The Answer
Author: K. A. Applegate
Date: 2001-05-01 04:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Action & Adventure; Extraterrestrial beings; Juvenile Fiction; Fantasy & Magic; Fiction; Science fiction; Metamorphosis; Children's stories; General
Description: From Wikipedia The Answer is the fifty-third book in the Animorphs series. In the article: Product Description The subtle invasion is over. Hoards of Yeerk reinforcements are landing on Earth every day, and Visser One is constructing an enormous new Yeerk pool by blasting giant holes in the ground‹obliterating whatever gets in the way. The Animorphs¹ plan to enlist the help of the U.S. military has failed. Now, Jake and the others find themselves trapped in what will soon be the new Yeerk pool. There is no way out . . . unless help comes from the most unexpected form. The Taxxons.
Publisher: New York : Scholastic, c2001.

A N

A P P L E

PAPERBACK

SCHOLASTIC I N C .

New York Toronto London Auckland Sydney

Mexico City New Delhi Hong Kong

For Scott Bremner

And for Michael and Jake

<They're going after the elementary school,>

Tobias said.

<They're going after everything,> I answered.

<Why are they doing this? It makes no
sense,> Tobias said. <It's not just brutal; it's stupid. Pointless destruction.>

The nearest Bug fighter swooped low and
slow. It fired its Dracon beams and the two-story
gym exploded into charred stucco and twisted
steel beams.

It drifted almost casually above the tired old
low-slung classrooms and fired again, dragging
the beam end-to-end along the buildings.

<They're sending a message,> I said. <Mess
with us and this is what we do.>

1

We had destroyed the Yeerk pool. The Yeerk

More Bug fighters than I'd ever seen in one
pool was now the world's biggest sinkhole. It
place. Maybe fifty of the things. They blasted
looked like a crater. It was a crater, with half the
schools; they blasted businesses; they blasted
mall in ruins on one slope, jumbled bits of
homes and churches. The shock waves would
fast-food restaurants, streetlights, ripped up
reach us, echoes of destruction. Pillars of smoke
concrete, cars, skinny trees, all tumbled
rose high in the air. Fires, some blazing and roar-
together at the bottom. The water of the Yeerk
ing, others smoldering sullenly, created thermal
pool, looking like molten lead, soaked up
updrafts that were bread and butter to three
through the dirt. An Exxon sign lay half-
mismatched birds of prey. We soared easily, ef-
submerged in it. A couple of dozen empty one-
fortlessly. We had the best possible seats for the
liter soda bottles drifted around like someone's
show. With raptor eyes we could see every
idea of toy boats.

sickening detail. We could not miss a shot, could

How many Yeerks had died? Certainly thou-
not fail to see lovingly tended gardens, prized
sands. Maybe tens of thousands. How many
homes, businesses, cars, burn as quickly and

Hork-Bajir? How many Taxxons?

brightly as match heads.

Humans?

The refugees people who had been our

We had tried to warn people, but the devasta-
neighbors, friends, classmates the shocked,
tion had been too complete, had come too
scared, lost refugees fled on foot, carrying what
suddenly.

they could, running between stalled cars. Over-

<It's not a message, Big Jake,> Marco said.

passes were all down, traffic lights all off, bridges

<The Yeerks know now that we'll do whatever we
were collapsed: Nothing with four wheels was
have to do, they know it's all-out war. We blew up
moving.

their only on-planet food supply. We're way past

A news helicopter was perhaps five miles off,
sending messages. Look: They're drawing a circle.

no doubt filming and sending the pictures out

>
live. The Yeerks could easily shoot down the

Marco was a hundred feet higher up than me.

copter. They were letting it film. Maybe even

He was in osprey morph, I was in falcon, Tobias
piloting the craft themselves. They wanted
was himself: a red-tailed hawk.

the world to see the violence. They wanted

<Marco's right,> Tobias said. <They're mak-
humans
ing a big circle.>

3

2
to be afraid. The infiltration phase of the war was

They were racing straight toward us. Straight
over, over. From now on the Yeerks would be as
toward the Bug fighters.

subtle as sledgehammers.

<It's suicide,> Marco said.

I caught a rush of warm air, the thermal en-

We watched, helpless to do anything. We had
ergy released by a burning supermarket, and I
spent the morning watching helplessly.

soared higher, up and up. I could see what Marco

The F-16's came straight in. Two of the Bug
and Tobias had understood: The Yeerks were
fighters broke off from torching civilian buildings
creating a circle of annihilation. The collapsed
and turned lazily to meet the attack.

Yeerk pool was the center. They were burning,

Missiles flew from the F-16's and the jets
blackening everything in a radius of two miles.

broke away. Two Dracon beams fired and the mis-

That would be virtually all of what had been
siles were destroyed in midflight.

our home town.

The Bug fighters accelerated, easily caught the

And I had done it. I had given the order to de-
jets, and fired again. Three of the four exploded.

stroy the Yeerk pool. All of this was a result.

There were no parachutes. No possibility of para-

But why? That was what bothered me. This
chutes. The fourth jet rocketed low, leveled off
wasn't the time for moaning over the destruction,
seeming inches from the scorched ground and
or even for second-guessing myself. I was done
hit afterburners.

with that. Why? Why were the Yeerks doing this?

The Bug fighters let him go: They had nothing

<Maybe they think we're down there,> Tobias
to fear.

suggested.

No, that wasn't quite true. The Yeerks were

I noticed something in the far distance, south
scared, just not of jets. This circle of destruction
of where we were. More smoke. And with my fal-
was evidence of fear. They were creating a barrier
con's eyes I could just barely make out hints of
of sorts: not a wall, but a desert of ash and cinder
still more Bug fighters. They looked like a cloud
so that an enemy wouldn't be able to get close,
of gnats.

unseen.

Tobias yelled. <Hey! Jets!>

It gave me a grim satisfaction. The Yeerks

I followed the direction of his gaze, and sure
were scared of us. But what were they protect-
enough, there they were: a flight of four F-16's.

ing? The ruins of the Yeerk pool?

4

5

<The helicopter!> Marco yelled.

<The Pool ship,> Marco whispered reverently.

The Yeerks had decided that show time was

<The mother of all targets. I would give both of
over. They torched the news copter. A twirling
my arms to see that thing burn.> Then he
cinder fell to Earth.

laughed harshly. <You know what this means,

<Something's going to happen,> I said.

don't you?>

<And there it is,> Tobias said, as always more

<They're getting hungry,> I said. <They're
observant in the air than any of us.

getting very hungry.>

It was as big as a sports arena. It moved
slowly, cumbersome in atmosphere. It was
designed for space, not, like the Bug fighters, to
be comfortable in air.

The Pool ship looked like a fat, swollen, three-
legged spider. I'd seen it before, up in orbit,
high above planet Earth.

The Pool ship: home of the Yeerk invasion
force, base of the Bug fighters. It was a
space-going Yeerk pool, well-defended,
dangerous, but essentially a portable barracks, a
giant mess hall that served up hearty doses of

Kandrona rays, the sustenance that a Yeerk must
have every three days or die.

The Bug fighters rose to greet their mother,
swarming around the Pool ship, bristling, daring
anyone to attack.

The Pool ship waddled down out of the sky,
shouldering through the clouds. And gently, deli-
cately, ever-so-tentatively, it rested its bulk on
terra firma.

7

I've fought them for more than three years. I
was just thirteen when I started. I'm sixteen now,
though that fact, like so many facts, has been
deliberately obscured in the secret accounts
we've kept.

I'm a sixteen-year-old kid named Jake Beren-
son, and I am the leader of the Animorphs.

In the past it's been hard for me to say that,
to take on the title of leader. In the past I've
questioned myself. Wondered whether I was
right, wondered whether what I did was good,
wondered whether I had any right to make life-
and-death decisions. I've felt sorry for myself at

My name is Jake.

times. Maybe anyone would, in my spot.

But I had to put all that aside now. I had put

My name is Jake Berenson. The days of se-
it all aside. Not because I was suddenly con-
crecy, of lurking in the shadows are over. The
vinced that I deserved the power, was worthy of

Yeerks know my name. They know my height,
it. That wasn't it. I knew better than to get too
weight, eye color, Social Security number, and
caught up in the myth of Mighty Jake the Yeerk

Killer.

favorite foods. At long last they know the word

I had given up soul-searching because I real-

Animorph, Marco's word for us.

ized now that it was simply too late. Way past too

My brother Tom is one of them, a human-
late. The battle had become a war. And I was, for

Controller. He has been for a long time. He's
better or worse, the only leader we had.

been elevated to security chief for all Yeerk

From here on out the second-guessing, the le-
forces on Earth.

gitimate doubts, and the self-indulgent whining,

My parents, my mom and dad, are Controllers
they were over. Save them for my old age in the
now, too. Host bodies for Yeerks.

unlikely event that I ever had an old age.

They know it all now, the Yeerks do. All our
names. All our deeds.

We were all still alive, Cassie, Marco, Rachel,

8

Tobias, and me. We'd been formed into a group
conquest, frustrated his plans, driven him to ever
by accident. A chance encounter in an aban-
wilder schemes. We had forced his hand, in the
doned construction site with a dying Andalite
end, I guess.

prince named Elfangor. He had given the five of

Now the war of subversion was over. Visser
us the Andalite power to morph, to become any

Three was promoted to Visser One and all his
animal we could touch. Later Elfangor's brother
most brutal instincts were unleashed.

Ax had joined us.

In this new, open war, we had scored some

We were just kids. But in some ways we were
impressive victories. We had destroyed the Yeerk
the ideal guerrilla fighters. The morphing power
pool. And we helped to motivate at least partial
let us fly and dig and crawl, sense, hide, and
and spotty efforts by the military to respond to
fight with far more than human power. Our youth
the Yeerk threat. Marco's mom was free of her
made us the least likely of suspects.

Yeerk slave master, free of the violent, dangerous

The Yeerks had carried on a subversive war of
creature who had been the very Yeerk who launched
infiltration for more than a decade. They had first
the invasion of Earth — Visser One. That Visser
discovered our planet back at the time of the

One was dead and his human host now worked

Gulf War. For various reasons their then Visser
with us. We had used the morphing cube to make

One had fashioned a plan to slowly infiltrate hu-
new Animorphs, to increase our numbers.

man society, infest hundreds, then thousands,

But we had taken hits, too: We had all been
eventually millions of humans with the Yeerk par-
driven from our homes. We had lost all vestiges
asite, and when it was too late to stop them,
of a normal life. We now hid with the free Hork-
seize sudden control of the planet. Only then

Bajir in a valley deep in the mountains.

would the Yeerks finalize an almost bloodless

And we had lost the morphing cube. The
conquest.

Yeerks had it. My brother Tom had taken it, and,

But that visser moved on and was replaced in
when I might have stopped him — Cassie had let
command of Earth by the evil creature we had
him and it go.

long known as Visser Three. Visser Three was a

With that act, Cassie had surrendered our
less subtle enemy. Less adept at subversion. A
edge, our one great advantage: that we alone had
brute. We had fought him, lost, won, but above
the power to morph.

all survived. And, in surviving, we had slowed his

The Andalite technology was now in Yeerk

10
hands, and we had already seen that Yeerks were

And that was the other reason why I would al-
using it just as we had used it: to capture all the
low myself no more second-guessing. A leader
amazing powers to be found in the animal
who shows weakness invites disaster.

kingdom.

We flew back to the Hork-Bajir camp. And as

The six of us, Marco, Rachel, Tobias, Ax,
we flew I thought. Not about how my orders to

Cassie, and I, had stayed together through im-
destroy the Yeerk pool had resulted in the literal
possibly bad times, through every defeat, every
obliteration of the city, but about how, how, how I
close call, every mind-twisting weirdness, every
could destroy the Pool ship.

horror. None of us had ever turned against the

And about that distant pillar of smoke away to
others. There had never been a betrayal.

the south.

Cassie let Tom take the morphing cube. Per-

There had to be a way to take out the Pool
haps she had done so because to her the alterna-
ship. Destroy that ship and the war might be
tive was worse: She feared for me, for my soul I
won. It was the target I could not possibly resist.

guess, if I was forced to kill my own brother.

A fact that would be known by my brother

Not good enough. Not for me. All that counted

Tom, and my parents, and by their ruler, Visser
now was that we win, and Cassie, maybe for the

One.

most decent of motives, had hurt us badly.

I loved Cassie. Always had. Still did. But
there was this thing between us now. And I could
never trust her again. She had put my personal
well-being ahead of winning a war we absolutely
could not lose. And, I knew, that her decision
might have come in part from my own
self-doubts, my own inability to throw off moral
ambigu ity.

If I had been stronger . . . if I had been as
strong as I should be, maybe Cassie would not
have made her fatal mistake. I saw that clearly
now. Too late for either of us.

13

12

We stood around a small fire. It was chilly.

Fog had a tendency to form in this deep valley,
sometimes so thick we could barely see our
hands in front of our faces. It wasn't that bad
now, but it was still cold.

"It's too dangerous," Cassie's dad said. He
was sipping a cup of what passed for coffee here
in our rough-and-ready camp.

"This is a job for the military now," Rachel's
mom argued. "You kids have done enough. The
secret is out: Leave it to the people who should
be protecting this country. I mean, we paid
enough in taxes to support the military; well, now
let's see what we got for all that money."

It's too dangerous." That was Eva, Marco's

We were in a council of war. I was getting so I
mom. The woman who had been host body to the
hated these meetings. Too many voices, too
first Visser One. "Visser One will know that you
many opinions. So many opinions sometimes
know. He'll know you're coming. He can't let you
that it seemed the consensus would always come
destroy a Pool ship — that's the only large-scale
down on the side of doing nothing.

food supply the Yeerks have. The Blade ship can

But we were guests among the free Hork-Bajir.

only service so many. Lose a Pool ship? The

This was their valley, their trees, the only home

Council of Thirteen would have Visser One exe-
they had. We'd come running to them with our
cuted."

families in tow when we needed a place to hide.

Marco shook his head. "He'll think we're

So at the very least I had to listen to Toby, the
cocky after taking out the Yeerk pool. Maybe he'll
young female Hork-Bajir seer. And only a fool
underestimate us."

would dismiss Eva's input: None of us knew the

"No," Eva said flatly. "He'll never underesti-Yeerks half as well. And of course, there were my
mate you again. That's over."

fellow Animorphs.

14

15

But added to all that we had Marco's dad;

Just do it. Just do it, and if that doesn't work do

Rachel's mom; James, the representative of our
it harder and meaner.

new, adjunct Animorphs; Tobias's mom; both of

"It seems a waste to simply blow it up," Toby

Cassie's parents, who only cared about making
said, speaking for the first time. The Hork-Bajir
sure no one got hurt . . . too many people with
are a fearsome-looking, but basically peaceful
too many agendas. But I still didn't know how to
race that, left alone, would live in the trees eat-
tell adults, my friends' parents no less, to be
ing bark and caring for the forest. Toby is one of a
quiet and let me do my job.

rare Hork-Bajir mutation: a seer. A sort of

I tried not to show my impatience, but these

HorkBajir intellectual and leader. She leads the
days I'm not so good at that. Cassie was watching
free Hork-Bajir, a small but growing band of Hork-
me. We're not as close anymore, but she still

Bajir who have been liberated from their parasitic
knows me.

masters.

She said, "Look folks, we're going to try. I

"What do you mean?" I asked Toby.

don't think the question is really 'whether' but

"There are hundreds of captive Hork-Bajir

'how.'"

aboard the Pool ship," Toby said. "If we could

"No one has decided any such thing," Rachel's
free at least a portion of them . . . and of course
mom said angrily. "My daughter is not going to
there are the ship's massive weapons systems.

be dragged into some suicidal undertaking like

Imagine controlling aH that power."

this."

"Take it?" Marco yelped. "Steal the Pool Rachel laughed. Rachel's not a person who'll
ship!"

be one way with her friends and another way with

Rachel jabbed a finger at Toby. "This is my
her family. There's only one version of Rachel. "

girl," she said.

Mom, if we go, I go. If we don't go, I still go.

Rachel's "girl" was nearly six and a half feet

Visser One parks his Pool ship right out in the
tall, and looked an awful lot like a kid's notion of
open and we're not going to ram it down his
a goblin. Not to mention the fact that she was
nonexistent throat? Hah! I'm with Marco: Blow it
armed with razor-sharp blades growing from
up. Blow it up real good."

wrists and elbows and forehead.

I hid a grin. Rachel is the original Nike girl:

<it is the approach Visser One would not ex-
pect,> Ax opined cautiously. <It is, of course,

17
possible. It is not like stealing a Bug fighter.

There was nothing to be done now. I couldn't

Every system on board the Pool ship is e n -
go running after Cassie. The insult had been de-
crypted, and the codes will probably change
livered. There was no taking it back now.

hourly. It might take me an hour to break any one

I s a i d , "As m u c h as I hate to admit i t ,
sequence, and if I am a minute late it will roll

Rachel's mom is partly right: This isn't just our
over and I will be starting back at the beginning.

fight anymore. Three pilots died today. Probably

An hour to get you into navigation, for example, if

Air National Guard. It shows that there are mili-

I am lucky. And another hour to gain access to
tary forces out there that could help."

weapons systems.>

"All due respect," Marco said, "those pilots And then everyone started talking at once, ar-didn't do much good."

guing, posturing, scoring debating points.

"If we're going after the Pool ship we need a

"Okay," I said holding up my hands for calm. "

diversion," I said. "We'll need a great big diver-That's enough, folks, thanks for coming."

sion. I want tanks and jets and soldiers. And I

"You don't just dismiss us!" Rachel's mom
want us — some of us at least — to be right out
yelled.

there in front with them. I want Visser One to be

"Sure he does, Mom," Rachel said cheerfully. "

dead sure we're trying to either blow up his pre-

I need Rachel, Marco, Tobias, Ax, Toby,
cious ship or get inside it."

James, and Eva," I said.

"And we will b e , right?" James asked. "I I hadn't meant to exclude Cassie. I really
mean, one or the other, right?"

hadn't. But it was too late. She looked like I'd hit

I shook my head. "Visser One will consider
her. She blinked and turned quickly away, covering
the possibility that we're using the attack as a
the moment with aimless chatter to her parents.

cover. He's slow but he's not a complete idiot.

Tobias gave me a dirty look. And if you think a

He'll figure one of three things: First, the attack
red-tailed hawk's gaze is always a dirty look,
is the real thing. Second, the attack is a cover for
you're close to being right. Still, I knew Tobias
the next attack. Third, the attack is a cover for us
was mad at me. Everyone was. Everyone but
to infiltrate the ship and destroy it from inside.

James who was excited to be included, and Eva

Any of those three options he does the same
who hadn't really caught what was going on with

'thing: lifts the ship off and amuses himself blast-
me and Cassie.

18

19

ing everything in sight with the Pool ship's big

Dracon cannon."

"Okay," Toby said. "I give up: How is he going to be wrong?"

"When the diversion comes, we'll already be
on board the Pool ship, working on breaking
those access codes," I said. "The diversion won't be to cover us getting on. It'll be to cover the fact
that we're already there."

It sounded good. Sounded like I had a plan. I
didn't.

I pulled Tobias and Marco aside after the
council of war.

"Tobias? Did you notice that pillar of smoke
off to the south of where we were?"

Tobias glared at me. <What you did to Cassie
was beyond wrong.>

I squirmed. "I don't have time for that, To-
bias."

<Cassie is one of us,> he said.

"Did you see the smoke or not?!" I de-
manded.

<Yeah.>

"Then I need you to go find out exactly where it'

s coming from. Now. I mean, if you can spare the
time from busting me."

20

21

Tobias didn't answer. He just spread his
that with Cassie. It was . . . stuff happens some-
wings and flapped till he cleared the trees and
times."

then caught a tailwind out of sight.

"Uh-huh. I better get going."

Marco gave me a fish-eyed look, but he didn't
say anything.

In twenty-four hours I had two of the three an-
swers I was looking for. Marco did not find the

"Marco, we need to know who is currently in

Chee. He did find what he hoped and believed
charge of military forces in this area."

Marco thought that over. "It's not going to be
was the man in charge of military forces arrayed
just one guy. You'll have an air force general, a
against the Yeerks.

marine, an army guy."

"He's an army general. Three star. His name

I nodded. "Yeah. But the Pentagon will have
is Sam Doubleday. He's fifty-four years old. His
given someone the weight, you know? Someone
headquarters is fifty miles from here, though. In
is going to be in overall command. I mean, if they
the hills, some kind of nuclear shelter in a
haven't done that at least . . . they can't be that
hollowed out mountain."

sorry, can they? I want you to get me a name and

"Good. At least he's not dumb enough to be
a location. Grab Ax. Use him to creep Pentagon
right here where the Yeerks can't help but kill
computers or whatever it takes. I need the person
him."

who can give orders and have them followed in

The second piece of information was more in-
this area."

triguing.

"How about the Chee? They'd be able to help

<They're building a new Yeerk pool,> Tobias
us out."

reported. <Not so much a cave like the old one.

I shrugged. "Where are the Chee? That's the

More like they're digging a small lake and going
problem. Those Bug fighters smoked the King
to let it be open. Taxxons are all over the place,
house. I don't think it would have damaged their
like maggots on a piece of roadki II.>
underground complex, but with the house gone

I could see that Marco was preparing some
how do we make contact?"

witty remark on the fact that Tobias was

"Guess that's two problems for me and Ax,"

unusually familiar with roadkill. I shot him a

Marco said.

look and he sighed, letting it go.

"Yeah." I hung my head. "I didn't mean to do A second Yeerk pool being built at a frantic

22

23

pace. That made sense. Once it was finished the

Yeerks would remove the Pool ship back to safety
in orbit. Taxxons were natural tunnelers, faster and
more effective than anything Caterpillar made. It
was like having a few hundred giant sentient
earthworms at work.

"Okay," I said. "Let's go see this general."

<Who goes?> Tobias asked pointedly.

"Animorphs," I said. But of course I knew
what he was asking. "All of us. I'll have James's
people come in to watch the camp here. The rest
of us, the six of us, we go to see the general.

Wait, ask James to come, too. He can use the ex-

They called it ATF-1. Alien Task Force One.

perience."

Their headquarters was a concrete-and-steel

<Well, you'll need to go ask Cassie yourself,>
pit carved into a mountain. It was a sort of minor-

Tobias said primly.

league version of the big nuclear war fighting fa-

"Marco: Let everyone know. Everyone." I cility in Colorado. It had the look of a place that
avoided looking at Tobias. Not often do I feel like
has just been brought out of mothballs. There
a coward, but I felt like one right then.

were cobwebs hiding in the upper corners of the
rooms. Dust was still being wiped from the sort of
clunky computers and monochrome monitors
you'd see in a video about the early days of the
space race.

Inside the mountain were hundreds of sol-
diers and airmen, but mostly armed, it seemed,
with clipboards and Palm Pilots. They wore the
exactly ironed uniforms of bureaucrat-soldiers.

24

25

Outside the gaping mouth of The Hole, it was
middle of a large map of the city. The map
a different picture. Men were in firing positions on
showed a circle surrounding the former Yeerk
the tumbled, rocky slopes. Coming in as birds of
pool. I guessed it was derived from satellite
prey again, we spotted machine-gun nests, tank
photos of what was left of my home town.

emplacements, an artillery park well-camouflaged

I demorphed.

in the trees down the valley. Helicopters flew con-

"What the . ."

stant patrols.

"General!" someone yelped.

Razor wire was going up everywhere. Soldiers

"MP's! MP's, on the double."

were laying minefields on both sides of the only

"Draw your weapons!"

road.

"Don't shoot!"

Security was very tight — it took us no time

There was a flurry of running men and cock-
at all to penetrate it. The general's men were
ing weapons and lots of shouting. I'd had quite
looking for giant bug-eyed monsters from outer
an impact. Not a surprise. I was changing from a
space. Not dragonflies.

two-inch-long insect to a nearly six-foot-tall teen-

We zoomed around the underground head-
ager.

quarters, locating storage vaults, some fairly im-

My compound eyes grew huge, larger by far
pressive underground barracks, food-and-water
than my dragonfly body, before they bubbled up
storage, electronics, so on.

like overcooked marshmallows, melted, shrank,

I located the general by watching the flow of
and finally re-formed into my own human eyes.

uniforms. Lieutenants talked to captains,

Of course they were human eyes staring out of
captains to majors, majors to colonels. My
a dragonfly's face.

dragonfly eyes were good enough for me to spot

The morphing process has never been the
colonels' bars. In time, the various colonels led
kind of neat, smooth, fluid thing you see in a
me to the general.

computer-animated special effect. It's messier

He was in a map-walled conference room. I'd
and weirder. Things grow or shrink at different
have smiled if I had a mouth. It was like
speeds. Parts of one form linger long after the
something right out of a war movie: maps and
others have morphed. Ax could explain it, if you
phones and guys chomping cigars.

had an hour to listen.

I landed on the conference table, right in the

What the general saw was a creature with hu-

26

27
man eyes and a twitching insect proboscis and

They threw me in, not at all gently.

gossamer wings and a largely human body.

I was a prisoner.

I was probably lucky he didn't just order me

Three minutes later, I demorphed in front of
to be shot. There were a dozen rifles and pistols

General Doubleday again.

aimed at me by the time I completed my

He had me tackled once more, handcuffed,
de-morph.

shackled, my mouth duct-taped. I was carried,

"General Doubleday," I said. "My name is
hog-tied, from the room and thrown back in the

Jake."

cell. In the cell I was chained to the cot.

"Get him!"

Three minutes later, I demorphed in front of

Three big, burly MP's were on me before I

General Doubleday.

could yell. They knocked me onto my back,

"General, why don't you stop being stupid
twisted me over on my face, and slapped
and listen?" I said.

handcuffs on me.

He stopped being stupid. But not until the

" G e n e r a l , this is a m i s t a k e , " I y e l l e d . "

fourth time I demorphed in front of him. And

Mistake, is it? Sure as death you're one of them,
then, at last, he narrowed his eyes and looked at

" he said.

me and said, "All right, Mr. Alien, what have you

"No, sir, I'm not," I grated with my cheek
got to say to me?"

pressed hard onto a pencil and a crumpled map.

"First: I'm not an alien. I'm a human with ac-

"But chances are some of the people in this
cess to alien morphing technology. Second: I
room are."

know how to hurt the Yeerks in a way that they

"Let me shoot him," a major cried. Either a
won't be able to brush off, but I'll need your help

Controller or an idiot.

to provide a diversion."

"Shoot him? Have you lost your senses, Ma-

The general looked amused. "My help, huh?

jor? This is a potentially valuable prisoner.

You need my help? See the stars on my shoulder

Get my G-2 down here! Take him away, lock him
there, son? I'm a major general, U.S. Army.

up."

You're a kid who can turn into a bug. I take my

I sighed. The MP's hustled me from the room,
orders from the chain of command, and that ain't
down a hallway to a bare, overlit room furnished
you."

with a chair and a sink and a cot and a steel door

It was a nice try, but I've been intimidated by
with a feeding slot in it.

29

28
the best. After you stand up to the likes of

The MP ignored him and looked instead to

Andalites, Visser One, and Crayak, you don't
the colonel. Two other officers drew weapons.

quiver just because some guy has stars on

One drew a bead on the general. The other stood
his shoulders.

ready, covering the rest of the room.

"The chain of command is almost certainly

"I'd rather take him alive — the visser would
infiltrated by Yeerks," I said. "So is this base.

be sure to reward us," the colonel mused. "On the Probably even this room. You don't know if the
other hand, if we let him escape, we're dead."

orders you get are legitimate or not. You don't

He gave me a hard look. "Better safe than dead
know if the orders you give out are going to be
of Kandrona starvation. Shoot him."

obeyed. Your power extends only as far as the

"Now," I said.

first Controller in your staff."

From beneath the conference table a great,

The general's face was growing redder the
shaggy, gray-coated wolf exploded out and
more I talked. But, like I say, you want scary?

upward. Cassie's jaw closed around the MP's

Visser One has a tendency to morph into huge,
throat and carried him down to the ground.

murdering alien beasts. Red face? Not even in

A wolf's jaws are made for breaking the mar-
the game.

row out of bones. Those long, yellowed teeth dig-

"Get out of my headquarters," Doubleday
ging into your throat, ready with a twitch to
said.

sever at least two major arteries, definitely get

"He can't leave here alive," said a middle-
your attention.

aged colonel who looked strangely like a Baldwin

Then the entire table went flying. It was a big,
brother.

thick, mahogany thing, must have weighed five

The Baldwin colonel nodded to one of the
hundred pounds. But a gorilla is a strong animal.

MP's. The MP drew his sidearm and chambered

Marco gave one of the Controllers a gorilla
a round.

love tap that slammed him against the wall.

"Holster that weapon, soldier," the general

But perhaps most surprising to everyone were
snapped.

two low-ranking soldiers who calmly drew

The MP leveled the gun at me.

concealed weapons and pointed them at the

"I said holster that weapon!" the general

Controllers. Continuing to hold the weapons
roared.

Rachel and Ax demorphed.

30

31

The three Controllers were handcuffed and
led away.

"You see my point, General," I said.

He nodded. He smoothed his ruffled hair. He
pulled a cigar out of his pocket. "All right, son.

Let's talk."

BOOM!

The concussion shook the room and threw me
into the wall. There was blood pouring from my
nose and ears and mouth.

BOOM!

Marco grabbed me before I could fall over
again.

BOOM! BOOM!

"Thanks, man."

<It's just never easy, is it?> he said. Explosion followed explosion in rapid sequence. Every time I tried to get organized the
concussion would knock me silly again.

"Marco! Take care of the general!" I managed
to yell.

I started to morph. Tiger. "We're gonna be up
to our butts in Hork-Bajir!" I warned everyone.

They knew what to do.

I heard gunfire. Lots of it.

Should have seen this coming. Should have
known the Yeerks would be wired into this head-
quarters. Someone, some Controller, had put in
the call to Visser One: They're here. The Ani-
morphs are here.

33

32

No, wait. Maybe not. Maybe they were just as-
sition half in and half out of the doorway. A
saulting the base without knowing we were here.

Dracon beam annihilated the half of him that was

In which case it was just a typically crude Visser-
exposed.

One move.

The general caught his gun as it dropped.

Ax had demorphed. In his Andalite form he

"We have to get out of here. This room is a trap.

was a blue-furred centaur with a pair of extra

" I agreed. <Rachel. Go.>
eyes on movable stalks and a tail like a chef's

Rachel leaned her bladed, goblin head gin-
knife tied to the end of a bullwhip. Rachel and
gerly out of the doorway and yelled, <Stop shoot-

Tobias were both well into morphing Hork-Bajir.

ing, you fools.>

When fighting Hork-Bajir-Controllers there is

The firing continued, but it was no longer di-
nothing quite as useful as having a few of our
rected at our doorway. Rachel and Tobias stalked
own to confuse things.

angrily out and berated the lead elements of the

"Let me up," General Doubleday raged at

Hork-Bajir assault force.

Marco. "I have to go to my men."

"We have the gafrash human general, you

<Let him up, Marco. General: Do you have
loglafach. The visser wants him alive, and if you any kind of surveillance cameras set up in this
kill him it'll be you the visser eats for breakfast!"

place?>

Even less firing now.

"What? Is that you? Are you some kind of a

Then a suspicious human voice, a human-
tiger now?"

Controller, demanding, "Which unit are you two

<Yeah, some kind. General, if you have secu-
with?"

rity cameras, turn them on. We can use the tape

<Ax then me then Marco and Cassie with the
later to spot the safe guys. Anyone who shoots a
general,> I said tersely.

Controller is someone we can trust.>

Ax leaped through the doorway. I was a mil-

The general nodded. "The cameras are always
lisecond behind him. There were forty or so Hork-
on. Now get out of my way."

Bajir and half a dozen obvious human-Controllers

He motioned a sergeant to open the door
waiting for us. Some kept up fire down one
leading out into the main chamber of the under-
hall-
ground redoubt. The sergeant took up a firing po-
way and upward at a catwalk lined with soldiers.

There was a full second of stunned immobil-

34
ity as they absorbed the sudden appearance of

<The general's clear!> Marco yelled in thought-
an Andalite.

speak. <We're coming.>

"Andalite!" someone yelled.

<No! Stay with him!> I ordered.

<Surprise,> Ax said. He's almost developed a

BamBamBam!

sense of humor. Almost.

The volume of firing increased suddenly. I

But by then Ax was in the midst of them,
caught a wild, distorted vision of troops lined up
slashing with his deadly tail. I came in after him.

on the catwalk pouring automatic fire down on us.

The bigger the crowd, the better: hard to use Dra-

I heard Doubleday's foghorn voice bellowing, "

con beams when your own people are all around.

Don't hit the tiger or the blue thing!"

Hork-Bajir slashed at me. I felt cuts on my

<Rachel! Tobias! Back off, get outta here and
flanks, my back. My tail was suddenly gone. My
morph something else. You'll get shot>
tiger's brain registered every wound but dismissed

A Hork-Bajir nailed me with a sudden, unex-
them, set aside the pain. This was a dominance
pected blow. No pain, just a shocking numbness.

fight. Tiger instinct and human will combined in

My hind legs collapsed. He had severed my
me to press the attack forward.

spine. The bottom half of the tiger's body might

I roared back, launched into my nearest tor-
as well be gone.

mentor, and smacked his horned head with a

I would be dead in seconds. Had to demorph.

blow that could stun an elephant. I spun and gut-

No other choice.

slashed another. I closed my teeth on a flailing

BamBamBamBamBamBam!

arm and worried it savagely like a mad dog with

Demorph, Jake, I told myself, already loopy,
his last bone.

drifting. Demorph.

I was in the tiger and the tiger was in me. No

A huge Hork-Bajir stood tall above me. The
time to think, only act and react. Cat speed. Cat
tiger's blood dripped from his wrist blade. He
accuracy. But the sheer weight of the attackers
raised his T. Rex foot. He was going to gut me,
would defeat Ax and me, and even in the battle
make sure I was dead. Couldn't move my body.

frenzy, I knew it.

My front paws batted feebly at the air. Helpless.

Rachel and Tobias had joined the fight, but

Half a dozen rounds caught him in the chest.

now, Hork-Bajir themselves, their abilities were

He fell straight back.

no greater than those of their opponents.

I lay there, twisted halfway around, a tiger

36

37
pretzel. Ax was now astride me, whipping like a

I was wrong: A falcon could see a man's eyes
mad thing, a Cuisinart making Hork-Bajir puree.

and know where they were aimed.

I heard a thud. Bullet in my hindquarters. I

<Thanks, James,> I said, loopy and fading
looked up, confused, unable to focus clearly.

fast. <That was very nice of you.>

Then my vision cleared enough to see a soldier

Marco was over me, shaking me with big go-
drawing careful, deliberate aim at me. A
rilla hands and yelling, <Demorph! Demorph!>

Controller. He looked just like his fellow

Demorph?

soldiers, but he wasn't shooting at the Hork-

Oh . . . okay.

Bajir, he was going for a head shot on me, that's
what he was going for.

He fired. I saw the muzzle flash.

I felt the bullet hit the right side of my head.

But I wasn't dead.

Something big and brown came barreling
through, sweeping Hork-Bajir before it. Ax
was no longer above me, but was shoulder-to-
shoulder with a grizzly bear. Cassie ran, bounded
up, bounced off Rachel's massive shoulders and
took a wild, flying leap straight into the Hork-Bajir.

The Hork-Bajir were falling back.

And still, I could see that single soldier biting
his lip and taking aim at me again. This time he
wouldn't miss. I was isolated, alone,
defenseless. No one saw. No one could
possibly see that he was aiming at me, not at the

Hork-Bajir.

I could see his finger tighten on the trigger.

He was too focused to notice the gray-and-
white blur as the falcon raked his face, leaving
great gashes across his nose and forehead.

39

"General, better a hundred men you can trust
than ten thousand you can't."

He agreed. Unfortunately, this meant a three-
day delay before he could provide the diversion
we needed to take the Pool ship. In that time the

Yeerks, with all their Taxxons, might well get the
new Yeerk pool up and running. It wouldn't be
finished, most likely, but if it was at all func-
tional, if it could be used to feed the Earth-based

Yeerks, I was certain that Visser One would fly his
precious Pool ship back up into the safety of orbit.

So we had to make sure the new Yeerk pool
wasn't ready. Which meant two impossible mis-
sions instead of just one.

Doubleday listened after that. He evacuated

Better and better.

his headquarters at top speed. The Yeerks would

"At least it'll be mostly Taxxons," Marco said
be back, especially now that they knew we were
when we were all back at camp and eating a meal
there. Fortunately, like a good general, he had a
of dry cold cereal. "They're easy to take down.

fallback position.

Once they're injured at all, they're dead: Their

I explained about the three days, how no
brother Taxxons make sure of that."

Yeerk can survive for more than three days with-

Taxxons are like big, nasty caterpillars or cen-
out consuming Kandrona rays in a Yeerk pool.

tipedes. As big around as an old oak tree. They

"You need to lock down yourself and your offi-
walk on rows of needle legs, carrying the upper
cers and as many men as you can for three days.

third of their bulk erect. They have a ring of red-

Whoever is left after that will be reliable."

jelly eyes and a lamprey mouth. And they are

"I've got two regular army divisions and half a
hungry as shrews: always hungry. Always. It's a
dozen guard units under my command. I can't
madness, a raging, insatiable need.

lock down and watch anything like that number

The Yeerks had bought them off and made
of men."

them allies by the simple expedient of promising

40
to feed them. Some Taxxons carried the Yeerk
it with councils of war. "Tobias? You've seen the
slug in their feverish brains, but many did not.

place,"

The Yeerks hated them as host bodies, hated liv-

<It's a big hole in the ground. Looks like a
ing with the hunger that not even a Yeerk could
strip mine or something. It's sort of terraced: a
control.

series of shelves stepping down to what will be

And then, there was the danger that Marco
the pool itself. The "shore," I guess you'd call it, had alluded to: Taxxons are cannibals. A wounded
is maybe a hundred feet wide. The pool is going

Taxxon is almost always set upon by his brothers,
to be three hundred feet across, give or take. Not
even in the middle of battle. It's like watching
deep: maybe eight feet, almost flat on the
sharks react to blood in the water.

bottom, but graded so it can be drained for

"Yeah, they're easy to kill," I said, feeling the repair. The terraces higher up, two of them, as I
dark, bitter gloom that always came over me after
recall, are more like twenty feet wide.>
a battle. "But they'll be protected by Hork-Bajir

<Those will eventually be weapons emplace-
and by Bug fighters. And by human-Controllers,
ments,> Ax suggested. <It was the central flaw of
of course."

the old pool: They never had a serious set of in-

"We blew up one Yeerk pool," Rachel said
ternal defenses. They will ring the pool with
cockily. "So we blow up another. Badda-boom.

Dracon cannons able to reach up, across, or

Nothing to it."

down.>

She knew better, of course. She was just play-

"Just for us," Rachel said with a laugh. "It's ing her part. Not for the first time I wondered
kind of flattering."

what on Earth would happen to her if this war

"How do you hurt a hole in the ground?"

ever ended. Off to college to study prelaw or

Marco wondered.

whatever? She was the goddess of war, my cousin

<Cave in the sides?> Tobias suggested dubi-
was. Sixteen years old and a veteran of more bat-
ously.

tles than a World War II veteran. So was I, but

"With what?" Marco said.

Rachel loved it in a way I didn't. She needed it.

Cassie started to say something, stopped her-

"Anyone have any useful suggestions?" I
self. Then, gathering her courage, she blurted,
asked. It was just us, just the Animorphs. I'd had

"You can't worry about the hole, you have to de-
stroy the digging equipment."

42

I raised an eyebrow. "The equipment is

Taxxons."

She looked away.

Marco whistled softly. "Yep," he agreed, nod-
ding respectfully at Cassie.

Was Cassie just stating the obvious, or was
she trying to reestablish herself by being as ruth-
less as any of us?

Either way, she was right: Forget the dirt, fo-
cus on the shovels. There was not an endless
supply of Taxxons. I wished I knew how many
there were, altogether. Once again I mourned the
loss of access to the Chee, our most valuable
sources of information.

At the beginning of the American Civil War

"Okay," I said. "So we go after the Taxxons. I both sides thought the war was about taking or
better go see Toby. Cassie? Go see James and his
holding cities and ports and rivers and mountain
people. We'll need everyone we can get. We go
passes. They thought it was a chess game.

tonight."

By the end of the war they'd figured out that

"Oh, man, I'm just getting over this morning's
they weren't playing chess. Cities didn't matter
fun," Marco complained.

much. Ports and rivers and mountain passes,

"Eat your dry, stale granola," Rachel said
while useful, were secondary to the real game.

w i t h a l a u g h . " Y o u need to keep up your

The real game was destruction.

strength."

Lincoln had figured it out earlier than most
and his generals; Ulysses S. Grant, William Te-
cumseh Sherman, and Philip Sheridan made it
happen.

They burned enemy homes and farms. They
burned crops in the field and slaughtered farm

45

44
animals and wrapped railroad tracks around
a bird. You never feel that the air is your natural
trees. They starved the enemy.

home. You always feel that you're airborne only

They realized that warfare was no longer
by virtue of hard work, and if you let up for an in-
about chivalry and honor, but about killing
stant you'll drop like a rock. It's not actually
the enemy. Find the enemy, kill the enemy.

quite that bad, but that's how it feels.

Kill so many of them that those who are left

Bats can see just fine, contrary to what some
alive lose their will to fight on. Do whatever it
people think. They're not owls or hawks, but they
takes.

see. But it's the echolocation that sets them

That's the way war has been ever since.

apart.

For a long time we had fought the Yeerks re-

It's like a sort of Etch-A-Sketch picture of the
actively. We were always ten steps behind, trying
world. You fire off a series of ultrasonic clicks.

to foil this plan or that plan. We'd tried to

The sound waves bounce off objects, are picked
fight the war with at least some vestige of
up by your ears, and are translated in your bat
decency. And maybe that had been okay when
brain into a sort of alternate reality picture of the
we were fighting to stop an infiltration. Now things
world around you.

were different. We were down to the final

You "see" things you don't see with your eyes.

stages. Either the Yeerks would prevail, or we

You see insects in flight as tiny pinpoint
would.

meteorites. And you overlook other things. But

So I gave simple orders to my people, the
working together, regular sight and echolocation,
original Animorphs, and the auxiliary Animorphs,
once you relax into it and let the bat's brain
and Toby's free Hork-Bajir. Orders I had never
work it out, you get a very complete picture.

given before: Kill the enemy. Kill the Taxxons.

We had approached within a quarter mile of

Dress it up however you want, that's what war
the site before morphing. Then we split up and
is about. If there's glory in there somewhere, I
moved in from different angles, flying wild and
must have missed it.

jerky, flapping our skin wings, blasting our

We Animorphs went in first, the six of us, in
unheard radar sounds all around.

bat morph. Tobias had reported that real bats

The Bug fighters swooped overhead, oblivious
were in the area during the evening hours, which
to us. Huge spotlights shone down from the lip of
would allow us to blend in naturally.

Flying as a bat is very different from flying as

47
the hole. Heavily armed men and Hork-Bajir pa-

No one said anything. I was braced for some-
trolled. They were very much on guard. No one
thing from Cassie. Surely she would raise some
was napping.

sort of moral objection to this straightforward

And down inside, just like Tobias had said,
slaughter. But she remained silent. Hard to know
like worms after a heavy rain, the Taxxons worked.

what she would object to. It was always a ques-

There were pieces of heavy equipment down
tion of balance for her, I guess. She was commit-
there as well: earthmovers, cranes, graders, and
ted to winning, believed in our cause, understood
so on. But the Taxxons were digging up the dirt,
that there would be terrible things to be done.

squirming their way into walls of gravel and dirt

But she found some things, and not other things,
and rock with amazing speed.

to be over the line. Me, I barely knew where the

As we watched a large section of slope col-
line was anymore. I'd come to depend on Cassie
lapsed inward. The Taxxons had tunneled be-
to keep me from going too far.

neath it, loosened the structure and allowed it to

Nothing from Cassie.

fall in on them. They seemed to suffer no perma-

<Okay. See that vertical rift over on the right
nent damage as they wormed free. Taxxons are
there? Looks deep and dark enough for us. We go
easy to cut, not easy to squash, perfectly adapted
in. Then, battle morphs, and come out hot and
to their own ecological niche.

mean. Soon as we're engaged I'll signal James.

<There are more Taxxons than meet the eye,> I

Then, Toby.>
warned everyone. <No way to know how many are

We swooped silently down, down through the
belowground in tunnels. Be on guard for that: They
hazy lights and into the deep cleft that, to our
may come swarming up from underneath us.>
bat senses, was well defined and perfectly clear.

<I'm more worried about those Bug fighters,>

<Ax first,> I ordered. Ax had only to demorph

Marco said. <What if they decide the Taxxons are
to be dangerous. The rest of us had to demorph,
expendable? What if they decide to start shoot-
then morph again.

ing?>

With Ax ready I began to demorph. As my

<Unlikely, but they may if they figure the
weight returned I had to grab exposed roots with

Taxxons are toast anyway,> I agreed. <If they do,
unformed hands to keep from sliding down the
take cover in the Taxxon holes. Any other ques-
cleft. Then, morphing to tiger, I lost my hold and
tions?>
slid, tumbling down,

48

I rolled to a stop by Ax who waited calmly just
logically. They each understood that a mere
within the shadow. A pair of Taxxons toiled not
wound was enough, as long as live Taxxons were
ten feet away, out in the hazy light. They hadn't
left undamaged to take care of the finishing off.

seen or smelled us.

Marco would accelerate to forty mph, dig his less-

My acute tiger senses told me even without
than-deadly claws into a victim, leave bloody
looking that the others were morphed behind me.

scratches behind, and prance away far too

<Three count,> I said more calmly than I felt.

quickly for a Taxxon to respond.

<Three, two, GO!>

Ax wielded his tail with the precision of a sur-

It must have been a terrifying sight for the
geon. Tobias wheeled and dove at the red jelly

Taxxons. An Andalite warrior and five wild beasts
eyes. And Cassie was there, too, in wolf morph,
suddenly roaring out of a crack in the dirt wall.

tearing into sausage-casing flesh, ripping and

The nearest Taxxons had no chance to react. We
jumping back.

hit them, slashed, cut, and moved on, knowing

It was a sheer, one-sided massacre.

that a wounded Taxxon is a dead Taxxon.

Now the security forces, human-Controller

I moved at breakneck speed. Slashed the
and Hork-Bajir, were getting into the game. They
nearest Taxxon, leaped atop him, propelled my-
came running around the lip of the crater to get
self away, digging my hind claws into him for
close enough to fire down into us without hitting
good measure.

the Taxxons.

I hit the ground, took two loping steps, and

<Here they come,> I warned.

was ripping the next Taxxon before he could

But we were faster than the Taxxons, and,
scream.

with the exception of Rachel, smaller. Excited

But now the Taxxon voices were crying out in

Hork-Bajir firing wildly were doing almost as
their shrill, sibilant language.

much damage as we were.

"Sreeeeya! Ansacaleees!"

"Don't stand up here shooting, get down

I caught a glimpse of a wild African elephant
there!" a human voice bawled. "Get down there,
burying ivory tusks in a Taxxon's raised chest.

you cowards!"

Rachel tossed her head and the tusks nearly re-

<James!> I yelled. <Now!>
moved the top third of her victim.

Clear across the crater, James and seven of

Marco in cheetah morph and Ax fought most
his people in morph erupted amid the Taxxons.

50

51

That would keep the security forces from concen-

I broke free and yelled, <Okay, Toby, your
trating.

turn! Now!>

Taxxons were running away, turning and run-

The battle had drawn every Yeerk eye down to
ning, confused, terrified. Others lacked even that
the pit. The swift, running approach of sixty free
much self-control: They fell upon their wounded

Hork-Bajir warriors had gone unnoticed, even by
brothers and slammed their teeth-lined round
the buzzing, frustrated Bug fighters overhead.

mouths down again and again, reared up high,

The Yeerks were uncoordinated, thrown off by
and with a "Sreee!" of delight tore chunks from our successive waves. Our plan was working. But
their still-living fellow Taxxons.

sooner or later someone was going to take charge

I saw two wounded Taxxons devouring each
of the shocked and off-balance Yeerks.

other. Both screamed in rage and hate; both

Two minutes more, I told myself, and we bail.

must have known, somewhere, deep in their

It was one minute too many. The Bug fighters
fevered minds, that this was madness, but nei-
opened fire without warning. They fired on Taxxon
ther could stop.

and human-Controller and Hork-Bajir alike.

<Ax! Hork-Bajir behind you!> I yelled.

More Bug fighters were maneuvering to get into

Unnecessary, of course: An Andalite sees in all
firing position. They were going to kill everyone,
directions at once.

friend and foe alike. They were doing our work for

But now the easy part was definitely over:

us. But we would surely die as well.

Hork-Bajir were piling into the melee. It was the

Hork-Bajir-Controllers were running for it,
difference between fighting big, nasty but vulner-
scrambling up out of the pit.

able worms and fighting walking razor blades.

<Toby! Mix your people in with them and run!

A Hork-Bajir leaped over a fallen Taxxon and

James! Fall back. We'll distract them for another
landed right in front of me. Just that morning I'd
few seconds.>
let a Hork-Bajir cut me down.

<We get all the fun jobs,> Marco muttered.

<Not this time,> I said, and launched myself

And then, what I had warned against, had
straight at him, straight for his face. At arm's
foreseen . . . and forgotten. The ground opened
length a Hork-Bajir is almost the equal of a tiger.

beneath me and I fell.

At close range the tiger is king.

52

53

rolling, trying to grab on with my spike claws. But
the surface was smooth, almost like glass. And
now I was getting worried.

I fell for only thirty seconds or so, but that's a
long way to go underground. Finally the chute
ended and I was once more rolled across a dirt
floor.

<Marco! Rachel!> No answer. Was I that far
underground? Out of thought-speak range? I took
a chance. <Marco, get everyone home, that's an
order. Don't argue.>

There was light. Dim, but more than enough
for me.

And there were Taxxons: three of them. Each

<Aaahhh!>
carried a Dracon beam in one set of upper legs. I

I fell a long way. My tiger speed and balance
could get one, maybe two of them. But three?

turned me around, aimed my feet down, tail

Before they could shoot me?

twirling to maintain this attitude.

<Please do not attack, we mean you no

I hit the dirt, took the shock in all four paws,
harm.>
rolled sideways, and came up snarling. Snarling

It was thought-speak! Not the impossible-to-
at nothing. I was in an empty tunnel. Dark. Too
decipher hissing and spitting of spoken Taxxon.

dark for even my cat's eyes. But I smelled plenty, a

Thought-speak, and impossible as it seemed, I
smell I knew: Taxxon.

had the strangest impression that it was an An-

I stayed on guard, not too worried, but defi-
dalite thought-speak "voice."

nitely ready. I heard a sound . . . shuffling, grind-

I froze.

ing . . . digging!

<What do you want?> I demanded.

The ground opened beneath me again and I

<To speak to you, Jake.>
fell in a cascade of dirt, down, and this time no

He knew my name. Of course the Yeerks did
hard landing on a flat surface. I was in a chute,
know my name now, but still it was a shock.

54

5 5

<Okay, so speak. You've got the Dracon
command: two lowly arisths. Me, and Elfangor-
beams, I guess I'll listen.>

Sirinial-Shamtul.>

The Taxxon who was speaking opened his pin-

I stopped breathing. Could it be possible?

cers and let the Dracon weapon drop. The other

Elfangor, Ax's brother? Elfangor, who gave us the
two did the same.

morphing power to begin with? This . . . this

<Now we are at your mercy, Animorph. That
whatever he was had been a friend of Elfangor's?

morph is more than capable of killing the three

<What do you want?> I asked him.

of us.>

He shuffled closer and I had to resist the nor-

I took a deep breath. <Okay, let's talk. You
mal reaction of disgust.

know me. Who are you?>

<I want to be free, Jake the Animorph.>

<My name is Arbron. I am — was an An-

<You're a Controller?>
dalite aristh.>

<No. I have no Yeerk within me. We want to

<You're a Taxxon.>
be free . . . we all want to be free . . . of the

<Your friend Tobias is a hawk,> he countered.

curse of being Taxxons.>

<You're stuck in morph? You're a morphed

<I don't understand,> I said, although I was

Andalite stuck as a Taxxon? A nothlit?> I couldn't beginning to guess.

keep the horror out of my voice. One thing to be

<The morphing power,> Arbron said, now
trapped as a hawk. But to be trapped as a
sounding almost desperate. <The morphing power!

Taxxon?

Don't you see? If the Taxxons could morph,

<I am a Taxxon,> Arbron said almost proudly.

acquire some more benign shape and find a safe

<I have been for more years than I can easily
haven on your planet . . . become something
count. I was on the Taxxon home world with two
other than what they are, escape the hunger. You

Andalites of your acquaintance. One was Alloran-
cannot imagine the hunger . . . they've seen that

Semitur-Corrass.>
there could be a better way. The virus of

<Visser One?>
knowledge is in their bloodstreams now, they

<Not then. But, yes, Alloran became the un-
realize that they could change forever!>
willing host body for the Yeerk now ranked Visser

<You're telling me the Taxxons want to . . . to

One. He commanded our mission. Alloran was
stop being Taxxons?>
an Andalite prince with the smallest possible

<Yes. Yes. My people have seen a better

56

57
way . . . a way out of this life of eternal,
phing power. We can only have it, only be free, if
excruciating pain and hunger, a hunger that
you and not the Yeerks are victorious.>
has made us slaves of the Yeerks.>

<And you would . .> I b e g a n , not daring

I didn't know what to say. Too much to ab-
even to complete the sentence, it was too
sorb. An entire species wanting to morph? And
amazing, the possibilities too incredible.

surely Arbron knew that we no longer had the

<Yes. We would fight with you. There are one
morphing cube, that Visser One had it. And in
thousand seven hundred and nine non-Controller
any event, Arbron must know that it wouldn't

Taxxons on the surface of this planet and aboard
work on him. Not on a nothlit.

the Pool ship. And we Taxxons would fight with

As if he was reading my mind, Arbron said,
you.>

<Listen to me, Jake the Animorph. I have been a
leader of these, my new people, for many years.

We have fought the hunger, resisted as well as
we could the murderous cannibalistic urges. I've
tried to show them a better way. But the need is
too powerful. Resistance always breaks down,
and we fall again under Yeerk sway. They feed us,
you see. It's as simple as that.

<I know that . . . I understand the morphing
technology. I know it cannot save me, that I am
forever trapped. But it can save my people. And
if they are saved I can lay down my burden of
leadership.>

No choice but to be honest, I thought. I can't sustain a lie. I can't trick them. <I don't have the morphing cube,> I said.

<We know. Visser One has it, and he will
never free us, never. No Taxxon or even Taxxon-

Controller has been allowed to acquire the mor-

58

59

people, the guy named Ray. And you, or so we
thought."

I had demorphed fully. I sat down hard. Ray
was a kid born with severe birth defects. He'd ac-
quired a leopard as his main morph. He loved the
physical grace of the animal, a grace he'd never
experienced in his human body.

"How are they taking it, James's people?"

"About like we were taking your death, Jake:

not well. At least it was quick: Dracon beam. He
never knew what hit him."

"We took out a lot of Taxxons," Rachel said,
arriving on the scene impeccably dressed, look-

They had given me up for dead back at the
ing like she'd just stepped out of an exclusive
valley of the free Hork-Bajir, so when I came fly-
day spa despite the fact that it was not yet six in
ing in at first light there was a certain amount of
the morning and she, like all of them, had spent
amazement.

the night in one of the hasty, shabby log shacks

Not that Marco was going to make a big thing
we'd built.

of it. "Oh, there you are," he said. "So I guess I

"Was it worth it?" Cassie wondered, then
can't have your CD collection after all."

looked as if she wished she'd kept her mouth shut.

I got up and went to her. I took her hands and

I landed on the ground and demorphed as
said, "This time, yes. I think it was. Rachel?

Cassie came running up, her tear-streaked face

Round everyone up: Toby, the parents, the whole
bright. She stopped herself from hugging me,
war council."

and then turned away.

"Yeah?" she asked with an inquisitive look.

"Cassie. Stay. Please," I said. "Marco: Did we

"They've got fifteen minutes to dress, pee,
lose anyone last night?"

and drink a cup of roots n' twigs coffee." I laughed. I

"Yeah. Three of Toby's people. One of James's
was feeling incredible. Feeling, despite the lack

60
of sleep, despite the aftermath of two terrible

The parents for the most part didn't get it.

battles in one day, wild and alive.

Toby did. And Eva, the former Visser One.

It took them twenty minutes, but that was

My fellow Animorphs just stared in dumb,
okay. Okay aside from the fact that Marco
openmouthed, it-can't-be, no-way shock.

tortured me for the secret the whole time.

All but Cassie, who sighed as if she'd been

At last the frowsy, discontented bunch was
holding her breath for weeks.

assembled.

I went to her and said, "You knew, didn't

"You're alive," Rachel's mom said, not seem-
you?"

ing too happy about it.

She shook her head. "I hoped, that was all. I

"He's hard to kill," Marco said, shaking his
hoped."

head as though commiserating with her. "I've

"Pretty good hope, Cassie," I whispered.

been tempted repeatedly during the last twenty

"Oh my God," Marco said, getting it now. "It's minutes or so."

the morphing. That's it, isn't it? The Yeerks got a

<I am very happy to see you alive, Prince
taste of morphing. The Taxxons have figured out

Jake. But why have I been pulled away from fin-
they could do it, too."

ishing my morning rituals?> Ax said. He's cranky

I nodded. "Yeah. The Taxxons grabbed me to
till he gets a few good hoofsfull of dewy grass.

talk to me. They're led by an Andalite nothlit,

I didn't know where to begin. I thought about
trapped in Taxxon morph. He said his name is Ar-
dragging it out and making a production out of it,
bron. He said he was a former companion of
but this was a dangerously tired, discontented

Elfangor's."

crowd and I was too full of the news to keep it

Ax jerked visibly. <Arbron? It is a name from a
bottled up.

very long time ago. But yes, an aristh named Ar-

"Well," I said, trying to sound laconic, "the bron was a friend of my brother's.>

Taxxons want to defect. They want to

I recounted the details of the meeting, play-
change sides."

ing to a very, very attentive audience.

Everyone just stared.

<You believed him?> Tobias asked.

"Come again?" Cassie's dad said.

I shrugged. "It doesn't make any sense as a

"The Taxxons. They want to join us. They're
trap. They had me dead. If they wanted to trap
ready to turn against the Yeerks."

us, if it was all a setup, they'd have demanded I

62

63
return with all of you. They didn't. They told me

One. They do not know that Tobias's mother is
to come back alone. Arbron wants me to speak to
morph-capable. They do not know about the aux-
his people. He wants me to tell them what I told
iliary Animorphs. They do not know that the
him. He wants my personal promise."

Yeerks have a cube. They will absolutely refuse.>

"Your promise of what?" Toby asked.

"Even if it means stopping a war, saving a

I looked right at Ax. "They want to be made
planet, and disarming their greatest enemy?"

morph-capable. They have contact with Yeerks

Cassie asked. "Are they that stubborn? That stu-
who've morphed, and they are bitterly ticked that
pid?"

Visser One has refused to enable any of his

Ax's main eyes flashed. <What they will say is

Taxxon so-called allies. They realize we don't
that it is a trick: that the Yeerks are using the
have the morphing cube anymore. And Arbron is

Taxxons to acquire more morphing power and
smart enough to know that even if we win we may
become even more formidable foes.>
not get the cube from Visser One. He could

"They've said they'll go nothlit under our su-
escape with it or even destroy it. But they've
pervision," I said. "Permanent morph."

realized that the Yeerks will never, ever allow

"The Andalite high command is not going to
them to gain morphing capabilities because it
trust us that far," Marco said.

would be the end of Taxxon dependence on the

"The Andalite high command can drop

Yeerks."

dead," Rachel said. "What good have they ever

"So they want us to promise Andalite cooper-
been to us? Where are they, huh? We've always
ation?" Marco said thoughtfully. "They want us
been their last priority. They've done squat for
to guarantee that the Andalites will pay off on our
us. They're sitting off at a safe distance waiting
debt?"

to see whether we win or lose. If we win they'll

I nodded. "Exactly. They want us to commit
pat us on the head and say, 'Good inferior
the Andalite high command to make every Taxxon
species, good girl, here's a doggie treat.' And
morph-capable. In exchange, each Taxxon will
if we lose what are they going to do?"

choose a form and turn nothlit."

No one had an answer to that. Then Cassie

<My people will never agree,> Ax said bluntly.

said, "Ax, you need to tell them."

<The morphing technology is the crown jewel of

Ax looked startled. His stalk eyes jerked

Andalite science. They are already furious that it
toward Cassie.

has spread as far as the five of you and Visser

65

64

"It's time to choose, Ax," Cassie said very
quietly. "Once and for all. We all know what Allo-
ran did to the Hork-Bajir world, trying to keep
them from falling into Yeerk hands. The An-
dalites won't allow Earth to fall to the Yeerks, will
they?"

All attention was on Ax.

It was a long time before he spoke. It's hard
to read Andalite emotions — they lack mouths,
and that makes them less expressive than hu-
mans. But it was easy enough to guess at the
conflicts going on inside that wonderfully quick,
agile brain.

<I have at times contacted the Andalite fleet
without telling anyone,> Ax said slowly.

"I'll kill you myself!" Rachel erupted.

"Rachel," I said as evenly as I could.

<There is a possibility that the Andalite high
command might resort to ... extreme mea-
sures.>

67

"Now can I kill him?" Rachel demanded.

Another long hesitation. Then, <Yes,

I wasn't far from letting her. I was furious.

Prince Jake. It is true.>

Betrayed! Ax had used our limited

In a few moment's time I'd gone from
communicator to chat with his people? Behind
the heights of hope and optimism to the
our backs?

depths of rage and despair. The Andalite

Cassie s a i d , "Ax has already defied
fleet wasn't coming to rescue us. They were
t h e m . They ordered him to stop our attack
coming to destroy us in order to destroy the
on the Yeerk pool. He disobeyed."

Yeerks.

<You spied on me?> Ax asked her.

In a h e a r t b e a t w e ' d lost one e n e m y ,

"I'm an Animorph, Ax," Cassie answered. "

the Taxxons, and gained another, far more

A flea on your back when you would sneak
deadly: our erstwhile friends, our long-
out of camp."

awaited saviors, the Andalites.

"Why on God's green Earth would these

<How do we stop t h e m , Ax-man?>

Andalites order him to stop us from killing

Tobias asked. He and Ax are best friends.

their enemies?" Rachel's mother asked,

"You're asking him?" Rachel raged,
and for once it was a good question.

stabbing an accusing finger at the Andalite.

Eva had the answer. "I can guess: They

Ax held his head high and for a
didn't want anything to stop the Yeerks
moment I thought he might refuse to
from concentrating their forces here. They
answer Tobias's question. T h e n , <You
wanted the Yeerks to pour into E a r t h . " She
must understand that the Andalite high
laughed mirthlessly. "The Yeerks are evil,
command is not the entire Andalite
destructive, dangerous creatures, I know
e l e c t o r a t e . This l o n g war h a s m a d e
that better than anyone. But the Andalites
t h e m a greater part of our civilization than
are no saints themselves. They want the
they should rightly be. The Andalite

Yeerks to concentrate here because the
electorate, the people, do not know what is

Andalites have written us off, decided we
planned.>
can't win, and they wanted to blast the

"So, how do we tell them?" Marco said. "

entire planet out of existence and take out

Any time we dial up that communicator my
the bulk of the Yeerk race along with the
dad invented it just reaches the Andalite fleet."

human race."

<We take the Yeerk Pool ship,> Ax said.

"Is that true, Ax?"

<We use its power to contact the nonmilitary

Andalite
communications net. We tell the Andalite people
to mind. ". . . conflicted. I'll back your guess
what has happened, what we've done, and what
any day of the week."

we have promised the Taxxons.>

"I think he means he's sorry he doubted you

<Will the Andalite people back us?> Tobias
and treated you like crap," Rachel said archly.

asked.

"Yeah. That's exactly what I mean. Come on,

Ax looked grim. <Will your people? Will they

Cassie, show me where to go next."

allow Taxxons to morph and live in peace on this
planet? Will your people choose trust over hatred
and revenge?>

That put it back in my court. I didn't have an
answer.

"Arbron wants me to speak to the Taxxons
tonight," I said. "He's suggested I appear in
morph — to demonstrate the possibilities. He
doesn't know much about Earth animals. But he
thinks the Taxxons would prefer something not
too different from their current forms. Something
strong but something not afflicted by the Taxxon
hunger. Cassie?"

She looked blank. "Something similar to their
present forms? Centipedes? Caterpillars? No,
they'd want a longer lifespan at least. And you
said strong . . . ah. I have an idea. I don't know.

Maybe . . . I don't know. I'd be guessing."

I said, "Cassie, you guessed that letting Tom
take the morphing cube might weaken rather
than strengthen the Yeerks. You guessed that Ax
was . . ." I stifled the most bitter word that came

71

70

thick and so long I couldn't begin to guess at its
total size. It had a clearly delineated head and a
sort of rough-edged diamond pattern to its scales.

It was either asleep or dead. Or very relaxed.

"The anaconda is part of the python family,"

Cassie said. "One of if not the biggest snake
species on Earth. It hunts live prey, but snakes
are far from the kind of hunger a Taxxon knows.

They have very slow metabolisms. They can go a
long time between meals."

I peered at the informational plaque. "Native to
the Amazon jungle?" I laughed. "You're thinking
ahead."

"Is it a python?" I guessed.

Cassie looked embarrassed, like I'd caught

"Anaconda," Cassie said.

her doing something dishonest. "If we agree to

The Gardens had survived the destruction of
give the Taxxons a place to live in freedom here
the town since it was outside the radius of annihi-
on Earth, why not the rain forest? The agreement
lation. But it was closed. A handful of dedicated
would stop destruction of the rain forest dead in
people worked to keep the animals from starving,
its tracks."

I nodded. "Yes, it would. But is this . . ." I
but the place was a mess: The breeze blew trash
jerked my head toward the snake. "Is this the
around the usually pristine sidewalks; the whole
morph that would appeal to a Taxxon?"

place reeked of uncleaned cages and habitats;

Cassie shrugged. "I guess I don't figure Taxxons
water pressure had been cut off so the picturesque
are big on imagination. I think they'd want some-
moats and ponds were scummed over.

thing fairly close, as you said, to what they are

The snake house looked about like it always
now. But not some helpless worm or bug: They're
did, though some of the display areas were dark. I
used to a certain relative size."

guess snakes are low maintenance.

"Uh-huh. You sure that snake isn't dead? I

The snake I was staring at looked about afoot
haven't seen it move yet."

72

"Well, you see what I mean: It would be dif-
know the galaxy is full of life, full of intelligent
ferent from the relentless demands of life for a
species. We'll have this huge rush of technologi-

Taxxon. There's a lot of sitting in the sun in-
cal change. There'll be nothing to stop us from
volved."

being a space-traveling species. Humans on the

"Florida retirement for Taxxons."

moon, on Mars, maybe colonizing planets all

"Yeah."

around the galaxy. And there's the morphing

"Well, let's get this over with," I said reluc-
technology. Can you imagine what that's going to
tantly.

mean?"

"It's perfectly safe," Cassie said condescend-

Cassie nodded. "I guess I don't think about
ingly.

that stuff so much. I guess I think more about us.

"It's a snake. It's a snake the size of palm

You and me. And all of us."

tree."

I took her in my arms. The anaconda's habitat

"Come on." She put her arm through mine
was probably not the most romantic place on
and drew me away toward the access corridor be-

Earth, but it felt safe. "You know I love you."

hind the cages.

"I love you, too, Jake," she said, and put her

We both went in and I knelt and touched the
head on my shoulder.

dry scales. Not slimy at all, but still creepy. I ac-

"I guess if we win, if we survive, maybe we
quired the snake. Its DNA joined the DNA of how
should, you know, get married and all. I mean,
many species floating around in my blood? I
eventually. I know we're young, but man, we've
couldn't even remember them all.

been through enough that it should count for a

"When you do this morph your biggest prob-
few extra years, shouldn't it?"

lem will be staying awake," Cassie said.

I don't know what I expected her answer to

I stood up, and for a moment tried to figure
be, but I didn't expect her to start crying. And
out how to say what I wanted to say.

not tears of joy, either.

"Cassie, you ever wonder what happens if we

"I would like that ... eventually," she said. "

win? You ever think about that?"

But. But what?"

"All the time."

She sighed. "But, Jake, what are you going to

"Nothing will ever be the same. People will
be? What are you going to do?"

74

75

"Guess I thought I'd go to college," I said.

bility of actual victory, despite the probable

"And study what, Jake? Me, I'll go to college,

Andalite betrayal. The Taxxons might be joining

I'll become a doctor. never forget what's
us! For so long I'd fought with no hope at all.

happened, I'll never even try, but I'll be able

I should be excited.

to slip back into a normal life. But you, Jake?"

I should be happy.

I shrugged and released her and stood away a
bit. "I'm not Rachel, you know. I didn't fall in
love with the fight. I don't need it like she does. I
do it, I try and do it well, but it's just a job, a
duty." I tried to make a joke of it. "I mean, what do you think? The Pentagon is going to call me
up and make me Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of

Staff? I'm not even old enough to enlist as a pri-
vate."

She didn't laugh. She just looked at me.

"Look, Cassie, when this is over I'll be done
with it forever. I'll go back to school, get an edu-
cation, go to basketball games, get a driver's li-
cense, go to college, figure out what it is I really
want to do. And be with you. You and me."

She forced a smile. "A year after it ends, if it
ends, if we win, a year afterward if you want to be
with me, we'll talk about that again, okay?"

"I have to wait a year? Kind of harsh, isn't it?"

"Hey, if we get married, Marco isn't going to
live with us, is he?" Cassie said, trying her best
to jolly us both out of our dark moods.

It didn't work.

For the first time I could taste the faint possi-

77

I landed and demorphed. It was a chilly night,
especially for someone in nothing but morphing
clothes. I was glad to climb into the VW. I sat be-
hind the steering wheel and looked around, not
knowing what to expect. The little bud vase was
empty.

<What are we doing?> Marco asked from his
location somewhere on my body.

"We're sitting here looking like a suspicious
car thief," I answered. "Where are you guys, anyway? Where on my body did you end up after I
demorphed?"

Rachel answered, <Gotta tell you, cousin, I

A
don't know where we are exactly, and I don't
rbron had given me the place: a spot more
really want to know.>
than a mile away from the site of the new Yeerk

"Mmmm. Good point."

pool. He had not told me positively, absolutely, to

<Marco just bit you,> Ax reported. <If I un-
come alone. So, I brought backup, though not in
derstand the physiology of flea bites correctly,
any visible form.

you will experience an itching sensation later,

I flew with fleas nestled deep in my feathers.

and then will know precisely where we were.>

Only Tobias remained in his true form, flying "

"There's a pleasant thought," I said.

cover."

<Hey, there's a key in the ignition. See if the

I found the spot easily enough: a used car lot
radio works,> Marco suggested.

just outside the blast area. It was abandoned, of

I punched the power switch. It was set to a
course. About half the cars had been stolen by
news channel. The announcer sounded tired. "

looters, and of those that remained maybe a third

. . . are saying at this hour that the looting has
were damaged in some way. But there, just as Ar-
diminished in intensity. Numerous fires are still
bron had told me, waited a yellow VW Beetle.

burning, but fire departments from as far as a

78

79
hundred miles away are sending trucks and

I closed my eyes and opened them once more and
crews to —" I pushed preset buttons and tried
this time I saw the Taxxons, everywhere, all
for some music.

around the car, pressing close, red jelly eyes stari

There was a rumbling. I turned off the radio. "

ng.

Urn . . . you guys feel that?"

"We're here," I muttered.

<We're fleas, we feel everything,> Cassie said.

<Good. I need to pee,> Marco said.

Tobias called down from high above. <I guess

"I'm going to get out," I whispered.

you guys know the ground is opening up, right?>

I opened the door slowly. I stood up.

"Buckle your seat belts."

They were everywhere, a wall of Taxxons.

The ground vibrated beneath the car and I fol-

More Taxxons than I could have imagined in my
lowed my own advice, drew the shoulder belt
worst nightmare. Not dozens, hundreds.

across, and clipped it just as the ground opened

Arbron — at least I hoped it was him —
up and the car began to roll forward, down a
danced forward on his needle legs. He raised his
sloping tunnel into the ground.

upper third and loomed high above me.

It was elegantly done: The tunnel had an al-

I knew, or at least hoped, it was a friendly
most flat floor, the walls close enough to make
gathering. But these were Taxxons, after all.

steering unnecessary. The car rolled free, scuff-

Taxxons, not even Taxxon-Controllers. In their
ing the dirt walls from time to time. How far
natural state they were insane with hunger, and I
down, I couldn't be sure. Then I glanced in the
was food.

rearview mirror: The tunnel was being collapsed

<Please climb to the podium,> Arbron invited
behind me.

me and I noticed for the first time a sort of rock-

If it was a trap after all, it was a very good
and-dirt mound maybe ten feet high. I scrambled
trap.

up, trying not to look scared, and moving very,

All at once 1 emerged into a huge open space.

very carefully so as not to scrape a knee or cut a

A cavern, tall and arched, and lit by dim artificial
finger.

lights high overhead.

Arbron rose part of the way behind me. Then

The car rolled to a halt. I closed my eyes to
he spread his upper rows of Taxxon arms wide
adjust to the gloom. I opened them again and
and began addressing the crowd in the Taxxon
had an impression of restless movement all around.

speech.

80

I didn't understand a word of it, but the

Now the crowd grew quieter, more attentive,

Taxxon multitude did. They hissed and slithered
less excited, but very, very focused.

and made a trilling sound that could either be

<I have brought this human here to speak to
approval or rage.

you, my people.>

From atop the mound, and with my eyes ad-

I recognized my cue. I was about to start
justed to the near-darkness, I could see them all.

speaking, but it occurred to me that a visual aid

A sea of Taxxons. A huge underground cavern
would be helpful. So I spread my arms wide and
reeking of ammonia and seething with oversized,
reached deep inside myself for the DNA that
murderous centipedes.

would form the tiger.

Then Arbron began to speak to them in

I morphed slowly, slowly so they could all see.

thought-speak, presumably for my benefit.

They watched the claws grow from my fingers,

<Taxxons! Here is the human who leads the
saw the orange-and-black fur rush across my
fight against the Yeerks. He and his warriors have
body, muttered as I dropped forward onto all
killed many of our people.>
fours.

I must have gone several shades more pale at

<You might want to warn us,> Rachel com-
that. It seemed a strange way to introduce me.

plained. <It's like an earthquake down here.>

<He and his warriors have defied the power of

Then, I began to demorph more quickly. And

Visser One, the former Visser Three, for years. It
once I was human again I focused my thoughts
was he and his warriors who destroyed the Yeerk
on the dragonfly. I shrank, fell toward the ground
pool and killed many Yeerks.>
like a man diving off a skyscraper. The dirt and

The crowd liked that. They murmured in true
rock rose to me, gravel becoming boulders. Gos-

Taxxon form, hissing and spitting and writhing.

samer wings sprouted from my back. Articulated

Impossible not to feel that I was sitting on some
insect legs erupted from my chest. Massive eyes
gigantic piece of rotting meat surrounded by
swelled like balloons, popping out of my eye
huge maggots. Impossible to shake that image.

sockets, overwhelming my face. I could actually

<He and his warriors are friends to the An-
see the fleas clinging to my body.

dalites who possess the transforming power. This

<Everyone hang on, we're going airborne,> I
human> — he pointed at me with three of his
notified my friendly fleas.

arms — <can morph!>

I fired my wings and zoomed just over the

83
heads of the Taxxons. Then back, to land atop my

I let the Taxxons take a good, long look.

podium. I demorphed. And now, if Cassie was

<This creature is called an anaconda,> I said.

right, the piece de resistance.

<It is the largest of snakes, powerful, dangerous

I formed a picture of the anaconda in my
when provoked. But as I feel its mind within my
mind. The changes began. I saw my skin harden,
own, I know that it is calm, at peace, restful. It is
dry out, crack into thousands of interlocked
unafraid. It longs for food, but it can resist, can
scales.

control its hunger.>

My eyes moved around my head but remained

The chamber was silent. The Taxxons stared,
forward-focused. My face bulged out, stretched,
stared holes in me with their red jelly
out and out. My arms were shriveling at a
eyes. <Very good,> Arbron said privately to
shocking pace. I was a weird creature, half
me.

snake, half human, standing erect but
armless. Then my legs went weak and I
dropped flat on my belly before I could fall. My
legs melted into the tail that was stretching out
and out and out from my elongating spine.

I was ten feet long and still growing. Longer
and longer, and without thinking I shortened the
muscles on one side of my body and brought my
length up to form a loose coil.

The anaconda's senses replaced my own. Vi-
sion faded, color dimmed, but awareness of
motion intensified. It was like when you set your
computer cursor to show trails: everything,
anything that moved was infinitely more
interesting than color or shape.

My tongue tasted the air and I received a
download of data — temperature, humidity, the
scent of Taxxon exhalations.

85

84

given the choice — to remain as you are, or to
change, to find a new form, and live in peace and
contentment here, in a special place. A home-
land for the Taxxons . . . for Taxxons who are no
longer haunted by the desperate hunger, no longer
prey to the Yeerks."

I was lying. At least in part. Arbron was an An-
dalite, or had been: He had to know that the An-
dalites would resist ever turning the morphing
power over to the hated Taxxons.

I cringed a little as I spoke, waiting for him to
interrupt, to call me a liar. But he let me go on.

And I painted the picture for the Taxxons: life

H
without hunger, a life of safety and security,
uman once more, I addressed the Taxxon
where they would live in peace among them-
multitude.

selves, no more cannibalism.

"My name is Jake. I am the leader of the Ani-

And Arbron let me go on speaking.

morphs. As Arbron told you, we have killed many

"The question is: Can we and our Andalite

Taxxons using the morphing power. But we are
friends defeat the Yeerks and bring on this new
not the enemies of the Taxxons. We are the ene-
day?"

mies of the Yeerks. And we have killed many

They waited for the answer. I gave it to them,

Yeerks."

feeling weirdly like a presidential candidate de-

They liked that okay.

livering a stump speech.

"The Andalites are our friends."

"We can defeat the Yeerks . . . if you join us.

<Yeah, right,> Rachel said in private thought-

Animorph, Andalite, and Taxxon together, we can
speak.

win."

"The Andalites are coming, and there may be

The Taxxons didn't cheer, exactly, but they
a great battle. The Andalites may win. The Yeerks
did send up a creepy whistling sound that rever-
may win. If we and the Andalites win, you will be
berated around the chamber.

86

87

My brother, the human-Controller, head of

Arbron slithered up beside me and, to my sur-
prise, dismissed them, told them all to get back

Yeerk security.

to their work. Hundreds of Taxxons obediently

"Oh, calm down, Rachel," Tom said genially,
turned away and began filing out of side tunnels
giving her a "chill-out" wave. She had begun to
like a football stadium crowd after the game.

morph to grizzly. "No need to go all hostile."

I probably looked puzzled as I turned to Ar-

"Keep morphing, Rachel," I told her. "Ax?"

bron. "Well?"

Ax moved quickly to Tom's side. His tail blade

<Well, they have agreed. For now. They will
was against Tom's throat. Tom stood still. He
follow my direction. For now.>
made a mocking face, exaggerated fear.

"Okay, then I guess we should get down to

"I'm alone, unarmed," Tom said, holding his
specifics," I said. "You know the Pool ship is
arms up in surrender. "Hey, I'm morph-capable
here on Earth, on the surface. It's there to feed
now, you know. If I wanted trouble I'd use this
the Yeerks until they can finish —"

really cool jaguar morph I have."

<Why don't you ask your friends to demorph? I'

"Let him go, Ax," I said.

m sure they would be more comfortable.>

Ax removed his tail but stayed within striking

That stopped me. But there was no point in
distance. A word from me and Tom's head would
trying to lie. "Yeah, I guess they would."

be rolling across the cave floor like a bowling

Fleas leaped away from me, unseen by either
ball.

of us, and moments later my friends began to ap-

"So, this is the whole team, huh?" Tom nod-
pear, growing out of swollen, vile, armor-plated
ded. He shook his head ruefully. "Crazy cousin
flea bodies.

Rachel. I always knew you were too much for

<And now, my friend,> Arbron said.

your own good."

I heard footsteps and peered into the dark-

<Shut up, Yeerk,> she said. <You're not my
ness of an access tunnel.

cousin. You're a snail living inside my cousin's

"Well, good evening, everyone. It's an awfully
head.>
pretty night to spend it all in a filthy Taxxon tun-

"Snail? Oh, I'm wounded," the Yeerk inside
nel."

Tom answered. "And there's Cassie. Marco. Your

I knew the voice. I'd heard it every day of my
pet Andalite, of course. Hey, where's the bird?"

life. My brother. Tom.

"How about we cut the crap?" I said.

88

89

"Absolutely, Killer." His eyes were cold, hos-

Marco snorted derisively. "Free? You don't
tile. He was making no effort to pretend to actu-
want to be free."

ally be Tom. He knew that I knew what he was.

Tom laughed. "Marco must be the one doing

<Tom represents a faction of Yeerks who want
your thinking for you, Jake. You never were all
some of what we want,> Arbron said.

that smart. You're right, Marco, I want something

"Some?"

else. I want Visser One dead. I want the Council

"Yeah, some," Tom agreed. "Sorry, but we're of Thirteen off my back. I want to lose the whole
not interested in hiding out in some out-of-the-

Empire. They're prisoners of their own tired old
way forest, some game preserve. That may be fine
thinking. They can't see the future. We're a para-
for the Taxxons. Me, I want something a little bet-
sitic species, they can't see past that. We have
ter than that. But then, I have even more to offer
the huge vulnerability of reliance on Kandrona
than Brother Arbron, here. You want the Pool
rays. But morphed, permanently morphed, we
ship? You want your mommy and daddy back, Big
won't need Kandrona rays, and we won't be para-

Jake the Yeerk Killer? You want this creature
sites anymore. We can achieve a greater destiny."

back?" He indicated his own body. "You want

He moved closer now. His fists were clenched
poor Tommy back? I can make all that happen."

at his side, his jaw, seemed to tighten so that the

I had to rein in a powerful desire to go after
words could barely force their way past bared
him. It's hard to conceive of the impotent rage
teeth. I'd seen Tom this way once, just once,
you feel watching someone you love be reduced
when he'd been wrongly accused of cheating on
to a mindless puppet. "In exchange for what?"

a test. It was as angry as Tom got, short of punch-

"My people want it, too: the morphing power."

ing someone.

"You said you're already morph-capable."

"Visser One is only capable of piling brute

"I am. And not just this body, by the way, but
force on top of brute force. He's insane, you
me. I've subjected my own true Yeerk self to the
know. You can't rely on him! You can't hope for
cube. You want to know what's funny? I can
career advancement, to rise as you should. I
morph Tom. That's right, I can morph into my
should be a sub-visser by now, and in the small
own host body. Cool, huh? But there are all these
numbers. What I've done on this planet? I've
other Yeerks who are never going to get the
been carrying him for the last three years. But as
chance to be free."

long as . ." He stopped himself, forced a hard

90
smile. "Office politics. You don't want to hear

That interested me. Interested me greatly, but
about it."

could I believe him?

"What do you want?" Marco asked him. "Give

<Surely we cannot allow this creature to seize
it to us A,B,C. What do you want?"

the Blade ship,> Ax said. <The Blade ship is a

<Don't even listen to him,> Rachel growled.

very powerful offensive weapon. As a warship it is

<We take him now, hold on to him for three days
even more dangerous than a Pool ship since it is
till the Yeerk starves to death. Then we have Tom
as heavily armed and far faster and more maneu-
back.>
verable. We Andalites would have little to fear,

Tom's Yeerk dropped the wise-guy attitude.

but few other space-faring races could stand

He ignored Rachel and Marco and even Ax who
against such a ship.>
still hovered close, twitching with readiness.

Tom's face smirked. "Little brother, you've

"You take the Pool ship, Jake. You can keep it.

got to know by now: Wars aren't won with clean

But I get the Blade ship, and a hundred of my
hands."

people, all treated with the morphing cube. And

"Don't listen to him," Cassie said, but it was
we get a free pass out of this system."

almost a whisper.

"And you take off to some far-off, unsuspect-

"What do you have to offer?" I asked Tom.

ing planet, make victims of some other species?"

"The keys to the kingdom, kid. I can give you

Cassie cried.

the access codes for every system on the Pool

"Hmm. Come to think of it, yes," Tom said.

ship. If you can take it, Brother Jake, you and

He waited. Grinned. "But . . ."

your free Hork-Bajir and your new Taxxon allies,

"Yeah?" I asked.

if you can take it, I can tell you how to fly it. Not

"But the Yeerk Empire will be gutted. Fin-
only that, I have a plan to help you get aboard the
ished. I've told Visser One that I have informa-

Pool ship. And by the way, your old friend Visser
tion that the Andalite fleet is massing close by,

One has temporarily transferred his headquarters
using Jupiter as a shield to hide behind. So he's
to the Pool ship. The Pool ship and Visser One —
ordered most of our own fleet to stay in Zero-
that's game, set, and match." He grinned at me
space, ready to emerge once the Andalites are
and said, "They'll carve your sanctimonious face
committed. Not quite true. The Andalites are
up on Mount Rushmore, Jake-Boy. You'll be the
much closer than that."

savior of the human race."

92

93

"Thanks for the offer," I said. "I don't think so. Ax, take him. Rachel? Help Ax. Carefully!"

That rocked him for a second or two. Then he
nodded. "I see: The Andalite's told you he can
break security." He nodded. "He probably can,
the Andalites are very good with computers. He'd
have an hour before the codes shift. He would.

Except that I've changed the code cycle to fifteen
minutes." He glared at Ax. "Can you beat fifteen minutes, Andalite? Can you do that?"

The keys were in my hands.

I could win. We could win.

If General Doubleday would provide the diver-
sion. If the Taxxons would rally to us. If Tom's

Yeerk provided us with the access codes. If Tom
really could get us aboard the Pool ship and we
could overpower the Yeerks still aboard. And if Ax
could (and would) find a way to convince his
people to ratify the promises we'd made to the

Taxxons and Tom's dissident Yeerk faction.

Five "ifs." A lot. But at least now the number
of "ifs" was a finite number.

A sixth "if": If Tom's Yeerk was telling the
truth.

He had asked for no guarantees. Did he trust

94

95
me to keep my word? Would he risk everything on
your parents, may be restored to us. And because
my word? True, he knew me through my brother's
of that, Tom's Yeerk has seen a way to betray his
memories. And yet ... and yet ..

own people and become some kind of warlord on

As we flew home, flew home impossibly free
his own.>
and alive after spending an hour with a few hun-

I took a moment to digest that. She was actu-
dred Taxxons plus one of the highest ranking
ally blaming herself. <Cassie, these things hap-

Yeerks, my mind was full of the details. Cassie
pen. You can't always predict the results of the
left me alone for a while, but I knew she'd have
things you do. You try your best, take your best
something to say. I knew it. And I knew I had ig-
shot, and maybe it comes out right, and maybe it
nored her in the past at my own peril. I knew I
comes out . . . I don't know, confused.>
should listen to her, trust her.

<Brilliant, isn't it? So I make the decisions, I

But I also knew what she'd say, and I didn't
make the big call, sanctimonious little me, I
want to hear it. Just the same, after a while, as
make the moral, optimistic decision, and where
we flew in the dead night air above the wrecked
are we?>
town below, the waiting got to me.

<Better off than we were,> I said, but I was

<Cassie, just go ahead and say it,> I said finally.

only half-listening now. An alarm bell was going

<Say it? You're expecting some moral lecture
off in my head. Why? What was the problem?

from me about turning Tom's Yeerk and a hun-

What was it?

dred of his chosen people loose with a fantasti-

<And some species we don't know about is
cally powerful warship to roam the galaxy? Never
maybe doomed when a Blade ship full of morph-
knowing what suffering he may inflict?>
ing Yeerks descends on them.>

<Something like that, yeah.>

<It's never completely clean, Cassie. Doesn't

<Because that's me, right? The voice of whin-
work that way. But you try your best to keep it
ing morality.>
clean. The fact that you know you'll be dragged

She sounded bitter. I wasn't surprised. I was
in the gutter doesn't mean you don't try like hell
surprised by what came next.

to stay out of it. You don't get a lot of straight-up

<I gave the Yeerks the morphing cube,> she
good or evil choices. You get shades of gray. I
said. <Because of that the Taxxons may become
mean, we started this war thinking we'd hold on
a force for peace. And Tom, the real Tom, and
till the great and glorious Andalites came to res-

96

97
cue us. Now we're making deals with Taxxons
turn? Trusted me to get him all he wanted, all I'd
and Yeerks to gain a victory fast enough to keep
agreed to?

the great and glorious Andalites from making

No. No, that wasn't it. Tom's Yeerk wanted us
their own shades-of-gray decision.>
to believe we could trust him. He didn't ask for

<What are you going to do?> Cassie asked.

assurances or cross-examine me because he

<I'm going to win,> I said. But I didn't be-
didn't want me doing the same to him.

lieve it. Why? It was all there. It was all possible

Then I saw it: Of course. I'd been looking at
at least.

nothing but tactics; I'd overlooked emotion. The

Of course Tom's Yeerk was lying in part. I was
emotion of a vengeful Yeerk. He despised Visser
sure he was not interested in turning nothlit, that One for being a failure, for being a brute, for rewas a joke. The morphing cube was almost surely
fusing to promote him. "As long as... ," Tom had on board the Blade ship, and the Blade ship had
started to say.

its own small Yeerk pool facility. So of course he

Yes. Visser One was not the only person Tom's
was lying about that.

Yeerk hated. Someone else was to blame for forc-

But just as surely, he was telling the truth
ing this choice on an ambitious Yeerk.

about wanting to seize the Blade ship and go into

Me. My friends. We were responsible for forc-
business for himself.

ing this choice on Tom's Yeerk. In frustrating

Tom. The Yeerk in his head. Had to believe

Visser One we had doomed Tom's Yeerk.

him, after all, he'd known where we were, he ob-

That was why Tom's Yeerk didn't ask for reas-
viously knew about Arbron, he could very easily
surances from us. He expected us to be dead. He
have called in every Hork-Bajir-Controller on the
would kill Visser One and us and sail off across
planet and taken us down.

the galaxy in the Blade ship with the morphing

He'd had us right in the palm of his hand,
cube in his hands.

and let us go. Had to trust that. Didn't I?

It came to me all at once that I could beat

Yeah. But why did he trust me? Why did he
him. Use him and beat him.

trust me?

One of those rare, perfect moments when a

Trust breeds trust, right? Tom's Yeerk had
dozen nagging questions, an infinity of details,
shown he could be trusted, so he trusted us in re-
simply fall perfectly into place and form a single
clear picture.

98

99

It took my breath away. The perfection of it.

I explained what I wanted her to do.

The pure, ruthless perfection of it.

<You're sure, Jake?> she asked solemnly

All I had to do was send my friends to die.

when I had finished. <Because if you tell me "

Cassie was still talking to me, but I didn't

Go!" I'll follow your orders. You know what that
hear her words. I had seen the vision. I could see
means.>
the pure, straight line from point A to point Z.

<Yeah, Rachel, I know what it means.>

I said, <Marco? Find the Chee. Find them.

Still she hesitated. <It won't be the Yeerk,

Bring Erek to me.>

Jake. It'll be Tom. It'll be him.>

<How am I going to do that?> Marco groused.

<I know that,> I s a i d . <And I ... if it hap-

<The Chee hideout is in the blast area. I tried,
pens, if it comes down that way, I don't have a
but it's nothing but destruction, you can't even
plan for getting you out. You'd be on your own.>
tell where the streets used to be. And it's crawl-

<That's how I like it.>
ing with Yeerks shooting anything that moves. It

<Okay, then. Get started. Make sure Cassie
would be very easy to get myself killed going
doesn't know.>
back there.>

<You still don't trust her?> Rachel said an-

<Yeah, I know. Do it anyway,> I said. <I need
grily.

the Chee.> I felt sick inside. High and low at

<She loves us both, Rachel,> I said. <I can't
once. Exalted. Twisted.

make her part of this. I can't let her know in ad-

What chance was there that Marco would suc-
vance, so, you know, if it happens, if it happens, I
ceed? What chance that he would survive?

don't want her spending the rest of her life won-

And worse in store for Rachel. I needed Tobias,
dering if she could have stopped it somehow.>
and could not risk losing Ax. Cassie? No. It had to

Rachel said, <Okay, Jake. You're right. And
be Rachel. Only she would do it, could do it.

you're right to use me for this. Not exactly some-

I had a few small changes to make to Tom's
thing I'm proud of, maybe, but later, you know,
plan. The orders came easily, automatically as I
dispatched my friends, one after the other. Only
if — don't be blaming yourself, okay?>

Rachel remained.

She angled her eagle's wings to take the
wind, and flew away.

<Rachel, I have a job for you.>

The plan was a fragile thing in my mind, a

100

101

construct of if-then possibilities, of hopes, opti-
mism, and cynicism in equal measure.

I would use everyone, put everyone in harm's
way. And I knew knew beyond any doubt—
that someone, and maybe more than someone, I
loved was going to die.

It took all day to get my chess pieces in
place. The hardest one was Erek the Chee.

Marco found him. He found him after twice
being spotted and shot by Yeerk forces. But it's
hard to kill an Animorph. A wounded morph has
only to demorph to be reconstituted as a whole
human.

Of course a dead morph is a dead Animorph,
and Marco came very close to not making it.

He was not happy by the time he dragged into
camp late in the day. I had almost given up hope.

Erek is a Chee, one of a race of sentient ro-
bots created millennia ago by the Pemalites. The

Pemalites were gentle, wise, intelligent creatures
who were obliterated by the Howlers long, long

102

103
ago. The Pemalites believed in peace. And the
nine forms. They took in stray or lost dogs when-

Chee they created, despite being unimaginably
ever they could.

powerful and equipped with formidable holo-

"Erek, we need your help."

graphic technology, were incapable of violence.

"Always glad to help, within the limits of my

This was not to say that the Chee didn't have
programming," he answered cautiously.

a side in the war. They were our allies. They were

"We're taking the Pool ship," I said.

the ultimate spies, able to pass as humans, as

He hesitated, thought that over. "I don't see
they had since arriving on Earth as refugees back
how I'm going to be able to help you. We don't
in the days of the pharaohs of Egypt.

have a lot of data on the Pool ship. Nothing you

The Chee had spied for us, hoped we would
don't already know."

w i n , but they would not help us k i l l . They

"It's not information we need," I said. "We couldn't help or cause anyone to kill or even to
need your skills. We need your active participa-
be hurt. I counted on that.

tion. We need you there."

Erek smiled at me with a human face that

His eyes grew dark, a holographic but very
should belong to a guy my own age. Of course be-
real-seeming reaction. "I can't do that, Jake. We
neath the hologram was a machine that looked as
both know there'll be fighting. I can't be part of
though it was built of stainless steel and ivory,
that."

like a stylized dog walking erect.

I took a deep breath, not wanting to say what

"Jake, I'm pleased to see you still alive," Erek was about to say. "Here's the thing, Erek, I
said. "Pleased to see all of you."

know what you can and can't do. So I'm going to

"And we're relieved to see you, Erek. How are
use that to force your hand. I'm sorry. But we're
the Chee doing?"

down to it, now. We're right down to it."

He shrugged. "Well, our house is gone. But

"What are you planning?" He switched off the "

the underground facility is intact. All our people

Erek" holographic facade and revealed his true
are safe. We've been through worse in five thou-
self. Maybe that was to intimidate me. Maybe it
sand years among your lovely people. I mean, I
was just a way of conveying anger.

survived the Huns and they were quite unpleas-

"We know you can't fight us. So we're going
ant. The dogs are safe at least."

to take you, carry you if we have to, put you in a

The Chee carried on their master's love of ca-
position where you'll cooperate because refusing

104

1 0 5
to cooperate will force us to take lives. Your refusal

I nodded. "Tell you the truth, Erek, your being
to cooperate would be the trigger for killing.

mad at me is the least of my problems. Marco?

"Ax? Bring your prisoner."

Erek is your property. He tries to leave, stop him.

I had dispatched Ax and Cassie to take a pris-

If he succeeds in leaving, Ax, you'll execute this
oner, a known Controller, a human-Controller.

Controller."

Chapman.

shot a challenging, defensive look at Cassie. "

And he was not happy.

Any comment?"

"Ax, if I tell you to kill this Controller, will you

"No."

do it?" I asked him.

I glared at my friends, all of whom were look-

<Yes,> Ax answered truthfully. <He is a rank-
ing somber. Erek had been with us, an ally, a
ing Yeerk, an enemy who has done great damage
friend, for a long time. "Does anyone have any
to human freedom.>
thing to say?"

"This is low," Erek grated. "This is so far be-No one did.

neath you, Jake."

"Good. Now, Ax? In addition to keeping an

Weird blackmailing a creature you know is
eye on our friend, here, it's time for you to phone
physically capable of obliterating you down to
the Andalite fleet. You tell them you succeeded
your individual molecules. Weird trusting that he
in stopping our raid on the Yeerk pool. Tell them
won't, can't, do any such thing.

the Yeerks are all here on Earth like sitting

"Sorry," I said again. "But we'll keep you in a ducks. But they can't strike yet because you,
position where every time you refuse to help, we
aristh Aximili, are going to deliver a major Yeerk
take a life. And I'll make you this promise: Your
warship right into their laps. You're going to hand
help will minimize the casualties."

them an entire, intact Pool ship."

Erek said a long string of words I didn't un-

<You are asking me to lie to my people,> Ax
derstand.

said. <The Yeerks have stopped concentrating

"What?"

forces on Earth. They are awaiting the construc-

"I was offering you my opinion of your morals
tion of a new Yeerk pool.>
and your ethics and your sense of decency," Erek

"I'm not asking you to lie to your people, Ax.

spat. "I was speaking an ancient Mesopotamian

I'm telling you to. We need them close enough to
dialect known for its wide variety of curse words."

be of use, but we also need to give them a reason

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107
not to start blasting away at Earth. Call the An-

"Yes, I know."

dalite fleet. Tell them what I've told you to tell

"It's going to be as dangerous as it gets, and I
them. I'm your prince, Ax: Do it."

have a very tough assignment for you."

I didn't wait to hear his answer. I knew it. Or

"Okay, well, you know I'm in. But I'll need to
thought I did.

talk to the others, see how they feel. I think some

James and his people came flying in, landed
of them will want to sit this one out. I mean, after
and demorphed. "You called?"

losing Ray . . . I mean, Jake, some of the young

It's always disturbing for me seeing the auxil-
ones, you know, some of them are having —"

iary Animorphs demorphed. When we still had

"James, we didn't give them morphing power
the morphing cube we decided to add some
so they could have fun flying around. This is
members. But it's impossibly complicated and
when we need them. All of them. You under-
time-consuming to make sure each and every
stand? You've taken on the role as their leader, so
person is Yeerk-free. So we figured out who the
lead: I want them all. Every last one."

Yeerks would have never infested, who they

"Jake, some of these kids, I mean, they're all
would have overlooked: the handicapped. Plenty
their families have, you know? They're still just
of fully functional human hosts around, why has-
starting to deal with Ray's death. It's not like we
sle with all the drawbacks of dealing with a hand-
haven't fought. I can't . . ."

icap?

"Look, if we lose this battle it's over, you un-

We knew handicapped kids would be Yeerk-
derstand me?!" I raised my voice to be heard by
free. We also knew they'd be even more willing
everyone. "If we lose it's over. This is the battle.

than most people to accept a treatment that

This is the last stand. We lose and here's what
would allow them physical freedom in animal
happens: The Yeerk fleet fights the Andalite fleet.

form.

If the Yeerks win they'll be free to enslave every

We'd used them. And now they lay there
living human being and kill the ones they don't
rather than standing because for the most part
want. If the Andalites win there's a very good
they couldn't stand. Or, if they could stand, they
chance they'll sterilize Earth: kill everything in
couldn't see.

order to end the Yeerk menace once and for all.

"Yeah, James. We need all your people. As

So, you don't like me telling you what to do, you
you know, we're going after the Pool ship."

don't like your job, you don't like me, period? I

108

109

don't really care. Before this night is over the ca-
sualties will be piled high and some of you stand-
ing here right now will be dead and I don't care
because we are going to win. Is that clear? We're
taking that Pool ship and before this night is over
we'll have Visser One right here." I held up my
tight-clenched fist.

I was ranting. I was trembling. I'd never done
this before. Never put myself forward as some
kind of Napoleon wannabe. I felt like a jerk. Like
some kind of nut. My friends must have thought I'

d lost my mind. But no one said so.

No one but Marco. "You know, you're turning
into Rachel." He frowned. "Where is she, any-

I was in falcon morph, floating high, high in
way?"

the air, rising on the updraft of warmth that still
came from the smoldering ashes of the center of
town. Usually night is a bad time for a peregrine.

Night air is cold air and cold air is dead air. But
flying above the black destruction I had all the
lift I needed.

I could see the Pool ship, still resting beside the
crater that had once been the Yeerk pool. Could
they see me, Visser One and his Yeerks? They could if
they tried. I wasn't invisible. But they didn't attack,
didn't send a Bug fighter up to Dracon me.

Why not? Maybe Tom's Yeerk wasn't ready to
kill me, yet.

Or Maybe Visser One saw me, knew what I

110

111
w a s , and w a i t e d , like the spider in his web
had a strike force of almost a thousand men,
watching the fly. He wanted me to come to him.

Yeerk-free. Yeerk-free, and, having seen the en-

He wanted me as badly as I wanted him.

emy close-at-hand, they were motivated.

Careful what you wish for, Visser.

I'd given him all the details I safely could.

Careful what you wish for, Jake.

"They may come after you with Bug fighters —

I had visited General Doubleday. He was as
that would be the best we could hope for. The
shaken up as anyone I've ever seen, but deter-
greater likelihood is that either the Pool ship or
mined.

the Blade ship will attack you directly."

He'd followed our suggestion, reluctantly at

"I've got what amounts to a scratch battalion,
first. He'd locked away as many of his men as he
a few tanks, a few helicopter gunships. I've seen
could. It was ten hours till the first Controller
those Bug fighters in action. My men will fight,
reached the point where he couldn't hold out any
but they can't win."

longer. He made a break for it.

"That's right, General, they can't," I said.

"What did you do?" I had asked him.

"But if they'll fight, keep up the diversion, we

"We warned him once. Gave him a direct or-
can win. I have about a dozen of my people com-
der. Then the MP shot him."

ing to join you. They'll be right out front."

"That must have been tough," I'd said.

"With all due respect to your people, son,

"The MP aimed for a leg shot, but the private
they may be great in hand-to-hand combat, but
slipped. Bullet caught him in the head." The
you're guerrilla fighters by nature. Your abilities
general held out an empty bottle and showed it
are geared for that kind of warfare. You're asking
to m e . "This thing crawled out of the man's
me for a good, old-fashioned cavalry charge,
head. Crawled out through the bullet hole."

here. You're asking me for the Charge of the

A Yeerk lay writhing in the bottle.

Light Brigade."

"There's your enemy, General," I'd said.

"We need the diversion," I said. "Visser One Some of the Controllers had tried to work to-has to believe the Yeerk traitor is telling him the
gether to rush the door. Others had waited as
truth. So you have to attack, but once the Yeerks
long as they could. Seventeen percent of the
come after you all you can do is dig in and take
general's men had been infested. But now he
cover. The Yeerks only have one way of fighting:

112

113

Attack with everything they've got. They'll go
holes in it now. I could see nothing but holes. It
right after you. Visser One doesn't know tactics;
would never work. It would never work.

he fights with a sledgehammer."

I saw movement down below. A pair of Humvees

"If you've got a big enough sledgehammer
approaching an outer ring checkpoint, head-
that's all you need, son."

lights playing on wrecked, charred brick walls

I was hearing those weary, wry words as I flew
and burned out cars. Hork-Bajir- and human-
above the Pool ship. It was a monstrous thing.

Controller guards checked ID's and passed them

Bigger than an aircraft carrier. More powerful than
through.

all the forces of humankind combined and multi-

Now I didn't need a clock. It was go time.

plied a hundredfold. The Dracon cannon on the

I swooped down, diving faster and faster,

Pool ship could burn a hole through an asteroid.

matching speed with the Humvees. I dropped

But it was a sledgehammer, a great, lumber-
through the gaping window of a blackened home
ing beast designed for war in the weightlessness
and out through the far side. That would throw
of space. And, anyway, if we succeeded it would
off any sensors that might be tracking me.

be our sledgehammer.

I used all my falcon speed and aimed for the

I saw movement below. Hork-Bajir patrols. A
bouncing rear window of the second Humvee. I
pair of Bug fighters flying a loose figure eight low
swooped through, landed hard with a bounce
above the desolation.

against the seat back.

Closer in to the Pool ship the Hork-Bajir pa-

A human-Controller I didn't know was driving.

trols increased till they formed a solid, shoulderto-

Tom was in the passenger seat. He turned to look
shoulder ring around the ship. Hork-Bajir and
at me.

human-Controller snipers stood atop the engine

"Very unsettling when you do that," he said.

pods. Visser One was taking no chances with his

<Good,> I answered.

crown jewels.

Cassie appeared to be lying on the backseat,

I wondered what time it was. No way to carry
handcuffed, ankles bound, a Hork-Bajir sitting be-
a watch, obviously, and I could no longer spot
side her with a Dracon weapon leveled at her head.

bank clocks. They'd all been destroyed.

Her face was bruised. One eye swollen almost

I floated and waited. Floated and waited and
shut. There were bloody cuts on her arms. Her
went over my plan again and again. I could see
morphing suit was in shreds.

114

115

"Gotta hand it to your girl back there," Tom
said nonchalantly. "She takes a beating pretty
well. Hope I didn't get carried away, Jake-boy,
but it isn't every day I get a chance to pound on
an Animorph. She didn't cry, didn't say a word.

Almost took the fun out of it."

<Shut up, you Yeerk scum,> I snapped. <I
have to do business with you, but don't push your
luck. Cassie. Cassie, are you okay?>

No answer. I didn't expect one.

"Bruised my fists," Tom's Yeerk said, display-
ing his hand.

<I said, shut up.>

"Whatever. Time to get small, Killer Jake. Se-
curity up ahead there."

The Humvees approached the wall-to-wall

I demorphed, made a point of stroking the ap-
line of Hork-Bajir around the Pool ship and came
parent wounds, made another angry remark to
to a stop.

Tom's Yeerk for verisimilitude, then went fly.

A Hork-Bajir- and a human-Controller stepped

Back in morph I used private thought-speak, au-
over to the window like cops getting ready to
dible to only one person. <Rachel?>
hand out tickets.

<I'm here, Jake.>

They spotted Tom, and I could hear the for-

I zoomed around and then headed for Cas-
mal stiffness in their voices. "Sir, you under-
sie's bruised, battered face.

stand we still need to conduct a thorough search

As I approached a landing, her swollen eye
and check your identity."

opened slightly. My compound eyes saw a hun-

"You'd better," Tom snarled. "Lax security
dred fragmented images of an eye opening.

makes me cranky."

And of the steel-and-ivory machine beneath

The human-Controller shined a powerful light
the hologram.

around the inside of the vehicle. He introduced a
sensor probe that to my fly senses registered as a

116

117
fantastical wizard's wand. I could see energy ra-
calmly on a titanium rod that, to me, seemed as
diating in wild colors, invisible most likely to hu-
thick as an oak tree.

man eyes.

No one said anything for a while, and I could

"I only read two complex life-forms," the
see very little with my limited fly senses.

guard said. "I'm showing several insect readings,

Then, in a calm, low-pitched voice, Tom said,
but only two complex life-forms: yours, sir, and

"How's it going, little brother? You still there?"

the driver's. The prisoner is not registering as a

<I'm still here,> I said.

Iife-form."

"Good, glad to hear it. And all your little

It was already going bad. What was this new
friends are there with you?"

sensor? We'd never seen this instrument before. I

<Shut up, Yeerk,> I snapped. <We work to-
tensed, ready to leap free and demorph. But in
gether because we have to. We don't make small
the enclosed space of the Humvee we were
talk.>
trapped, helpless. We wouldn't be able to bring

Tom's Yeerk laughed. "Oh, you're a surly
our force to bear.

bunch, aren't you? No one talks to me. No one

Tom said, "Well, as much as I respect your
but Rachel, who told me to . . . well, you can
new toy there, 1 count three: one, two, three." "

guess what Rachel told me to do."

Yes, sir."

<Whatever she said goes for all of us,> I an-

"You can count to three, right?"

swered.

"Yes, sir."

"Surly and unpleasant. Oh, well. Time to go

"Do you know what that prisoner is? That's an
see the visser. My plan is working perfectly, don't

Animorph. You think maybe Visser One would
you think?"

like to see her just as soon as possible?"

Tom thought Cassie was real. And he thought

"Yes, sir!"

all of us were hiding out somewhere on her body.

"As for the insect life-forms, they're endemic

His plan was working fine. Ours was working even
to this planet. But I'll be sure to use the Gleet
better.

BioFilter before I enter the ship."

Another delay. And then, at last, I heard that

The guard must have been satisfied because
thought-speak voice.

moments later we were on the move. I rested

Visser One.

118

119

<What have we here?>
her and hand her over to some worthy, loyal Yeerk

"One of the Animorphs, Visser. My people
as a host body?"

captured her and questioned her. Questioned

<They are hard to hold on to,> Visser One
her ... forcefully."

said. <If you even appear to be thinking of morph-

<So I see. Congratulations.> He sounded al-
ing you'll die, Animorph. Of course, you're likely
most annoyed, like he wasn't all that happy to
to die either way.>
see Tom succeed where he had failed. <Have you

"Cassie" said nothing.

passed through the Gleet BioFilter? I don't want

<But pleasure can wait,> Visser One said.

any surprises.>

<Report what you have learned.>

"Yes, Visser, of course," Tom's Yeerk lied. The

Tom clasped his hands behind his back and

Gleet BioFilter detects and eliminates nonpri-
assumed a respectful but casual stance. "The
mary life-forms — anything "riding" on a human

Animorphs' leader has made contact with human
or Hork-Bajir body.

military forces. A combined force of human sol-

<One of the so-called Animorphs. This one
diers and Animorphs will attack very soon. The
would be . . . Cassie, yes?>
goal will be to use the attack as a diversion, to al-

Now I could see him, a mosaic of him, in my
low the Animorphs to infiltrate this ship."

compound eyes. He loomed close, leering down

Visser One laughed. <They would try to take a
with his mouthless Andalite face, stalk eyes

Pool ship? Are they such fools?>
widening out.

"Don't forget, they have an Andalite among

Suddenly his tail whipped around and deliv-
them. They would use his skills to break our se-
ered a slapping blow. Fast. So fast that even
curity codes. And there is more, Visser."

my fly reflexes would not have saved me. But

<More? What more?>
of course the blow never reached me. It was

"I .. I'm not certain, Visser, but I believe
stopped by force fields that overlapped the holo-
my people may have penetrated a second con-
gram. Just as Tom's torturing blows had been.

spiracy, every bit as dangerous."

<I would kill her myself,> Visser One grated.

<Tell me of —>

<The trouble these creatures have caused me.>

"Visser!" A new voice. Human. I vaguely per-

"Perhaps not just yet, Visser," Tom demurred. "

ceived a human-Controller, a woman.

She may still be useful as bait. Why not hold

<You interrupt me?>

120

121

"With your permission, Visser, this may be the
in his bleary-looking Andalite eyes? No genius,
report I've been waiting for," Tom said smoothly.

maybe, Visser One, but he had an instinct for

"Visser ... I apologize for interrupting," the
survival. He was moving back and forth, pacing,
woman said, "but a party of Hork-Bajir have ar-
hooves clicking on the deck, stalk eyes wander-
rived at the perimeter with a Taxxon prisoner."

ing randomly.

<A Taxxon prisoner? If some Taxxon is giving

Tom said, "If we move swiftly, we will destroy
trouble, kill it, don't waste my time with discipli-
all our foes in one swoop. The Pool ship and its
nary matters like this.>

Bug fighters can quickly eliminate the human

Tom intervened again. "I believe this is a very
soldiers, and simply by lifting off we can doom
special Taxxon, Visser. You may choose to hear
the Animorph attempt at infiltration."

what he has to say."

<And what of these treasonous Taxxons?>

Moments later the Taxxon, accompanied by

"They must be stopped quickly but carefully:

Hork-Bajir guards, shuffled and writhed into the

We don't want to damage the new Yeerk pool. I
room. He was a hundred great worms in my com-
respectfully suggest, Visser, that I take temporary
pound eyes. But the colors were different. I saw
command of your Blade ship and deal with the
the red jelly eyes as an almost psychedelic violet.

Taxxons personally. Never fear: I will kill only as

<Well?> Visser One demanded. <I'm not a pa-
many as I need to, and drive the rest back to
tient Yeerk, explain the great mystery here.>
their labor."

Tom proceeded to explain his penetration of a

So, here it is, I thought. The moment of truth.

Taxxon alliance with the Animorphs. The Taxxon,

The Visser would buy it or not. The silence
straining to form coherent speech with its inade-
stretched on. Too long.

quate mouthparts, confirmed the tale.

Visser One had smelled the rat.

"In a matter of moments now, Visser, this

<I don't like so much good luck,> Visser One
three-part attack will take place. Human soldiers
hissed. <I've fought to seize this planet for years.

will attack, the Taxxons will destroy the unfin-

For years! And suddenly now everything falls into
ished Yeerk pool, and the Animorphs themselves
my hands? I don't trust good luck. For all I know,
will use the confusion to attempt to penetrate
this Animorph, this Cassie creature, has man-
this ship."

aged to carry her fellow bandits in with her.>

Visser One nodded. But was there hesitation

"But, Visser, the Gleet BioFilter . ."

122

123

<They've beaten the filter before,> Visser One
shouted. <No! No! There's something wrong
here, something very wrong. . . . Look how she
stands there, beaten, whipped, cowed. No, it's
too easy. And this Taxxon, how can I be sure he,
too, isn't one of them? They can take any shape.

How can I be sure?>

"Very simply," Tom said calmly. "Order the

Taxxon to eat the Animorph girl. If the Taxxon is
an Animorph in morph, he will refuse. If not,
then the girl — and any hidden morphs con-
cealed on her person — will be consumed. Thus,
we will be sure of both."

<Yes!> Visser One cried. <Guards, watch

"No! No!" Cassie cried. "NOOO!"

every corner of this room, shoot anything that

The Taxxon's mouth ripped Cassie apart,
moves, do you hear me? Anything! Don't wait for
chewed arms and legs, spilled organs out onto
orders. If they're here they'll try to demorph and
the deck of the Pool ship, and finally lifted off
remorph. Shoot anything! And now, hungry
her head in one fatal bite.

brother Taxxon: If you are a true Taxxon, rid us of

The voice — really very like Cassie's —
this girl.>
screamed, cried, begged for mercy.

The Taxxon did not hesitate. It reared up,

Tom waved good-bye. "If you are there by
opened its lamprey mouth, and slammed itself
some chance, little brother Jake, bye-bye!"

greedily down, teeth bared.

I saw it all from inside the illusion, for illusion
it was. "Cassie" was Erek, the Chee.

Tom had betrayed us, as I knew he would. He
believed we were all hiding on the true Cassie.

He believed he had beaten the true Cassie, and

124

125
that she had submitted in order to make her cap-
very satisfying. Now, go, my good and faithful
ture seem real.

servant: Take the Blade ship. Kill the Taxxon

He believed he had now fed her, and me, and
rebels for me! Hammer them into submission!>
all of us, to the hunger-mad Taxxon.

"Yes, Visser," Tom said, barely able to con-

But the Taxxon was no more a Taxxon than "

ceal his glee.

Cassie" was the real Cassie.

He thought he had it all in his grasp, right

Tobias in Taxxon morph gorged on an illusion.

then. His voice gave nothing away, but I knew the

The Cassie hologram was a horror film directed

Yeerk inside my brother's head was triumphant.

by Erek. Bit by bit he replaced illusions of Cassie

Ecstatic!

with illusions of empty space. Until, gory bit by

He had killed me. Killed all of us. And now,
gory bit, she was gone, consumed by the Taxxon
he would take possession of the Blade ship.

who kept at it until not even a bloodstain was left

Then, if my guess was right, he'd wait while Visser
on the ship's deck.

One annihilated General Doubleday's troops, and

It would never have fooled a true Taxxon —
then, when Visser One was least expecting it,
even Chee holograms and force fields cannot pro-

Tom's Yeerk would strike a surprise blow and de-
ject taste. But Tobias acted his part to perfection
stroy the Pool ship itself.

and the two Yeerks, Visser One and Tom, bought

Tom's Yeerk would be left in command of the
the performance entirely.

heavily armed and very fast Blade ship — almost

Erek, now visibly nothing but deck, rolled
surely the hiding place for the morphing cube.

away, out of range of any sudden movement by

Tom's Yeerk would take his new command into

Visser One that would reveal his presence.

Zero-space to reemerge far, far away with a hard

<You did good, Erek,> I said.

core of loyal followers and the power to morph.

He didn't answer. He couldn't. And in any

He wouldn't have to stay behind to face the likely
case, I knew what his answer would be. I had left
arrival of the Andalites. He would be safe and in
him no choice. Any failure on Erek's part would
control.

have been the trigger for my ordering a slaughter.

It was a neat plan. And if I had trusted him

Chee programming chose the less violent path.

I'd be dead, along with all my friends.

<Very good,> Visser One said, laughing. <I've

<Tobias, you okay?> I said.

lived to see at least one of them die. That was

<I think I chipped a couple of Taxxon teeth

126

127
munching on Erek's force fields, but yeah, I'm
would be taken by Bug fighter up to the Blade
good.>
ship in orbit.

<Marco? Cassie? Ax?> I called.

The Pool ship lifted off, a slight vibration be-

<We're all okay, Jake,> Marco reported. <The
ing the only evidence. Off the earth to the safety
good thing is that at least this flea morph I'm in
of the skies, or so Visser One believed.

has no interest in sucking Taxxon blood.>

Five Animorphs, twelve free Hork-Bajir, and

<Still no sign of Rachel,> Cassie said. <I
one Chee were now aboard the Pool ship, unsus-
thought you said she would join us.>
pected. The plan was on track.

<I'm sure she's okay,> I said. <Rachel takes

<Doing good, huh, Jake?> Rachel said, her
care of herself. Now, you guys get to work. We
thought-speak voice already fading with dis-
need navigation control, and we need it as soon
tance.

as possible.>

I couldn't answer.

Marco said, <Do you think we should even try
the codes Tom gave us?>

Ax answered for me. <Since he has, as pre-
dicted, betrayed us, it is likely the so-called
codes he gave us are not only useless, but may
well be self-destruct codes.>

<Ax is right,> I said. <You guys have to do it
the hard way. Get going.>

Visser One helped us out inadvertently by or-
dering the Hork-Bajir guards to <Take that filthy

Taxxon out and eliminate him. He'll give you no
trouble now that he's been well fed!>

The Hork-Bajir led the Taxxon away. But neither

Tobias, nor my friends hiding on his morphed
form, had any reason to fear. The Hork-Bajir
guards were Toby and twelve of her people.

My brother left the bridge of the Pool ship. He

129

128

couldn't be sure. There were dozens of Con-
trollers, mostly Hork-Bajir, with a scattering of
humans. They sat or stood before glowing display
screens. Others stood at attention, awaiting the
visser's orders.

The visser paced back and forth, nervous or
just feeling a rush of anticipation, I couldn't
guess which.

"There, Visser!" a human voice sang out. "

Human military forces on the move."

<On main screen,> Visser One ordered.

<Magnify.>

"We have a preliminary estimate. Seven hun-
dred and nine humans. Twelve of the tracked

The Pool ship rose from the earth, bigger
ground vehicles the humans call tanks, Visser.

than anything human eyes had beheld in the

Nineteen rotary wing vehicles. Threat analysis:

skies. Up and up, but not so high yet.

minimal."

I could see little of the room with my limited

I could see the main view screen. It was up-
senses. Impossible to understand large spaces
side down from my perspective, and a dizzying
with fly eyes. So I searched out relative darkness. I
array of weirdly distorted colors, but I could
searched out a space where the air motion was
make it out. I could see what Visser One could
minimal. I had used the fly morph many times
see: General Doubleday's forces, moving forward
before and I was good at interpreting the frac-
through the burned debris below, still moving
tured data of its senses.

forward, following orders, despite the fact that

I landed upside down on an almost horizontal
their target, their objective, the Pool ship now
surface and hung there for a moment, trying to
hovered a thousand feet over their heads.

assemble a picture of the Pool ship's battle

A Hork-Bajir voice jumped in. "They were de-
bridge.

ployed to attack us on the ground, Visser. They

It seemed to be an oval in shape, though I
seem at a loss."

130

131

<Brilliant insight,> the visser said with acid
would go crazy as their brains fried. And then the
sarcasm.

men, those already dead and those who still

"Now showing fixed wing aircraft on approach,"

clung to life, would burn.

another human voice said calmly. "Nine total."

"Visser!"

"Visser, I recommend allowing the Bug fight-

<Yes, what is it?>
ers to take out the aircraft. We can use our Dra-

"Visser . . . the display ... I believe there are
con cannon on widest possible dispersion and
morphs down there with the attacking human
destroy all the ground forces with a single sus-
troops."

tained shot."

The viewscreen veered wildly, rushing in for a

<Yes,> Visser One said. Then, sounding al-
close-up like someone taking home video.

most regretful at being cheated of a real battle,

I clearly saw a lioness loping along, a squad of
he said, <Simple creatures. Did they really imag-
soldiers hurrying beside it, weapons at the ready. I
ine they would accomplish anything?>
could see faces as they looked up fearfully at the

Where were Erek and Ax? Surely it had been

Pool ship. Some stopped to fire up at us.

long enough. Surely the Chee had penetrated

Another morph, a rhino came lumbering into

Yeerk security by now. We should have control of
view. It was comical. Pitiful. Men with guns and
navigation. I didn't want to bother them, they
a handful of fugitives from a zoo trying to attack
were surely doing their best. But neither could I
a ship that could blow asteroids out of the sky.

watch wholesale slaughter of the troops on the

<The rest of the Animorphs!> the visser cried
ground and do nothing.

gleefully. <Hah hah hah! I guess they're having a

"Dracon cannon configured, Visser. Permis-
hard time infiltrating my ship, eh?>
sion to fire?"

Nervous, toadying laughter all around. Some-

If they fired the main Dracon cannon on
one reported that Tom had reached the Blade
widest dispersion it would not kill the men on the
ship. The Blade ship was reporting readiness to
ground quickly. It would kill them slowly. They
join the attack.

would cook. They would grow warmer and warmer,

<Yes, yes, tell him to go deal with the Taxxons.

as the diluted Dracon energy heated them up.

This, however, is all mine,> Visser One crowed.

Hotter. Hotter till some began to pass out. Others

Then, in a much different tone, almost wistful,

132

133

<How long I have waited for this moment. The
cia — toppled forward, dug its horn into the dirt,
bandits out in the open, targeted, on-screen, un-
rolled over, and was dead.

able to escape . . .>

<Hah hah! Good shot! They burn well, these

"Permission to fire Dracon cannon?"

Animorphs!>

<No, no, cancel wide dispersion,> the visser

I felt sick inside. I should do something. I
ordered. <I want to see them burn, one by one.

should stop this. That was the auxiliary Ani-

Move us in. Use narrow beam. Forget the human
morphs down there on the ground dying. Burning.

soldiers, they're irrelevant. Rid me of these Ani-

<No, no, you have to lead them a bit. Look!

morphs, one by one. Close-up! Maximum magni-

You can get two at ... good shot!>
fication. Let me see them die!>

<Marco,> I pleaded. <Marco, they're killing

I couldn't be patient any longer. <Ax? Marco?

James's people.>

What is keeping you?> I cried.

<Erek's doing his best, so is Ax,> Marco an-

<Had a fight,> Marco answered. I could hear
swered.

the pain in his thought-speak voice.

<How long?>

At that same moment a new report reached

A moment's pause while Marco queried the
the bridge. "Visser! Casualties in engineering!" a Chee and the Andalite.

Hork-Bajir voice said.

<Three minutes,> he said at last.

<What is it? Another plasma explosion?>

It was a death sentence. Three minutes. More

Visser One asked.

than enough time for the sharpshooters on the

"No, Visser, all engines are nominal. All sys-
bridge. Too much time.

tems are nominal."

They fired.

<Well, find out what's happened down there

If I demorphed here I'd be seen. Nowhere to
then,> Visser One said, sounding petulant rather
hide. I'd be shot. Killed. Accomplish nothing.

than concerned. <Now target the morphs. Begin

Couldn't die. I was in charge. It was my plan.

firing.>

No time for gestures. Win, that was all I had to

"Firing," the neutral voice reported.

do: Win.

The shot caught the hindquarters of the rhi-
noceros. For a horrifying moment the front legs

Visser One said, <Look, it's trying to repair it-
kept running. The creature — a girl named Tri-
self by demorphing. Get it now! No, fool! There.

Yes!>

134

135

"We're taking fire, Visser. The fixed wing air-

<Don't bother me with any more disciplinary
craft have launched missiles."

matters,> Visser One said. <There! Look! An-

<Destroy them,> Visser One said, too dis-
other morph! Get it! Get it!>
tracted by the murder of Animorphs to care

<Marco!> I yelled. <It's now or never!>
overly much about minor matters.

<You missed! No, wait, there, he burns! He

The Hork-Bajir voice spoke again. "Confirm
burns!>
casualties in engineering, Visser. One Hork-Bajir.

"Visser, that appears to be the last of the

He appears to have suffered some sort of animal
morphs."

attack."

<Ah, well, all good things must end,> Visser

That news made the visser sit up and listen.

One said. <But it was a good ending. Be sure to

He spun his stalk eyes around to the speaker.

save the recorded data — I will wish to play that

<What?>
scene over and over again. Now, set Dracon can-

I used the moment to push off and swoop
non for wide dispersal, let's end this game.>
down. I landed between his stalk eyes. Ax had

"Dracon cannon configured, Visser."

admitted it was one of the very few spots on an

<Fire.>

Andalite's body that he cannot easily see. I

"Firing."

rested very still on Visser One's head. The stalks

<Ah, the humans have begun to notice, eh?

were like snakes to me, impossibly thick, but

Ah hah hah! Look how they squirm!>
flexible, bending this way and that, high over my

"They will suffer one hundred percent casual-
head. The eyes floated up there, glaring daggers
ties in thirty seconds."

at the Hork-Bajir crewman.

<Marco!> I cried.

<Animal attack?> Visser One grated.

<Got it!> he answered.

Then, another human-Controller reported in, "

<Then do it! Now!>

Visser, we've contacted engineering and they

<They burn, they burn!> the visser exulted.

are responding that everything is normal. The

Finally, "Visser, the helm is not answering."

wounded Hork-Bajir was a disciplinary matter."

<What do you mean the helm is not answer-

Of course: Someone down in engineering, one
ing? We're drifting off-target! Get us back over
of my friends, had morphed and was now passing
as a Yeerk crew member.

the target!>

"Helm is unresponsive, Visser!"

136

He bounded over to the helmsman's position
less, while he murdered James and his people.

and seized the controls himself. I had a perfect

Watched while he gloated.

view. <Engineering! That fool in engineering

Now I wanted him to feel afraid.

must have . . .>

<This ends now,> Visser One said harshly.

I could practically see the wheels turning in

And silently I replied, Yes, it does.

his brain. I could almost see the thought process,
as one by one the clues fell into place.

<They are on board!> Visser One said, aghast.

<They're here. They're on board! They sacrificed
the girl and used her as a Trojan horse!>

He still hadn't quite gotten it, but he was get-
ting there. He still had not figured out that Tom
had betrayed him.

"Visser, we appear to be heading toward a low
orbit"

<I can see that!> Visser One raged. <Do we
still have communications?>

"Yes."

<Then raise the Blade ship. Order it to ap-
proach. If necessary it can fire to disable our en-
gines.>

It was almost too perfect. Visser One was ac-
tually going to invite Tom to approach. He was all
but sealing his own doom.

<I want every Hork-Bajir who can stand to
meet me outside engineering,> Visser One said.

He was trembling, I could feel it so clearly. I
savored his fear and rage. I had watched, help-

139

138

of wide blast doors. Hork-Bajir- and human-

Controllers pressed close together.

<Dracon weapons on medium power,> Visser

One ordered. <When the door opens begin firing.

Fire until your power cells run dry, do you under-
stand me?>

"Visser, there are surely some of our own
people still alive in —"

The visser spun, whipped his Andalite tail,
and decapitated the Hork-Bajir who had inter-
rupted him.

<Medium power won't damage the machinery
but it will kill every living thing in there! You! All

I hunkered down and held on as Visser One
of you, form three rows right here. First row of
raced through the Pool ship. Hork-Bajir flocked

Hork-Bajir kneels, second row of humans stands,
to him, fell into step behind him. Down gloomy
third row of Hork-Bajir fires above the heads of
hallways, across open, hangarlike spaces, and
row two. Am I clear?>
then cramming into seemingly endless stair-

He was clear. And if he wasn't, no one was go-
wells. Descending, always descending.

ing to say anything.

<Marco! Cassie! We're on our way down

I spotted Toby, recognizable only by virtue of
there. Visser One and a whole bunch of his
people.>
the fact that she was a bit shorter than the aver-
age Hork-Bajir female. Presumably her compan-

I was beginning to understand why it had
ions were in the crowd as well.

taken Marco, Cassie, Tobias, Ax, and Erek so

I called to my friends. <Hey, guys, they're go-
long. Engineering was quite a distance from the
ing to fire blind. They'll saturate the room with
bridge.

Dracon beams on medium setting, kill every-

Three corridors converged together at a pair
thing. Are you ready?>

<Yep. We're good,> Marco reported.

140

141

I launched, flew down and away, zipping

"Well, Jake," Marco said cheerily. "Imagine through rapidly shuffling legs. The visser's troops
meeting you here."

were forming up, strangely reminiscent of the

<There is a very convenient conduit pipe
kind of array you'd have seen in the
leading away from engineering,> Ax said. <We

Revolutionary War. They might as well have
had no trouble getting away. Though a few more
been redcoats ready to fire volleys.

seconds' time would not have been resented.>

<Open the doors,> Visser One ordered.

"Yeah, you don't want to be in engineering

The blast doors slid open on the main engi-
right now," I said. I fought a desire to sit down.

neering station, a semicircle not so different

No time to rest. No time to show them how I felt. "

from the bridge itself. But the room was on a

Erek stayed in engineering?"

vastly larger scale, as much as ten stories tall,

<He'll be safe,> Tobias said. <It would take a
dominated by three huge pillars of something
full-power, sustained Dracon blast to hurt him.>
that looked like glowing red clay.

"What happened on the ground?" Cassie asked.

The instant the doors opened the three close-

"I don't know if Tom went after the Taxxons or
packed ranks of Hork-Bajir and humans began
not," I said evasively.

firing. They poured energy into that room. There

"No, I mean the men on the ground. The sol-
were cries from Hork-Bajir, humans, and Taxxons
diers. James's people," Cassie clarified, knowing
within, quickly silenced.

perfectly well that I'd deliberately misunderstood

<Keep firing!> Visser One urged. <Assault
her question.

teams ready. As soon as I order the firing to stop,

"I think we were fast enough to save most of
rush the room!>
the soldiers," I said.. "James's people ... I don't I flew away from the scene, propelled by a tail
think many of them made it."

wind of hot air coming from the oven that was en-

Cassie grabbed my arm. "Jake, was Rachel
gineering.

down there with them?"

Down a corridor, left down a side hall.

"No."

<In here,> Ax said. A small door slid open.

"Then where is she? Why isn't she with us?

I zoomed through and the door slid shut be-

Why won't you tell me?"

hind me. I demorphed and stood facing Ax,

I sighed. No way to avoid it any longer. "She's

Marco, Cassie, and Tobias.

with Tom." I wanted to keep my eyes on the floor.

142

143

Cassie was Rachel's best friend. Tobias, her
cess weapons controls. Our blackmail only goes
boyfriend, if that term could apply to a hawk. I
so far," Marco agreed. "Erek's down to core pro-
couldn't look at either of them.

gramming, no discretion: He cannot enable a

"Oh, Jake . . ." Cassie cried.

major weapons system. Flat cannot. We'll be sit-

<You son of a . . .> Tobias began. <You arro-
ting ducks if Tom turns the Blade ship against
gant, ruthless . . . What have you done? What
us, and we all know that's his plan."

have you done?!>

I exploded. "It's not Tom! It's not Tom, don't

"I can't let him get away," I said dully. "Tom's call him that. It's the Yeerk in his head. It's the

Yeerk . . . A Blade ship, probably the morphing

Yeerk, not my brother!"

cube? You were right, Cassie, I can't let that hap-

No one even looked shocked at my reaction.

pen."

No one was in his right mind at that moment. To-

"Had to be," Marco said quietly. My friend
bias hated me, hated me, I could feel it, and I

Marco had seen the same necessity I had seen.

hated myself.

He didn't like it any more than I did, but he saw

Had to be another way. I couldn't kill Rachel.

the need, the inevitability.

Not my cousin Rachel, not after all the times she

"There has to be some other way," Cassie
had saved my life.

whispered.

"One chance and one chance only," I said.

<Erek will not help us gain access to the

"You said it, Ax: one or two quick shots, if we had
weapons systems,> Ax said. <He has degraded
access to weapons. One or two shots, maybe we
the helm controls so that this ship can be kept
could disable the Blade ship."

flying but cannot effectively be brought into any

"We don't have access to weapons," Marco
action. It is as if someone were trying to control
pointed out.

the flight of the Pool ship with an oar. The Pool

I nodded. "Yeah. But Visser One does."

ship will enter orbit and not leave it until the

"Use Visser One to disable the Blade ship?"

Yeerks can perform a major system overhaul re-

Marco frowned.

quiring many hours. The Pool ship is useless as a

I took a couple of deep breaths. Tried to fo-
weapons platform, except perhaps for one or two
cus. There was a clock in my brain going tick
quick shots.>
tock, tick tock, time's up. Had to stick to the plan.

"Which we can't take because we can't ac-

"It's time," I said. "I have to call Toby."

145

I began to morph tiger. I needed the morph
and more importantly, I needed the thought-
speak.

<Don't let her die,> Tobias said quietly. <Find
a way, Jake. Don't you let her die.>

Once I was ready I called to Toby. <Toby,
we're on track and on schedule. By now the bulk
of available shock troops are in the engineering
section, along with Visser One. Get into position:

Close the engineering doors and shoot anything
that tries to get out. And Toby, hold that position,
no matter what. To the last person, Toby.>

"Anyone who can morph can escape that
room," Cassie pointed out. "And Visser One can
e blew out of that room and tore down the
morph. He can get past Toby's people and take
them from behind."

corridor, heading directly away from engineering.

Heading, in fact, for the pool itself.

I nodded. <Yeah. But he won't go after Toby's

After all the pent-up watching and waiting it
people. He'll come after us because he'll know
was good to have claws and teeth and enemies to
we're after his precious bridge.>
face.

"He doesn't even know we're here," she said.

From time to time as we went, lone Hork-Bajir-

<Battle morphs, everyone. Let's inform Visser
or human-Controllers spotted us. Most ran and

One of our presence.>
survived. Others did not run. A small patrol of
what had to be some sort of Yeerk military police
stood and did battle with us. They slowed us for
only a few seconds.

We were moving almost too easily, encounter-
ing almost too little resistance. Visser One had to

146

147
learn of our presence. He had to rush from the
badly enough that his brother would finish him
battle in engineering to confront a greater threat.

off.

There were guards at the entrance to the pool

More Hork-Bajir. A slashing, close-in battle,
itself, a pair of Hork-Bajir talking nervously about
and we were away again.

the distant firefight in engineering.

Now the word would reach Visser One. I

I was on the first one before he could yell. I
hoped. Hoped. He had to come to the bridge. If
carried him down with the momentum of my leap
he stayed in engineering he would turn the tide
and slapped him with the kind of blow that only a
of battle against Toby's people.

tiger can deliver.

Ax said, <Prince Jake! Inside that booth,

Ax took out the other guard and, all at once, we
those must be controls for the pool.>
were in the holy of holys, the pool itself. It was

<Yeah?> I didn't get it.

perfectly round, dimly lit, under a low ceiling. It

<They must occasionally repair the pool it-
was a gray steel swimming pool lined with cages
self,> Ax said. <That would mean draining it.>
where uncooperative host bodies were kept while

<Let's go!>
their Yeerks soaked up nutrients. The cages held

A bonus. Another new element. Was that a
maybe twenty or twenty-five humans and Hork-
good thing or a bad thing?

Bajir, all temporarily Yeerk-free.

Good. Good. Maybe. I knew the way the plan

I hadn't considered the possibility of freeing
played out, knew what would happen. Rachel.

hosts. <Marco! The cages!>

Tom. Inevitable.

<On it, man,> he said happily.

Maybe new elements, maybe the freed pris-

A Hork-Bajir voice cried, "Andal ite!"

oners, maybe this new opening, maybe the in-

A gaggle of unprepared human-Controllers
evitable need not occur.

began to charge at us, drawing Dracon weapons

Maybe we could save her.

but afraid of firing here in the sanctuary.

The booth Ax had spotted looked absurdly

We blew through them before they could
like a toll-collector's booth on the highway. It was
make up their minds. A pair of Taxxons, evidently
clear plastic and perched just above the pool,
not members of Arbron's group, came slithering
jutting slightly out. There was a single Hork-Bajir
out to do battle. Cassie and Tobias tore one up
inside. There were eight Hork-Bajir outside, un-

148

149
armed but ready for trouble, ready to stand and

Then Marco held the door open like a hotel
fight.

doorman and grinned a rubbery gorilla grin.

No time to think, attack!

<Gentlemen?>

Ax and I raced straight at them. I slashed and

Ax pushed past me, began punching at active
opened my nearest foe from belly to neck. Ax's
screens and arrays of controls.

tail whipped. Cassie came bounding up behind

<There is a flush sequence,> he said. <I have
us and launched herself into the battle.

to override the safety protocols.>

But the area was too n a r r o w , we were

He turned his stalk eyes to me even as his
hemmed i n . Like being shoved down inside a
main eyes guided swift, nimble fingers.

blender set on puree. The Hork-Bajir were all

<It can be done.>
around us, beating us down, slashing, cutting,

<Okay,> I said.

pounding, tearing at us with their clawed feet.

<The pool is full to capacity. These are the

No way to get free! I couldn't strike without

Yeerks that were rescued from the earth-based
hitting Ax who was shoved hard against me.

Yeerk pool. Plus the bulk of the unhosted Yeerks

And then, on my back, snarling but helpless, I
recently transported here.>
saw a Hork-Bajir leap high over my head and

<Some reason you're telling me all this, Ax-
land like a mosh-pit surfer on my tormentors.

man?>

The prisoners! One of the Hork-Bajir prison-

<Jake, there are seventeen thousand, three
ers Marco had released.

hundred seventy-two Yeerks in this pool.>

Marco was there now, too, but most of all, it

That rocked me.

was the freed prisoners. They turned the tide, at-

Visser One had to know we were here, on the
tacking their tormentors with awesome rage.

loose. He had to run for the bridge and not stay

Ax was on his hooves again, bloody, hurt, but
to win the fight in engineering.

well enough to swing his tail and cut the lock to

Seventeen thousand. Living creatures. Think-
the control booth.

ing creatures. How could I give this order? Even

A gorilla yanked the door open and said, <Hi,
for victory. Even to save Rachel. How could I give
there! You want to live? Then lie down right
this kind of order?

now!> He grabbed the unresisting Hork-Bajir and

They could have stayed home, I thought. No
threw him out into the fracas.

150

151

one had asked them to come to Earth. Not my
fault. Not my fault, theirs.

No more than they deserved.

Aliens. Parasites. Subhuman.

<Flush them,> I said.

The Pool ship's main pool went through its
standard cleaning cycle, draining the gray,
sludgy water out into the vacuum of space.

The water, and the parasite creatures within
it, froze instantly. The pool became an ice cloud
falling away from the slow-moving Pool ship.

How many had Ax said? Seventeen thousand
and . . . how many? How many Yeerks had felt the
sudden stab of terror as they realized what was
happening?

Frozen now. Crystals. An orbiting graveyard.

<Let's go,> I said.

We ran from that place, ran from thoughts of
what we'd done. Ran for the bridge. His fault, it

152

153
was Visser One's fault, all of it. Who had started
could have beaten me. I was not beaten by you,
this war? Not us. We hadn't asked for it.

human, or by your pet Andalite there. I was un-

It was him. Him and his filthy, subhuman,
done by my trusting nature.>
parasitic race.

Marco laughed then stopped himself.

His fault. Not mine. Not mine.

<Only another Yeerk could have beaten me,

He was on the bridge when we got there, our
and then only by the lowest treason. I was not
old enemy. Visser One and a handful of Con-
beaten by you. Never by you.>
trollers, human and Hork-Bajir. But he seemed

<Visser, you can still get off one or two shots
almost alone.

at the Blade ship. Take out his engines.>

The main view screen showed a cloud of

<Yes, we will try that very thing,> he said
sparkling ice shards.

dryly. <But you see, someone is bleeding power

Visser One watched it, almost oblivious to us,
out of the Dracon beams. Power is being di-
though he surely knew we were there. Finally, he
verted. One of the traitors at work, I suppose. We
turned, and looked at me with all four of his An-
will get off one or two shots, but at one-quarter
dalite eyes.

strength. Will they be enough? Unlikely.>

<So,> he said almost softly, <still not dead.>

<Erek!> I raged in private thought-speak.

<No, Visser. Not quite dead.>

<Stop draining power from the Dracon beams!>

<You're the one called Jake, aren't you? The

No answer of course.

brother of my security chief's host body.>

<Erek, I know you think you're doing the right

<That's me.>
thing, but you're making it worse!>

He nodded slightly. He motioned toward the

Visser One sighed. <My one consolation is
view screen as the picture changed. <As you see,
that when the traitor murders me with my own
my Blade ship is approaching.>
ship, it will at least finally be the end of you!>

<I don't think they'll be much help to you,

"Targeting the Blade ship's starboard engine.

Visser.>

We are ready to fire," one of the humans re-

<No. It took me a while to see what had hap-
ported.

pened. But I see it now. The Blade ship will at-

Visser One waved a lazy hand. <Fire.>
tack, and I am helpless, unable to control this

On the screen I saw the beam reach out
ship.> He laughed mirthlessly. <Only a traitor
through space. Once. Twice. Both missed.

154

155

The Blade ship reacted swiftly to avoid the

"You're not dead!"

slow retargeting of the Pool ship's big Dracon

<I noticed the same thing,> Visser One said
cannon.

dryly.

The Blade ship fired. The explosion reverber-

Tom snapped an order to his crew. "Bring us
ated through the ship.

around to target the Pool ship's bridge. Do it!

"Engine number one is destroyed, Visser."

Now! Now! Bring us around!"

The Blade ship fired again. Again.

<Jake,> Tobias said, pleading, knowing, but

Two more explosions.

pleading anyway.

"We are without propulsion, Visser."

<Rachel . .> I said. <Go.>

<Yes. I noticed that,> Visser One said. <No
engines. And all our brothers in the pool
murdered by these humans.>

"We are being hailed."

<Of course,> Visser One muttered. <By all
means. We must play it out.>

It was Tom's face that appeared on the
screen. And Tom's voice that spoke. But the
smug, hard, derisive tone was that of a Yeerk.

"You seem to be experiencing some engine
trouble, Visser," Tom gloated.

<The Empire will track you down and kill you,
you do understand that, I hope?>

"Oh, I doubt it. I think the Empire will have
its hands full," Tom's Yeerk said cheerfully. "The Andalite fleet is rather close by. It's possible that

I misled you on that point."

Then he caught sight of me.

His face paled. His eyes went wide. All at
once, he knew.

157

156