Chapter 4 (Lee)
We eventually met up later that night. Marco and Jake headed to Marco's and rung round everyone. There was a reason that they didn't go to Jake's and that was because of Tom. Tom is Jake's older brother and they tell me that he's a Controller so we avoid making phone calls around him. No matter how cryptic we are. Controllers are bad for our health.
So there we were. All in Cassie's barn, surrounded by animals of every shape and size. Cassie was getting some chores done at the same time. Her life must be hectic. We all have to live a double life, but Cassie can't cut corners. Not when she's dealing with animals. Her mum is a vet at the Gardens, and her dad runs the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic. Lot's of animals needing lots of food, lots of water and lots of medication.
Cassie. She's about average height with black hair cut just below her ears. And… I hate to have to point this out… but she's black. If I hadn't said that you would have assumed that she was white wouldn't you? Don't lie to me. She's African-American, which poses me no problems. She's a caring person, and you know that even if she mucked up your life entirely (which I can't ever imagine Cassie doing) you would know that her heart was in the right place. If you were to ask Cassie where she's happiest she would probably say at the clinic or the Gardens. And nobody's said anything to me directly, but I have a feeling that Jake and Cassie like one another. Not just like but like. You know?
Rachel. Cassie's best friend, and Jake's cousin. And, at a push, Tobias's girlfriend. Tall, pretty and blond. I know what you're thinking, but forget the blond jokes. There is a brain under the hair and it won't like you poking fun. Marco sometimes calls her Xena warrior princess. She's dangerous. And she is well into fighting the Yeerks. Dangerous and fighting Yeerks. Hmmm. Poor Yeerks.
Jake. Marco's best friend. Our fearless leader. Or not as the case may be. Don't get me wrong, if you had to have somebody brave around to make decisions then you would choose Jake. Trust me. I know the guy. Sometimes I wonder if he regrets having to make all the decisions. If someone falls ill of the Yeerks one day, it's all going to be on Jake. He'll have told them where to be and when. And even if he's not to blame, he'll still blame himself. Tall, brown hair, and imposing. That's how to tell Jake apart from the others. Something in him demands respect. I don't know what it is, and maybe I never will. Maybe I don't want to know.
Tobias. Our living proof of what happens if you stay in morph over the two-hour time limit. He's become a nothlit. That's what we call people trapped in a morph. I've never seen Tobias as a human but I'm told his hair was dirty blond. That's basically all I know about his human appearance. The hawk is as you would expect. Brown feathers and golden brown eyes. A wicked curved beak designed for ripping flesh. Talons designed to catch small animals that move too slow. A hunter. A predator. A red tail hawk.
Ax. Or Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill. It's a long name, and that's why we call him Ax. It's not a human name, it's Andalite. Andalites look like blue deer. Until you get that little bit closer and notice the human-looking torso. Andalites have no mouths and no nose, although they do have a couple of slits there instead of the nose. His eyes are more-or-less in the right place, until you see the ones bugging out of the top of his head. Two of them sitting on stalks. And he has this wicked tail, like a scorpion's tail with a scythe-like blade parading about on the end of it. Ax in his human morph is slightly less disturbing. Slightly. He looks disturbingly pretty. Tall and has dark hair. Don't ask me to explain it. Please. Apparently his morph is a mixture of Jake, Rachel, Cassie and Marco. Ax's brother Elfangor, is how the others got their morphing powers. Not me, I came into this after the rest of them. Elfangor, by some twisted logic, is Tobias's father. So I suppose, in the grand scheme of things, Ax is actually Tobias's Uncle. Brother of his father. Did you follow that?
Then you have Marco. Short guy, black hair, makes a joke out of everything. If you came in on one of our meetings you would probably walk in on Marco trying to make someone laugh. It's just the way he is. He's a very smart guy too. But we don't get on too well. Why? I have no idea. Well, actually I do. You see, his mother, or the Yeerk inside her head, killed my parents. Murdered them. I don't want you to think it was an accident. It was cold-blooded murder. So I'm out for revenge for my parents. I am going to kill Visser One, and if I have to kill Marco's mother to do it… I'm not going to say that I would kill her, I don't know if I could. But if I get my only opportunity… I've tried to apologise to Marco, but he won't hear it. His problem, I guess.
So what's the story? Tobias's only communication since he got trapped in morph is thought speak. It's the way you communicate in a morph. Speaking inside your head. Jake went over what he knew, Marco and I jumping in at odd intervals to add to the story.
"So, what we have is someone who obviously knows about the Yeerks and has been captured, but we don't know who's side he's on?" I nodded. Cassie stopped what she was doing to ponder her own question. "Shouldn't we try to find out more about this before we do anything else? I mean, we've trusted before – wrongly."
My God! The subtle cow! "You've trusted me – rightly." I pointed out, furious that she could overlook that. They'd had a hit and a miss. How dare they talk like they've never been able to trust anyone? My voice went up a note as I spoke. It does that when I get angry. I expected someone to crack a joke about it, Marco or whoever. But no one did.
"I know Lee, I'm sorry. But we trusted David." That hit me like a slap in the face. David had almost got them killed. I slunk back in submission.
I agree with Cassie, said Tobias. We should check things out first, maybe see if Erek has anything to help us before we jump in head first.
Erek is a first-class spy. He was our main source of inside information. He is a Chee, who is an android who cannot be violent. But he hates the Yeerks as much as we do, and helps us out with information all the time. If anyone knew about anything unusual it would be Erek, and we would be the first to find out about it.
"Okay, we follow Cassie and Tobias's advice. We sweat it out. Once we get in touch with Erek we'll go from there." Jake glanced at me. "All right?"
I shrugged and met his gaze evenly. "Why shouldn't it be?"
He gave me 'the look'. He knew I felt responsible. I don't know why, but I did. I was the first person he had got to know, I had shown him around, he barely knew anybody. If I had left him in the corridor he might not have made it to the lesson at all and nobody would have suspected a thing. Stupid, I told myself. He would have made it eventually, with or without your help. The truth right? So why did it sound like I was lying to myself?