Chapter 10

"Well, that's it then," said Sam. "There's no way we're even going to think about stowing aboard now."

"We don't actually know it's…you know… do we?" I said. "It might just be a coincidence."

"Pretty big coincidence," muttered Philip. "Sam's right. I think we should back off."

"I think we should get some more information," I said. "Find out a bit more about this new company and The Sharing, whatever that is."

I turned back to the woman, who was now reading a magazine. "Do you know if there's an internet café or library around here we could use?"

"Yeah, there's one just round the corner from here," she said. "Small place…think it's called MegaClick."

"Thanks."

Sam said goodbye to the woman, and we left the restaurant and headed for the internet café. The streets were a lot busier now, and we attracted yet more looks regarding our strange clothes.

"Bit stupid for the Yeerks to brand their company with the name of their highest rank," Ferdie said. "Why not just scream at everyone that 'this company is run by alien parasites!'"

"They're probably just vain or having a laugh," Sam said. "Hopefully, they're assuming the only people who know what a visser is will be Controllers."

"What about us? Surely the Yeerks would know that we know what a visser is."

"Maybe it's aimed at the human resistance - you know, that Jake guy we're risking our lives to find. Visser Five doesn't know for sure we're in the US, or what our plans are, does he?"

"Might as well just cry out 'come and ambush us, human resistance!'" said Ferdie.

"Or they might have nothing at all to do with Yeerks after all," said Sam.

"Well, in my point of view," said Philip, "there are three possible angles of looking at it. One; it may well have absolutely nothing to do with the Yeerks whatsoever. B; it is run by the Yeerks, and it's some inside joke they're playing, not realising to whom they are advertising. Last; the Yeerks are perfectly aware that it will attract the attention of the human resistance, and it's some kind of trap."

"You know, it's really not that difficult to count to three, Philip," smiled Ferdie.

We reached the café, and stepped inside. The room was buzzing with the sound of computer activity and the strong smell of coffee. Sam went and spent the last of our money on booking a terminal for half an hour, and buying us some cake to share.

"Mmm, chocolate," I said, my mouth watering. "Excellent choice."

"Here we are," she said. "Computer three." She put the cake down on the table in front on us, and logged on. Luckily it wasn't one of those cafes where you have to have a regular account with them. In a minute or so, the screen popped up, and Sam clicked on the little Internet Explorer icon.

"I'm glad you know how to work computers, Wonder Woman, because I sure don't," said Ferdie, stuffing his mouth with cake.

"Oh, it's pretty easy," she said. "Just click on what you want to see and there you go." She did a search for Visser Enterprises, and was soon taken to their flashy web page. We scanned through the information, looking for anything that might given us a clue to who they were, or what their plans were.

"No clue as to who it's really run by," said Philip. "Mind you, I don't expect one to announce such information."

"Who are the celebrities on the first trip?" I asked. Sam clicked around, searching.

"Doesn't say," she said. "But it does say that they are given away a handful of tickets to some of the biggest names in politics, sport and entertainment today."

"Well, if they were Yeerks, and you wanted to bag some of the top humans on earth, what better way than to invite them all on a flashy launch flight, then infest them all? Imagine how much power they'd get, infesting so many important and influential people." Philip asked. "They'd have well-known people advertising fronts for the Yeerks."

Sam frowned. "They'd have to be controlling a huge amount of money to make that possible though," she said.

"Well, with their technology, they're probably hacking into all the major banks and the stock market," Philip said. "And maybe this Sharing thing is quite successful, too."

"What is the Sharing, anyway?" I asked. "There's a link to it there, Sam, why don't you click on it?"

Sam clicked on the link, and another window popped up. A funky web page with the words 'The Sharing' and some corny slogan appeared, followed by some text and a bunch of photos.

"Looks like some kind of boy and girl Scouts thing," I said, reading. "Turning people's lives around, making them part of something 'bigger'. It says many of their members were living difficult and unfulfilling lives, and the sharing has helped change all that."

"Looks to me more like a combined Alcoholics Anonymous, a probation board and boy Scouts," muttered Philip wryly.

"That does sound like something the Yeerks would do though," I whispered. "Targeting people who are having problems with their lives and promising to help them get back on track. And as for joining something bigger, well how about an alien conspiracy?"

Sam clicked back onto the Visser Enterprises web page. "There's a bit more, something I didn't notice before," she said. "Once the Concorde has landed in LA, the celebrities will be transported by first class coach to the company's headquarters in San Francisco for an after flight dinner dance, and then, if they please, onto a top nightclub."

"San Francisco?" Ferdie said. "That's no coincidence. That has to be aimed at the resistance. That's where they live, for heaven's sake."

"It seems to me that the city of San Francisco is a major part of the Yeerk invasion," Philip said, lowering his voice. "The resistance live there and were given the power to morph there. And if I can remember that far back, Eramas said one of the Vissers had murdered an Andalite Prince there, too."

"That's a lot of coincidences, all rolled into one," said Sam. "So, what if we assume for the time being that this is a Yeerk enterprise? Maybe the company headquarters are really where the Yeerks are running their invasion. Maybe they have a Yeerk pool there, and that's where they infest humans. They would be where they're taking the celebrities."

"You still want to hitch a lift with them, Ferdie?"