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.
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 i
s 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!
Applegate, K A - Animorphs 06 - The Capture Page 3
