Chapter 3

The sun was beginning to set, our bodies casting long shadows over the roof of the department store. I stood up and gazed at the view of the city around me. We were in Leeds, one of Yorkshire's major cities, having flown for about half an hour from the scene of the battle. I don't think Sam was intending for us to fly here, we just kind of ended up here. I was hungry. I could smell the greasy pongs of a fish and chips shop wafting up from the street. It reminded me how hungry I was. Normally I wouldn't touch fast food, I would much prefer a nice dinner at the latest London hotspot, or tasty lobster cooked for me by a tasty girl, but tonight, after what we'd been through, I'd eat anything.

"They are called Yeerks," Sam was saying to Maggie. "And those big, dinosaur like creatures that you said captured you, they're called Hork-Bajir."

I leant back against the cold metal of a ventilation shaft, only half listening to the conversation. Samantha was filling Maggie in on the situation with the Yeerks and the morph-capable resistance in America we were supposed to be searching for. I tried to block out her voice. It only made me dwell on how life was never going to get back to normal. I don't like to dwell on things. That's my brother Philip's job. Whilst he'll be sitting analysing every possible outcome, then evaluating the whole thing once it's finished, I'll just jump right in, no questions asked. Whether it's polo match, extreme sports, or asking a girl out to dinner, I'm one of the do-now-think-later chaps. Actually, most of the time I don't even bother to complete the 'think later' part. If whatever I did went well, then, fantastic, I'll do it again. If it went badly, I'll frown and think 'well, stuff that.' But something in Sam's voice and the things I'd seen over the last day or so told me that I was going to have to rethink this blasé attitude of mine if we were going to survive this whole thing.

"Maggie needs some more morphs," said Sam, snapping me out of my trance. "So far, all she's got is a beetle, and that's not going to do very much for us." She looked over at Philip. "Philip, you know this city better than I do. Is there another zoo or something where Maggie can acquire some decent morphs?"

Philip thought for a moment. Sam had made a subtle but obvious point that we would not be going back to Archington House were we'd acquire most of our battle and travelling morphs – we had started our journey now, and we were not going to take any risks or waste any more time by doubling back on ourselves.

Suddenly, Philip snapped his fingers. "Yes," he said. "There is a zoo near here. It's not a very major one, and it's not got as much as my uncle's place, but it's only a few minute's flight from here as hawk and it should have a few useful creatures."

Sam nodded. "Ok. Maggie, I need you to remorph to beetle – don't worry," she said, seeing the horrified look on Maggie's face, "it won't be for long. And it should be easier second time round. Philip, you morph to hawk and let Maggie hitch a ride among your feathers. Fly to this zoo of yours. Get a couple of good morphs, but don't spend too long there. An hour at most. Get Maggie a raptor, and a goose, and see if you can try and get something that can be used for lots of different occasions – fighting, running, whatever – rather than a separate morph for each. We don't have time for her to acquire loads of different animals like we did. While you're doing that, me and Ferdie'll work out where to go from here."

"On it," replied Philip, already on his way to buzzard. Maggie, with a reluctant look on her face, began to morph back to beetle. She managed to get control of the beetle's mind pretty quickly this time, and crawled into the feathers on Philip's neck. A moment later, they were in the sky and out of sight.

"How do we know she's not a Controller already?" Sam asked me.

"What?" I asked, lost in my own thoughts.

"I said, how do we know that Maggie isn't a Controller already and she's been placed with us to follow us and lead us to Visser Five?"

"Sam, I really don't think…" I trailed off. Maybe Sam had a point. The Andalite had told us that anyone could be a Controller – it was impossible to tell. "But she was locked in that Securitas van," I pointed out. "They wouldn't keep her prisoner if she was already infested, would they? Maybe they were on their way to transporting her to one of these Yeerk pools. Maybe they were planning to take her to Visser Five, make her his host? Only we showed up and they decided to change their priorities."

"I suppose you're right," said Sam, staring into the distance. "It's just me being all paranoid."

I could tell she was trying to make conversation to take her mind off Asha. She was huddling her knees to her chest, trying to block out the late afternoon chills. I peeled off my tee-shirt and placed it round her shoulders. She jumped, but then turned round and smirked at me.

"Thanks," she said, raising an eyebrow.

"Hey, I might be a slobby teenage youth, but I also know how to be a gentleman," I laughed, putting on my best public school accent. "I, err, wouldn't wipe your face on it though, might be a little bit sweaty."

I laughed and grinned at her. She grinned back, but quickly averted her eyes, blushing. Score! The girl was falling for me already!

"I guess," she said, "the only way to be sure is to secretly watch her for three days to make sure she doesn't go near a Yeerk pool. Then, we'll know she's safe."

"How do we know if she goes to a Yeerk pool?" I asked. "We don't even know what one looks like."

"The four, sorry, three of us will just have to make sure she doesn't go off anywhere on her own for any length of time. Make sure she goes where she says she's going, and all that. We barely know her – even less than we do each other – but we can try."

I nodded, Sam's words echoing in my mind. Even though we'd known each other only a couple of days, I already felt like I'd known her for years.