We took off one at a time, first Rachel, then Cassie, then me. As I started my climb into the air, I heard the door to the convention center open.
‹Tobias, is that you?› It was Ax's voice.
I climbed in a circle to stay within hearing distance, but still make progress following the Yeerk.
‹It's me,› I confirmed. ‹We're following Zenguh; he just got in a sky-blue Prius.›
I filled Ax in about what we had discovered about Zenguh turning himself into a Yeerk and taking over the new guy.
I saw him nod, and then talk to the others
‹Okay,› Ax responded. ‹Remain safe, shorm! Prince Jake requests that we regroup at the barn tonight.›
I got to the edge of thought-speak range and could no longer hear Ax. The large parking lot by the convention center was making a great thermal, so I rode it up as I looked for the girls. They were going slowly, following the car as it went with traffic. I decided that this would be a good time to do some experimenting. I concentrated on the hawk from the next meadow over, the one that I had acquired the day before. Lines traced my skin, just outlines at first, then became a series of weirdly realistic tattoos in a feather pattern.
I'm kidding. I barely felt anything at all, but I felt bigger and stronger than normal. I caught up to Rachel and Cassie much faster than I was expecting.
‹Hey, Tobias! You made it!› said Rachel. She stared for a few seconds, and said, ‹Oh.›
She turned her head toward Cassie. ‹Hey, you're not going to believe this. Some random hawk just joined us.›
‹No, it's me,› I said.
‹Aaaaaa!› Rachel screamed, losing control and falling for a second. When she recovered, she continued, ‹Tobias, you look…different. Have you been working out?›
‹I acquired the hawk from the meadow next to mine,› I explained. ‹I've got some theories to test out. Anyway, it was the easiest morph I've ever done! It took like 5 seconds! Watch!›
I morphed back and forth a few times, growing and shrinking.
‹I'm not even tired!›
‹Wow, that's kinda cool,› Rachel said. ‹It doesn't really add much utility, does it? I guess you're a little bigger?›
‹I'm gonna see if spending time in morph as another hawk will postpone my aging. Hawks don't live as long as I'd like,› I said. They seemed impressed.
We followed the car for another fifteen minutes, until it became obvious where it was heading.
‹He's going to The Gardens,› said Rachel. The Gardens are a combination zoo and amusement park. Cassie's mom takes care of the animals there.
We watched Zenguh park, buy a ticket, and enter The Gardens. We skipped the ticket booth, and landed inside the park, since it's hard to carry ticket money as birds. We morphed into humans and watched him, again giving him plenty of space. He made his way to the aviary, no doubt as excited about birds as we thought.
He approached the little island where the flamingos lived. They were just out in the open, with a little rope separating the birds from the guests. I had no idea how they got them to stay there. Cassie would know.
"How do they get the flamingos to stay right here, Cassie?" Rachel asked, seemingly reading my mind.
"I've never treated a flamingo before, so I haven't studied them much," she replied. "Maybe they're just really dumb? Or maybe they like it in there?"
We watched Zenguh, or so we hoped, from behind some ferns. He looked around to see if anyone was watching. Deciding that the coast was clear, he stepped over the rope and approached one of the pinkest flamingos. The bird didn't even move as he reached out and grabbed it, which made me think Cassie was right about their intelligence. We hadn't seen the bird be anything but calm, so the acquiring trance wasn't very obvious. It just looked like a crazy man had jumped the fence to pet some flamingos.
"Hang on," said Cassie. "That's not Dave's body. Dave is still inside this guy as a Yeerk. If he's acquiring morphs, it means that Zenguh has given this new body morph capability. He must have the shard of the cube on him."
"Also, a flamingo isn't really a battle morph," I said. "If he's delivering morph-capable bodies to the pool, he only has less than two hours to get there, and spending the time and money to come here and acquire a morph like a flamingo doesn't make sense."
"Getting a flamingo morph doesn't make sense at all, unless he's just a big fan of flamingos. You can't even fly around without people noticing you," Rachel said. "Maybe it's just morphing practice that won't fight back."
Zenguh had exited the flamingo area, and continued walking toward the part of the aviary that was netted in. He entered and walked down the path. After giving him some space, we entered as well.
"It must be close to two hours since he took over bird guy," Cassie said.
She was right. The sun had moved significantly since we had entered the convention center earlier this afternoon.
"Hey," I said, looking to pass some time while we were waiting. "We've been calling Zenguh a 'he', but he's taken over someone else's body now. If he takes over a woman, do we call him a 'she'?"
Cassie thought for a bit, and said, "I talked to Mr. Tidwell, from the Yeerk Peace Movement, and he says that Yeerks don't really have genders. They're usually referred to by the gender of the host they inhabit. Although, if he keeps getting new people, it could get confusing fast."
"How about we just say 'him', then? Since the red-haired guy was a man," Rachel asked. That seemed reasonable to us.
We could see him, but he was far enough away that we couldn't tell what bird he was looking at. He appeared to be trying to figure out how to get into the enclosure, but wasn't looking successful. Appearing flustered, he took off down the path, walking more quickly.
"I think he's looking for the employee entrance to the behind-the-scenes area," Cassie said. There's one coming up."
Just as Cassie had predicted, he found the door, checked to see if anyone was watching, and tried to open it. It was locked. He looked around again, perked up like he saw someone, and started walking back down the path, toward us.
Cassie's head jerked, and she looked back the way we had come.
"Guys, my mom's over there!" she cried. "I just heard her giving someone directions. We've got to hide! I can't let her see me here wearing this!"
"Really? This is where the line is drawn?" asked Rachel, gesturing at Cassie's morphing suit. "Is there not enough goose poop on it?"
"Very funny," Cassie said, exasperated. "We can't go further up the path, or the bird guy will see us, and we can't go back the way we came because my mom's coming this way. We've got to morph."
She was right, the man was walking down the path, heading for Cassie's mom, and we were right in the middle. We left the path and dove behind some landscaping that was too small to hide behind from anyone close by. We all started to morph. I watched Rachel, and the whole world grew around us, as we shrunk down to the size of birds. Rachel went seagull, I went hawk, and Cassie…
Cassie trotted out onto the path, four-legged and covered in fur.
‹You can't be serious, Cassie,› I groaned.
"Oh no! Angela!" I heard Cassie's mom's voice. "What are you doing out of your enclosure? The other wolves are going to miss you!"
As her mom led her across the zoo, Cassie called to us, ‹I'll catch up with you!›
‹Cassie's family is insane,› Rachel said. I agreed.
I turned back to the birdwatcher man, to see him now running off the other way. He must not have wanted to go near a loose wolf. That made sense. We followed in the air.
He started walking again and approached a zookeeper with a clipboard. He clapped a hand onto the zookeeper's shoulders, with his thumb touching the back of her neck. They walked with an unnatural calm, to an employees-only entrance. They went in, and walked ahead more quickly.
We swooped in the doors at the last second, before they closed. We landed quietly and saw that they had entered a veterinary exam room with a big glass window. As we watched, he laid the zookeeper down on the exam table, Zenguh's hand never breaking contact with her neck. Then, Zenguh's body started to shrink and turn a gross yellow-brown color.
‹He's turning into a Yeerk!› Rachel said, disgusted and amazed at the same time.
She was right. As he shrank, his clothes fell off of him and onto the floor. He leaned his face into her ear, and once he was fully Yeerk, he slithered in. The zookeeper, now a Controller, stood up and went through the birdwatcher's pockets. He removed a small blue item and held it in his palm for a few seconds, then put it away. He went through the birdwatcher's pockets again, and grabbed his keys and wallet.
He left through another door in the exam room and out of sight. We frantically morphed human, unable to work doorknobs until we had fingers. Once we finally got through, we searched the entire employees-only area, but it was too late; there was no trace of the zookeeper. I looked through the pockets of the birdwatcher's clothes, but wasn't lucky enough to find another note.
We walked to the wolf enclosure to meet back up with Cassie. We had a lot to talk about.