The Bug Fighter landed gently, still cloaked, in a pasture near our shack. I felt nervous being out in the open even though I knew no human eyes would ever see us.

"We should keep this," I suggested.

It took the others a second to realize what I meant, but Tobias agreed immediately. {A Bug Fighter could be a valuable asset for us.}

I looked down at Marco, still unconscious from Cassie's blow in the pool. I missed his input, though if anyone had asked me I would have denied it. Marco made sense sometimes.

Jake looked weary. "We'll think about it later," he said with a sigh. "I don't know if they have any sort of tracking device in the fighters."

"We used to be hosts," Cassie argued quickly. "Wouldn't we know?"

"Maybe, maybe not." He shrugged and leaned his head against the cool metal wall of the fighter. I knew he needed to relax; so did Cassie; she went over and slipped her arm around his waist. I saw him lean against her and smiled to myself.

"Marco's going to wake up any minute," I muttered to Tobias. "How long do you think his Yeerk has?"

{I think we have an hour, two, three tops,} Tobias answered. {We'd better get him to the shack now and tie him up. It won't be long until it's all over.}

"Thank God." I cleared my throat hesitantly. "Jake? Cassie? We have to go . . ."

Jake shook his head as if waking up from a daze. "Of course we do." He snapped back to attention. "Rachel, morph grizzly and carry Marco. It's not the greatest morph we have for carrying people, but obviously Marco's gorilla isn't an option. Tobias, fly lookout. We don't have any choice," he added. "We'll have to destroy the Bug Fighter. The one-in-a-hundred chance of them tracking it by radar or some device is just too great. We can't risk it."

Grudgingly, I nodded. "What are you going to do?"

He shrugged. "Fly it up high, leave it on a collision course with the water, morph bird. I'll be back in twenty minutes."

"You can't do that alone," I argued.

"We need you with Marco in case he wakes up, Rachel. Tobias has to look out for you."

"What about me?" Cassie asked softly.

He looked at her with desperate eyes. "Cassie . . . It could be dangerous."

"That's why I'm coming with you."

They had a standoff for a moment, Cassie determined and Jake hesitant, but Cassie won their silent argument; Jake sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Tobias, Rachel, take care of him."

I grinned, grabbed Marco's arm, and started dragging him out of the fighter onto the soft grass outside. I saw Tobias flapping his way out what looked like nothingness. I heard the engines powering up. I closed my eyes, preparing to morph.

At the last moment I turned around and called back to our fearless leader.

"Hey, Jake!"

I heard a smile in his voice. "Yeah, Rachel?"

"You two better come back."

Cassie laughed and the sound echoed. "We will."

The fighter lifted up into the blue sky, just a white ripple against an expanse of fluffy clouds. My eyelids fluttered down again, and I pictured the grizzly in my mind.

{Oh, crap.}

{What?} My grizzly eyes snapped open as the world became blurry, just in time to see my pathetic pink fingernails turn black and shoot out several inches. Weapons. I opened my mouth and tested the teeth with my tongue.

{Marco's waking up.}

{Perfect,} I moaned. {Watch him! I have about another minute left!}

"Whoa," a human voice whimpered. "Human bodies." Marco sat up, or rather the Yeerk sat up for him, and steadied himself with one hand. Then he noticed me.

"Animorph!"

{Absolutely.} I fell down on all fours and slammed my claws into the dirt. {I wouldn't recommend going anywhere.}

He screamed and jumped to his feet, trying to run. He got three steps and then fell, writhing and crying and wailing in such agony that at first I didn't understand what was going on.

{The fugue!} Tobias cried. {It's starting!}

{I hate this part,} I hissed. {I hate feeling sorry for them!} Enraged at my own weakness, I grabbed Marco with a rough still-shaping grizzly paw and pulled him to me. He wouldn't be going anywhere.

"Let me go! Let me - gahfrash! Let me go!"

{Get out of our friend and we'll kill you quickly,} Tobias told him coldly. I started walking towards the shack.

"What's the point to killing me?" the Yeerk demanded, suppressing his pain with a supreme effort. "They're going to find you! It's the last thing I did before you got me, Animorph, I made sure they'd find you, I did!"

{He sounds like Gollum,} Tobias muttered to me. Then, addressing the Yeerk, he asked, {What do you mean?}

"The locator! It will find that rat's DNA, your DNA -" He pointed at me as well as he could. "It will find you wherever you are, and you'll die, you'll die like I'm going to - aryagh! Gaphok!"

{Not quite the same way,} I snapped, my pity gone. {They wouldn't kill me. They'd infest me. But you're lying anyway, or you wouldn't tell us that.}

{He might not be lying,} Tobias pointed out. {He might just be so delirious that he doesn't have time for strategy.}

Icy fingers traveled down my spine. Angrily, I grabbed Marco by the neck, silencing him. His throat muscles spasmed.

{How much time do you think he has?} I asked Tobias again.

{I'm not sure.} He wheeled in the air. {You'll be at the shack in about a minute, though.} He paused. {Rachel, don't choke him.}

{I won't,} I snarled. Tobias wisely fell silent, no doubt keeping a close eye on me with his hawk vision.

We were at the shack in what seemed like seconds, with my rage and fear increasing my strides and quickening my pace. I threw him on the chair and bared my teeth.

Marco slipped to the floor and screamed again. He fell to his knees, then flat on the rotted boards, rolling back and forth and clutching at his head.

{How long do you have?} I asked maliciously.

He didn't answer. I wasn't even sure if he'd heard me. I leaned back, setting on my haunches like a dog, trying to slow my pounding heart.

What did it mean, if they could track me everywhere I went? Was it true? I'd have questions for Marco when Marco was free again. I clenched my jaw muscles, my teeth scratching the inside of my mouth, and waited.

Tobias entered, ready to morph human and tie Marco up. I shook my head, and he bobbed his in a hawk nod. We both knew it wasn't necessary.

We stayed there listening to his pitiable wails for a half hour. At last, Jake and Cassie pushed the old door open. I sighed deeply, relaxing. {Thank God you're back.}

Jake stared at Marco. He started to ask me something - probably why he wasn't tied up - and then looked at Cassie, who was covering her eyes with her hands, unwilling to watch the torture we were putting a living creature through. I wanted to scream at her, but Marco was doing a good job of that by himself.

{You can leave,} I told her instead. {We've got it covered.}

Jake glanced at me. "The Yeerks cut it close, don't they?"

{What?}

"I never thought about how close they all are to the fugue when they feed. They must be within a half hour of it beginning, or something, every time they slide into the pool."

{Maybe so.} I wondered how we could use that.

"Be glad you've never had to go through the fugue, Rachel," he added. "Even as a host it's hell."

I shrugged my bear shoulders. {They deserve it,} I retorted with more fervor than I felt.

{No one deserves it,} Tobias said quietly.

Jake smiled bitterly and sucked in a deep breath. "Take Cassie outside. I'll watch Marco until the end."