The Spies Part 6
"We are forever looking for new facilities to raid Jake. We currently know of three outposts hidden in the woods." Toby stated.
Toby was more than happy to have the Animorphs join in on their raids. In fact, from the ways she was acting, I think she knew we'd be joining one soon. She just might have. Her people call her a seer and I think the name fits. She had one hell of a talent for accurately predicting even the most unlikely events without the slightest hint of their occurrence.
"How do you find all these places?" I asked in disbelief. "We rarely find anything like this without our spies."
"We send scouts and we gain information from the brethren we save." Toby answered. "Freed hosts often have a lot of valuable information. If you freed hosts and made contact, you would learn much too."
"Another detail for the proactive plan's pro column. I guess David's right." I sighed. I still wasn't really fond of the concept.
"But you are right to be cautious. If performed hastily, events like those of your newest two team mates could have dire consequences." Toby said wisely.
"And they may turn out pointless." I muttered, thinking over the attack on the Sharing. "The bomb pieces and 'accidental' explosion can easily be proven to be a set up. Then even if Chapman and the other guy are still held accountable for the robbery, though I'm sure the Yeerks will get them out before long, it won't really mean anything to the Sharing."
"Oh, the Sharing's in for hard times, that is guaranteed." Toby said confidently. "It will probably survive, but it won't be nearly as useful to the Yeerks. It's not about whether or not the Sharing's been making bombs, it's about the safety of the kids. Even if the Sharing is cleared of all charges, that still doesn't mean that another bomb won't go off targeting the group and that fear alone will at the very least leave them struggling. The move is psychological, praying on the fears of parents."
"Psychological warfare. Heh, it figures, that's right up their alley." I chuckled humourlessly. "David's manipulative and Warren knows the way of the mind better than any of us. But this was still such a risky thing to do on their own. Warren's state of mind is making him do things he'd normally be hesitant to do. I know he wants to make up for his actions and all, but-"
"It is not all about guilt." Toby threw me for a loop as she cut me off. "From what you have told me and what I know of him, guilt would not be enough to cause such reckless behaviour. I believe that there is another, much deeper issue that his fight has caused, one that cannot be so easily dealt with as guilt."
"Like what?" I cried. If that was true, how come Cassie hadn't noticed it? Or anyone else? How could Toby see it so clearly? And what kind of issue would be so much of a problem?
"It is not my place to reveal such a thing to you Jake." Toby said apologetically, only resulting in frustrating me. "I cannot know for certain if the issue I believe he is facing is correct until I talk to him anyway and such a thing should be discussed with him alone."
"But this thing going on with him is likely to get us all killed." I cried, glaring at the ground. Couldn't Toby understand? I saw her point, this was Warren's personal business, but it was seriously affecting us all, even the safety of her people. If it wasn't handles soon, it would all be over for all of them.
/Jake, Toby said that she couldn't discuss it with you. She didn't say anything about discussing it with Warren./ Tobias pointed out from his place on a nearby tree branch. As soon as he did, my head shot straight up to Toby questioningly.
"I would be happy to talk to him." Toby nodded in agreement, leaving me sighing in relief. "We will need to split into small groups to strike at our next raid anyway. I will go with Warren. I believe that I can help him find peace with himself again."
/Then you'll have David too./ Tobias stated, his voice turning a little worried. /Warren's the only one of us that can work with David comfortably on both sides of the partnership. The rest of us don't trust him and he doesn't really trust us. Will that be a problem to you?/
"Not at all. When a private meeting is needed, I can always ask David to scout ahead." Toby responded casually.
"Ok then. Now all that's left is to decide on a time and a meeting place. I'm not ready to let David know the colony's location yet, so it can't be here."
/And what kind of detection and defence systems are in the facility we're raiding./ Tobias added, sounding like he was ready to hit me upside the head and leaving me staring at him sheepishly for forgetting those little details.
"There is no need to worry about that Tobias, for we shall not enter the compound." Toby stated, shocking us both. "There is a very powerful shield surrounding it. The Yeerks can't risk anything getting in or out of our next target. We will be targeting the Hork-Bajir Controllers that scout around the area up to five miles out. They mostly only operate in groups of two, four at the most. Easy prey for us to capture."
"That's why you're choosing this one isn't it?" I rolled my eyes, not even bothering to wait for the answer. Last time they told us about a facility they were raiding they refused to tell us where it was so we couldn't destroy it and cut them off from their infested brethren. But in this case, even if we wanted to, we couldn't do anything to this structure because we had no way of touching it.
Toby truly was brilliant. We were fortunate that she was an ally rather than an enemy. But it was still a little exasperating how she operated with us sometimes. She trusted us, but forever kept in mind that our actions would not always benefit her people and slightly opposed our efforts in such cases. It made our allied actions a bit difficult and irritating.
What she said next surprised me greatly and not in a good way. "Actually Jake, if it were possible, this would be one facility that we would help you destroy."
/What?/ Tobias cried incredulously as I gaped at her. That was completely unbelievable, the last thing I expected to hear Toby say. Bases like this one sounded perfect for her raids. /What is it?/ Tobias asked forebodingly a moment later, recovering much faster than me. /What's happening there Toby?/
"From what I have deduced from the Hork-Bajir we've already taken and freed from this place, it is an experimental facility." Toby explained, her voice turning grave. "The Yeerks are using it to test technology and chemical compounds they found on a recently discovered trio of planets in each others' atmospheres on organic creatures, both from Earth and on...weakened hosts from off world. I have seen the results of one experiment that was performed on an animal I believe you call a coyote. It was not a pleasant thing for me to see and the beast would have been in considerable pain before it died and was discarded and burned. Its form was heavily mutated, to the point that it was barely recognisable. From the little my people know, Hork-Bajir results have been worse."
"How long has this been going on?" I asked, not really wanting an answer. I'd already decided that I wasn't telling Cassie about this, or any of the others for that matter, until either I had to or we'd found a way to bring the facility down. I didn't want to know what I knew now, let alone ask my last question, but I had to find out. I had to know just how bad this was, how far they'd gotten. I had to know what we were dealing with.
"It is one of three events that were started simultaneously." Toby responded. "From what I know, each one came from a different member of the three planets. I do not know what the third project was, but I believe the tree creature Warren killed was the second. The dates of their discoveries appear to match."
That gave them weeks! And we didn't even know what they were trying to do with this test, let alone how far they'd gotten. Were the deaths deliberate or were they failures? And what was this third project?
"Aaahhh, why is every problem leading into yet another one?" I cried, throwing my head back. This was far too much. Warren's issues led to an explosive robbery with David, which led to Warren and Ax preparing to kill each other, to this plan for a raid and now we had a base focused on chemical warfare to worry about. Was this going to end anytime soon?
"That is the nature of life and war Jake." Toby stated calmly, completely unphased by the exasperated look I threw at her. "It is an endless challenge. To make up for it, it is best that each of your objectives lead into the next as well. Freeing my people helps us with our present day life and our future, which in turn allows us to cause more problems for the Yeerks. It is our hope that our actions will help us and your people enough so that when the final battle with the Yeerks begin, our side will have sufficient strength to survive."
/What is your plan past freeing your people?/ Tobias asked as I nodded curiously. She was after all in the same position I was. She had to understand the consequences and realities or her plans. She knew that simply freeing a few of her people here and there was not nearly enough to survive once this war got heavy, just as I knew our combined forces wouldn't come close.
"Once we have enough people freed, we will start raiding bases more heavily. And unlike our current raids, we will take weapons too, along with cloaking devices, shield generators and anything else we can acquire. We will need it all eventually, we are merely waiting until we have the force needed to safely perform such a move." Toby explained. "We cannot rely solely on the difficult nature of finding our location forever. As much as we would like to avoid such destructive weapons and stick to the protection the valley and trees provide, it will not save us in the long run and our preferences must be put aside for reality. To survive war, one must be willing to go against their preferred natures and make hard decisions."
Just like Warren had with the bank vault, money and stealing Chapman's DNA.
"Where will you go from there?" I asked, ignoring the off feeling Toby's last words had caused in my gut. I didn't want her to be right. I wanted to make it right with the bank like I always did when we had to rip a place off, but I didn't know how and Toby's words had hinted that I should just leave it be when these things happen, provided it was for the good of the war.
"We will prepare for the real battle and to help any you bring in to our side." Toby answered with a smile. "We will not leave you to fight the true battle on your own Jake. Though at the moment we are of little use to your missions, we are still your allies as much as you are ours and we intend to make the Yeerks pay for they have done to us all."
/Your plan sounds similar to what David and Warren want to do./ Tobias commented with me nodding in agreement. /I guess you guys think alike./
"Not entirely, but yes." Toby agreed. "I prefer methods that are not noticed until long after we have departed while they seem to like methods that cause panic and chaos, but the end result of a successful mission is more or less the same."
"Well let's hope we can open them up to your way and remove some of the risk." I muttered, wanting to come back to the original topic for now. I'd need a lot of time to deal with the rest of it and personally I'd rather only worry about one situation at a time. "How about we meet two miles south of here around nine tonight? Where the river flows into that rocky area."
"That is acceptable. I shall lead ten of our fighters there." Toby nodded. "I already have another ten scouting just outside the five mile radius, watching for any changes. Between them and us, we should be able to capture a number of Controllers tonight."
/But won't that leave you too short handed if something goes wrong?/ Tobias asked, his voice full of concern as he stared around the valley, watching as the Hork-Bajir ate, relaxed and played. /That would only leave you with five fighters in the valley./
It was something that was bothering me too. The freed Hork-Bajir had lost a few of their own when we helped them retrieve Bek and though we'd captured others, many free and previously controlled Hork-Bajir had lost an arm or an eye. Others were too old or young to be true fighters at this point and the total population of the valley was only around fifty eight. If this mission went wrong and the valley was discovered, there would be little chance of them surviving a small force.
"This raid should not cause a problem with our numbers and the conditions of our targets. And if all goes well, we will have almost doubled our number of fight worthy brethren by the time our captives' Yeerks die. It is a small risk and well worth the results." Toby assured us confidently. She was clearly grateful for our concern, but was sure it was unnecessary. I guess we'd just have to trust her judgment. After all, she is brilliant and she's the Hork-Bajirs' leader. It's a leader's job to know the consequences to every action.
It was pretty clear to me that our tagging along was just a bonus. She'd already planned this movement to begin with.
"Ok, if you're sure that this is completely safe, then it's settled. We'll see you tonight Toby." I stated as feathers once again started decorating my skin. I wanted to get out of there before something else freaked me out. I had enough to deal with already.
"See you then Jake." Toby nodded before moving off to a seemingly lost pair of Hork-Bajir. Her work was never done, yet she never seemed to tire. If anything, she seemed to feed on helping her people. It made me very envious of her.
/So what do you think of all this?/ Tobias asked as I finished morphing, taking off a minute later. /Toby sure is good at letting loose a string of shocking information./
/I know, too much for me to handle at once./ I muttered, altering my wings and tail feathers so as to ride the wind more easily. /I'm just going to focus on the little I can deal with. Toby can handle Warren, I think she already knows how anyway. I'm going to tell Erek about the three projects and see what he can dig up. I'll let Ax and maybe David take a look at the facility and see if they can figure out a way to deal with it and I am just going to focus on this raid and trying to get Ax and Warren to play nice with each other. Hopefully this plan will get Warren and David to follow Toby's kind of proactive for a while and I can ignore the possible need to break laws until everything else is dealt with./
/It should work for a little while./ Tobias commented as we caught a thermal and rose higher into the air. /At least while David's aggressive and destructive methods are focused on targets deep in the forest, cops and material possessions are out of the picture. Less laws to break out here and we will all be happy for the destruction of Yeerk complexes./
/Yeah, that's true./ I muttered, though I didn't have nearly as much emotion in my voice this time around. Something he'd just said had hit hard in my head. Material possessions. Like the vault and the money. Were they really so important? Neither was truly necessary for life. They weren't around when life began and life would go on just fine long after they, and their usefulness, disappeared. While humans made money and objects out to be a big thing, they were only important to the human mind, not to life at all. If they disappeared, life would go on. So why was it so important to leave them where they were, even when using them could really benefit us in this war, help us keep people free and alive, preserve the things that truly mattered? Why was I willing to give up every tactical advantage the occasional theft of equipment might give us in helping people? Armies have used the land, taken supplies and even people from families without the smallest payment all throughout history. The only difference was that the law gave them the power to legally do it in the name of protecting their country and people and maintaining the strength of the military.
The level of risk our newest team mates took was still unacceptable, but as much as I hated to admit it...I think the rest of it was right.
Great. Now I'm overloaded, frustrated, confused and hating myself for losing my moral resolve. Can this day just be over with and take its crap with it?