Still, they deserved their privacy. They'd both been through a lot. I just sincerely hoped we wouldn't be dealing with little Cassies and Jakes soon.
Jake opened the door. I observed that his clothes were not out of place and decided there would be no kids in the immediate future. "Come on. We have a lot to plan."
I jumped up smoothly and headed in, flipping my hair back over my shoulder. Still not dirty. Hah. Marco would have a comment if he was here.
But he wasn't. That would be our next project.
Cassie was sitting down with her head against the chair. I crossed over and sat down beside her. "We missed you," I told her quietly.
"Missed you too, Rachel," she murmured softly, as if about to fall asleep. I put my arm around her and pulled her against my shoulder. "Thank you for everything," she added.
"All in a day's work." I relaxed and glanced at Jake. "Well, Fearless Leader. What now?" I paused. "As a side note, it's good to have a fearless leader again."
{You're a pretty fearless leader yourself,} Tobias told me privately. I smiled.
Jake leaned against the wall. "Obviously we need everyone free. That includes Marco, who should be easy to liberate, and Ax, who probably won't be. With Marco all we have to do is snag him out of school, but Ax... that's going to be another matter altogether."
"Correction, Jake."
We all turned to the door.
"There's not going to be any more snagging Animorphs out of school."
{Erek?} Tobias greeted in confusion. {What happened? What are you doing here?}
"They found us," he said tersely. "It's blown."
There was silence for a moment and then I jumped up. "What happened?"
"Long story short? Mr. King's hologram flickered and a Controller happened to be looking at the right time. Fortunately the Controller was a student, and the teacher wasn't, so there wasn't anything that could immediately be done. Mr. King excused himself to the bathroom and warned Lourdes and myself. We had no choice but to leave." He sighed and rubbed his forehead. "I'm sorry."
"Not your fault," Jake said before I could let out a string of interesting words directed not at Erek but the universe in general. "Lourdes and Mr. King are safe, then?"
"Yes."
Cassie seemed to wake up a little. "What are we going to do?"
I started to pace. Tobias flapped his wings uneasily. Jake stood still with his jaw set and the muscles in his neck swelling.
Cassie moved from the floor to the chair and sat there, legs spread apart, leaning forward, hands pressed together between her knees. She took one deep breath and tossed her head back, finally fully alert.
"We have to get the others out," she said in a low, measured voice. "That hasn't changed. That can't change. It's just going to be harder."
I looked at her. "Do you have any ideas?"
"They're looking for all of you now," Erek inserted. "They're looking for us, too."
"We can't get the Hork-Bajir involved in this," Jake added. "It's too dangerous. We can't let the whole colony to be wiped out."
"So it's just us," I summarized. "On our own."
"If they catch you at this point, you're never going to be free again," Erek continued. "They're probably going to remove any morph-capables from society altogether. Fake your death, whatever it takes. You're never going to be out of the Yeerk pool again unless you have a host of Controllers acting like the Secret Service – following you wherever you go. They've already removed Marco from school. Supposedly, he was killed in a freak car accident."
"Wonderful," I muttered.
"At this stage of the game," Erek concluded almost angrily, "if you're caught, everything is over. There won't be any dramatic rescues. And chances are that they'll just take shots at you, kill you, if they think you're going to get away. You could all very well die."
"That's always been a threat," answered Jake impassively.
"Free or dead," Cassie said. She looked at Jake. "We've lived it. We know which one to choose."
He nodded slowly. "Yeah."
"If we die, we die free. And so should Marco and Ax. But that doesn't have to happen – we have a chance – it could still work out..." She trailed off.
"What? And one day we're all going to be free and fighting again in our little group of six?" I demanded. "Is that what you're hoping for, Cassie?"
"Yes," she whispered.
{Yes,} Tobias agreed, hitherto silent. {Yes. We have to still hope, Rachel.}
I sucked in a deep breath and looked at Jake. He was looking at Erek.
"Erek. One last mission, down to the Yeerk pool. Will you and Lourdes and Mr. King still help us?"
Erek hesitated, but there was only one answer he could give. "Of course, Jake."
"Then nothing's over yet." He swept the hair back from his eyes. "Tonight. We have to get them out. And then we'll have a little hope again."
"This is insane," I snapped. When all eyes turned to me, I shrugged. "I had to say it. He wasn't here to. You all know what I think."
{Yeah.} Tobias had a smile in his silent voice. {We do.}
"Erek, get the other two Chee here. Make sure they're not followed. In two hours – we move in."
Erek nodded at Jake. "Will do." His hologram changed slightly – a nondescript human. No Controller on the lookout for Erek King was going to find him. He opened the door and left.
We looked around our small, harried group. We were all scared teenagers for a moment. But that wasn't our privilege anymore.
"Let's do it," I announced, with the distinct feeling that it wasn't the last time I'd say it that night.