«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 . . .
Applegate, K A - Animorphs 06 - The Capture Page 7
