«So Illim and Tidwell want us to help with a plan of theirs.» Tobias was the one to call the meeting, so he had to explain what it was about.
"Why did he meet with just you?" Rachel said, tilting her head back to look up at Tobias in the rafters. Merlyse was up there with him as a gyrfalcon.
«Delia says they trust me,» Tobias said. «Because I was nice to Tidwell when I was in his head, I guess. Anyway. They said there are some Peace Movement hosts who want to be free. I mean, they like their Yeerks okay, but they want to get out. And their Yeerks want to help them. They want to try and all feed at the same time, so their hosts can all break out of the voluntary host area and get out of the Pool. But they would need a distraction for their breakout. And they would need protection. A place to hide.»
"Won't their Yeerks get in trouble?" Marco said, raising his eyebrows. "That's awful generous of them, just letting their hosts walk away like that while they take the fall."
Tobias shrugged. «Illim and Tidwell said their Yeerks are willing to take the consequences.»
"How many of these people are there?" I said.
«Eight,» Tobias said. «Six adults, a couple of kids around our age.»
"They'd have to stay in the Hork-Bajir valley," Rachel said. "We'd have to get them food somehow."
"The Chee could take care of that, probably," Cassie pointed out.
"So this vote isn't a guarantee we'll do this, even if we vote yes," Marco said. "We'd need cooperation from the Guardians of the Galaxy."
«Freeing hosts,» Tobias said. «That's what we tried to do the first time we went down to the Yeerk pool. We only got one woman out, right? What even happened to her?»
We traded looks. None of us knew. I didn't even know her name, only that she had a bug dæmon of some kind. I felt suddenly bad about that. Maybe the Chee could help us find out what became of her.
«We've only ever managed to free two people,» Tobias went on. «That woman, and Karen. This is our chance to finally save some Controllers. Just what we've wanted to do all along.»
«Yeerk sympathizers,» Ax said coldly. «That is who we would free. What guarantee do we have that they would not flee the valley immediately and betray us and the free Hork-Bajir? How do we know this scheme to help them flee the Pool is not, in itself, a trap? If we arrange a rescue with these voluntary hosts, they and their Yeerks can tell Visser Three exactly when the "Andalite bandits" will next attack the Yeerk pool. Or they could simply not escape and have us risk ourselves needlessly.»
Ax had a point. None of us wanted to go to the Yeerk pool unless it was absolutely necessary. Did we really want to go down there on just a hope?
Marco leaned back against a hay bale and folded his arms, while Dia watched Ax and flicked her tongue toward him. "Ax-man's got it right. This is a huge risk, and for what? A bunch of hippie tree-hugging Yeerk-lovers being a huge pain in the Hork-Bajir's asses?"
"For freeing people who can show us all a better way," Cassie said. "People who've managed to make peace with their Yeerks. Like I did."
"All right, guys," I said. "Cast your votes."
«I think my opinion is quite clear,» Ax said.
"Me too," Marco said.
"Two against," I said. "Cassie and Tobias for."
«Yes,» said Tobias. Cassie nodded.
"Two against, two for. Rachel?" She hadn't said anything so far.
"I say yes," Rachel said, Abineng watching me steadily. That surprised me. Rachel is pretty cynical most of the time, and definitely doesn't like voluntary hosts. Or at least, that's what I'd thought. Cassie looked surprised, too: Quincy's head snapped toward Abineng, staring. "It's a risk. But we could at least try."
Merlyse looked down at Loren. She shook her head. "I don't trust Illim, much less his friends. We don't know what they really want."
"Down to you, Fearless Leader," Marco said.
I let what everyone had said settle into my head. Cassie is always the one who sees the big picture. She saw the freed hosts as people we could teach us something important, in the long run. Maybe she was right. But there were a lot of risks. The rescue of the hosts could be a trap, like Ax said. If even one of them or their Yeerks betrayed us, it could finish us. Once they were in the valley, they could turn against us, even if they did want to cooperate at first – being forced to live totally apart from other people could drive anyone crazy. David was proof of that.
Too much risk, and the reward is too far off, Merlyse said. Maybe later, if the Peace Movement earns our trust.
"I vote against," I said. "But we could still work with Illim and Tidwell on something less risky, if he has any ideas."
Cassie's lips pressed together, and Merlyse saw Quincy look away from me. She was disappointed. Rachel and Tobias gave nothing away. "Come on, Marco," I said. "Let's go home."
When I got home, my dad and Tom were screaming at each other. I hadn't seen anything like it since – well, since Tom was infested. Tom's Yeerk didn't want to make trouble with my parents. There was no point.
"I can't go, Dad!" Tom was yelling in the kitchen. "I have responsibilities at the Sharing, Dad! Stuff that really matters! I can't just go back on that!" Delareyne stomped her foot and tossed her head. Just like Abineng does when he's angry, but on a much smaller scale, with Del's little gazelle body.
"If your bosses have half a heart between them, they'll let you go. We have to sit shiva, Tom. Do what we have to do as a family."
"Sit shiva," Merlyse whispered, a snowshoe hare by my foot. "That means somebody died."
I burst into the kitchen. "Who are we sitting shiva for? What happened?"
Dad gave Tom a hard look. Tz'irah, his emu dæmon, spread her wing out toward Merlyse. It had been more than a year since we'd done this, but Merlyse went along with our old tradition. She became a husky and tucked herself under Tz'irah's wing. I sat down by the kitchen table.
"Grandpa G died today," Dad said. "A heart attack. Quick and quiet. Your mother and grandparents are already headed up to the cabin, and the three of us are going to join them Saturday morning."
I closed my eyes. Merlyse whimpered and leaned into Tz'irah.
"Not the three of us," said Tom. "Just you two. It's sad that Grandpa G died and all, but I'm way busy."
"All three of us," Dad repeated.
I looked back and forth between them. Tom would never have argued like this if he were himself. I knew him. The Yeerk had some other reason.
"Uh, Dad?" I said. "How long are we staying?"
"Depends on when we have the funeral. But I've called the school to excuse you both for Monday and Tuesday."
Four days, Merlyse said. Out in the middle of the woods. No Kandrona. She bared a few teeth. No wonder Tom's Yeerk's scared. He'll starve.
"Sounds nice," I said. "I miss the lake." Pizza came a few minutes later. As we opened the boxes, I said, "Can we say the Mourner's Kaddish?" Tom's Yeerk might not care about Grandpa G dying, but I did. So did Tom. Maybe it could help him, somehow, hearing us say the words.
"Of course," said Dad. "V'yitgadal v'yitgadash sh'mei raba…"
I didn't know what all of it meant. But it was what you said when you were mourning someone. And I knew what the last few lines meant: may God give peace to us and all Israel, amen. Not likely. But it didn't hurt to ask.
Tom was awful during dinner. He spent the whole time begging, pleading, reasoning, anything to get Dad to let him stay. Nothing changed his mind.
Unstoppable force, immovable object. Cassie would understand how to make this work. You should know how to make this work, Merlyse whispered silently, but I didn't. It was like trying to read a book pressed right up against my face. All I could see were a few letters at a time. But Cassie was with her parents at an animal rescue conference or something, so I walked to Marco's house instead.
Halfway to his house, Marco practically ran into me. Diamanta did this weird snake jump from his shoulder onto Merlyse, thumping onto her back. Dia was heavier than she looked. Merlyse whuffed and pretended to snap at her. Turned out Marco was going to my house to copy my notes anyway. I told him about Grandpa G. When he came with me back to my house, my dad's car was gone. So were Dad and Tom.
Marco wasn't surprised. I was. I shouldn't have been. I was supposed to be able to see ahead, to make the plan. But I couldn't. I had to let Marco take over. He called up Erek. Had the Chee track down my dad. I tried to charge in, in tiger morph, when we found where Tom took him to be infested. Marco held me back. It felt good, down in a place I wouldn't admit, to let someone I trusted take over, knowing I couldn't do it myself.
I was not certain Prince Jake's plan to capture Chapman as a distraction was a good idea. But he was my prince, and it was not my place to tell him his plan was wrong.
I was mostly morphed to human, though I retained a few Andalite features: my nose only half-grown, my lips very thin, my eyes still deep-set – along with a few patches of blue fur in areas covered by my clothing. (I am no estreen, after all.) Marco in gorilla morph stood behind me, posing as my dæmon. It made me feel uneasy, knowing what he was about to do. I knocked on the door of Chapman's house. He answered, looking impatient, his gladiator dæmon waving her antennae at me from his shoulder.
"Hello, is Melissa here? Hee-yer? I am a friend of Melissa? I have come here to speak to her regarding a class assignment. Class-uh." I tried not to show in my voice how uncomfortable I felt involving the human called Melissa Chapman in this way. Tobias had told me that she and Rachel had once been friends, and Rachel cared about her. I might have expected an objection to this plan from Rachel, had that truly been the case.
Chapman squinted at me and frowned. "Wait here. I'll get her." Behind him, I could see a faint glimmer in the eyes of a statuette, which I was fairly certain was not a normal feature of human decoration. Certainly I could hear the faint hum coming from the mirror frame on the wall. Yeerk technology, stolen and modified from my people.
"Good," I said. "She is my close friend and also classmate and thus this is a perfectly normal thing for me to do."
The gladiator dæmon flicked her antennae at me, and Chapman went to find Melissa. I explained to Jake about the hidden motion sensors and Dracon beams.
Melissa stepped out on the porch and closed the door behind her. She wore a lanyard for an insect dæmon around her neck. Good. That would reduce the chances of her getting hurt in this operation. She looked at me, confused. I stepped aside, and let Marco step forward and seize her. A look of pure disgust and terror passed over her face, and she managed to scream before Marco could silence her.
I rolled off of the porch and helped Marco tie up Melissa with rope we'd left beneath it. Her whole body trembled as I fumbled at the knots with my thick human fingers. Then I stuffed a piece of cloth in her mouth – strange, how a human could be silenced by something so trivial as blocking up a single orifice. Once she was secure, Marco dropped her in the bushes and joined the fray. I made sure I was out of Melissa's sight – she had been through enough without seeing the hideous distortions of a body in morph – and returned to my own form. In the distance, I could hear Dracon beams firing on my friends. I leapt toward the house to join them.
When I did, I saw Prince Jake in rhino morph suffering from a terrible Dracon wound to the head, and Chapman escaping up the stairs. I told him so, though I wondered if he could even hear me.
«Let him go,» Prince Jake said. «We'll even give him a minute to sound the alarm.»
Right. That had been the point of the exercise – to give the Yeerks something else to worry about.
«He's coming out the back window,» Marco reported.
«Ax, up the stairs,» Prince Jake said. «Rachel, with me.»
I fairly flew up the stairs, but Chapman was already gone. I could hear him firing a gun in the green space behind his house. I leapt out of the upper window onto the grass. Marco was bleeding terribly from a wound inflicted by Chapman's primitive human weapon, Chapman himself attempting to escape over his back fence. Both of us ran toward Chapman as he tried to flee. Prince Jake collided with the fence first, knocking the Controller down. He fired at Prince Jake, directly to his throat. He staggered into me, dying, knocking me to the ground. Chapman was getting away.
Prince Jake somehow managed to reorient himself on Chapman, driven by a dark and terrifying rage. «No, Jake!» Rachel yelled. «We need him alive! Ax! Stop him!»
I could not stop a stampeding rhino. Not in this form. But I could get Chapman out of his path. I darted toward him and knocked him out with my tail blade just as Prince Jake collapsed to the ground, overcome by his injuries. Somewhere in the distance, Melissa Chapman had managed to remove the gag from her mouth, and cried aloud for her mother and father. I felt ill, and secretly glad that Loren was watching over Jake's father with Cassie and Tobias. She would not have been able to bear this.
Somehow, both Jake and Marco managed to demorph and remorph. When I saw they would recover, I ran ahead to the abandoned house. I could hear the human police approaching, and I could not afford to be seen. Rachel, Marco, and Prince Jake came a few minutes later, with Chapman slung unconscious over Marco's shoulder. Again I helped Marco tie up and blindfold Chapman. I was becoming all too experienced in physically restraining humans.
Rachel had demorphed. Abineng loomed huge in the darkness. "I wonder – " she began, but Prince Jake cut her off with a shake of his head. He went to the kitchen, Prince Merlyse padding along as a white fox beside him, and came back holding a can. I did not understand its purpose. But he gave me a sharp, steady look, and I knew what it meant.
The time had come for my role in this plan. Prince Jake was about to wake Chapman, so I could torture his Yeerk. And him, too, helpless captive that he was. No less innocent than his daughter Melissa, crying helplessly for parents she had lost long ago. He was warning me. Giving me a moment to prepare myself.
Was I prepared? Of course not. I was a warrior, not a torturer. But a warrior followed orders.
Except when they did not. As my brother Elfangor had not, once, when he had been an aristh like me. Loren had told me and Tobias the story, not long ago.
"He wouldn't do it," Loren said. "He wouldn't flush the Yeerks into space. Even though his prince ordered him to do it. They're helpless, he said. We don't do that to prisoners. Alloran called him a sentimental fool. Elfangor always thought that maybe that was how it began. How they lost trust in each other, so that eventually he would lose Prince Alloran to the Sub-Visser."
«So he regretted refusing the order?» I asked her. Still amazed that my brother, the great hero, had defied the Andalite warrior's most basic principle: never act against your prince's direct order.
"No." Loren shook her head. "Not even for a second. He said… he said the war had done something to Alloran. It had broken the part of him that could see his order was wrong. So Elfangor had to do that for him."
«No,» I said, taking a step back. I forced out the refusal, quick and hard, like a tail-strike. «No, Prince Jake. I will not torture him.»
Rachel, Marco, and Prince Jake all stared at me. The moonlight through the windows reflected off the whites of their wide eyes. Prince Merlyse opened her mouth in a silent snarl.
«No?» said Marco, as if he had never encountered the concept. «No?»
«No,» I repeated. «I will not be party to this.»
Rachel and Marco looked at Prince Jake, though Abineng kept his focus on me. Prince Jake and Prince Merlyse gazed into each other's eyes. I wished I could know what passed between them in that moment. Prince Merlyse became a tiger and bared her long, glistening fangs. Then she became a fly and hovered right next to my ear.
She said, "Fine, then. We'll do it. Let me acquire your DNA."
«No, Prince Merlyse. I will not lend my face to this either. If you can find it within yourself to do this, find your own way. You will have no help from me.» I turned toward the back door and opened it. I could hear sirens, the shouts of police officers, Melissa's pathetic cries.
I focused on the northern harrier and began the morph. Never had I been quite so eager to fly away.
There are a lot of memories from this war I wish I could erase from my brain. But watching my best friend torture a prisoner has to be one of the top five.
I stayed in that abandoned house with him and Chapman, playing the silent guard. I sure as hell didn't want to be there, but I also sure as hell wasn't going to let Jake do this unsupervised.
I had to stop him from going too far. Twice. I don't want to talk about it.
Finally, Jake gave him a clue how to get out. Crunched some broken glass on his way outside to demorph. I kept watch for a little longer, then I left too.
«Tom,» Jake said suddenly, as we morphed raptor in the morning half-light. «What if he noticed I was gone?»
Now he thinks of this? Dia thought, but didn't say. I said, «I told Rachel to get Luis. He had a hologram of you going all night. Tobias has been watching over your house.»
«Okay,» Jake said. «Okay. We're leaving at noon. I'll meet you all at Cassie's barn at nine to set the plans.»
Well, that gives us a couple of hours for breakfast and a nap, Dia said.
«Marco,» Jake said as he flew away. «Thanks. For staying with me.»
I didn't say anything back. What was I supposed to say? "You're welcome"?
When I demorphed in my bedroom, as soon as I was human, my heart started slamming against my ribs like it was trying to get out and start an independent life. Dia's tail rattled. I scrabbled for the drawer in my night table and fumbled at the pill bottle. Then I realized I was already so tired that if I took a Xanax I'd fall asleep.
Okay, Dia said. Remember what Luis said. Starting at the head. Squeeze up your face, then relax it.
I clenched and released my muscles from my head all the way down to my feet, Dia counting off my breaths as I went. By the time I was done, my heartbeat had slowed. I leaned back against the bed and sighed. I'd made it through another panic attack without pills. It felt good.
"So," said Dia. "What now?"
"We come up with a plan," I said. "Jake doesn't get a vote."
"And what brilliant plan is that?"
Which is how I ended up making a big breakfast for myself and thinking about a way out of this instead of sleeping like I really wanted to. As I ate my eggs on toast, Dia coiled herself tighter on the kitchen table and said, "There's only two ways this can end. Either Tom dies, or he gets back to the Yeerk pool before the three days are up."
"Right. Because if Tom's Yeerk dies, the Yeerks will never stop hunting Tom until he's dead too."
"Or until they think he's dead," Dia pointed out.
I put my fork down, hard. "Oh no. We are not putting Jake's parents through what we went through. How can you even say that?"
"But it's different," Dia insisted. "The Yeerks will think he's dead too. We can keep him in the Hork-Bajir valley or the Chee's doggy basement or something. He'll be free."
"The Chee might not even go along with this. We'd need them. The Hork-Bajir, too, probably. This is a full-on Guardians of the Galaxy team effort we're talking here."
"We know what the fallback is. It's worth trying."
I finished my breakfast, still thinking, and cleaned up. My dad came in, wheeling Mira in her tank behind him. It really was about time for him to install pipes for her, like we had in our old house. "There's sausage in a pan on the stove. And coffee in the pot," I said.
"You are the best son ever," Dad groaned.
"I'm going to the library," I said. "Two big tests next week." That was true, but it would take a miracle to pass them both without help from the Chee.
"Good. Your grades've been getting better." And that would be because of the Chee homework help.
I took the bus out to Cassie's house. I was too tired to morph again. I even managed to nap a little on the bus. When I came into the barn, Cassie took one look at me and said, "I'll be right back with some tea."
Tobias came in next. «Is it true?» he said. «Did Jake really…»
"Yeah," I said hoarsely. "It's true."
Ax came in soon after. He didn't say anything. Dia watched him. She was still surprised at what he'd done. I definitely never thought I'd see the day when Ax said no to an order from his prince. It has to have something to do with Loren, Dia decided. Having her around has changed him. He's been breaking his Andalite warrior mold, at least a little bit.
And what about us? I asked Dia. What would we have done if Jake asked us to do that?
Do you even need to ask? Dia said.
No. No, I didn't.
Cassie came back with a steaming mug of tea and pressed it into my hands. I drank automatically. It was black tea flavored with cherry and vanilla. "This stuff is way better than coffee," I said. "Why do I even drink it?"
Cassie shrugged and smiled at me softly. "Why do any adults drink it? It tastes like battery acid."
Loren came in. "How is he?" she said quietly.
«He escaped,» Tobias said. «I checked.»
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at that. Except Ax, who can't really sigh, but he looked like he would have if he could.
Rachel was the last in. "Where's Jake?"
"Not here," Cassie said.
Rachel looked at her watch. "9:07." She and Abineng traded a look. "He's not coming."
«He could've just missed his bus,» Tobias said. But he didn't sound like he believed it.
"She's right," I said. "He's not."
«Very well,» Ax said. «There is a matter I wish to discuss.»
We all turned to stare at Ax. Dia shot Tobias a look. Ax never brought things up in meetings.
«The Andalite military has a protocol for when a prince is unfit to lead. There is a chain of command. The lieutenant, backed by two other warriors, may rule the prince unfit and replace him with the lieutenant until such time that he is fit to command again.»
«Okay,» Tobias said. «Who thinks Jake is unfit to lead?»
All of us raised our hands.
«Me too,» Tobias said.
"So if Jake isn't in charge," I said, "then who should be our lieutenant?"
Ax said, «It should be someone who the prince would consider fit to lead, were he in a fit state himself.»
"Someone else who can make the hard calls," Rachel said. "Come up with the plans."
No one said anything. Then Dia stage-whispered to me, "They're all looking at us, stupid."
"Me?" I said. "Me, the leader? Are you serious?"
«I think I am,» Elhariel said slowly. As if she almost didn't believe it herself.
Rachel raised her hand, just a little higher than her shoulder. Abineng flicked an ear and shot Dia a look that said, Sorry.
Cassie and Ax raised their hands. Loren was last, but she did, too, trading an unreadable look with her dæmon.
I glared at Dia, as if this was somehow her fault. Then I declared to the room at large, "You're all insane. You know that, right? I still have panic attacks, you know. I had one this morning. You sure you want the whacko in charge?"
"We're all whackos here, Marco," Rachel said.
"You can make the tough calls," Cassie said. "The right calls. We've seen that." Quincy gave me a look that was somehow pitying, even on his squashed bat face.
Great. I'd re-enslaved my mother and sent her back to the front lines, where she could die horribly at any moment, and that apparently made me the right man for the job of leading the Animorphs. What the hell did that say about us?
Ax said, «What is the plan, Prince Marco?»
"Whoa!" I shouted. "Uh-uh. No. I'll be the leader for now, if that's what you want, but I am drawing the line. There is no way I am going to sit here and let you call me Prince Marco, Ax."
"We're waiting, Prince Marco," Rachel chimed in.
Dia hissed, "I hate you all."
"Okay," I said. "Fine. I do have a plan. Kind of. But we're gonna need some help from the Guardians of the Galaxy."
Everyone looked at me expectantly. Waiting to hear my brilliant idea. I could feel my guts tying themselves in knots. Was this how Jake felt every time he had to come up with a plan that risked all our lives?
Probably, Dia said. It really sucks, doesn't it?
"We're going to fake Tom's death and starve out his Yeerk," I said.
Abineng snorted and tossed his head. "Awesome."
"Oh, great," Dia told him. "You like my plan. Now I know it's insane."
"Jake's Grandpa G's cabin is the perfect place to do it," I said. "It's in the middle of nowhere. The Yeerks will never know the truth about what happened. As long as we can convince Tom's family he's really dead – and with a Chee, we can – the Yeerks will accept it. They've basically already written his Yeerk off as dead already, since they haven't done anything to help him out of this."
«And then we keep him in the Hork-Bajir valley until his Yeerk starves?» Tobias said.
"Yup," I said. "Then once he's free he can stay there or with the Chee, whichever one he wants."
«He may also stay with me in my scoop, if he would prefer,» Ax said. «A brother to Jake may consider himself a brother to me.»
I stared at Ax. I had never heard him call Jake by just his name before. The name sounded naked in his thought-speak voice without the "Prince" before it.
"That's very kind of you, Ax," Loren said. "He can also come visit me, of course, but I don't think he could stay with me long-term without the neighbors noticing."
"He should visit you," Cassie said. "We all saw what happened to David when he was suddenly cut off from the world he knew. We can't let Tom feel like he's lost everything."
That shut everyone up for a minute or two. Then Rachel said, "Problem. If Tom dies – if they think he died – Jake's parents won't let him out of their sight. Not for a long time."
"I thought of that," I said. "That's another reason why we need to talk to the Chee. We'll need Luis or somebody ready to cover Jake whenever he needs to go do Animorphs stuff."
«And we need to ask the Hork-Bajir if this is okay with them,» Tobias added. «I mean, I'm ninety-nine percent sure they'll say yes, but we still need to check. And we'll need to help them out. They have no idea how to keep a human sheltered and fed.»
"We're turning Jake's life upside-down," Cassie said quietly. "Without his permission. Can we really do that?"
"We'll probably turn his life upside down no matter what we do," I said. "Tom's Yeerk will do it all by himself if we let him. He's always wanted his brother free. That's why he decided to fight this war in the first place. And that's why we're doing this. It's what he'd want to do, if he could be the leader right now."
Cassie nodded, and smiled a little. Quincy said, "You're not a bad leader, Prince Marco."
"Next person to call me Prince Marco has to be the one to fly all the way to the Hork-Bajir valley and back," I said.
«On it, Prince Marco,» Tobias said, and zoomed out the barn door.
Dia tilted her head and looked at me with a slitted yellow eye. "Dude. You should have seen that coming."