Read The Solution Page 4


  We also knew that at least one of the heads of state - we didn't know which one - was already a Controller.

  So basically, this was a tough target. Even for us. There were just way too many guys looking to shoot anything suspicious.

  It was also a mission we had to do. Period. Had to. If the Yeerks made Controllers of these guys, that was it. Game over.

  We had tried a subtle approach. We'd walked into a trap.

  Now Jake was ready for the less-than-subtle approach. This would be like when you're in a chess game and you know you're going to lose so you grab the board and throw it across the room.

  That was the plan.

  First stop, The Gardens. I was all set on morphs. But Tobias, Cassie, Ax, and Marco needed something new for their night's work.

  We needed morphs that could make a big mess. And morphs that could take getting shot by handguns. We all needed what Jake and I already had.

  Once that was done we flew straight out to

  57 sea as seagulls. It was a tough flight. The wind was getting stronger by the minute, racing in across impressive waves. And then the lightning started.

  «Yaahh!» Marco yelled as the first jagged bolt lit up the clouds and the waves.

  It was one bolt, a long pause, then another. Another pause, and suddenly it was as if a light show had begun. Bolts of lightning that looked as thick as trees pushed their jerking way across the sky. Huge bolts struck the waves again and again all around us, even though we were only a few hundred yards from shore.

  And the thunder! Imagine the loudest thunder you've ever heard, then multiply it by five. It was like my head was stuck inside a steel drum and someone was hitting it with sledge hammers.

  Lightning, thunder, and then the rain began to pour.

  «That's nice,» Marco said. «That's just perfect»

  «Jake, we're not going to make any more distance against this wind,» Tobias said. Especially not with wet feathers.»

  «Yeah, you're right,» Jake agreed. «We'll swim the rest of the way along the coast.»

  «No problem. All we have to do is land in the water,» I said.

  58 «Seagulls land in water all the time,» Cassie pointed out. «Although maybe not in the middle of a hurricane . . .»

  No doubt she was right. But seagull or not, let me tell you, it was a fairly terrifying experience.

  Here's the thing. You're a small, white bird. Smaller than an average chicken. The ocean is black as coal, aside from the pale phosphoresence as some of the waves crest. You basically can't see the waves at all because the clouds are totally covering the moon and the stars. But every few seconds the entire seascape is lit up by lightning. Sometimes it's a dim sort of light cast by some far-off bolt whose thunder takes ten seconds to reach you. Other times the lightning is closer, and then the waves are turned into brilliant silver slopes and black, triangular shadows, just long enough to let you realize how tall the waves are.

  I floated down, following Jake, for once not rushing out ahead. I have a lot of respect for the ocean.

  I almost had to fight to go lower, the wind was so strong.Thirty feet up ... twenty feet. . .

  Lightning!

  Suddenly the water was no longer twenty feet below me. It was rushing straight up at me. It was like being in a plane and flying over a mountain, only suddenly the mountain swells up like a

  59 zit about to pop and up it comes while all you can do is wait for it.

  PLOOSH!

  Water foamed over me. But I bobbed easily to the surface, like a cork. I almost laughed. It was easy! I was too buoyant to sink. As I tucked my wings back, it felt just like bodysurfing.

  We landed yards apart, of course. There was no way to be more precise. I caught lightning glimpses of the others, tiny white birds riding big black waves.

  «Everyone down okay?» Jake called out.

  One by one, we answered.

  «0kay, now the tough part.»

  He didn't have to explain. We all knew. We were going to morph to dolphin. Once we were dolphin, everything would be fine. Dolphins own the ocean.

  But to get to dolphin, we'd have to become human again. And maybe a seagull or a dolphin belonged out in these two-story waves, but no human being did.

  60

  «This is going to be rough,» Jake said. «Everyone be very careful.»

  «Jake, why don't we do this one at a time?» Cassie suggested. «l'll go first. Then I can help the others.»

  «0kay,» Jake said. «Cassie morphs first. She's fastest.»

  It made sense. Cassie was the best at morph-ing. Jake was using her for her special talent. Like he used Marco for his suspicious mind. Like he used Ax for his knowledge of all things alien. Like he used Tobias for his raptor eyes and ears.

  Like he used me. For what? For my recklessness? For something dark that lived inside me?

  Cassie's thought-speak voice fell silent as she

  61 began to morph. I saw her only once in a one-second burst of electric light. She was a twisting, misshapen mess of waterlogged feathers and skin with an eerie, Halloween face.

  I heard her yelp in surprise and when next the lightning flashed, all I could see was a human hand raised above the water.

  «Cassie!» I cried. «Cassie!»

  No answer! She was drowning. Stupid to let her go first. She was a great morpher, but I was a better swimmer. I began to demorph as fast as I could.

  «Jake, she's drowning!» I yelled.

  «Don't do anything stupid, Rachel. She'll pull it out.»

  I thought bull, but I kept quiet and continued growing, heavier and heavier, less and less buoyant. Soon I was a fifty-pound mass with a handful of feathers. I began to sink. I sucked at the air and filled my lungs, just as a wave crashed down and buried me.

  I expected to bob right back up. But the wave had driven me down. And I had no hands to swim with! My feet were huge bird claws, only now beginning to web up.

  Panic!

  No, no! I ordered myself, enraged by my momentary terror. Keep morphing! It's the only way.

  But my lungs were burning already. I'd gone

  62 from tiny seagull lungs to human lungs and there wasn't an ounce of air in my body.

  I craned my head back to look up. But was it up? I couldn't be sure. It was dark all around me. Dark, as if I'd fallen into a vat of ink. Where was up?

  I was swimming now, kicking with human feet and snatching at the water with human hands. But I couldn't feel gravity. I couldn't tell if I was rising or simply plowing myself further and further down.

  And then something bumped against me. I couldn't see it, but I could feel rubbery skin.

  «Relax, Rachel,» Cassie said. «You're going the wrong way.»

  She pushed her dolphin nose under me and propelled me up and up - had I sunk that far? - till my face exploded upward, passing from black water into falling rain.

  I swallowed air, swallowed water, slipped back under when a wave took me, then was lifted once more into the air.

  I realized I was straddling the dolphin's back. I sagged forward and hugged Cassie's back. "Thanks," I managed to gasp.

  «Take a minute. When you're ready I'll keep you above water till you're dolphin enough.»

  Ten minutes later we all had morphed to dolphin. Cassie supported me, then she and I supported

  63 Jake. The rest morphed quickly after that. Tobias went last. He had to pass through red-tailed phase, so we all worked to keep him above water.

  «Great weather for this,» Marco grumbled. «What is this, a hurricane? It's not bad enough being a half-bird, half-human trying to swim. We gotta do it in the middle of a typhoon?»

  «Water,» Tobias said darkly. «See, this is what happens. Water is always trouble. Up in the sky you can at least see what's going on.»

  «And yet all the worry I felt seems to have evaporated,» Ax said. «l feel . . . quite relaxed. Happy, even.»

  «Dolphin brain,» Marco said.

  It was true, of course. It's ve
ry hard to stay upset when you're in dolphin morph. A dolphin in the ocean is like a kid in a candy store. Like Cassie at a nature preserve. Or like me at a department store sale.

  «Well, we're all alive, so let's get going. We're already probably late,» Jake said.

  Approximately ten minutes behind the schedule we discussed,» Ax said.

  «Let's motor,» I said.

  We took off, a happy, contented pod of dolphins, slipping in and out of the water. We plowed through the almost vertical walls of advancing waves, suddenly going airborne out the back sides.

  64 Storm? What storm? Waves? Waves were fun! Darkness? Who cared? We could echolocate. Wind? It was cool. It could make you soar further when you jumped. Thunder? Just a noise.

  As for lightning . . . well, if you swim underwater and you roll onto your side so you can point one eye straight up, the lightning becomes this huge flashbulb. The entire surface of the water flashes brilliant silver, but it's a twisted, mottled silver, like a platter someone has battered with a hammer.

  One eye up to the lightning, one eye down into darkness. It didn't bother the dolphin brain. The dolphin brain didn't really have the emotion of fear. Maybe other creatures knew fear, but the dolphin brain was not programmed for it.

  Unless, of course, I suddenly saw a black-and-white pinto pony pattern. That would mean a killer whale. And then the dolphin instinct for survival would kick in.

  But towering waves? Lightning? Howling wind? Black water? They meant nothing to me.

  We ran along the coast till a leap in the air revealed the far-too-familiar lights of the Marriott resort. And now my human mind came back full force, with all its own fears and rages.

  See, we weren't done morphing in the water. And this time it would be in the surf.

  65

  We echolocated a submarine about a mile offshore. Dangerously close, I thought. And of course we were very aware of a number of fast Coast Guard patrol boats cruising up and down through the surging sea.

  They played searchlights over the water. But naturally, it was child's play for a dolphin to avoid them.

  They disappeared at last behind a small, rugged island about a mile offshore. It was nothing but a jumble of rocks, really. Plus a couple of scruffy trees. I popped up out of the water to get a better look. I didn't know why, then, but something about that desolate place made me edgy.

  66 Or at least as edgy as you can get while you're a dolphin.

  We swam toward shore, the six of us abreast. I could echolocate the rising slope of the seabed. It was only a few feet deep and even the dolphin brain was nervous as we felt the waves crashing down and almost slamming us into sand and gravel and broken shells.

  «Are we close enough?» Marco wondered.

  «We need to get as close as we can,» Cassie said. «A little more.»

  Soon my gray rubber belly was scraping the sand and my tail was almost useless.

  «0kay, now,» Cassie said. «0ur morphs should be able to power up out of this depth.»

  I began to demorph. I wasn't looking forward to it. This was practically Hawaii-sized surf. The waves gained power as they came rushing up the sloping seabed. All that water just kept piling higher and higher till it was a rushing, teetering, two-story wall of water.

  I tried to time it, but there was no way. A wave caught me mid-morph and slammed me facedown into the sand. Worst of all, we could not allow ourselves to be washed up onto the beach. The beach was crawling with security patrols. Guys in night-vision goggles who saw everything as though it were illuminated by a green sun.

  67 We could not be seen till we were ready. For that reason the surf was perfect. For every other reason, it was definitely not.

  I made it to human morph and was nailed by a wave of exhaustion almost as devastating as the real waves. Morphing wears you out. Morphing repeatedly on no sleep is beyond exhausting.

  I swear I could have just lain down in the water and fallen asleep. But then I was propelled almost headfirst into the wet seabed.

  I fought my way back up and grimly set about morphing yet again.

  Now things began to change for the better. I was morphing an African elephant. Tons of African elephant. As I passed my first ton, I found the surf didn't bother me quite as much.

  I backed further out to sea to conceal my growing bulk and keep the very recognizable elephant head silhouette from being seen onshore.

  I looked left from one eye and right from the other. I saw the rest of my friends growing vast and bulky in the surf.

  Jake was in his rhinoceros morph. Marco had chosen to acquire that same animal. Cassie, Tobias, Ax, and I were a matched set of elephants.

  68 The elephant and rhino morphs had several things in common. They were faster than they looked. It took more than a handgun to knock them down. And people who saw them coming had a tendency to want to run away.

  We were, I don't know, maybe fifteen tons of bone and horn and tusk and muscle.

  «Ready?» Jake asked.

  «Ready,» Marco answered.

  «This animal's nose moves quite delicately,» Ax said.

  I could see fairly well with the elephant's eyes, unlike Jake and Marco, who were half-blind. I could see the softly lit bungalows just off the beach. I could see the taller, brightly lit hotel building beyond.

  Our goal was the bungalows. They housed the world leaders. Our plan was painfully simple. If we couldn't stop the Yeerks by subtle means, we'd just tear the place apart. Then, most likely, the big banquet where Visser Three hoped to strike would be canceled.

  Like I said, not a brilliant plan. But you know what? As tired, mad, scared, annoyed, worried, and filled with self-doubt as I was at that moment, the sweet simplicity of it all seemed like pure genius to me.

  «Hey, Marco, who's that comic book character

  69 who's always yelling, "It's butt-kicking time"?» I asked.

  «That's the Thing. And what he says is, "It's clobberin' time."»

  «Yeah? Well, whatever. Let's go do some serious stomping!»

  70

  You almost had to feel sorry for the Secret Service and all the other security guys on the beach, huddling in the rain beneath their ponchos while they gazed through night-vision goggles. One minute it's nothing but waves and lightning. The next minute it looks like a small pod of whales has decided to get up out of the ocean and go hang out on the beach.

  I mean, their training must have prepared them for almost anything. But not, definitely not for the possibility that two rhinos and four African elephants would come trumpeting and snorting out of a one-hundred-year-storm surf.

  "Hhhrrrreeeyyaaahhhh!" I announced myself.

  I heard a human voice say, "What the -?"

  71 I broke into a charging run. I had to deal with a little bit of a slope, but I had plenty of power and legs the size of tree trunks.

  I raised my trunk high and bellowed again.

  "Hhhrrrreeee-uh!"

  I was running full tilt. So were the others. Suddenly, the lightning flashed and I could see half a dozen utterly baffled men and women in drenched rain slickers, staring at us with six identical open mouths.

  Only one reacted like he had a clue. He drew his gun and started firing. Right at me.

  BLAM! BLAM!

  You'd think a trained marksman could hit an elephant. But I guess it isn't all that easy in a pitch-black night with rain in your face.

  Chances were the guy who was firing at me was a Controller. A normal human's first thought would not be to shoot an elephant on the beach.

  I went at the man, full speed.

  BLAM! BLAM!

  The muzzle flash was like tiny echoes of the lightning. This time I felt a bullet hit me in the shoulder. It didn't hurt, exactly. I was just sort of aware of it.

  He didn't get a chance to fire again. I lowered my head, bringing my hugely long tusks into line with the gunman, and he turned and ran.

  72 «Remember, we have to assume these are all innocent humans,» Jake sai
d.

  His thought-speak voice came to me just as I was considering whether I should run the guy through with my tusks or trample him. Of course, Jake was right. These were innocent bystanders. Mostly.

  We were here to wreak havoc and scare the heck out of everyone, but not to hurt anyone on purpose.

  Now other guards had decided they'd better shoot at us, too. All down the beach came the sound of gunfire, along with shouts and cries that were instantly snatched away by the howling wind.

  «Everyone ready?» Jake called. «Charge!»

  Marco laughed. «Chargel I bet he's always wanted to say that.»

  We charged. Like some mondo freak-o version of Gettysburg, we raced up the beach toward the two closest bungalows.

  Fifty yards!

  Twenty yards!

  I was eating up the beach, my big round feet plowing deep with each step.

  A line of bushes. I barely registered thorny scrapes on my gray leather hide.

  I was huge! I was a tank! I was running at full speed, my sail-like ears flapping in the wind, my

  73 powerful trunk trumpeting madly, my tusks thrusting, searching for something to impale.

  I was pure power, pure momentum, pure out-of-control animal energy.

  I tore through a decorative trellis and stomped it to toothpicks. Then, a wall! I ran, slewed my head to the side, and slammed that wall with my right shoulder.

  WHUMPF!

  Crunch!

  I backed up a step and swung my weight forward again.

  WHUMPF!

  Crrrrrunch!

  «0ne more time!» I cried, laughing idiotically in my head. I backed up and this time there was no "whumpf!" just a tearing, breaking, twisting sound. All of a sudden, bright light shone out on me from the big hole I'd made in the wall.

  Then I saw Marco in his new rhinoceros morph plow into and through the door. "Into and through" being all one motion.

  The security guys were getting serious. Elephants and rhinos running around - well, that was almost funny. Elephants and rhinos beating in doors and knocking down walls - that was a whole different matter.

  I shoved at the hole I'd made and found myself blinking in the bright light. Blinking and