Esplin 1894:

((Sabotage complete)) Torfan reported.

Excellent. If the andalites followed the plan… they knew where we would be. They were supposed to use their sparrow morphs to escape through that entrance.

We were moving slowly, sticking to the shadows, using the warren of utility and prefabricated buildings that ringed the Yeerk pool as cover. Roughly thirty humans (and Karl), followed us. Amid the gunfire and dracon bursts on the far side of the pool… with hosts killing controllers barehanded (and dying themselves)… no one thought to guard the supply entrance. Those hosts had been brought in by the personnel entrances. They probably weren't aware of the supply entrance. In their panic, they were trusting to what was known. We began to ease around a corner of a building, on our way to the next point of refuge—

((Jacob!)) I hissed, flicking his eyes to something that had caught my attention. Jacob didn't fight me.

So he paid more attention to the slumped shadow.

((Shit)) he thought.

"Hold up," Jacob hissed, grabbing the nervous men behind him by the shoulders, stopping them from following. We eased back into cover.

"Stay here, I'll be right back," Jacob said quietly.

The man on the left looked unstable, wracked with mindless terror. A man of similar appearance, a brother, I assumed, was not as afflicted, and pulled the brother closer. Other humans behind the pair began to bunch up. Karl looked up from the back of the group, noticing that we'd stopped moving. Jacob held up his hand in a wait gesture. Karl scowled and threw a surly OK at us.

((We could go around…)) I trailed off, worried.

((We'd have to back track quite a bit… you can see most approaches from that spot… and we're running out of time)) Jacob said, nervously.

((We don't know if it's a controller or a host)) I warned.

((Let's go with the standard I'm your friend approach)) Jacob decided, slipping his pistol into the back of his pants.

((You engaged the safety, correct?)) I demanded, hastily flicking through Jacob's memory.

The last thing we needed was an accidental discharge.

((Yes Esplin. It won't shoot us in the ass)) Jacob growled.

He had engaged the safety.

Good.

Jacob wasn't making any noise as we crept along the shadows slowly on all fours… steadily. A group would have been noticed. We were nothing. We were a spider. Or that acid blooded Alien that terrified Jacob so much. Not until we were too close.

"¡hijo de puta!"

Jacob lunged, pushing off from the cavern floor, demanding everything from the modifications I had made, our speed and strength—

—because there had been a glint of metal, as the slumped shape raised a hand.

The shadow was armed.

But so were we, in a way.

Jacob's hands struck, meeting metal and flesh. A red beam punched under our arm, close enough to raise blisters, but no actual damage.

Then we had the dracon beam.

"¡te voy a matar!"

The shadow wasn't quite dead. And she was angry.

Jacob placed a hand against the shadow's lips firmly.

((Esplin, give me something!)) Jacob demanded, when teeth sank into our palm.

I quickly scanned his memories of Spanish class (he slept through a lot of it), giving me very little to work with except for:

"¡Cállate!" I snarled.

The shadow complied. She shut up.

"Gracias me amiga," Jacob added.

She was probably a host. But we couldn't be sure.

She was also injured.

Helaine-Mtalenon-Ashul:

((What is he doing?)) I demanded, as the human carried and led other humans towards the service entrance. The confusion was dying down on the far side of the pool, soon order would be restored. He wasn't going to reach the exit in time, a ragged group of guards was racing to secure the position—

Torfan angled his wings and dove.

((Torfan!)) I barked.

((I am rendering assistance)) the aristh said calmly.

The fool was going to get himself killed. And then where would I be?

Alone, on this forsaken alien planet.

Jacob Nyles:

The Spanish girl was probably twelve years old. She'd taken a bullet in the leg, and had tied it off with one of her sleeves. I had her across my shoulder like a fireman, which probably didn't feel too good for her. We had more important business through.

Namely, the truck.

There was a hork-bajir and six humans with weapons between us and it, moving towards the nearby supply entrance. We had to take them now. They would hear us starting the truck, and would have cover by the entrance to stop us. Here they were exposed.

We'd just run out of time.

"Karl," I hissed, shoving my pistol into her hands, "We need to get to the truck."

Then she saw what I had.

"You gave me the girl gun?" she asked, eying my weapon.

"Can you use a ray gun?" I snapped.

She smiled, slightly.

"Hit as hard and fast as you can, we're out of time. They'll notice the shooting immediately now," Esplin told Karl. They being the Yeerk survivors on the other side of the pool.

"Get to the truck!" I shouted, and opened fire. My first shot hit the closest controller in the back, dead center. He was probably equally dead before he hit the ground.

Freedom or death. Never had it been so literal.

I buried the revulsion deep. I'd deal with it later.

My burst ear throbbed, when Karl opened fire, her shots also aimed for center mass. The hork-bajir was at the head of the group, so was protected from immediate attack by the human controllers between it and us.

It had time to turn, and raise a weapon, as its fellows fell and died in surprise.

"Look out!" Esplin yelled. The escaping humans dove for the ground.

Shit. It was going to have a clean shot—

Until a second hork-bajir vaulted over the truck, and landed beside the old controller, and spun, the blades on its tail neatly whipping across the older hork-bajir's throat, slicing clean down to bone.

"Jett?" Karl asked, startled.

I knew it wasn't. Jett was otherwise occupied. It had to be Torfan, or Helaine.

But the andalites were a secret.

"Jett, get the doors open!" I shouted, pointing to the truck. The morphed Andalite nodded, and moved quickly, ignoring the lock on the back door, he (or she, but I was betting it was Torfan) grabbed the handle and heaved, forcing the lock and raising the heavy rolling door up in its track.

"Onto the truck!" I screamed.

"And watch the blades!" Esplin warned.

"Jett" was standing in the middle of the opening, holding it open, which meant the humans would have to squeeze past on either side.

"SKREEEEEEE!"

Oh, that couldn't have been a good sound.

((Taxxons)) Esplin growled.

"What was that?" Karl demanded. I half threw the Spanish girl into the back of the truck, into several waiting arms.

"Doesn't matter, get the truck started!" I said, darting back to the fallen controllers, grabbing guns from fallen hands, shoving them into my pulled up shirt front. Mostly pistols but—

"A submachine gun," Esplin sighed with misgiving, as I tossed it over my shoulder by its strap.

I think it was an "MP something". Some sort of number. It had Heckler and Koch emblazoned on it.

I remembered seeing it in some action movies. Usually SWAT people had it.

I didn't have time to study it. I just hoped the thing wasn't on safety.

The taxxons had come to play. Not with us specifically… but there was a lot of blood and bodies all over the cavern. These weren't controllers any more. The taxxon was in full control. And they had only one concern:

Meat.

People were still squeezing into the truck. About ten or so were left.

The leading edge of the Taxxons was starting to head our way.

I saw a hork-bajir grab a pair of wounded human controllers up off the ground, and throw them into a storage building, slamming the door shut a moment before the giant centipede aliens crashed into the elderly warrior, knocking it down and swarming over it.

The old but still powerful alien thrashed to the surface. Its blades were capped, and claws filed down flat… but it was still strong enough to poke holes in the weak flesh-bags with what amounted to hard plastic blades. I felt the hatred rising. The frustration.

Esplin's people were capable of so much more than what they were. It was little acts like this… small displays of humanity that made me hate them all the more. It's not that they didn't know any better… they simply chose not to.

Which made them monsters, instead of animals. An animal can be forgiven for its nature, it doesn't know any better way.

Yeerks just didn't fucking care.

I yanked out my communicator, "Joker to Tinman, the shit hath hit-eth the fan! Evac dost soonest!" I yelled.

"What did you say?" Tin man demanded.

"We're on our way, get the ride ready to go now!" Esplin snarled.

"Got it," the carjacker snapped.

((Jacob, the humans are secure!)) Torfan reported, slamming the door down.

"Karl, let's go," I said, jumping into the passenger seat. Torfan jumped, and sprawled on top of the truck's cabin roof, securing himself to the metal with knee and tail blades.

Karl threw the truck into gear, and into reverse. We hit a few things along the way, and lost the passenger side mirror. I don't think Karl cared. She could see the monsters coming. A heavily laden truck does not accelerate quickly.

It seems even slower when you're in danger of being eaten alive.

Karl managed to torture the poor engine sufficiently to eke out an impressive burst of speed from the diesel engine.

I was really wishing this model had doors.

The SMG was on automatic. I found this out a moment after pulling the trigger. The taxxon in question was in very small pieces… but you only needed one bullet to kill a Taxxon.

Crap. I shoved the empty SMG behind my seat, and drew a pistol from my improvised shirt-kangaroo-pouch. I emptied the pistol way too quickly. One (more or less) bullet per enemy. I dropped the gun, and drew another. They were all different models, so the magazines weren't the same anyway.

((You assume )) Esplin said tightly.

A sparrow landed on the dash inside the cabin, as I emptied another pistol into the leading ranks of the closing Taxxons.

((Congratulations human. You've killed us all)) the sparrow told me bitterly.

Then we reached the tunnel. I was also out of pistols.

It was time for my exit strategy.

The one I thought of about three seconds ago.

((Hollywood will be the death of us)) Esplin sighed, as she followed my lead, fiddling with the dracon-beam's settings for me. I leaned out of the truck, standing on the runner board, right hand holding very tightly to the I-beam.

I raised the dracon beam, and fired. The beam was set to full power, with as tight a beam as possible. I dragged it along the ceiling behind us, like pulling scissors through a sheet of butcher paper, zig-zagging like a zipper.

Nothing was happening.

((The concrete is thick, but like any shell, open a slit wide enough and—))

A sudden rumble cut off Esplin's assurances to me.

The crack in the ceiling was spreading ahead of my cutting beam.

((Cease fire!)) Torfan yelped. The dracon died in my hand a moment later, depleted. I let it fall, before scrambling back into the cabin.

The tunnel's roof was collapsing behind us, letting dirt and rock fill the passage.

Taxxons were tunnelers… but they couldn't tunnel faster than a truck in fourth gear.

"Karl, slow down!" Esplin yelled. I didn't know how much tunnel was left, but Esplin probably did.

"Now!" she snapped, grabbing Karl's arm.

The ex-security guard blinked, took her foot off the gas, and began down shifting.

((()))

I sabotaged the lift controls after we were on the surface. Jett was waiting for us in the booth, with the unconscious grandfatherly guard.

Which drew some looks from Karl, as she glanced between the two hork-bajir.

I didn't say anything. I just ignored it, as if it weren't important.

"Jah-kob, we go?" Jett asked. She was nervous. Afraid.

"Let me ask," I said.

"Joker to Sixes," I said.

"What do you need?" Sonili asked.

"Is surveillance in the area down?" I asked.

"Yes," Sonili answered simply. She didn't go into detail on how she'd done it.

"Okay, let's go then," I said.

We stole a different truck, as there were some interesting scrape lines on ours. Torfan and Helaine slipped away during that though, presumably to morph a larger bird.

It took six minutes.

Which was five minutes longer than I'd like.

((()))

"The bus is ready," Tin-man reported.

"Good," I said, as Karl took the next corner Esplin pointed out.

"Park here, we're on foot now," I whispered.

"Jett, you know what to do," I whispered. The Hork-bajir nodded, and slipped back down the alley, communicator in hand. Sonili could guide her if she got lost.

Then I led the group through the streets to the extraction point, with the injured Spanish girl (whose bloody leg would bring a lot of attention), hidden in the center, arms thrown over the shoulders of two brothers.

The windowless bus was gaudy, flashy, and Texas-y… just another Houston tour bus (one of the mid-size ones). It was also stolen, (and heavily redecorated).

Tin-man opened the door, scowling down at us in his fake tourism uniform. We'd made him shave. He didn't like that.

"Hurry up. Props in the back," he snapped.

The "props" were also stolen. "I (heart) Houston" memorabilia (T-shirts, baseball caps, etc). little American flags, tourist crap like that.

"Okay guys, put this stuff on, we're tourists!" I called out loudly enough for the people getting on to hear, but not enough to carry far beyond the sounds of traffic. I pulled off my delivery uniform top, and pulled on a tourist shirt (roughly) the correct size, as well as a tourist hat and grabbed a pair of cheap sunglasses from a big cardboard box.

"Take your seats, hurry!" Karl instructed, helping the Spanish girl take a seat near the middle. She was grumbling in Spanish.

I hastily wove through the rows and the people, handing out T-shirts, sunglasses, and hats.

I glanced at my watch. We'd been on the bus for two minutes. We'd escaped the Yeerk pool twenty-six minutes ago. The taxxons might still be causing chaos… but probably not.

"Okay Tin-man, take it away," I said, patting the car-jacker on the shoulder.

The bus edged out into traffic.

All of the discarded shirts were shoved into black trash bags and jammed into empty seats.

"Karl, there should be some pallets of bottled water somewhere, can you start handing those out?" I asked, pulling the red first-aid case out from under the driver's seat.

The security guard nodded, and began looking under chairs. The prospect of water in the Texan heat had people also looking. It only took a few seconds before the water was discovered.

"And someone start using the PA system!" I snapped. A silent tour bus was suspicious.

"This is a tour bus!"

An overweight man in his late forties puffed and panted his way to the front.

"There's some flash cards, for tour-guide stuff," I said, pointing, but the man ignored the cards, as he picked up the mike.

He looked around, for a moment, before apparently recognizing something.

"On our left, you'll see the Houston Museum of Science, which was formed in 1909—"

His thick baritone drawl marked him as a native of texas, and probably of Houston. For all I knew, he was completely bullshitting, but he sounded relaxed (a lie. He looked terrified, but didn't sound like it) and confident that what he was saying was truth.

Perfect.

I turned to the girl with a bullet in her leg.

She eyed the red box in my hands, with the white cross on it.

"hijo de puta…" she whimpered. She knew why I was here.

"You're still bleeding a lot," I said, pointing to the blood on the plastic-leather seat.

"No bad, no bad!" she protested.

I wasn't exactly sure what to do though. I mean, I had experience with hell-spider injuries and stuff, from the mist-world… but there hadn't been a lot of guns there.

I hesitated, looking at the blood soaked sleeve, wrapped around the girl's thigh.

I was, sadly enough, saved by a woman. Not a pussy.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Karl asked me briskly.

"Not really. I'm more energy burns and stab wounds," I shrugged helplessly.

"Then give me that," Karl said, taking the box from me. I didn't leave though. We stayed to watch. I'm a visual learner.

We also learned a lot of interesting Spanish.

We just didn't know what it meant.

Sonili-Esth-Fastil:

((There is an increase in Yeerk activity… but there doesn't seem to be any mention of your group)) I told Jacob. The yeerks were leaning heavily upon their police-based operatives, using them to manipulate the non-controller police to try to catch the escaped hosts. The incident was being concealed as some kind of civil disturbance. There were many "volunteers" (additional controllers) on the streets.

Judging from the communiqués, my mother was furious with Jacob about something. He'd changed the plan, without telling us. I wasn't worried though, I trusted him more than my mother. He'd probably had a reason.

There was only one thing that really mattered to me. They were coming home.

I wouldn't be alone much longer. I'd used my free time constructively, trying to ignore the isolation. Consequently, I had finished my human program, to locate the unknown human searching for Jacob… and I was almost finished cracking my mother's encryption… so close. Three lines. It took priority over finding Jacob's investigator.

They were incomprehensible to me though, using several vertices I'd never seen before. I was cautious of making any mistakes this close to success… so I was studying them, and running simulations, trying to understand them. Somehow, it almost seemed like this was a test. If I could break this encryption, then I was worthier than my mother.

It was a startlingly human urge.

Esplin 1894:

"Checkpoint coming up, don't forget to wave!" Jacob called out over the hot wind blowing through the bus windows.

Ahead of us on the sidewalk, three police officers were wrestling with a wildly struggling Hispanic man, screaming Spanish (the man, not the officers).

We'd seen this before on our circuitous route out of the city.

We were almost free… we were sitting next to the Spanish girl, who still refused to say anything to us. We were sitting there for two reasons.

First, we didn't know if she was really a host or not.

Second, she was a scapegoat. I didn't think she was the girl we'd seen being infested during our initial recon of the Yeerk pool… but for Jacob, she was close enough.

She was safe now.

I wasn't going to argue with him. He was a curious mixture of lethargy (the adrenaline had long since faded), and contentment.

I enjoyed the feeling.

Ten minutes later we had "left" Houston, Texas. According to the sign, at least. I did not observe much difference in the scenery, on our way to "New Caney" using Interstate 69.

We couldn't go far, this was a tour bus (and it was stolen). A highly conspicuous vehicle (it was also very loud on the highway without windows).

It was time for the next phase of Jacob's plan. The final phase.

It also merged (somewhat) with the original plan too.

"There," I said, pointing out the rest stop to Tin-man, who nodded stiffly, and pulled in, picking a lane behind the restroom facilities, which would be hidden from the road, and turned off the engine.

Torfan, Helaine, and Jett where here somewhere, in the van we'd used to reach Houston. They would have to wait.

"Tin man… can you keep an eye out, make sure no one gets close enough to listen in?" Jacob asked. The criminal nodded tensely, peeling out of his uniform top, and put on a more casual tank top, before exiting the bus.

We turned, and looked at the faces watching us.

"Uh… hey guys, crazy day, right?" Jacob grinned weakly.

They stared at him blankly. Clearly not what they'd expected to hear.

"Listen, I'm part of a resistance movement. We're fighting the Yeerks, but we could use all the help we can get," Jacob said.

"So, is this a join or die situation?" a man with glasses and a suit (suit-pants at least, beneath his tourist T-shirt) demanded near the middle of the bus. He was starting to go bald, and had a soft look to him.

"No. This is a join, or we part ways here have a good day situation," Jacob replied, frowning.

"So we can just… walk away?" the business man demanded.

"Yes," Jacob shrugged.

The man promptly stood, and brushed past us. Jacob grabbed him by the arm.

"After the conversation is over," I hissed. I didn't want any telephone calls giving our position away. Frightened, and angry, the man returned to his seat.

"So listen up, the situation is simple: you can go, or you can stay," I said.

Everyone was watching us, but most expressions were still hidden behind the cheap sunglasses.

"If you stay, you get a chance to hurt the Yeerks for what they did to us. Or you can run and hide. The choice is yours, I'll give you five minutes to think about it," Jacob finished. We crossed our arms, and waited in the sweltering heat, glancing at the watch.

"Okay. Time's up. If you want to run, get off now," Jacob said, opening the bus doors. Everyone stood up, and began to file off the bus, several dragging children. Everyone kept an eye on us, as if expecting a trap of some kind… like we were going to shoot them all in the back at the last second. The last person in line, was Karl.

"Karl?" Jacob asked, surprised.

The woman looked at us stonily, "Do you realize how much I hate you?" she asked.

"I opened your eyes," Jacob said defensively.

"You made me aware of something I couldn't fix! You showed me the fucking hand in the puppet!" she snarled.

We needed Karl. She knew things, things we needed.

"Karl. There's no going back. Our families are already under observation, in case we're stupid enough to go after them," I said, loud enough for the people leaving to hear. A lot of them stumbled, but didn't stop. Of course not. They were humans. Stubborn, ignorant, savages.

"I don't care about that, I don't have any family," the woman said angrily, "This is about you destroying everything I've worked for my whole life!"

Jacob slowly looked into Karl's eyes, studying her.

"Nothing has been destroyed. Your whole life has been a test, training you for this moment… you have options that those people do not. It's very simple, Karl," Jacob said softly, "I need you. We need you. Because we can make a difference," Jacob said.

"You killed thousands of people today," Karl snapped.

"No. I gave thousands of people the choice, between continued slavery, or a chance at freedom. You saw how many chose freedom," Jacob said. Our eyes were starting to burn, and Jacob was having trouble talking. Things were coming back. Things we'd seen and done today— things we'd tried to bury deep.

Not deeply enough.

"Please Karl. I need your help," Jacob whispered.

The woman was hard. I noticed this, even with the emotions from Jacob eroding at me. Sadness, horror, fear, hopelessness… revulsion.

"I was taken by the Yeerks when I was still in high school. I know I didn't grow up normal. I'm broken, a little. But I can do this, if you help me," Jacob said fiercely, glaring at the security guard, ignoring our tears.

"You're going to get more people killed," Karl said flatly.

"Yes. Probably," Jacob agreed without flinching. Much.

Karl saw it though.

She studied us for almost a minute, face softening from anger to something… different.

"Ok," she said quietly, "I'll help, for now."

"Thank you," we said (I'm not sure which one of us did it).

"It's not for you. It's for people like them—," Karl said, pointing. Jacob looked up. Not everyone had left. Three people remained.

One was the Spanish girl (who was glaring at us). Either she spoke more English than we thought, or she couldn't stand up. And the nameless brothers. They were still here.

"—so fewer people get killed by your crusade," Karl said heavily.

"Do you still need me?" a different voice asked. I looked over to see Tin man leaning against the side of the door.

"Aren't you supposed to be guarding?" Jacob asked.

"What's to guard? Everyone left. They'll probably get caught in less than a week, stupid shits," the man snorted.

"You have plans?" Jacob asked.

"Well… not really. You're an asshole, but—" Tin man grumbled

"Using butt after asshole is redundant," Jacob smirked.

Tin man glared at us, "Stupid shit like that ensures your status as an asshole. That being said… I do owe you," Tin man glared, compulsively screwing a finger in his ear.

He doesn't like owing people. He feels indebted to Jacob, I realized.

And the man hated Yeerks.

It was a useful combination, I thought.

"Well, you are annoyingly useful," Jacob sighed, "I guess I could use you."

Tin man scowled.

"Let's go meet the rest of the team," Jacob shrugged. Helaine would not be pleased.

That did not bother me in the least.