They keep going, and going, and going . . . I pushed off with my feet, flapped my wings, and sprung straight into t h e air. Through the t r e e s . Above the waterfall.

<Hey, this is cool,> I said. <No long, running takeoffs. No flapping along the ground. When t h e duck wants to be in t h e air, he's in t h e air\>

Tobias and Ax followed, and we flew oven The Gardens. Three identical ducks, morphed f r o m the same DNA. . . . We decided t h r e e ducks flying by themselves looked a little conspicuous, especially to Controllers who were probably looking f o r t h r e e ducks flying by themselves. So we hooked up with a flock of mallards heading in the direction of the capitol. We leeched on to t h e back of their V f o r m a t i o n , and flapped off over the mountains.

This wasn't sleek, soaring r a p t o r flight. With our round heads, long necks, and plump bodies, we looked m o r e like bowling pins with wings.

I was the Energizer Bunny with feathers. The Energizer Birdie . . . The author wishes to thank Lisa Harkrader

for her help in preparing this manuscript. Thank you to Art Alphin

CHAPTER 1

For Larry, Austin, and Ashley

And for Michael and Jake

Cover illustration by David B. Mattingly

Art Direction/Design by Karen Hudson/Ursula Albano If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this I dove. Tucked my wings. Folded my tail. book is stolen property. It was reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the Hurtled toward earth!

publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this "stripped book." I was a bullet. A bullet with feathers.

No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored And feeling pretty righteous until Tobias rockin a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permiseted past. He skimmed the top of the freight sion of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to train and looped sideways in a corkscrew roll, Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 555 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.

wing over wing. His feathers grazed the big gun ISBN 0-439-11525-6

of one of the tanks.

<Show-off,> I said.

Copyright © 2001 by Katherine Applegate.

All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc.

<Hey, I'm a hawk.> He pulled out of the roll. SCHOLASTIC, APPLE PAPERBACKS, ANIMORPHS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

<l only get so many hobbies, and perfecting my 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 5 6/0

Red-Tail Spiral of Death happens to be my favorites Printed in the U.S.A.

First Scholastic printing, March 2001

We pumped our wings and shot past the locomotive. Two guys wearing bib overalls and ball 1

caps sat inside. One, the engineer, I guessed, The M-ls belonged to the National Gu

was driving while the other watched the track They were chained one to a flatcar, their big gu ahead.

rotated toward the back. And they were heade They weren't wielding Dracon beams. Or

toward the city.

weapons of any kind. And they weren't paying Truck and Humvee convoys had been snaking

any attention to the osprey and red-tailed hawk into town for days. Battalions of National Guard who'd dropped from the sky to spy on them. soldiers from all over the state were bunkered in

<They don't look like Controllers,> said ToGuard centers around the city. bias. <Like that means anything.>

Now they were bringing in tanks.

<Yeah. Everything looks normal,> I said. Ax had been monitoring all the local TV chan<Well, except for the tanks.> nels and the cable news networks, but nobody I wheeled. Scanned the line of flatcars. Nothhad mentioned a wide-scale urban training exering unusual. Nothing that wasn't supposed to be cise. I couldn't find anything on the Internet, and there.

the Chee hadn't heard anything from their Yeerk Still, something prickled at the back of my sources, either.

brain. Something didn't seem right.

Tobias and I were here to do a little firsthand Battling aliens every day of my life has fineinvestigation. To find out if our state government tuned my already rampant paranoia.

had finally realized Earth was being invaded. To I powered my wings and caught up to Tobias see if they were mounting a defense.

and the locomotive. A beautiful thermal radiated Or to see if this was a carefully laid out Yeerk up the side of the mountain. I fanned my wing plan. Were all those National Guard troops Conand tail feathers and soared on the billowing jet trollers? Some of them, yeah. But all of them?

of warm air.

We were talking thousands of soldiers. If they The freight train clattered below. One engine were all Controllers, we were in big trouble. We pulling a line of flatbed cars, loaded with military were talking serious doo-doo.

tanks. M-l Abrams.

But we were betting they weren't. Hoping

Yeah, M-l Abrams. I knew them as well as I they weren't. Careful prior planning wasn't Visser knew my own PlayStation. All those hours playOne's usual MO. He usually jumped in with both ing Tank Commando had finally paid off.

feet and a lot of noise. And if the details didn't 2

3

work themselves out, he just ripped a sub train. If there were, your raptor eyes would've visser's head off and plowed ahead with his next seen it a mile off. You're just a paranoid freaks maniacal plan.

A paranoid freak whose wings felt like they were going to snap off if I didn't stop flapping Besides, with a Blade ship and a fleet of Bug them.

fighters at his disposal, the visser didn't need a

<This is stupid,> I said. <We want to know bunch of clunky tanks.

where the tanks are going, right? The train's not On the other hand, Visser One had been

going that fast. Why don't we just land on one pushing for all-out war. To wage war, you need an and find out?>

army. And if you need an army in a hurry, why not I dove toward a flatcar in the middle of the hijack an existing one? If the highest-ranking Natrain and swept over the top of the tank. My tional Guard officers were Controllers, Visser One talons skidded across the big brass padlock on could easily round up the rest of the troops for a one of the top hatches. I locked them around a mass infestation of host bodies. And if he got the metal cargo cage, pulled my wings down, and tanks out of the way, noninfested troops couldn't hunkered against the bottom of the cage. Wind use them against him.

whipped the feathers on the top of my head. Chuk-chuk-chuk-chuk.

The freight train rolled along the tracks. It A shadow slid over me. Tobias latched onto wasn't going all that fast for a train. About ten the hull of the tank, behind a big metal ring. miles an hour. Maybe fifteen downhill.

He hugged the metal. <Okay, this doesn't But it was plenty fast for sustained, level, raplook too weird,> he said. tor flight. Tobias and I had started out over the The train groaned down a steep hill. I turned engine, slippedt>ack to the first flatcar, then the my head. The column of tanks stretched out second. Now we were somewhere near the midbehind me, chugging through pine trees that dle and losing ground. My wing muscles ached, towered above us on either side of the track. burned, and finally went numb.

Sunlight filtered through the pine needles and I wheeled again. Studied the train. Someflickered over the camouflage green of the tanks. thing still seemed odd. What was I missing?

I saw no other movement. No life-forms, ex Nothing, Marco. There's nothing scary on this traterrestrial or domestic.

4

5

Normal. Everything looked —

Wait. <No guards. If this is a National Guard operation gearing up to fight aliens, wouldn't they have soldiers posted on the train? And if it's Visser One, you know he'd have Controllers crawling all over. Thirty-four tanks, and nobody's watching them.>

<Oh, I wouldn't say that,> said Tobias. CHAPTER 2

I turned my head.

Another red-tailed hawk swooped around a

curve ahead. Behind it, in formation, flew a squadron of golden eagles and peregrine falcons. We were definitely not alone.

The red-tailed hawk shot toward the train. The eagles and falcons followed, banking and diving above the tracks.

<They obviously don't have much flight

experiences Tobias directed his private thoughtspeak to me. <They're upwind. Flying in formation. A flock of eagles and the falcons acting like fighter pilots, taking orders from a hawk. These are not ordinary birds out for an afternoon of joyflyings The eagles and falcons swooped past the locomotive and perched on the first tank. The redtailed hawk hung in the air and watched the train pass under it. They hadn't seen us.

Yet.

6

7

Tobias slipped down the hull of the tank and anymore. The Yeerks know who I am. Or know crept underneath, into the dark cavern between who I was, anyway.

the tank's tracks. Where he could see without beYeerks. I'm sure you know all about them by ing seen.

now. If not, here's the condensed version: slimy But I was on top. On the turret. I couldn't gray slugs that slither into your ear canal, flatten themselves out over the surface of your brain, move without catching the hawk's eye. I pressed and seize control of your body. Parasitic aliens myself against the floor of the cargo basket who are conquering Earth, one human at a time. and watched. Waited. Hoped my gray-and-white My mother was a Controller, controlled by one feathers blended in with the camouflage paint of of the most powerful Yeerks in the Yeerk Empire, the tank.

the former Visser One. We rescued her, killed the Right. We're talking about hawk vision here. Yeerk who'd slithered into her head, staged a No such thing as camouflage.

fake death for my dad and me, and evacuated to The red-tailed hawk kited above the train. Exthe mountain valley of the free Hork-Bajir. amined each car, each tank, that passed below. Which should've been great. And it was. For

<So, who are they?> I peered through the wire me personally. And for my family. Okay, so we cage. Twelve of them. Two of us. <Or should we were on a never-ending camping trip with sevenbe overly optimistic and hope it's James and his foot-tall bladed aliens who rarely, if ever, bathed. gang?>

And no, I hadn't seen an indoor toilet in weeks. James and his gang. A group of auxiliary AniBut I wasn't complaining. I had my mom morphs we'd recently recruited to help us fight back. Had my family back. And, as an added the Yeerks. Disabled kids by day. Superheroes by bonus, algebra homework was now only a distant, night. Or something like that.

quickly fading memory.

The Animorphs — originally just five human But for the Animorphs, and for the war we

kids and one Andalite — are trying to stop the were fighting, my mother's escape was the beginYeerks. I'm one of the human kids. Marco. That's ning of a long, terrifying, downhill slide. And we all I'm going to tell you about me. No last name. were about to hit rock bottom. Hard.

No address.

A big part of the reason we were struggling Not that it probably makes any difference

8

9

was that the Yeerks had had better weapons than their families and flee to the Hork-Bajir valley. us. Plus, they outnumbered us about three gazilRachel with her mom and two sisters. Cassie lion to six. But we had a couple of advantages with her parents. Tobias with his mother.

that helped level the playing field.

And Jake. Alone.

One: We could morph. We could touch an anWe tried to get Jake's family out. Even Tom, imal, acquire its DNA, then become that animal. his brother, who'd been a Controller since the beA dying Andalite war-prince gave us that ability, ginning of the invasion. But the Yeerks got there and with it we could infiltrate, spy, destroy, and first. Turned his mom and dad into Controllers, kick Yeerk butt in ways no human ever could. too.

Two: Since morphing is Andalite technology, the Turned Jake into someone none of us knew

Yeerks believed we were all Andalites. The foranymore. mer Visser Three, commander of the Yeerk invaAx moved to the valley, too. It had become our sion of Earth, had turned the planet upside down new sort of base.

looking for a rogue band of blue aliens.

Bottom line: We were human kids, and the

But he didn't find us, because he never

Yeerks knew it. And we'd thought that was the looked in places we might actually be. Cozy subworst thing that could happen to us. urban houses on tree-lined, Leave-lt-To-Beaver We were wrong.

streets. Noisy school hallways between classes. We needed more help. More firepower. More

The food court at the mall. Not your typical AnAnimorphs. So we recruited humans we knew we dalite hangouts. Well, except maybe the food could trust. Humans the Yeerks had written off. court. After this war is over, I fully expect Ax, our Humans they wouldn't infest.

resident Andalite, to spend the rest of his life in Disabled kids.

human morph at Cinnabon.

The Yeerks caught on to what we were doing, After we rescued my mother, though, it didn't and in the the last battle we lost the morphing take Visser Three long to figure out the "Andalite cube. The blue box that gave anybody who

bandits" just might be human. He was promoted touched it the power to morph. Our one weapon, to Visser One, and he poured most of his rethe weapon Visser One had never been able to sources into finding us.

overcome, had fallen into Yeerk hands. Yeah, we The other Animorphs were forced to rescue

could still morph. But now the Yeerks could, too. 10

11

Things were very, very bad.

I looked into the sky. The red-tailed hawk circled. Examined the tanks below. Its eyes locked onto mine.

Birds do not have lips. Birds cannot smile. But I swear this one did.

CHAPTER 3

TSEEEEEEEER!"

The red-tailed hawk rocketed from the sky, eyes gleaming in triumph.

Chuk-chuk-chuk-chuk.

The freight train was giving me a free ride right toward my enemy.

I flapped to the top of the cargo bin and found a foothold.

<Marco?>

Tobias inched onto the bed of the flatcar. Four blocks of wood were wedged against the tank's tracks, two in front, two in back, keeping it from rolling. Tobias stood beside one of the front blocks, in its shadow, out of the hawk's line of vision. 12

13

<You do know a bird of prey is shooting from Now!

the sky, aiming for you, right?> he said. I dove. Sideways and down, toward the hull of

<Uh, yeah.> My thought-speak actually the tank.

sounded confident, like I really knew what I was Thungk-crack.

doing. <The hawk doesn't have much bird experiThe red-tail slammed into the steel pipe ence, remember?>

above me.

I spread my wings. Flared my feathers.

Thump.

Fanned my tail. It's what raptors do when they're And fell backward into the cargo basket. He threatened. Make their bodies as large and menlay on the bottom of the cage, unmoving, his acing as possible.

neck twisted back and to the side.

What raptors do not do is plan suicidal fake<That was a little on the crazy side, don't you out maneuvers. No, that was purely a human think?> Tobias lifted his wings. <Now let's get move. My wings weren't spread high and wide away from here before his buddies notice he just to make me look tough, though I'm sure I hasn't come up for air.>

was one intense-looking bird. My wings were acThe train rattled around a curve. We swooped tually covering a thick steel tube that jutted up over the side. Stayed low. And came beak to beak behind me through the cargo basket.

with the pack of golden-eagle-Controllers. A steel tube I was betting the hawk, in his Did I mention that a golden eagle is almost rush to skewer my guts, hadn't noticed.

three times as big as an osprey? That it's got I glared at him. Dared him to hit me.

about three times as much attitude and, in my

"TSEEEEEEEEEEER!"

opinion, is wound just a little too tight?

I stood my ground. Held my perch. My tail

And that's just your regular, run-of-the-sky feathers flicked up and down like a lever, adjustgolden eagle. Stir in a crazed Yeerk and a terriing my balance to the movement of the train. fied human host, and we're talking one seriously Tobias watched from the shadows, wings

demented bird.

tense, ready to blindside the hawk if I failed. I cut sharply to the right. Tobias was already The hawk plummeted, his beak aimed at my

ahead of me. We powered our wings and shot exposed chest.

toward the front of the train, six golden eagles on Six feet above me. Four. Two.

our tails.

14

15

Chuk-chuk-chuk-chuk.

The clatter of flatcars nearly drowned out the sound of beating wings. We whipped past one car. Another. We were gaining on the train. The eagles were bigger. Meaner. But not as quick. If we could outlast them, we could outdistance them. I flapped my wings. We rounded the CHAPTER 4

curve.

<Uh-oh,>said Tobias.

Five falcons circled above us. They weren't as big as the golden eagles. Not even as big as me or Tobias. But a whole lot faster.

One of the falcons peeled off. Dove!

<0h, man. Not this again. I am so tired of being dive-bombed by birds.> The falcon dropped from the sky. Another But this wasn't just any bird. This was a pereperegrine zeroed in on Tobias. grine falcon. Not a bullet with feathers. A misI pumped my wings. Scanned the rail bed, sile. A missile shooting toward me at two hundred searching for an opening. A hiding place. A miles an hour.

shield.

Which gave me zero time to think up a suiciNothing. dal fake-out maneuver.

A wall of trees on one side. A freight train on We were absolutely, positively toast.

the other. A flock of psycho-eagles behind.

<Under the train!> I yelled.

I dove between two flatcars. Tobias followed. Chuk-chuk-chuk-chuk.

Metal grated against metal. We dodged under axles. Between wheels. Around brake boxes. It was reckless and desperate and stupid. Thousands of pounds of steel zinging along the tracks, 16

17

a fraction of an inch from our wings, our legs, our I tucked in my wings.

heads. One wrong move, one slight miscalculaTobias swept under the eagle in a Red-Tail tion, and we'd be chicken nuggets.

Spiral of Death. His talons slashed the eagle's But it was our only chance.

feathered legs.

We shot between the rail bed and the floor of

"KYEEEEEEER!"

the flatcars above. Lost an eagle. And another. A The eagle screamed. Banked. Turned to face bird with a seven-foot wing span has no business his attacker.

under a moving freight train.

But he wasn't as quick as Tobias, and he was But the falcons kept coming. From the front. weighted down by an uncooperative osprey.

From behind. Raking. Slashing. Pummeling.

"TSEEEEEEEEEEEEER!"

<Did you ever see that old movie The Birdsl> Tobias slammed into his throat.

I screamed.

The eagle veered. Raked a talon at Tobias. My

<Not funny, Marco!> Tobias screamed back. neck fell from its clutches.

I jetted out from beneath a car, two falcons on I spun, my butt clenched in one eagle claw, my tail. I shot up. Around the tank. In. Out! Lost my head and shoulders flopping in midair, while one of the falcons. Spun around the big gun. Tobias and the eagle threw down above me.

Lost the other.

Tobias circled. In. Out. Over. Around.

<AAAAAAAHHHHHH!>

The eagle whirled and dodged.

Talons the size of meat hooks clamped

<ls there a barf bag on this flight?> I said stuaround my back, pierced feathers, then flesh, as pidly.

a golden eagle plucked me from mid-flight. Tobias ripped his talons across the eagle's I thrashed. Tried to wrench free. My skin

back.

ripped beneath the eagle's viselike grip. Claw The eagle lashed out, both feet open.

scraped bone.

I was free!

The eagle beat its wings and rose above the I fell. Just plummeted toward the freight train train. I dangled from its talons like a helpless below. Toward solid steel and jutting periscope field mouse, twisting and writhing.

housings.

<Marco! Get your wings out of the way!> Fly. I had to fly! I focused. I pulled my wings A flash of brown.

up. Out.

18

19

Air filled my wings, like I'd opened a parachute. Somewhere above me an eagle screamed. I had to circle. Get back to Tobias and help him fight off the eagle. I swept over the train. Around a tank.

<Marco, look out!>

Smack.

It hit me from below. A falcon that came out CHAPTER 5

of nowhere. I lurched backward, end over end. Thunk.

And landed on the bed of the flatcar.

I lay on my back, wings splayed across rough wooden planks, belly exposed. Wind whipped my feathers. The flatcar swayed beneath me.

The falcon circled above. Flapped its wings and climbed. Gained altitude for another hit. I closed my eyes. Shut out the clacking of the train, the screams of hawk and eagle. Ignored the crippling pain shooting through my body. Forced one image into my head: Marco. Healthy human Marco.

I felt my feathers liquefy. Felt them melt and dissolve into my skin. My legs thickened. Shot out to human length. The armored-plated scales covering them softened and smoothed into human skin. 20

21

But I was still bird from the legs up, and I still My hands grew to the size of catchers' mitts. My couldn't move. Pain burned through my wings. I fingers swelled to sausages.

refocused the image: arms.

Currrrreeeeeeeek!

Currrrrrrunnnnnnch!

Human bones thickened. Arms shot out. My

My wings straightened, stretched. The pain skull shifted. Back, then up. My face flattened. stretched, too. Longer. Thinner. Faded to a tinJaw jutted forward. My skin darkened to a glisgle, then disappeared as fingers popped from the tening black, and waves of coarse dark hair ends of my arm-wings.

swept down my body.

I flexed them. Opened my eyes.

I was Big Jim.

I jerked to the side. Kicked at the falcon!

I leaped to the hull of the tank. The falcon Talons skidded across my thigh and locked

dove and raked my arm. Another swept over my onto my flesh. The falcon squeezed a mass of head, talons bared. A golden eagle swiped at my muscle between its dagger-sharp toes and kept face.

flying.

But I was a gorilla. The eagle was merely an

" AAAAAAAAAAAAAH H H H H H!"

annoyance. A pest. As fierce as a mosquito but A golf ball-sized chunk of meat was ripped as easy to swat. I batted them away, like King from my leg!

Kong swatting airplanes from the top of the EmIn human form, I could fend off the falcons. pire State Building.

In human form, I'd survive. Well, I'd survive I turned and scanned the rail bed. The trees longer than I would as an osprey.

had thinned. The ground was leveling out. We But why volunteer for that kind of carnage?

were getting closer to the city.

I crawled to the tank. Sat with my back

Closer to Yeerk reinforcements.

against the hull. Shoved the human image from Tobias shot around a tank three cars back, a my brain and thought of a different one: gorilla. golden eagle breathing down his neck. Two falWant to bulk up? Forget bench presses and cons buzzed and jabbed around him, taking

power shakes. Morph a gorilla.

whatever shots they could get.

I concentrated.

<Tobias!> I yelled. <Time to bail.> My chest and shoulders bulged. Stomach rip<You think?> pled. Biceps, deltoids, pecs. I was beefy. Buff. He flapped. Banked. Dove beneath the train. 22

23

The rail bed had been cut into the side of the One block was airborne.

hill. On one side the ground lay even with the

WHAM!

bed of the f latcar.

The other flew into the trees.

Even with the tank's treads.

I grabbed one of the big metal buckles and Four chains, as big around as my arm, ran

gave it a twist. The chain loosened. I twisted from huge steel loops welded to the tank to more both buckles till I had plenty of slack, then huge loops welded to the flatcar, two in front, two leaped onto the tank and unhooked the chains in back. Each pair of chains criss-crossed and from the steel loops.

were locked down tight by giant steel buckles in

CLANG!

the middle of each chain.

The chains slid to the floor of the flatcar. Tools. I needed tools. Easy. I'd been to Level The big gun was locked down into a bracket 10 in Tank Commando. I knew where to get

on the rear of the tank's hull. Since I was back them.

there anyway, I ripped it free and leaped to the I leaped to the tank's hull. A big lockbox was front of the tank.

built into the fender, the lid bolted shut with a

WHAM! WHAM!

brass padlock.

Wood blocks flew.

Simply not a problem for a gorilla. I ripped I twisted. Leaped. Unhooked. The front

the lock loose, the brass folding in my fist like chains fell away.

Play-Doh. Banged open the lid.

The tank was free.

Yes! Ax. Shovel. Mondo-huge wrench. Pointy

<Tobias! Let's go.>

chisel-looking bar.

I leaped onto the turret. Knuckle-walked to Sledgehammer.

one of the hatches leading inside. Twisted the I pulled the sledgehammer from the box.

padlock off and hurled it at the eagle on Tobias's Leaped to the back of the tank.

tail. Ripped the hatch open. Tobias shot through, The wood blocks were still wedged against

into the tank.

the tank's treads, anchored by steel spikes driven I swatted the eagle away, then heaved the

through the blocks into the bed of the flatcar. sledgehammer at the train's engine. It sailed end

WHAM!

over end, over the flatcars.

24

25

Slammed onto the roof of the locomotive and bounced.

EEEEEEEEEE!

Brakes squealed. The flatcar lurched.

I barreled into the tank and slammed the lid. Bye-bye birdies.

CHAPTER 6

< Okay. Good.> I squinted in the semidarkness. The train had stopped. <We're safe.>

<Uh-huh.> Tobias flapped up onto a metal box. <Sealed inside a tin can, with Yeerk-infested birds nesting on top, waiting for reinforcements who will peel the lid off and kill us. We're not safe, Marco. We're dead.>

<Dead? I think not. You underestimate the power of this particular tin can.> I patted the mesh wall behind me.

The inside of the turret was a round metal basket. Everything in it — walls, floor, storage bins, equipment — had been painted white.

Seats and storage bins filled the front and mid26

27

die. My knees banged against a big metal box.

"Ah. Video games and cable. How reassurAn ammo rack jabbed my shoulder. ing." He pulled a helmet from a hook on the side The tank just wasn't built for a gorilla.

of the turret. "I should probably wear this." I demorphed and climbed into one of the

"Probably. That piece in front is a microseats. I peered through the vision block mounted phone," I said. "And the ear thingies are speakabove me. It was the gunner's site. Computerers. ized. Equipped with night vision and infrared The mike was attached to a thick wire that sensors. Just like the video game.

curved down from the side of the helmet, like a I could see the eagles and falcons. They were telephone headset. Tobias adjusted it in front of perched on the hull of the tank, waiting. The railhis mouth. road guys were hiking along the tracks, searching

"I feel like Britney Spears," he said. the cars, searching under the cars, searching the

"Unfortunately for me, you don't look like her. trees. One of them was carrying the sledgehamSit here. Plug the cord in and push that little mer. Both of them looked really confused and a switch forward so you can talk to me." little ticked off.

I climbed through the crawl space between

I climbed from my seat. Stood in the center of the turret and the driver's area. Everything down the basket and tried to figure out what to do first. there was painted white, too. I slid into the seat.

"I assume we'll be taking this buggy for a joyIt tipped back so far I was almost lying down. I ride." Tobias had morphed into his human self. slipped my helmet on. Plugged it in.

"If we can figure out how to start it." And took a deep breath.

"What do you mean, /Ywe can figure out how I'll let you in on a little secret. Gunning down to start it? You happen to be sitting next to the enemy troops in a video game does not actually Tank Commando master of the Hork-Bajir valley." prepare you to operate a real-life, sixty-ton tank. I

"Right. Video-game expertise." He glanced mean, yeah, the controls looked familiar. I around at the switches and levers. "So, what, we gripped the handlebar in front of me. And the just rev it up and barrel off the side of the train?" equipment was all in basically the same spots as

"Yeah. The train's stopped. The ground's alit was on my PlayStation screen. most level with the flatcar. Should be easy. I saw But this was the real deal. If I flipped the tank a tank crew do it on the History Channel." over, I couldn't hit ESCAPE and start again. 28

29

"How's it going down there?" Tobias's voice Okay. I could do this. I gripped the handlebar crackled into my helmet.

thing. Right grip, throttle. Left grip, transmis"Cool." I studied the instrument panel. sion. Gear switch under my left thumb.

"Everything's cool. Got it all figured out." I took a breath. In about a minute we'd either Which, I realized, was almost true. Because be off the flatcar, ripping over the hills, or we'd here's another little secret: Tank controls are be flipped over on the rail bed, like a big old amazingly well-marked. FUEL. START. MASTER

metal bug on its back.

SWITCH. It didn't take a genius to figure out how I kept the transmission in neutral and turned to get it rolling.

the handlebar a sharp left, it was sort of like ridWas the army aware of this? Did they realize ing my bike. Sort of. Revved the throttle. The that, with a little trial and error, a third grader tank rotated sideways on the bed of the flatcar. with a limited vocabulary could probably steal an Its treads hung out over the edge, facing the entire tank?

cutout section of hill.

I settled back into my seat. Pushed MASTER

I straightened the handlebar. Shifted to drive. SWITCH. Heard a little hum as the instrument Pulled back on the throttle.

panel lit up.

And we lunged forward into empty space.

I peered through my vision block. It wasn't a whiz-bang computerized periscope like the gunner's sight. It was more like a window. A slit of a window fitted with thick, bulletproof glass. The eagles and falcons were still perched on the tank. And they obviously knew something was up. They fluttered their feathers and stared at each other.

I pushed START.

RrrrrRRRRRRrrrrrrmmmmmm.

The engine spun up and fired. Out on the

hull, our friends the birds screeched and flapped their wings.

30

31

mg in the line of trees, and we rattled off through the woods.

"Cake," I said.

I was very impressed with the tank. And, of course, myself. The M-l clipped right along. It was a tank, but it could move. Anywhere. Up hills, over boulders, across ditches.

CHAPTER 7

I bounced along in the driver's seat. Bushes crumbled and disappeared under my treads.

Okay, and a couple of trees, too. And the corner of a railroad storage shed. It took me a while to get used to the steering.

The bird-Controllers had settled back onto the tank, their talons locked around hinges and hanThe front of the treads rolled over the edge of dles, their wings bowed down against the hull. the flatcar, supported by nothing. I could see My helmet crackled. "Call me crazy," said Tolevel ground ahead. I held the throttle steady. bias, "but when we abort a mission, I don't think The tank tipped, nose down. The falcons and we should bring the Yeerks home with us." eagles bailed. They obviously had no confidence I heard a rattle above and behind me. The

in my tank-driving abilities.

tank's big gun whipped to the front of the tank.

"Uh, Marco?" Neither, apparently, did Tobias. Knocked a golden eagle out cold. He fell from

WHOOOOOOMPH!

the tank. The gun swung to the rear and then The tracks hit solid ground.

around to the front again. The other birds took to The tank hung halfway on the flatcar, half on the skies.

the cutout part of the hill.

"Tobias? That was you, wasn't it?" Then the treads grabbed onto the dirt and

"Yeah. I found an operating manual back pulled us from the flatcar. We crawled across the here. Pretty dry reading, but there's some stuff in cleared area next to the tracks. I found an openit we can definitely use." 32

33

We thundered across a clearing. Slogged

My helmet sputtered. "Uh, Marco? Does this through a stream. Climbed the steep bank on the thing have reverse?"

other side like it was downhill. Rattled through I glanced at the gear switch. "Yeah." the underbrush and back into the trees. The birdI pressed the switch with my thumb. Gave it Controllers swooped overhead.

gas. The tank started to roll. Forward.

Tobias spun the gun again. The eagles and

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" Tobias falcons screeched and flapped toward the sky. screamed in my ear.

I thundered along, the turret basket whirling I slammed on the brake. The tank stopped.

inches behind my head, trying not to get the gun Chunks of earth crumbled beneath the treads tube stuck in the side of a hill or caught in a tree. and plummeted from the cliff.

Trying to keep my eyes focused through the

"Not reverse," I said.

vision block. The woods flashed by in a blur.

"No kidding."

THUNNNNNG.

I pressed the gear switch again. Twisted the The tank tipped sideways. Kept rolling.

throttle toward me a fraction of a centimeter. Thumped back to level ground.

The tank inched backward.

"This is way cooler than a tank sim," said ToI cranked the throttle. Backed to the edge of bias. "Think Jake'd let us keep an M-l up in the woods. Sat in the shadow of the trees and let the . . . Marco! Watch out!!"

the tank idle.

"Watch what? I can't see very well." The "cliff" was a hill the highway department

"I know. But I can. Stop. Stop!" had blasted through when they built the InterI pushed down on the brake. The tank jerked state. It sloped down on either side till it was to a stop. I bounced forward, then back. I peered level with the road.

through my vision block.

I cranked the handlebar. Turned the tank. We And all I saw was sky. Acres and acres of

thundered down the hill. I turned again. Plowed empty air. We'd left the woods and were perched through the ditch and up onto the highway. on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Interstate.

"Uh, Marco? You sure you know what you're The falcons and eagles had disappeared.

doing?" Tobias said.

Smart birds.

"Sure. This puppy can do sixty-five, no sweat." 34

35

"Yeah, sixty-five in the wrong direction!"

"He doesn't know that."

I stared out at the highway. It was divided, The cannon rattled again. Up, this time.

with a concrete barrier between the two sides. Straight at the truck's window.

And our side was going the wrong way.

The trucker's smile froze. He cranked his

Not much I could do about that but keep gosteering wheel and swerved into the next lane. ing. And hope the other vehicles were smart

"That'll learn him," I muttered. enough to get out of the way.

They were.

A brand-new Lexus shrieked off to the side of the road. A rusty old pickup filled with wood planks followed it.

A minivan driven by a soccer-mom skidded

after them. An SUV driven by a guy in a suit swerved right behind.

So far, everyone was working with us.

Except for the eighteen-wheeler.

It kept on barreling toward us. I slowed down. Veered toward the shoulder. Plowed over a bank of road signs. Veered back onto the highway to avoid a stalled-out jeep.

Still the truck bore down on us. We were close enough now so I could see the driver's face. He was smiling. No, he was laughing.

"Is the guy a total idiot?" Tobias cried. "He's playing chicken with a tank. A tank!"

"He is bigger."

"Yeah? Well, we're better equipped." The big gun rattled. Swung to the right.

"You can't shoot him, Tobias!"

36

37

smarter than the average Hork-Bajir. Meaning two-plus-two actually held some meaning for her. So did quantum physics.

The second new member was my mom.

"The tank." I took a breath. "Well, you know Chapman's house? Nice two-story?"

Jake sighed. "How many stories is it now?" CHAPTER 8

"Uh . . . " I glanced at Tobias. "Zero? But the back deck will give Chapman a nice supply of firewood this winter. It's already piled up for him."

Tobias smiled. "Too bad he doesn't have a fireplace anymore."

"Excuse me?" said Rachel. "You flattened Melissa's house?"

Jake frowned. "So, where did you leave the She stared at me. She and Melissa Chapman

tank?"

used to be friends. Back before Melissa's dad beTobias and I looked at each other. came a Controller and Rachel became an AniWe were back in the Hork-Bajir valley, seated morph.

around the campfire outside my parents' cabin. She turned on Tobias. "And you went along Crickets hummed. The setting sun bathed the with it?"

valley in amber rays. Champ, Tobias's mom's

"Whoa. Down, girl," I said. "You're just mad dog, drowsed at our feet. It was peaceful. It was because you didn't get to drive a tank. Nobody nice.

got hurt. Nobody was home. Not even Fluffer McIt was a council of war. Nutter or whatever that stupid cat's name is." The Joint Chiefs of Staff were all present. Me,

"Fluffer McKitty," she said.

Tobias, Rachel, Cassie, Jake, and Ax. And, since

"Oh. Excuse me. Fluffer McKitty. That's so we'd moved to the valley, we'd added two more much better. Anyway, they're all fine. Melissa, members.

her parents, her cat."

Toby, the Hork-Bajir seer. Seer, meaning

38

39

Tobias nodded. "They're just, well, homeless." my mom was back. Happy that she and my dad Rachel shook her head. Looked to Jake to

were still nauseatingly in love. My best friend back her up.

had lost everything that had ever meant anything Jake said . . . nothing.

to him. Meanwhile, I practically had to tie myself We waited for his reprimand. For his poorly to a tree to keep from running up and down the concealed amusement. For his: "That's not exvalley, arms spread wide, belting out show tunes. actly what I meant by low profile, Marco." All the I glanced at Cassie. She sat on top of the old normal Jake stuff.

picnic table Ax and I had found and dragged to The fire popped. Somebody's nylon jacket

the camp. She sat away from the fire. Away from squeaked. Ax nailed a mosquito with the flat of the whole group.

his tailblade.

I figured if anybody could get through to Jake, Jake sighed again and poked the campfire

Cassie could. I mean, she's Cassie, for pete's with a stick.

sake. But since our last mission, since the Yeerks I frowned. Looked at Ax. He shrugged, one of had stolen the morphing cube, Jake was more the many human gestures he'd picked up.

distant from her than from anybody. Distant? AcSince we'd moved to the valley, Jake had tually where Cassie was concerned, Jake had been on autopilot. I didn't know how to talk to completely closed down. Like an iron door had him anymore. This was Jake. My best friend slammed shut.

since second grade, and I couldn't even have a

"But did you get any information?" Toby superficial, meaningless conversation with him. looked at Tobias, then me. She was crouched in Let alone try to get into his head.

the grass, the light from the smoldering logs inPart of it was me. My guilt. Yeah, big news tensifying the fire in her Hork-Bajir eyes. "Did flash, call the Associated Press, Marco feels you discover anything useful?"

guilty. Well, wouldn't you? My family was safe, Tobias scratched Champ's ears. "You mean recovered, together, while Jake's had been torn before we stole government property, endangered away from him. There was only a very slim

innocent motorists, and leveled a moderately chance he'd ever get them back.

priced suburban home?"

But that wasn't exactly why I felt guilty.

"Yes." She nodded.

I felt guilty because I was so happy. Happy

"Well, we did manage to get a good look at 40

41

the train," I said. "The National Guard wasn't soldiers into the city. They'll all be infested. moving those tanks. Not the regular, uninfested Soon. We can't let that happen."

National Guard anyway."

<But how can we be sure we can stop it?> Ax

"The uninfested National Guard." Jake nodasked. His blue fur gleamed in the firelight. ded. Stirred the fire. "We've been assuming there

<Even with James and the other new Animorphs, still is such a thing." He turned to my mom. are we big enough?>

"Eva, is there any chance we're wrong?"

"No. We're not. We need help." Pace. Pace.

"No." Mom shook her head. "If Visser Three Poke. "So, we split up. One group is the in-yourhad taken over the National Guard while I was face group." Jake glanced at Rachel. "That Visser One's host body, I'd have known about it. group creates a diversion with the National What am I saying? Everybody would've known Guard troops. Keeps them away from the Yeerk about it. Visser Three would've made sure." pool as long as possible. They're stationed all

"What about since then?" said Jake. "Since over the city, so we'll have to keep moving to hit he was promoted to Visser One?"

all the bases. But it'll also split Visser One's re"No." Mom shook her head again. "Not sources, trying to stop us. It'll keep him busy. enough time. We're talking thousands of solBuy us some time." diers, spread out over the entire state. And

"We have been planning to liberate the group they're not on active duty. They're weekend warof Hork-Bajir that guard The Sharing headquarriors, so most of the time they're not even with ters," said Toby. "We can be ready to go in the their units. This is a huge operation. It'd take morning."

months to plan, months more to execute."

"Good. That'll be one more fire Visser One

"Okay." Jake paced. Poked his stick at the has to put out. Group Two will be smaller, quifire. "With all the troop movement over the last eter. They'll need to show a little more finesse." few days, we can assume the planning stage is

"Finesse?" Rachel shot me a sideways look. done. So I'm assuming the execution stage is be"Oh, yeah. Some of us are so good at that." ginning. We can also assume at least some of the

"We'll have to be," said Jake. "Because only highest ranking officers are Controllers. Otherone person has enough authority to stop the wise, the visser wouldn't be able to get all those movement of National Guard troops. The gover42

43

nor. Group Two has to travel to the capitol. Get to side. If the governor is free, you have to find a the governor somehow. Convince him to work way to convince him. If he's a Controller, well, with us."

we'll have to figure out Plan B."

"I'll go," Cassie said.

"Oh. Well," I said. "As long as there's no

"No," Jake replied, practically before the pressure."

words were out of her mouth.

"And try to keep things down. We don't need Cassie froze. Stared at him.

Visser One figuring out what we're up to." The Jake didn't even look at her.

half-smile again. "I'm counting on you guys to be Instead, he gave me a sarcastic half-smile. A cool. And to handle this the best way you know glimpse of the old Jake. "If anybody can handle a how."

politician, it's Marco. And Tobias can get to the

"Be cool? Handle this? Marco?" Rachel shook capitol without getting lost. We also need to her head. "We are in serious trouble." make sure the governor isn't a Controller, and Ax is the most qualified to judge. So that's the second group. Marco, Ax, and Tobias." That's when he finally looked at Cassie.

Locked his gaze on her.

"I can trust them," he said.

Silence.

Jake turned back to us and continued, "I'll be with Group One. Rachel. Cassie. Toby and some of her people. James's group, too. We'll try to stir up some major chaos before midnight. Marco, you need to reach the governor some time tomorrow. Doesn't matter exactly when, just get there." He stopped pacing. Stopped poking the fire. Looked at me. At Ax and Tobias. "I know this sounds melodramatic, but we can't fight this war alone anymore. We need the authorities on our 44

45

normal bird-of-prey morphs wouldn't do the job. We needed distance flyers. Ducks. Our plan was to get in, acquire the necessary DNA, and get out before The Gardens opened for the day.

And at the edge of the water, near our cattail hideout, swam a family of mallards.

We hunkered down and waited for them to

CHAPTER 9

drift closer.

"Anybody know the best way to catch a duck?" I whispered.

Ax peered through the cattails. <l have been observing these animals very closely.> His main eyes studied a group of ducklings, while his stalk eyes followed a big male duck that bobbed near Weeds slapped at our faces. Mud sucked at the cattails. <They are quick and agile, but they our feet — well, two of us anyway. We waded into spend a great deal of time with their heads unthe swamp and crouched behind a stand of catderwaters tails. Me, Ax, Tobias perched on Ax's shoulder.

<They're eating,> Tobias explained.

Group Two. The ones with "finesse."

<Ah.> Ax nodded. <You see how much safer We were at The Gardens, in the wetlands secand more efficient it would be for them if they tion that divided the zoo from the amusement fed through their feet? Capturing a member of park. The sun was rising behind the Ferris wheel. this species while its front half is submerged An early morning fog rose from the water.

should be relatively simple.>

Birds filled the big, marshy pond. Ducks,

Simple. Right. When was the last time anygeese, swans, pelicans, cranes. Flamingoes. thing in our lives was simple?

<Hey,> said Tobias. <We can morph lawn orThe male paddled into the cattails. I could naments.>

tell he was a male, a drake, by his shimmery The capitol was over two hundred miles away. green head, his cinnamon-brown chest, and the The fastest way to get there was by air, and our band of white that divided the two like a neck46

47

lace. In the duck world, the boys get to be the I lunged. Grapped the duck around the midpretty ones. All the girl ducks were a drab, dle. Held her wings tight to her body and pulled splotchy brown.

her from the water.

The drake swam closer. Dipped his beak into She thrashed and quacked. The other ducks

the water.

squawked and flapped away.

I raised my arms. Slowly. I tensed, ready to I turned toward shore. The frog slid down my grab him as soon as he dove for food.

face and over my eyes.

Sploot.

I flung my head, tried to shake him loose. Something heavy and wet landed on my head. Kept my grip on the duck. Reeled blindly in the Part of it slid down my face and latched on to my water.

cheek.

"QUAAAAAAAAAACK."

"Gree-deep," said the heavy, wet thing. The duck let out a cry and wrenched a wing Great. I lifted my hand. Started to shove it from under my grip. Beat it against my arm, my off. The drake drifted closer. I froze.

face. Lashed out with her feet.

<Marco, do you realize that there is a large You think just because they're webbed, duck amphibian on your head?>

feet don't have claws? They do. And they're

<lt's a bullfrog, Ax-man,> said Tobias. sharp. Two kicks shredded my forearms.

"Gree-deep," said the frog.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

The mallard turned. Watched me. Paddled

I screamed. The pond erupted in quacks,

away.

honks, and screeches. Water sprayed over me. I poked the bullfrog.

Cattails sliced at my face.

"Oh, man." I groaned. "I think it just peed The bullfrog stayed planted on my head.

on me."

I stood totally still and concentrated on the I started to poke him again, then stood very duck in my hands. On the duck that was kicking, still. One of the female mallards had paddled flapping, flailing. I had to focus. Had to acquire it into the cattails.

before it got away.

She nipped at something in the water.

"QUAAAAAAAAAACK."

Floated. Nipped again. Plunged her head beSomething small, hard, and sharp clamped neath the surface. Her bottom bobbed on top. down on my nose.

48

49

" AAAAAAAAAAAAH HHHHHHHHH!"

Ducks and geese quacked, honked, and thrashed I screamed. The duck had bit me! She gave

over the pond. I sloshed after him, into the path one more major thrash and slipped from my

of oncoming birds, trying to nab one as it flapped hands.

by. I could hear the field trip kids shouting be"QUAAAAAAAAAACK." hind me.

Her wings beat against my face as she

"Hey, what's that kid doing in the water?" flapped away.

"Looks like he's target practice for those

"Gree-deep."

birds."

The frog leaped into the cattails.

"Can we go swimming, too, Mrs. Duncan,

"Oh, now you decide to leave," I said. I please?"

slogged toward the bank.

I dove. Ax lunged. Ducks skidded across the

<Stay still, Marco. I believe I have one.> Ax water.

vaulted into the pond in a beautiful, perfect arc,

<l'll handle this,> Tobias said.

his Andalite form clearly outlined in the morning He took to the sky and circled. Spilled air sun.

from his wings and dove. Swooped over the water

"Daddy, Daddy! Look! It's a unicorn." and landed easily on a mallard's back. The duck I whirled.

squawked and splashed and tried to fly away. ToA little girl was pulling her dad toward the bias sank his talons into its feathers. The duck duck pond. A group of grade-school kids on a relaxed. It had fallen into an acquiring trance. field trip jostled along the sidewalk behind them.

<Marco. Your turn,> said Tobias.

"The park's open," I yelled to Ax and Tobias. I splashed out to the duck. Grabbed him

"Let's get what we came for and get out!" around the middle. Pressed my hands against his

"A blue unicorn, Daddy. Look!"

feathers. Had to start acquiring him before he

"There's no such thing as a unicorn, sweetsnapped out of it. heart. That's a, well, it's a . . . an antelope. Yes, I shut out the squawks and squeals around

an antelope. That's it. Probably from . . . Africa. me, the shouts and laughs from the shore. ConAn African antelope." centrated on the duck.

Ax, the blue Andalite/African antelope,

"Ax. You ready?" I sloshed toward him, duck splashed through the water, chasing the mallard. in hand.

50

51

Ax reached for it.

"Andalite!"

I spun. One of teachers pushed her way

through the mob of field trip kids. She knocked a zoo guard onto the concrete and pulled a gun from his holster.

CHAPTER 10

Ax! Get back!"

Ax dove into the cattails.

I dove after him, still carrying the droopy duck.

Wooooooooosh.

What I guess was a tranquilizer dart pierced the weeds.

I handed the duck off to Ax in a weird DNA water relay.

TSSSSSEEEEEEEEW-buh-loooooosh.

A Dracon beam vaporized the water beside

me. Human-Controllers leaped into the pond and splashed toward the cattails.

Others, still on the bank, began changing. Shrinking, shifting . . . morphing. A leopard 52

53

emerged from a security guard, a golden eagle bank. I was Marco the gorilla. And I was looking from an ice-cream vendor.

to kick some Controller butt.

<Man, I liked it better when only we could do

TSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEW!

that,> I said.

A Dracon beam fried the cattails. I whirled. A

<l've got the eagle,> Tobias called from overhuman-Controller stood at the edge of the water. head.

He raised his handheld Dracon and aimed it at

"TSEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!"

my chest.

He dove. Hit the eagle before it had finished I leaped. Knocked the Dracon into the water the morph. Circled for another shot.

with one fist. Slammed the Controller uncon" RoaaAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWR." scious with the other.

The leopard leaped at Ax, teeth bared.

More human-Controllers charged me from beFwap! Fwap!

hind. Jumped onto my back. Beat me with sticks Ax, still holding the duck, struck back with and rocks and cell phones. One of the Controllers his bladed tail.

jabbed at my eyes with her car keys.

TSSSSSEEEEEEEEW-buh-loooooosh.

I whirled. Flung the Controllers away, one by Human-Controllers charged through the

one. One by one they sailed over the sidewalk pond, firing Dracons.

and —

I took a deep breath. Filled my lungs with air

CRASH!

and dove into the shallow water.

— flattened a slush stand.

I focused. Tried not to move. Tried not to

"HONNNK. HONNNK."

make waves or bubbles.

A goose flapped up from the pond. It flew low, And then it started. I felt my muscles bulge. straight at me.

Bones realign. Felt pin prickles as fur popped Another Controller? I lifted an arm, ready to from my skin.

swing. Ready to fend off its claws and beak. But I was running out of air! My lungs burned. But the goose just continued to beat its

My eyes burned. Still, I concentrated. Felt my wings. It flew over my head toward the zoo. Not a skull bulge. My jaw jut forward.

Controller. Just a goose.

Finally, I erupted from the water. Gulped in This was insane. Birds were starting to make air. Tore through the cattails and leaped onto the me jumpy.

54

55

The battle had spilled into the amusement

the jungle was fiberglass and plastic, whatever. I park section of The Gardens. Tobias and the eatore through it anyway. Reached the top of the gle were locked in aerial combat above the roller waterfall in fifteen seconds flat. The Controllers coaster.

stood on the edge of the man-made river, peering Ax galloped toward the merry-go-round. The out over the park. I ripped through a tangle of leopard lay beside it, trying to drag itself underfake vines and leaped onto the edge of the riverneath on three legs. way.

Ax stood above the leopard, tail blade poised.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

" RoaaAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWR."

They screamed. I hammered.

<Ax! Watch out!>

BAM!BAM!

A cougar vaulted from the top of the merrySpuh-LOOOOOOOSH!

go-round. Sunk teeth and claws into Ax's back. They plunged into the river.

Fwap! Fwap-fwap!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaahhhhhh . . ." Ax's tail blade lashed out.

And shot over the waterfall.

Wooooosh.

"KYEEEEEER!"

Another tranquilizer dart shot past my head. A golden eagle's scream. I was above the

Rippled the fur on my shoulder. I wheeled. Two roller coaster, and I could see down over the human-Controllers stood at the edge of the log track, where an eagle and Tobias were still at it. ride, on top of the waterfall. One held a gun. The eagle screamed again and pummeled ToTSSSSSEEEEEEEEEWWW!

bias.

The other wielded a Dracon.

Tobias fell, one wing flapping, the other hangI knuckle-leaped toward the log ride. ing limp at his side.

TSSSSSEEEEEEEEEWWW!

Hespiraled. Down. Down.

The concrete beneath me exploded.

<Tobias!>

I bounded over the wooden fence that sepaThump. rated the log ride from the sidewalk. Climbed And landed on the elevated track of the roller through the synthetic jungle up the man-made coaster, in a dip at the bottom of a steep hill. mountain.

A roller-coaster car filled with passengers I was a gorilla. This was my territory. Okay, so clanked up the other side of the hill.

56

57

1

<Get up! Tobias, get up!>

I bounded along the edge of the fiberglass river.

The eagle hurtled toward Tobias, ready to finish him off. The roller-coaster car reached the top of the hill and shot down the other side. It picked up CHAPTER 11

speed as it traveled. Passengers squealed and flung their arms above their heads.

Tobias fluttered his good wing. His body

flopped pitifully against the steel track. He was too weak to get out of the way. It was too late!

<Tobias! No!>

KYEEEEEEEEER!"

The eagle plummeted.

The roller-coaster car shot down the tracks. Hurtled toward the badly injured body of my friend.

<Tobias!> I skidded down the side of the waterfall, from tree to vine to bush. The eagle was directly above him now.

The roller-coaster car almost on top of him. Wuuuumpf.

<What the . . . !>

The roller-coaster car slammed into the eagle!

Brown and golden feathers spewed over the passengers.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHH H H H H H H!"

58

59

Women screamed. Kids cried. Men shouted.

His back hooves flattened and webbed out as his But I wasn't interested in the passengers. arms broadened into wings. He slipped from the More brown feathers flashed below. Then, a cougar's grasp and flapped toward the sky. red tail. A hawk had dropped through the bottom

<NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!>

of the elevated tracks.

The cougar's thought-speak echoed through

<Tobias?>

the park. He writhed, twisted, tried to get all four He flapped and swooped toward the sky, both feet beneath him. He dropped through the trees wings strong and healthy.

into the Siberian tiger exhibit.

<What happened?!> I asked.

"RrrrrrrrrrOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAWWWWWW

<No big deal.> He climbed above the tracks. RRR!"

<l just stole your suicidal fake-out maneuver, Big kitty battle cries erupted from the pen. that's all.>

<That should keep him busy for a while,>

<That's all? Can a gorilla have a heart attack?

said Tobias.

Because I think I'm having a heart attack. I'm He and Ax landed beside me in the mannot breathing right. You know that was com- made jungle. Tobias went mallard. I demorphed pletely insane, don't you?>

then concentrated on the duck.

<lnsane, yes. But it worked.> He flapped over I'd morphed birds before. A seagull. And an the waterfall. <Where's Ax?>

osprey, of course. The osprey and mallard were

BANG! CLANK!

roughly the same size. But they were built a A tram car rocked and swayed overhead, on

whole lot different.

its way from the amusement park to the zoo. The ground shot up as my body shrank. I put WHAM.

out a hand to steady myself, but my fingers were The door banged open, and Ax leaped out, a already thinning, shifting. My first two fingers cougar wrapped around its neck.

shot out. My pinkie and ring finger dissolved into They dropped, a ball of cat and alien, freenothing. falling to Earth.

Sploooooooooot.

Ax began shrinking. His blue fur melted into a My bones snapped, realigned, and became

shimmering swirl of green and chestnut feathers. hollow. Internal organs moved, re-formed. New His stalk eyes shriveled. His front legs dissolved. ones sloshed into existence. My shoulders

60

61

shifted up. My hips shifted back. My whole body my shimmering green head. <Ora big, full-bodied tipped forward till I was lying on my face. quack.>

<Well, this is comfortable,> I said.

<The quack's not the big problem,> said ToMy mouth and nose melded together and jutbias. <What I'd really like to know is, who ted into the ground. My nostrils slid to the top, thought up this leg/tail arrangement?> He wadand my neck shot straight out, scraping my dled between two fiberglass trees. <Look at my nose/mouth combo through the dirt. The combo butt.>

flattened out. Hardened into a long, broad bill.

<Uh, thanks, Tobias. I think I'll pass.> Sccccuuuurreeeeech.

<Seriously,> he said. <Pm sure it's great for Orange scales shot down my legs. Claws

swimming, having the motor in the rear like erupted from my toes, and the skin between that, but walking? My legs are so far apart my them webbed together.

whole back end bobs up and down every time I I was a duck. Short, squat, steady. Alert. take a step. Up and down. Side to side. Like Tense. A little skittish, maybe, but ready to stand a . . . like a . . .>

my ground, to defend my territory. In your face, if

<Like a duck?>

I had to. And — this part is gross — suddenly

<Yeah. It's humiliating.> He swept a wing overcome by a craving for mosquito larva.

over his flat duck bill. <And this is just wrong.>

<Ewwww.>

<Tobias, you've been a hawk way too long.> I I shuddered and tried out my new mallard

lifted my wings. <Let's go find the governors voice: "Kwek." It didn't sound right. Too low. Too raspy. I tried again. "Kwek. Kwek-kwek-kwekkwek."

<l think we acquired a defective duck,> I said. <My quack's not coming out right.>

<l know a little something about birds,> said Tobias. <And when it comes to mallards quacking, the females are better at it.>

<Ah. So it's a trade-off. A pretty face.> I tilted 62

63

fend ourselves. The gulls dove for a Frito bag lying behind a trash can. Not Controllers. Just hungry scavengers. We headed back on course.

<l don't believe I'm saying this.> Tobias.

<But I can almost sympathize with Visser One. Now we know what he's been going through all this time. Dodging every animal he sees, thinking the boogeyman in morph is lurking around every CHAPTER 15

corner.>

We decided three ducks flying by themselves looked a little conspicuous, especially to Controllers who were probably looking for three ducks flying by themselves. So we hooked up with a flock of mallards heading in the direction of the capitol.

I pushed off with my feet, flapped my wings, We leeched onto the back of their V formaand sprung straight into the air. Through the tion, and flapped off over the mountains.

trees. Above the waterfall.

This wasn't sleek, soaring raptor flight. With

<Hey, this is cool,> I said. <No long, running our round heads, long necks, and plump bodies, takeoffs. No flapping along the ground. When the we looked more like bowling pins with wings. duck wants to be in the air, he's in the air.> I was the Energizer Bunny with feathers. The Tobias and Ax followed, and we flew over The Energizer Birdie. I flapped and flapped and Gardens. Three identical ducks, morphed from flapped. Fifty miles an hour on a straight, level the same DNA.

flight.

A flock of seagulls flitted about the food

<Here's a questions I said. <Why haven't we court. We watched them. Listened. Two of the morphed ducks before? All those times we had to birds suddenly took to the sky.

fly long distances, like trying to keep up with the Controllers? We beat our wings and veered

train yesterday, Tobias. Or that time Jake got his away, looking for a place to land. A place to de65

64

guts squashed on the ceiling when we were stowreached the outskirts of a city just before noon. A ing away in fly morph on an airplane. Why didn't large white dome gleamed in the distance.

anybody say, "Long distance? Let's go duck"?>

<This is it,> I said. <l recognize the capitol

<Yes,> Ax agreed. <This is a useful morph. from our third-grade field trip.>

I'm not tired after quite a bit of time in the air.>

<A domed building?> Ax's thought-speak was

<Exactly. Plus we're flying in formation, and it filled with awe. He has a thing for domed roofs. looks normal. None of that bird-of-prey stuff

<Excellent living quarters! Well-suited for an imwhere we have to fly miles apart and pretend we portant government leader.>

don't know each other. No offense, Tobias. I like

<That's not where he lives, Ax-man. It's just swooping and gliding and riding the thermals as where he works.>

much as the next raptor, but every bird can't be a

<And it's Saturdays said Tobias. <So fighter jet. Sometimes you need a steady, reliable chances are, he's not there.>

747.>

<So chances are, he'll be at home,> I said. I scanned the rocks and treetops below. The

<Which is . . . ?>

duck had decent eyesight. It didn't have binocuI didn't say anything. lar vision like an osprey, so I couldn't judge disAx let out a raspy quack. <We traveled all this tances very well. I couldn't scope out a fish from way, and we do not know where we are going?> half a mile away and know exactly when to dive

<No big deal,> I said. <We've got finesse, reand at what speed and where to plunge my talons member? We'll ask directions.>

into the water to catch it.

We discreetly peeled off from the flock and But hey, the mallard didn't need that kind of landed in a big mud puddle behind a truck stop. information. Mosquito larva and barley seed Ax and Tobias dabbled in the water. I waddled don't move very fast.

across the gravel to the men's room, waited until We left the mountains behind and flew over it was empty, and demorphed.

fields and rivers, highways and small towns. We I circled to the front of the building and went took a mid-morning pitstop on a marshy farm inside. A skinny woman with teased orange hair pond, then the flock headed back to the sky. We sat behind the cash register, leafing through a flew high to take advantage of a nice tailwind and magazine.

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"Urn, hi," I said. "I'm from out of town, doing job got me back on my feet." He pointed his bura little sight-seeing, and I'm wondering how to rito at the front window. "This highway out front get to the governor's mansion."

here? Take it east till you come to the cloverleaf." She didn't look up from the magazine. "Beats I nodded. Tobias would know where east was. me. The governor's never invited me over."

"Then head north," he said. "About a mile, She flipped to a page of makeup tips. I wanmile and a half. Governor's mansion sits on a dered through the side door to the truck stop's bluff overlooking the river. You can't miss it. diner.

Freaky-looking place with towers and little balNone of the waitresses knew where the goverconies. Like something straight out of The Ad- nor lived. They hollered back to the kitchen, but dams Family."

the cook and the dishwasher were clueless, too.

"Thanks anyway," I said.

I headed toward the door.

"Need directions?"

I turned. Two bikers were eating lunch at the counter. The big one was looking at me. He bit off a mouthful of burrito and watched me as he chewed.

Did I say he was the big one? I take that back. He wasn't big. He was huge. His left bicep was bigger than my whole head. His body nearly swallowed the stool he was sitting on. He wore a bandanna around his head and a leather jacket with the name "Chopper" embroidered across the back.

Chopper picked something from his teeth.

"Did a drywall job there once."

"At the governor's mansion?"

"Yep. The governor's a real nice person. That 68

69

"Man. We should've brought our trick-or-treat bags," I said.

<We need to find your governor quickly,> said Ax, <and convince him to speak to us alone. What does he look like?>

"I'm not really sure," I said. "Tobias?" Tobias blinked his beady hawk eyes.

CHAPTER 13

Ax frowned. <But he is the most important government official in your state. Isn't his picture placed prominently in all your educational facilities?>

"Maybe." I shrugged. "I never really paid much attention." I looked at Tobias.

<Don't ask me,> he said. <My education has We'd followed Chopper's directions. We found taken place mostly outside the established facilithe governor's mansion and landed in the shrubs ties^

in the middle of the circular drive at the front of Ax studied Tobias, then me. He shook his

the house. We demorphed and were now staring at head, puzzled. <Perhaps it will not matter. Once the front door, trying to figure out how to get in. we are inside, we will most likely hear someone I peered through a gap in the bushes. Thorn call him by name.> He narrowed his stalk eyes. bushes. I hadn't noticed the thorns when I was

<You do know his name?>

standing underneath them as a duck. But now I Tobias and I looked at each other.

was human, and I noticed.

Okay, so I should've done an Internet search And Chopper was also right about the place before we left the valley. Or picked up a state being freaky-looking. Towers and turrets loomed map at the truck stop. The governor's picture above us. Vines crept up the dark stone walls and would've been right there on the inside flap, with circled the stained-glass windows. Pointy black his name printed underneath.

wrought-iron railings lined the balconies and the Or I could've asked Chopper. He would have roof.

known.

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<So I take it we're back to the finesse thing

"Well, whatever we do, we have to stay small," again?> said Tobias.

I said. "We can't let anybody see us except the I shrugged. "It's been working for us so far." governor."

Except here I couldn't just casually stroll We went over our list of possible morphs.

through the door and ask directions. Too much Rat?

security.

Same problem as the fly, only worse. We'd be I peeked through the thorns. A tall stone

more likely to be seen. And exterminated.

fence, topped with iron spikes and fitted with an Flea?

alarm system, enclosed the house and grounds. Blind and deaf. And not very mobile unless The driveway twisted through a canopy of trees we caught a ride in somebody's hair. Plus who and ended at a gate in the fence. A state trooper wants to put up with the overwhelming need to manned the guardhouse beside the gate. Another suck blood?

trooper stood watch outside the front door to the

"Wolf spiders?" I said.

mansion. More troopers were probably stationed

<People see spiders and go insane,> said Toinside. Not to mention all the maids, cooks, secbias. <l don't want to end up on the bottom of retaries, and personal assistants we'd have to get somebody's shoe.>

past.

"So . . . what, then? Bat? Chimpanzee? InMaids, cooks, secretaries, and personal assisconspicuous, friendly looking Hork-Bajir? What tants who could be Controllers.

else have we got?"

"We use our fly morphs," I said. "Buzz past the

<We have a very large black automobile,> guard and into the house. Nobody'll notice us." said Ax.

<Perfect,> said Tobias, <if we were looking He pointed toward the guardhouse at the end for garbage cans and bathrooms. It's just a of the drive. A stretch limo had stopped at the guess, but I doubt he'll be spending large gate. The guard checked his clipboard and moamounts of time in either of those places. We tioned the driver through. The limo crunched up could fly around that mausoleum all day and the winding drive toward us and pulled into the never run into him.>

circle in front of the door. The driver got out, said Ax snorted. <Or recognize him if we did.> something to the guard at the front door, then Okay. We deserved that shot. I let it go.

stood by the limo, waiting.

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"He's not here to pick up the butler," I said.

"The governor must be going somewhere."

<Somebody with finesse would probably go with him,> said Tobias.

I nodded. "Yup."

CHAPTER 14

RUN!

It was the only thought in my little cockroach brain: RUN! OUT OF THE LIGHT! NOW!

I skittered across the pavement toward the long, dark shadow beneath the limo. Every tiny black hair on my cockroach body trembled. Every nerve cell stood at attention. Two other cockroaches, Ax and Tobias, darted alongside me. The beauty of being a cockroach — well, relatively speaking — is that suddenly you're Superman. You can be dropped, drowned, blown up. But do you die? No. You simply dust yourself off and scurry away. Get sprayed by a little insecticide? Not a problem. Cockroaches adapt to bug 75

74

spray. If you are a cockroach, you are nearly inde<That would be my guess,> I said. structable.

WHAM! WHAM!

I jumped. Squeezed into a crack, a corner

And indestructable was exactly what we

between the pavement and something big and needed at the moment.

dark rising up from it. Ax and Tobias huddled beMy six legs motored over chunks of gravel side me.

that, to my bug body, were the size of garbage

<lf those are car doors,> Ax said, <three of trucks. Through cracks in the pavement that them have now closed. Which means — >

were like canyons. My complex eyes shattered The air exploded around us. Noise. Vibration. the world around me into thousands of tiny imHeat. ages. But I couldn't stop to piece the picture to<lt means the driver started the car,> I said. gether. The cockroach recognized light and dark.

<Let's go! Move, move!>

And it wanted dark.

I scuttled up the vibrating black hulk that

WOOOOMPH! WOOOOMPH!

towered above me. A rear tire. I climbed, the The ground quaked.

claws on my feet like spikes gripping into the Footsteps? The cockroach brain didn't have rubber.

time to wonder. It just propelled my legs. Out of Up. Over. My feet hit metal. And something the light. Into the shadow.

else. Thick. Sticky. Axle grease. I slogged Darkness! Yes!

through it, six tiny feet dragged down with every I was under the limo. My nerve cells relaxed. step. I had to get across it. Had to get to some The roach brain released its grip on the crunchy nonmoving part on the underside of the car. Had little roach body. But only for a second.

to find a safe place to —

WHAM!

<AAAAAAAAAAH H HHHHHHHH!>

I didn't hear the noise as much as feel it. The The axle began to move. It was turning. Pickroach's body reacted before my human brain had ing up speed. I clung to it, my feet mired in goo. time to register what the sound meant. I shot The axle spun round and round. Faster and

toward the darkest corner of the shadow.

faster. Like a washing machine on spin dry. Ax and Tobias darted behind me. We quivered

<AAAAAAAAAAH HHHHHHHHH!>

in the dark.

Another scream. Not me this time.

<Car door?> Tobias.

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77

<Tobias?>

me on the bottom. I'm wedged between rubber

<l'm still on the tire. In a crack in the tread. I and pavement.>

think I'm upside down now. No, right side up. The limo edged forward. Stopped again. I

No, upside down. Aaaaaaahhhhhhh. Do cockheard a whirring noise. roaches hurrrrrlllll?>

<He's waiting for the gate to open,> I said. Now that was a good question.

<Can you move, Tobias?>

<ls Ax with you?> I said.

<l already have.> He sidled up beside me in

<No, I am over here. I do not know where over the grease.

here is exactly, but it is hot. Very hot. And it is Another cockroach — Ax — crawled up begetting hotter. Eeeeee-YOWWWWWWWWWW!> hind him. <The bottoms of my feet are numb. I The limo hurtled down the drive. It probably may have fried them completely off.>

wasn't going more than twenty miles an hour, but

<Let's go,> I said. <We don't have much when you're half an inch long, twenty miles an time.>

hour might as well be the speed of light. BoulI scurried along the axle. Ax and Tobias folders of gravel pummeled me. The axle spun. The lowed. My antennae hit a thick rubber-coated limo jounced up and down over the bumps in the wire hanging down from the underside of the driveway.

limo. I gripped it with my front claws and scramAnd every hair on my cockroach body bled up. Ax followed.

screamed: GET OUT. TOO MUCH MOVEMENT.

The limo started to roll. The wire swayed. ToTOO MUCH DANGER. RUN!

bias lunged for it. Caught Ax's back legs instead But my human brain told me to hang on.

and hung on.

Hunker down in the grease and wait until it was The limo picked up speed.

safe to move.

<l have a bad feeling about this,> said ToThe spinning and bouncing slowed. The limo bias.

rolled to a stop.

<We're cool,> I said. <We're cockroaches, re<We must be at the gate,> I said. <You've member? Indestructable. Our hearts can stop gotta get off the tire, Tobias.>

beating, and we won't die. Our heads can get

<Uh, yeah. Tell the driver. He stopped with chopped off, and we still won't die. Well, at least 78

79

r

not for a week or so, anyway, until we waste away from thirst and starvation because we don't have a mouths. But hey, that gives us plenty of time to demorph.>

The car swerved. Thumped through a pothole. Our cockroach bodies banged against the underCHAPTER 15

belly of the limo. Tobias was still hanging from Ax's back legs.

<AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!>

We swung back. Banged again. I lost my grip. Twirled around the wire by one leg.

<Forget our hearts and our heads,> Tobias croaked. <lf our guts get squashed all over the I swung around. Snagged the wire with a pavement, it's pretty much over.>

second leg. And a third. Pulled my remaining legs in and around.

Ax hung on below me. Tobias scrambled over Ax's back and grasped onto the wire between us. We clung to it as we shot down the highway at sixty-five miles an hour. Rocks pelted us. Mud puddles drenched us.

Thud-thud-thud-thud. Thud-thud-thud-thud.

The limo thundered through potholes and

bumped over metal plates and asphalt patches. We swung from the rubber wire like suicidal trapeze artists.

Thunk.

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80

Banged against the limo above us.

corted the High Heel across the pavement and Crunch.

through a glistening glass door.

And bounced against the axle below.

They strode across a wide room. A hotel

<lf we get out of here alive,> I said, <l'm writlobby? I hung on, my back end dipping down being a letter to the highway department. These tween thick rug fibers, then flying through the roads are terrible.> No one laughed. I guess it cool air every time High Heel took a step. wasn't the time for a joke.

<Wherever we are,> I said, <it's someplace The limo slowed again. Turned. Thudded over nice. The carpet is cushy. And everything

a speed bump and rolled to a stop.

gleams. Brass, probably. Marble. Some kind of dark, polished wood.>

WHAM!

A cockroach poked his head up from the cuff

<Car door,> I said. <We must be wherever we're going. Let's move.>

of Wing Tip's pant leg. Ax. <And everything smells lemony fresh.>

I dropped to the asphalt. Motored to the edge Wing Tip and High Heel entered another

of the shadow.

room. Crowded. Noisy. Bright. I'd been in enough

<AAAAAAAAAAAAH H HHHHHHHH!>

of them to guess it was a ballroom, the dance And was nearly speared by a lady's high heel. floor in the center, surrounded by tables. Another high heel extended from the limo and They wound their way through the crowd of

thumped to the pavement beside the first. The people and stopped at a table at the front of the governor's wife? I darted toward the pair of heels room. Wing Tip pulled out a chair for High Heel, before she could get away. Scrambled up. Clung then sat down next to her. A thick white tableto the soft leather as the high heels stepped away cloth draped itself around their legs.

from the car.

We sat there for a very long time. Human

Suddenly, a man's leg shot from the limo. The voices murmured and laughed. Dishes and silvergovernor? Two cockroaches scrambled across the ware clanked. High Heel crossed and uncrossed asphalt, over the man's wing tip dress shoe, and her legs several hundred times. Wing Tip

up the ankle. Then dove into the cuff of the pant dropped his spoon once. He leaned down to get leg.

it, and three cockroaches dove for cover.

The other leg emerged, and the Wing Tip es82

83

<Ax, how long have we been in morph?> I

<Finally,> I said.

But High Heel stayed where she was. The orsaid. chestra began playing again. A slow song. She Approximately ninety-seven minutes.>

stepped closer to Wing Tip. Her feet swayed.

<Man. We're running out of time, and all Stayed closer to the ground. Other dancers' feet these two want to do is eat dinner. Think we can stayed closer to their own bodies. Away from me. demorph and remorph under the table without Except Wing Tip's. His big, gunboats scuffed anybody noticing?>

up against High Heel's gray pumps. Trounced on The clanks and murmurs quieted. A microher toes. I hid on the inside of her heel, under phone squealed, and a man's voice boomed

her instep. About the fourth time he mashed her through the room. I couldn't make out all the foot, she kicked his shin. I was starting to like words. Something about being honored and worthis woman. thy cause and thank you all for coming. I heard Ax's head poked up from the tweed cuff.

clapping, then music erupted from the front of

<One hundred and six minutes have passed.> the room.

<So, what, that gives us fourteen minutes?> I High Heel pushed her chair back and strode scanned the sea of legs around us. <We can't depast tables, chairs, waiters. Wing Tip followed. morph on the dance floor.>

They left the cushy carpet and thumped across a Wing Tip trounced again. I dove for cover. wooden floor.

High Heel gave him another swift kick, turned High heel tapped her toe. Stepped forward. and strode away. She wove her way across the Back. Twirled.

ballroom, through chairs and dessert carts. Wing

<WHOOOOOOOOOAAAAAA!>

Tip and two sets of men's plain black dress shoes I twirled, too. By one leg.

followed.

In. Out. Forward. Back. We spun round and

A door opened, and we entered another room. round. I dug my claws into the leather and hung Smaller. Darker. Quieter. A conference room. The on. Other feet kicked and stomped around us, door closed, and both sets of black dress shoes inches from my little cockroach head. I scrampositioned themselves in front of it. High Heel bled for shelter on the inside of the heel. sat in the chair at the end of the long conference The music ended. High Heel stopped spintable. Wing Tip paced. ning.

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85

"I hate this," he said. "Smiling. Shaking hands. Begging for campaign contributions. Makes me feel like a dancing poodle." Campaign contributions? That's all I needed to hear. Wing Tip was definitely the governor. And it was show time.

CHAPTER 17

Ax and Tobias stayed hidden in the tweed cuff. I crawled down the high heel and into the thick carpet under the conference table.

I began todemorph.

My roach body swelled. Up, then out. Like a crunchy brown beach ball. The shattered image of table legs and gray high heels smoothed into one unified picture as my compound roach eyes melded into two human eyes.

<Governor.> My thought-speak rang out.

<You might want to sit down. You're about to see something that will scare the pee out of you.> Silence.

Then: "Who said that?"

"I don't see anybody."

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"Is there a microphone in here? Speakers?" legs and arms, the other two shrivel away into A woman's voice. "I thought you said this nothing.

room was secure, Frank."

Wing Tip followed her gaze. A strangled cry I dragged my bloated body across the carpet. bubbled up from his throat. "Omigod." He Out from under the table, where I could see . . . grabbed one of the security guards by the arm and be seen.

and shoved him toward me.

<Please be careful, M a r c o Ax's thoughtBoth security guys stared. Reached for their speak was no more than a whisper.

guns.

As I grew, I kept a close eye on the people in

<Governor!> My sideways cockroach mouth the room. The dress shoes turned out to be two melted into lips, teeth, and tongue. "Governor!" I plainclothes security guys. Pistol handles bulged was human now. I stepped toward Wing Tip, my beneath their suit jackets.

hands in the air. "Tell them not to shoot. Wing Tip was tall. Distinguished. Like a TV

Please."

news guy. Chiseled cheek bones. Aristocratic

"No. Don't shoot. Just watch him. Closely." nose. Perfectly styled hair, fashionably gray at It was an order. But it didn't come from Wing the temples.

Tip. It came from High Heel.

High Heel was just the opposite, short and I turned.

plump. Everything about her was frumpy, lumpy,

"I am the governor," she said. Her face was and gray. Her dress. Her shoes. Even her face. white, her body tense. But her eyes remained Everything but her eyes. Gray, yes. But a quick, steady. "And who are you?"

intelligent gray.

The governor? I stared at her. It didn't even She turned those eyes on me. On the black

occur to me that the governor could be a woman. lump of boy/insect growing from the carpet.

<l won't tell Rachel if you won't,> said Tobias. And pulled back in horror. Maybe even revul"I — I'm an Animorph," I said. sion.

A sharp intake of breath. One of the security

"Frank?"

guards? I glanced toward the door, where the two She spoke to Wing Tip, but kept her eyes on of them stood in front of Wing Tip. Was one of me. Watched four of my legs bulge into human them a Controller? Both of them?

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89

The governor frowned. "Excuse me? An

tell him to. Or unless you attack me. In fact, he'll Ani—what?"

take his itchy little finger off the trigger right

"I'm one of the good guys."

now." She watched the short guard until he did I still had my hands in the air. I lowered them. as she said. "And Collins?" She looked at the Slowly. Took a step toward her. Mustered up all other guard. "Make sure he keeps it off." my charm. My sincerity. My finesse.

Collins nodded. He backed up a step toward Click. Click.

the door, obviously relieved to be watching anI heard the security guys release the safety other security guard instead of the amazing Roach Boy.

catches on their pistols. I kept my eyes on the If he only knew the horror that was wrapped governor.

around Short Guy's brain.

"You have to believe me," I told her. "The en"Ax? Tobias?" I said. tire state — no, the entire planet — depends on Two cockroaches crawled from Wing Tip's

it. And you're the only one who can help." cuff, down his ankle, and over his shoe. One of The governor studied me. "Flattery, huh?

the roaches began growing. The other turned Okay, I'm listening."

blue, then it ballooned out, too.

I watched the security guards. The tall one Quietly. Inconspicuously. Nobody noticed

stood open-mouthed. The pistol in his hand them at first, two enormous mutant insects half trembled. He clearly wanted to run screaming hidden behind Wing Tip's legs. Tobias's exoskelefrom the room. ton melted into his bulging body, and feathers But the short one glared at me, his finger popped out. Ax's claws turned into hands and steady on the trigger of his gun. Hatred twisted Andalite hooves.

his face.

Tobias spread his wings and flapped onto a

"That guard." I pointed at the short guy. lampshade in the corner of the room.

"That guard is not going to follow your orders,

"Oh!" Collins gawked. "But. . . where . . . ?" Governor. He's going to shoot me. Then he'll

"A hawk?" The governor stared at him. Stared probably shoot you, too. And your husband. And at me. Frowned.

the other security guard."

"Yes. A hawk!" Short Guy leveled his pistol at

"Don't be ridiculous," said the governor. "His Tobias.

job is to protect me. He won't shoot you unless I 90

91

Then he saw Ax. Tall. Blue. Almost comrowed her eyes. "And Frank? Don't say anything pletely demorphed.

else."

"Andalite!"

Wing Tip nodded and slipped out the door.

Short Guy whirled. Aimed.

I watched him leave. He seemed so calm un"NO!" der the circumstances.

I dove. Missed. Short Guy squeezed the trigYeah. Too calm. Any normal person would ger. Collins knocked the pistol upward.

have been amazed, fascinated, creeped out.

BLAM!

Wing Tip hadn't even been shocked by a fullThe paneling above Ax's head shattered. fledged Andalite. I glanced at Collins and the Fwap.

governor. They were still staring at Ax's stalk Ax nailed Short Guy with his tail blade. Held eyes, deadly tail and mouth less face.

him against the wall.

But Wing Tip had been more concerned with

Collins stared at Ax. "Who . . . wha . . . ?" wiping Collins's footprint off his shoe. As if a

<His firearm,> Ax ordered.

four-legged alien were nothing unusual. Nothing Collins nodded. Pulled the pistol from Short new.

Guy's hand. Backed away.

Nothing he hadn't seen before.

Tromped on Wing Tip's foot.

"Governor," \ said, "we have to move. Fast. Wing Tip shoved him aside. "Idiot." He Tobias? Firepower. Now."

leaned down to rub the footprint from the top of his shoe.

"Okay, now if everybody can stay calm, we've got a little story to tell." I looked at the governor.

"It might take a while."

The governor considered this for a moment. Studied me. Studied Ax. Studied Short Guy. She turned to Wing Tip. "Go back in to the ballroom. Make my apologies. Tell everyone I'm not feeling well. Assure them it's nothing serious. A cold or something." She glanced at me. Nar92

93

"Oh!" The governor stared at the smoldering wood. Then at her husband. "Frank! What are you — ?"

A Controller grabbed her.

Tobias vaulted over the pieces of the table.

WHACK!

Struck the Controller with his wrist blade. CHAPTER 17

"AAAAAAAAAAH H H H H H H H!"

The Controller screamed. Dropped the governor. Stared at his fingerless hand. The other Controllers charged. Tobias sliced. Ax's tail lashed out.

FWAP! FWAP!

I was fully morphed, fully gorilla now. I stormed Tobias swooped from the lampshade and through flying bullets, blades, and Dracon beams. landed on the carpet. Blades began to erupt from Collins had crawled to the governor and was his feathers.

shielding her with his body. He held his pistol I concentrated. Focused on the gorilla.

with both hands, aiming first at a Controller, then Too late!

at Tobias, then at Ax, not sure what or who to The door burst open. Wing Tip barreled

shoot.

through, followed by four waiters wielding DraTSSSSEEEEEEEEWWWWWWW!

con beams.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

"Hork-Bajir!"

Dracon fire seared Collins's shoulder. Blasted Wing Tip pointed at Tobias, now almost fully a hole in the wall behind him.

morphed. One of the Controllers leveled his Dra<Go!> I told him. <NOW! There's nothing you con at Tobias's leathery gut. Tobias dove. can do here. Governor! Time to bail!>

TSSSSEEEEEEEEWWWWWWW!

I wrapped one gorilla arm around her.

The conference table sizzled in two. Both

Wing Tip reached for her. "Honey! Take my halves dropped to the floor.

hand. I'll save you."

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95

The governor grabbed a chair and swung it

der a table. Pulled the heavy tablecloth down to over her head. I thought she was aiming at me. I hide him.

ducked.

<Stay here till the smoke clears,> I said.

CRASH!

<Don't even try to be a h e r o

Wing Tip crumpled to the floor.

"There! Get them!"

"Save me, huh?" she said with a frown. Wing Tip's voice! I whirled. Controllers burst I leaped over Wing Tip's motionless body.

from the conference room.

<Let's go, let's go!> I yelled at Ax and Tobias.

"Don't let them take the governor," yelled

"Collins!" the governor cried.

Wing Tip. "Kill her if you have to." I turned. Collins lay on the carpet, stunned, The governor stared at him. "What is he sayhis shoulder a lump of charred meat. ing?"

I grabbed him in my free arm and leaped

<Don't worry,> I said. <We'll get you out.> through the smoke and chaos. Charged through Wing Tip and his buddies charged from bethe door. Into the ballroom. Ax and Tobias hind. More Controllers streamed through the bounded after me.

ballroom doors and beat their way through the

"AAAAAAAA!"

fleeing crowd.

"Omigod!"

<Service entranced Tobias directed.

Women screamed. Men screamed. Chairs,

He bolted toward a tangle of waiters pushdishes, serving trays crashed to the floor as the ing through a small door at the front of the ballwell-dressed crowd scrambled for the doors. room. I knuckle-walked after him. Knocked over A waiter charged forward. Leveled a Dracon at a huge coffee pot. Hurdled a dessert cart. Ax followed. Across the dance floor. Around the orthe governor. chestra pit.

"No!" Collins.

He aimed his pistol.

A Controller leaped from behind a bass drum.

BLAM!

I grabbed a tuba. Shoved it over his head.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

Tobias reached the door, shoved the waiters The waiter fell, blood gushing from his thigh. aside and crashed through. I followed. Down a Collins collapsed against me. I rolled him unshort hallway. Into the kitchen. 96

97

A state trooper and a guy in a chauffeur's uniThe concrete exploded beneath my feet. form were sitting at a small table, munching I swung over the side of the dock. Ripped

party food and playing poker with the chef. open the back door of the limo. Dumped the govTobias vaulted over them. ernor inside.

"Wha — ?" The trooper half rose from his

<Sorry. I have better manners when Yeerks chair. Fumbled with the holster of his pistol. aren't shooting at me.> I jumped in after her. I barreled past, the governor tucked under my

<Keep your head down.>

arm.

Tobias squeezed into the driver's seat.

"Governor!" The chauffeur scrambled to his Banged his wrist blade into the tinted window feet. "Where are you going, ma'am?" that divided-the front seat from the back. The

"I'm not sure," she called back. glass shattered.

TSSSSEEEEEEEEWWWWWWW!

<Ooops.>

Dracon fire blasted through the kitchen.

He folded his knees under the steering wheel, Fwap. Fwap-fwap.

his arms around it. His neck was twisted over, I heard Ax behind me, his hooves clicking on the side of his leathery Hork-Bajir face crushed the tile floor, his tail striking again and again. against the top of the limo.

We kept going. Around waiters, busboys,

<Not comfy,> he said.

cooks. The pastry chef pulled a Dracon beam But also not a problem for a guy with blades from his jacket and leveled it at the governor. growing from his skull.

She flattened him with a cutting board.

Thump. Scuuuuurrrrr-UUUUNNNCH.

We slammed through one set of doors. Then

He tore through the top of the limo like he another. Finally, outside. Around a Dumpster. was opening a tin can. <Sun roof.>

Across the loading dock.

He poked his head through the hole, cranked

<Limo!> Tobias bounded toward the long the key, and the limo revved to life.

black car parked by the dock, the same limo that

<Ax!> I yelled. <Let'sgo!>

had brought us here. <Doors unlocked. Keys inAx downed two Controllers, clattered across side! Oh come on. This is way too easy.> the loading zone, and leaped into the backseat of

TSSSSEEEEEEEEWWWWWWW!

the limo. I yanked the door shut.

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99

<G0! GO! GO!>

Tobias floored it. We screeched across the parking lot and into the street.

We had now added yet another kidnapping to our crimes.

CHAPTER 18

We squealed across four lanes of traffic. Thundered up over the curb on the other side. Dropped back down onto the pavement. Sideswiped a delivery truck. In. Out. Around. Weaving through cars, trucks, SUVs. All I could see of Tobias were his shoulders and elbows. His head jutted up through the hole in the roof. I bounced along on the rear seat. Watched out the back and side windows, my gorilla skull thump-thump-thumping against the ceiling of the limo. The governor sat in the seat opposite, trying not to slide back and forth as the limo careened first left, then right. Her fingers dug into the leather armrest on the door beside her. Ax struggled to gain a foothold on the floor in 100

101

between the banks of seats. He gazed at the gov"Very reassuring," she said. ernor. His Andalite eyes radiated warmth and . . . The limo hurdled a median strip.

joy.

The governor gripped the armrest. "I mean Yes, joy. We were doing ninety in heavy traffic that sincerely, Aximili."

with clumsy Hork-Bajir hands at the wheel, and

<As do I, Governors

Ax looked like he'd just found the secret to inner

<And Jake thought you were the one with peace.

charm, Marco,> Tobias said dryly.

<Madam Governors He bowed low. Stretched

<Just keep your eyes on the road,> I said. his front leg out in front of him. His head nearly

<And I don't ever want to hear another word of criticism about my driving.>

touched the floor. <l am Aximili-EsgarrouthIsthill, and I am honored to be in the presence of The limo skidded around a corner. Leveled a row of newspaper vending machines.

a great leader.>

"A great leader?" The governor thumped A police siren! Red and blue lights flashed behind us.

against the side of the limo as Tobias screeched

<Trouble,> I said.

sideways into a bank parking lot. "Me?"

<You think?> Tobias.

Ax nodded. <l only regret that our meeting was not under less difficult circumstances.> I turned. More sirens. More flashing red and Difficult. Yeah. Okay. Tobias plowed around blue lights ahead. Three, maybe four cars. the bank. Through the drive-up lane.

Tobias jerked the wheel. We slid sideways into a pickup. Tobias gunned the engine, and we shot Over a curb. For three full seconds, the limo down an alley, the pickup's bumper trailing from was airborne —

ours.

WOOOOMPH!

The limo thundered through potholes. Around

— before slamming down onto a side street. Dumpsters. Shot across the next side street and Tobias screeched sideways and kept going.

into the alley in the next block.

"Aaaahhhlllp!" The governor swallowed a

<Oh, man!>

scream. She managed to wrench her right hand The brakes squealed. I plunged forward, then free from the armrest and hold it out to Ax. slammed back against the seat. Ax crashed into He shook it, then bowed low again. <l will my lap.

guard your life with my own.>

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103

"Ooomph."

SsscccuuurrrRRREEEEEEEEE.

<Hey, watch the tail!>

We scraped against the trash truck on one

The limo had stopped nose to nose with a

side, the loading dock on the other.

trash truck. The governor was sprawled on the And spit through into the alley beyond. A pofloor. She struggled to pull herself back onto the lice car screamed into the narrow opening ahead. seat.

Came barreling toward us!

TSSSSEEEEEEEEWWWWWWW!

Tobias gunned the engine. Sideswiped the

Dracon fire shattered the window next to

police car and shot out into the street!

where the she'd been sitting. Incinerated the Cranked the wheel. Dodged oncoming traffic. headrest that had been behind her.

Sped the wrong way down the one-way street,

<Stay down, Governor! On the floor!> warehouses towering above us on one side, the She nodded. Stared up at the smoldering

riverbank dropping away from us on the other, headrest. "No arguments here."

chased by an army of sirens and flashing lights. She pulled her knees up to her chest,

City police, county deputies, state troopers. wrapped her skirt and her arms around them, Some of them were Controllers. Some probaand hunkered down between the seats. Her face bly weren't. But it didn't matter. As far as the had lost all color, but her eyes were still bright. non-Controllers were concerned, lunatic monSteady. sters had kidnapped their governor. They were as Tobias threw the limo in reverse and started determined as the Controllers to stop us.

to back up.

THWOK! THWOK! THWOK! THWOK!

A police car turned into the alley behind us. I looked up. A helicopter thundered overhead.

BAM! BAM!

I could see it through the sun roof. The real sun Gunfire!

roof, not Tobias's emergency hatch. The pilot Ax and I hit the deck again and crouched bepitched the helicopter forward in a steep dive. side the governor.

Sunlight glinted off something in the passenger Tobias threw the limo in drive. We lurched door.

forward. Squeezed past the trash truck. The right A Dracon beam.

wheels thumped over the bottom two steps of a The governor saw it, too.

concrete stairway leading up to a loading dock.

"Time to ditch the limo," she said. "We're too 104

105

big. Too easy to spot. We'll have a better chance on foot."

Good thinking. Behind those alert gray eyes lurked the brain of a combat general.

<l know the perfect place,> said Tobias. <Get ready to bail.>

An intersection loomed ahead. A main thoroughfare crossed our one-way street and led to a CHAPTER 19

bridge.

Tobias floored it and quickly turned the

wheel. The limo skidded around the corner and hurtled onto the bridge. He slammed on the brakes and the limo screeched sideways. Plowed into a concrete pillar and lurched to a stop, blocking traffic from both directions.

<Let's go, let's go!>

Cars honked. Skidded. Slammed into each

Tobias bounded up over the hood of a sports other.

car. I followed. Leaping from hood to roof to Tobias dove from the driver's door. I threw the trunk. From car to truck to minivan. Over a jackgovernor over Ax's back, flung the back door knifed eighteen-wheeler.

open, and we ran out into the chaos.

Ax stayed on the ground and galloped between the vehicles. The governor hugged his shoulders and squeezed her knees into his sides to keep from falling off.

Police cars skidded onto the bridge behind us. Cops streamed from the cars and barricaded themselves behind the limo, weapons drawn.

<Stay low!> I shouted.

I leaped from the top of an SUV to the back of a jeep.

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107

The jeep's driver climbed from the front.

Cops swarmed over the limo. Raced across

Stared at his crumpled bumper. Cursed, kicked the bridge behind us.

his tire, and started punching numbers on his

<Go go go!> I yelled. <We can make it. We're cell phone.

closer to the other end of the bridge than the I vaulted over him.

cops are to us!>

He stared at me. "Oh my . . . oh my . . .

THWOK! THWOK! THWOK! THWOK!

AAAAAAAAAHHHH!" He tossed the phone to the The helicopter was back. It hovered over the road and sprinted toward the other end of the bridge, just above the tall suspension cables. bridge.

More sirens! Flashing lights. Not from behind

BAM!BAM!

this time, but from in front. Police cars screamed Bullets whizzed past. Bounced off steel and onto the other end of the bridge. Cops leaped concrete.

from the patrol cars.

Drivers screamed and dove under their cars. We dove for the pavement again. Crouched

I dropped and hugged the ground. Tobias

low between a Frito delivery truck and a TV repair crouched beside me. Ax skidded behind a UPS

van.

truck, the governor still on his back.

TSSSSEEEEEEEEWWWWWWW!

A man's voice boomed out over bridge. "Hold The delivery truck exploded. Fritos rained your fire. HOLD. YOUR. FIRE. They've got the down on us as we rolled under the van.

TSSSSEEEEEEEEWWWWWWW!

governor. And innocent motorists are trapped on A concrete pillar in front of the van shattered that bridge."

into dust.

Thank God. The guy with the bullhorn was a SSSCCCUUUURRRRENNNNCH.

legitimate, uninfested cop. With a brain.

The steel beam it had been holding swayed.

BAM! BAM BAM!

The suspension cable whipped through the air. But the Controllers obviously weren't taking

" AAAAAAAAAH H H H H H H H!"

orders from the sane guy.

The remaining motorists fled from their cars I walked between cars. Tobias followed and and ran screaming toward both ends of the

Ax, still carrying the governor, galloped behind. bridge.

"They're getting away!"

I inched out from under the van. Raised my

"After them!"

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109

1

head. Cops in front. Cops behind. Chopper overhead. And below us, the river.

A few barges in the distance. Some fishing boats. And a sailboat. Did I say sailboat? Make that a yacht, slowly cruising toward us.

<You scared of heights, Governor?> I said. CHAPTER 20

"As opposed to what? Bullets? Laser beams that vaporize solid concrete? A bridge that might collapse under me at any moment?" She shook her head. Took a deep breath. "Let's do it."

"Let's do it?" A vision flashed into my head, the governor when she was a kid. She looked like . . . Rachel?

I shook the image from my mind. <You heard We dropped. Straight down.

the governor. Let's do it.>

The governor held on tight. She dug her finI pulled her from under the van and climbed gers into my fur and didn't even scream. Not onto the bridge rail.

even a whimper.

I liked this lady.

The yacht skimmed through the water. I could Down, down we fell. The yacht loomed larger hear music and laughter. Could see people

and larger, I kept a tight grip on the governor with crowded on the deck. A party.

one arm. When we were close enough, I reached The boat neared the bridge. Close. Closer. out with the other and grabbed the yacht's mast

NOW!

in my gorilla fist and hung on.

I wrapped one massive gorilla arm tight

The mast bowed, groaned, and bent almost

around the governor and leaped into space. double. The sail beat against me. My feet

brushed the bow of the boat, then bounded into the air again as the mast sprang back and we swung over the cabin.

110

111

I spun around. Gripped the bottom of the

said. "The impact could have broken his legs. Or mast with my fingerlike toes and held tight. his ribs. Maybe knocked him unconscious!" The yacht slid under the bridge. The music

<There!> Tobias tipped his wing.

and laughter continued. Party guests danced. A dorsal fin broke the surface of the water and Munched crackers. Refilled their drinks. They skimmed alongside the yacht.

didn't even notice the gorilla hanging from the My heart started beating again.

sail, clutching their governor in one arm like a

<Hey, Ax-man. Glad you could make it. He's rag doll.

fine,> I told the governor. I motioned toward the Didn't even notice the Hork-Bajir drop over fin. <He morphed a shark.>

the edge of the bridge above them. A strange,

"Morphed . . . a shark." The governor nodshrinking Hork-Bajir, sprouting feathers. Tobias. ded. "That's good. I think."

His blades shriveled. His serpent neck receded The yacht had cleared the bridge and was

into his bird body. Just before he hit the water, sailing in open water.

his arms melted into wings. He flapped hard and I slid down the mast, vaulted over the cabin just skimmed over the surface of the river. and onto the top deck.

Ax dropped from the bridge behind him, his

"Wha — ?" The yacht's captain backed up. Andalite body sharply outlined against the setStared at us. ting sun. He kicked. Flailed.

I leaped over the rail and onto the hors

Kuh-SPLAT!

d'oeuvres table. Left a giant gorilla footprint in a Belly-flopped into the river and sank.

bowl of bean dip.

I waited. Saw nothing. No stalk eyes peaking And landed in the middle of the party.

above the surface. No tail blade slicing through

" AAAAAAAAAH H H H H H H H!"

the water.

The party guests screamed and scrambled to

<Ax? Ax!>

safety. A woman backed up against the railing The governor scanned the river. "Can Aximili and toppled, head over heels, into the river. swim?"

"I can't swim! Somebody help. I can't swim!"

<Yeah.>

Tobias swooped over the yacht, plucked a life We watched. Searched the waves. Still no Ax. jacket from the deck and tossed it out to her. She

"We have to do something," the governor grabbed hold.

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113

A dorsal fin broke the surface of the water beThe party-goers shrieked and scrambled to hind her as Ax nudged the woman to shore.

the back of the boat. Pushed each other aside All while cops raced from the bridge and

and clambered over the railing and leaped into along the banks.

the water. Even the yacht's captain abandoned

"There!" A Controller motioned to the heliship. He dove from the top deck into the river. copter. "On the boat!"

It was madness.

The helicopter dove after us.

Police cars sped along the riverbanks, guns

THWOK! THWOK! THWOK! THWOK!

and Dracons blazing.

The downdraft from the rotors whipped the

Party-goers bobbed in the water, a sea of

water into waves. The yacht pitched and rolled. arms and legs, life jackets and fancy clothes, The party-goers screamed even louder.

splashing and struggling toward shore.

Grabbed onto the railings and deck chairs to The captainless yacht spun wildly, forced

keep from being tossed overboard.

downstream by the current.

The helicopter hovered now. A Controller

The governor crawled from under the wet bar. leaned from the passenger door, weapon in hand.

<No!> I said. <Stay down.>

<Get down!> I screamed. <Everybody!>

"Somebody has to pilot this boat. We'll capI dropped to the deck. Rolled the governor size. Or run aground. We're too close to shore." under a table.

<Oh. Okay.>

Tobias circled above. Zeroed in on the ConThe governor climbed up onto the second troller's outstretched arm and dove.

deck and grabbed the wheel. The boat stopped The Controller spotted him. Beat him away

spinning. The bow straightened and turned. We with the Dracon beam. Then took quick aim. headed toward open river.

TSEEEEEWWW-ka-BLOOOOOOSH!

The helicopter banked and circled for another

"OH MY GOD! WHAT WAS THAT?"

shot.

"ARE THEY CRAZY?"

On deck I grabbed pitchers and margarita

"HELP! SOMEBODY HELP US! PLEASE!" glasses and hurled them at the helicopter. TSEEEEEWWW-ka-BLOOOOOOSH!

Specifically, at the Controller with the Dracon. Another shot! The water boiled. The yacht

Hey, you use what weapons you have.

reeled.

TSSSSEEEEEEEEWWWWWWW!

114

115

A deck chair disintegrated.

I flung a bottle. It clanked off the glass bubble in front of the pilot. The chopper dipped and rocked.

Then it straightened and pitched forward in a steep dive.

THWOK! THWOK! THWOK!

CHAPTER 21

The helicopter hovered now only a few feet above my head. The noise was deafening. The downdraft churned the water and whipped chairs and life preservers around the deck. I held tight to the railing to steady myself as the boat pitched and rocked.

The Controller leaned from the helicopter and steadied his Dracon against the hull.

Chunks of fiberglass pelted my hide. Smoke burned my nose and lungs.

Tobias! I saw him flap to gain altitude. Turn. I coughed. Brushed debris from my face.

Dive!

<Governor?>

Too late!

No answer. The yacht tipped. The bow

TSSSSEEEEEEEEWWWWWWW!

glugged then slipped beneath the waves. The Ka-BOOM!

stern shot from the water into the air.

The bow of the yacht exploded.

I wedged my feet against the wet bar to keep from sliding toward the bow. Pulled my face level with the top deck. The wheel was already submerged, a gaping hole blown into the deck beneath it. Water lapped at the shattered wood and poured into the cabin below.

<Governor!>

<Marco! Watch out!>

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117

I turned. Tobias hurtled toward the helicopter. The governor had fallen through from the

deck above. She was slumped facedown across a The Controller leaned from the door, Dracon table, submerged to her waist. Her gray dress beam leveled at the sinking boat. At me.

floated around her. Her wet gray curls lay plasTobias zeroed in. Raked his talons forward. tered against her skull. I turned her over. Blood Nailed him!

streamed from a gash on her forehead.

The Dracon plummeted toward the river.

<Governor.> I felt for a pulse. <Can you Tobias dove. Nabbed the Dracon beam in

hear me?>

midair and lobbed it to me.

Her eyelids flickered. She nodded weakly.

I gripped it in one gorilla hand. Raised my

"I'll be okay."

arm. Aimed. The pilot saw me and his face

I pulled her from the water, hoisted her onto twisted in terror. The helicopter whipped up and my back, and climbed from the submerged

around.

cabin.

And jetted away.

The yacht listed sharply now, the stern standI waited until he was down river, away from ing nearly straight in the air. The wreck of the hethe yacht. Then I held my arm steady and licopter burned downriver. Black, choking smoke squeezed the trigger.

engulfed us.

TSSSSEEEEEEEEWWWWWWW!

<Marco!> Ax circled the sinking yacht. <We Ka-BOOOOOOM!

are seriously running out of time.>

The helicopter burst into flames. Thick black

<They're bringing in speedboats,> said Tosmoke rolled over the river. bias. <l can see them on the highway. Let's go!> I hurled the Dracon beam into the water.

I lay the governor over the wet bar. She gripped

<Gotta bail, Marco.> Tobias swooped overthe rail behind her and struggled to sit up. head. <Let's go, let's go!>

I was already demorping. Gorilla hands

<You go,> I shouted. <You and Ax. I have to shrank to human hands. Gorilla fur melted into find the governor!>

human skin.

I climbed over the wet bar. Ripped the cabin The boat groaned. Water crept over my andoor open and crawled inside. Waded into the kles. My knees.

murky water that filled the cabin.

119

118

My jaw pushed back and my nose pushed forward. Arms shrank. Legs grew. I stood upright. I was human.

But I wasn't finished.

"Governor." My face shot out into a bottlenose. "How do you feel about marine mammals?" The governor stared at the fin growing from CHAPTER 22

my back. "Well, I wouldn't marry one." She managed a weak smile. My head and neck melted into one streamlined unit. Legs fused into a tail. Arms shrank to flippers. Two hundred extra teeth erupted from my jaws.

The governor stared at me. "Parasitic aliens The water edged over the cabin door and

are invading Earth." She kept her voice even. lapped at the wet bar. The governor climbed onto

"And my husband is controlled by one." the back rail.

I nodded. "Yeah. Basically, that's the story." Tobias swooped overhead. <Ticktock, Marco.

"Thank God." She sank back into her leather Ticktock.>

chair and ran her hand through her damp gray My skin thickened and faded to a light bluish curls. "I was beginning to think something gray. Finally, I flopped into the water. I was a dolmuch, much worse was happening. Aliens we phin.

can fight."

I floated above the sinking yacht. The govShe refilled her coffee mug from the pot on ernor straddled my back and held tight to my her desk. We were in her office on the top floor of dorsal fin. Together we slid through the water, the governor's mansion. We'd bolted the door through the smoke and confusion of the heliand shoved a heavy bookcase in front of it. Ax copter blast.

stood guard, tail poised. Tobias was perched on a And the yacht sank into the river.

windowsill, watching the back of the mansion. 120

121

Posted at the other window, watching the front,

"I want all units to stand down," she told was Collins.

him. "Take no action whatsoever. None. Yes, Yes, Collins.

that's a direct order. From your commander in We'd found him in the bathroom off the

chief, that's who."

governor's office. He was crouched in the tub She slammed the phone down.

waiting for the governor to return, his charred

<He resisted orders from his commander?> shoulder wrapped in the shower curtain. Ax and I Ax glanced at me. <He must be a Controllers helped him out into the office, and the governor

"Maybe. Maybe not," said the governor. "He's cleaned and bandaged the wound as best she a cantankerous old coot who can't stand taking could.

orders from a woman. He doesn't need an alien Now she sat at her desk, slugging down cup wrapped around his brain to make him hard to after cup of coffee. She'd changed into sweats get along with. Okay, who's next?" She ran her and a snazzy pair of Nikes. Her gray fund-raising finger down the roster. "The commander of the dress lay in a soggy mound on the bathroom floor, Air National Guard."

and she'd lost her high heels somewhere beShe punched in the number and gave the air tween the limo and the yacht. She paged through commander the same orders she'd given General her day planner and scribbled names and phone Sherman. Then she phoned the next officer, and numbers on a pad.

the next, making her way down the roster.

I sat across from her, studying a roster of NaI paced from window to window to bathroom tional Guard officers. I slid it across the desk. to desk. Even fixed myself a cup of coffee, heavy

"Call every officer on this list," I said. "Some on the sugar and nondairy creamer.

of them will be Controllers. Some won't. But if

"Ugh."

you can get enough non-Controllers to listen to It tasted like motor oil. Creamy, sweet motor you, Visser One's operation will collapse." oil. I shuddered and set the cup on the win<For now, anyway,> said Tobias. dowsill.

The governor nodded, picked up the phone,

The governor hung up the phone. Ran her finand punched in the number of the first name on ger down the list to the next officer. And froze. the roster. General Sherman, the commander of

"Lieutenant Colonel Larsen." She stared at the Army National Guard.

the name. "His battalion just rolled back into 122

123

town this morning. They've been on a military ex"Well. I guess that's it. We've done everything we ercise in the desert." A slow smile spread over can do."

her face. "For the past two weeks."

"Not quite," I said. "You're a target now. You

"Two weeks?" I blinked. "That means—" need some personal security. Bodyguards."

<lt means we've got an entire battalion of cer"I've got Collins," said the governor. tified Yeerk-free soldiers,> said Tobias.

"That's good, and no offense, Collins." I shot The governor nodded. "Roughly six hundred him an apologetic smile. "But —" troops."

"But one security guard with a bad shoulder

"This is . . . this is great." I pushed the isn't gonna do it," he said. "I'll do everything I phone toward her. "Call him. Tell him to keep his can, Governor. You know that. But you need more troops together. Have them bunker down somepeople." place where the Yeerks can't get to them." I nodded. Looked at the governor. "Can you

"I think I know just the place." think of anybody else? Somebody you can count She took the phone from me and punched in

on? Somebody who can keep you safe? Is there a number.

anyone that you know for sure has been far away,

"Colonel Larsen?" she said. "This is the govmaybe even out of the country, for more than ernor. And I've got a little emergency." three days?"

The call took about a minute and a half. The The governor frowned. Rifled through her day governor told the lieutenant colonel what she planner. "Yes!" She tapped her finger on a page. needed, and the lieutenant colonel's voice boomed

"Major MacDonald. Deputy director of the state back through the receiver. "Yes, Ma'am." police. He just got back from a week-long InterShe hung up. "We're converting the grounds pol conference in Paris, and I think he took a of the governor's mansion into temporary headcouple of other officers with him." quarters. Colonel Larsen's battalion can set up She picked up the phone, punched a number, camp on the lawn." She shook her head. "My and told MacDonald what she needed.

gardener's going to have a stroke."

"He's on his way," she said as she hung up. The governor ran her finger down the list and

"He lives on this side of town, so it shouldn't punched in the next number. She called every oftake long." ficer on the roster, then pushed the phone aside.

"I hope not," said Collins.

124

125

He pushed the heavy drapes aside so we

could see.

"We got company, Governor."

Yes, we certainly did.

A column of Humvees and military trucks

were rolling up the highway.

CHAPTER 23

The lead Humvee was about a mile away. The line of military vehicles behind it stretched over the next hill.

"Any chance that's Colonel Larsen's battalion?" I said. The governor shook her head. "He hasn't had time to muster his troops. They won't be here for hours." She peered through the window. "Besides, this unit's too small. I count six Humvees and eight trucks. Maybe a couple more at the back that we can't see. It's not big enough for a battalion." She frowned. "But I didn't order any other units to report here."

Ax watched the convoy. <lf those troops are 126

127

not following the governor's orders, they must be The governor picked up the phone. Made one following someone else's.> He turned his stalk more call. This time to the guardhouse.

eyes toward me.

"Open the gate," she said. "A state police car

"Yeah," I said. "Visser One. Governor, we will be approaching in a matter of seconds. Let it have to get you out of here. Fast. We'll go out the through. Don't stop it. I repeat. Do not stop it. back. Use the river again."

I've given the police officer clearance."

<Don't think so.>

The turnoff to the the governor's mansion lay Tobias motioned his head toward the back

in a dip between two hills. A Humvee topped the window. Police boats patroled the river beneath hill on the convoy side. The police car flew over the mansion.

the hill opposite. It streaked over the last stretch

"Great." I stared at the boats. Then at the of highway and squealed into the turnoff, sprayconvoy. "There's gotta be a way out." ing dust and gravel over the Humvee.

A siren wailed. I turned. A police car

Then the car shot through the open gate, barscreamed down the highway from the opposite reled up the drive, and skidded to a stop at the direction, lights flashing.

front entrance to the mansion. The doors banged

"Geez, Governor." Collins's voice edged open. Three officers leaped out.

toward panic. "They're coming at us from all

"That's him. The tall one." The governor sides."

pointed. "MacDonald."

"No." I watched the police car speed toward The officers bolted inside. Seconds later, us. "Not this one. The Yeerks wouldn't send one footsteps thundered down the hall. We shoved car by itself."

the bookcase aside and unlocked the door. MacThe governor nodded. "MacDonald. It has to Donald burst into the office, followed by the be MacDonald."

other two police officers. I bolted the door behind

<Let's hope he gets here before the Humvees them.

do,> said Tobias.

"Ma'am." MacDonald nodded at the goverThe convoy rolled down the highway, half a nor. His gaze swept over the other occupants of mile from the mansion. The police car hurtled the room. Me, your average good-looking kid. toward it, a streak of red and blue.

Collins, one shoulder inexpertly bandaged. The 128

129

hawk on the windowsill. MacDonald frowned and out of here, can you keep her safe until Colonel shook his head.

Larsen's battalion arrives?"

And Ax.

"Yeah," MacDonald said. "Not a problem."

"Ahhh!"

"Good." I turned to the governor. "I can't tell MacDonald reached for his pistol.

you where we're staying. You won't be able to

"No!" The governor grabbed his arm. "This is contact us, but we'll contact you. Soon." Axi m i I i-Esgarrouth-lsth i 11. He's an Andalite. A

"How?" she asked.

friend."

"I'm not sure. But we'll find a way. We alAx stepped forward and bowed his head. Kept ways do."

his stalk eyes on MacDonald's pistol and his tail

<We haven't thought through this superhero blade poised.

business very well.> Tobias flapped down from MacDonald narrowed his eyes. Studied Ax.

the windowsill.

His hand hovered near his holster.

MacDonald stared at him. "That bird did not

"I'll explain everything when we have more talk," he muttered. "That bird did not talk." time," the governor said. "Right now you need to Ax took the governor's hand and bowed low. know that those troops —" She pointed out the

<lt has been an honor,> he said.

window. The convoy was winding its way up

"For me, too," she replied.

through the canopy of trees lining the drive. I shook her hand next and held it for maybe a

"Those troops have been taken over by enemy second too long.

forces. Extraterrestrial enemy forces. We must do The governor's head bobbed. Her chin

everything we can to stop them."

dropped to her chest. She almost seemed to doze

"Extraterrestrial?" MacDonald gaped at her. off while leaning against her desk. I released her

"Aliens? You've gotta be joking!" hand, and she blinked herself awake.

<She is not joking,> Ax said, slightly of"Oh!" She rubbed the circles under her eyes. fended. <My presence should prove that.>

"Guess the coffee's not working." MacDonald considered this. Rubbed a hand

"Don't worry about it," I said. "It's been a over his face. "Aliens. Okay. So what do we do?" long day. Okay, I need to make a quick pit stop

"The governor is our main concern right now," before we leave."

I said. "If we can get the Controllers, the aliens, I darted into the bathroom and gathered what 130

131

I needed. Then I strolled back into the office, my arms folded tightly across my chest.

Armstrong unbolted the office door. "All clear," he said.

Ax, Tobias, and I stepped into the hall. Nobody seemed to notice the soggy gray lump tucked under my shirt.

CHAPTER 24

I pushed the front door open and strode out onto the porch. Alone. My damp dress clung to my legs.

Hummers and National Guard trucks surrounded the governor's mansion. Soldiers in camouflage fatigues hunkered down behind the governor's well-tended shrubs, weapons drawn. I peered out into an ocean of gun barrels. Pistols, rifles, howitzers, Dracon beams. All pointing at me.

I steeled myself. Flashed what I hoped was an elected-official smile. "It's lovely to see the young men and women of our armed forces gathered here. However, I think—" I shivered. It was too weird. The governor's 132

133

voice coming from my body. Then I reminded formed that a military exercise would be taking myself. The body wasn't mine, either.

place on my front lawn today."

It was the governor's.

His face twisted into a sneer.

I'd acquired her DNA when I shook her hand,

"This isn't an exercise," he said. "It's a wellthen morphed in the hall outside her office. Now orchestrated operation, and it's proceeding betI was standing barefoot on her front porch, wearter than I could have dreamed. What is it the ing her ragged fund-raising dress, trying to connewspapers call you? Tough-minded? I thought vince lunatics with automatic weapons that I was our tough-minded governor would put up more of the real thing.

a fight. If I'd known it would be this easy, I I cleared my throat. "As I was saying, I think wouldn't have brought so many friends." He we may have had a small miscommunication, beswept one camouflaged arm toward the troops cause I don't have any National Guard events and trucks. "Seems like overkill, doesn't it?" listed on my schedule. Could I speak to your His lips stretched across his teeth in a cold commanding officer, please?"

smile.

The door of one of the Hummers swung open. And suddenly I knew. I was looking into the A man in crisply pressed fatigues climbed out. eyes of Visser One. He wasn't in the human He was short and tan and built like a bulldog. He morph he usually used, but it was him.

strode across the drive, sunlight glinting off his I forced an indignant-governor frown onto my spit-polished boots.

face. I couldn't let Visser One see that I recogHe stopped in front of me. His cold, hard eyes nized him. That I knew what he was planning. bored through my skull. "That's me," he said. That I was anything other than the governor of

"I'm in charge here."

this state.

"Good." I nodded. Had to keep up the act.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I

"Well, then, Col — Capt—"

said.

I frowned at the shiny gold eagles on his col"I'm sure you don't." He turned to the troops. lar. What rank did that make him? Colonel? Cap"Corporal!" tain? Extreme Exhaulted Emperor?

One of the soldiers scrambled forward. "Yes,

"Well, then . . . sir," I said. "I was not insir." 134

135

"Would you escort our governor to her vehiand began winding it around my ankles. He cle?"

wrenched each loop tight. The rope burned into

"Yes, sir."

my skin.

"My vehicle?" I said. "But I'm not going anyThese guys did not know how to treat a lady. where."

"Owwww! What is your name, son? I demand

"Oh, but you are," said Visser One. He turned to know your name, rank, and social security and strode toward the Humvee. "Someplace very number. Uh, serial number. I'm suspending your special."

pay as of this moment. You will be brought up on The corporal grabbed me by the upper arm.

charges." I glared at the three soldiers. "All of you."

"Watch it!" I started to jerk away. Keep up the act, Marco. Keep up the act.

"Oh, no." The corporal smirked. "Not charges!"

I took a breath. "Young man," I said, "you are hurting me."

"I'm trembling," said one of his buddies.

"Look at me, I'm all a-flutter."

"Really? Good." The corporal hauled me Great. I got stuck with comedians. Lousy

across the driveway.

ones, too.

The other troops began to pack up their

The corporal finished tying my ankles toweapons and load them into the trucks. They gether. His two buddies scrambled up into the were getting ready to leave.

back of the truck and held the canvas open. I almost smiled.

"I really don't understand you boys," I said. The corporal shoved me face first against a

"I just don't understand what's going on here." big canvas-covered transport truck. He twisted

"Don't worry. You will." The corporal lifted me my arms behind my back and snapped handcuffs over his shoulder. "You'll understand everything around my wrists. Two of his buddies dragged me real soon."

to the back of the truck.

He heaved me headfirst into the back of the Visser One's Humvee rumbled past. I watched truck, climbed in after me, and snapped the canit go. Scanned the drive. Were Ax and Tobias in vas shut.

place? I couldn't tell.

We were on our way.

The soldiers shoved me to the ground. The

corporal pulled a rope from the back of the truck 136

137

The canvas sides whipped in the wind. My face thumped against the cold metal floor.

"Are these ropes and handcuffs really necessary?" I said. I rolled to my side and swung my bound ankles around in front of me. My feet were purple and numb from lack of blood flow.

CHAPTER 25

"I'm not stupid," I said. "I won't try to escape." I rocked, trying to get into a sitting position. Fell on my face and tried again.

"I'm perfectly aware that a middle-aged, outof-shape woman is no match for three welltrained — aah!" I lay on my stomach. I could see the floor, I sat up.

the toes of a Controller's boots, and a stack of And came face-to-face with the barrel of a riammunition crates in the corner. fle. The corporal and his two buddies surrounded RRRRRRRrrrrrrmmmmmm.

me, M-16s aimed at my head.

The truck roared to life. Shuddered as the

"Oh, honestly," I said. "Aren't you boys going driver shifted gears.

a bit overboard? As I said, I'm not in a position RRRRRRRrrrrrrmmmmmm.

to —ulllmph."

The driver gave it gas. We lurched forward, The corporal stuffed the corner of a filthy dufstalled out, then lurched again. fle bag into my mouth.

BAM!

"Shut up already," he said.

An ammo box banged to the floor.

"Huuulph." I choked on loose threads, bits of

"Ooooooph."

grit, and something foul and sticky clinging to Somebody heavy landed on my back.

the fabric. An old Coke spill.

The driver floored it, ground the gears, and we I glared at my captors. They could've been thundered down the drive. The truck bed rattled. clones. Same haircut. Same wardrobe, camou138

139

flage fatigues and combat boots. Same sneer The corporal's M-16 clattered to the bed of pasted across their faces.

the truck. One Stripe dove for it.

A second Hork-Bajir — Ax — dropped through The only difference was the little collar pins the canvas.

that showed their rank. Like Visser One's gold eaAnd pinned One Stripe's hands to the floor gles, except these were dull black stripes. The with his tyrannosaur feet. Ax doubled his leathery corporal had two stripes. One of his buddies had fist.

one stripe. And the other didn't have any.

WHAP!

Stripeless jabbed the barrel of his M-16 in my One Stripe was out cold.

face. "What are you looking at?" The corporal had dropped to his knees. Now

"Ur-uuhl." I shrugged and shook my head. he whirled. Lunged toward the fallen rifle. Tobias We rumbled down the drive. Sunlight filtered seized him in one clawed hand and jerked him through the trees and flickered against the caninto a stranglehold. Blood poured from the corvas roof. poral's arm.

<They took the bait.> Tobias's thought-speak Stripeless had been slowly inching away from sounded strong. He was nearby. <They're all the fight. Now he jammed the muzzle of his rifle headed down the drive. Every last truck and into my skull. "Let him go," he told Tobias, "or Humvee.>

the governor here gets it."

I glanced up. A jagged shadow loomed above Ax and Tobias froze.

the canvas.

The truck jolted as the driver shifted to a Rrrrrrrrrriiiiiiip.

lower gear. We were approaching the end of the The roof split open.

drive.

Thummmp.

"Are you deaf?" Stripeless screamed. "I said, And a Hork-Bajir dropped into the back of the LET HIM GO!"

truck.

The truck shuddered to a crawl.

"Hey!" The corporal swung his rifle around. I looked at Tobias. Caught his gaze and held The Hork-Bajir — Tobias — lifted his knee

it. Shook my head. Slowly, slightly, so Stripeless blade.

wouldn't see.

" AAAAAAAAAA AH H H H H H H H!"

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141

Tobias nodded. Tightened his death grip on Oh, good. Ax picks now to finally get human the corporal.

sarcasm.

"You think I'm kidding? I'm not!" Stripeless

<Yeah.> Tobias nodded. <That's what I jabbed my head for emphasis. "You either let thought he said.>

him—"

I banged my feet again. "Uh-uhl-ur-ULUPH!" The truck lurched.

<Okay, okay. Don't get your skirt in a wad.>

"AAH!"

Tobias pulled the duffle bag from my mouth. Stripeless tumbled backward, slammed into

"Uuuuh." I wiggled my jaw. My mouth felt an ammo box, and slumped to the bed of the like sandpaper. "Thank you. Now, can you do truck, unconscious.

something about the handcuffs?"

<They could all use a little nap,> said Tobias. Tobias turned me around.

WHACK.

<They're a little cranky.>

One wrist fell free.

He doubled his fist.

WHACK.

WHAP!

The corporal dropped to the floor.

Then the other. The handcuffs clanked to the floor.

Ax and Tobias rolled the Controllers together in a heap. Then they gathered the M-16s and beI untied my feet and helped Ax and Tobias gan hacking the barrels off with their wrist bind the Controllers together with the rope. blades.

I stood back. Pushed a wiry gray curl from my I thumped my feet on the floor. "Uh-ur-ulph." face and straightened my dress.

Tobias turned. <Did you say something,

We demorphed, then remorphed. Wings. ToMarco?> bias and I guarded the prisoners. Ax perched on an ammo box and played lookout.

"Uh-ur-ulph. UH. UR. ULPH!"

Ax looked at me. Tilted his head. <l believe

<We are approaching a tunnel,> he said. Marco is trying to tell us that while he is ex<Perfect.> I hopped up beside him. <Get ready. >

tremely happy to see us, he enjoys being trussed up, and could we please not remove the filthy The back of the truck grew dark. Three mallards flew through the hole in the canvas and satchel from his mouth, as he finds it quite flapped toward home.

tasty. >

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143

along with a few of Toby's finest fighters, attacked. The battle quickly became bloody and desperate, and Group One realized they were losing. Badly. But they knew they couldn't give up. They couldn't bail and let hundreds of soldiers become infested with Yeerks.

Sometime after midnight, another National

CHAPTER 26

Guard unit made an appearance. The colonel in charge ordered the Yeerk commander to free the uninfested troops and surrender. When the Yeerk commander didn't, the colonel and his unit attacked. Again the battle was bloody and desperate, but the colonel had seen battle before, and he knew how to win. He hadn't stopped Visser One last night. But he had definitely slowed him

" Hey, look, Cassie!" I said. "You're a TV star." down.

I pointed at the TV screen, where a wolf was leaping into a crowd of National Guard troops. Ax flipped from a local channel to CNN.

The wolf growled, bared its teeth, and sank them

"Hey, go back," said Jake. "I want to see into a burly soldier's butt.

that."

We were back home, in Ax's scoop in the

Ax clicked back to the local channel. A blond Hork-Bajir valley. We were crowded around Ax's reporter was interviewing a grim-looking military officer on the steps outside the governor's manTV, watching news footage of last night's battle. sion.

Jake and the others — Group One — had discovered the main Yeerk headquarters for troop

"That's him." Jake pointed at the screen. infestation. When the Animorphs showed up,

"The guy who kicked butt last night." Controllers were herding hundreds of National Ax turned up the volume. The interview was Guard soldiers at gunpoint toward a temporary almost over.

Yeerk pool.

". . . thank you for that detailed account, Colonel Larsen."

Jake, Rachel, Cassie, and James's group,

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145

"Colonel Larsen? That's the governor's guy," I copter explosion and a slow-mo shot of a yacht said. "The one who just got back from two weeks sinking into the river.

in the desert."

"So." Jake looked at me. "You kept it all pretty quiet, huh?"

The reporter turned to the camera.

"That was Lieutenant Colonel Jacob P.

"Hey, we were showing a little finesse there," I said.

Larsen, the newly appointed head of our state

<Yeah,> said Tobias.

National Guard, giving us a chilling account of last night's violent clashes within National Guard

"Hey, guys, quiet," said Cassie. "I want to hear this."

ranks. Back to you, Dave."

She leaned forward and turned up the volume. The camera switched to the news anchor. He An announcer's voice blared from the TV. "We inflashed a TV-news-guy smile. terrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring

"Thank you, Patricia. In a related story, the you late-breaking news from the capitol." governor got a bit of a scare yesterday afternoon. The picture went fuzzy for a second, then foDuring a fundraiser at the Ambassador Hotel, she cused on Patricia, the blond reporter, talking to a was kidnapped by three suspects who, witnesses plump gray-haired woman.

say, were wearing Halloween costumes. News

<lt is our governors said Ax.

Channel Five brings you exclusive footage of this Rachel stared at the TV. "She's a woman." bizarre incident."

"Well, yeah, she's a woman, Rachel." I Dave's image was replaced by that of a limouglanced at Tobias. "You didn't know that?" sine screeching from a parking lot, a leathery serRachel was too impressed with the governor pent head poking through the limo's roof. Then to be annoyed with me. "This is so cool. The the camera switched to a scene of the governor highest elected official in our state is a woman." galloping along a bridge on the back of a furry, She peered at the screen.

blue, four-legged creature. A gorilla and another The camera zoomed in on the governor. Her

creature — the one with the serpent head —

hair was a mess, her face pale. She was wearing leaped over stalled cars and wrecked delivery the same sweats she'd had on yesterday, only trucks while police officers gave chase.

now they were a lot more rumpled.

The newscast ended with footage of a heli146

147

But when she looked into the camera, her

panic," she said. "It is the time for each of us to steady gray eyes were still bright. Still focused. reach into our souls and pull out the courage we Patricia pushed a microphone into her face, may not even know we possess. Our enemy is and the governor began to speak.

strong. But we are stronger, because we are fight"I won't beat around the bush," she said. "I ing for our lives and our freedom. For our very have declared a state of emergency. I repeat: a existence."

state of emergency. This is not martial law. Our

"Thank you, Governor." The camera switched police, and even our National Guard forces, canto Patricia. not be trusted." She glanced at the reporter. Ax clicked off the TV. We sat in silence, star"The news media cannot be trusted. You may not ing at the blank screen.

even be able to trust your friends or your own family."

She explained about Yeerks. About how, like an invisible disease, they have been infesting and slowly taking over the population.

"I know this sounds fantastic," she said.

"Like something out of Hollywood. But by now you've seen the news footage. You know what I'm telling you is true. Our state, our nation, our entire world is under attack. But we are already fighting back. I have requested help from Washington, and the president has agreed to send U.S. troops."

"U.S. troops," I said. "It's what we've wanted from the beginning. Why am I not ecstatic?"

<How can you get ecstatic about all-out OCRed By Arpit Nathany

global war?> Tobias said.

The governor shuffled her notes. Looked into the camera again. "This is not the time for 148

149