The Pretender

by K. A. Applegate

  That is not what their slave master Yeerks use them for. The Hork-Bajir have been made into the shock troops of the Yeerk Empire.

  In any case, whether fearsome or sweet, the Hork-Bajir are not an intellectual species. Except for the very rare genetic anomalies they call "seers."

  Looking down at the gaggle of waiting Hork-Bajir, I easily spotted Toby. I'd have spotted her even without knowing her. The rest of the group had the dopey, dim expressions of Teletubbies. Toby had the kind of eyes that looked through you and made you feel like you needed to pull a robe on over your brain.

  "Tobias!" Jara Hamee yelled happily. "Friend Tobias! Friend."

  «Hi, Jara. Hi, Ket. Hello, Toby.»

  "Toby say you come," Ket said, nodding with great satisfaction. "Toby say, Tobias will come."'

  37 "Yes," Jara agreed. "Toby say, 'Friend Tobias will come.'"

  "You are here," Ket said.

  Like I said, the Hork-Bajir are long on decent and kind and sweet and generous, and a bit short on witty, clever, and brilliant. If Marco spent a day with the Hork-Bajir, he'd lose his mind and run screaming away looking for someone, anyone, who'd get a joke.

  I landed on a nice, level branch just a foot above their weird, forward-raked head blades. «Why did you expect me?»

  "We need you, Tobias," Toby said.

  I sighed inwardly. I didn't want to be needed. I wanted some peace and quiet and a chance to think.

  But that feeling evaporated the instant Toby explained.

  "One of the children, a male named Bek, is missing. He has left the valley. We fear that he may be taken by humans or by human-Controllers. That he may be harmed. Killed. Or worse, made into a Controller."

  38

  Once before when I was feeling low, I went to the Hork-Bajir valley. They'd made me feel better. After all, the Hork-Bajir think I'm their liberator. They think I'm George Washington or whatever. It's hard not to feel good under those circumstances.

  But obviously, this visit was going to be different.

  «You searched the entire valley?» I demanded.

  "Yes. Search," Jara said. "Look and look and look."

  "Cry, 'Bek, Bek!'" another Hork-Bajir added helpfully.

  "Bek, Bek!" Ket confirmed.

  39 "Bek is not in the valley," Toby said. "I ... we found tracks leading out of the valley. The right size for a Hork-Bajir of his age."

  I said several words I can't repeat. Jara Hamee asked what they meant. «Never mind,» I said. I couldn't believe this. A Hork-Bajir child missing! Wandering the woods alone. Or worse: not alone.

  «How long has he been gone?»

  "Since this time yesterday," the young seer said.

  «0h, man. I have to get back to the others. We'll start a search. But I don't think our chances are very good.» Suddenly a thought occurred to me. «Do you think Bek could lead people back here? Would he be able to find his way back? The Ellimist has laid some kind of weird spell on this place.»

  Toby looked wary. "No, Bek would not know the way back. But we are able to find our way back."

  That made me stare. «What do you mean? You leave the valley?»

  "Yes, Tobias. How else can we free our brothers and sisters?" She waved an encompassing arm around the group. "How else have these Hork-Bajir come to freedom?"

  «!...! guess I just assumed the Ellimist made it happen.»

  40 Toby grinned the frightening Hork-Bajir grin. "We make it happen. We go at night and raid places where we know Hork-Bajir are."

  «The Yeerk pool?» I asked incredulously.

  Toby looked down. "Tobias, we owe you a great deal."

  "Freedom," Ket Halpak said solemnly. "Hork-Bajir free. Tobias make free."

  «But?» I said a little sarcastically.

  "But... but the place where we liberate Hork-Bajir is a secret Yeerk facility that is being built. Not in your city. In the human town beyond the far end of this valley. Tobias ... it is very important for us to continue freeing our brothers and sisters. We are few. We must become many. To fight the Yeerks. Also . . ." She let it hang there.

  «Un. Be. Lievable,» I said. «You "seers" really are a different breed, aren't you?» I said harshly. «You're looking for the day when the Yeerks leave, aren't you? You need enough numbers so that humans don't just slap you all in a zoo.»

  Toby looked proud. "The Hork-Bajir trusted Andalites to save us from the Yeerks. The Andalites failed. The Andalites took care of their own. We must do the same. We are grateful to the humans called Animorphs. But do you say we should trust all humans?"

  41 Well, she had me there. It was way too easy to see a day when the Yeerks were defeated and these Hork-Bajir were left behind on Earth. What would happen to them? Humans didn't exactly have an unblemished record of tolerance for different races. After all, before this valley had belonged to the Hork-Bajir, it had probably been inhabited by Native Americans.

  «You're worried that if I know about this secret Yeerk construction project my friends and I will attack it?»

  "Yes."

  «Do you think Bek may have gone there?»

  "We don't know. He may have followed the scent trails left by our raiders." She sounded doubtful. "It is possible. But he did not leave from that end of the valley."

  «Ah. Swell. Perfect. You know, I came up here looking for a break from life.»

  The seer smiled. "If you promise not to destroy the place, I will show you how to find it."

  I sighed. «l have to talk to Jake and the others. Jake's going to want to go after this facility.»

  Toby started to say something, but I interrupted her. «You have my word we won't do anything unless you approve. I'll deal with Jake. In the meantime, we'll start searching elsewhere. But be ready in case I come back. Because if I come back, it will mean I need you.»

  43 It was Jara who stepped forward then. Toby may have been the brains, but Jara and Ket were the heart of this tiny community. Jara put his big, dangerous claw out, palm up, and I hopped into it. He lifted me up to his goblin face and said, "Tobias ask the Hork-Bajir. Hork-Bajir give. Always. Forever. Anything. Even life. Jara Hamee never forget."

  Toby nodded her agreement.

  Well, what are you going to do? People like that you pretty much have to try and save.

  42

  Chapter 9

  Morning. The meadow.

  My meadow.

  I saw the other hawk. He was flying, inscribing low circles over the meadow. His eyes were aimed downward, looking for breakfast. But he saw me.

  I knew he saw me, because if our roles were reversed, I would see him.

  He was wondering why... no, that was wrong. He wasn't wondering. He was a true red-tailed hawk. Hawks don't wonder. The question "why" is owned entirely by humans. At least, on Earth it is. Only Homo sapiens asks why. Buteo jamaicensis-red-tailed hawks - don't ask at all.

  44 He saw me. He knew I was a threat. He watched. He waited. He expected my attack. When my attack came, he would fight. If my attack did not come, he would come after me. It would be a "show" fight. Bluff and threaten and see who ran first. But it could also end up being a very real fight.

  I saw him drop down swiftly on some target. A few seconds later he flapped his way back up into view. His talons were empty. He'd missed.

  Not enough prey in the meadow. Not enough for both of us. One of us had to go. Or both of us would starve.

  I sat on my perch and saw the twitch of grass that told me a rabbit was coming out of its hole. We all have to eat. Rabbits, too.

  My opponent was too far away and at the wrong angle to see what I saw. I opened my wings and swooped out of the shadows.

  This time I would take one of the rabbits. This time my talons would close on squirming, living flesh.

  This time the rabbit would die so that I could live.

  I saw them! Yes! The mother and one of the babies. Just my size, the perfect prey. Slow moving, unaware, unlike the wily mother.

  I was approaching them on a perfect
glide path. I was in the mother rabbit's blind spot. I

  45 opened my talons wide and moved them forward. I trimmed my wings and tail just so. Just perfectly to intercept the little rabbit on its next heedless hop.

  Now! Now! Now! Drop and strike!

  «Aaaahhhh!»

  The vision seized my mind again. I was the rabbit, not the hawk!

  I saw the talons! Too late! I tried to hop away but the panic froze me in place. I shook with terror. I could see death coming from the sky, but I could not move.

  «Noooooo!» I screamed and broke off. «Noooooo !»

  I flapped up and away, and the awful vision faded. The baby rabbit hopped to his mother's side.

  «What is happening to me?!» I yelled to an empty sky. «What is happening to me?»

  46

  ?Just tell me this," Marco raged. "When do we get a vacation? I mean, Ben-Hur rowing that Roman galley while the guy whipped him and the other guy banged on that big drum got more downtime than we do."

  We were in Cassie's barn. It was the next day, after the others got back from school. I was in the rafters, in my usual place. From there I could look out through the hayloft to see Cassie's house and the driveway. And I could listen to sounds coming from outside. I could know whether anyone was sneaking up on us.

  "Our lives have become Nintendo games," Marco went on, enjoying the sound of his own outrage. "We're always walking down some dark

  47 hallway with our blasters drawn and there's an endless array of enemy guys. We blow 'em up, but they keep coming. When do we get to hit the pause button? When do we get to switch over to a nice, peaceful Riven? When do we get to turn off the power and put down the joystick and just veg out with some HBO? When do -"

  "When do we get to shut you up?" Rachel interrupted. "When do we get to switch you off? I mean, good grief, Marco, you act like you have something better to do. Before we became Animorphs your entire day consisted of figuring out which girl to annoy next."

  Marco grinned. "And now I always know which girl to annoy next." He put his arm around Rachel and laid his head on her shoulder.

  She laughed and shoved him away.

  It was just a dumb little routine, but I felt a flash of jealousy. There are little intimacies that most humans can have that I can't. I can't shake hands or hug or lay my head on anyone's shoulder.

  And, as I'd expected, Cassie had questioned me closely, listening intently to everything I related about my meeting with DeGroot. Marco came up with about eight different ways it could all be a scam.

  But then I'd told them all this new piece of information: A Hork-Bajir kid was on the loose.

  48 That's when Marco had started ranting and raving.

  "Okay," Jake said, "we have a lot happening at once. And we can't blow off any of it. We need to find out if DeGroot is for real or a Controller. We need to find out the same about this possible cousin Aria. And we need to try and find this little, lost Hork-Bajir. Twenty-four hours plus last night, plus this morning while we were in school. Coming up on forty-eight hours he's been missing."

  "I hate to think of what could be happening to him," Cassie said.

  Jake nodded. But Marco said, "No, wait. You should try and think of what's happening to him. What are the possibilities?"

  «l assume that any human would recognize this Hork-Bajir child as an alien,» Ax wondered.

  "No. Not necessarily," Cassie said.

  "Most people don't believe you aliens exist," Rachel said.

  Ax nodded, a gesture he'd picked up from humans. «Then what might a human think this creature is?»

  "Deformed," Cassie speculated. "Affected by birth defects. Or seriously sick."

  «The average, fairly decent human would think of taking it to a hospital,» I said.

  "Or calling an ambulance," Cassie added.

  49 «The average not-so-decent human might decide to shoot it,» I said. «0r stick it in a cage and charge people to look at the freak.»

  Jake nodded agreement. "Yeah. Okay. Marco? Get on the Internet and look for any news reports or whatever. Ax? You help him. Cassie and I will go back to the valley entrance, morph wolves, and see if we can pick up Bek's scent. Rachel, you're with Tobias. Figure out if DeGroot and this Aria woman are Controllers. Follow them. Watch them. How long do we have till your birthday, Tobias?"

  «Um . . . three days?» I asked.

  "Today's the twenty-third. When's your birthday?"

  «The twenty-fifth. I think. Twenty-sixth?»

  Marco laughed, then I guess he realized I wasn't kidding.

  «l don't... I don't exactly remember. Not for sure. But I think it's in three days.» I forced a laugh. «Just don't ask me how old I am in bird years.»

  50

  I felt uncomfortable being paired with Rachel. She'd seen me eating roadkill. She hadn't mentioned it, and I didn't think she would. Rachel's blunt but sensitive enough, too.

  Still, uncomfortable or not, I wasn't going to start arguing with Jake. I have my problems in life. He has his. I'm not going to complicate his situation.

  Besides, what could I say? I'd rather work with Cassie because she doesn't know I eat road-kill?

  Rachel went into her bald eagle morph. I've seen her do it many times before, of course, but for some reason this time it fascinated me. Is that the right word? No, it mesmerized me.

  51 Rachel is a beautiful girl. She's beautiful in that way you know will last her whole life. She'll be a beautiful woman. But beauty alone isn't that big a thing. What makes Rachel "Rachel" is what's inside.

  And watching her morph to eagle was like seeing her soul emerge through her flesh.

  Feather patterns appeared across her skin. The golden hair gave way to the characteristic white feathers of the baldie's crown. Her arm bones narrowed and hollowed and grew feathers to become wings.

  Her face, never exactly soft or inviting, became forbidding and intense. Her blue eyes turned golden brown and glared with the fierce glare of a raptor. Her lips became the eagle's huge beak.

  She grew smaller. But she was becoming one of the largest birds in existence.

  Was she more beautiful to me because she was a bird now? No, of course not. For one thing, eagles and hawks don't mate. For another, her eagle morph is male.

  But sometimes it seemed to me that this body suited her better than her own. Her own body misled people with superficial resemblances to the glossy images of magazine models. This body was Rachel: fast, strong, smart, intense, and dangerous.

  52 «Ready?» she asked.

  «Ready,» I said.

  She spread her wings. So much broader than my own. I am proud of being a red-tailed hawk, but there is no avoiding the fact that the human eye is drawn to a bald eagle. People can see me and think, What is that, a big brown crow? But when you see a baldie floating on the air, with its six-foot wingspread and yellow beak and unmistakable white head, you know you're looking at something special.

  I read once that Benjamin Franklin wanted the wild turkey to be the official symbol of the United States. But come on. He must never have seen a bald eagle.

  We caught a late afternoon thermal and rode it high into the air. Rachel had her wings, but I had my experience, so I kept pace with her easily enough. Not to brag, but when you can add human intelligence onto bird instinct, you get so you can outfly just about anything in the air. Instinct only takes you so far.

  «l didn't mention it to Jake, but I've already spent the morning observing DeGroot,» I said.

  «Why him? Why not this Aria person?» Rachel asked.

  «l know him. He was easy to observe. Plus . . . »

  53

  I'd been about to say that the very idea of Aria made me nervous. Unsettled. «Nothing. Let's go see if we can find her. I know what hotel she's in. I know the room. I morphed to human and called the hotel.»

  «How did you get a quarter for the phone?»

  «With these eyes? Coins shine in the sunlight. You fly around outside coin-op Laundromats or
the drive-through lane at a McDonald's, you'll find a dropped quarter sooner or later.»

  Rachel laughed like that was the funniest thing in the world. «You are the world champion of coping with weird situations,» she said.

  «Yeah, well, not always. Sometimes I just wimp out.»

  «What do you mean?»

  «Let's crank it to the west a little more, catch this trailing breeze, and take a load off our wings,» I said.

  «Ah. Something you don't want to talk about. That's cool.»

  We turned west and felt the propulsion of the wind coming around behind us. Flying is a lot like sailing. You can fly against the wind, but it'll wear you down fast. You can sort of tack, flying against the wind by turning at angles to it. But when the wind is cooperating and going your way, hey, you ride it and be thankful.

  54 «It's no big thing,» I said with a dismissive laugh. «A little bird-on-bird problems

  «So give me the four-one-one, already,» she grumped. «We have ten, twenty minutes of flying and I forgot to bring a book to read.»

  «It's nothing. It's this hawk that's trying to move in on my meadow.»

  I felt like an idiot the minute the words were out of my head. This was like the "old" Tobias style: treating people to displays of stupidity and weakness. No wonder I'd gotten beat up so often when I was human. It was like I was begging people to sneer at me.

  «Brilliant, Tobias,» I muttered to myself. «Rachel, of all people is really going to appreciate some pathetic story of how you can't stand up to a bird.»

  «What, is he bigger than you?»

  Why didn't I just keep my mouth shut? «For-get it. I just haven't decided the right time to kick his butt.»

  Yeah, right. That was believable.

  «There's the hotel. We need the twenty-third floor,» I said. «Room twenty-three-oh-six. It's supposed to be facing the city view.»

  55

  My heart was beating even faster than usual. I might be about to see a cousin who wanted to take me in. Or I might be sniffing around the edges of a clever trap.

  I counted up the floors to twenty-three. We swept around the building to the city side. It is especially thrilling flying around tall buildings. Something about being outside a skyscraper really reminds the human part of you how high up you are. You can imagine humans suddenly outside and picture their helpless terror as they fall, and . . . well, like I said, it reminds you.