Chapter 15 (Tobias)
The idea was crazy, insane and downright stupid. And that's exactly why we thought it would work. Step one: We would morph flies to see if this place was actually an entrance and work out how to get in. Usually they have a password or something. Step two: We use that password.
That's right, we were going in. As humans no less.
We were going to take shifts, but we barely had to wait five minutes for step one to be completed. You aren't going to believe the password – trust me. Get ready for it: "I love the way Beethoven writes." Definitely crazy. But you get used to the word crazy in this outfit.
We collected in the yard to decide what to do with this information. Lee, back in her human form, wanted to come. But I could tell nobody else wanted her to. We needed backup here, in case we needed to make a fast getaway. Eventually she gave in though and resumed her pigeon morph in the tree. Besides, she just couldn't morph fly.
We all debated who was going to go in, and in what order. We all agreed when Rachel declared that she was going in first. I assume she needed to redeem herself to the rest of us. But if she hadn't bailed I'm sure someone else would've done. She just had the guts to say it.
We waited five minutes before sending the next person in. Marco went hot on the heels of Rachel. Then Ax and Cassie (we couldn't trust him by himself), me then Jake. We expected some kind of harassment with all of us going in so close together, but the storeowner seemed kind of used to it.
When I went to the counter and repeated the password, the owner pulled up the hatch in the counter and ushered me through. We went into a backroom and he pulled back a picture above the fireplace to reveal a hole. I somehow managed to get to the hole and fall through onto a larger corridor. I stood upright and looked about as the storeowner slid the painting back into place. A sudden darkness washed over me and I shivered. I wasn't used to not being able to see much. Hawk's eyes don't work too well in darkness, but I've always got the moonlight to see by.
I put out a hand to feel my way along. The walls were dank, wet and cold under my fingertips. The texture of the wall kept switching between solid rock and dirt – like someone had just carved a tunnel through the ground.
I was starting to feel a severe case of claustrophobia coming on, so I hurried a little faster.
As I finally walked into the cavern that was the Yeerk pool, I felt someone grab my shoulder. "Tobias. Here." Cassie hissed, drawing me into a kind of cubby-hole to one side. A few minutes after me, Jake emerged. We were all here.
"Now what?" muttered Marco. "We're in. What do we do now?"
We didn't need to look far. At that moment there was a sudden commotion. I felt everybody stiffen as we waited to see if we had been discovered. But then I heard another voice yelling its head off. I ventured a look around and saw four Hork-Bajir, each with the ankle or wrist of a boy of about my age. There were four of them on one guy! They did not want him getting away any time soon.
I motioned to Marco to take a look. His face paled as he watched. "Is that Joseph?"
"Yeah." His voice sounded dry, like he needed to swallow. "Yeah, that's him."
"Okay, that's it." Jake sounded angry, almost outraged. "We're going all out. We are blowing right through this whole operation. Everybody, morph the biggest things you've got to do maximum damage."
"Wouldn't flies be the smarter option?" Not that I had a problem with going all out. We'd done too much of this in the dark.
Jake nodded. "Probably."