The Solution

by K. A. Applegate

  i Look for other Animorphs

  Width1Width3Width2669Width3Width3322titles by K.A.

  #1 The Invasion #2 The Visitor #3 The Encounter #4 The Message #5 The Predator #6 The Capture #7 The Stranger #8 The Alien #9 The Secret #10 The Android #11 The Forgotten #12 The Reaction #13 The Change #14 The Unknown #15 The Escape #16 The Warning #1 7 The Underground #18 The Decision #19 The Departure #20 The Discovery #21 The Threat

  Applegate:

  «MEGAMORPHS» #1 The Andalite's Gift #2 In the Time of Dinosaurs

  Width1Width3Width2669Width3Width3322Width1Width3Width2669Width3Width3322

  The Andalite Chronicles

  Width1Width3Width2669Width3Width3322Width1Width3Width2669Width3Width3322

  Width1Width3Width2669Width3Width3322 ii Animorphs

  The Solution

  K. A. Applegate

  AN APPLE

  PAPERBACK

  SCHOLASTIC INC.

  New York Toronto London Auckland Sydney Mexico City New Delhi Hong Kong

  iii If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this "stripped book."

  No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 555 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.

  ISBN 0-590-76255-9

  Copyright ©1998 by Katherine Applegate. All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC, APPLE PAPERBACKS, ANIMORPHS and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 189/90123/0Printed in the U.S.A. 40First Scholastic printing, October 1998

  iv For Jeff Sampson and all his friends

  v And for Michael and Jake

  1

  My name is Rachel.

  And I was deep in this strange dream that seemed to involve me trying on dresses at my favorite department store. Only the salesladies kept bringing me things that were way, way too small.

  So I said, "Hey, can't you tell these aren't my size?"

  And the saleslady said, "Well, we don't have anything in your size."

  "What?" I demanded. "You don't have anything in size three hundred and twelve?"

  Wait a minute, I thought. / don't wear size three hundred and twelve. But at that moment I

  2 caught sight of myself in the mirror. And I was in my elephant morph.

  I was still growing. Bigger and bigger, till my massive bulk was pressing people against the walls and floors and ceiling.

  I looked down, and there, beneath one massive fold of elephant belly, was a small figure in an orange hooded sweatshirt.

  "Oh, my God! She killed Kenny!" someone cried.

  "Aaaahhhh!" I screamed.

  "Try Juniors on the second floor," the saleslady suggested. "Only please don't use the elevator."

  And then she leaped at me and started digging her fingernails into me. They were really sharp. So I got mad and I shoved her. Only when I shoved her, she suddenly wasn't a saleslady at all.

  She was a bird.

  "Aaahhh!" I yelled, sitting straight up.

  There, in the darkness of my room, the large gray bird fluttered back and knocked into my desk.

  "Tobias?" I whispered. Only it wasn't a red-tailed hawk. It was like a hawk, but gray and white.

  «No, it's Aximili. You must come now. Tobias is ... missing. And Prince Jake is in danger.»

  3 I threw back the covers and my bare feet hit the floor. "What?"

  «lt's David. He is a traitor.»

  I was fully awake. Wide-awake and already mad. I grabbed some throw pillows and shoved them under the blankets. Hopefully they would look like me asleep if my mom came in to check on me.

  I glanced at the clock. Late. Very late. So late it was early.

  I quickly ran through a list of possible morphs. I had to be able to fly. And it was night. I focused my mind on the image of a great horned owl.

  I began to change, even as I hammered Ax with questions.

  "What happened?"

  «Jake, Tobias, and I watched and waited outside Cassie's barn. As you know, Jake suspected David might have decided to turn against us.»

  "That weasel! That slimy nyeeerrrrrff."

  My tongue had shrunk rapidly in the middle of telling Ax what I thought about David. Probably for the best. Ax would have asked me to define the word I was about to use, and that wouldn't have been a good idea.

  I was shrinking all this time, of course. And the brown feathers were appearing on my skin. First as outlines, then as weirdly realistic

  4 tattoos, then, quite suddenly, as actual three-dimensional feathers.

  «David left the barn in his golden eagle morph. Tobias followed him. We followed soon after, but we could not find either Tobias or David,» Ax explained. «We went to David's home ... his former home, I should say. We found David there and Jake spoke with him. I do not know what was said. But the Yeerks were watching the house, and a handful of Hork-Bajir attacked.»

  «Attacked who?» I demanded sharply. «Jake or David or both?»

  «l cannot be sure. But David escaped and Prince Jake followed. He asked me to find you. He said we would need reinforcements.»

  «Well, he's got the reinforcements,» I said. «Let's go!»

  I fluttered my wings and hopped up to the windowsill. I looked out at a night that was as bright to me as high noon.

  I had become a great horned owl. With eyes that looked through darkness and ears that could hear a mouse squeak at fifty feet.

  «What about Tobias?» I asked Ax. I certainly hadn't missed Ax's hesitation when he mentioned Tobias.

  «l don't know for certain,» he said. «But I fear the worst. David's morph is stronger in the

  5 air than Tobias's. And Prince Jake ... he believes Tobias is dead.»

  I felt my insides turn cold. For a few seconds that seemed to stretch into hours, I couldn't move. Couldn't think. I just sat there with my deadly talons squeezing into the soft wood of my windowsill.

  Tobias? Dead?

  If David had hurt Tobias, I would . . .

  But what was the point in making threats? I didn't need to make threats. I knew what I would do. So did Jake. That's why he'd sent Ax for me.

  6

  I. had eyes that saw every blade of grass beneath me. Eyes that noted every small, scurrying rodent hiding in darkness. But I was blind.

  All I could see was Tobias. Tobias dead? Not possible!

  And David. I could see him, too. Smirking, pouting, easily offended David. David, who half the time seemed to be as reckless as ... well, me. But other times had been cowardly and quickly panicked.

  David, the new Animorph. The one we ourselves had created after David had stumbled across the blue box.

  We'd had no other choice. Visser Three had learned that David had the blue box, the Andalite

  7 morphing cube. David's parents had been taken, forced to accept the Yeerk slugs in their brains, and made into Controllers.

  David's house had been half-destroyed in the battle that resulted. He was known to the Yeerks. His face was burned into the memory of every human-Controller on planet Earth. They would all be looking for him. All searching for the boy who had the morphing cube.

  So we'd made David one of us. Using the blue box, we'd made him an Animorph. Capable of absorbing DNA from any animal he can touch and becoming that animal for a period of two hours at a time.

  He was supposed to
be one of us. And he was, for a while. He was with us on one of our most difficult missions: to rescue the leaders of the free world from the Yeerks.

  Sounds impressive, doesn't it? It would have been very impressive, if we'd succeeded. But we had failed.

  The leaders of the United States, France, Russia, Great Britain, and Japan were meeting at a secluded beach resort to work out a Middle East solution. It had been the ultimate target for the Yeerks. A chance to make hosts - Controllers - of the five most powerful men on the planet. Or four, at least. One of them - we didn't know which one - was already a Controller.

  8 We had tried to stop them. But we'd gotten ambitious. And Visser Three, leader of the Yeerk forces on Earth, had laid a trap for us.

  We'd escaped the trap, but not before David had fearfully agreed to go over to the Yeerk side. Later he'd pretended it was all a ruse. That he was loyal.

  Now we knew better.

  I flew over dark houses, and over dark parking lots, and over blazing, brilliant, twenty-four-hour stores and gas stations. Ax led us back to the place where he'd last seen Jake and David.

  We followed the direction he'd seen them traveling.

  Could we find them? And if we did, what would we find?

  Suddenly, on the road below us, flashing lights moved swiftly past. A police car. Siren off since it was night, but moving fast. It was moving in the same direction we were.

  I looked directly ahead. The mall. It was dark. The parking lot was faintly lit by street lamps at regular intervals. That's where the cop car was heading.

  «That way,» I said to Ax.

  «Do you see something?»

  «No. Just a guess. But that police car is heading there. This is not a bad neighborhood. A

  9 speeding police car could mean we've found Jake and David.»

  The patrol car was faster than we were. By the time we arrived at the mall, the officers were driving from entrance to entrance, shining their spotlight and looking for a forced entry.

  A silent alarm must have gone off inside the mall. In the distance I could see a second police car racing toward us.

  I soared above the acres-large roof of the mall, silent as only an owl can be. I intended to follow the police around the building, but then I saw the skylight. It was a series of glass pyramids built down the middle of the mall to let sunlight into the main section.

  One triangle of glass was shattered.

  «There!» I yelled to Ax.

  We wheeled sharply toward the broken glass. I passed above it and looked down. I could see glittering shards of glass on the landing below. It was hard to tell how bright it was inside the mall, since owl eyes make everything look bright. But it seemed to me that at least a few lights were on.

  The question was: What was waiting for me down there? David was an Animorph. That meant he was a dangerous enemy. He had a lion morph, I knew that for sure. And a golden eagle morph.

  10 Could I take a golden eagle? No. Not as an owl.

  Could I take a lion? No.

  And he might be lying in wait. Lying in wait with superhuman hearing and superhuman sight. Not to mention far more than human power.

  Well, no matter how good his hearing, he wouldn't hear me. An owl's feathers are specially evolved to make no sound at all as the wind whips across their edges.

  «Ax? Are you ready to go in? We'll need to move fast and spread out immediately, just in case he's waiting for us.»

  «l am ready,» Ax said calmly.

  I spilled air from my wings, changed the angle of attack, and rocketed down toward the jagged hole in the skylight.

  Down through the glass! I cleared the reaching, tearing shards; flared my wings; and turned my downward momentum into horizontal speed.

  I blew past the marquee for the Old Navy store, barely beneath the ceiling. At first I saw nothing. Nothing but Ax dropping down into view and pulling an identical maneuver going the other way.

  But then I saw the broken railing. It was made of thick, tubular steel above thinner, square steel uprights.

  11 All of this bent outward. As if an elephant had run into it.

  I turned back and swept my gaze up and down the familiar main mall.

  He was lying in a pool of blood. A tiger. Sprawled like he was asleep, but with a shallow pool of black blood extending around his neck and head.

  «Jake!» I cried and dropped down toward him.

  «Rachel!» Ax yelled. «No! It could be a trap!»

  I spread my wings wide and flapped back up, recovering my altitude.

  Ax was right. David could be waiting for us to rush to Jake's side. And there could be no possible doubt that it was Jake. Seven-foot-long tigers don't cruise the mall.

  «l hear breathing!» Ax said.

  I hadn't bothered to listen. I'd assumed Jake was dead. But now I focused all my senses. Yes! There were sounds of breathing. But weak . . . reedy . . . with the sound of blood bubbling with each breath.

  «He's unconscious,» I said. «0therwise he'd demorph. I don't see David. But he could be anywhere. Anything.»

  I saw a flash of light, far off down the main

  12 walkway. Police lights passing one of the entrances. It would take them a while to get inside. In the meantime they'd surround the mall and watch all the exits.

  It would be easy enough for us to get away undetected. But that wasn't what I wanted. What I wanted was David.

  13

  «Ax. Demorph.» I felt weird telling Ax what to do. But Jake was down. Not that that meant I was the leader. But I figured someone had to be. We needed to work together.

  I felt a slight quiver of doubt. Would Ax do what I asked?

  But I could already see the changes in him. He would be fully Andalite soon.

  «As soon as you're demorphed, go to the head of those stairs over there. You'll be able to see Jake and cover me.»

  It was a large, square opening between floors. An escalator on one end. Stairs at the other end. Railing all around. You know how it is. Basic mall architecture.

  14 I waited impatiently for Ax to demorph. We would need firepower. And very few things were more dangerous than an Andalite.

  Ax trotted to the head of the stairs. I began to demorph. I would then morph again and go down the escalator that came from the other direction. I would go down that escalator as a grizzly bear. I didn't think even a lion could do much to hurt me in that morph. And we'd have Jake covered from both sides.

  I gradually took on my normal, human shape again. It was so bizarre, standing there in the mall. I was barefoot. Wearing just my morphing outfit, a leotard. I knew exactly where I was, exactly what stores were around me. After all, I spent a good part of my life in that mall.

  But this wasn't the mall as I knew it. This was a place of dim lights and deep shadows. Of threat. Of danger.

  A sound!

  I looked at Ax. We both strained, listening. A ringing sound. Coming from . . . coming from a jewelry store about ten storefronts away.

  Staring hard, I could see the broken glass on the floor. Someone had knocked out the window to the jewelry store.

  David! Of course. He was probably stuffing a sack full of diamonds right now.

  "Go!" I hissed to Ax. "I'll be right there!"

  15 I finished demorphing and actually noticed, despite myself, that Foot Locker was having a big sale. I began to morph again and -

  I never heard him. There was no roar. No warning.

  I just caught a glimpse of tan reflected in the glass of the Foot Locker store. A low, tan rocket, skimming along the floor.

  I spun!

  Lion!

  He leaped!

  I grabbed the bent, twisted railing with one hand and threw myself over the side.

  "Aaahhh!" I cried in pain as my wrist and fingers absorbed the weight of my body. I dangled, helpless, swinging above Jake and the floor below. Then I got my other hand to a vertical railing and grabbed on.

  But what could I do now?

  David shot past
and skidded to a stop. It was almost comic. Almost.

  If I pulled myself back up, I'd be helpless. If I dropped, I'd break an ankle or leg and be completely helpless.

  There were two narrow crossbeams spanning the open space. Banners hung from the crossbeams. I don't know what the banners were about. A sale, maybe, or some special event.

  16 The closest crossbeam was three feet to my left. It was maybe three inches wide. An inch narrower than the balance beam.

  I'm an amateur gymnast. But I'd neglected practice for some time. And I'd never tried to swing and then drop onto a three-inch beam fifteen feet or so above a hard, granite floor.

  David recovered and came racing back. Ax was still not in sight.

  I began to swing wildly, heart pounding the breath out of my lungs.

  David came sauntering back, big lion paws silent on the floor, tail swishing, massive, maned head lolling back and forth like some kind of lion version of a way-too-cool dude.

  «Alarm clock,» David said. «That's what the Andalite is chasing. I set it.»

  I kept swinging. My legs were inscribing a wider arc. I glared at David through the bars.

  «AII I have to do is bite your fingers, Rachel. Aren't you going to beg for mercy?» David mocked. «Nah, of course not. You're brave Rachel.»

  He opened his mouth, turned his head sideways to bite into my fingers, and . . .

  I released!

  I fell, looked down, saw the crossbeam too far away. One foot hit the beam! I bent my knee and absorbed the impact. I swung my arms over my

  17 head, throwing my weight, changing my center of gravity.

  For a hideously long moment I teetered back and forth. My other foot jerked and stabbed at the air. Then I felt the crossbeam. I had both feet down!

  I breathed for the first time in ages.

  David reached a claw through the bars and raked at me. I felt the breeze from his claws.

  I stood, motionless, poised, and barely in control.

  David glared at me with furious, yellow eyes.

  «That's okay,» he said. «l'm not a murderer, you know. I wouldn't kill a human. Now, a bird ... a tiger. . . sure.»

  I stared back at the lion. The traitor. And I said, "Find a place to hide. Because I'll make you a promise: I will kill you, David."

  He turned and walked away, laughing as he retreated.