"Hi, Erek, how's it going?" Jake asked guardedly.
17 "Fine. And we know, through our sources, that you have been doing good work against . . . against our mutual acquaintances." He lowered his voice. "I think we'd better have some privacy."
Suddenly, the air around us shimmered. All the noises of the mall were blanked out. And Erek was no longer human. He was a chrome-and-ivory robot, shaped a little like a lean dog, walking erect.
"What did you do?" tasked.
"I extended my hologram out around us all. People walking by are seeing a group of security guards talking. No one will bother or overhear us."
It was a cool trick. But it made my stomach do a little flip. Erek wasn't going to all this trouble just to talk about sports or whatever.
"Rescuing the two free Hork-Bajir was a good thing. They may prove to be the seeds of something very powerful and good. You may have begun the salvation of an entire race."
I shrugged. "We like to keep busy. It's either rescue entire races or play Nintendo."
Erek laughed with his chrome dog's muzzle. Then he was instantly serious again. "I need to talk to you privately, Marco."
"Well, I don't have any secrets from Jake,"
18 said. "I think that's the basis of a good marriage: openness, honesty."
"It's about someone who was once very close to you, Marco."
My heart stopped beating. I knew instantly who he meant. I started to say something, but my first words died on my tongue. I tried again. "My mom?"
Erek glanced at Jake.
"It's okay," Jake said. "I know. I'm the only one who does."
Erek nodded. "Marco, your mother has returned to Earth. She is overseeing some very secret new project. It's being run from Royan Island. Or, to be precise, it's being run from the waters around Royan Island."
I wasn't really hearing what Erek was saying. I was still back on the part about my mom returning to Earth. Jake understood. He took over dealing with Erek.
"What are they doing out there in the ocean?"
"We don't know," Erek said. "But whatever it is, it would have to be huge for Visser One to be overseeing it."
"Visser Three must be a little ticked about that."
Erek nodded. "Visser Three is not one of Visser One's favorite Yeerks. And vice versa."
19 "Yeah," Jake agreed.
"Look, I ... we weren't sure whether to tell you about this. But we've learned all we can. And I felt Marco had a right to know she was back on Earth. But you guys have to be clear about something. Visser One didn't get to the top of the Yeerk hierarchy by being nice. She is brilliant and dangerous."
Jake looked at me to see how I was reacting.
"You guys think I don't know what Visser One is Iike?!" I said hotly.
"I know you do," Erek said. "But humans are easily tricked by outer appearances. You judge people by their faces and eyes. The face of Visser One is the face of someone you trust, Marco. But if you Animorphs decide to investigate this thing on Royan Island, you may come up against Visser One directly."
I could see where he was going. And it made me mad. I don't even know why. "Look, Erek, I'm not an idiot, okay?"
He shook his robot head. "I know you aren't. But you love your mother. You want to save her. So you may make mistakes."
I swear I would have swung at Erek. But he would have let me hit him. And I would have just hurt my hand.
"There's one other clue," Erek said. "We have
20 reason to believe that some new species of Controller is at Royan Island. We believe they are called Leerans."
"Thanks, Erek," Jake said.
"Will he be all right?" Erek asked Jake.
I didn't wait to hear Jake's answer. I turned and stepped out of the hologram. I saw a woman's eyes widen in shock. What she had seen was a kid stepping directly out of a casually chatting security guard.
Jake caught up with me a few seconds later.
"Erek didn't mean anything bad. You know that," Jake said. "He just meant -"
"I know what he meant," I snapped. "He meant if it came to crunch time, would I destroy my own mother to protect the mission? That's what he meant."
Jake grabbed my shoulder and turned me around. "And?"
I was still mad. But I knew why I was mad. It wasn't that Erek had insulted me somehow. It was that Erek was right.
"I don't know, Jake," I said. "I don't know."
21
Yes, I know what a Leeran is. I have heard of that species,» Ax said. «But where did you hear that word?»
It was the next day after school, out in the woods where Ax and Tobias lived. Tobias was off hunting. I wanted to talk to Ax alone. He was in his own body, of course, watching me with his main eyes while his stalk eyes cautiously scanned the trees in every direction.
I had asked Jake not to say anything to the others about Erek. The others didn't know that Visser One was my mother. They all thought what I had thought for the past two years. That my mom had drowned. That her body had never been found.
22 I hadn't wanted the others to know the truth. That my mother had been made into a Controller. That the Yeerk inside her head was the original commander of the Earth invasion.
I didn't want their pity. I still don't. I'm a joker. I'm a comedian. That's how I deal with life. See, I've always believed that to some extent you get to decide for yourself what your life will be like. You can either look at the world and say, "Oh, isn't it all so tragic, so grim, so awful." Or you can look at the world and decide that it's mostly funny.
If you step back far enough from the details, everything gets funny. You say war is tragic. I say, isn't it crazy the way people will fight over nothing? People fight wars to control crappy little patches of empty desert, for crying out loud. It's like fighting over an empty soda can. It's not so much tragic as it is ridiculous. Asinine! Stupid!
You say, isn't it terrible about global warming? And I say, no, it's funny. We're going to bring on global warming because we ran too many leaky air conditioners? We used too much spray deodorant, so now we'll be doomed to sweat forever? That's not sad. That's irony.
Note to Alanis: That is ironic.
But humor kind of breaks down when the tragedy gets up close and personal.
See, I saw what my mom's "death" did to my
23 dad. And you know what? There wasn't anything funny about it. And I know that for a year I cried myself to sleep most nights, looking at her picture. I still feel like someone blew a hole in me. A hole that will never heal. A hole I don't want to heal, because I don't want to stop hurting for my mom, I don't want to get over it.
Jake knew my mom. So when we all came face-to-face with Visser One, he knew who she was. But not Rachel or Cassie or Tobias or Ax. And since we'd been in animal morph at the time, the human-Controller known as Visser One did not recognize "her" son.
«Where did you hear about Leerans?» Ax asked me again.
"Look, can you just tell me what you know about them?"
Ax hesitated. He is still a little uncomfortable being open and honest with humans. The An-dalites are not used to trusting other species.
«They are an aquatic race. Their planet is mostly water, like Earth. Only their land masses don't have much life. The most advanced life-forms are in the oceans. The Leerans are a sentient race of amphibians.» He shrugged. «At least, that's what I learned in school. I've never met a Leeran, of course. They aren't allowed on our world.»
"Not allowed? Why not? Are they dangerous?"
24 Ax laughed. He gets this kind of superior, know-it-all attitude sometimes. «0f course not dangerous, More like embarrassing.»
"Why? Do they fart in public or something?"
«Leerans are supposed to be psychic. They can read minds. At least they can do it if they're within close range. We have technological and military secrets we don't want the Leerans to know. Plus, you know, thoughts you might not want strangers listening in on. Now, where did you hear about Leerans?»
"Erek. The Chee.
He says there's some kind of secret underwater thing going on with the Yeerks. He says some Leerans are involved."
Ax looked puzzled. «Yeerks and Leerans? It doesn't make sense. The Yeerks could never invade the Leeran world like they're doing with Earth. The Leerans are psychic. They would instantly know if one of their people were a Controllers
"Yeah. You're right. On the other hand ... if you could make Controllers out of these Leerans. Psychic Controllers?"
Ax swiveled his stalk eyes toward me. «They would be able to root out spies. Like the Chee. They would be able to sense traitors.»
"And they would be able to find five human kids and one Andalite," I said. "They would see
25 right through an animal morph. They would mean the end of us."
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Through a gap in the trees I spotted a hawk soaring just over the treetops. Maybe Tobias, maybe not. In addition to fantastic sight, hawks have excellent hearing. I wondered, if it was Tobias, if he'd overheard my conversation with Ax.
"I guess it doesn't matter," I muttered.
«What doesn't matter?»
"Anything," I said with a laugh. "It doesn't matter, does it?" I guess ! always knew my secret would come out sooner or later. Funny-boy Marco is destined to look pathetic. My friends will look at me and think, Poor, poor Marco. I shook my head. "Never fails, you know. The Irony Gods. They wait for the chance to twist your life around. Mr. Cool-and-Detached ends up being the object of pity. Great. Perfect."
«These Irony Gods are a human religion?» Naturally Ax was totally mystified by my babbling.
"No. They're just a Marco religion," I said. "The Irony Gods wait to find out whatever it is you don't want. And that's what they do to you."
«And this is funny?» Ax asked. He's a little unsure of human humor.
"Absolutely," I said. "If it was happening to someone else, it would be hysterical."
26 In the end I told Jake we had to do it. We had to find out what the Yeerks were doing on Royan Island.
But I told him not to tell the others the rest of it. About my mom. I still hoped somehow we'd be able to avoid my dark secret. And avoid pity.
"Royan Island is a small, private island about twenty miles off the coast," I told the others when we were assembled in Cassie's barn. The barn is also the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic. The place where Cassie and her dad take in injured or sick wild animals.
It was Saturday morning. We were planning to take a first, casual look at Royan Island.
27 "It's about four miles long and three miles wide and shaped like a crescent moon," I continued.
"Very poetic," Rachel said. "Crescent moon."
"Hey, it's a quote from the guidebook, all right?!" I said. I winced. I shouldn't have snapped like that. I should have had a comeback ready. I looked tense, snapping at Rachel.
I took a deep breath. "Anyway, Ax says these Leerans are psychic. So we have to be very careful. We can't get near one of them."
"How near is near?" Jake asked Ax.
«l don't know,» Ax admitted. «l think a few feet. But I don't know.»
"How do we get to the island?" Cassie wondered. "By air or by sea?"
«Twenty miles is a long way to try and swim,» Tobias pointed out. He was up in the rafters, as usual. Keeping an eye out through the open loft and listening with his hawk hearing.
"So we do a combination," Jake said. "Fly out there. Rest. Morph to dolphin."
«Not everyone has a dolphin morph,» Tobias pointed out. «l can fly cover.»
I saw Cassie cock an eyebrow at Tobias. I think we were having the same thought. It was a little like Tobias didn't want to morph, now that he had his morphing power back.
28 "Ax has a shark morph from when we first rescued him," I said. "That will do as well as dolphin. And if Tobias doesn't want to morph -"
«l didn't say that,» Tobias said quickly.
Jake looked at his watch. "Tobias, you could still fly out to The Gardens and acquire a dolphin morph. The Gardens are on the way, more or less."
«l have to remain in my own body to acquire a morph,» Tobias pointed out. «Kind of obvious, a red-tailed hawk suddenly landing on a dolphin.»
"Yeah. Well. Never mind, then," Jake said. "Come as you are." He smiled. "You've always been our secret weapon just the way you are."
Tobias hesitated. «No, you're right. I should do the dolphin thing. Twenty miles over water. . . those aren't really my best flying conditions. You tend not to get thermals over water. I'll do it. I'll acquire a dolphin morph. Okay. I'll definitely do it. And then, hey, no problem. Right? I mean, a dolphin in water, that's like a bird in the air, right?»
We were all staring at him. Tobias isn't usually a babbler. But he was babbling. It was Cassie who figured it out first.
"Tobias? Are you afraid of water?"
«Water? Afraid? Me?»
"I'd say that's a yes." I laughed. "You're not afraid to be a mile up in the air, but you're afraid of water?"
30 «Not water,» he said hotly. «lt's just that, you know, there's no air in the water. You can't breathe. It presses in all around you.»
"Hey, how about if we stop busting on Tobias, okay?" Rachel growled. "If he doesn't like water, he doesn't have to like water."
«No, it's okay,» Tobias said shakily. «l'm cool. I mean, I'll be a dolphin, right? They live in the water.»
I nodded. "Yep. We've established that dolphins live in water."
"Okay, then," Jake said. "Tobias needs to go to The Gardens to play with the dolphins. And we need to make this fast. So let's fly, and let's hope we get lucky."
«They hold their breath underwater, right?» Tobias asked. «l mean, I guess that's obvious. But if they ever forgot . . . »
"It'll be okay," Cassie reassured him. "You'll see. Once you've been a dolphin, you'll never fear the ocean again."
«The ocean. Oh, man. The entire ocean.»
I don't know why, but Tobias being scared made me feel better. I guess it's true that misery loves company.
"Let's morph," Jake said.
And a few minutes later, I had curved, swept-back wings, brilliant white feathers, and a serious passion for garbage.
29
CHAPTER 6
If you want to fly high and far, take on a bird-of-prey morph. But if you want to be able to go anywhere, without anyone really noticing, be a seagull.
Seagulls and pigeons can appear anywhere and do anything without anyone getting upset. But if you show up as a bald eagle, people are going to notice.
We'd all done seagull morphs before, except for Tobias and Ax. We figured Tobias had enough to deal with having to acquire a dolphin, so no one suggested he do a gull, too. But Ax is a different story. Cassie had an injured seagull in her barn. So Ax had quickly acquired it.
We flew to The Gardens swift and low, the way
31 seagulls do. And we noticed every last piece of edible garbage on the way. Every stray french fry, bread crust, burger fragment, candy wrapper, cheese puff, and melted jujube. Seagulls are as good at spotting edible garbage as hawks are at spotting mice.
«l cannot believe I'm flying with seagulls,» Tobias sneered. «l could get kicked out of the hawk fraternity for hanging out with lowlifes.»
Actually, Tobias wasn't exactly hanging out with us. He was flying higher, about two hundred feet above us. But Tobias has been a hawk so long he relates almost as much to other birds as he does to humans. He respects and fears golden eagles and falcons, both of which will occasionally attack a hawk. But he actively dislikes pigeons, seagulls, and above all, crows. I think it's something to do with the groupy nature of those birds. Tobias is a loner.
I spotted The Gardens up ahead. It was easy, since the roller coaster is about ten stories high. And I saw lots of other gulls circling in the sky over the amusement park and zoo.
«Ah, our brothers and sisters await,» I said.
«They probably already got all the good food,» Rachel grumbled.
r /> She was joking. I hoped.
We swept on a following breeze above the parking lots and above the fences and right over
32 the gate where we would have had to pay if we'd been human.
«Let's go this way!» I yelled, suddenly excited. I've always loved amusement parks. I live for coasters. Or at least I did before I became an Animorph and discovered bigger thrills.
«Which way?» Jake asked.
«This way!» I banked my wings and suddenly shot left. Straight for the wooden roller coaster. A car was clank-clank-clanking its way up the first main hill. I flapped my wings and swooped right for it.
The first car had two guys in it. Not much different than Jake and me, I guess. They were holding their arms up in the air, getting that anticipation rush.
I flew straight for them and landed on the front railing of the car at the moment it reached the top of the hill.
"Whoa. Birds!"
«Marco, what are you doing?» Jake asked. «We're not here to play around.»
But he landed right beside me. Jake has gotten awfully responsible lately. But he's still my old bud.
"Get away, birds!" one of the kids said.
We ignored him, and just then, the coaster dipped over the top of the hill. Down we went.
33 Down and down, faster and faster. I clutched the railing with all the strength in my seagull feet.
«Yaaaahh!» I yelled.
"Whoa-oh-oh!" the kids shouted.
The bottom of the hill rushed up at us. Down we shot. Then the bottom and up, up, up at a hundred miles an hour, and right then, at maximum speed, I opened my wings. The car dropped out from under me and I was airborne again.
«Yee-HAH!» I yelled.
«You're nuts!» Jake cried, but he followed my lead. The two of us blasted off like we'd been shot out of a cannon.
«Look out!» Whitewashed wooden beams were dead ahead, the supports for the coaster. I trimmed my wings, turned on my side, and blew through a gap in the timbers with no more than two inches of clearance all around.
«Come on. Now that was cool, admit it!» I told Jake.
«Yeah. That was cool.»
«We're still our old selves, aren't we? I mean, we haven't changed. Not really. No matter what, right?»