Slade laughed, Cassie sighed, and Tobias simply tuned out the conversation. After about ten minutes, Cassie did likewise. There was a nice, serene kind of silence when you were a mile off the ground. Unbroken, except for the very occasional passing jet engine five miles or more above their heads. It wasn't total silence by anyone's standards though, not with the wind rushing over their wings, and the flapping of those wings.
The five of them used the altitude they gained from the first thermal to glide into another one, quite a bit farther on from where they had first started. But then, that was the entire point. As the five Animorphs circled and soared within the rising column of hot air, there was no conversation between them, even Marco and Rachel laid off their argument, instead preferring to watch the clouds as they drifted by.
Gliding from near the top of one thermal then falling slowly through the cooler air, only to enter the bottom of another thermal and start the cycle over again. After about thirty-five minutes, Cassie noticed that the houses below them were starting to thin out. The roads became thinner and less well-kept, the few gas stations were now spread out over several miles, and Cassie was starting to see some flocks of sheep and herds of cattle down below.
After twenty more minutes, even the scattered herds of livestock thinned down to nothing, and the last of the small stores were left far behind. Now they were flying over more bare scrubland, which was clearly divided from the rest of the bare scrubland by the rather tall and menacing fence topped with thick, sharp strands of razor-wire. The five Animorphs had now reached the first edge of the Air Force base known as Area 51, The Most Secret Place on Earth.
Hey, Tobias said, drawing the attention of his five companions. Look at that sign, the one down there by the dirt road.
They turned to look at the sign Tobias had spotted. This is what it said:
STOP!
GOVERNMENT PROPERTY. RESTRICTED AREA.
AUTHOURIZED PERSONEL ONLY BEYOND THIS POINT.
ALL OTHERS ARE SUBJECT TO ARREST AND
PROSECUTION. THIS MEANS YOU.
I'm guessing this is the beginning of the famous Area 51, Cassie said, her voice nearly overflowing with wry humor.
A real friendly bunch down there, aren't they? Rachel asked the group at large.
You'd be pretty hostile too, if you were part of a vast government conspiracy that was trying to cover up an alien spacecraft, Marco said.
None of the Animorphs who knew him were quite sure if Marco was joking, and Slade of course didn't know enough about any of them to respond in a way that he could be reasonably sure wouldn't offend them. Despite Marco's rather unnerving familiarity to him, Slade didn't want to make an enemy out of someone he was just getting to know. So he kept silent, and the five of them continued flying over Area 51.
All of the Animorphs present agreed on one rather obvious fact: Area 51 was ugly. The base was a rather unimaginative collection of squat gray-and-black installations that looked like they had been built back in the early 40's. There were some extremely large aircraft hangars lined up on the inner-edge of the base, as well as a scattering of heavy-duty vehicles: Jeeps, Humvees, and even a few tanks.
The most interesting thing, for Slade at least, was the fact that various small groups of wild horses were wandering freely throughout the base.
Marco, Rachel said. I know a lady you'd love. People call her Crazy Helen. Crazy, because she sounds just like you.
Let's start looking for those horses, Cassie suggested. I think that that would be a good place to start.
We're looking for horses? Slade asked, sounding more than a little disbelieving. There were, after all, a lot of horses milling around seemingly aimlessly inside the base itself.
We're looking for Yeerk-infested horses, Slade, Tobias clarified, sounding a bit doubtful about the whole thing. Horse-Controllers.
Rachel, of course, was the first to react to Tobias' statement. We did see a Yeerk come out of that horse we were taking care of, she said, defending herself and Cassie.
And we did almost get killed by a Dracon beam, Cassie said, sounding a bit miffed herself.
You didn't actually see the Bug fighter that fired at you, Tobias reminded them. And with human eyes, how could you tell if it was a Yeerk you saw, and not just a plain old, everyday snail?
I can't believe that you of all people don't believe us Tobias, Rachel muttered.
Slade looked from Tobias to Rachel and back again, wondering who he should back up. On the one hand, Slade didn't really think that tracking down a bunch of wild horses was really all that important, but on the other hand, Cassie had told him about the enemies that the Animorphs were fighting. They were called Yeerks: alien slugs about the size of a rat that could somehow crawl inside a person's head and take control of their mind.
Slade didn't know if these Yeerks were telepathic or not, but they sounded dangerous. Finally, Slade made his decision.
I'm not saying that I don't believe you, Tobias defended himself. I'm just saying that there's no real reason. Why would the Yeerks want to infest some skanky old wild horses?
Does the reasoning behind it really matter? Slade asked. The point is that they are, and so we have to stop them.
Thanks for backing me up, Slade, Cassie said. And Tobias, I know it's a bit hard to believe, but I know what I saw.
There! Rachel called suddenly. There's a group of horses down by that that watering hole. Maybe that could be them.
The five Animorphs banked left, circling around to better see the gathering, and Cassie looked down at the group of horses that Rachel had spotted. There were six mares, two rather gangly-looking colts, and a single large stallion that was standing a ways apart from the main bunch. The stallion was acting as a sentry, the way any normal stallion would.
No, that can't be them, Cassie decided.
How do you know? Tobias asked.
Because those horses are acting just like normal horses, and the stallion is acting like any normal stallion. The horses we want probably won't be acting normal, Cassie explained.
