Chapter Eight ~ Bad Things Come in Threes
The Animorphs didn't see Ax for the next four days. On Tuesday, he pressed a note into Jake's hand while they were in the corridors. All without looking at Jake or even acknowledging his existence.
Jake nonchalantly stowed the folded note in his pocket and took it out again during a particularly boring lesson. Erek's handwriting was nothing special, and what he'd written was cunningly normal.
[Jake, I'm giving this to Darren to give to you, although with his moods at the moment, I don't know whether you'll actually get it. Listen, about Vicky Indriss's birthday? Third November? It's coming up a lot sooner than expected. Can you make it to the basketball court this afternoon? We'll make plans. And bring Marco, I think he's pretty good friends with her too. Cheers, Eric.]
Jake, concerned but still trying to look bored, shredded the note into confetti, and for good measure allowed his fountain pen to leak all over it. That afternoon, he called a meeting.
* * * * * * *
"This can't be good," Cassie observed, shivering as four of them waited on the outskirts of the basketball court, casually tossing the ball between them. "Erek does not indulge whims."
So this is evidently not a whim, commented Tobias, perched high in one of the trees.
Marco said, "Is Ax coming?"
Jake shook his head. "He just refused. I told him, and he said, 'Don't even hope that I'll show up' and blazed off."
Cassie checked her watch. "I wish Erek would hurry up… oh, but I guess it's earlier than I thought."
"If Ax were here and he was his usual arrogant Andalite self, he would throw up his hands in despair and whine, 'Always earlier or later than you thought. How come none of you humans ever says, oh, look, it's exactly what time I thought?'" said Rachel wryly.
Marco let out a short bark of forced laughter. Jake said, "That's not very funny, Rachel."
Tobias interrupted, No, she's right. Only he might not have said, "You humans." If you know what I mean.
Cassie muttered, "No, I guess he wouldn't have."
"Look, there's Erek!" Marco yelped joyfully, and was almost knocked over as he didn't catch the ball Jake heaved at him.
Jake strode over to Erek. "Hey, man."
Erek said in a low voice, "I have two of my people keeping an eye on Ax at home. Something's not right with him."
"You don't say," said Marco, moving up beside Jake.
"And nice to see you too, Erek," Rachel added, smiling perkily.
Erek did not smile. "This is serious, guys."
"You really think so? I mean, Ax is trapped as a human, and he seems to have taken this as a valid excuse to go completely psychotic! It's the necklace, says Tobias, but can we get our hands on the bloody necklace? No! So, what the hell do we do?" Marco, of course.
"Look," Erek said, "It gets worse. Visser Three has, yet again, come up with a grand plan for exterminating the Andalite bandits once and for all."
"And this one would work because…" Rachel prompted.
"Because he's found out about the necklace."
"Huh?"
"It's like this. Crayak's Drode seems to have made a deal with him personally. Find the necklace, and you've found an Andalite bandit."
"So if Ax gets rid of the necklace, he'd be alright."
"Precisely."
Cassie said, "Somehow I don't think he's going to give up that necklace."
Jake looked pensive. Marco and Rachel chorused, "You don't say."
Tobias, who had remained silent until then, remarked, I hate to say this, but it looks like the only way we could wrestle it off him is to kind of… he winced internally, Beat him up and steal it?
"Very classy," countered Marco. "And it should work. Five of us, morph capable? Erek, you could help too. Doing something non-violent like restraining Ax's arms behind his back or something."
"Okay," Erek looked uneasy, though. "When?"
"It seems time is short," Jake put in. "So… tonight, at your house?"
"Yeah."
"Yes," said Cassie.
Okay, thought-spoke Tobias.
"I'm in," said Marco.
Rachel yelled, "Let's do it!" and pumped her fist in the air as the group broke up and headed away, discreetly alone.
* * * * * * *
That evening, Erek, very uncunningly, walked up to Ax and pinned his arms behind his back.
"Wha…" Ax twisted his head around. "The hell you doing, Erek?"
"Restraining you. It's for your own good, you know."
"That's violence!"
"On the contrary. I'm holding. Nothing in volition of any sort of programming."
"Get off!" spat Ax, straining. Obviously, Erek didn't budge a millimetre.
Rachel came in through the front door. "Ax, I'm going to take the necklace."
"Fuck off! It's mine!" yelled Ax, thrashing madly.
Marco, in gorilla morph, lumbered through the open door and pinned Ax's legs. Rachel walked carefully up to him, as one might approach a particularly large snake, and tugged at the necklace.
Nothing happened.
Cassie had a go. There didn't seem to be a clasp, so she tried slipping it over Ax's head. Strangely, it was now too small to fit.
"Having problems?" sneered Ax. "Not surprised."
Jake, in Hork-Bajir morph, tried to cut the string. Nothing happened.
The sorcery is bonded to the physical, Tobias said, remembering. We can't break it if we want to.
"What if we don't want to?" Rachel demanded, tugging futilely on the necklace and wanting to slap Ax for laughing. "I really, really, really don't want to break this. Really. Crayak, you hear? I don't want to break it. It's just an accident that it will come off his neck."
Cassie: "Rach, I don't think that's going to work somehow."
Rachel kicked the wall. "Aargh!"
Calm down, said Jake. Let's call it a night. We'll think of something else eventually.
