The Revelation
Author: K. A. Applegate
Date: 2000-09-01 04:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Extraterrestrial beings; Juvenile Fiction; Fantasy & Magic; Fiction; Science fiction; Horror & Ghost Stories; Metamorphosis; Children's stories; General
Description: SUMMARY: The Animorphs have met Visser Three and Visser One. But they haven't met Visser Two. Until now. And the Animorphs are about to break every rule they've ever followed.
Publisher: New York : Scholastic, c2000.

The author wishes to thank Ellen Geroux for her
assistance in preparing this manuscript.

For Michael and Jake

Cover illustration by David B. Mattingly

Art Direction/Design by Karen Hudson/Ursula Albano
ml.

If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this y name is Marco.

book is stolen property. It was reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any pay-And I am to cuisine what Sammy Sosa is to
ment for this "stripped book."

baseball.

No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored When it's my night to make dinner, I don't or-in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permis-der in. I don't crack open a can of Chef Boyardee
sion of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 555 Broadway, and call that a meal. Please.

New York, NY 10012.

I go the extra mile.

ISBN 0-439-11519-1

I use the oven.

Copyright © 2000 by Katherine Applegate.

I know. You're saying to yourself, "But,

All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc.

Marco, man, you're fighting a war against alien

SCHOLASTIC, APPLE PAPERBACKS, ANIMORPHS and associated logos
are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

invaders. You and your friends, you guys battle

1 2 1 1 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 4 5/0

Yeerks twenty-four seven. How do you find the

Printed in the U.S.A.

time to cook?!"

First Scholastic printing, September 2000

It isn't easy. But with a little help from the

1
freezer aisle and a guy I know called Red Baron,

I forced a smile. "Crazy, isn't it?"

it's a lot simpler than it could be.

Another car pulled into the drive. Whistling,

Plus, this particular night, I was trying to
then rapid steps up the walk.

make my stepmom feel, well, glad that she'd

I grabbed a few sodas from the fridge.

married my dad. Even if I wasn't one hundred

The front door opened. Dad was all spring-in-
percent behind the whole thing, she made my
his-step, a big smile plastered across his face.

dad happy. That's worth something.

His cheeks were flushed. He looked like he'd just

A car pulled into the driveway, a car door
struck oil.

closed, heels clipped up the sidewalk. Nora, my

"Hello, family!"

stepmother.

Okay, that was more enthusiasm than I wanted

I threw three paper plates on the table,
to see. And the word family, when applied to any-
spread out some silverware, grabbed cups and
one but me, Dad, and my real mom, would al-
a block of napkins. Nora doesn't go for paper
ways sound very weird. To worsen the nausea,
plates, but hey, it wasn't her night to do the

Dad pulled a bouquet of flowers from behind his
dishes.

back.

The door opened. I heard a sigh, the sound of

They were not for me.

a heavy bag dropped to the foyer floor.

I think there was a kiss. Maybe some mushy

"Hey," I called.

whispers. I don't know. I looked away. I see

"Hey," Nora called back. "That faculty meet-
enough of the "power of love" between Jake and
ing lasted far longer than it . . ." The smell of

Cassie, and Rachel and Tobias.

Red Baron's home cooking met her nostrils, no

"What's the occasion?" Nora giggled like a
doubt. "Marco!" she cried, entering the kitchen.

middle-schooler and sat at the table.

"You're really making dinner!" She glanced at

"Oh, nothing," Dad said, beaming at her from
the paper plates and decided not to comment.

the chair opposite. "You're just the most wonder-

"You're the stepson of my dreams."

ful woman in the world."

The woman was a math teacher. I would never

"I know better than that." Her adult voice
really understand her. And now she was going
reemerged as she set the flowers aside. "What's
goopy on me.

gotten into you?"

2

3

"Let's just say things are getting pretty excit-

"Okay," Dad said slowly. "If you promise not
ing at work. Taking those stock options could be
to say a word . . . and I mean to anybody . . . I
the best thing that ever happened to us."

guess I can give you the basics."

The buzzer rang. I pulled the pizza from the

He swallowed a bite of pizza, then pushed his
oven and cut it up on a pizza board.

plate aside so he could lean forward, elbows on

"What's the big deal, Dad? We gonna be
the table.

rich?"

"We've discovered what could be thought of

I heaped a cheese-dripping slice in front of
as a whole new dimension, yet not a dimension
him.

at all. It's sort of like . . . Marco, you've studied

"Well . . ." he said slowly, "what my team is
conic sections, haven't you?"

working on may just be one of the greatest ad-

When would I learn not to ask Dad to elabo-
vances in human history."

rate? Engineers, like math teachers, have a way

"An HBO descrambler?"

of waxing prolific about theoretical situations

"Marco, I'm serious. Discoveries like the one
that put my feeble mind to sleep almost in-
we just made make me want to see you do well in
stantly. Even faster than my math book.

math." He looked knowingly at Nora. "Or at least

"Forget math class," Dad said, realizing that
pass an exam."

he was losing me. "You know what a cone looks

"He's right. Mathematics is the language of
like, right? Well, the surface of a cone is the
nature. It's the universal language. Everything
two-dimensional analogue to the five-dimensional
around us can be represented and understood
space we inhabit."

through numbers." Nora's face had taken on a

I sighed and got up to get another slice. Dad
weird glow. I wondered how numbers could make
grabbed my arm and made me sit down.

anyone feel like that.

"But a cone is three-dimensional," Nora cor-

The nightmare of my last algebra test flashed
rected.

before my eyes.

"Exactly. While the surface of the cone is two-

"Dad. Just tell us what you're working on."

dimensional, the surface exists in three dimen-

"I really shouldn't," he said suddenly. "It's
sions."

secret. Top secret."

"Hmm." Nora seemed perplexed.

Nora gave him a look. It worked.

"Yeah," I said even louder. "Hmmm."

4

5

"Let's just say things are getting pretty excit-

"Okay," Dad said slowly. "If you promise not
ing at work. Taking those stock options could be
to say a word . . . and I mean to anybody . . . I
the best thing that ever happened to us."

guess I can give you the basics."

The buzzer rang. I pulled the pizza from the

He swallowed a bite of pizza, then pushed his
oven and cut it up on a pizza board.

plate aside so he could lean forward, elbows on

"What's the big deal, Dad? We gonna be
the table.

rich?"

"We've discovered what could be thought of

I heaped a cheese-dripping slice in front of
as a whole new dimension, yet not a dimension
him.

at all. It's sort of like . . . Marco, you've studied

"Well . . ." he said slowly, "what my team is
conic sections, haven't you?"

working on may just be one of the greatest ad-

When would I learn not to ask Dad to elabo-
vances in human history."

rate? Engineers, like math teachers, have a way

"An HBOdescrambler?"

of waxing prolific about theoretical situations

"Marco, I'm serious. Discoveries like the one
that put my feeble mind to sleep almost in-
we just made make me want to see you do well in
stantly. Even faster than my math book.

math." He looked knowingly at Nora. "Or at least

"Forget math class," Dad said, realizing that
pass an exam."

he was losing me. "You know what a cone looks

"He's right. Mathematics is the language of
like, right? Well, the surface of a cone is the
nature. It's the universal language. Everything
two-dimensional analogue to the five-dimensional
around us can be represented and understood
space we inhabit."

through numbers." Nora's face had taken on a

I sighed and got up to get another slice. Dad
weird glow. I wondered how numbers could make
grabbed my arm and made me sit down.

anyone feel like that.

"But a cone is three-dimensional," Nora cor-

The nightmare of my last algebra test flashed
rected.

before my eyes.

"Exactly. While the surface of the cone is two-

"Dad. Just tell us what you're working on."

dimensional, the surface exists in three dimen-

"I really shouldn't," he said suddenly. "It's
sions."

secret. Top secret."

"Hmm." Nora seemed perplexed.

Nora gave him a look. It worked.

"Yeah," I said even louder. "Hmmm."

4

5

"The cone contains a singularity," Dad in-

"What are you calling your discovery?" I
sisted.

heard Nora ask.

"A what?"

"I don't really know," Dad said tentatively.

"The place where all lines intersect. The place

"What can you call something that is nothing at
where you can head out in any direction, or in all
all?"

directions at once. Where you can move in any

There wasn't anything on TV. An old Star Trek.

direction without moving anywhere at all."

A new Star Trek. My life was plenty sci-fi. How

"What does this cone have to do with your
about some Real World?

work?" Nora's puzzled look revealed that Dad

"What could you call it?" Dad continued.

had just surpassed her in geekitude. Which, un-

"Zero, I suppose. Zero-space."

fortunately, only made him more determined to
explain.

"We live our lives on just one line on the
cone, in a mere four dimensions, including time."

I felt my eyes rolling up into my head.

"We've been stuck on the surface of the cone
all this time. When we want to go anywhere, we
have to travel on the line. But now, imagine
someone notices the singularity. A point with no
size, no breadth, no extent. The physical repre-
sentation of nothingness. By itself, it's nothing.

Yet it's the starting and ending place of every-
thing! A multiplier of real space!"

"Cool," I said. "Look, I've got homework. Lots of math." I dumped my paper plate in the trash
and walked into the living room. Flopped on the
couch and picked up the remote. I'm an advo-
cate of the quick, pre-homework channel surf.

6

How!

I grabbed the cordless and dialed Jake.

"Hello?" he answered.

"We have . . . " I said in a whisper, coughing
between words to muffle the sound, "a situa-
tion."

There was a pause. I heard a voice in the
background, then Jake faking a laugh at one of

Tom's wisecracks. Tom, his brother, a Controller.

I waited.

Finally, Jake mumbled, "Twenty minutes?"

"Fine," I said, and hung up.

Dad was still talking to Nora. "We're working
on a way to communicate through the singularity.

I almost swallowed a lung.

Normal matter is dimensional and in theory

I sprang up, looked over the couch, stared
couldn't , pass through."

into the kitchen.

News flash, Dad: My matter passes through

ZERO-SPACE?!

the singularity several times a week. Every time I

Nora glanced at me with alarm. "Marco, you
morph, my excess mass gets sucked into noth-
okay?"

ingness. A bubble in time.

I shut my gaping mouth. Forced myself to

Dad continued with unchecked enthusiasm.

blink.

"But we've determined that certain elementary

Normal. Be normal. Act normal.

particles could pass through . . ."

"Fine . . . uh, yeah, urn, fine."

I couldn't keep my mouth shut.

I sat back down. My hands were shaking. My

I had to know.

head was a rush of adrenaline. How had I missed

If Dad was a Yeerk . . . well, it was simple. I
it! He'd been describing Zero-space. For the past
would not lose two parents to the enemy.

five minutes! How?

I would not.

8

9

"So, Dad," I called, striding back into the

"Dad," I said. "When you say you could send
kitchen. "You can, like, talk to people through
communications through this Zero-space thing,
this thing?"

what do you mean? I mean, who would you con-

"Precisely," he said.

tact? I know there are some fossilized life-forms

"How's that any better than a radio?"

on Mars, but I don't think they're big on answer-

I watched his face, his eyes, closer than I
ing the phone."

ever have. If he was a Controller, I would see it.

Dad rocked back in his chair. "Marco, you're

The Yeerk residue. The arrogance, the conceit. I
a prisoner of your education. They teach you
i would see it. You couldn't fight an enemy this
about the solar system. They give you a glimpse
long and be helpless to sense its presence, to tell
of the Milky Way. But do they ever suggest how
if there's a Yeerk slug wrapped around your own
much is really out there? How many very real
father's brain.

chances there are that somewhere beyond our

Could you?

ability to scope, in a place so distant our bodies

"Marco," he said. "Communication through
couldn't hope to live long enough to journey
this singularity, through this Zero-space, would
here, life thrive?'"

be instantaneous. Unlike light, for example, the

He sounded so innocent. A Yeerk wouldn't let
communication would actually travel zero dis-
a host go on like that. It just wouldn't.

tance." Dad's eyes were bursting with excitement

"What language would you use for the com-
and wonderment. No evil, no mystery.

munication?" I probed. "If there's life out there,

"Just think!" he said. "We could talk to the
don't tell me they speak English."

farthest star in an instant, send information faster

"We could try music," Dad answered easily.

than the speed of light. No travel distance at

"Or math, the universal language." His eyes met
all!"

Nora's in a look of tender affection.

He smiled, certain he'd floored me and Nora

So pure. So un-Yeerk.

both.

But I needed proof. Proof that he was still just

"That's fascinating, honey." Her interest, earn-

Dad and no one else. Hunches weren't good
est at first, now seemed mostly just polite. She
enough.

took her bouquet to the sink and began to put

"I should get back to the office," he said sud-
the purple buds in water. I sat down in her chair.

denly, standing up. I stood up next to him.

10

11

"Higher-ups say that if by the end of the week

No biology. My boy, the plants will survive five
our team perfects this small device that could,
days." He squeezed Nora's hand. "I've gotta go."

theoretically, send and receive communications

He stopped at the front door. Turned back to
through Zero-space, we get to present our find-
us.

ings at next month's conference. You two know

"You know what?" he said. "This Zero-space
what that means
discovery? It's big. Really big. I don't think our

Dad grabbed me and Nora around our waists
lives will ever be the same."

and tried to lift us into the air. Maybe he was a

Controller. He'd never done that before.

"It means an all-expenses-paid, bring-your-
family-along vacation at an amazing mountain
resort. HBO for the boy. Pool time for the wife.

Raiding the mini-bar for everyone! We can stay
through the weekend. Skip town for five whole
days!"

"Five days?" I said.

"If you'd rather go to school . . . "

"No," I said quickly. "It's not that. I just
thought . . . " I watched Dad's eyes. "You know,
the plants. Five days. That's a long time without

Miracle-Gro."

It was a test. Dumb but necessary. If there
was a Yeerk in Dad's brain, it wouldn't allow a
trip of more than three days. The Kandrona ray
feeding cycle is three days. Yeerks aren't flexible
on that one.

Dad looked at me like I was an idiot.

"Do you understand what I'm saying? I'm go-
ing to pull you out of school. No conic sections.

12

13

Ax wasn't in morph. I felt we were vulnerable
here, just after dinnertime.

"Are you sure we're safe, Cassie?" I said. She
looked up from her math book. I tell you, it was a
conspiracy.

"You kidding?" Cassie said. "A PBS docu-
mentary on lemurs? A Dome ship could land on
the lawn and my parents wouldn't even notice."

Cassie's parents are vets, the only people I
know who like animals — and animal documen-
taries— more than Cassie does. "Plus," she
continued, nodding toward the red-tailed hawk
perched in the hayloft, "we've got Tobias."

<This Z-Space thing has to be a trap,> Tobias

<Impossible!> Ax exclaimed a second time.

said, <A very elaborate trap >

<There is no way human science can have made

"Too elaborate," I shot back. "Do you really
such a leap. This is the Yeerks at work.>
think the Yeerks would go to the trouble of plant-

"Why would Yeerks use humans to develop a
ing the seed of Z-space technology in some pid-
capacity they already have? That's just weird."

dling human engineering firm? Then wait for

Rachel looked up from her math book. My ruth-
humans to pick upon it? And wait even longer for
less fellow warrior. Rachel isn't content with the
nows of the development to leak out and reach
whole beauty thing. No, she has to have brains,

US? That's slow and uncertain. Not Yeerk."

too. She actually planned to pass the test we had

"It could be simpler than we think," Jake said
the next day.

calmly, lowering himself onto a bale of hay. This

We were at Cassie's barn, aka the Wildlife Re-
war had aged my best friend in ways you couldn't
habilitation Center. The place was packed. Ver-
really see. But you could definitely tell that in his
min of every size and description sprawled out
mind he was no longer just a kid. None of us
in cages, some scratching, some cawing. Some
were. "Maybe there's no Z-space device at all.

silent, yet watching.

The Yeerks could have put out a rumor, knowing

14

15
it would draw the Andalite bandits like bees to

<You must admit,> Ax said solemnly, <it is
honey."

unlikely the Yeerks would set a trap, yet leave

"A rumor?" Cassie said doubtfully.

our member of their team uncontrolled. It would

<lt has to be,> Ax declared. <There is simply
be an enormous security breach.>
no way that humans are on the verge of Zero-

I felt Jake's eyes on me, then his hand on my
space communications^
shoulder.

<lf human engineers are part of the Yeerk

"How do we handle this, Marco? Your dad,
plan,> Tobias reasoned, <that means Marco's
your call."

dad . . .>

Jake is a diplomatic leader. He makes it a pol-

"No." I stood up and began to pace. "The
icy to ask for input. But what I really wanted right

Yeerks don't have my father. They don't. Sure, it
then was dictatorship. I wanted him to order us
looks bad. But he's not a Controller. I tested him.

to save my father.

I told you."

"I don't know," I said instead. "What about a

"Maybe he fooled you with that five-day trip

Itakeoul at Dad's office? He's there now."

stuff," Rachel said. "If he knew you were testing

Jake glanced at Cassie. "Okay," he said. "A
him, he would have played along. Outsmarted
stakeout, starting now. Ax and Tobias, stick with
you at your own game."

Marco's dad until he leaves the office and gets

"No!" I said firmly, stopping in my tracks.

home

"Look, maybe he's a dupe. Maybe he's an inno-

THAT'S when I realized why Jake had looked at
cent member of the Yeerkish team at the office.

Cassie Jake had asked her if she thought I could

But he's not one of them. At least, not yet."

be trusted. He said it all in one quick glance.

But it suddenly struck me as absurd. He had to

And she'd said no.

be next on the list. Where was he right that

They thought I was too close to this. Poor
minute? At the office, like he'd told us? Or at the

Marco was about to lose a second parent to the

Yeerk pool? And why . . . why had they let him stay
enemy. Of course he'd snap.

free this long? Did the Yeerks need a buffer, a gen-

"Marco," Jake continued, "you keep watch
uinely ignorant human to keep their cover strong?

on the homefront. I'll check with Erek to see

Or had they just been waiting for the right op-
what he knows. We'll compare notes in the morn-
portunity to seize and infest him? Like tonight.

16

Ax morphed to northern harrier and flapped
up toward Tobias.

"I want to go with them," I said. "It's more
likely the Yeerks will try to infest Dad away from
home."

"They'll take care of it," Jake said. "They
don't have a stepmother waiting for them to
come home. Nothing's gonna happen without
you."

Did he mean it? Something in his tone made
me wonder.

"You can't be sure of that, Jake. What if
something does happen? I want to be there."

"You will be. Just go home for now. Every-
thing's gonna be cool." He smiled, but it didn't

Brrrrrrring!

reach his eyes.

I jolted from sleep like ,i SAC pilot at the

I walked out of the barn and started down the
alarm Ready to run to my plane . . . start up,
road. I didn't morph to bird. I wanted to walk as a
take off fight!

kid. I wanted to pretend for just a minute that a

Wait No, it was the phone. And I was Marco,
kid was all I was.

Hie kid who'd fallen asleep over his math book.

But my mind knew better.

I here w,is drool on the page. Gross.

Jake, my oldest friend, didn't trust me to do

Brrrrrrring!

the right thing when family was involved.

I reached for the phone on my desk. I lifted it

I would show him he was wrong.

up and was about to say . . .

"Hello?" Dad said in a groggy voice. We'd
picked up at the same time. Dad hadn't noticed.

"It's Jack, from work."

"Jack. Hey. What can I do for you?"

18

19

The call was for Dad, who was home, alive,
voice on the phone saying, "We thought you'd be
and in bed. I could hang up. Should hang up. I
best at comforting her."

looked at my watch. Eleven P.M. Why was some-

We?

one from work calling so late?

"Oh, God!"

"It's Russ," said the flat male voice. "There's I jumped up, flung open the bedroom door.

been a car accident. Russ is dead."

The electric garage door banged lightly closed.

"Oh, God!"

Dad's car pulling out!

"Russ's wife is . . . she's hysterical, she's . . .

No.

you know what it's like. You lost a spouse. We

He was driving into a trap and I hadn't lis-
thought you'd be best at comforting her. Can you
tened long enough to get the address.

swing by her place?"

I sailed down the stairs three at a time.

"Sure," Dad said.

Checked the notepad by the cordless. Nothing.

I hung up the phone. Heard Dad head down-

The notepad on Dad's desk. Nothing again.

stairs, still on the line, getting the widow's ad-

Where was Russ's house?

dress.

Where would "they" be waiting?

I'd met Russ at a company picnic a few years

His computer screen was still up — no screen-
ago. I'd met his wife, too. My mind flashed to the
saver. At the bottom was a minimized "window,"

night Mom disappeared, to the terror that wound
the words Yahoo! Maps written inside. I grabbed
around my heart when I realized she was never
the mouse and clicked.

coming home.

Bingo— 1366 Fairmont and a road map in

"Hmph," I said aloud. "Sad."

case I planned to drive. I didn't.

I looked back at my math. Problem 8. I

I was going to fly. But I had to call in backup
squinted at it. Totally incomprehensible no mat-
first.

ter how you looked at it. Problem 9 . . .

I dialed Jake, punching numbers frantically

It hit me. A flash, a surge of insight. Puzzle
as I walked toward the back door.

pieces dropping into place. Not problem 9, but

"Hello?" It wasn't Jake. The voice was gruff
the phone call.

and hoarse. It was Tom.

A guy from work had been killed, a guy work-

I hung up instantly. The phone rang in my
ing on the Z-space project. A call late at night. A
h.ind and before I could think, I answered.

20

21

"Who is this? You just called and hung up on

I headed out the door. I morphed to osprey in
me. Who is this!" Tom had finally discovered
the backyard. It was dangerous, but it was dark. I

*69.

started flapping hard before my wings had fully

I was shaken up, embarrassed. I pictured the
formed.

Yeerk on the other end of the line. "It's Marco," I Up and up and up. The streetlights reduced
muttered. "I wanted to talk to Jake. Sorry."

the night city to a simple grid. The Yahoo! map.

Tom grunted into the phone and hung up.

I swooped down, lower and lower, until I spot-

So much for Jake. Who else was there? Ax,
ted Dad's car.

Tobias. They were back in the woods. Cassie's

Already there!

parents would be in the way. Rachel.

I dove like a stunt plane. Demorphed in the

I dialed. She picked up.

bushes.

"Do you want to hang out?" I said. Always

Lights were on in the house's lower level.

speak in code. Always be careful.

Dense, red curtains shielded the windows. Shad-

"Where?"

ows played on the fabric. Strange silhouettes,

"Thirteen sixty-six Fairmont."

sudden movements. A struggle.

"When?"

Where was Rachel?! I edged toward the house,

"Five minutes ago."

crawl-walking to keep my head below the hedge.

"What we talked about earlier?"

I stopped at a side window. Pressed my face to a

"Uh-huh."

place where the curtain didn't quite meet the

I set the phone down and headed for the door.

window's edge.

I was glad Rachel was the one. If you think a sit-

"Ahhh!" A distorted voice from somewhere in
uation could get ugly, you want Rachel on your
the room.

side.

Two Hork-Bajir stood rigid guard. Beyond

"Marco?" Nora, standing half-asleep on the
them, two human-Controllers wrestling my father
stairs. "Where's your father?"

Into a chair. . . tying him down . . . securing him

"Dad? He just ran to the store. Probably had a
next to a portable Yeerk pool!

craving for Chunky Monkey. He'll be back soon."

One of the men was Russ. The "dead" guy

Nora considered for a moment, seemed to
was alive.

buy it, and went back to bed.

I ,stood up. Forget about caution and stealth

22

and security. Forget about everything except Dad,
instinct said.

Still, I stood, immobile. Watched as one of
the men pushed my father's head down to the
edge of the tank. Dad struggled, a desperate
paroxysm of terror. The man slapped him across
the face.

Dad kicked the pool. Fluid spilled over the
edge, onto the carpet.

I watched, fascinated. Was this real? Was this
now?

Then anger and hate reared up like demons
inside of me.

"This can't happen," I said quietly. "Not Dad.

Noooooo!"

Not again . . ."

Instinct ordered me to end the nightmare,

I raised a huge, black fist to break the glass. I
lunge through the glass, destroy the Controllers,
had morphed, without realizing or willing it.

free my father.

Gorilla: my outward expression of an inner
rage too great to contain.

But you're an Animorph, my rational mind ar-
gued. A soldier. You have to let it happen. You

That was it. This was the end of smart. And
can't save him now. Even temporary freedom
the beginning of right.

would mean the end. The Yeerks won't stop till

Crash!

they find him. Find you. Your friends. You have to

I broke the glass and pulled myself through
let it happen. It's the smart thing to do. The only
the shattered window. A million sparkling frag-
thing to do.

ments rained to the floor. Cool night air rushed in
behind me. The red curtains flapped frantically.

I watched. Dad's head was forced into the
sludge. One eye sunk beneath the surface. The

Everyone froze. All eyes. On me.

other fixed in horror on the slug that was swim-

I seized the nearest object, a huge oak chair,
ming closer. Closer. Closer. . .

and flung it out of my path. Gorilla arms are like

24

25
heavy machinery. You think, /'// move that, and it

I heaved the couch aside.

just happens. No straining. No effort.

My father yelled again. I turned to see his

The chair smashed and splintered into a mir-
head slip back into the pool! Sludgy slime lap
ror on the wall. This breaking glass thing, it was

. gainst his cheek!

becoming my calling card.

And a Yeerk slug began to slither into his ear!

<Step away from the pool and you might not

<NO!>
get hurt,> I bellowed.

It was maybe the weirdest moment I'll ever

"Andalite," the "dead" man spat.

live. In an instant, everything changed. Live ac-

The two Hork-Bajir guards lunged. Rushed for
tion became slow motion. I saw Dad's future in
me around either side of the dark leather couch,
my hands.

leg blades shredding upholstery as they passed.

My hands alone.

I grabbed the closest weapon, the glass globe

I charged forward, arm extended, hand out-
from a floor lamp. <Heads up!> I sneered, and
stretched. Slow . . . too slow!

threw the globe like a fast ball. One of the Hork-

"Ahhhh!"

Bajir fumbled it like a hot potato. Fell backward

Yes! I caught the slug's slippery back half in
and hit his head on a table. These goons were not
my massive fingers and yanked it out of my fa-
pro-ball material.

ther's head. Slapped it to the floor.

<You. At the table. Get your head up!> I

The human-Controller backed off. I grabbed
yelled to Dad, faking a voice deeper than my
the chair in which my father was tied and slid it
own. <Get it above the surface. Now!>
across the floor, into the wall. He cursed and

I saw him tilt his neck, strain against an angry
kicked, still tied down. But he was free. That was
human hand.

all that mattered.

The base of the lamp was still in my fist, a

I wrapped my hands around the edge of the
long wrought-iron pole.

mini-pool and heaved.

Whack! Whack! Whack!

A hundred gallons of Kandronal fluid slopped

I quickly struck the second Hork-Bajir in the
onto the floor. One solitary gray Yeerk floated
knees, in the stomach, in the head. He fell to the
away in the torrent. It knocked against the leg of
ground. A thud, then a clatter.

.1 side table and was swept toward the glass patio

26

27
doors. Just as it was about to smack into the

<Ahhhh!>
track at the base of the doors, I slid them open.

I grunted. Heaved.

The fluid drained quickly onto the deck outside.

I hoped Russ had homeowner's insurance.

There was a soft splat as the Yeerk dropped

Ka-plash! Bam!

over the edge.

I missed both Hork-Bajir, but made a bull's-

<The opposition has been crushed,> I said to
eye with the entertainment center.

the people who remained standing. I took a step

One of the Hork-Bajir began to laugh. At least
toward them and what was left of their confi-

I think that's what he was doing.

dence. They'd seen me take two Hork-Bajir out of

I backed up and hit the wall. They stomped
commission. They knew I could rip their arms
toward me, blades flying, beak-mouths open.

from their sockets.

Whoa. Seriously hazardous breath.

I took another step — and their expressions

I looked up. Down. Left, right. There had to
changed. They smiled with identical half-grins. It
be an escape route. Some domestic weapon I
didn't make sense. Not until I realized they
hadn't used!

weren't looking at me.

A Hork Bajir claw squeezed my neck and

SSSSEEEWW! SSSSEEEWW!

pushed me back.

Twin blades screamed toward my neck! Two

I gasped for air and tried punching for his
new Hork-Bajir!

stomach. Couldn't reach. My face scrunched up

I ducked but the sabers grazed my head. I hit
with pain, head started to swirl . . .

the floor. Scampered under the diningroom table.

<lt's been fun, boys,> I panted. <But now I

Both Hork-Bajir were right behind me. I shoved a
have to go home.>
chair in their path. One of them kicked it away.

They had exactly one second to think I was

I dove for an overstuffed armchair, gripped
crazy.

the legs, and threw it behind me to block them.

"Roooooaaaaarrrr!"

They fought with the cotton batting and foam

Gigantic paws, armed with claws that can gut
just long enough for me to leap over the de-
a salmon before you can say "lox," knocked their
stroyed couch and hoist it into the air! Turn it on
heads together.

them like a battering ram!

I don't even want to describe what Rachel

28

29

did next. Let's just say those particular Yeerks
wouldn't trouble anyone for a while.

<Nice of you to show,> I huffed, falling back
against the wall, blood smearing on the paint.

<Looks like I'm a little late,> Rachel an-
swered, turning her weak grizzly eyes on Dad.

D a d had never looked as terrified as he did
at that moment. He was really pale. Paper-white.

He was trembling.

Weeeeeeeooooo! Weeeeeeeeooooo!

Sirens screamed in the distance. They were
coming for us. I stepped forward. Dad cowered
like he expected me to kill him.

Marco, you idiot, you're a freakin' gorilla!

Speak to him, say something. Get him to trust
you.

<We're here to help you,> I said trying to dis-
guise my voice. <lt's okay.> Dad's eyes darted
from the ape to the bear, not nearly convinced.

<Great,> Rachel said privately. <Now what?

What are we supposed do with him?>

30

31

<He's seen way too much. Obviously, the
and slid the seat back all the way, which made
absolutely no difference. My head curled toward

Yeerks mean to make everyone involved in the Z-
the dash. A leg and an arm hung out the broken-
space research a Controller. Now that Dad's been
door side of the car.

saved by an Andalite bandit, there's no way out

Police car tires screeched around the corner at
for him.>
the intersection that had to be about five blocks

I paused, looking at the totaled living room.

back. Some of the police were free, but most were

What had I done? I was insane. This whole thing

Controllers. Why bet on which kind was coming?

was insane. <l think, maybe, it's time . . .>

Dad fumbled with the keys like an old man.

I waited for Rachel to answer. She was silent.

His breath came fast and shallow.

I took it as a sign that she agreed.

<Where are you going to go?> Rachel asked.

<One thing's for sure,> she said suddenly.

<How are we going to find you?>

<You SO have to get out of here!>

<l'll let you know as soon as I can,> I said.

I lurched forward, untied Dad, and grabbed

The engine choked to life. Rachel backed into
him around the waist. He tensed and fought,
the bushes.

hollered desperately.

Police streamed down the street.

<l_isten up!> I growled. <We're the good guys.

<DRIVE!> I bellowed. <MOVE!> Dad was too

We're all you've got.>
scared not to obey. We pulled out as the flashing

He kicked one more time, then settled. I
lights and white sedans shrieked to a halt at
dragged him out through the patio door, through

1366. I looked back through the door hole.

the ankle-deep Yeerk sludge. Rachel followed.

<Rachel?> I called into the darkness, not

We lumbered for Dad's parked car. I released him
sure if she could hear me. <Thanks.>
in front of the driver's door.

A van cruised past the squad cars and sped

<Get in!>
on toward us.

I ran to the passenger's side and grabbed the

<Come on! Let's move!>
door. Whoops! Too hard. It ripped almost com-

We crept along with a traumatized man at the
pletely off the hinges.

wheel. Dad turned onto the street that would

<What are you doing?!> Rachel snorted.

take us home.

I shrugged, jammed my body into the cab,

33

32

<No!> I yelled.

bad about grazing the Jeep Cherokee. And that

" B u t . . . my son," he gasped. "My wife."

Dodge And the Honda.

<South! Step on it!> I ordered. <You can't go

But we weren't losing the van!

I moved left one lane. Two lanes. Three lanes.

home.>

Four lanes.

I couldn't let him. Impossible. Too dangerous.

The van was still glued to our bumper!

Nora was probably already in Yeerk hands . . .

A sign. Exit 54 . . .

The van slammed us from behind. Whiplash

Scrrrrrreeeeeeekkk! I braked, tires burning
threw our heads back. I looked over my shoulder.

the pavement.

Two Hork-Bajir were in the cab. Another one

Swerved across four lanes of traffic, from the
hung out the sliding side door. Inside, I could
far-left lane to the exit ramp.

only guess. Six or seven or more.

Screeeeeeek! The Yeerks followed.

<Crap!>

Dad only gaped in terror.

<Take the wheel!> I ordered. He did.

<We're being followed. Come on! Get to the

I looked back. The Yeerks had turned too
sharply. They were tipping . . . tipping . . . skid-
highway!> But he was frozen up. I had to take
ding toward the concrete divider. . .

control.

Kaaachoomp! A terrific crash as we drove out

I grabbed the wheel. Stretched and punched
of sight.

my massive foot onto the gas, right on top of

There are bad drivers, and there are worse

Dad's shoe.

drivers.

Skreeeeeee!

The residential neighborhood was quiet, asleep.

We took off like a Formula One.

It was after midnight and the sky was star-

"Ahhhh!" Dad yelled. Either I'd smashed his
less. Eventually, we turned onto a two-lane back
foot or my driving was even worse than I thought.

road.

The Yeerks were stuck to our tail. I ran a red

"Who are you?" Dad said, pushing on the
light, swerved onto an exit ramp, merged into
brakes and pulling onto the shoulder. "What are
highway traffic.

you?"

Or tried to . . .

<Remember those bladed guys who were try-

Horns screamed obscenities. I did feel a little

34

35
ing to kill me? About two hundred of them are

He touched my hair, my face, my shoulders.

looking for us right now. If you don't keep driv-

Then he grabbed me. Hugged me. The tears on
ing . . .>
his cheek dripped onto my own.

The car stopped. Dad opened the door. Threw

"How?" he said again.

himself out and started to run.

"It's a long story, Dad. A really long story."

<No!> I yelled.

He tumbled into the drainage ditch, got up,
and took off across a field of tall grass.

I yanked myself out of the car and loped after
him. There was only one thing to do. But all I
could think about was the last person who'd been
in the know, the last person who'd discovered the

Animorphs' secret.

He'd ended up trapped as a rat. Forever. We'd
done it to him. We'd had to.

<Dad!> I called in thought-speak. In the
voice that was my own.

He froze. Turned. Looked back at me.

In the glow of the car headlights, I began to
demorph. To slowly transform from beast to boy
right before my father's eyes.

Dad stood still as a statue, eyes wide. As my
body took shape, I saw tears start to well in his
eyes.

"It's me," I said as soon as my human mouth
formed.

Dad gasped huskily. Stepped toward me
through the grass. "How? I don't understand."

36

I could hear Nora on the other end. Yelling,
worried, scared.

"I'm with Marco," Dad said. "Where? We're at
the . . . "

I cut the connection and grabbed the receiver
from Dad's ear. Slammed it down angrily.

He glared at me. "What was that?" he de-
manded.

For the first time since the brutality at Russ's
house, it felt like the father I knew was with me.

Real Dad. Thinking Dad. Authority-figure Dad.

For the first time since I'd demorphed, the look
in his eye was anything but distant.

"Why did you do that?"

We ordered burgers from an all-night diner

I started to walk back to the car. He followed.

on the outskirts of town. The place was too much

"I said, what was that about!"

of a dump for the Yeerks to check out. I hoped. I

I sat down on the passenger car seat. Dad got
made us eat in the car anyway, in a dark corner of
in his side and slammed the door. He had a door
the parking lot.

to slam.

I told Dad everything. Almost.

"You know exactly what it was about," I said

My story seemed to wash over him somehow.

calmly. "If you've been listening to me at all, you

He looked stunned, disbelieving. He shook his
know that by now the Yeerks have staked out
head as though everything I was telling him was,
our house, probably tapped our phone. I'd bet
well, just too much for the man.

they're sitting on our couch right now, waiting for

When I stopped talking, the first thing he said
you to walk in the door so they can —"

was that he had to call Nora.

"Stop," Dad said angrily. "Stop it. I've lis-

I let him walk across the gravel parking lot to
tened to you. I've heard every word. But you
the pay phone. Let him dial the numbers.

have to understand . . . I have no proof, no . . .

"Honey, it's me," he said. "Yeah, I'm okay."

how can I believe all these things you say? You

38

39
changed from a gorilla into my son. But I only

Again, I started the return trip to boy. Back to
think I saw that. I was terrified. I was tortured,
the form Dad knew as his son.

then kidnapped. Maybe my mind is making

"I have about twenty other animals I could
things up. Maybe this is a dream."

morph to," I said as the last feather disappeared.

Before he'd finished talking, I was on my way.

"Want to see my lobster?"

My skin hardened, then blackened, then

A cold sweat coursed in tiny rivulets down the
thinned like eggshell. Legs and arms shortened
side of my father's head. He didn't need to see
until there was nothing left to hold me up. I fell
any more.

forward onto the seat, shrinking and shrinking

I'd scared him, creeped him out. Made him
until the crumbs from the burger bun looked like
nervous and worried and concerned. He was han-
boulders, and then blindness cut my view.

dling it. For a guy whose reality had just been

Shloooooop!

completely rocked, he was handling it pretty

My waist reduced to millimeters, splicing me
well.

almost in half.

He looked out through the windshield and

"Oh, God!" Dad cried. "Oh, no!"

stared for a moment at a point far away. The sun

I was becoming an ant. But I wasn't going to
was just beginning to think about rising. It gave
wait for the ant's mind to surface. No.

our desolate patch of the world a preview. Dad

I began to demorph.

looked back at me.

I let Dad watch me and all the horror and

"I get it," he said slowly. "I get it. You've been weirdness of morphing. I let Dad sit there, alone
through hell."

and up close with his new reality, as I demorphed

"Through hell and back." I smiled. "A few
back to boy. And began to morph again.

times."

Feathers imprinted my skin in 2-D, then 3-D.

Dad smiled back.

They grew up and out as my body shrank and

"I'm going to take you to some friends of
my head deformed. My nose grew hard and
mine, Dad," I said. "You can hang out with them
sharp and hooked. My fingers, though smaller,
until we decide . . ."

grew stronger, became flesh-piercing talons. Eyes

"Whoa," Dad said quickly. "Are you nuts? I'm
sharpened to superhuman clarity.

going to the police."

40

41

"Dad, the Yeerks are the police. I can't let you

Dad's face went white. "You mean Eva?"

do that."

"I mean Mom."

He was shocked and confused again. "What

Dad bent forward. His head hit the steering
do you mean you can't let me? I'm your father. I
wheel. His hands pressed into his face.

tell you what to do."

"Oh, God," he said.

Not in this reality, Dad. Not in this world.

"She's alive."

"Dad, of course you're my father," I said,

"I didn't know . . ."

fighting an onslaught of emotion. And it would be

He rocked back against the seat. His head hit
so nice to have someone make decisions for me
the headrest. "If only I'd waited . . ." He covered again, I added silently. "I love you. I respect you.

his eyes, then uncovered them. Then he reached

But I've been fighting this war for a long time.

for the glove box, rifled through, and pulled out a

I've been on more missions, in more fights, and
pack of cigarettes and a lighter. He stuck one in
seen more terrible things than you can imagine.

his mouth and made it burn.

This is my fight. My war. Me and my friends, we

"Dad, what are you doing?" I said nicely. "You know what's going on. You don't."

stopped five years ago. Cut it out."

Dad frowned at me, then looked back at the

Dad looked at me and threw the cigarette out
rising sun.

the window.

"You've told me what's going on," he said

"I love Nora," he said. "I love her as much as quietly.

I loved your mother."

"Not everything. I left something out."

The words made my throat tighten. He didn't.

Dad chuckled sardonically. "Let me guess.

Couldn't. Nora was nice, but . . . she was a math

Visser Three's your father, your mother's an An-
teacher.

dalite, and I'm no relation at all."

My mother was everything.

"No," I said. No way around it. My fingers

But he loved Nora. Somehow, that was news
gripped the vinyl of the seat. "Mom's not an An-
to me.

dalite. And she didn't drown. She's the host to

Fatigue and light-headedness struck me like

Visser One. The Yeerk who started the invasion of
a steel beam. My head was spinning. The rising

Earth. Mom's been the visser's slave since before
sun seemed cruel and inappropriate.

she disappeared."

"I'm going to take you to some friends of

42

43

mine," I said quietly. "Drive us back toward the
city."

My mother was in the hands of the enemy. I
felt like I was the only one who cared.

Dad loved this other woman.

I wished I'd kept my mouth shut.

My universe, my dreams, were falling apart.

We got off the highway at an exit not far from
our house. But we weren't going home.

It was six A.M. Rush hour had already begun.

Who knew people left their houses that early?

Rolling out of bed in time for school is torture
enough for me.

Dad's stubble made him look rough, but he
was holding on. Finding out about Mom had
done something funny to his face. It was stiff and
hard. Different.

"Turn here," I said. "It's the third house on
the right."

The houses in the subdivision were all new
and big and similar-looking, with two-car garages
at the end of every driveway.

44

45

"The one with the black Lab taking a leak on

Mr. King sat on the couch, watching the To-
the lawn?"

day show. Normal enough. Only thing was he

"Uh-huh."

didn't have clothes on. No skin, either. He was

We parked the car, walked up the path, and
relaxing au naturel, which for him meant loung-
rang the bell. I eyed the street as we waited. The
ing as an android. No human hologram.

van of Hork-Bajir was a vivid memory. I watched

When Mr. King realized Dad was about to lose
as a car pulled out of a garage across the street
it, his hologram shimmered instantly into place.

and drove away.

"The Chee, remember?" I said. "An ancient

I heard Erek coming to the door.

android race created by the Pemalites and hard-

"Dad, it's about to get weird."

wired for peace. I told you all about them."

"Please," Dad said calmly. "It can't get any

"Right," Dad said weakly. "I just thought you
were pulling my leg."

weirder."

"Erek," I said, "the Yeerks are after my dad.

"Dad, just a suggestion, but when you're deal-

With a little Yeerk information, Dad here went
ing with the Animorphs, never say it can't get any
and invented a Z-space transponder. Then he
weirder. It always does."

made them really mad when he broke away be-

Erek King—Erek the Chee — opened the
fore they could get a slug in his ear. Can you hide
door.

him here without violating your programming?

"Uh-oh," he said, looking from Dad to me.

And can you disappear his car right away?"

"Yeah, I know," I said.

"Does he?" Erek asked with alarm.

"No problem," Erek said. "Of course he can

I nodded. Erek grabbed our arms and pulled
stay. Does he like dogs?"

us inside. The door slammed and bolted behind

Dad glanced at me. We had roughly the same
us. We stood in Mr. King's living room, the fa-
feelings for Nora's dog, Euclid. Annoyance and
cade of normalcy that masked the expansive,
pity mixed with a very small, almost nonexistent,
amount of affection. But then, Nora's dog was
rambling, underground Chee dog park. Just feet
hardly what you'd call a real dog.

below where we stood.

"I love them," Dad said, faking a laugh.

Dad's eyes trained to the couch. Then his

"Erek," I said, "there's one other thing. Dad's mouth dropped open. He stumbled back against
missing. And that means that every aspiring sub-
the wall.

46

47
visser in the metro area is looking for a lead. I'm

"Right," Dad said, embarrassed. "So, you're
a lead. If I turn up missing, too . . . if they think
able to project holograms of me and Marco?

we've both disappeared . . ."

What about Nora? Someone has to look out for

"They'll go after your friends."

her."

"This do-do is pretty deep, isn't it?"

Erek and I exchanged glances. He knew as

"Yeah, but we'll handle it," Erek said. "Don't well as I that we were probably too late.

worry. We'll give the Yeerks just what they want to

"We'll do everything in our power," Erek said.

see: you and your dad, alive and well and seem-

"But you have to realize the Yeerks move fast.

ingly clueless." Before our eyes, Erek altered his

You should prepare for the worst."

programming to become an exact duplicate of

I looked at my father's pained, exhausted face

Dad.

and my stomach sank. I risked my life almost

"Did he, uh, morph me?" Dad said, stunned.

every day on all sorts of crazy missions, and yet

"No. Remember, Erek's an android. And

I'd chosen not to go back for Nora. Now she was
that's a hologram."

probably beyond help and it was my fault.

"Oh," Dad said, suddenly getting it. "Oh,

I decided Dad wasn't ready for the truth.

wow." The engineer in him had just kicked in.

"They won't touch her," I lied. "She's at

Technical curiosity brought him back to life. He
school most of the day. Everything will be fine."

reached out to touch Erek's hologram. His hand

Dad looked comforted.

went right through the "skin."

"Come with me," Erek said, replacing the

"Whoa!" he cried. "Unbelievable! Erek, you
hologram of Dad with the one I knew, a boy about
have to tell me about the rendering process. I

Jake's size. We headed for the stairs. I pulled
want to know everything." He pulled his hand

Erek aside.

out, then stuck it inside again, this time at waist

"You know the Yeerks may not waste time try-
level.

ing for another infestation with Dad. They'll most

Erek frowned like Dad was infringing on his
likely just try to kill him. What if they shoot you?"

dignity, but he was polite about it. "We'll talk

"I can resist low-power attack by Dracon
later," he said, gently removing Dad's hand from
beams."

his hologram guts.

"But what about full power?"

48

Erek shrugged. "It'll depend on the angle, the
dosed. He was falling asleep with the mutt still
duration, and blind luck. Marco, my program-
licking his face. Two doglike Chee approached.

ming only forbids me to use violence, even in the

One put a pillow under my father's head. The
best of causes. It doesn't forbid me to die."

other covered him with a blanket.

"Yeah, well, I do."

Erek smiled. "I think he'll be okay."

We followed Dad down the narrow stairs to
the basement. Then, just like I remembered, the
floor began to drop like an elevator. Five floors
down it stopped and the wall before us disap-
peared into a golden hallway of light.

Then we were in the vast, glowing chamber.

The grass underfoot extended for yards. Streams
cut across the grass and wildflowers dotted the
banks. Butterflies and bees inspected the flow-
ers, and squirrels scampered up and down the
various kinds of trees.

And throughout the entire park hundreds,
maybe even thousands, of happy, healthy dogs
ran and played, watched over by a handful of
muzzle-mouthed Chee in android form.

"These are the Chee," Erek explained to Dad.

"They'll be good to you while you stay."

Dad sank down on the grass, under a tree.

Two or three tail-wagging doggies ran up to greet
him. A mid-sized mutt started licking his face
and kept licking until Dad agreed to pet her.

"You'll take good care of him?" I said to Erek.

I glanced back at Dad and saw that his eyes were

50

51

what happened. One second I vowed to let the

Yeerks infest my father. The next second I was
battling a dozen Hork-Bajir."

<Rachel said there were four,> Ax said.

"Whatever."

"Do you have any idea what this means?"

Jake asked calmly.

"Of course." I looked at the others, then back
at Jake. "It means no more math tests." No one
smiled. I sat down on a block of hay and put my
head in my hands, a head vibrating from fatigue.

I just wanted to lie down.

"I know," I said. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay, Marco," Cassie said kindly. "No

I was the last to arrive at the barn. Rachel
one ever said it was easy for you. I know I
quickly looked away when I met her glance. So,
c o u l d n ' t . . . I couldn't sit by and watch the Yeerks
she'd already told the others.

take my parents."

Tobias glared at me with his intense hawk

"And you shouldn't," Rachel said fiercely.

eyes. The others weren't much more friendly.

"Cassie's right. Marco acted like a human be-

"Go ahead," I said, my voice not quite steady.

ing." She paused. "There's a first time for every-

"You can say it. I'm crazy. Stupid. IN-SANE!"

thing."

Silence. What could I expect? I'd shown Jake

<The action was imprudent,> Ax said, con-
that he was right not to trust me. I'd done just
cern in his alien face. <You acted alone and pub-
what he was afraid I would do.

licly^

I hadn't done the right thing.

<The Yeerks will track down everyone con-

I'd let emotions get in the way of reason.

nected to your dad,> Tobias echoed. <Starting

And I wasn't any happier about it than my
with you. Ending with the rest of us.>
friends were.

"I'm a step ahead of you, Bird-boy," I said

"There's no excuse," I said now, "but here's
wearily. "Erek and I have a plan for that."

52

53

"We can't go back in time. What's done is
to all Z-space transmissions? Isn't that right,
done," Jake said philosophically. "The point now

Ax?"

is that we know the Z-space device exists."

<Yes.>

"And we have to get it!" Rachel.

"So, it's not just a way to phone home,"

I shook my head. "Mission impossible. If the

Rachel argued. "It's a chance to intercept Yeerk Yeerks have made Controllers of everyone at the
transmissions."

lab, if they know we're going to try for the device,

I felt like an idiot for not having seen it be-
it's suicide. And for what?"

fore.

"If we get our hands on that thing, we have a

How often do you get a chance at interplane-
megaphone to the universe," Rachel replied. "An
tary surveillance? A chance to bug a Yeerk tele-
phone?

interplanetary cell phone."

< I . . . > Ax hesitated, began to pace, then

<l believe the device would require more than
spoke again. <This human-made device is, seem-
a single lithium-ion battery,> Ax said practically.

ingly at least, equal to or even superior. . .> I

"You know what I mean. I'm talking about
swear he was trying to stop himself from choking
communication with the forces that matter. Di-
on the words. <. . .superior to Yeerk technology.>
rect communication with the Andalite fleet."

"Look," I said. "Whatever this device is, how-

<Not if we're dead,> Tobias muttered.

ever complicated it is, it was built with man-

Rachel heaved a sigh. Cassie looked at her.

made components, right?"

"From the last reports we got," Cassie said,

Ax looked increasingly annoyed.

"Earth is not an Andalite priority. What good will

<lt took Andalites three millennia to breach
it do to contact a fleet that can't help us? Or
the confines of the home world with a simple
doesn't want to?"

combustion rocket. Our race matured greatly

"We're not sure how things stand," I coun-
before Z-space was discovered. We were ready
tered. "None of our information is firsthand."

for the challenges. We were prepared for zero-

Rachel stood up, aggravated by a lack of ini-
dimensional travel and communications
tiative.

"I know, Ax," I said. "Humans are absurd and

"What's the matter with you guys? Don't you
immature. But you're missing my point. If the
realize that a Z-space transponder means access

54

55

device was built with man-made components,
my dad should be able to re-create it."

This time, a definite choking sound.

"I mean, you should be able to re-create it.

Dad could help." The amended statement seemed
acceptable to Ax.

Jake nodded.

"Ax?"

<l will do it, Prince Jake.>

"Well, then," Jake said, "let's go for it. This is too important not to try."

Ax and I fell into a gentle dive over the
blocks of indistinguishable subdivision houses,
until bamm! We were right over Erek's.

A moment later we landed in the wildly thick
grass between the pool house and a row of
shrubs. For the first time it occurred to me that if
the Chee can't wage war on individuals, maybe
they're also prevented from harming the environ-
ment any more than is necessary to maintain
their cover. Lawn fertilizer as environmental in-
sult.

<This grass is delicious,> Ax said, demorph-
ing in the cover of trees and grinding a newly
formed hoof into the weeds. <Fresh and tasty.>

I might have made a witty comment, but my

56

57
mouth was exactly halfway between osprey beak

"Come on!" I ordered.

and fleshy human lips. An impediment to fluid

"ORR-EE-OHH . . ."

conversation.

Sometimes it's easy to forget the boy is a

Ax morphed to human and together we
warrior.

trudged through the grass to the back door.

Downstairs, we found Erek waiting for us near

"This is called a patio," Ax observed. "Paddy.

the entrance to Dog Park World.

Paddy-ohhhh."

"Where's my dad?" I asked, looking around a

"Uh-huh. And this is the patio door. Come
little nervously. In the back of my mind was the

I on."

fear that Dad would decide to leave and rescue

The kitchen was clean and bright. I walked

Nora. The Chee would be powerless to stop him.

through to the living room. Absolutely normal-

But Erek pointed to a tree in a far corner of
looking with a couch, chairs, knickknacks. A TV
the brilliantly glowing park.

playing on mute. A clip of the president talking

"He's right over here . . ."

to high school students.

Dad was reclining peacefully, several dogs

"That TV's been on for a year now," I said.

curled up at his side. When he saw me, he

I turned to head downstairs. Ax wasn't behind
mouthed "shhhh" and motioned to a sleeping
me.

puppy.

"Ax?"

He seemed relaxed. Almost too relaxed.

No answer. Just a crunching sound in the

Maybe he'd faced his new reality. Maybe he'd
kitchen.

simply blocked it out.

I backtracked. The refrigerator door was open.

"Listen, Dad," I whispered over the puppy.

I peered over the top.

"Me and my friends need your help. Your work on

The Chee are very hospitable. Milk and cook-
the Z-space transponder might be the most im-
ies were waiting for us in the fridge. Ax had de-
portant thing that's ever happened to us. It could
cided it was snack time.

change everything."

"Orr-ee-oohh!" he said, looking at me wide-

"I think I said those exact words yesterday,"

eyed. Brown crumbs and frosting covered his
he said wistfully.

chin.

"Could you build it again, Dad?"

58

59

The question seemed to shake him from his

Dad gawked in amazement.

dream world. He sat up abruptly and the dogs

"Catching flies?" I said.

scattered.

He closed his mouth and blinked a couple of

"But I'd need to be back in the lab," Dad
times. "I just can't believe it."

continued. "All my calculations . . . the equip-

I think all science types secretly believe in
ment and instruments, not to mention the com-
aliens. First Erek, then Ax. Dad had to be pleased.

ponents. It would be impossible without going

<How far have you progressed toward Z-space
back there."

penetration?> Ax asked.

"We cannot permit you to return to the lab,"

"Uh, well, we successfully detected the sub-

Ax stated flatly. "The Yeerks control it now. They
stellar background radiation with a working pro-
will be waiting for you. I am well versed in Z-
totype last month. The phase shift we measured
space field theory. I can help . . . I can help you
was in precise conformation with our theories.

build the device."

We are, I mean were, about to attempt a pulsed-

Dad looked at me quizzically, as if to say,
clump transmission."

"Who is this kid?" Ax looked like any ordinary,

That seemed to interest Ax. It seemed to give
slightly awkward junior high schooler. Maybe a
me a headache.

little better-looking than average. After all, he did

<That's the very simplest form of subspace
carry my DNA.

transmission, analogous to early human radio

"It's okay, Dad. Remember? You met Ax once
transmission using Morse code.>
a while back and you thought he was weird then,

"Exactly."

too. That's just because he's really an Andalite.

<lf the pulsed-clump transmission is suc-

Elfangor's younger brother. Show him, Ax."

cessful, full-spectrum communications will be a

Dad waved his hand. "No, no. It's all right. I
simple extension of the work.>
remember now. I've heard all about you. . . ."

"Learn how to crawl before you walk," I com-

But Ax was already morphing back to his true
mented to no one.

form. Stalk eyes sprang noisily from Ax's head.

"There's one very large obstacle," Dad said.

His mouth sealed into a smooth stretch of blue

"We'll never be able to acquire the necessary
skin. A glistening tail blade grew up over his
equipment and components. They're not the sort
head. An extra set of legs shot out of his rear.

of things you can pick up at Radio Shack."

60

61

<l like Radio Shack.>

"Sure," Dad said, "so do I. But they don't sell stellar coordinators. Maybe these Chee creatures
could help us."

<The Chee cannot participate or assist in the
transfer of technology that could enable war and
destructions Ax explained. <lt is written into
their programming.>

"Then there's no hope," Dad said, leaning
back against the tree.

"Dad, Dad, Dad. You underestimate your son.

Burglary— in the name of justice and freedom,
of course — is among the great variety of talents
the Animorphs possess. You want it, we can get
it."

I can't wait to get away from those luna-

Dad looked disturbed. "Marco, you can't
tics at the office." Dad stuffed a handful of
j u s t . . . "

underwear and shorts into the open suitcase

"Don't worry. We only take from Controller-run
on the bed. "I'm glad I had those sick days
corporations and we'll find a way to make every-
stored up. People get all crazy over some stupid
thing okay when the war's over."

piece of electronics that probably won't work

"But that doesn't make it right."

anyway."

"Dad, nothing is right anymore."

I was standing next to him, in his bedroom at

He was silent for a moment. Then he rose to
home, helping him pack. Dad took his camera
his feet and looked at us.

out of a drawer and tossed it in with the heap of

"Well, then, boys. Let's get busy."

clothes.

"So, Dad? When we get to Acapulco, can I
rent a Jet Ski?"

"They pollute and make noise," he answered

62

63

as he folded a screaming Hawaiian shirt, "And

The body evaporated in a cloud of smoke. A
they're dangerous. Do you want to be responsible
charred scuff on the floor was all that marked the
for affecting your environment in a negative way?"

spot where Dad had stood.

"No, I just want to fly through the water at

Then all four guns pointed at the boy. At me,
fifty miles per hour and jump a ten-foot wave."

Marco. I didn't even scream as my own body dis-

"We'll see," he said.

appeared in flames.

"Why can't we wait until Nora can get some

Because it wasn't really me. It wasn't my
time off? Why do we have to go away now?" I
dad, either, the guy the Yeerks now thought was
pressed.

dead.

"I told you already, Marco," he said, tossing a

The Yeerks left and I began to demorph. I
faded bathing suit into the bag. "Because I need
wanted to see the scene with my own eyes.

to get away from work for a while. It's obvious

Watching it all through the distorted prism
that idiotic device I've been working on is impor-
of cockroach vision, sensing and feeling it all
tant to somebody. God knows why! But I'm in
from under the molding by the closet, had not
danger because of it. Kidnapped and held pris-
been enough. My human body emerged from the
oner by some nutbags in costumes? I don't need
insect.

that kind of stress. Let someone else finish the

"All clear," I said quickly. The curtains were
project."

still drawn closed. "Are you guys okay?" The holo-

That was the last thing I heard my father say.

gram of Erek shimmered and disappeared. He

There was a terrific bang. The bedroom door
was lying on the floor by the bed. Scorched and
burst off its hinges and four human-Controllers
smoking.

dressed as cops rushed into the room.

But it was Mr. King I was really worried about,

Dad froze and look puzzled.

the Chee who had played the part of my dad.

And then four separate Dracon beams con-

He'd been reduced to a clump of patchy holo-
verged on the figure of one solitary human. For
graphic images. Beneath and between the weak
a fraction of a second I saw clothes, skin, hair,
projections of human body parts, I could see dam-
all of it vaporize, leaving a blackened carcass
aged circuitry. The elaborate mechanical frame
haloed in blinding light.

was now nearly skeletal.

64

"His projection capacity has been severely
kind you get when you smell rotten milk. The
damaged," Erek observed, coming closer.

kind you get when you want to cry, but the tears

"Can you fix it?" I said anxiously.

just won't come.

"I hope so. But I have to get him home first.

Nora had been a nice lady. Could I have saved

His structural matrix is in obvious jeopardy."

her? Could anyone have saved her?

"What about yours?"

The Yeerks must have taken her away in the

"My systems are ninety-nine percent intact,"

night, as Dad was begging me to let him return
he said easily. "Were the projections convincing?

home to get her.

The program to simulate the destruction of you

I'd known she was in danger and I'd done
and your father?"

nothing.

"Awesome," I said. "The Yeerks won't be look-

That was wrong. What was worse is that a part
ing for us anymore. I told Jake I'd do whatever it
of me had wanted her out of our lives.

took to get them off our trail."

My stomach squeezed tighter.

Erek helped Mr. King to his feet. I peered out

No. I hadn't wanted it to happen. No.

the window through the slit in the drapes. A po-

I thought about my father. Can a person take
lice car was parked out front. The four Yeerk exe-
that kind of loss twice in a lifetime? The "death"

cutioners stood casually on the sidewalk, talking
of the person they love most? The one they eat
to Nora.

breakfast with each day? The one they sleep next

They knew her. She knew them.

to each night?

A new aggressiveness controlled her move-

No. It would break him, the way losing Mom
ments.

had.

It didn't take a math prodigy to figure out

"Come on," Erek said.

what that meant.

Nora pulled out of our driveway, following the

Nora had been taken.

Controller cops in her own car.

The Controllers climbed back in the squad

Erek and a barely concealed Mr. King, his an-
car and drove away with the lights flashing
droid form breaking out all over, hobbled out of
silently.

the bedroom and down the stairs.

I got a sick feeling in my stomach. Not the

"Can I help?"

66

67

Erek laughed.

I took two steps toward the cork board, then

"Can you bench-press five hundred pounds?

stopped.

He's mostly dead weight."

No.

"Oh," I said dejectedly. "Okay. I'll get the

I had my memories.

door. How will you two make it home?"

They would have to be enough.

"I'll project a hologram around us, an image
of something slow-moving. I do a pretty good
garbage truck."

The two Chee stumbled onto the back deck. I
glanced back into the family room.

My eye caught a photo tacked to the cork
board over my father's worktable. It was a snap-
shot of me and Dad, taken by Mom on a sun-
drenched day several years ago.

Suddenly, reality hit.

I was dead. And this was the end . . . of
school, of dates, of video games. Of everything
normal.

The kid in that photo had prepared his last
frozen pizza dinner. Had gone to his last math
class. Had seen his last movie at the Cineplex.

That kid would never even hang out in his
own backyard again. Because this wasn't his
home anymore. He had no home.

He'd made the necessary sacrifice.

I could take the photo with me. It was small
enough to fit in the beak of the osprey I would
morph to fly away.

68

69

'IS

win's ship and Henry Ford's production chief. I
mean, that's very cool stuff. Fascinating stuff.

But honestly, without HBO, life gets a little
scary.

"Kino ala ozo nev . . . nev . . . never catch
them unless we know they're coming . . . nem
zurka kakis loti."

"Ax! Hey, for a second there, that was En-
glish. You did it."

<No,> Ax said quickly. <l am unable to stabi-
lize the programming of the translator chip.>

He glanced at my dad.

"Could you couple it with this?" Dad lifted a
blue wire, then pointed to a green, circular com-

Akka upe ozo oti. Scute! Muta pule."

ponent.

Ax looked at me hopefully.

<That would take time,> Ax said. <l should

<ls the translator chip working yet?>
just interpret. Or attempt to summarize.>

"Uh, no. Not unless muta pule means some-

Ax had been sifting interplanetary chatter for
thing to you. Let's see . . . nope. Nothing."

hours. And for hours we'd been gathered with

Ax's eyes drooped and he turned back to the
him, all of us, in Ax's scoop. We'd come for the
contraption they had been working on for the
unveiling of the Z-space transponder. Dad hadn't
past few days.

mentioned it was still under construction.

Few long days, I would add. You should try

"So, it doesn't even translate?" Rachel said
spending your nights under a tree at Chee Park
impatiently. "What does it do?"

with a dog for a pillow.

Ax stopped working and looked at us with his

The Chee tell some great stories about the
main eyes. He put a delicate hand on either side
last ten centuries. Kings, conquerors, explorers,
of the device. It was fairly small. Mini-cooler
that kind of thing. Mr. King was the cook on Dar-
size.

70

71

But it was clear from the way Ax held it that it
tentatively. <My knowledge of Yeerk culture is
meant more to him than an icebox. He cradled it
not great. I do not fully understand the nuances
like a newborn baby. Wires dangled like legs. In-
of Yeerk communications
comprehensible cosmic chatter streamed softly

<Don't worry, Ax-man.> Tobias, from a perch
from its earpiece.

in a nearby tree. <What do you think they've

<The transmission capacity is not yet en-
been saying?>
abled. Neither is the translator. But this device

<But I would be speculating. Guessing,> Ax
can monitor unscrambled Yeerk communica-
protested.

tions, which I have been doing for some time

"Go for it," Rachel ordered. "Live danger-
now.>
ously. If you don't, I'm leaving."

"Ax, you're amazing," Cassie said.

<There is one thing,> Ax began. <One very

Ax looked at Dad and flashed one of his eye-
disturbing conclusion that I can draw, though
smiles.

with limited certainty.> Ax looked at me. <Visser

<At times you humans truly scare me,> he

One has returned to Earth. But for a grim pur-
muttered softly. <A mere four decades from first
pose. She is being held at the Yeerk pool. She is
orbital spaceflight to the discovery of Zero-space
to be executed as a traitor.>
communication?> He stamped the dirt with a

I felt my body stiffen, my heart stop.

hoof for emphasis. <We Andalites may wish we

"Marco, Eva is Visser One," Dad said, his
had left you to the Yeerks.>
voice quaking.

"So far you Andalites have left us to the

I nodded.

Yeerks," Rachel pointed out dryly.

<From what I understand^ Ax continued,

Ax could have countered the insult. But I

<death as a traitor means death by Kandrona
think he was still torn between the pride of
starvation. The event awaits only the necessary
creation and the humiliation of learning that hu-
witness from the Council of Thirteen, who will ar-
mans— that my father — had, in one huge in-
rive in two days. Visser Three will then be ele-
tuitive leap, created a device that was in some
vated to the post of Visser One. And,> Ax added,
ways superior to Andalite technology.

<there are rumors — nothing concrete, but sug-

"Ax, what've you heard?" Jake said.

gestions — that the execution of Visser One is

<lt is very difficult to piece together,> Ax said
part of an overall change affecting Earth.>

72

73

I knew what that meant. We all did. Visser
innocent. And persuasive. "If Ax can't be sure

One, originator of the Yeerk invasion of Earth, fa-
what the Yeerks are planning, there's only one
vored a slow infiltration of Earth, a quiet, stealthy
person who would be."

assault.

She was taking me off the hook. She was giv

But Visser Three, a jumped-up egomaniac,
ing me the chance I couldn't ask for.

has pushed for all-out conquest from the begin-

Every muscle in my face tensed until it hurt.

ning. His dearest dream is to annihilate human

I would not cry. I just wouldn't again forget that,
power centers in an Independence Day-style war.

in some ways, Cassie is the bravest and the

To drive large numbers of humans into infesta-
smartest of my friends.

tion camps. To do it quickly and publicly.

Still, I waited for someone else to speak. The

If he gets his way, the Animorphs won't mat-
image of my mother on death row, Yeerk prisoner,
ter. Everything will be lost. Millions will die. Hu-

Yeerk victim, battered and beaten, bruised and
man culture will be pulverized.

broken, blazed in my mind's eye.

<Of course, this is only speculation,> Ax reit-

"Visser One," Jake said.

erated.

I laughed bitterly. "Ax, your speculations are
like computer computations. This is more than a
good guess."

"It can't happen," Jake said, his voice hard.

"We can't let Visser Three get promoted. If Yeerk
forces change their tactics — if they decide to go
public — it will be the end."

What could I say? I'd just risked everything —
every one of us — to pull my father out of trou-
ble. I couldn't argue now for a mission to save
my mother. The situation was different, far more
dangerous.

It meant a trip to the Yeerk pool.

And then Cassie's voice, sounding clear and

74

75

"Is that painful?" Dad said anxiously. "Would
she survive?"

"It's living hell," Jake answered. "But it
would be more fun than anything she's been
through so far."

Rachel glanced at Dad, then at me. "Where
will your mom and dad go?" she said. "They'll
have to leave the country. Get as far from here as
they can."

"I can't do that," Dad protested. "I won't
leave Nora."

"You don't have a choice," Rachel said coldly.

Another twinge of guilt struck me like a fa-
cial tic. Nora was probably the one Dad wanted
i. had to say something. Had to let them
to save. He could have left the country with her,
know I hadn't lost sight of the realities of this
his wife . . . been fugitives with the woman he
war.

loved . . .

"So what if Visser One is our best shot at find-

<l know a nice place,> Tobias said. <Good
ing out what Visser Three has planned? We risk
climate, no tourists, low prices. Friendly locals.

our butts for her?"

They're a little on the slow side, but they can tell

Jake looked at me with eyes that said, "Give
a great story. >
me a break. You know you want to save her."

"The free Hork-Bajir colony," Cassie cried.

"Listen!" I continued, more forcefully. "If we

"We'll send them to the Hork-Bajir!"

can rescue her — and that's a big if — she'll still

It was the perfect solution to the problem of
have the Yeerk in her head. Why would it cooper-
safety for my parents. Dad aimed a look of re-
ate with us? Why would it tell us anything?"

sentment at a far-off tree. An alien race of para-

"It won't," Jake answered simply, sinking my
sites had played god with his freedom. A bunch
counterargument. "But we can starve it out."

of kids had co-opted his free will. His life had

76

77
been totally taken over. He understood his new
his main eyes. He tuned a big knob on the Z-
reality, but he didn't like it.

space transponder, then another, littler one. He

Did I? My mind flooded with sun-washed
removed the earpiece from his ear.

scenes of peace and harmony. Mom climbing a

<l have heard enough Z-space communica-
tree next to Toby. Dad teaching English in a
tion to know that the Yeerks have recently added
flower-filled meadow. They could act as advisors
a major tunnel to the pool.>
for the Hork-Bajir. They could be unofficial gov-

<Where?> Jake said.

ernors of the valley. . . .

<Unclear. But it connects to a new under-

What was I thinking?

ground facility for docking and repairing Bug

"Great idea," I said with mock enthusiasm.

fighters. The tunnel also carries out a complex

"Except it assumes that we make it out of the
decontamination process equipped to kill any liv-

Yeerk pool death trap." I frowned. "Look, our
ing thing.>
odds for success might be pretty good in a world

"Ax," I said. "Last time I checked, we can't
where Rachel is short, fat, and ugly, and Tobias is
morph inanimate objects like chairs and tables.

a stork. But in this world? We've used up most of

And if we could, they wouldn't stand much of a
our nine lives, kids. The Yeerks have got to have
chance against a pack of Hork-Bajir."

beefed-up security forces to prevent Visser One's

"What about tiny animals?" Cassie sug-
escape. The odds are worse than slim."

gested. "Would a flea or a fly be less susceptible

"They're dim," Dad echoed. "And grim." I
to decontamination?"

glared at him. Okay, so maybe we try to rhyme

<No,> Ax said with certainty. <Yeerk deconta-
with each other's last word. But we do that when
mination is thorough and effectives
we're alone.

"Then why are you telling us this?" Rachel ex-

Dad smiled at the ground. A peace offering. I
ploded.

tried to finish my argument.

<A Bug fighter's shield is sufficiently strong

"What I'm trying to say is that we don't have a
to block decontamination^ Ax suggested gently.

plan. We don't even know how to get into the

Jake smiled, an engaged yet tentative grin.

pool anymore. Not since they closed the car

"I get it," he said. "All we have to do is steal a Bug fighter, find the new tunnel, fly through it,
wash."

<That's not true,> Ax said, glancing up with
land in the docking facility, evade security, make

78

79

it to the main pool, kidnap Visser One, drag her
back to the ship, and escape. It's all so simple."

Rachel looked happier now that there was the
promise of danger.

Cassie raised an eyebrow thoughtfully.

Tobias fluttered to ground level, giving me the
impression that he supported this madness.

"You'll have to lay a trap for the Yeerks," Dad
said suddenly. "If I've followed this debate cor-
rectly, you need a reaction large enough to bring
in a Bug fighter, but small enough to give you
some control."

I looked at him. My father never ceased to
amaze me. Neither did the resilience of the hu-

c
man spirit.

•an you hear me? Can you hear me? Is this

"Dad's catching on," I said approvingly. "We
the po-leese? I'm calling from the National For-
do need a trap and I've got me an idea."

est. I've got the darndest dang thing you ever did
see trapped up here. It's some kind of monster
with blades all over it."

Howls and groans echoed through the dark
hills.

My friends?

Maybe.

Or maybe not.

The voice on the other end of the cell phone
sounded like it was talking into a tin can.

It asked for clarification.

"Monster! Blades!" I cried. "I swear, I got me a real, live, outer-space alien!"

80

81

1S

Instantly, I was headquarters' number-one pri-

I cowered. Expertly.

ority. Where was I, they demanded? Who was I?

I was glad Dad was safe at the Hork-Bajir

I gave my location, then cut the connection.

colony. He had wanted a part in the mission.

Spastic laughter gripped my chest. This plan

He'd been outvoted.

was too insane! And I'd just set it in motion.

<They're coming in,> Rachel said. <They're

<Keep it down!> Jake roared from a shadow
going to land. Get ready!>
somewhere near.

I fingered the coil of cable clutched to my

I pulled a camouflaged hunting cap down
chest. The fighter hovered lower and slower.

over my head. This fashion statement was on

Through the small, eyelike windows at the front, I
loan from Jake's dad. It was supposed to shield
saw a Taxxon at the controls.

my face so the Yeerks in the Bug fighter wouldn't

Pshhhhhhh-shhhhh-thooomp!

recognize me as the boy gunned down the other

The craft landed. A heartbeat later, a hatch
day. The boy supposed to be dead.

slid open. Two Hork-Bajir jumped out, huge men-

"Let's hope this works," I whispered, fastening
acing shapes in the gloom of the forest.

the earflaps under my chin and looking toward

Then — a tiger streaked from the utter dark-
the sky.

ness of the trees into the small clearing.

A Bug fighter took exactly four minutes to

"Rrrrrroaaaaahhhhhh!"

swoop down from orbit. Its lights smeared a

WHAM!

bloodred line across the sky. I crouched behind

One Hork-Bajir, knocked off his feet.

a massive pine tree. When the fighter passed

WHUMP!

low and slow overhead, I suddenly wished I'd

A grizzly reared up and sideswiped the sec-
snagged the hunting jacket, too.

ond warrior.

Not the orange one.

Craack!

The plan was for the Yeerks to see a cowering

That was his head, meeting the hull of the
human — that would be me — attracted and re-
ship.

pulsed simultaneously by the sight of a strug-

"Gahh . . . " he said softly. "Lahh . . . " Victim gling Hork-Bajir, caught in some kind of leg trap.

two. Knocked silly.

Who was I to mess with the plan?

One more to go.

82

83

The Taxxon inside skittered hysterically from

<He can fend for himself. Maybe he makes it.

the controls to the hatch, and plunged onto the

Maybe he doesn't.>
forest floor!

"Right."

"Sneeet! Sneeyanyanahhhh!"

I wrangled two bladed Hork-Bajir arms into

Look out! I screamed silently. Jake made me
position and bound them together with cord. One
promise not to say a word. If the Yeerks thought a
of them groaned faintly, face in the dirt. Rachel
human was part of the attack, we'd be charred
silenced him with a flick of a great grizzly paw.

toast. All of us.

My heart was pounding wildly. But I managed

Yes! A wolf sprinted from the trees on the
to maneuver the legs and bind them. Then the
right. An Andalite streaked in from the left, a
hands and legs of the other one.

lightning line of blue.

<Come on,> Jake ordered, demorphing.

Ploosh! Ploosh!

Rachel climbed on board. Tobias flew in.

Cassie plowed into the Taxxon's rear half. Ax

I looked down at the Hork-Bajir I'd just tied
took the front.

up. To the touch, the skin was rough as bark. His

The Taxxon was thrust into the night sky. A
back heaved and fell. A sharp snort accompanied
wormy constellation spinning clockwise at hyper-
every intake of air.

speed.

I was going to the Yeerk pool.

"Skreeeeeeeeyaaaaa!"

And this breathing sawmill was going to be

Ka-blooooosh!

my costume.

He landed with a watery thud.

I ran toward the fighter. Tobias was already
demorphing, growing smaller and smaller in the
mantrap that held his Hork-Bajir leg. Once bird,
he could wriggle free.

<Tie them up,> Jake ordered. <Just tight
enough to keep them here till the free Hork-Bajir
can pick them up.>

"What about the Taxxon?" I said.

84

85

to dim the searchlights. He was having some
trouble. The cab lights went black, then red
again. The outer lights brightened before they
dimmed our RV-sized cockroach without legs.

Cockroach. The kind of thing that makes your
mom frantically beat the wall with the kitchen
broom and not want to eat for a whole day after-
ward.

A Bug fighter is not warm and fuzzy. It's not
the kind of vehicle into which you want to crawl.

The sudden sound of compressed air being
released . . .

"Ax?"

Whoooossshhhhhh!

" How cool is this? This has got to be a

"Aaaaaax!"

limited edition sport model. I mean, wow. The

My head was thrown back. My body slammed

Yeerks must only have made a few hundred of
against four other bodies on the cabin's back
these."

wall. A hawk screeched nervously as momentum

I walked to one of the tiny windows. Red spot-
plastered his bony body to the ceiling.

lights still crisscrossed the ground below, pulsing

<l have control of the ship,> Ax said loudly.

in deliberately slow cadence.

<Please remain calm. I think the cockpit was

<Actually,> Ax corrected, <this is the stan-
modified for a mutant Taxxon, a Taxxon with
dard model. Albeit the newest versions His
twice the normal number of appendages.>
multifingered hands worked frantically to keep

I took a deep breath. Nice luck. Hijack a ship
pace with controls made for the five hundred or
built for a mutant.

so little claws of a Taxxon. <This model has been

"Do you need help?" Jake asked.

produced by the thousands.>

"This is so stupid," I cursed under my breath.

I watched Ax in profile as he worked furiously

From where I sat, helplessly pressed against

86

87
the bulkhead, Ax looked totally confused. His

<No. A security measure. The Yeerks don't
weak fingers ran over every button like a de-
trust their own pilots.>
ranged pilot with a phantom checklist.

"Yeah, well, good for them. We need autopilot

"Uh, Ax-man," I said, "do you have even,
bad."

like, one little clue?"

The ship jolted. It began to ascend rapidly,

<l now have several. I will need several more
then pivot slowly. And suddenly, even though it
before I can pilot the craft effectively.>
was night outside, everything through the main

Tobias fell to the floor with a thud. We'd
windows appeared lit up bright as day. Yeerk
stopped accelerating. Now we hovered indeci-
night-vision technology.

sively.

I moved to the front of the ship to get a better

Ax flipped two switches over his head, then
view. Silly of me. If I'd waited a half-second
pressed a red button. There was the sound of a
longer, I wouldn't have had to walk.

fan. Warm air rushed out from under the seats

The ship pitched forward and angled down
that lined the sidewalls. Ax's stalk eyes swung
toward the earth. Before we could yell, the six of
around, puzzled.

us were trapped in a pile-on.

"Much better, Ax," Rachel said impatiently.

<You should always wear the safety restraints,>

"You have the makings of a great heating-and-

Ax scolded, struggling futilely to get four humans
cooling engineer."

and an angry bird off him.

"Maybe we should read the owner's manual?"

I pulled myself to my knees. Below us, through

Cassie.

the night-vision windows, was the ocean, crash-

<No. No, that will not be necessary,> Ax de-
ing whitecaps and heaving swells.

clared, newly confident. <l have an idea. Rather

"Ax, are you sure everything's okay?"

than search for the tunnel entrance based on

"We're pointed straight for the water!"

clues from Z-space chatter, why not let the Bug

<l . . . I . . .>
fighter guide us? All low-level Yeerk combat ships

" Yeeeeeooooooooowwwwwwwwww!"

are programmed to return to base automatically

The scream was unanimous.

if flight begins to seem, urn, e r r a t i o

"OhhhhhhhhMyyyyyyyyyGooooooodddd!!"

"A safety precaution?" Cassie asked.

I was down! We shot Earthward like a bullet. Ac-

88

89

celeration crushed my chest. Rachel's leg wedged
against my neck.

I could feel the skin of my face pulled back by
the force.

"Yaaaaahhhh!"

Taaaaaaaaaah!"

Seconds from plunging us into the watery
depths, the Bug fighter got a different idea.

It slowed, stopped, pivoted. And shot upward!

"Ahhhh! What's going on?"

Everyone but Ax and Tobias skittered and slid
across the floor, back against the bulkhead.

<Perhaps . . .> Ax said shakily. <Perhaps we
did not register sufficient velocity. If the ship in-
tends to follow an underwater course, sufficient
speed must be attained beforehand.>

"Underwater!"

<l believe so.>

"Won't that kill us?"

90

91

<At these velocities, death is always a possi-
any moment,> Ax said, inappropriately calm. <lt
bility.>
would be wise to fasten your safety restraints.>

Great. Killed by autopilot. Totally humiliating

Again, the ship slowed. You couldn't feel
death.

g-fofces anymore, but the earth below stopped

Then — the image of my mother popped into
receding. It was like we'd reached the end of
my head, as I'd seen her in the Yeerk pool, at the
some massive, invisible rubber band.

trial. Bones broken and body bloody. She'd asked

I'd shot off too many rubber bands during
for more of the Yeerks' cruelty. Begged me to let
math class not to know what would come next.

Visser One continue to control her. Because she

Was I distressed?

knew it might give Earth a better chance for sur-

Yes. Oh yes, I was.

vival.

Fwooop!

If she could take that kind of torture, I could

The ship tilted into a dive and without a sec-
deal with being at the mercy of autopilot.

ond's hesitation —

I glanced out one of the windows. Ocean and

"Aaaaaahhhh!"

forest and city lights were dropping away, like a

<Aaaaahhhh!>
high-speed pan-out from a satellite camera. For

Raced toward Earth. Faster. Faster!

just an instant, I could make out the dots of

We punched through the clouds, a millisec-
lights that were the city. The stadium, the busi-
ond of fog.

ness district, the 'burbs, and the boonies.

Then, the sparkle of the city. The curved

Whooosh!

coastline.

Then we pulled away so fast, all light con-

And the ship diving straight at the water!

verged into one bright dot, one speck of city.

A plain of blue and silver filled the cockpit

More dots came into view, until I could see hun-
windows. Growing clearer and sharper every sec-
dreds of beacons of blazing white light. For a
ond!

second, I thought they were stars. Then I realized

Shimmering waves . . .

that each one was a city. We were almost in outer

Someone screamed again. And at that mo-
space!

ment I saw death.

Cassie gasped. It was unbelievable.

We've dived from planes, demorphed in mid-

<We should reach the apex of our trajectory at
air, dodged Dracon beams, done all these things

92

93
and more at lightning-fast speed. But nothing,
sive obstruction. Jagged, angular, covered over
nothing compared to this.

with sea life and yet, a familiar sight.

Just a fraction of a second to know, not even

<lt's a ship.> Tobias.

to articulate, okay, you're about to die.

Yeah, like what you see on a cable show. Lost

Rushing toward a blue wall of death at a mil-

Ships of the Sea: Terror, Treasure, and Discovery.

lion miles an hour!

"Go Hork-Bajir," Jake ordered. "Now. We may

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

not have much time."

<Ahhhhhh!>

We morphed. Six panting, muscular, seven-

Six screaming voices. A weird whooshing in
foot-tall, blade-wielding bodies made the Bug
my head.

fighter a tight fit. But it was the morph for the job

And then I opened my eyes.

and I knew what to expect. Good eyes. Slow

Schools of fish streaked through the Bug
mind, a little apprehensive. Powerful body. Just
fighter's red lights.

one of hundreds, maybe thousands of slaves to

I was alive. And we were under the water. The
the Yeerks.

ship had become a submarine! Autopilot banked

No one would notice us. No one would know
and steered some secret course known only to
we were not Controllers. I hoped.

the enemy.

The ship banked automatically, just missing

I looked at the others. Rachel held Tobias's
the side of the seafaring relic. We began to circle
hawk body loosely but protectively. Ax stood on
slowly above it.

wobbly legs. Jake and Cassie were clutching

The hull was gigantic, tipped on its side
hands. No one said a word.

against the ocean floor. Large sections were bro-

We dove deeper, into darker ocean depths.

ken off, plates of riveted steel scattered all

Leveled out along the ocean bottom, skimmed
around. A turret and three heavy guns protruded
across a topography more bizarre than anything
from the deck.

on the face of the planet. A cavern disappeared

<World War Two,> Jake murmured. <lt's a
beneath us. A mountain jutted into blackness
battleship.>
overhead. A bright yellow sea creature fled in our

The Bug fighter circled once more, then set a
wake.

course for the center of the sunken ship.

And suddenly, our lights illuminated a mas-

<Here we go again,> I yelled, throwing up my

94

95
bladed arms in disbelief. <Don't tell me we can
flooded cavern. Service hangars lined the walls
fly through steel.>
of the dome-shaped space, as big as the main

We shot toward the hull. I decided not to

Yeerk pool. The floor was alive with Taxxon and
close my eyes this time. What would be the

Hork-Bajir crewmen streaming to and from docked
point?

fighters. Human-Controller maintenance workers

<The Z-space chatter,> Ax said suddenly.

buzzed from ship to ship in one-person pods.

<There was the mention of a human ship. This is

A Blade ship was being serviced in what
the entrance to the tunnel!>
looked like a private hangar.

Just as we were about to crash, the ship frac-

Our Bug fighter zoomed purposefully along a
tured. Just opened like a hinged box, revealing a
line of docked Bug fighters until it came to an
long slit through the superstructure.

empty stall.

Dead fish and other sea creatures poured out

We descended slowly and landed with a slight
from the battleship opening, swarming our win-
jolt.

dows.

<We have docked,> Ax said unnecessarily.

<lntense radiation screens,> Ax explained.

Jake stood up. <Let's go, guys.>

<They are not uncommon as protective devices
for Yeerk battle stations. Living things are de-
stroyed instantly.>

I swallowed hard.

We passed through the slit with inches to
spare and were swallowed into featureless black-
ness.

The ship dove swiftly under the seafloor,
through an underwater tube to the center of the
earth.

Gradually, the walls of the tunnel changed
from water to soil. From rock to concrete.

And suddenly, our Bug fighter and its Hork-

Bajir crewmen pulled into an enormous, light-

96

97

Other Bug fighter crews marched across the
mammoth room. We mimicked them by forming
three rows of two and striding along until we
neared a security checkpoint.

Two Dracon-slinging Hork-Bajir heavies looked
us over carelessly. The third one, a thinner,
savvier-looking guy, raised a bladed arm for us to
halt.

If I'd been a normal kid, without the superhu-
man bravery of an Animorph, my heart probably
would have stopped. It wasn't just the three se-
curity guards. I mean, the six of us could take
them. It was the other hundred or so Hork-Bajir
milling around. The complex was alive!

Six Hork-Bajir backed down the debarkation

The thin security guard slid off his stool,
ladder and stepped onto a hard concrete floor.

walked up to Ax, looked him up and down. Then

I, for one, was doing my best to look ex-
he backed away and snorted to the others.

tremely mean.

"Grrraffshhh Grrrrufssshhhht!"

<AII these fighters,> Cassie said in private

Finally, he waved us on.

thought-speak. <The Yeerks have an amazing

<No, you have a nice day, sir,> I said softly.

force !>

Nobody laughed. <Look, we might be in a Yeerk

Yeah, the power assembled here was more
fortress, but life's about experience, right? This
than any of us had expected. Dozens of Bug
is experiences
fighters. A Blade ship. And these were just the

<Shut. Up,> Rachel said.

ones in for servicing.

<Okay.>

If the all-out invasion came, it wasn't going to

We followed other crews to a long corridor at
be pretty.

the edge of the cavern in which we'd parked the

<Stay calm, everybody,> Jake said. <Pretend
ship. There was a moving walkway, like the con-
you know where you're going. And look tough.>
veyer belts for people at the airport. In lanes on

98

99
either side of us, transport vehicles raced in both

The Yeerk in my mother's head was desper-
directions.

ate. Surrounded by Kandrona she couldn't have,

<We're definitely headed for the pool,> Tobias
starving in the midst of plenty.

observed.

A sick, retching feeling twisted my stomach.

<We'll have to split up to find Visser One,>

<Mom!> I yelled in private thought-speak.

Jake said. <The place is huge and we probably

Her jabbering stopped abruptly. She'd heard
don't have much time.>
my thought-speak. My mother was still alive

A few moments later we emerged from the
enough to know my voice!

connecting tunnel into the cavernous Yeerk pool

<Mom!> I yelled again. This time, she didn't
complex we'd come to know and love.

respond. Or couldn't. Visser One reasserted con-

And there, in the center of the sloshing pool
trol, roaring and wailing, spitting at her tormen-
itself, tied to a stake in the middle of the infesta-
tors. Pulling at wrists and ankles bound tight and
tion pier, was Visser One.

black with bruising. I had to look away.

My mother.

A bladed claw pressed gently against my

<That was easy,> Cassie said.

back. It was Jake.

Visser One — my mother — was roped and

<l know this is tough,> he said. <But we have
chained. If there was a part of her body that
to do it right.>
wasn't bruised or bleeding, I couldn't see it. It

<Visser One knows who we are,> I said
hurt just to look at her.

quickly. <ln the state she's in, starved out of her

I wanted to run to her, cut her free. But
mind, she could say anything.>
didn't. It would have been suicide for all of us.

<Would anyone listen to her?> Cassie said.

Controllers jeered and yelled at her from the

<Would anyone even understand?>
side of the pool. She was no longer their visser.

<She will not talk,> Ax said.

She was a traitor, a loser.

<What makes you so sure?> Tobias said.

Torture, humiliation, death. The Yeerks had

<She has nothing to gain by telling them. She
made the execution a public event.

will die anyway.>

And obviously, the starvation was well under-

<True,> Tobias said thoughtfully. <But you
way. The visser thrashed madly and screamed in-
could also argue that she has nothing to lose by
comprehensible words at the crowd.

telling them. I know what it's like. I know what it

100

101
does to you. If she thinks it might save her, she'll

And then, as we approached the maintenance
talk.>
dome, a security force assembled.

<How can we get her out of here?> Rachel

<Please let them be there to question these
said practically. <We can't just pick her up and

Taxxons,> Tobias said.

carry her all the way back to the ship.>

"Sttoooopflesshh!" the lead security agent

<Right,> I said, struggling to focus, to plan.

commanded.

<We wouldn't get two feet without being slaugh-

Jake stopped.

tered. We are seriously outnumbered.>

<Keep walkings he told us. <l'll handle this.>

<Okay, so the subtle rescue-and-escape plan

"Your fighter is overdue. Explain!"

is not happening,>Cassie said. <What . . . >

"Yes," Jake said, articulating human language

<Back to the ship,> Ja ke commanded. <Now.>
sounds as clearly as a Hork-Bajir beak would al-

<And leave Visser One?> Cassie cried, indig-
low. "We were cruishh . . . cruising over the for-
nant. <We've made it this far. We can't give up.>
est when our right thruster stopped working. I

<No one said anything about giving up,> Jake
had to land. My orders were to have the fighter
said.

maintenanced here."

He turned his fierce Hork-Bajir eyes toward

<Stay cool, everybody,> he added privately.

the entrance to the connecting walkway. Scruti-

"That's a lie," cried the thin Hork-Bajir from
nized the channel through which we'd arrived at
before, shoving Jake into his men. "There was a
the Yeerk pool.

full system check. Nothing is wrong with your

Ax was the first one to understand.

ship. Gufleccccssshhhh!"

<l am an excellent pilot,> Ax said. <But as

Hork-Bajir from neighboring hangars craned
you have witnessed, Yeerk ships are not as re-
their necks to see if there would be a struggle.

sponsive as Andalite craft. I do not think such

<0n second thought,> Jake directed, every-
tight confines are maneuverable>
body, run!>

<We're going to fly her out?> Rachel said.

<Got a better plan?> Jake was already moving
toward the walkway, back to the ship. We fol-
lowed, walking quickly. Stepped onto the con-
veyer belt with a group of Taxxon pilots.

102

103

<Relax,> Jake called out to us, panting heav-
ily. <l'm okay. I'm crouched behind a service trol-
ley.>

He was out of sight, but that didn't mean se-
curity believed he was dead. All attention, all
guns, all Dracon beams swarmed toward the
smoky cloud where Jake had last been seen.

No one noticed the transformation that was
taking place behind other conveniently placed
pieces of equipment. A muscular blue Andalite
and a red-tailed hawk, growing and morphing
where two Hork-Bajir had stood seconds before.

Tobias flapped up, high and silent, into the bowl

J
of the dome.

ake raised his bladed elbows and sliced

Thwack . . . Thwack-Thwack-Thwack!

into the wall of Hork-Bajir trying to restrain him.

Ax!

Note to self: Do not attempt to contradict

"Aaghshs . . . " Four Dracon beams clattered

Yeerk security forces. It only leads to mayhem.

to the ground. Four warriors clutching fingerless

<Get to the fighter!> Jake screamed.

stumps let loose with desperate, confused cries.

He punched another Hork-Bajir out of his

Ax shot off like a bullet in Jake's direction.

way and raced down the long row of ships. Sud-

Cassie, Rachel, and I, still in our Hork-Bajir
denly —
morphs, grabbed the Dracon weapons off the

Tseeeeeew! Tseeeeeew!

floor.

The air around him exploded in a flash of Dra-

<Fire at Ax!> I yelled.

con fire!

It was our best chance, our only option for

<No!>
cover. As long as we shot at the Andalite, the

Jake disappeared in a cloud of glowing

Hork-Bajir wouldn't shoot at us. We ran after Ax.

smoke.

Missing every shot.

<Jake!> Cassie screamed.

<Get to the ship!>

104

105

Bug ship crews were running for their fight-

<AII systems are go,> Ax said from inside.

ers. We had no time!

<Autopilot is disabled. I have full controls

Words to live by: When you're running from

<Let's ride, Ax,> Jake ordered.

the enemy, don't look back. It never does any

<Wait! For! Me!> I bounded up the narrow
good. I turned around to see a stampede of angry,
maintenance ladder and into our ride.

armed Hork-Bajir pouring through the connect-

Ax was at the controls. Tobias was perched
ing tunnel.

like a figurehead inside.

Did I need to see that? Was that good for

<Let's cruise for some chicks,> I breathed, al-
morale? No. It was not.

ready starting to demorph. <l lost the girls.>

"Traitors!" I raged suddenly, waving my Dra-

We lifted off.

con beam toward a disorganized group of security

<Shields up,> Ax said.

Hork-Bajir. "Over there. Over there! Get them!"

Ka-Bammm! Dracon fire grazed our force-

"Guflesshhhkkl Defffantii!" cried the leader field bubble.

of the first wave. "Die, traitors!" Off they went.

Ax didn't wait for further orders. He knew

Security force against security force.

what to do.

Exactly what we needed. Civil war. Confusion.

We shot into the air. Dove down. Shot up

Yeerk against Yeerk.

again. I felt like I'd left my stomach in the main-

<Get your butts in the ship!> Jake roared.

tenance hangar.

<l'm inside. I'm waiting!>

I was human now, morph-capable. I'd had

Where were Rachel and Cassie? I'd lost them.

enough of the Hork-Bajir. I wanted something

I was alone.

hairy and familiar.

I ran.

<There!> Tobias yelled. <l see them! Behind

My long, hard claws scratched the cold, hard
that maintenance pod.>
floor. The Hork-Bajir heart pounded like a bass

We rose again. Then, dipped. Rose, dipped.

drum in my chest. Lungs burned. Sweat dripped

Bug-fighter frenzy: The carnival ride from hell.

into my eyes.

Ax moved in and opened the hatch.

Our ship's bug-eye windows glowed red, pow-

<Shields down,> he said.

ering up.

Cassie was crouched low, shielding her head

106

107

from Dracon fire. I reached out with a still-forming
gorilla hand. Grabbed hold. Pulled!

<Ahhh!>

Cassie was in.

Rachel tumbled through the hole after her.

<Shields up.>

Tseeew!

The maintenance vehicle exploded in a flash
of heat that sent us rocking.

<Ax,> Jake ordered, <get us out of here!>

I moved to a window. The red, bloodshot

"eyes" of Bug fighters everywhere were coming
to life.

One rose from its hangar, still tethered to the
maintenance tubes and tools that clung to its
hull.

It tried to accelerate.

Blaamm!

A white flash. An instant explosion.

<Do not attempt to fly a ship undergoing main-
tenance,> Ax counseled. <Something is bound to
go wrong.>

<Yeah, well, we're not doing so hot our-
selves,> I said.

Handheld Dracon fire battered our shields. Ax

108

109
pointed the ship at the connecting tunnel and

The gigantic Yeerk pool complex opened up
slammed on the gas.

before us.

Wee-oo-wee-oo!

<Nice work, Ax-man,> Jake said, breathing

A deafening alarm! Flashing lights seized the
hard. <Now, let's take their minds off Visser
controls. I looked at Ax.

One.>

<We do not have clearance. Too narrow.>

He aimed the Dracon cannon at a complex of

<Do something, Ax!> Jake cried.

outbuildings on the edge of the pool. Fired.

Ax did. He slowed the ship, turned our Dracon

Missed!

cannon on the rock of the connecting tunnel, and

<Let the master take over.>
fired. Solid rock began to burn and melt and dis-

I took the controls.

appear!

Tseeeew!

Tobias was monitoring the shields. <Shield

An outbuilding disappeared. Another erupted
strength is fading, Ax! Twenty-eight percent.

in flames.

Twenty-six!>

Tseeeew!

The stone blazed. Chunks of smoldering,

An unmanned earthmover vaporized. Control-
flaming cliff crashed onto the conveyor belt we'd
lers scattered in all directions. It was a Holly-
walked across minutes before.

wood summer weekend movie.

Ka-Bam! Bamm! Bam, bam, bam!

I ruled.

Dracon fire continued to rock us from below.

I turned the cannon on the pool.

<Ax! Can you fly us through, yes or no?>

My mother might have been delirious, but her

<Yes.>
eyes went wide at the sight of the training can-

<Whoa!>
non.

The ship banked forty-five degrees! And Ax

<Careful,> Rachel said.

took us into the flames. Scraping . . . bump-

I aimed at the edge. Not at the Yeerks, not at
ing .. . screeching through the exploding rock!

the Controllers. Just at the thick metal tank. The

We were like a bullet in a gun barrel.

symbol of enslavement.

<Ax, you're craaaaazy!> Cassie screamed.

Tseew!

Suddenly, light. Air.

A low-power burst made the tank wall melt.

110

111

<Hang on!> Jake called from above. <We'll

No major damage because I wasn't trying to de-
be back.>
stroy it. I was just trying to get everyone to run.

No choice. Ax had to pull away or be massa-

Hork-Bajir and humans fanned out in a des-
cred. The ship raised its shields and buzzed into
perate escape.

the air.

<Take us in,> Jake said to Ax. <Rachel,

<We're stranded,> Rachel said. <This isn't

Marco? You ready?>
how it was supposed to work out!>

I snorted. <lf we can't do it, no one can.>

Another Bug ship zoomed through the con-

<Let's do it!>
necting tunnel, swarmed the air over the pool. Ax

Ax hovered the ship above the Kandrona slop.

shot straight up to the top of the dome, the at-

The under-hatch opened.

tacking ship right behind.

<Shields down,> Ax said nervously.

Tseeew!

<Go!> Jake yelled. <Go!>

Dracon fire missed Ax as he pulled steeply

We jumped out. Gorilla feet and Hork-Bajir
back.

talons slammed onto the metal peninsula where

Tseeew!

my mother was tied up. The infestation pier is as

Jake shattered the shield of the enemy ship.

wide as a boardwalk, but it's as dangerous as a

I turned back to my mother, leaned low to
rope bridge strung across a canyon in the Andes.

protect her body from the fight. <Mom, it's me.

Rachel quickly sliced the cuffs that held my

It's Marco.>
mother to the pole. Chest. . . wrists . . . ankles.

Carefully, I lifted her into my arms. She was

My mother didn't seem to know we were there
silent for less than a second, then the screaming
to help. The screaming Yeerk in her head was too
started again.

far gone.

Tseeew! Tseew!

<Grab her,> Rachel growled. <The ship's

<Duck!> Rachel yelled. Stray fire Irom the
about to get hit!>
aerial fight was dislodging piece, <>l ro< i< Irom Tseeeew!

the ceiling! Small boulders rained lo t h i flooi

A Dracon bolt hit the ship over our heads! The
like deadly hail.

force rattled the pier and burned a scar into the

Ka-plash! Ka-plash-plash pl.ishl
side of our fighter!

112

Chunks splashed into the pool, feet from us,

No. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked at
covering us is a spray of goo.

me pleadingly.

<We're in trouble now,> Rachel said solemnly,

"Kill it," she whispered.

pointing to a fearsome-looking group of Hork-

What? I looked down on the pier.

Bajir marked with blue armbands on their bulg-

Visser One! The overgrown leech had escaped
ing biceps.

from my mother's ear and was trying to bail! It

<Who are those guys? They're . . . huge. Crap.

must have tried to drop into the Kandrona that

They're the most pumped Hork-Bajir I've ever
was food, that was life. . . .

seen!>

Trouble was, the timing of the jump had been

I threw my kicking, fighting mother over my
off. Visser One had hit the pier as we landed.

shoulder.

And now it was wriggling away.

<Let's get to the other pier!> I shouted.

<Then what?>

<Run like hell.>

The gap between the piers was at least five
feet. Maybe more. Rachel ran down our pier like
it was an airstrip. She lifted up . . . rocketed
through space . . .

The perfect long jump.

<Marco, come on!>

No choice. I taxied like a DC-3. The jump was
too long, too . . .

<Ahhhhh!>

We hurtled through the air above the churning

Yeerks.

And crashed onto the reinfestation pier.

Suddenly, my mother went totally limp.

Oh, God. Was she dead? Had I killed her?

114

115

Whooosh!

"Kill it!" My mother's voice rose louder now,
trembling with anger. Visser One was crawling,
shriveling up to half its size, then stretching for-
ward. Shrivel, stretch. Shrivel, stretch. A slow,
relentless rhythm toward the pier's edge.

I reached to grab it . . .

Bam!

<Ahhh!>

A claw-foot stabbed my leg! Another Hork-

Bajir had landed on the pier!

I dropped my mother in a heap.

"You will die, Andalite!" Another Blue Band
jabbed my back!

" • a m !

BAM!

A blue-banded Hork-Bajir slashed Rachel in

I whirled and punched him in the chest. <l
the face!

don't think so, freak.>

Bam! Bam, bam, bam!

I glanced down to where my mother lay mo-

She struck back, a kickboxing, blade-slashing
tionless, semiprotected between Rachel and me,
frenzy. The Hork-Bajir staggered, but stayed on
oblivious to the battle. Bruised and broken, she
his feet.

was barely able to lift her head.

"I am Grath," he growled, eyes yellow-orange

But still, she raged. "You won't get away,
infernos. "I am the leader of the elite Blue Band
filthy worm!"

Squadron. You will surrender or you will die."

Tseew! Tseewtseew!

<Surrender?> Rachel said to me, incredu-

<Ahhh!> Rachel cried. <l'm hit! Bad.>
lous. <He doesn't know me very well.>

Had to help Rachel!

"A Hork-Bajir's gonna die on this pier, Mr.

"Kill it!"

Grath," she snarled. "But it's not gonna be me."

Had to help Mom!

116

117

I clenched my fist, a gorilla wrecking ball. I

Ka-BLAAMMM!

brought it up, ready to slam it down on the slug.

The Bug fighter blew apart, showering us with

Tseeew!

fiery debris!

"AAAAaaarghhhh!"

Mounds of guts and severed limbs every-

Searing pain raced through my right leg!

where!

I dropped to the pier, clutching burns so

<No!>
painful I couldn't think. The smell of my own

Jake, Ax, Cassie, Tobias . . . gone!

burning hair and flesh filled my nostrils, sweet

All gone.

and sickening. . . .

<N ooooooooooo !>

<Marco!> Rachel.

Rachel!

"Kill it!" My mother.

I spun around, jumped over Mom. Smashed

Insane fighter combat in the air overhead!

into the two warriors that pinned Rachel to the

More rock raining down!

pier.

Bam!

The anger was overwhelming. The pain nau-'

The Blue Band slashed me on the face.

seating.

Okay. That was unnecessary.

Whoomf! Bam!

Rage drove me to my feet.

I slammed my pile-driver arms into the Hork-

Ka-bam!

Bajir chests. The bodies rolled, splashed . . .

"Galaaaah!"

<Come on! Let's move!> I shrieked.

I punched Blue Band off the pier.

My head was reeling. Rachel's left arm was a

Splash!

vein and a skin flap from falling off. My mother

He flailed, struggled in the muddy sea. . . .

was helpless. Two more bladed Blue Bands were

A Bug fighter buzzed my head. The wake of
clanging down the infestation pier, gaining speed
air pushed me down. The roar of engines filled
to make the jump . . .

my ears, a shrill, deafening whine.

Suddenly, the dome went eerily quiet.

Then, without warning —

The other Bug ship had disappeared. No roar

TSEEEEW!

of engines. No Dracon weapons firing. No battle.

A red flash over our heads.

A new sound . . .

118

119

The sound of laughter, mind-filling, evil
of the dome, an enormous silhouette engulfing
thought-speak laughter, flooding the pool com-
us in shadow.

plex.

<Meet the Bievilerd! > the visser roared. <A The Blue Bands froze in their tracks.

little something I picked up on the planet Ondar.

I looked across the pool. Visser Three stood

Its teeth will shred your flesh like paper.>
on the shore, his stolen Andalite head tilted

Rachel and I were silent. What could we say
back.

to that?

Then, he began to morph.

<You will die!> the visser cried. <And every-

The blue Andalite body turned black. Long,
one here will see me kill you!>
flat appendages sprouted from his neck and

<We have to move!> I yelled to Rachel.

back, then opened outward in both directions,

<l can't,> she said.

forming wings. Huge black wings!

<You have to!>

Growing fuller and wider till they joined in the

But I knew it was impossible. A river of blood
center. A continuous delta wing. A living stealth
gushed from her severed arm. She was losing
bomber.

consciousness.

A head grew in the middle. No, not a head . . .

Visser Three closed up his wings and dove for

A mouth! Wide and long and lined with a dart-
the pier, a missile with a mouth.

ing silver tongue that licked rows of shimmering

There was no escape. No escape!

teeth.

I tried to lift both Rachel and my mother.

Then eyes . . . orange globes big as softballs,

They shuddered and gasped with pain. My at-
flanking the mouth like hardened gobs of tomato
tempt was pathetic! My injuries made me too
sauce.

weak to do anything. . . .

<Haa, haa, haa,> he squawked. <Poor little

Suddenly —

Andalites. Abandoned on the pier. Abandoned to

Zzeeeeoowwwwww! A Bug ship zoomed out
die. . . .>
from behind a storage building!

The massive wings undulated only once, but

Tseeew!

it was enough to make the visser rise into the air.

A Dracon blast, right into the Bievilerds belly.

A second wing flap and he soared toward the top

"Rooooaaaaahhhhhhhhh!"

120

121

The visser shrieked. The fighter rocketed to-
ward us.

<Marco!> It was Jake's voice . . . Jake's
fighter!

<But I saw you crash!>

<No,> he said. <You saw the Yeerks crash.

Where's your faith in the Ax-man? Hang on, we're
coming in.>

Tseeew!

A second hole sizzled the Bievilercfs folded
wing. It crumpled, wilted, crashed . . .

<Andalite filth!> the visser screamed. <You
will pay. I will make you pay! Kill them!>

Tseew! Tseew!

Jake took out the two remaining Blue Bands
just before we were sliced in their mobile

Cuisinart-of-war.

<l'm losing it, Jake,> Rachel mumbled, still
fallen close by. <You have to get us out of here!>

I tried to lift my mother again, but this
time she resisted, summoning all her feeble
strength.

Dracon strafe sprayed the pier. . . .

122

123

"Die!" she wheezed, eyes fixed on a small

<lt can't be!> Tobias said.

gray spot an inch from the edge.

<Ax?>

Visser One!

We dropped. The engines died like we'd

<Mom, stop!>
pulled the plug.

She fell forward, arm extended, clutching . . .

Ka-PLASSSSH! We smashed into some-

"Die!"

thing . . . soft. . . something fluid.

The Bug ship flew in over the pool, block-

Glug-glug-glug!

ing us from Dracon fire, hovering low just feet

Ax's nimble fingers worked frantically on the
away.

controls. I moved to a window.

My mother's face was distorted. Real human

<We're in the POOL!> I cried.

tears ran from her cheeks. Rage, pain, joy . . .

Cassie coaxed Rachel through her demorph to

And then her hand squished the parasite.

repair near-fatal injuries. I had to do the same.

But the slug was still alive. . . .

<Prince Jake, I cannot regain takeoff velocity.

"No!"

The pool is like a bog. The more we move, the

I slammed my foot on the still-wriggling
more it sucks us under.>
worm. And it was clear. . .

We were slowly sinking into the heart of en-

. . . it was clear that Visser One's journey had
emy territory!

ended.

I slammed a human fist against the cabin

My mother, Eva, looked into my gorilla eyes
wall.

with an expression of sick satisfaction. In spite of

Saw that my mother's eyes were open. Saw
everything, it scared me.

that she was trying to speak but could produce

"Now we can go," she whispered.

nothing but a scratchy, phlegmy sigh.

Then she fainted in my arms.

"Mom, what is it?"

Ax lowered the shields. I jumped on board.

She looked up at Ax.

Jake and Cassie leaped out, lifted Rachel, and

"Send the Dracon beam supply into over-
set her inside. The operation took longer than it
load," she muttered.

should have. . . .

"What?" I said. "Ax, did you hear that? She

<The ship is hit!> Cassie yelled.

said to send the beam supply into overload."

124

125

Ax turned his stalk eyes.

directly into the pool. A cloud of smoke and

<That will explode the ship. It will destroy
steam billowed around us.

us.>

<What's going on?>

"Ax, listen to her!"

<Technically?> Ax answered. <Water mole-

<Does your mother wish to see us die?> Ax
cules are exploding. Simplistically? We are boil-
said privately.

ing Yeerks.>

"Ax, she's free now," I said. "She's free!"

Cassie turned away from the window. The

"It won't explode the ship," she went on, gag-
ship began to rise.

ging with the effort. "Not if you time it right.

Ax punched the power.

When the Dracon power supply reaches one hun-

In the background, Visser Three continued to
dred fifty-five percent of maximum, shunt it to
roar. <You will die, Andalites! I will kill you slowly
the engines, then fire the beams to bleed off any
and painfully! You are mine!>
overcharge."

We zoomed through the burned-out connect-

I looked at Ax. Ax looked at Jake. Jake looked
ing walkway. Blew through the docking area, the
at Cassie, who was looking at a now-human
repair facility, and into the tunnel. Yeerk fighters

Rachel.

were on our tail.

<lt makes sense — I guess,> Tobias said

I knelt next to my mother. Took her into my
from his perch near the controls.

arms as we erupted into the sea. Cradled her

<Then do it,> Jake said.

gently, securely.

<But . . .>

The Bug fighter punched through the ocean

<Do it.>
surface and into the night sky. Then up, up into

The screaming sound of beam overload
the atmosphere.

raged until even I thought the ship would ex-

Ax's voice came as a distant alarm.

plode.

<We are outnumbered, Prince Jake. Ships are

But my mother had been a Yeerk host for a
dropping from orbit to attack.>
long time. She'd learned a few things. She knew

<No choice,> Jake answered. <Ditch the ship.>
what she was doing.

Immediately, the ship turned, dove, plum-

The screaming stopped. Ax fired the beams
meted toward the National Forest.

126

127

We crash-landed and bailed seconds before

Bug fighters shot up the wreckage.

Not far from the place in the woods where
this adventure had begun. We were almost back
at our starting point.

Only this time, I had a prize.

Mom?"

"Yes, sweetheart?"

She put her hand on my shoulder and looked
into my eyes.

Her own eyes had healed up pretty well. The
scars on her face and arms, the broken bones, the
bruised tissue . . . Nature had done a good job.

First aid from the Chee hadn't hurt, either.

She looked just like she used to. Well, almost.

The change was nothing obvious. It was a sort
of tension, a vigilance in her face. It hadn't been
there when I was younger.

Because she hadn't been a slave before.

A golden sun warmed the sky. Fluffy, non-
threatening clouds dotted the blue.

128

129

A perfect day. But if it was a perfect day, why

Dad.

didn't I feel perfect? If this was my dream come

I didn't say anything. Neither did my mother.

true, why did I feel so wrong?

She just took off down the slope like a woman

We were footsteps from the valley of the Hork-
who hadn't seen her husband in months and

Bajir, the Promised Land for refugees. So why
months and months. . . .

did I feel uneasy?

It was a movie cliche. It was lovers reunited.

"Sweetheart, what is it?" Mom said again.

It was the dream I'd had ever since I knew my

"Nothing. Just that this valley is awesome.

mother was alive. Dad opened his arms and she

You're going to be safe. Free. And I'm glad, that's
tumbled into them.

all."

They embraced. They held each other for a

We crested the hill and the full effect of the
long, longtime.

valley spread out before us.

Everything I'd worked for was right before my

Standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon?

eyes.

Same kind of feeling.

So what was this heaviness pressing on my

Mom was visibly impressed.

heart?

"The Yeerks have no idea. They think they de-

The Hork-Bajir had prepared a feast. Bark
stroyed all this." She darkened suddenly. "And

Wellington. Bark Schnitzel. Bark chow mein.

they will yet. Visser Three will have force enough

Bark fume a la creme.

to launch his attack in just a few months. He'll

As I unpacked the supermarket cans I'd
burn cities from orbit, Marco. He'll enslave the
brought along, I assured the Hork-Bajir it's the
human race."

thought that counts.

She had been Visser One. Who was I to argue

I'd forgotten a can opener, but who needs one
with her predictions?

in the valley of the walking Swiss Army knives?

"Yeah, well, maybe not," I said bravely. Being

The sun began to set as we finished our din-
brave is my job.

ner. The Hork-Bajir lighted their campfires. Mom

A waving hand caught my eye. Down the
listened intently as Jara Hamee started one of his
slope, near a group of Hork-Bajir flashing blades
now-famous stories.

in welcome, was one smiling human.

Dad pulled me aside.

130

131

"Marco?" he said in a whisper. "Was there
any way to save Nora? Is there any way to save
her now?"

His words made me feel a little sick. But by
now, I knew that life, and love, were compli-
cated.

"You know that I love her —"

I nodded. Made the decision.

"Dad, what if Nora was a Controller all along?

What if the Yeerks put her in your path because
they knew you were involved in secret work?"

Pain knotted my father's face.

My conscience was heavy. Permanent dam
age had been done. My family was back together,
but not really.

The waves lapped at the sandy shore.

Not honestly.

<Three miles,> Tobias called down. <The

It was a desperate speculation, one that, I
closest humans are three miles down the beach.

hoped, would make it easier for my dad.

But I don't think they're going anywhere. They're,

It didn't make it any easier for me.

urn, pretty focused on each other.>

"What are you saying?"

Not that I could see the waves. It was night,

"You were set up by the enemy," I said. "You
with an unhelpful crescent moon.

can't blame yourself."

"This thing is really ready?" Jake asked, look-
ing down at the infamous Z-space transponder.

We'd let a little time pass. Not much. Just
enough to let Ax finish the device.

<Ready for transmission, Prince Jake. The
translator chip has been installed and enabled.>

Jake smiled. Gave me a not-so-inscrutable

132

133
look o f . . . a look that acknowledged our friend-

"Wait," Rachel interrupted. "Can't we encrypt
ship under fire.

the transmission? Like they do in the movies?"

Dad and I had been reported gunned down by

<lt will be encrypted, in four separate path-
unidentified intruders. The local police had no
ways,> Ax said with a hint of disdain. <But to
leads. No clues.

Yeerk cryptographic equipment, the disguise is

No surprise.

elementary.>

The investigation was underway. A lie that

"But there's a chance?" Cassie said hope-
made the neighbors feel better.

fully. "A chance they'll think the signal is coming

Nora was a casualty, one more Controller in
from one of their own ships?"

our midst. She still lived at the house, still

<A small chance,> Ax answered.

taught at my old school. Tobias spotted her one

"Let's do this," Jake said, rubbing his hands
night loitering around a known Yeerk pool en-
together.

trance.

"Let's hope the fleet is open twenty-four

Maybe . . . maybe someday I could save her.

hours," I said. "Ax, you've got the Andalites on

Chee Land wasn't so bad. That's where I
your speed dial, right?"

stayed now, mostly. They had TV. They had Oreos.

I shifted my feet anxiously in the sand.

When I needed a cable fix, I spent the night

Breathed deeply.

at Ax's scoop. It was too risky for me to be at

Ax typed a line or two of code on the abbrevi-

Cassie's or Rachel's or Jake's.

ated keypad. His fingers trembled slightly. This

And when we didn't have a mission, I went to
was a long-distance call.

the valley.

I glanced at the sky, into the sea of stars and

Always to the valley.

planets and alien worlds that lay beyond my view.

"Let me go over this one more time," I said.

"Look!" Cassie said, pointing to a small dome-

"Transmission may mean interception by the
shaped light on the side of the machine that

Yeerks, so we have to be careful what we say. And
glowed a regal blue.

we can't hang around when we're done. Ax takes

<We have a connections Ax said.

the machine with him so the Yeerks can't track

All four of his eyelids blinked rapidly. His pos-
us to this transmission site."

ture straightened.

134

135

A voice . . . a scratchy, commanding voice . . .

<Who is this?> demanded the Andalite officer
on the other end. <Who is initiating this con-
tact?>

It was surreal! This voice . . . these words . .

Our link to another world!

Jake signaled Ax to answer.

But Ax shook his head.

<No. I believe this is your moment.>

Jake glanced at each of us, ran his hand

#46 The Deception
through his hair.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Tobias kept careful watch from above. Marco

"This is . . ." He cleared his throat. He glanced
hung over my shoulder.

back at Ax and smiled. Then he leaned in close

And with the aid of Cassie's cell phone and
to the device.

my new, lime green iMac, I proceeded to reroute

"This is Earth," he said.

the Yeerk Z-space transmissions through the

NSA's central computer.

"Federal prison," Marco said, "here we

We do k n o w w h o t h e y a r e . . .

come."

<What's happening, Ax?>

I related the sequence of events as they oc-
a n d we k n o w y o u , t o o . . .

curred.

<The NSA is attempting to block out my
transmission. Now they are receiving our offer-
ing. My code-cracking program.>

A few keystrokes. A moment of tension. Wait-
ing.

"Ax, what's going on!"

<The NSA have halted their efforts to keep
me out. Now, let's see what we find.>

<One thing, Ax-man,> Tobias called. <Uh, are

136
you sure the program you sent these guys can't
be used to deciper your own stuff? Or the

Yeerks'?>

Slowly, I swung one eye stalk around and up
to look at Tobias, perched on the branch of a
tree.

<Okay, okay, sorry I asked.>

And then, suddenly, it happened.

This bigger, faster, more powerful machine,
combined with my superior Andalite technical
knowledge and skills . . .

". . . The newly appointed Visser One, re-
cently Visser Three, current leader of the Yeerk
mission on planet Earth . . . has approved Oper-
ation 9466. Visser Two has undertaken a journey
to Earth to assist in the execution of this long-
anticipated military action . . . "

"Bingo," Marco whispered.