This was a major turn of events. The idea that we all could cross-acquire each other's morphs was a big revelation. It made me angry that we hadn't thought of it before, and yet Zenguh, having acquired the morphing technology only a week ago, was already finding loopholes that we had missed. Besides, it had already been a rough morning with Tom. He was clearly in an irritated mood all morning before dashing out the door. Probably off to figure out the Yeerk side of this whole Zenguh thing, if Crayak was to be believed. Also, Rachel was particularly standoffish. Weird.
And, you know, I had almost died in the last battle, which somehow was ranking low on my list of problems.
Tobias' next comment snapped me back to the present, back to Ax's scoop.
‹You know, it's a good thing the Yeerks have never tried to examine our blood,› said Tobias, flying up onto a pine branch. ‹Like Rachel said, we've been bleeding all over the place during battles. They could even find our DNA mixed in there.›
"True," I agreed, heart hammering a bit at the thought. "But it seems we have bigger problems right now. If the Yeerks haven't taken advantage of the blood situation until this point, it seems doubtful they'd check blood anytime soon. Let's just hope they don't, at least. We've got to focus on Zenguh."
Marco was still making jokes in the background about acquiring Rachel, and Cassie and Rachel were having their own conversation.
‹It is very Yeerk-like to overlook an advantageous situation,› Ax smirked, both with his eyes and tone. ‹Another disadvantage of never creating their own technology.›
"How is he getting all these people, anyway?" Marco suddenly asked, his joking demeanor stopping abruptly. We all looked at him.
"I mean, Zenguh has to have enough time to grab the next potential host, subdue them, make his current host morph Yeerk, and sneak into the new host's ear," he explained, sitting down suddenly on an old, decaying log. "That's a lot of time for the potential new host to freak out and run away."
"How is he even getting a new Yeerk morph each time?" Cassie wondered aloud. "Oh, right. He can acquire himself, within the host's head. He never has to catch a new Yeerk. Man, this is a lot to keep track of. It may be tougher than Algebra class."
"Tobias and I saw him catch the zookeeper," Rachel said. "But she just laid there, and I don't know why! Zenguh just put a hand on her and that was that!"
"I suppose, though..." Marco continued his train of thought, rubbing his temples. "Remember when I saw my mom downtown, when I skipped school, back before I had to fake my death? My mom's doing great, by the way. Anyway, I acquired this guy named Mr. Grant by just holding his hand and leading him through his own work building, practically to his office!"
Cassie let out an audible gasp. "Those poor people, being led to their doom in the acquiring trance. That's awful."
Ax swung an eye stalk toward Cassie, while keeping the rest of his eyes on me.
‹I also may have found something,› Ax began. ‹During our encounter with Zenguh, I got a bit...lost in the chase, so I returned to the apartment complex. I went back into his home and noticed he had no bed, or food, or anything other than an exorbitant amount of clothing.›
‹Like, way too many clothes,› Tobias interjected.
That caught Rachel's attention. "No such thing!" she said, seemingly appalled.
‹Ah yes, too many clothes, an arbitrary measurement of humans,› Ax said. ‹Anyway, it was just clothes and a computer. I quickly bypassed the security on the computer. Zenguh had not used Yeerk technology to protect it any better than humans. It was quite easy, actually.›
"Hey, Ax?" Marco interrupted. "Can you shorten this story?"
Ax continued, unphased by Marco after so much time fighting alongside him.
‹Unfortunately, the information is still processing on the primitive homemade computer in my scoop,› Ax said. ‹But there were some encrypted notes that seemed to be written by Zenguh. Perhaps they will be useful for our next battle.›
Another battle. Fun times.
"So, what was the point of his apartment?" Rachel asked. It was a legitimate question.
"I think I've figured that part out, too," Marco responded. Leave it to Marco to quickly see connections that we all missed.
He looked around at our small group.
"Look, we've talked about how it's questionable if you need to eat in morph, and where that energy translates," Marco said. "However, if you're constantly morphing into something new, you're holding off that hunger, two hours at a time. I would expect the same thing would happen with sleep. With each new morph, Zenguh is essentially recharging."
We all looked at him, slowly following his logic.
"So that's why he doesn't need a bed or food!" he continued, a bit impatiently. "Really, the apartment just becomes a place to store clothes and any tech. It probably even belongs to someone he's already acquired, so nothing's out of the ordinary there either."
‹And imagine how much he could get done with no sleep,› Tobias said. ‹That means he could be trapping a lot of people when we aren't even awake! Let's see, twenty-four hours in a day, two hours at a time to get stuck in morph... include trapping time. He has to wait until the newly morphed Yeerk goes nothlit to acquire it yet again and start the whole process over.›
"Yay, everyday uses for math in the real world," Marco said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "Think this is what our teachers meant?"
‹He could be trapping up to ten or twelve people per day,› Tobias said.
‹Not to mention, each human he traps adds to his repertoire of memories, so he could be learning quite a lot, at a very fast rate,› Ax added.
I took a deep breath.
"Okay guys," I said. "Next goals: Tobias and Ax? Stay here and see what was on Zenguh's computer. We need to know his next plans. Rachel, Marco, and Cassie come with me. I followed Tom a bit before our meeting today, and I want to see what he's up to."
Another deep breath. I hadn't exactly told the team about my conversation with Crayak.
"If the Yeerks are as concerned about this as we are, then Tom is on the front lines of their plan for a solution. We're going after Zenguh, and so are the Yeerks. Let's find him and see where this goes."
"Let's do it!" Rachel yelled immediately.
We all got quiet.
"This is a nightmare," Cassie whispered softly.
