Chapter 23- Jake

The Sharing is a front organization for the Yeerks. They use it to recruit voluntary Controllers. That's why we decided to spy out there first, then go to Tom or Chapman.

Only two of us would be going: Ax, regardless, and we'd draw straws to see who else would accompany him. Which was why we were in the barn that day.

"Personally, I think we should all go." Rachel stated. "That way we can spread out and cover more ground at the center."

She had a point, but- "We don't want them to catch us. This is just a two-person spy job. Ax has to go incase they're speaking alien whatever, and one of us has to go so Ax isn't alone." I answered her.

Rachel nodded. Then, I reached down and picked up five pieces of straw that were generally the same size. I broke some of them down so they were all different.

"Short straw goes." I told them, and then I arranged them in my hand so no one could tell what straw was longest or shortest.

Rachel picked first. She got a medium sized straw. Marco picked, and got one that was just a bit longer. Cassie picked. A short straw. I picked. A really short straw. The last straw was for Tobias, (he couldn't exactly pick one out with his talons or beak) and it was the longest.

"Guess I'm going then," I told them.

They nodded. "Alright, Tobias? Can you get Ax? We're doing this today. Tom is gone, because they're having a meeting today. This way we might get some information."

Tobias had already left by the time I had finished, and everyone but Cassie sat on some hay to wait. Cassie cleaned some cages.

"Whatever happened to that mountain lion?" Asked Marco.

"Him?" Cassie seemed a bit startled. "Oh, the lion…My dad released him two days ago."

Marco nodded. "Ah."

Just then, Ax came in, in his own body. Hello Marco, Cassie, Rachel. Hello Prince Jake.

"Don't call me Prince," I said, automatically.

We are going now? He asked.

"Yeah. Alright, then, bird morphs everyone. Tobias, make sure no one is coming."

First, we all pulled off our outer clothing 'til we were standing in our morphing outfits. Then we started our various bird morphs. Mine was a peregrine falcon, which was my fastest animal. It could go almost two hundred miles per hour in a dive.

I shrank down, as my lips and teeth hardened and melted, and became a beak. My eyes changed, leaving me blind a second, until I could see every crack and piece of hay on the ground that was rushing up to me. My hair was gone, and feathers started to grow on my body, as my toes became talons, and my organs squished around as they changed to a bird's system. My bones crunched and shrank with my body, until I was finished.

Everyone ready? I asked. There was a chorus of 'yeses' and with that- Alright, guys and gals. Let's go.

With that, we flew out of the barn, towards The Sharing.

Chapter 24- Cassie

We flew to The Sharing. Jake told Rachel to wait on one side of the building, me on another, Tobias on one, and Marco on the last. That way, we would be able to stay in contact and see if anyone was moving around, coming in, or whatever.

We perched in the trees surrounding the building and waited. I scanned the area for people. Tried to peer in through a window near me, but it was at an angle where I couldn't see anything. I moved onto a lower branch, and peered in.

The windows were tinted, made so people could see out and no one could see in. But only the ones that led into rooms where they didn't want a suspicious or curious human looking in on something they shouldn't see.

Because of my osprey eyes that were designed for me to see through the mirror water where my prey lived-fish-this window was perfect for my eyes. And inside the building, I could see three people talking.

One was some girl I had never seen. Another was… I strained my eyes, even though it wasn't necessary. Yes! It was Chapman. The other was a man, but I couldn't see his face.

Jake! Ax! I called out in private thought-speak. Can you hear me?

Barely, Cassie.] Jake's 'voice' answered. What is it?

Chapman! I see Chapman and some girl and middle-aged guy through a tainted window on the…

Jake caught on. I'll follow this hallway… Ax, do you remember what side we came in?

Yes, Prince Jake. It was the South side. Marco is on the West, Rachel the North, Tobias the South, and Cassie the East. We are heading East now.

I would've grinned if I could've. Alright, go to the East side, by the… I calculated what Ax had said. Rachel was by my right. That meant they had to go to the right corner… Chapman is on the North-East corner. I told them.

Alright, Cassie. Thanks.

Chapter 25- Ax

Prince Jake and I were in fly morph. It was faster than cockroach, and less noticeable. We flew by the ceiling, following Cassie's directions. Soon, we reached three doors. Two were on the left side, which meant one of them was on the side we wanted to be in. The other was on the right side.

Which door? Prince Jake wondered. Of course- check for light under the door.

Prince Jake buzzed out of my bad fly-sight, toward the left door. I took the right one.

I dived towards my target, wavering wildly. I landed on the floor, and walked toward the door, searching for 'light'. The crack under the door seemed dark.

Ah-hah! I heard Prince Jake say. Come here, Ax.

I zoomed towards the door Prince Jake had gone to, and met him underneath it. I could hear human voices.

Quick- under the door and to the ceiling. He told me. On three. One… I prepared myself. Two… Opened my wings. THREE!

I shot toward the ceiling, and saw Prince Jake doing the same. We landed together, on the rough ceiling, and creeped towards the sounds of voices.

Did you guys make it? Cassie's voice. She was asking us if we had found the room.

Yeah, we found it. We can hear people talking…

OK. I'll not trouble you more. Cassie fell silent, while we strained our 'ears' to hear what the people were saying.

"-Can't wait any longer." One voice said.

"You'll wait as long as it takes," One voice snapped. A hard, cold voice, I could tell, even with my fly hearing. Something familiar about it…

"The Visser is right." Another voice said.

Ax? Did you hear that? Someone said 'Visser'.

Yes, Prince Jake.

Does that mean…that he's here?

I don't know. I answered.

We went back to listening.

"We can't house her much longer. The girl is getting suspicious." Another voice said.

That must be Chapman.] Prince Jake mused.

Yes, I agreed.

"The girl should've been made a host long ago!" Snapped the cold voice again.

"Yes, Visser."

That…voice…must be Visser One! Prince Jake exclaimed.

"Visser. The girl is of no importance. I can stay elsewhere. We merely need to wait for the perfect time to strike." Another voice spoke.

But who's that? Prince Jake wondered.

I do not know, Prince Jake.

Don't call me Prince. He told me.

Yes, Prince Jake.

"Exactly. She can stay at a hotel, or another Controller's house."

"If I stay at a hotel, how will I be able to sustain contact?" A voice asked.

"Iniss-two-two-six. Who else would you leave her with?"

"Perhaps Fannaer-eight-five-one?"

"Hmmm." Visser One-the Abomination-wondered. "I must demorph. Time is running low."

"Yes, Visser." Chapman replied. The other voice was silent.

Whoa! Whoa! There's an Andalite in there. Visser One!

Really? We never noticed, Prince Jake said with something called 'sarcasm'.

What are you finding out here? Cassie asked.

Not much. Chapman is getting chewed out for having someone at his house, and they're trying to figure out where this someone should stay instead. Wait- they're starting to talk again.

Fannaer? Call him, now. He should be at one of the meetings. I heard his voice in my head, a voice of hatred and coldness. It made an anger in me grow.

"Yes Visser."

I heard something, a beeping. Then a one-sided conversation. "I think I can arrange it." Pause. "Visser One's orders, that's whose." Pause. "Fine. I'll send it home with you tomorrow." Click.

"Fannaer believes I can pass…her…off for an exchange student. It might not be possible though."

Excellent. And it better be possible. Very well. You are dismissed. The Visser told them.

"Thank you Visser." Chapman told him.

"Yes Visser. 'Chapman' and his 'wife' were boring me. The girl was slightly fun…but not much." The one voice said.

[Yes yes. Just don't blow your job.] The Visser said, in a fake-polite voice.

"Wouldn't dream of it, Visser…"

Alright, lets go. Prince Jake told me. Cassie, round up the others. We're coming out.

Chapter 26- Rachel

Jake led us back to the barn, after he and Ax demorphed in a grove of trees well hidden from buildings and people. Marco, Cassie, and I demorphed too being that otherwise we'd have no time. We all remorphed quickly, and Jake led us back to the barn to explain what he and Ax had heard.

"She…whoever…and WHATEVER…she is, is going to stay with someone. Probably a student at school. So, what students do we know of that are high-ranking Controllers?" He asked.

There was silence. Everyone knew who was a high-ranking Controller and went to our school.

"Tom probably-" Cassie began.

"Tom is a high-ranking Controller. We have to assume that he may be one of…that he might have been the person on the phone."

"But who else could it be?" Asked Marco, coming straight to the point.

Jake shrugged. "I don't know. That's why were here, Marco."

Marco nodded, raising an eyebrow. "Yeah."

"Alright. Let's go to plan B."

"Plan B?" Cassie asked.

"Spying on Chapman and Tom." Jake reminded her.

"Alright. But how?"

"I'll watch Tom," Jake said. "I'm around him all the time except when he goes to meetings."

"Tobias should help."

Tobias will watch both as much as Tobias can, Tobias reassured us.

"Alright. Ax can watch Chapman as much as he can, along with Rachel. Marco and Cassie can spy in on meetings at the Sharing. I can tell you when they are being that Tom goes to most of them." Jake decided.

"Alright. An 'easy' mission. Spying is my specialty. Just call me…"

Here it comes, Tobias groaned.

"Mini-Marco! Super spy."

"Don't you mean James. Or Bond? Mini-Me is from-"

"I know. You were all prepared so I was ready."

"Uh-huh. Ready. Right."

"Can we get back to business? Hello?" Jake called.

Suddenly, the phone in the barn rang. Cassie picked it up.

"Hello?" Pause. "Yeah, Jake's here." Pause. "Ok, I'll get him."

"Jake?" She called, putting a hand over the phone. She handed the phone to him.

"Hello?" Pause. "Oh, hi mom." Pause. "An exchange student?" His eyes widened. Pause. "From Europe? Where?" Pause. "Don't know…" Pause. "Alright, I can be home by eight." Pause. "Bye. C-ya then." He put it back on the hook.

"Well, I guess that answers our question whether it was Tom or not," I said dryly.

"Well, now we'll know who…what she is. I can get to know her."

"Yeah. Hook me up with her if she's beautiful. I'd go for Rachel, but, she just isn't my type. Not as gorgeous as me."

"Or maybe it's just you're to short, Marco." I mocked, in a mock-sweet voice, batting my eyelashes.

"Another sword wound from the mighty Xena!"

Chapter 27- Jake

I went home. I acted normal. But inside I was tense, my muscles on fire. What would the Visser's assassin look like?

Images slipped through my head, horrible images of monsters, others of…I shook my head. I had to be smart about this. Visser One wouldn't send a monster into a human's house. Even he wasn't that stupid.

I smiled at my mom, and asked her when Tom and the exchange student would come.

"Oh, in this hour I would assume. I don't know for sure. He just said 'soon'."

"Why isn't he coming over Monday?" I inquired.

"The plane arrived today, and she didn't have enough money to stay in a hotel until then."

"She?" I repeated.

"Yes. From Europe. I don't remember where."

"I remember that. But, your SURE he said 'she'?"

"Yes." She told me. "I didn't want it at first. With Tom around and all…But in the end I went along with it. She'll be here for a month or so."

"A month?" I echoed again.

"Yeah."

I blinked. "Well, I gotta do some studying. Test," I lied. Really, I wanted to just get out of there.

"Alright," She told me. "I'll call you when we get back. Tom's going to call me when they're ready; I'll have to pick them up." She headed out the door.

I headed upstairs and into my room, walking slowly, thinking. How to deal with this…

I sat down on my bed, and then fell backwards. I was tired. Partly from all the morphing. Partly from the buzz going on in my head. There was so much to do…

Suddenly- "Jake! Jake! They're here!"

I blinked a few times. I must've dozed off. I rubbed sleep from my eyes, and sat up, yawning. I stretched. Then I stood up, and headed downstairs.

"Here he comes," My mom was saying.

I came up to them- them being my mom, Tom, and a girl that seemed to be as old or maybe just a little older than Tom.

"Hello," The girl said, in an English accent. "My name is Genia."

Something was wrong. The voice was different from what Ax and I had heard. "Hello. I'm Jake…"

"I'm sorry that Steve couldn't be here. He had work."

"That's fine," The girl said. Genia.

"Anyway, let's get your bags.."

"Don't worry, I can get it all." She told my mom.

"Nonsense. Tom and Jake will help too."

We headed outside. My mom started pulling bags out of the car, while we picked them up. Tom picked up two bags, Genia two, and I took the last one.

"You'll be staying in the guest room," She told Genia. "Jake will show it to you."

I lead the way upstairs to the guest room. I sat the bags by the bed. "There's a bathroom down the hall on the left," I told her.

"Thanks," She told me, as she sat her bags down. Tom brought his load up.

"You can start unpacking now," He told her. I saw her give him a look, but in a 'nice' way, she told him thanks. I saw him giving her a look as well.

Well well, I thought. I guess Fannaer doesn't like her. And vice-versa. The Yeerks had a weakness after all…

Chapter 28- Lauren

The Sharing had been alright, I guess. It had been better than I thought it'd be. It was kind of creepy though; the full members seemed to hang over your shoulder like vultures, asking if you needed something every five minutes. But otherwise. People there treated me like a normal human being. They didn't suck up, or cower and run away. And they didn't ask or talk about it either.

When I came home, there was a note on the fridge. GO TO SHARING TOMMORROW. There was no 'with love' or signature. The work of Foster Mom. Foster Dad would at least sign it 'D'. I guess 'mom' thought I wasn't worthy of her name.

I decided that, even though they had told me to go, I would anyway. Normally I ignore them because they treat me the same way whatever I do. So I sat and worked, for maybe the first time since I could remember on some homework. In a few hours, I had it finished.

I saw the clock. It was almost one. I chose to sleep then. I fluffed my pillow, struggled under the covers, and drifted off into a sleep.

Chapter 29- Fannaer Eight-Five-One/Tom

I stared at the girl, disgusted. The Visser had resorted to hiring aliens to finish off the job. I had helped her unload her 'luggage' and then went off to my host's room.

Inside, I sat, thinking. The Andalite Bandits could surely defeat her- whatever she was. The Visser-

Doubting, Yeerk? Tom sneered. He had risen from his almost constant brooding.

Doubting? Of course. The Visser couldn't even finish off the Andalite Bandits himself. Had to hire that scum.

Oooh. The all-mighty Yeerks aren't that mighty anymore, is it?

You know, I told him, fake-nicely. How about we watch one of your little fantasies to pass the time?

I could feel a struggled mental shrug coming from him. Why not?

Why not indeed? I snickered, and chose a memory, one from when his old Yeerk, Temrash One-One-Four had been there. Temrash was dead, having disappeared. We suspected he had died when the Andalite Bandits attacked the hospital operation. This looks promising.

The Andalite Bandits first attack on the Pool, after Visser Three had destroyed Elfangor. The Andalites opened the cages, freeing everyone, dragging human controllers with them, Tom among them. While in reality, Tom had been recaptured, in his fantasy, he managed to escape. The Andalites hid him, where he would be safe. End of fantasy.

I must admit, that's one of your better dreams.

Like you don't have some dreams like that of your own?

Shut up. This is not the time for displeasure's.

And when is, according to your schedule? He paused, then, mimicked my 'voice'. Torture the human at eight, recruit humans at ten, get a raise at four, fight the human at nine.

Hah-ha. Normally, I wouldn't allow him to say that, but I didn't care at that minute. I was trying to think.

The girl. What was her name?

Genia, the human snapped.

No, you fool, her real name. I searched my memory, thinking hard. What had Iniss-two-two-six said? Ah yes, Estreen. It seemed ludicrous that the Visser would hire someone with an Andalite-originated name.

What does that mean? Tom asked, curious.

Talented morpher. Basically, anyway. I answered. I hadn't exactly studied Andalite language, I said to myself.

I heard a knock on the door. "Who is it?" I called.

"Genia." I heard her voice.

I got up and answered the door.

"What," I snapped.

"I was wondering where that building, where the Sharing meetings are held is. The last time I went," She looked around, "was in a limo with tinted windows. I couldn't exactly map the route, take my meaning?"

She spoke confidently, smoothly, like Visser Three in the middle of a 'lecture'. The arrogance in her voice annoyed me.

"I'll take you there the next meeting," I told her.

"Fine," She said. She looked at me through gray eyes. What…Hadn't they been green? I wondered. Shook my head. I must've been imagining things. I looked back up. Half-way gasped. They were brown. Blue. Purple!

"Your…eyes…" I stuttered.

"What?" The colors stopped. "Oh. It takes concentration to hold them. I only do it when necessary."

I nodded, a little less stunned.

She cocked an eyebrow. "The Visser did not inform you on-"

"Hi Jake," I interrupted, sending 'Genia' a look.

"Oh. Hi, Tom. Hi, Genia." He said.

Jake! Tom exclaimed in my head.

"Hi Jake," She said, nicely. "Well, talk to you later, Tom."

Yeerk filth, Tom sneered at her, silently.

"Yeah," I mumbled, halfway agreeing with Tom. At least, with the 'filth' part.

Jake looked at me oddly, shrugged, and then walked off towards his room.

And then, alone-except for a 'voice' in my head- I headed back into Tom's room.

Chapter 30- Estreen

Tom- Fannaer- drove me to The Sharing the next day. It was, the Visser had said, 'absolutely necessary that I essential that I keep contact with my employee and his minions'. To witch I had laughed. Who says 'absolutely necessary essential' in one sentence?

At the Sharing I contacted Chapman, who told me the Visser wanted my to report to Chapman as soon as I had a plan.

What is this, a spy movie? I wondered, shaking my head. When I spotted her.

"Who. Is. That?" I demanded.

"Her? I don't remember. She's not a full member. She's only been to one meeting-two, this is her second."

"Bring her over here. Now." I commanded.

"Fine," He said, a look of contempt on his face. But as soon as he turned around, his face was a smile. He made his way slowly to the girl, patting people on the back, asking if they needed anything. I couldn't hear they're conversation, but soon she was next to me.

"Hello," She said, looking me up and down. "Who're you?"

"My name," I began, searching her face, "Is Genia."

"Do I know you?" She asked. "Mine is Lauren."

"No. But it is, a pleasure." I said, emphasizing the word 'pleasure'.

"Ah. Well, nice meeting you, too."'

"Yes," I smiled.

"Well." She said, but I didn't need another word from her. I knew, now. Somehow, she had survived. "I'll be seeing ya. I promised some guys I'd play a game of pool." She walked off, without waiting for my answer.

Tom turned to me. "What was that all about?"

"Nothing. She seemed familiar though," I lied. Familiar my butt. That girl, the one who claimed to be a human, was my long-lost sister.