Chapter 13

"I need to go back over to Cassie's again later," I told my parents as we ate dinner. My parents are really into the whole eating together as a family thing - both of them work quite long hours and they insist that this is the one time that we can sit around the table together and make small talk . Tom was there too, although he sat pretty quiet for most of the time. I guess a Yeerk working to infest the human population isn't going to be too intent on discussing his day.

"Does it have to be tonight?" my dad asked, sighing. "You've been out all day - we've hardly seen you. I thought we could stay in and watch that movie on TV tonight."

"I left some stuff round there which I need to pick up," I said, beginning to feel a little guilty. Being the leader of the Animorphs has left me with very little time for socializing with my family. "Some of my school books. I need to them to study for tomorrow. We've got a test on Monday. Sorry," I added, hoping they wouldn't press me. It was partly true, anyway. I had left my books round there, as well as my bike and most of my clothes from before we flew over to Marco's.

"Well, I guess you can't compromise good grades for the sake of Arnold Schwarzenegger," my dad said. "I hope you're not working too hard though, we hardly get to see you anymore, and when we do, you always seem so stressed."

I smiled, wishing that grades were the real reason that I was never around anymore. "It's just some start-of-term refresher thing we've got to do," I said. "Cassie was giving me a hand with some of the stuff on biology."

My brother smirked at this, putting on his older brother act. "Yeah right you were studying," he said, snatching the tomato ketchup from me. "Biology? You sure she wasn't giving you a practical demonstration?"

"Hey!" I laughed, playing my own act. "You'll take that back!" I took a pea from my plate and flicked it at him. He ducked, threw one of his own peas back at me, laughing harder.

"Would you boys quit throwing food at each other?" my mom scolded. "You're behaving like pair of wild animals!"

"So I take it I'm right then?" Tom grinned. "Jake and Cassie, sitting in a tree…"

"Whatever," I said, thinking at least Tom wouldn't start becoming suspicious as to what I was up to. Who would have thought that two enemies would be engaging in a food fight in their parent's kitchen?

I finished off my dinner and flew round to Cassie's. I found a smelly pigsty in which to demorph, and walked barefoot to her front door. It was getting dark, and it took me a while to remember where the entrance to her house was. I was so used to just going straight to the barn - I hadn't used her front door in a while.

It was about half past eight as I rang the doorbell. Cassie opened and let me in.

"Hey, Jake," she smiled at me. "We're just in the living room. The others have been here all evening." She led me into the lounge where Philip, Ferdie, Sam and Maggie were sitting chatting and watching TV. They were all wearing their morphing outfits, with the exception of Cassie, who was wearing her usual mud-stained overalls.

"Hi, guys," I said, as they all turned to greet me. "All ready for tonight?"

"Absolutely," Ferdie replied, laying back on the couch. "Our first mission together. Should be good."

"You say it as if this whole thing was just one big polo match," said Philip, rolling his eyes. "This isn't a game, you know."

"Yes, I know that," Ferdie replied absently. He looked at me then nodded towards the kitchen. "I cooked up some spaghetti bolognese, by the way. I think there's quite a bit left over. You can have some if you like."

"Thanks," I said, walking into the kitchen. I had already eaten of course, but I didn't want to be rude. The spag bol did smell good.

"I hope they're up to it," said a soft voice. I turned around. Cassie had followed me into the kitchen. "We have no idea what they're like on a mission."

"I'm sure they'll be ok," I replied, taking a mouthful of Ferdie's creation. It wasn't bad, I could give him that. "They seemed to work well when we met them down at the Yeerk pool. Why? Did they say something that made you nervous?"

Cassie is excellent at reading people. She can pick up on the tiniest little things in someone's speech that no normal person could ever hear.

"No, no," she said. "I was just thinking…you know. This is going to be such a different mission to anything we've done so far."

"Try not to worry," I assured her. "I'm sure it can only work out for the best."

"I trust your judgment, Jake, you do know that, right?"

"Of course I do. And I want to do what's best for everyone here." I smiled at her and we walked back into the living room and sat down on one of the squashy leather armchairs. Cassie's house always feels so warm and inviting; there's an open log fire, soft carpeting and exposed wooden beams in the ceilings. It's one of those really traditional old farmhouses, and has been in her family for several generations. It was difficult to feel tense here.

"We've worked out how we're going to get all our stuff down to the valley," Sam told me. "All the clothes we bought. It's not too cold there at the moment, but it's going to be really chilly when autumn arrives."

I nodded, feeling a little bad that I hadn't really given their situation much thought. They'd spent the last few nights there with nothing more that what they could take in bird morph. So basically just their morphing clothes and a small box of matches that Maggie had carried down in her talons.

"That's great," I said. "How? I don't think there's any type of vehicle that can get down there, and it's too far to walk."

"Flawless came up with the idea, actually," she said, grinning at him. "He thought we ride down there. You know, on horseback."

"Ah," I said. "So, will one of you be morphing and someone else loading the stuff on their back, or what?"

"No," said Ferdie, "because there won't be any way for us to hold on to the bags and stuff when we're in morph. So Cassie has said we can tack up an few of her horses and ride them down there, taking our clothes in backpacks. We'll dump our bags, leave the stuff in the valley, then ride the hoses back up here."

"I hope you're as good a rider as you say you are, Ferdie," Cassie said cautiously. "Those are really steep hills down to the valley. And none of us have ever got there except in bird morph."

"I'm a fantastic rider," he replied, without a hint of modesty. "Learned to ride before I could walk."

"Well, I'm only letting you take two of them, and I'll be riding one of them," Cassie said. "We'll try and go down tomorrow afternoon. Assuming this mission all goes ok tonight."

"It will," said Sam optimistically. "Have you worked out all the details yet, Jake?"

"I was going to wait until the others arrived first," I said, realizing that although she was team leader for the British Animorphs, she still held me in overall control. I respected this, and decided to run my plans past her. "I've got a general idea of what should happen though. We've got much better numbers now that we've had before, which is a bonus. But I don't think we need all of us to actually enter the facility. Some of us can wait outside in wolf morph, acting as back-up."

"Good idea," she said. "Or go as owls and keep an eye on the perimeter."

I nodded, then turned the conversation towards their morphing outfits, wanting to leave the rest of the plans until the rest of my team were around to discuss them.

"I see you've got new morphing suits?" I asked Sam and the others.

"Aye," replied Maggie. She had replaced her old red and orange gymnastics leotard with a maroon one-piece, with full length arms and legs. "Our old ones weren't looking too good. And we wanted some warmer ones for when we are living in the valley."

I nodded understandingly. We could only morph minimal clothing, and they weren't enough to keep us warm.

"Yeah, I can imagine," I said. "I see Rachel's designer label obsession has rubbed off on you, Sam?" I laughed, looking at her trendy black and gray leggings and tank top.

"She did get rather excited, yes," Sam smiled. "I practically had to drag her away from the sales."

We continued chatting for a while, until I suggested we made our way down to the barn to wait for the others. Cassie immediately went to work, feeding the animals and changing bandages and stuff.

Tobias and Ax were the first to arrive. Tobias was himself, followed by Ax who was in harrier morph. Ax steeled down on the ground and began his demorph. Soon, Marco arrived as an osprey, and finally Rachel, as a bald eagle.

--Hands up all who are ready for their first kamikaze mission,-- Marco said, looking at Sam and the others as he demorphed.

--Shut up, Marco,-- Rachel said, as her beak melted into her face and long, blonde hair grew from her head. --This is going to be a piece of cake. Probably won't even be a fight, so it's going to borderline tedious.--

--Well, go Miss Confident,-- Marco said sarcastically. --Just as long as you realize this whole this is insane. Fighting the Yeerks by sneaking into the sewers.--

--This is hardly insane, Marco,-- Rachel replied. --Not like some things we've done.--

"Ok, people, this is it," I said, cutting off Marco and standing up in front of everyone, like I was making some dumb pre-operation motivational speech. It was really only for the benefit of the new guys, and to make it clear to everyone what things had changed. "Our first mission as a team. We're going to do this, guys, and we are going to succeed."

Marco rolled his eyes - he'd been on enough missions to know that this speech thing wasn't really my style. He also knew that I'd learned the hard way not to be overly optimistic, even when it came to the simplest of missions.

"We fly to the water facility in owl morph. It's about five miles north of here, on the outskirts of the city." I glanced up into the rafters. "Tobias? You know this city best from the air. Could you lead us there?"

--Sure,-- he replied. --Although my eyesight won't be as good as your owl morphs.--

"I don't think the place should be too hard to find," Philip replied. "It's pretty much the only building of it's kind in the vicinity."

"Ok, so there's quite a few of us on this mission," I said. "More numbers than we've ever had before. That can only be a good thing. So…I don't think we all need to enter the facility. Five of us should be enough. Everyone else can stay outside in owl or wolf morph and keep a look out."

--Which of us should morph what, Prince Jake?-- asked Ax. He was still in his Andalite form, looking more than a little out of place among all the horses and raccoons. Luckily, both Cassie's parents were out, so there it was very unlikely someone would walk in on him.

"I'll go into the facility," I said. "We'll also want someone who will be good at working out where we have to go once we're inside. Philip? You're good with directions. I think you should join us."

Philip nodded. "What morphs are we going to use to enter?"

"Well, I'll get on to all that in a moment, but I think we should go in as insects. Ax, you should come too, incase we need to tap into any computers. Marco and Rachel? You two also."

"So I have to listen to Marco's pathetic whining all the way?" asked Rachel. "Not to mention the stupid jokes he always makes when we're trying to concentrate."

"Since when did you concentrate, Rachel?" Marco retorted. "All you ever seem to do is morph and fight."

"Would you two hold your arguing for after the mission?" I snapped. "We want to get this thing done as soon as possible, and I can't have you two bickering the whole time."

"What about the rest of us?" asked Sam. "Who's going owl, and who's going wolf?"

"Do you have a wolf morph?" Cassie asked.

"Maggie has one," Sam replied. "But neither me nor Ferdie."

"Well, you two will need to be owls then," I said. "Maggie, Cassie - you guys go wolf. Tobias? You stay as yourself and keep an eye on the others while they are morphing and demorphing. This thing will probably take over two hours, so make sure they don't go over the limit."

"Yeah, Tobias is obviously the best person for that job," Marco muttered, then fell silent as he realized what he's said. Tobias ruffled his wings noisy and gave Marco a fierce stare.

"We should morph," I said, before anything else could be said. "Owls. Once we reach the facility, we'll need to find somewhere outside the place to demorph and remorph into our respective animals. Flies for Philip and Rachel. Roaches for Marco, Ax and I. Wolves and owls for everyone else. The five of us zip past security - they shouldn't be a problem - then find an open window or something to get in through. We'll work out the rest from there."

"Do you always improvise like this?" asked Philip, looking at me. "Make half a plan, and just see what happens?"

I gave him a slightly-too-cold stare. "We've done as much as we can," I said. "If there's anything else you'd like to add, feel free to do that. But I think you'll agree there is nothing more that we could have known without actually being there for ourselves."

Philip nodded, saying nothing.

"Ok, I said, pausing. "Are we ready?" I looked at Rachel.

"What is it?" asked Sam, a confused expression on her face.

"Let's do it!" said Rachel.

--There we go,-- said Tobias. He looked at Sam and Philip. .--This is official. We're not allowed to go until Marco has said this whole thing is insane, and Rachel has said 'let's do it'.--