Chapter Seventeen:
The nice thing about the school cafeteria is that if you pick your table right, you can talk about whatever you want with no chance of anybody else overhearing you.
"Hey, guys! Hear the latest?"
"I heard you aced another history test," Jake said, smiling.
"It's always been my best subject," Erek chuckled.
Behind the laughter, I could see he was serious, even worried.
"Erek," I said, bluntly, "we don't want to hear the latest, do we?"
"No," he admitted. "You don't."
I had been happy all morning. Now I could feel a certain edginess creep back into the corners of my mind. "'Don't' as in 'not gonna find it interesting,' or as in 'hate you for the rest of our lives for even mentioning this'?"
"The latter."
I stood, hauling my backpack onto my shoulder. "Jake? I think it's time to go to class, don't you?"
Jake grabbed my arm and pulled me back into my chair. "Okay, Erek. Fire away."
"Don't I get a cigarette and a blindfold first?" I asked. My backpack slid to the floor with a thud.
"I've got bad news and worse news," he said. "The bad news is, I figured out where the Yeerks are projecting their holograms from."
"Hang on," I said. "What?"
"Marco, the holograms the trucks project are pretty sophisticated, for the Yeerks," Jake explained. "There's no way that those trucks could be supplying the power for their own holograms. They've got to be beaming the images out from a central projection point."
"How do you know that?"
"Ax told me."
"And you found that point?" I asked Erek.
"I spent last night pinpointing the most likely source. Wherever it is has to be high enough that it can project more or less directly to most of the trucks. And it has to be somewhere near the center of the area where the trucks are located. I had Tobias help me with their general range of movement. Turns out, there's only one place that those trucks could be projected from."
"And the winner is.?" Jake prompted
"The water tower."
"Perfect," I groaned. I remembered the last time we had visited the water tower. The memories weren't good.
There are maybe ten water towers in our immediate area, but we knew which one Erek meant. "The" water tower was the biggest one around, located right by the mall. You've seen the kind I'm talking about. Steel. Painted sky-blue. Four long, heavy legs. A pipe the size of a redwood trunk that runs down into the ground.
"Erek, what kind of holographic projector are we talking about here? Can it be destroyed?"
"By you guys? Sure," he said. "It's just a metal box with a bunch of cables attached, surrounded by cameras and guns."
"Lovely," I grunted. "So the cameras and guns are the worse news."
"Nope. This is still the bad news. We did some preliminary scouting. Currently, all you've got is something about the size of a desktop computer, bolted to the top of the tower. Around that are five machines that look like little satellite dishes, but act a like big dracon beams. I saw them nail a passing bird. Shot it right out of the sky."
"Okay, so the aerial approach is out," said Jake.
"Plus, they've got cameras watching the projector at all times. I couldn't get close enough to trace where the picture is going, but it's safe to say it isn't just mall security."
"So," I said, "we can't take out the projector until we morph something big. And we won't be able to morph on top of the tower until the cameras are destroyed."
"And you won't be able to get to the cameras until the dracon beams are down," Erek said.
"And to destroy the dracon beams, we'll need to morph something big," Jake concluded.
"Another day in the simple, uncomplicated, carefree life of an Animorph!" I chirped.
"Ready for the worse news?" Erek asked.
"No," I said.
"Yes," said Jake.
Of course, Erek listened to Jake. "In one week, the Yeerks will be installing four additional cameras, infrared sensors, a Gleet biofilter, and eight more dracon beams. They will also be expanding the projector itself, approximately tripling its capacity. That means three times as many trucks driving around."
We winced.
"The Yeerks are going to turn every single person who pours through Driver's Ed into a Controller. I ran a few rough, optimistic numbers. If every driving class is thirty people, if there are three classes a day, if a new class starts every week, if there are thirty driving schools around town, if numbers hold constant for three weeks . . . " he said, then paused, and met our eyes. "Remember, these numbers are probably smaller than they should be."
I could tell Jake was trying to work out the math in his head. "How many?" I asked.
"We're looking at eight thousand, one hundred new Controllers within three weeks, Jake. More like ten thousand, to be realistic."
Jake drew his breath in sharply through his teeth. Every high school within miles would be overflowing with dedicated Controllers. Every one of our peers would have a slug locked inside their skull.
"So," I said, casually, trying to swallow the bile that rose in the back of my throat, "I guess we'll be taking that projector out pretty soon."
"Yeah," Jake choked. "Guess we will."
The nice thing about the school cafeteria is that if you pick your table right, you can talk about whatever you want with no chance of anybody else overhearing you.
"Hey, guys! Hear the latest?"
"I heard you aced another history test," Jake said, smiling.
"It's always been my best subject," Erek chuckled.
Behind the laughter, I could see he was serious, even worried.
"Erek," I said, bluntly, "we don't want to hear the latest, do we?"
"No," he admitted. "You don't."
I had been happy all morning. Now I could feel a certain edginess creep back into the corners of my mind. "'Don't' as in 'not gonna find it interesting,' or as in 'hate you for the rest of our lives for even mentioning this'?"
"The latter."
I stood, hauling my backpack onto my shoulder. "Jake? I think it's time to go to class, don't you?"
Jake grabbed my arm and pulled me back into my chair. "Okay, Erek. Fire away."
"Don't I get a cigarette and a blindfold first?" I asked. My backpack slid to the floor with a thud.
"I've got bad news and worse news," he said. "The bad news is, I figured out where the Yeerks are projecting their holograms from."
"Hang on," I said. "What?"
"Marco, the holograms the trucks project are pretty sophisticated, for the Yeerks," Jake explained. "There's no way that those trucks could be supplying the power for their own holograms. They've got to be beaming the images out from a central projection point."
"How do you know that?"
"Ax told me."
"And you found that point?" I asked Erek.
"I spent last night pinpointing the most likely source. Wherever it is has to be high enough that it can project more or less directly to most of the trucks. And it has to be somewhere near the center of the area where the trucks are located. I had Tobias help me with their general range of movement. Turns out, there's only one place that those trucks could be projected from."
"And the winner is.?" Jake prompted
"The water tower."
"Perfect," I groaned. I remembered the last time we had visited the water tower. The memories weren't good.
There are maybe ten water towers in our immediate area, but we knew which one Erek meant. "The" water tower was the biggest one around, located right by the mall. You've seen the kind I'm talking about. Steel. Painted sky-blue. Four long, heavy legs. A pipe the size of a redwood trunk that runs down into the ground.
"Erek, what kind of holographic projector are we talking about here? Can it be destroyed?"
"By you guys? Sure," he said. "It's just a metal box with a bunch of cables attached, surrounded by cameras and guns."
"Lovely," I grunted. "So the cameras and guns are the worse news."
"Nope. This is still the bad news. We did some preliminary scouting. Currently, all you've got is something about the size of a desktop computer, bolted to the top of the tower. Around that are five machines that look like little satellite dishes, but act a like big dracon beams. I saw them nail a passing bird. Shot it right out of the sky."
"Okay, so the aerial approach is out," said Jake.
"Plus, they've got cameras watching the projector at all times. I couldn't get close enough to trace where the picture is going, but it's safe to say it isn't just mall security."
"So," I said, "we can't take out the projector until we morph something big. And we won't be able to morph on top of the tower until the cameras are destroyed."
"And you won't be able to get to the cameras until the dracon beams are down," Erek said.
"And to destroy the dracon beams, we'll need to morph something big," Jake concluded.
"Another day in the simple, uncomplicated, carefree life of an Animorph!" I chirped.
"Ready for the worse news?" Erek asked.
"No," I said.
"Yes," said Jake.
Of course, Erek listened to Jake. "In one week, the Yeerks will be installing four additional cameras, infrared sensors, a Gleet biofilter, and eight more dracon beams. They will also be expanding the projector itself, approximately tripling its capacity. That means three times as many trucks driving around."
We winced.
"The Yeerks are going to turn every single person who pours through Driver's Ed into a Controller. I ran a few rough, optimistic numbers. If every driving class is thirty people, if there are three classes a day, if a new class starts every week, if there are thirty driving schools around town, if numbers hold constant for three weeks . . . " he said, then paused, and met our eyes. "Remember, these numbers are probably smaller than they should be."
I could tell Jake was trying to work out the math in his head. "How many?" I asked.
"We're looking at eight thousand, one hundred new Controllers within three weeks, Jake. More like ten thousand, to be realistic."
Jake drew his breath in sharply through his teeth. Every high school within miles would be overflowing with dedicated Controllers. Every one of our peers would have a slug locked inside their skull.
"So," I said, casually, trying to swallow the bile that rose in the back of my throat, "I guess we'll be taking that projector out pretty soon."
"Yeah," Jake choked. "Guess we will."