CHAPTER ELEVEN: RACHEL

Jake was mad at me. I think Marco was too, but he also seemed to be angry at himself, so he was mostly just stewing. I wasn't sure what was going on with that, so I ignored it.

Cassie...I don't think Cassie was mad. I think she was maybe disappointed, but not mad. She understood.

I think Jake understood, too, and that's why he was so mad. We'd gone into the Yeerk Pool to save Tom, after all. We hadn't pulled it off, but that's what we'd been trying to do. Yeah, he understood.

Of course that only made him more mad, because we're a little more alike than we like to admit sometimes, but whatever. He'd get over it.

I ignored them all, watching the distant boats and the little white speck that was Tobias. Dolphins don't have great eyes, at least not out of the water, so I don't know if I was actually watching Tobia or just fooling myself, but whatever. I was going to watch anyway, just in case. Cassie was asking Ax questions about the Andalite homeworld and what kind of animals they had there, and trying to explain how dolphins and sharks related to one another in the terrestrial food chain. I wasn't really listening. I'm sure Andalite alien animals were cool and all, but we kind of had more immediate problems to deal with.

Even if I wasn't sure how a bunch of dolphins were going to "deal with" a Coast Guard boat…

{How stable do you think that boat is?} I asked.

{Rachel, no,} Jake said immediately.

{What? I'm just asking…}

{Five dolphins can't knock over a boat.}

{I'm pretty sure the term is "capsize" what you're talking about boats, actually.}

I didn't need to see Jake's face to know what kind of look he'd be giving me if he was a human right now.

{Forgive me, Prince Jake,} the Andalite said, drawn away from his conversation with Cassie, {but you actually have five dolphins and one shark.}

{It doesn't matter,} Jake grated-out. {We still can't take down a boat.}

{Sure, sure,} I said mollifying. {But if we could maybe shake them up enough…}

{Look,} Marco interrupted, {Tobias's mom is leaving. She's fine.}

We watched as the little power boat trundled off through the waves. It was moving a lot slower than it had been when Ms. Mullins had driven us out here, but I didn't think that was because the Controllers had done anything to damage it. I think she just didn't want to leave.

{Does anyone see Tobias?} I asked.

I don't really know how dolphin vision stacks-up to that of other animals, but I do know that bobbing on the top of the waves like we were it was really hard to track a single dot of flapping white feathers against the backdrop of the sea.

{Maybe he left with his mom,} Marco suggested. {That'd be the sensible thing to do.}

{Tobias wouldn't just fly off without telling us,} I protested.

{Let's just dive and head over to meet the boat,} Jake said. {Once we get close enough we'll be able to hear Tobias, or talk to him, and we can tell him to fly over and join us.}

{What if he's coming back to us here?} I demanded. {We might miss him. We'd better wait.}

{The longer we wait the harder it'll be to catch up to the boat,} Jake said. {And now that we know the Controllers aren't paying attention to Tobias's mom, that's where we need to go. Preferably before they start paying attention to us.}

{We can swing wide, close to the Coast Guard boat,} Cassie said soothingly. {That way we can shout to Tobias wherever he is, and make sure he knows to come with us.}

{So long as we stay low enough that the Controllers don't spot us,} Marco interjected. {One seagull might not have caught their attention, but a pod of dolphins—and one shark—is a lot more noticeable.}

{Dolphins are native to these waters, though,} said Cassie. {We won't look out of place as long as we swim over casually.}

{You think a Controller is going to care?} Marco's thought-speak voice was harsh, but he wasn't wrong. {Visser Three almost had Chapman kill his daughter's cat in its own house, just in case it might be an Animorph.}

{Andalite,} Jake corrected absently. {They don't know what an Animorph is. They think we're Andalites. Remember?}

{Excuse me Prince Jake, but what is an Animorph?}

{Us,} Cassie said simply. {The five of us, we're Animorphs. It's what we call ourselves. Well, what Marco called us, I guess. But it's as good a name as any.}

{Animorph,} the Andalite said. He seemed to be rolling the word over in his…well, he didn't have a mouth when he wasn't a shark, and shark mouths weren't exactly made for talking, but rolling it over in his thoughts, anyway. {I see. Thank you.}

{We're wasting time,} Marco said. {We need to get out of here.}

{Not until Tobias—} I started to say, but a distant thought-speak call interrupted me.

{Guys! Guys, can you hear me?}

{Tobias!} I shouted.

{About time,} Marco muttered.

I'd gotten so caught-up in arguing with the others that I had missed seeing the seagull flapping towards us. Tobias was moving fast, pumping his wings hard. Maybe he should have been taking it easier—seagulls aren't birds of prey and don't usually fly like they're on a mission, even when they spot an unattended french fry—but at this distance, it wasn't likely the Controllers on the Coast Guard boat were watching.

If they were, the dolphins hanging out with their new shark buddy would be a much stranger sight anyway, even though Ax—being a water-breather instead of a mammal like the rest of us—was hanging out a few feet below us. If there was anyone on the boat with binoculars, they must not have been looking our way though because with a muted grumble of its engine, the Coast Guard board turned and began making its way to another part of the Yeerks' search grid.

Tobias was already demorphing as he descended, so that instead of coming to a neat bob on top of the waves like seagulls were so good at doing, he flopped into the water in a bundle of skin and feathers about the size of a housecat.

I let myself sink a little lower in the water and held still while he clambered onto my back again. It was a really strange feeling, having something that wasn't just growing but shifting sitting on my slick dolphin skin, and I had to resist the urge to twist and spin to shake him off.

{What were you thinking?} Jake burst into angry speech, like a parent catching their kid out after curfew. {You can't just pull stupid stunts like that just because you feel like it, Tobias! We're a team! We don't just go…go running off like that on each other!}

I, who had recently led everybody into danger by failing to tell the rest of the team about a close call with Visser Three, prudently said nothing.

{Jake, let him focus on morphing first,} Cassie said, ever the peacemaker. {The faster he can morph back to dolphin, the sooner we can catch up with the boat and get out of here.}

{Fine,} Jake grumbled. {Tobias, hurry it up. We need to get out of here.}

I don't think Tobias was listening to either Jake or Cassie. {You're not going to believe it,} he said. He sounded dazed and happy, maybe happier than I'd ever heard him before. {Chapman was there, and he said my—}

Tobias's thought-speak voice cut-off as he became too human to continue.

{Chapman?} Marco asked. He sounded tense. {What about Chapman?}

Tobias tried to keep talking with his mouth instead, but water kept slapping him in the face and making him cough instead.

{Shut-up and morph, dummy,} I told him gently.

{Excuse me, but what is a Chapman?} asked the Andalite.

{Bad news,} Marco replied grimly. {He's a Controller and worse, a vice principal.}

{What is a vice principal?}

{Chapman,} Tobias gasped, as his fingers grew short and his body grew heavy, and we both sank a little deeper into the waves, {Chapman said my mom, she…she's not…}

{Are you morphed?} Jake demanded. He was really pissed, I realized, which meant he was really scared. I found it hard to be scared even now, with the dolphin's natural confidence buoying me up as easily as its body floated in the waves, but then again Jake had always been the more sensible one of the two of us.

Not that that was saying all that much, really.

{Yeah,} Tobias said, as he slipped free and splashed down into the water, {yeah, almost. But listen—}

{Tell us as we swim,} Jake said. {Let's go.}

We swam, Tobias struggling a little to keep up as his tail finished solidifying. I hung back beside him, just in case. Morphing was pretty tiring, and he'd just done a lot of morphs in a row. I hoped Loren's boat hadn't managed to get too far.

{My mom…they don't want to infest her,} Tobias panted.

{Good,} said Jake. He still sounded terse, unhappy.

{No, I don't mean just now. I mean…ever.}

{What?} Cassie was confused. So was I, actually.

Tobias explained. {Chapman, he said she "wasn't a candidate for infestation."}

{What does that mean?}

{Does your mother have some sort of defect?} the Andalite asked.

{Ax!} Cassie exclaimed. {Don't be rude!}

{I apologize,} he said, sounding more confused than sorry. {I meant no offense. It is only that the Yeerks can be quite particular about the condition of their Hosts, so for them to choose to overlook a potential Host body, the most likely explanation is a physical defect of some sort.}

{My mom's fine,} Tobias said tersely.

{Fine for a crazy person,} Marco muttered.

I expected Tobias to say something sharp, but instead he laughed. {Yeah,} he said, {and the Yeerks think that letting her run around and be crazy makes it less likely for anybody to figure out what they're doing.}

{What?}

{Yeah.} Tobias was positively gleeful. {Chapman said she's off the infestation list, because he doesn't want to cover-up anything she finds. He thinks that having her talking about all her weird alien stuff makes for a better cover story than anything they could do on purpose. They don't want to infest my mom, not ever.}

I was floored…but it made a kind of sense, if you stopped to think about it. {Tobias, that…that's great!}

{Yeah, swell,} Marco grumbled. {Now all we have to do is convince everybody we're a bunch of kooks too and we'll all be safe.}

{A tactic that'll be easier for some of us than others, huh Marco?} I said sweetly.

{Rachel…}

Whatever Cassie was about to say—or whatever quip Marco was going to come up with in response—I never found out because a massive BA-BOOOOM suddenly filled the water.

{What—?}

{Where—?}

{Who—?}

BA-BOOOOM!

The sound was sort of muffled by the water, but it was still loud enough—and close enough—to freak-out the dolphin brains. It freaked my brain out, too.

I don't know if Andalite brains worked the same as ours or not. Maybe it was the shark brain, all predator and cold, that made the difference. I don't know. But instead of yelling like the rest of us, Ax just said, {Yeeks.} He said it the same way his brother had, the night we'd met him. The night he'd died, and our lives had changed forever. He said it like there wasn't enough hate or rage in the whole galaxy to fill the bottomless well of his feelings for the Yeerks.

I decided maybe Ax wasn't so bad, even if he did have stupid ideas about girls.

{Yeah,} Jake said. He sounded shaken. {Yeah, it's—it's gotta be. Let's get out of here. Fast!}

We did, powering through the water as fast as our tails could kick.

A heavy shadow passed over us.

{Oh,} Marce said inanely, {that's where the helicopter went.}

But it wasn't the helicopter. This was a bigger, much scarier ship. It was shaped like a long battle-ax. Twin semi-circular blades at the back; a long, diamond-like point at the front. The Blade Ship of Visser Three!

{Do you think they spotted us?} Cassie asked.

Something fell from the ship, several somethings. There were a dozen splashes.

{Quickly,} Ax demanaded urgently, {what Hosts have these Yeerks used?}

{Humans,} Tobias answered. {And Hork-Bajir. And Taxxons.}

{Taxxons?}

{Why are Taxxons the ones you're worried ab—?}

Jake's question died unspoken. I couldn't help it, I had to see what had made him stop like that. I rolled over in the water for a better look, and I saw the Taxxons in the water. Ten-foot-long centipedes shooting towards us through the water. They were fast.

They were very fast.

{Tell me,} Ax said. {I have a feeling that this body I am in might be able to fight. Is this true?}

I cackled as Cassie said, {Yes, Ax. Sharks can fight.}

{Then, Prince Jake, shall we deal with these Taxxon scum?}

{Don't call me prince,} my dorky cousin said. {And the answer is yes. Let's go kick some Taxxon butt.}

I whooped with glee. {Oh, yeah!} I cried. {Let's do it!}