He gave up, and turned back toward the school.
I struggled with the shirt Rachel had picked out for me to wear to the dance. It was still buttoned around my hawk body. I tore at it with my beak, stabbed at it with my talons. Finally, I was clear of it.
It was tough to gain altitude in the cool air. I flapped hard and circled the school. No sign of Rachel. But I spotted Jake on the front steps. He was alone, thinking, I guess. Maybe just enjoying a minute of peace and quiet.
I swooped in low to land on the branch of a birch tree a few feet above him.
He looked up. Jake’s my age. But there are times when his eyes are the eyes of a tired old man. “Where have you been? Rachel said you were jammed. Guess you made it.”
I felt pained by the possibility that Rachel might have been pulling for the time limit.
Jake shrugged. “Don’t know. But that’s the least of our problems. Before Chapman busted him, Erek gave me some bad news. I need you to find Ax. Tell him to meet us at the barn.”
“Yes!” He stopped short. “No. I mean, no. We can’t tonight. We’ve got parents waiting up for us. Better tomorrow morning. Saturday.”
“It’s the Anti-Morphing Ray,” he said. “The Chee have lost track of it. I mean they’ve got nothing.”
I was having a hard time tracking. My mind was still back with Rachel and a ticking clock.
“Erek says the Yeerks are ready to test it.” He paused for a beat. “On a live subject.”
He let that one hang in the air for a minute. We both knew what it meant. The AMR. The ultimate weapon. A ray that could force us out of morph. Make us revert to natural form. We’d tried once to destroy it. We’d lost.
Morphing was our only weapon. All we had. The Yeerks had to be stopped. No discussion.
“But how do you bust up a Yeerk plan when you don’t know where to show up to —”
I said.
Three chattering girls came out of the door and ran down the steps past Jake.
“Hi, Jake,” one of them said.
“Yeah, hi, um … hi.” He waved. The girl looked insulted. “Brittany!” Jake added, too late.
I said.
Jake massaged his forehead with his fingers. “Man, I don’t even know the people in my classes anymore.”
I said.
“Yeah. Look, find Ax. You and him, tomorrow, bright and early. We have to get on this.”
“Oh, don’t worry about me. I’m into catnaps. You know, like Napoleon did. Twenty minutes here, twenty there. Pretty soon you’ve slept eight hours and it hasn’t even slowed you down.” He stood up and leaned against the railing.
“I’m glad you made it, Tobias. You’re our eyes. Our ears. Our air force. If we lost you we’d be nothing. Like Joan of Arc without her sword. Patton without his pearl-handled pistols …”
We both laughed. It felt good to hear Jake say I was indispensable. But with Jake you could never be sure anymore what was sincere. And what was just expedient.
He’d been the most open of guys, back in the old days. What you saw with Jake was what you got. But he’d been a leader for a long time now. He’d learned to say what he needed to say.
Jake needed me as one of the Animorphs. He liked me, respected me, was happy for me when I was happy. And, when he had to, he used me without regard for anything but winning.
“A little, yeah. Don’t tell anyone, though. I want my brilliance to appear unstudied. Natural.” Jake smiled up at me and gave a quick salute. “Later, Red Baron.”
I took off and winged toward Ax’s scoop on air that was welcoming and crisp.
Cassie’s parents were gone for the day. Her mom was working at The Gardens. Her dad was at a vet conference.
I was up on the usual rafter, keeping a lookout just in case. We were waiting for Jake and most likely Erek.
Rachel was lounging on the hay bales, fighting to stay awake after a late night. Blue eyes appeared, disappeared, reappeared at half-mast.
Ax, in Andalite form, stood nearby, a bizarre mix of blue deer, stalk-eyed boy, and scorpion. Funny how we’d all gotten used to seeing a creature so utterly inhuman hanging around.
Cassie was preoccupied with a bald eagle, tending it even though she said it was living its final days. It had fought a terminal illness, and lost. It was hard to look at it. Feathers matted. A patch missing from the chest. A noble creature at the end of its time. I shuddered at the thought.
“Let me get this straight,” Marco said. “Erek got busted, not because he’s an android walking the streets in a hologram shield. Not because he’s an informant for the ‘Andalite bandits.’ But for smelling like cigarettes?”
“It was because Chapman knows he’s a member of The Sharing,” Rachel said. “Members aren’t supposed to be troublesome. You know. More Boy Scouty than the Boy Scouts. Especially because they have this big thing going on, this new community center. There’ll be media, there. Have to watch that image.”
The Sharing is a Yeerk front organization. On the surface, a do-good, family-oriented get-together. Beneath that veneer, the Yeerks used the wholesome enticements as a means of recruiting Controllers.
Ax wondered.
I answered.
Rachel gave me a dirty look. “So not funny.”
“And because they become an addiction,” Cassie said.
“Like Marco and computer games,” Rachel added.
“Or Rachel and Calvin Klein clearance racks.” Marco shot her a sidewise glance. She ignored him.
“Hey, I saw that same thing in a fortune cookie once.”
“Where are Jake and Erek?” Rachel demanded.
I said. My job is to handle security for meetings. From my perch in the rafters I can look out through the open hayloft and watch the road and Cassie’s house. And with red-tail ears I can hear just about anything approaching.
“Hey, everybody!” Jake said loudly. “Sorry we’re late, but Erek has breaking news. Listen up!”
“As I told Jake,” Erek started, “we know the Yeerks are ready to test the AMR. But they don’t have a test subject,” Erek continued.
I asked.
“They could if he were volunteering. Which he isn’t. Probably because there’s a chance the ray could prove fatal. And there’s a possibility that a feedback effect could blow the weapon up.”
Rachel brightened. “Well, that’s a hopeful thought, at least.”
“Man,” Cassie said. She closed the bald eagle in its cage and came over to join the group. “So you’re suggesting they want to test the AMR on one of us?”
Eric nodded. “The next time you make an appearance, I believe the Yeerks will do everything in their power to capture you. Or, failing that, at least fire the weapon at you.”
“Well, then,” Marco said, “we just won’t get caught. We won’t let them see us. Or hear us. Or smell us …”
“Or will we?” Jake interrupted.
Everyone turned to look at him. “Look, on the way over I started thinking.”
r /> “Had to happen sooner or later,” Marco said in a loud whisper.
“Anyway, I was thinking, maybe that’s exactly what we should do: Let the Yeerks capture one of us. Provide them with their test subject. Me, for instance. I let them take me prisoner. The rest of you follow secretly. They’ll lead us straight to the AMR. Exactly where we want to go. In a position to destroy the weapon.”
Marco spoke with disbelief. “I’m just going to ask this once. Are you insane?? Jake, dude, think about it. Not that I should even be considering the details of a scheme as idiotic as this one, but what happens if we don’t get there in time? If they drag you off and we can’t trail you because we get held up by, oh, I don’t know, a few dozen Hork-Bajir and a small army of Taxxons? The Yeerks get to use that AMR on you. And assuming it doesn’t kill you — and that’s assuming a lot — you know what they’ll get when they forcibly demorph you? A human kid. Kiss our cover good-bye. Kiss us good-bye.”
Rachel shook her head in disagreement. “Yeah, it’s dangerous. But I say we do it. Jake just isn’t the one to go. You’re too important, Jake. We need you planning the attack on the AMR. So I volunteer.”
Jake raised an arm to counter, but Ax broke in.
“Makes sense,” Marco said. “I mean, given that we’re even talking this way, like we’d do it.”
I watched Jake all this time. He was nodding. Like he bought what everyone was saying. But he was remaining quiet. So was Erek.
Jake had another idea in mind. He was just waiting for someone else to suggest it.
“You could die, Ax,” Cassie emphasized. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
Ax spread-planted his hooves firmly, squared his shoulders, and looked us all in the eyes.
“We don’t know where they’re keeping the AMR,” Jake said, not committing.
Now Marco was watching Jake. He’d seen the same reluctance I’d seen on Jake’s face. The same holding back.
We were missing something. I knew that much. I just wasn’t sure what it was. And then I knew.
I interrupted.
“What is it?” Jake asked.
I swooped down from the rafter to the floor. Loose straw swirled in small eddies as I touched down. A ray of light from a crack in the barn wall bathed my feathers in yellow light. It was almost too much. Too theatrical. I half-expected angels to hover up out of the hayloft and break into song.
I said.
I saw the confirmation in Jake’s eyes. And in the hologram that gave Erek eyes.
Marco clicked about a second later.
I said.
Cassie nodded, reluctant. Rachel kept her eyes down. She was biting her lip. Angry, sad: the two emotions are very close together in Rachel.
I repeated.
There was a brief, thought-filled silence.
Then, slowly, all eyes turned toward me.
Cassie first, with that look of tender knowing she reserves for moments of significance. I could tell she was proud of me. And worried.
Rachel’s eyes were different. Dark, almost stricken.
Marco sent an ironic bow in my direction. “You’re right, Tobias. Don’t you wish you weren’t?”
Jake made a face I see too often. It’s a look of disgust. Disgust with himself. He hadn’t wanted to single me out, make me go on what might be a suicidal mission. He’d waited till I could volunteer.
Ax said.
Acquire Ax? None of us had ever morphed an Andalite before. What would it be like? I felt a sudden, overwhelming rush of anticipation. Mixed with anxiety. I chose not to share it.
I let it go at that.
“The trick now is to choose the best time and place,” Jake said. “We have to act fast. But we want to be in control of the capture as much as possible.”
“And it has to look credible,” Cassie added. “I mean, the Yeerks have to believe it’s a legitimate coup on their part. They can’t suspect a setup.”
“So, when?” Marco asked.
“I say tonight,” Rachel answered. She still looked troubled. Her enthusiasm sounded forced.
“Tonight is the first night of The Sharing’s three-day extravaganza with the new community center,” Erek noted.
Marco rolled his eyes. “Yeah, we saw the ads on TV. Yeerk-a-Thon. They built the new community center and now they’re going to broadcast the dedication. Full media coverage. A huge deal. They’re obviously drawing members from other states, going more nationwide.”
“We were planning on being there one of the nights anyway,” Jake said. “To identify new ‘full members’ and learn more about the extent of The Sharing’s influence.”
“I can’t go tonight, not on such short notice,” Cassie said. “My parents will be back by evening. I can’t just disappear.”
“We can’t pass up this chance to get close. I think we should risk it,” Jake decided. “The biggest night of the convention: awards ceremony. My brother’s actually slated to get an achievement award. I bowed out earlier when Tom asked me to go. There’s some big outdoor banquet, with tents and music and games. I’ll tell him I changed my mind.”
“Yeah, Jake should go as himself,” Marco said, snapping into his head-of-security mode. “At an open-air function like that, you know Yeerk security will be out to nab anything that could be an Andalite in morph. The ants on the buffet table, the flies on the hamburgers, the birds in the trees. Jake’s probably safest as a human, though not much help. If Erek’s right, and they’re looking to capture us, it means they’ll be on the alert like never before.”
“There’s something else you need to know,” Erek added. “We do not think the Yeerks built this community center out of concern for the community.”
“I’m shocked,” Marco said, then laughed.
“We only have a few hints. Some vague information. But we think there is some underground construction there, probably a subterranean connection to the Yeerk pool.”
All eyes fixed on Erek.
“Oh, I like the sound of that,” Marco replied sarcastically. “Perfect. We can swing by the Yeerk pool and do a little damage on our way to save Tobias and blow up the AMR. Absolutely. Not a problem.”
“Listen, everybody head home. Make contact with the parentals and meet back here early tonight if you can.” There was energy in Jake’s voice. “We have work to do. And, um, Tobias?”
“Get some rest. This isn’t going to be a picnic for you.”
Ax and I were busy with our own preparations that evening.
Ax climbed the steep rise of the hill near his scoop and I hitched a ride on a fading thermal. It was dusk. The sun was enormous on the horizon, about to disappear. Vibrant orange and purple warmed the forest. I landed on a low branch in a clearing on the hilltop.
Ax said as he reached the clearing,
I answered carefully.
Ax hesitated in an uncharacteristic way. we are related, are we not? You are not Andalite, exactly, but you carry the Andalite heritage. I am glad you will have that DNA in you from now on. It is a very unique genetic mixture.>
I kidded.
If I was interested! I wanted so much to stay cool. To make it seem like I could take it or leave it. But this was something, finally, that I really did have a right to. I was part Andalite, even if not genetically. God knew how. Or at least The Ellimist knew how. But I was. And it excited me.
I managed to say.
He lifted me off the branch with gentle arms and set me on his shoulder. I squeezed as carefully as I could with my talons. I felt his muscles slacken as I acquired him.
I fluttered to the ground and focused. Morphing is always a crazy experience. You never know what body part will appear first. The way you transform is always a surprise.
The first thing I felt were my stalk eyes, growing out of my still-hawk head like two hyperactive worms. I heard the eyeballs form at the ends.
Paamp! Poomp!
Eyes that could see anywhere, everywhere, all the time. Three-hundred sixty degrees of vision flooded my consciousness. Like a jolt. Because I could see most everything that could see me, I had control over my environment.
I gasped as I slowly rose off the ground. With one eye shifted to the back, I witnessed a huge, muscular rump grow out of my rusty tail feathers. And although I couldn’t see them yet, I could feel four strong legs support me, responding to my growing bulk.
Muscles! Who would believe the easy strength. I stepped forward. A movement that took almost nothing out of me.
My tail! Unexpected. Yet an extension so natural I’d almost failed to notice how I carried it, erect and steadied at about shoulder level. The blade edge glistened in the sun’s final rays. I was equipped for this world. For any world, really. A natural weapon. If I’d been in touch with my Andalite heritage before now, I could have sailed through elementary school bully-free….