The Yeerk places Jake's hand on the morphing cube. Five morph-capable bodies! His slug-mind whirrs with possibilities: quick promotion, a commanding position in the Visser's army, maybe a sub-Vissership? His excitement spreads to the host's nervous system, Jake's hand shaking as he pulls it back. Cassie squeezes his arm gently, trying to reassure who-she-thinks-is-Jake.

Suddenly he realizes Jake's only his second host (first, really, because practice with the Gedds doesn't count). There's no way he'll be able to keep him, no matter how much the Visser rewards him.

When the Visser shows up with Hork-Bajir and Taxxons, he doesn't say anything. He hides behind the wall. Clamps a hand over Cassie's mouth. Knows that if he doesn't speak out now he'll be punished, not rewarded, if he's found out.

He thinks of getting them all infested and having his own little gang. But does he know whom to trust? Any Yeerk could turn him in for keeping such a prize for himself.

He lies awake that night, possibilities running through his head as real-Jake screams at him. If he turns them in secretly, he can't acquire anything - ever - because Jake will escape from his cell in the Yeerk pool. If he secretly sabotages Animorphs missions - ditto. What's the use of having a morph-capable host if he can't ever use the power?

Becoming a human nothlit appeals to him - but it'd just be Jake's body that morphs. He'd still be a slug in a nothlit's brain. Still tied to the Kandrona.

At four in the morning, real-Jake makes a bargain with him. Leave his friends alone. Flee with him to somewhere in South America. And he'll never escape, he'll remain a volunteer-Controller, so long as the Yeerk promises to never give them up.

«No,» says the Yeerk. «You'll escape and warn them. How long would it take to get back here? All you have to do is send an email.»

«Not if you went to the Kandrona in the middle of the day,» Jake replies. «In the middle of the day, they could be anywhere. They wouldn't get the email until it was too late. It's not like any of us have a cellular phone. It would take time to round up all my friends and I wouldn't risk having a single one of them infested.»

«All right,» replies the Yeerk. «But I'm having you placed under strict guard. I'll say you're a troublesome host. And just to be safe - we're going as far away as possible.»

He climbs out of bed and flips on the light. Opens that atlas Jake got from his parents on his tenth birthday and never used. Counts time zones.

«We're going to India,» he announces.

When Tobias shows up five hours later, Jake isn't there. He isn't at Marco's house, at Cassie's barn, or at the mall. He isn't anywhere. When his parents call the police that afternoon, they find his bank account's been cleared out.

Two days later, a letter arrives on Cassie's doorstep.

I'm sorry, it says. I can't do it. I can't fight these monsters. There's nowhere to hide but I'm going to try. Please don't put yourself in danger. The Andalites will return soon.

It's the last they hear from him for a long time.