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 m ade 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 yo
u 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.
Applegate, K A - Animorphs 06 - The Capture Page 5
