"Yes, Dad," Marco said lightly. Then he quickly became serious. "What we know is this: last night, there was some suspected Yeerk activity just outside the vicinity of Area 51. Whether or not it has anything to do with those weird plants we found out in the forest remains to be seen."
"No," Jake said, staring absently at a point on the table. "The Radam and the Yeerks don't have anything to do with each other. They wouldn't work together, anyway."
"Radam?" Cassie asked.
"Jake, what are you talking about?" Rachel asked.
Jake jerked his head up, suddenly realizing what he had just said. It wasn't that he wanted to keep this a secret from the rest of the group, it was just that he didn't know how to tell them without sounding crazy.
"It – it was just a dream I had," Jake said lamely.
Is that all I am to you, Jake? Something your subconscious mind conjured up?
Starfire. Jake looked around at the others; they were looking at him expectantly. "Did anyone else hear that?"
"Hear what?" Marco asked.
Jake took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. Apparently Starfire was only speaking to him. "Nothing."
"Okay, so what were you talking about earlier? What are the Radam?" Rachel asked.
"Not what, who," Jake corrected her. "The Radam are an alien race, like the Yeerks, but according to what Starfire told me, the Radam are a lot older than the Yeerks. More powerful too."
"Wait," Marco said. "Who's Starfire?"
Jake winced; this was not going to be easy to explain. "Starfire was the Tekkaman who told me about the Radam."
"Two questions," Marco said. "When did you meet a Tekkaman? And, what is a Tekkaman?"
"A Tekkaman is what the people who fight against the Radam call themselves. Slade is like a Tekkaman, but since he was made by the Radam, he'd be called a Teknoman."
"Okay," Marco said, still seeming a bit unconvinced. "You already told me about Slade, so how about we get back to our main objective before someone decides to come over here." The look Marco gave Jake said clearly we'll talk about this in detail later.
Jake nodded, and Rachel spoke up. "Yeerks in horses, it doesn't make any sense. What use would the Yeerks have for Horse-Controllers?"
"Do horses have some special powers? Pow-werz-zuh." Ax asked.
Cassie shrugged, recalling the things she had learned about horses. "They're herd animals. They're not very smart; in fact, they're pretty dumb. They're strong, but there are a lot of animals who are stronger. They're fast, but again, there are a lot of animals who are faster. Basically, I don't know why the Yeerks would be interested in taking horses for hosts."
"Maybe they think they can win lots of money in the Kentucky Derby," Rachel quipped.
"Maybe it's some kind of strange Yeerk entertainment," Jake suggested. "Maybe they think it's fun."
"I do not think that the Yeerks would do anything simply for entertainment value, Prince Jake," Ax said.
"Ax, I've told you before not to call me Prince, especially not in a public place."
"Yes Prince Jake. Jay-kuh."
"Are you two sure that what you saw last night was a Yeerk?" Jake asked Rachel and Cassie. "How do you know that it wasn't a slug or a snail, or something like that?"
"And what if Cassie's dad is right, and it was just an exploding artillery shell you saw, and not a Dracon flash?" Tobias asked.
"We're not saying that we doubt you or anything," Jake rushed to assure them. "It's just that there's no real reason for the Yeerks to be infesting the bodies of horses."
Cassie looked to Rachel. "Well… we might have been wrong," Cassie said. "But I'm almost sure that what we saw last night had something to do with the Yeerks."
"Yeah, I agree," Rachel said.
"Okay, so what do we do?" Jake asked. "Do we take a look around the Dry lands? See if we can find anything that might be connected to the Yeerks?"
"There's some very good flying out there," Tobias said. "Lots of sweet thermals."
"And plenty of delicious snakes and toads?" Marco asked with mocking innocence.
"I won't be able to go tomorrow," Jake informed them. "It's my dad's birthday tomorrow. The whole family is going to go out to dinner to celebrate."
"Even Tom?" Rachel asked.
Jake deflated. "Tom says he'll be there, but who knows." Every one of the Animorphs knew that Jake's older brother Tom was a Human-Controller, it was one of the things that made Jake so eager to continue the fight. "He spends a lot of time at meetings of The Sharing lately. Of course, that's all the more reason that I have to be there tomorrow. Dad's not going to celebrate his birthday without at least one of his sons there."
"What did you get for your dad?" Cassie asked, wanting to find a way to distract Jake from his dark thoughts.
"I haven't done it yet," Jake said, grinning. "But I think I'm going to clean out the roof gutters for him."
Marco shuddered theatrically. "Actual physical labor? Couldn't you just pick him up a nice Hallmark card?"
"I am still kind of interested in what's going on out in the Dry Lands," Cassie said. "But, I think this could wait till the weekend."
"There may be something to all this," Jake said. "But, we don't need everyone to come along. So, who does want to go flying with Cassie tomorrow after school?"
