lt shocks you that I can play
your thoughts back for you. Your brain is no different to me than one of
your primitive human computers. I open any file I like. I play any
software. I use you. I own you. I dominate you. You are nothing anymore.
Just an echo. Just a ghost haunting the machine of your own brain!>

<Yeah?> I managed to say. <Well, you're a screw-up who is tied up in a
cabin in the woods. In three days, you're dead.>

<l won't be here three days,> he said.

<You'll be here, far from your stinking Yeerk pool. No Kandrona rays.
And you'll shrivel and die and crawl out of me.> I had been calm. But
then, I lost control. <You'll die! You'll die like the others died! You
think you'll win? You'll lose!

123 You'll LOSE! You can't control me! You can't control me! You can't
control me!>

<0h?> the Yeerk asked with silky menace. <That's just what your brother
said. At first. Shall I show you? Shall I play one of Tom's memories for
you? I can feel you cringe. I can feel your fear. Yes. Yes, I will.
Here, enjoy a preview of your fu tures

It was as if a third mind had joined us. It was real. So completely
real. Not like a vision or a movie or something. I felt this. I felt it
exactly as if I were there.

My brother's mind. His thoughts. His memo ries, as clear as if I were
seeing them myself. Tom . . . some piece of Tom that the Yeerk still
carried with him . . .

It was from just a few days earlier.

He was sitting at the breakfast table, across from me. I saw myself
through his eyes. I looked . . . distant. Distracted. Preoccupied.

"Hey, midget. What's up?" he asked me.

"Not much. How about you?"

"Oh, I'm going to a meeting."

"The Sharing?" I asked him.

"Yeah. We're doing some cleanup in the park. You know, do our part for
the community and all. Then we're having a barbecue afterward. You
really should join, you know. We'd get to spend more time together."

124 It was just as I remembered it. Except that now, I felt Tom's
emotions, not mine.

The real Tom. The true Tom who was crushed beneath the Yeerk's control.

He was crying. Sobbing, helplessly, silently.

<Not Jake,> he cried. <Leave Jake alone. Leave my brother alone. I'll .
. . look, I'll never trouble you again. I swear it. Just leave Jake alone.>

The Yeerk waited while the full impact of direct contact with Tom's mind
sank into my own. Tom was defeated. Desperate. He spent his time wishing
he could die.

He had given up any hope of escape. Given up.

<That's how it always is,> the Yeerk said. <At first the host fights, or
at least tries. But hour af ter hour and day after day they see that
they cannot rule their own bodies. The host sees that no one even knows
what has happened to him. No one knows he is lost in his own head. And,
over time, hope dies. The host becomes a faint, shattered creature. Like
your brother.>

The Yeerk was telling the truth. That was what made it so terrible. It
was true. I could feel Tom's complete, utter despair.

I could feel that he had accepted defeat.

I knew that all he wished for now was an end.

125 And I knew, also, that I was no stronger than Tom.

But still, one hope lingered in me. <Three days,> I told the Yeerk. <ln
three days you will die.>

<Wait and see, human. Just wait and see.>

126

J. found out very late that first night why the Yeerk was so confident.

Rachel was keeping guard. Tobias was nearby in a tree.

They had brought food - some sandwiches and some juice, which "I" had
eaten. Then, as Rachel sat nearby, reading a book by the light of a
flashlight, the Yeerk pretended to sleep.

I guess in a way I did actually sleep. I was mentally exhausted. I was
weary and depressed. More tired than I have ever been in my life. And
yet afraid that if I dreamed, the Yeerk would watch my dreams.

My fear was justified. I did dream. The same dream I'd had before.

127 I was the tiger. Tom was my prey.

We were in the dark, deep woods, and I was hunting him with all my tiger
skill. He was stum bling and noisy and weak.

I knew I would take him.

At last, too tired to run any further, Tom fell. He waited, helpless,
while I gathered the power of my tiger body and prepared to leap . . .

And then, I was no longer the tiger. I was my own prey. I watched
through eyes wide with terror as the tiger sprang.

I woke up. My eyes were already open.

<lnteresting dream,> the Yeerk said. <Very metaphorical.>

I looked out through the eyes the Yeerk had opened. Rachel was still
sitting back against the wall. Her book was open on her lap. But her
breathing was heavy and regular. Her eyes were closed.

She had fallen asleep!

Her flashlight was still on. It shone across the rough wood floor. It
illuminated my right arm and leg.

My arm ... my leg ... they had changed! My arms were thicker, more
powerful, and growing larger still. My hands had swollen and become
huge. The fingers were disappearing, replaced by curved claws as sharp
as stilettos.

Orange-and-black-striped fur appeared, a rip pling wave that grew to
cover me.

128 I was becoming the tiger!

The realization hit me like a jolt of electricity. I was morphing!

The Yeerk was morphing!

How could I have been so stupid? Of course! The Yeerk controlled my
hands and feet and voice, he controlled my very mind. Of course he had
my morphing power, too!

The others . . . they didn't realize. They didn't understand. They had
tied me up, but it was use less. The Yeerk had access to every one of my
morphs.

The ropes around my hands were painfully tight as my wrists swelled to
become powerful forepaws.

The Yeerk raised the rope and used the tiger's teeth to tear the rope
apart.

I wanted to warn Rachel. She was still asleep. I had to warn her. The
Yeerk would escape. He might even kill her.

But try as I might, I could not reach my own body any longer. I could
not reach my own body.

<l won't kill her,> the Yeerk said. <Like you, she is capable of
morphing. I will deliver Visser Three four morph-capable humans, as well
as one Andalitescum.>

I now saw the world through tiger's eyes. The night was brighter. And I
heard with tiger's ears.

129 Ears that caught any sound that might be made by a predator.

The tiger sniffed the air. But the breeze was slight, and carried no
warnings.

<What a wonderful animal this is, this tiger,> the Yeerk said.
<Excellent senses. Fast and silent and deadly.>

The forest was dark and quiet, but for the rustling of leaves in the
trees above. Absolute si lence, as the tiger crept away. No sound as the
tiger melted into the shadows. And Rachel still slept.

Soon the shack could no longer be seen. The beam of Rachel's flashlight
was swallowed by black night.

But the Yeerk was uncertain now. He did not know where we were. He did
not know which way to go.

And then ... a sound. A smell.

Humans!

<What are humans doing here?> He opened my memory. He searched my brain
for an expla nation. I had none. <Your own thoughts tell me it is wrong.
It is very late. Humans, this deep in the forest?>

The Yeerk moved away from the human scent. They might be hunters. They
might be park rangers. Those were the possibilities he had pulled from
my own brain.

129^

n

130 The Yeerk sent the tiger body into a loping run. But after just ten
minutes, the tiger tired and he had to slow down. Tigers are not
distance runners.

<Which way?> the Yeerk wondered.

And then . . . once again. Human scent. Hu man sounds.

I looked through the tiger's eyes and saw nothing. The Yeerk once more
turned from the human scent.

The Yeerk searched my memory. <South. I must go south. But which way is
south? Anything else will send me deeper into the forest.>

<l guess you're lost,> I said. The first thing I had said to the Yeerk
in a long time.

<Shut up, slave. Once the sun rises in the morning I will know the way
to go.>

<Two hours in a morph,> I reminded him. <lf I'm stuck in tiger morph,
then this body will be useless to you. Visser Three will want my body
morph-capable.>

<Don't tell me what Visser Three wants,> the Yeerk said.

But the Yeerk knew time was passing. He had to morph back to my normal
human shape.

Moments later, I was watching the world through human senses. The night
vision was less acute. The ears heard too little. The human nose could
scarcely smell a thing.

131 The Yeerk walked, pushing on as fast as my human body could move
with no shoes.

<ln a hurry to go nowhere?> I asked.

<l know where I'm going,> the Yeerk snapped. Then he stopped. <Hah! I
should have thought of it. Of course! The falcon morph. I will simply
fly away.>

I watched like it was a TV program. Like I was far away from my own
body. I watched with inter est as the body shrank. As wings sprouted. As
talons appeared. As -

WHAM!

The half-bird, half-human body went rolling, end over end across the
ground.

<What?> the Yeerk demanded. <What hit me?>

He looked around frantically. But falcon eyes are for daytime hunting.
They are stunningly good in sunlight. In the dark, they are nothing
special.

The Yeerk continued to morph. Falcon feathers grew, the wings became
more fully formed.

WHAM!

A shadow within shadows. A sense of something dark that disappeared
before the Yeerk could turn the falcon's head. From far away I realized
the falcon body had been injured. There was a deep, bloody gash in the
right shoulder.

The Yeerk was beginning to be afraid.

131^

n

132 WHAM!

A hammer blow! A ripping of flesh and ten don.

The invisible enemy had struck again. The falcon would not be able to
take wing. Not now. The falcon was crippled. Disabled by a silent, in
visible enemy.

And then I felt hope come alive in me again.

Because even as the Yeerk, crying in pain, de-morphed and returned to
human form, I saw the enemy.

It landed on a branch. It was outlined against faint moonlight and
infrequent stars. The two little tufts on its head inspired its name.

<The great horned owl,> I said to the Yeerk.

<l can read your every thought, you don't need to tell me what it is,>
the Yeerk snapped.

<0h, but I enjoy telling you. It's a great horned owl. It flies without
making a sound. To bias watches them hunt sometimes. Tobias says they
can hear a mouse burp from a hundred yards away. He says they can see a
bug blink on a coal-black night.> I laughed silently in my corner of my
own brain. I laughed at the Yeerk. <As far as that owl is concerned, you
might as well have a spotlight on you.>

Then, to my amazement, Cassie's thought- speak was in my head. A
voiceless voice that seemed to belong in a different life.

133 <Sorry I had to hurt you, Jake. But it was necessary. We realized
the Yeerk would try morphing. So we were ready. Rachel only pretended to
sleep. We wanted this Yeerk of yours to make his escape when we were
most ready for him. So you hang in, Jake. The forest is full of your
friends.>

The humans the tiger had smelled. ... My friends.

Then I felt it again. The sensation that filled me with a grim sort of
pleasure. I felt the Yeerk's fear.

It was good to know that he was afraid.

It was very good.

133^

n

134 J. could feel the Yeerk opening my memory like a book again. He was
checking through the list of all the morphs I had ever done.

Dog. Fish. Flea. Seagull. Dolphin. Ant. Wolf.

I knew what he must be thinking. Which could he use to evade the
watchful owl in the tree above us? The owl who saw through the night
like it was day, and heard the sounds no human could hear.

<She can't stay in owl morph forever,> the Yeerk said. <She has a
two-hour time limit. Just as I do.>

<But of course there's Rachel and Marco and Ax. You don't know how many
of them are here. You don't know where they are or what they are.>

135 <Can the owl watch a flea? I doubt it. Or an ant?> The Yeerk smirked.

<True. But how far can a flea travel in the two-hour time limit? Twenty
yards? Thirty? Then you have to demorph and my friends will have no
trouble finding you.>

<Shut up!> he yelled, losing patience.

I reveled in his anger. It meant he was scared. It also meant something
else. I could not control my arms or legs. I could not even keep my mind
closed from him. But he could not stop my thoughts. He could not stop me
from talking to him.

And I had the power to annoy him. To distract him when he should be
focused on escaping.

<You think you can harass me?> he said, reading my thoughts as soon as I
had them. <You overestimate yourself.>

<You underestimate us, Yeerk. You thought you'd just morph and walk
away. You guessed wrong. And your three days is less than two and a half
already. Tick tock, Yeerk. Tick tock.>

<Let's see whether your owl friend can handle a wolf as easily as she
handled the falcon.>

He began morphing. The wolf form was one I had enjoyed. Wolves are not
subject to much fear. And their instincts are easily manipulated. Not
like ants. Or the lizard that was one of my earliest morphs.

135

n

136 I watched as my body sprouted gray fur. As my face bulged out to
become a long snout. As my ears slid up the side of my head to rest on top.

<l see our owl friend is keeping her dis tance^ the Yeerk said. <l
thought as much.>

He set out at a fast trot. Unlike tigers, wolves are long-distance
travelers. They can cover amaz ing distances at a run. And worse, the
wolf brain seemed to have some interior sense of direction. It knew
which way was deeper into woods, and which way led to the city.

We ran through woods, through a night as dark as night can be. Clouds
hung low over the forest, allowing only the palest glow from the moon.

<A quick jog back to what passes for civilization on this planet,
demorph to human, and your friends will be powerless to stop me,> the
Yeerk said.

I wondered who he was trying to convince. Me, or himself?

<You're an arrogant bunch, aren't you? You Yeerks, I mean.>

<Arrogant? Why wouldn't we be? We are the most powerful race in the
galaxy. Overlords of the Taxxons. Conquerors of the Hork-Bajir and the
Ssstram and the Mak. Soon to be conquerors of the humans.>

137 <Don't count the humans just yet,> I said. <And there are still the
Andalites.>

<We'll save the Andalites for last,> he hissed.

He stopped moving and pricked up his wolf's ears. There came a distinct
howling sound. Loud and not very far away, it rose and warbled and rose
again before dying away.

A second wolf voice howled.

<Another wolf. Two,> the Yeerk said. I felt him contact the wolf's own
submerged instinc tive mind. What was the meaning of the howling?

A notice. A warning to any other wolves that we are here. Don't come
around, unless you want to risk a fight.

Suddenly I realized what it meant. I laughed.

<This is an area we were in before,> I said. <As wolves. We discovered - >

<Silence! I know what you found. When will you figure out that I can
read your memory as well as you can?>

<We found another pack of wolves. They think this is their territory,> I
went on, enjoying the fact that I was bothering him. <Those howls you
hear? Those are my friends. They're calling to the other wolf pack.
Better run faster, Yeerk. That big male who runs the other pack is tough.>

The Yeerk began running all out, pushing the wolf body for all the speed
and endurance it had.

The dark tree trunks were a blur as we ran

138 through the night, followed by the howls of wolves who were not wolves.

Then, a smell on the wind. The smell of an other wolf. A male wolf.

<l believe that's my old friend now,> I said, laughing.

The Yeerk stopped running.

Ahead, through the trees, a pair of glittering yellow eyes glared at us.
Other eyes appeared. Five wolves - five real wolves - waited for us to
try to move forward.

<Go ahead ? > I taunted the Yeerk. <Go kick his butt. Of course, that's
a real /wolf there. An al pha male. Leader of his pack, which means he's
probably been in a dozen fights and won them all. Go on, Yeerk. Tell him
how the Yeerks are masters of the galaxy. I'm sure he'll be very impressed^

I could sense the Yeerk's hesitation. His un certainty.

<So many species on this planet,> he said to himself. <So many balances
and connections. Everything preying on everything else. Every power is
checked by some other power. Every ad vantage is canceled by some
disadvantages

<Yeah. Earth. It's a tough neighborhoods

<When we take this planet, we will eliminate these species. We will
simplify. Things should be simpler. Yes, much simpler.>

139 <l have a news flash for you, Yeerk. I don't think you're going to
take this planet. I think this planet is going to take you.>

Just then, a human voice. "So. You about done playing games? Ready to
come back to the shack?"

It was Marco. He was shoeless and wearing his morphing outfit. He had
been one of the wolves who'd led us straight into the enemy pack.

Marco shivered. "Look, Mr. Yeerk, it's cold and I'm freezing. I always
knew this situation with the morphing outfits was going to be trouble
some day. So come on. Let's go back to the shack."

For a moment the Yeerk was so enraged he was ready to leap at Marco and
tear out his throat.

But then, lumbering up behind Marco came Rachel. The very large version
of Rachel with the trunk, the big leathery ears, and the two huge tusks.

Marco seemed to guess what had gone through the Yeerk's mind. "Go ahead.
Try some thing. A wolf pack ahead. A very large, surpris ingly fast
African elephant behind you. And more surprises in the woods all around
you. Oh, and one more thing . . . Cassie is nestled down in your fur.
Sucking your blood, I imagine. She did the flea thing."

140 I realized then that there is a very basic dif ference between
Yeerks and humans.

A human will fight even when he knows he can't win. Maybe our species is
just a little crazy. But human history is full of cases where a handful
of guys would fight an entire army. They'd get stomped, but they'd fight
anyway.

That's not the way it is for Yeerks. They are ruthless. They will do
anything, absolutely anything to win. But when the situation is
impossible, totally impossible, they stop fighting. They figure that
other Yeerks will carry on the fight for them.

Different ways of looking at your world.

<You are fools,> the Yeerk said, having read my thoughts. <lt is madness
to fight when you cannot win.>

<Yes, it is foolish. It is crazy,> I agreed. <And it's why we will win.>

The Yeerk demorphed and returned to human form. My human form.

Marco walked away into the woods. Rachel rumbled off. And a few minutes
later, an owl ap peared to lead the way back to the shack.

141 I he next morning, when it seemed like no one was watching, the
Yeerk tried again. He morphed into an ant. He got three feet before
running into a group of ants from a different colony. About forty of
them attacked. They were ripping the ant body apart when the Yeerk
de-morphed and returned to human form.

<This is a savage planet,> he said. <We will tame this world, when we
take it over.> But I don't think even he believed it anymore.

It was around nine in the morning on Saturday that the Yeerk first took
over my body and brain. By Monday evening, when the sun went down, he
was growing distracted, unable to concentrate clearly.

142 By the time the moon rose in a newly clear, starry sky, he was weak
with hunger. His slug body cried out for Kandrona rays the way a human
would cry for food or water.

I could feel his arrogance evaporate. I could feel his despair.

He still had fantasies of being rescued. But he couldn't make those
fantasies end very well. Even if he was rescued, he would no longer be
the big hero who had destroyed the Animorphs.

He would try to think of clever ways to outwit my friends, but he could
never be sure who was in the woods around us. Or what form they might
have taken.

He tried to take on a bird shape again, reforming the peregrine falcon.
The DNA had not been affected by the injuries Cassie had caused to the
earlier morph, of course. The falcon was fine. But it was daylight this
time, and Tobias landed while the falcon was still half-morphed. He
grabbed the falcon head in his talon and simply explained that if the
Yeerk did not demorph, he would be killed.

For the first time, the Yeerk broke his silence with the others and
spoke as a Yeerk.

<lf you kill me, you'll kill your friend, as well,> he warned.

<Yes,> Tobias said. <l know.>

<You won't do it>

143 <Right from the start we have all said the same thing - better to
die than be a Controller^ Tobias said. <But in any case, I don't need to
kill you. I can simply put your eyes out. A blind fal con doesn't fly far.>

The Yeerk surrendered and demorphed.

We waited, as the minutes and hours of the night ticked away. He still
hoped for a miracle to save him. But his hunger was a terrible thing,
growing with every second.

<You think you'll win,> he sneered at me. <You won't win. Your people
are blind to what is happening. And the Andalites will not return in time.>

<Maybe. But you won't be there to see it,> I said. <lt must be four in
the morning. Five hours left. Ticktock.>

<You're a cruel little human, aren't you?>

<l don't think so, no.>

<You know I am dying and you laugh at me.>

<What do you expect? Pity?>

He laughed. <No. We don't offer pity. And we don't expect pity. We are
the masters of the galaxy. Conquerors of the Hork-Bajir and - >

<Yeah, yeah, I know. The mighty Yeerk em pires

After that he said nothing to me for a while. It was impossible to
sleep. He sat with my eyes open. He was too hungry to rest. The hunger
infil trated his mind. It twisted his thoughts.

144 <The Yeerk home world is a simpler place than this planet. Simple
and elegant. No more than a hundred animal species. What do you have on
Earth? A million species? More? What does a planet need with a million
species?>

I didn't answer. His time was running out. Let him talk.

<We Yeerks evolved as parasites, not preda tors. Unlike you humans, we
did not kill to eat. We were peaceful. We took many different species as
our hosts. And as they evolved, so did we. Over time, the Gedds evolved.
They were a sort of ... like a monkey, ! suppose. We were in the Gedds
till the Andalites first came. Some of our people still have nothing
better than Gedds for hosts.>

<What about the Andalites?> I asked. <What happened when they came to
your world?>

<0f course. The Andalite has not told you their story, has he? What a
pity. It's such a fine story. Ask your pet Andalite Ax sometime. Ask him
about the story of the Andalites and the Yeerks.>

<Maybe I will,> I said. I hoped the Yeerk would keep talking, but he
fell silent.

The hours passed. An owl left and was replaced by another. The moon went
down. Dawn was coming. ! could feel it.

<Yes,> the Yeerk said, having read my

145 thoughts. <Dawn. Just a few hours left. Ahhhh!> He cried out in
silent pain. <The fugue. It begins.>

<The fugue?>

<The final hours. You will not enjoy it, al though you may learn a great
deal, human. You may learn more than you want to - aaaahhh!>

I was watching his pain from far away. I was an observer. Close enough
to know what he was feeling, but feeling none of it myself.

At first it was wave after wave of pain. Starva tion and death by
thirst. All rolled into one agony.

The sun came up. Cassie stepped into the shack from the woods outside.
She looked at me and nodded. "It's happening, isn't it?"

I wanted to answer, but even now, my voice was not my own.

Cassie came and sat down beside me. Beside us.

"Ax says this part is pretty rough. Just remember, when it's all over,
I'll be here."

She slipped her hand into my hand. I could feel it. So could the Yeerk.
But he did not reject this small bit of comfort, even though it was
intended for me and not him.

His mind was deteriorating. His thoughts were becoming more visible to
me. Like a movie that kept drifting in and out of focus.

I saw images from a strange place, as seen

146 through strange eyes. Liquid all around. Shapes, like squids,
shooting through the liquid. Yeerks. Swimming in the Yeerk pool. Soaking
up Kan- drona rays.

And there were images of the first host. A Gedd. So, I thought - that's
what a Gedd looks like. I had seen a few aboard the Yeerk mother ship
but had not known what they were. They were humanoid, short and stooped,
with webbed feet and three clumsy fingers.

I saw the world as the Yeerk had seen it, through Gedd eyes. The vision
was dim. The hearing was better. The Yeerk had been excited at getting
his first host. He had subdued the Gedd mind with ruthless ease,
crushing it with his superior intelligence and will.

The memory made me sick. The Gedd's bewil derment. His fear. And the
Yeerk's fierce arro gance.

I turned my attention away from the memory and back to the world around
me. To my surprise, I noticed that my arms were shaking. My legs were
shaking.

Cassie had put her arm around my shoulders.

"Jake, if you can hear me, it's almost eight. One hour to go. Jake ...
the Yeerk in your head is dying."

"Yes," I wanted to say. "He is."

147 he fugue.

The final hours of the Yeerk's life. I was watching him die.

A lot has happened to me since I first saw the Andalite prince land in
that construction site. More strange things than happen to most people
in their entire lives. But the strangest was this. And the saddest.

The Yeerk cried in pain, again and again. And the visions came floating
up, crystal clear, as if they had just happened.

Visions of the good times in the Yeerk's life. And of bad times. The
emotions were strange. Alien. I guess that's the word for them. There
was no memory of love. I guess Yeerks don't do love.

148 But there was affection. Pride. Fear. Regret. Those I could understand.

And along with the Yeerk's own memories, I began to see the minds of his
hosts. The Gedd who had a name no human could hope to pro nounce. The
Hork-Bajir warrior who had fought the Yeerk in his head every day of his
life.

The Hork-Bajir, who had been forced to attack his own kind, to destroy
his own friends, as an unwilling slave of the Yeerks.

But it was more than just memories. It was more. The Yeerk had carried
with him some small part of that Hork-Bajir warrior's being.

Like a computer transferring a document onto a floppy disk, I realized.
Part of the Gedd and part of the Hork-Bajir had been transferred
permanently to the Yeerk.

And to my shock, I knew that those parts were now being transferred to me.

And then ... the memories I feared most.

Tom.

He had joined The Sharing for a simple, silly reason. A pretty girl he
liked was a member. He had wanted to get close to her. He had gone to
meetings. He'd played along with them, never guessing the truth. All he
had cared about was the girl.

He had stumbled, accidentally, into a secret

149 leadership meeting. He thought the girl was see ing another boy. But
she was one of them.

He had followed her, wandered into the meet ing and seen Visser Three.
Visser Three in his An- dalite body.

I saw the Controllers grab a yelling, punching, kicking Tom. I saw as
they tied him up. Carried him through secret passageways to the great,
underground Yeerk pool.

I saw him scream as he realized what was happening. I felt his fear. I
felt his rage as the Yeerk slug crawled into his ear and wrapped itself
around his brain. I felt every ounce of his de spair.

And like the Gedd and the Hork-Bajir, this human, my brother, became a
part of me.

The Yeerk was no longer in pain. It was be yond pain.

I opened my eyes and looked at Cassie. It happened so naturally. I
opened my eyes. By my own will.

I don't know how she knew, but I guess she did. She nodded slightly and
met my gaze.

For the first time in more than an hour, the Yeerk spoke. <So. You win .
. . human.>

The Yeerk shuddered. I could feel it. A physi cal spasm. My vision
changed. I felt. . . it's hard to describe. I felt as if I were seeing
through

150 things, /ntothings. Like I could see the front and back and top and
bottom and inside of every thing all at once.

And then I saw it.

A creature. Or a machine. Some combination of both. It had no arms. It
sat still, as if unable to move, on a throne that was miles high.

Its head was a single eye. The eye turned slowly . . . left. . . right .
. .

I trembled. I prayed it would not look my way.

And then it saw me.

The eye, the bloodred eye, looked straight at me.

It saw me.

It SAW me!

No! NO! I cried in silent terror. I looked away.

And when I opened my eyes again, all I saw was a weird glow.

The glow faded, little by little.

I was trembling.

"It's over, Jake," Cassie said.

I rose slowly to my feet. I moved my own legs. I was in control of
myself again.

I looked down on the wooden floor of the shack.

A gray slug, not six inches long, lay there . . . still.

As we watched, it withered and shriveled and became nothing.

151 lake? Are you all right, sweetheart?" my mom asked me that night at
dinner.

I looked up. I'd been staring at my food, I re alized. Something with
pasta and tuna fish.

"What?" I asked.

My mom and dad exchanged one of their "worried parent" looks. "Well,
you're not eating. Don't you like it?"

I shrugged. "Sorry. It's fine. I was just . . . distracted."

My dad nodded. "It's just a change from the last two nights. You've been
eating like you were trying to eat everything in the house."

"I was?"

Tom cocked an eyebrow at me. "What, now

152 you're going to pretend it didn't happen? Last night you sat here
and ate six pieces of chicken and kept yapping about how great it was.
Then you ate a pie. A pie which was supposed to be for the four of us."

I hid a smile. Of course. Ax. The Andalite had played me for three days
- two hours at a time. Ax was dangerous around food. The sense of taste
was still totally amazing to him. When he was in human morph you didn't
want to get be tween him and a bar of chocolate. Or a pie, I guess.

"You were a total pig," Tom said. "Chicken. Corn. Potatoes. Or, as you
kept saying, 'Potatoes. Toes. Tay-toes.' I thought you'd gone nuts."

And were you suspicious, Yeerk? I thought, looking at my brother. A new
Yeerk was in Tom's head. Another arrogant master of the galaxy.

My brother was trapped in a small corner of his own mind, able to see
and feel, but powerless to do a thing. I knew.

I didn't sleep much that night. I did not want the dreams to come. I
feared terrible nightmares of the eye. The eye that had stared at me
from a different universe.

But the only dream that came was a familiar one.

! was the tiger. My brother was the prey. But, in the end, I was my
brother. And he was me.

On the news that night there was a small re-

153 port on the closing of the new hospital. There was no explanation.
But I knew what had hap pened. The Yeerks knew their plan was blown.
They understood that we knew about it.

We had hurt them pretty badly.

But I knew better than to celebrate. Visser Three would be more
determined than ever to stop us.

The next day I did something stupid. At least, Marco kept telling me it
was stupid. But he didn't object very much. He understood.

We all met at Cassie's barn. And ! used her dad's cellular phone to call
Tom at home. I went partly into a wolf morph before I did. Just enough
to make the smallest changes.

Enough to change the shape of my mouth and tongue and throat. So that my
voice would sound very different.

He picked it up on the third ring. "Yeah?"

"I have a message," I said in a thick, twisted voice that did not sound
at all like me.

"What?" Tom asked.

"Don't give up, Tom. Don't ever give up."

I hung up before he could say anything.

"Do you think Tom ... the real Tom . . . heard it?" Rachel asked.

"He heard," I answered.

I wondered if he would have the strength to hold on.

154 But I knew the answer. See, a part of my brother was in my own mind
now. Along with echoes of a long-dead Hork-Bajir and a simple Gedd. And
yes, even a bit of a Yeerk with dreams of glory.

Marco smiled his sardonic smile. "And is it true? Will we win?"

"This is a very complicated planet, Marco. That's what I hear, anyway.
And it's a very strange universe. Anything could happen."

155 Don't; miss

we barreled away across the dusty ground. Just ahead, a wall loomed. It
was easy enough to find a crack. A roach can slide through a crack no
thicker than a quarter.

We emerged into brilliant light and an assault of sounds and smells.

<So. Where do you think we are?> Marco asked.

<This looks like linoleum under us,> I said. <Dirty linoleum. I feel a
lot of vibrations - lots of feet, I'm guessing. And voices. Too many for
me to make sense of them.>

<l smell humans,> Ax confirmed.

<Humans don't smell,> I said, only half- joking.

<0h, humans smell,> Ax argued. <lt's not a bad smell. Sort of like an
animal we have back on my planet called a flaar.>

<So we have french fries and humans,>

156 Marco said. <Are you telling me we have reached the Yeerk pool
MacDonald's?>

<lf it's some kind of lunchroom or something, it would be a good place
to listen in on conversa tions^ Cassie said. <Maybe we can get closer.
Crawl up under a table. We should be able to - >

Suddenly a shadow fell over us. Something huge was overhead, blocking
out the harsh fluor escent light.

<Now, that. . . that is not a human smell,> Ax said.

<l smell it, too,> I said. <lt's familiar. I don't like it. Something
... I've smelled it before . . . it's ... I can't get my human memory
and my roach senses together. It smells like . . . >

<Taxxon!> Cassie said suddenly. <Look. That tree-looking thing up there.
I think it's a Taxxon leg!>

<0h, gross. I hate those things,> I said.

<LOOK OUT!>

Hurtling down from the fluorescent sky at incredible speed came
something like a bright red whip.

I powered my six legs in instant response.

It was too fast!

The red whip slapped the ground all around me. It fell over me like an
awful, wet quilt. Some thing like glue oozed around me, seeping under my
shell, gumming up my legs.

157 <Nooo!> I screamed.

<l'm trapped!> Marco cried.

I was lifted up off the ground. My back was glued to the red whip, and I
was hurtling through space. I caught a wild glimpse of the others, stuck
to the red whip just like me.

<What's happening?> Cassie cried.

<lt's the Taxxon,> Ax said. <l think he's eat ing us!>

We were stuck to the frog-like tongue of the Taxxon, as the evil
creature slurped his tongue back down his throat.

<l can't get loose!> Jake yelled.

In an instant, without warning, death had come for us.

I was glued down, helpless, as the Taxxon's red tongue sucked back into
its mouth.

And then . . .

And then . . . everything, everywhere, stopped.

