Chapter 14

"We're going to find the Yeerk pool, and we're going to blow it up," Green asserted, slamming a fist into his open palm.

That was the point where Silver should have flipped out, calling him a moron or telling him that was the sort of thing terrorists did. But instead, he got a clever grin on his face. "Hey Red, you remember that cop who questioned us today? The one who's really interested in the construction site and bringing in those bad kids with fireworks to his boss, Visser Three?"

I shrugged, thinking he was trying to change the subject. "Uh, well, yeah. What about him?"

"Well, let's see. He brings up Team Rocket. Then your dad comes in here and starts talking about the construction site. Is he normally that interested in this sort of stuff? And then he asks us to join Team Rocket too!"

Green nodded thoughtfully. "Now that you mention it, Team Rocket sounds like it could be a cover for Controllers."

"So let's run it back," Silver continued. "The cop is a Controller, as far as we know. And Red, as much as you don't want to admit it, I think your dad is too. So think about this. You want to hurt these Yeerks? You want to kill them? You want to destroy the Yeerk pool? Okay. But what are you going to do if you have to hurt and kill and destroy your own dad to do it?"

I froze. The implications of what I was thinking about getting into suddenly slammed into me like an iron weight. This wasn't just some game of numbers. If we blew up the Yeerk pool, we might end up killing a lot of humans. Humans we knew. Humans we cared about.

Humans who were our family.

Back in old wars, armies used to keep people from the other side as hostages, and threaten to kill them unless the other side stopped fighting. The Yeerks were subtler and crueler than that. They kept hostages, yes, but not as a bargaining chip. They held humanity as ammunition. If we fought them, we would make them fire that ammunition.

Was I prepared to do that? Was I prepared to look into the eyes of my friends from school on the field of battle and know that to fight their captors, I would have to destroy them too?

Was I prepared to do that with my dad?

Silver let me hesitate for a second, and then went on. "Why don't we just walk away from all this? Let someone else figure it out and fight. It's sad that the Andalite died for us, but I don't want anyone else to have to do that too."

I wanted to agree with him. I wanted to pass the whole problem by. I wanted to just let the world fend for itself. It's too heavy anyway.

But I couldn't. Atlas can't set down his burden. A leader can't run away. "No," I said. "Elfangor gave us this power for a reason. It wasn't just to have fun turning into Zigzagoon or Pidgeotto. He wanted us to fight."

Silver shrugged. "Suit yourself. What if your dad is the enemy, though? What if he's the one you have to kill?"

I forced myself to look and sound aloof. "Yes, that could happen. And it also couldn't. We don't know yet. Before we do anything, though, we have to find out more about this all. Our only lead so far is Team Rocket. There's a meeting tonight, at the beach–I saw it in the newspaper. I'm going to that. I'll let the others know too. You want to come, come. You don't, don't."

He didn't like it. I could tell by his blatantly frustrated expression. However, he didn't argue. "You're finally starting to use your head, huh? Recon is the best idea you've had all day. I'll come."

I called and explained to the others, making sure to say things in a way that wouldn't let on that we knew anything we shouldn't.

Blue agreed almost immediately. She'd apparently reached the same theory we had about Team Rocket, and I suspected she'd already been thinking about doing surveillance on the meeting on her own.

Yellow was initially a little hesitant. It made sense–every encounter she'd had with a Controller so far had ended in a do-or-die situation. Eventually, though, she agreed to come along.

My dad was ecstatic to hear that I'd not only decided to check Team Rocket out, but had convinced three of my friends to come with me (I didn't tell him about Green–Green wasn't going to be there 'in person'). He sounded so happy and enthusiastic that it became very hard to imagine the whole thing was a Yeerk sham. There was no way that someone working alongside Hork-Bajir and Taxxons could be so happy.

The beach wasn't very far. For caution reasons, we didn't let my dad drive us. Instead, the five of us met in my neighborhood and walked. Once we were far enough from houses and stores, Green slipped behind a row of tall bushes. A few minutes later, a Pidgeotto flapped into the air and caught an updraft from the hot asphalt, soaring into the twilit sky until it was out of sight.

"That's so cool," Yellow marveled, looking after him. "I've always wanted to fly. I have to try that sometime."

When we got to the beach, it was completely dark. There was a giant bonfire set up in the middle, towering about ten feet high. I wasn't sure in that was legal, but I guess Team Rocket had a permit if it wasn't.

I recognized a lot of the people illuminated in that fiery light. People I knew. People I'd passed in the hallways without a second thought. People who'd worked the registers at restaurants and gas station convenience stores. Mailmen. Janitors.

My dad.

Were they all Controllers? The thought made me shiver. If that many people already had Yeerks in their heads...

I didn't dwell on it. I did exactly what I was expected to, and plunged right in. We all did. We acted like we wanted to be there–like we belonged. And after a while, it really felt like we did.

The barbecue was good. The ultimate frisbee was competitive and fun. The fire was a warm beacon against the night air. I hung out with my dad, and it was just like it was before his job had gotten so busy. It was like I'd stepped back a few years, and everything that had distanced us was gone.

He and I sat side by side on the log seats around the fire around an hour after we'd gotten there, eating ribs.

"So, champ, you liking it?" he asked.

I wiped the sauce off my mouth and swallowed the bite I'd just taken. "I guess so, dad. It's way more fun that I thought it was."

He smiled. "Well, it's not just fun. That's the thing about Team Rocket. You come for the fun, but you stay for what it can do for you."

I raised an eyebrow. "What can it do for you?"

He shrugged. "I said before. If I told you now, there wouldn't be any surprise to it. We love surprises. But you'll find out, once you're a full member."

"How do you become a full member?" I asked, picturing some sort of initiation, like getting dunked in a lake.

There was a mysterious glint in my dad's eyes as he answered, the same glint he'd gotten when he'd talked about Team Rocket before, and how it was like being part of something way bigger than yourself. "I like the enthusiasm, sport, but if you're wanting to become one right now, you're out of luck. First you have to become an associate member, and after a while the leaders will decide whether you can be a full member. But once that happens... man, the whole world changes."

As he finished speaking, something odd happened. His mouth contorted ever so slightly, twisting into a shadow of a word I didn't recognize. At the same time, his face twitched a millimeter to the left, like he was trying to shake his head but couldn't do it, and his eyes shifted a tiny amount, darkening until they were almost... scared.

It was like watching a cartoon with a single frame of animation that was just slightly off. Everything looked normal up to it, and everything looked normal after it, but that one little frame messed the entire animation up. When my dad looked at me, for just a split second, he was a different man looking out of the same eyes. He was frightened, scared out of his mind. And suddenly, I knew the word he'd tried to say.

He'd tried to tell me, "No."

But then he seemed back to normal. As normal as he could seem, after that, at least.

"Well," he said, getting up and dusting off the seat of his pants. "I have to go for a bit. The full members have a private meeting. Have fun." He turned to go, but looked back at me with a grin and added. "Oh, by the way. That Yellow girl? She's lovely." He winked. "Good choice, tiger."

And then he was gone.

I felt sick.

A moment later, Silver and Yellow came over, having just finished a game of volleyball farther down toward the water. They were both grinning and laughing, having a good time.

"Okay, Red, you win," Silver said. "This is exactly what it looks like: just a party at the beach. Nobody here is a Controller, and neither is your dad."

But they were. And he was. I wanted to break down right there–to break down and cry and beg to wake up from this nightmare. But I couldn't. I was the leader. I had to stay strong. I had to keep myself under control, even if I felt out of control. Because just one droop of Atlas' shoulder, and the whole world comes toppling down.

I looked at Silver's and Yellow's smiles. I didn't want to take those away. Especially Yellow's. When I saw her smile, it made me feel like everything was okay. But everything wasn't okay. And I was the one who had to say it, because I was the one who knew the truth.

I knew what I'd seen in my dad's eyes in that split second, in that one out-of-place frame. At that moment, my dad had gained control of his face for just long enough that I could see it before the Yeerk wrapped around his brain crushed him again.

At that moment, my dad–my real dad–had tried to warn me.