I cranked a hard left turn and beat my wings to gain some speed. Rachel has to deal with the two-hour limit. We'd wasted a lot of that time. I couldn't believe I'd spaced out so badly.
We flapped hard for a while.
19 «Um . . . Tobias? Am I crazy, or are we right back where we were?»
I looked down at the ground. She was right. We were right back in the same area by the edge of the forest.
I felt a cold chill. «No way,» I whispered.
«Are you lost?»
«Lost? Of course not,» I said. «l don't get lost. We're heading just south of east. I know exactly where we are. But this isn't where I was heading.»
«ls there something going on here?» Rachel asked.
«This makes no sense,» I said. «l was heading for -»
And that's when I saw it happen.
We were gliding over the edge of the forest. Farmland on one side, all green and perfectly squared. Then a band of scruffy brush and fallen-down wire fence. Then the trees - elms, oaks, various pines.
The trees extended in a long sweep right, from the farmland up into the far-distant mountains. With my hawk's vision I could even see snow on those far-off peaks.
But that's not what I was noticing right then. What I was noticing right then was that a single huge oak tree was sliding to one side.
Just sliding. Like it had no roots. Like it was
20 on a skateboard or something. A huge oak tree just slid over.
And beneath the oak there appeared a hole in the ground.
«What is that?» Rachel demanded.
«You got me,» I said.
«That whole tree is just. . . moving.»
«And the hole under it isn't natural,» I pointed out. «lt's too round. It's man-made.»
«0r else not man-made,» Rachel said darkly.
Something's down there! I saw something moving. It's coming up! Coming up out of the ground!»
«l see it,» Rachel said. «What is it? Can you see?»
I had a better angle than Rachel. And I could see what was coming up from underground.
I saw a snakelike head with huge forward-swept horns.
I saw powerful shoulders and arms that were armed with blades at the elbows and wrists.
I saw the big Tyrannosaurus feet and the short, spiked tail and the blades at the knees.
I saw seven feet of razor-bladed death.
«Hork-Bajir,» I said.
21 «TTork-Bajir!» Rachel snarled.
A year ago that name would have meant nothing to me. It would have just been some nonsense word.
But now I knew the Hork-Bajir. The Andalite who gave us our powers had told us that the Hork-Bajir were once a decent, peaceful species. But they had been enslaved by the Yeerks. All of them were Controllers now. The entire species carried the Yeerk slugs in their heads.
And with the Yeerks controlling their every action, the Hork-Bajir were walking killing machines.
Amazingly fast. Incredibly strong. Armored,
22 bladed, almost fearless. They were the shock troops of the Yeerk empire.
Hork-Bajir had come close to killing Rachel several times. And all of us had felt the Hork-Bajir blades at least once.
«What is a Hork-Bajir doing, coming out in broad daylight?» Rachel asked.
I looked closely. The Hork-Bajir was climbing some kind of ladder. When it reached the surface, it blinked its reptilelike eyes at the light. It climbed out and stood like some vision of a demon. Then I noticed that there was a second Hork-Bajir coming up behind it.
«There are two of them!» Rachel said.
«Yeah. And you know what? I think they look scared.»
Just then . . .
SKREEEET! SKREEEET! SKREEEET!
The alarm was deafening to my hawk hearing. The sound screamed up from the hole in the ground. The two Hork-Bajir jerked in surprise and fear. One of them grabbed the other and held it close for a split second. In an instant, they were off and running through the forest.
Running as if their lives depended on it.
And let me tell you something- Hork-Bajir can move out when they want. Those big, long legs take big, long steps. They plowed into the
23 brush, slashing wildly with their bladed arms, slicing through bushes and thorns and small trees like a harvester going through a wheat field.
«How are you doing on morph time?» I asked Rachel.
«l still have an hour at least,» she said.
«So we follow these guys?»
«0h, yeah.»
We flapped to gain some of the altitude we'd lost and prepared to follow the Hork-Bajir. Not much of a challenge, really. They were chopping a path straight through the woods that a blind man could follow.
«They're not exactly into the stealth thing, are they?» Rachel commented.
And that's when things really broke loose. Up from the hole in the ground humans poured. Armed humans. Men and women, dressed in an array of normal-looking human clothing.
Controllers, of course. Not that you could tell by looking. But I knew now that hole led down to the Yeerk pool. And there was no doubt in my mind - these humans were human-Controllers. Slaves to the Yeerks in their heads.
They carried human weapons - automatic rifles, handguns, shotguns.
The Yeerks were going after the two Hork-Bajir. But they were being careful. They were
24 sending only human-Controllers. They weren't going to risk any more Hork-Bajir being seen by normal people.
Twenty . . . thirty human-Controllers climbed up out of the hole.
«They'll never catch them,» Rachel said.
«l know. What is going on here? Are those Hork-Bajir trying to escape somehow?»
Up from the hole, machines began to appear. They seemed to levitate. I almost laughed when I saw them.
«Dirt bikes? The Yeerks have motorcycles?» It seemed bizarre, even funny. The Yeerks have faster-than-light spacecrafts. Now they were using dirt bikes?
«Uh-oh,» Rachel said. «The Hork-Bajir are fast, but they aren't thatfast.»
VrrrrRRRROOOM! VrrrrRRRROOOM! Vrrrr-RRRROOOOM!
Human-Controllers were firing up the motorcycles. I could hear the sputtering roar of the engines. In all, fifteen Yamahas and Kawasakis came up through that hole.
VrrrrRRRROOOM! Vrrrrraaaa-vrrrraaa-vraaaa!
The motorcycles took off. Some had just one rider. Others had two - one to steer and one to shoot.
The Hork-Bajir had a lead of a few hundred yards, but they'd never outrun this small army.
25 As I watched from the safety of the air above, the motorcycles roared off through the woods in pursuit. They churned up dirt and leaves and shattered the quiet.
And they gained quickly on the two fleeing Hork-Bajir.
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
Rifles barked. Motorcycles roared! The Hork-Bajir ran, but the bikes leaped and twisted and snaked toward them.
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
BAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAM!
Rifles, automatic weapons, and shotguns all ripped apart the tree trunks. The human-Controllers were firing wildly. Firing at anything that moved. From the ground they couldn't see the Hork-Bajir yet. But they could see flashes of them, and they kept on shooting.
«This is going to be all over in about ten seconds^ Rachel said grimly. «What are we going to do?»
«You want to help Hork-Bajir?» I asked incredulously.
«Have you ever heard the saying, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend"? The Yeerks want these two Hork-Bajir dead. That's good enough for me.»
«Me, too,» I said. «We'll have to use thought-speak. Talk directly to them.»
26 «Let's do it,» Rachel said.
I would have smiled if I'd had a mouth. Rachel is so brave she is just short of being reckless.
I like that about her.
«Hey. Hork-Bajir down there.»
I saw them stagger, as though they were shocked and amazed to be hearing thought-speak. Like that was the
ir major problem.
«You're about ten seconds away from being dead,» I said. «Listen to me and you just might get out of this alive.»
27 «First of all, stop tearing up the foliage, geniuses. They're following the trail you make. And second of all ... jump left! Now! Jump!»
The two Hork-Bajir leaped to their left, just as a pair of motorcycles roared past, missing them by a few feet.
BOOM!BOOM!
One of the Controllers cut loose with both barrels of a shotgun. I could see the pellets tear a tree trunk to wet sawdust.
«0kay, keep going that direction^ I told the Hork-Bajir.
Thought-speak is kind of like E-mail. You can address it to everyone, or you can address it to a
28 certain person. It sounds complicated, but you get used to it.
«Do you have a plan?» Rachel asked me so that the Hork-Bajir couldn't overhear.
«l hadn't really thought that far ahead,» I admitted.
«Do you know a safe place for them to hide?»
I searched my memory. I had to think like a human, not a bird. The Hork-Bajir couldn't exactly hide in trees.
«Yeah. There's a cave I know about. If we can keep them alive till then.»
The Hork-Bajir were running flat out. But now I saw a pair of big four-by-four pickup trucks coming from the other direction. The trucks raced along a dirt road, coming up to cut off the two fugitive Hork-Bajir. The Yeerks were pulling out all the stops.
«Man, this is like a really bad chess game where the other player has all the pieces,» I muttered.
«You know these woods, Tobias,» Rachel said. «That's our edge.»
«Yeah. We hope.» I turned my head left and right. Yes. I did know these woods. I knew where we were. I knew every tree and every ravine and every tiny stream.
«0kay, you guys, cut to your right now. There's a ditch. But there are a couple of Con-
29 trailers in your way. So you need to pass the big rock pile there, keeping it on your left.»
The Hork-Bajir hesitated, missed a couple of steps, and looked around in confusion.
«Did you guys hear me?»
«They heard you,» Rachel said tersely. «l think the instructions were too complicated.»
«0h. Great. Oooookay. In that case, let's play follow the leader.» I took a deep breath and glanced around to make sure I knew exactly where I was. Then I spilled a little air from my wings, tried to keep all the speed I could, and dropped down into the trees. «0kay. Time to play "follow the big birdie"!»
I zoomed just over their heads.
«Yeah, me. The big brown bird with the pretty red tail. Follow me and stay close!»
«Tobias!» Rachel yelled. «0ne of the trucks is moving in ahead of you!»
I zoomed left and the twin monsters came racing right after me.
Have you ever flown at full speed right through a densely packed forest? Probably not. So let me tell you - it's exciting. Exciting like a video game set to the highest speed, where one wrong move means you're a bundle of crushed bird bones and feathers.
«Stay with me, boys, we're gonna be hauling butt,» I said. I shot between two trees that were
30 so close together I felt my wingtips brush rough bark. I cranked a right so sudden and sharp I almost splattered against an oak. And then I flapped hard to gain speed before the two not-very-bright Hork-Bajir ran over me.
High overhead, Rachel called down with updates.
«Tobias! Three dirt bikes on your left, converging^
«Tobias, that truck is coming up behind you. They've spotted the Hork-Bajir!»
«Tobias! Look out! Guy with a gun!»
BOOM!BOOM!
Shotgun pellets ripped the air around me and stripped the leaves from a branch.
My flying muscles were aching, but I was too high on sheer adrenaline to care. It was insane! I was rocketing through the woods, barely missing tree trunks, just skimming above the saplings, blowing through territories belonging to other birds who'd have killed me themselves if I'd slowed down.
I was the rabbit and the two deadly Hork-Bajir were the dogs chasing me through the woods. And I'll say this for the Hork-Bajir - they may not be great at following instructions, but they knew how to stay on a target.
ZOOM! Through the trees!
31 ZOOM! Barely rising fast enough to clear a rocky outcropping!
ZOOM! Left!
ZOOM! Right!
ZOOM! Straight up with every single muscle screaming.
"Tseeeeeer!" I screamed in a combination of fear and total powered-up, red-tailed excitement.
Man, I was doing some serious flying.
But I was not getting close to my goal. And I was not losing the pursuing dirt bikes and four-by-fours.
«Tobias! Oh, man! There's a helicopter coming up from the south. Maybe two minutes away!»
«We're dead meat if that chopper gets here before we lose these Controllers on the ground. There's a stream. Think these monsters swim?»
«They don't look like they do,» Rachel said.
«Hork-Bajir. Can you swim? If you can, signal me by quickly slicing down the next sapling you come to.»
Slash! A sapling was suddenly shorter.
«AII right then, stay with me!»
32 I hung a brutally hard right and scraped my belly across a branch doing it. I fought my way through the grasping twigs and leaves and motored on.
«Thank goodness I ate a good breakfast,» I muttered.
«Tobias! You can't go that way. The trucks will cut you off! They have guys in the back of each one with shotguns.»
«No choice,» I said. «ln about two minutes I'm going to collapse. And right about then that helicopter will get here!»
«0kay. Then we need to get rid of the guys with the guns,» Rachel said calmly. Like flying against a guy with a shotgun was no big deal.
33 «Rachel, have I ever mentioned that you are extremely cool?» I said. Then, to the Hork-Bajir: «Just keep running this same direction. Don't stop.»
I peeled away, and fought my way up and up and up, above the treetops. There was Rachel, gliding majestically on her huge eagle's wings. I needed altitude so I could turn it into speed.
Ahead, through the gaps in the tree cover, I could see the two pickup trucks. They were still bouncing along, kicking up dust as they hurried to cut off the Hork-Bajir.
In the back of each truck there was a man with a shotgun. These guys were holding on for dear life, so at least we had a chance of not getting killed.
«You take the one on the left. Ready?» I asked Rachel.
«Let's do it,» she said.
We aimed to intercept the trucks. Like a pair of cruise missiles, we targeted the spot where the trucks would be in five seconds. Four seconds. Three seconds.
I could see my guy clearly. Middle-aged human. He looked like a guy you'd see working in a hardware store or something. But he wasn't really human. The Yeerk in his head was aiming the gun.
Two seconds!
34 The Controller saw me. He frowned. Then he realized . . .
One second!
The shotgun came up. The twin barrels looked huge.
I raked my talons forward.
BOOM!
The shot passed millimeters over my head. I actually felt the wind!
"Tseeeeeer!"
I struck! The Controller fell off the back of the truck, clutching his face and howling.
A split second later, Rachel hit her target.
At that same instant the two Hork-Bajir came barreling out of the woods, right into the racing trucks. One jumped. He sailed over the truck and landed hard on the far side.
The second Hork-Bajir was too slow.
WHAM!
The truck slammed the Hork-Bajir. The Hork-Bajir went flying and sprawled in a brush-covered ditch.
BOOM! BOOM! Rachel's guy was firing blindly.
The first Hork-Bajir was up, but not running. I was close enough to hear him bellow in a voice full of despair.
/> "Kalashi! Kalashi!"
35 «Move, you idiot!» I screamed at the Hork-Bajir.
The two trucks had braked in a cloud of dust and dirt, fishtailing wildly on the narrow dirt road. Guys were piling out of the cabs, armed to the teeth.
From the edge of the woods, just down the road, three dirt bikes roared into sight.
BOOM!BOOM!
BLAMBLAMBLAM!
The Hork-Bajir froze. He looked up at me as I shot past him. And he said, "No! My kalashi ! My wife!"
«Wife?» I said.
«Wife?» Rachel echoed.
That may have been the last word I'd ever expected to hear a Hork-Bajir say.
«You'll be dead in two seconds,» I snapped at the Hork-Bajir after I'd recovered from the shock. «Run. Run, or you're no good to anyone!»
He ran.
I guided him to the stream that lay half-concealed behind a stand of trees. He hit the water with surprisingly little splash and disappeared beneath the surface.
«Hesaid wife, right?» I asked Rachel.
«Wife,» she agreed.
36 Wife? Excuse me, you said wife?" Marco asked incredulously. "You mean there's such a thing as a female Hork-Bajir?!"
«l guess so,» I said. «We didn't really have time to ask.»
It was late afternoon. We were all in Cassie's barn. Actually, I was in the rafters of Cassie's barn, looking down at the rest of the group - Jake, Cassie, Marco, Ax, and Rachel, back in human form again.
Ax was in his own, natural Andalite body. It's a danger to have him there because we can never allow anyone to see the Ax-man. I mean, one look at Aximili-Esgarrouth-lsthill, at the two movable stalk eyes on top of his head and the deadly scor-
37 pion tail and the centaur body, and you know he's not exactly a local boy.
But it was worth the risk, since he knew more about Hork-Bajir than any of us did. Besides, I was providing security. From my place up in the rafters, I could see out through the hayloft to Cassie's house. And since I have excellent hearing as well as sight, I'd know if anyone approached the barn.
Cassie's barn is actually the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic. It is full of every kind of local wild animal. The wire cages are piled high all around the barn.
Both Cassie's parents are veterinarians. Her mom works at The Gardens, which is this big amusement park and zoo complex.