-August 8th, 3 years after high school graduation, Animorphs are 20-21 -
-Rachel-
I got this letter in the mail. It was from the American Government – labeled top secret. It wasn't all that unusual to get something labeled top secret, at least not for me. I've been working as a spy for the government for almost a year now. It's way better than college, in my opinion, and I get to morph for a lot of my missions. Apparently this was something different, though.
Dear Ms. Berenson,
We require your services for a top secret mission in Australia. Please come to the White House banquet hall on Saturday, August 18th at 7pm for briefing. If you are unable to come, please notify us immediately.
Sincerely,
Mr. President
Wow. I hadn't gotten anything from the president in a while. I decided to go. I scheduled a flight and booked a hotel for that night. Then I left my small New York City apartment and went shopping – I wanted to get a new outfit if I was going to meet the president again.
After a few hours, my cell phone rang. I looked at the caller ID – it was Marco. What in the world? Why was he calling me? I hadn't spoken to him or any of the other animorphs in a couple years – not even Cassie. I just couldn't handle the memories they brought up – especially of Tobias. That was why I was living in New York. There weren't any large birds of prey in the city, just pigeons and other small birds. It was easier to forget that way. Plus the shopping was amazing – tons of different stores! I could have picked any place in the US to live – the government would send me anywhere to do the jobs they wanted me to do – so I picked New York. Anyway, I picked up the phone and answered it.
"Hey Rachel! How have you been!" he said.
"OK," I responded, confused. "What have you been up to?"
"I just got this letter in the mail about a banquet at the White House and some top secret mission. Jake got one too, so I thought we all might have gotten one." He explained.
"Oh. Yeah, I got one too." I replied, "Are you going?"
"Yeah, Hollywood gets boring after a while. I was thinking it would be cool if we could all meet up before or after the briefing - you know, to catch up?" He almost sounded nervous.
"That would be nice." I answered carefully, "But I can't do before because I already scheduled my flight and it only arrives 3 hours before the dinner."
"Oh, well how about..." he tried to answer.
"After would work, though." I interrupted. I really did want to catch up with everyone – it had been quite a long time. "I didn't schedule a return flight because I didn't know when they would be sending me."
"How about breakfast the next morning, then?" he asked.
"That would be fine. Will you tell the others?" I replied.
"Sure." He said.
"You know, I didn't realize other people would be there too – I've been working alone for quite some time." I said."Alone?" he said sounding surprised.
"Yeah, I'm the only morph-capable agent, so I get to do all the dirty work, so-to-speak" I said. "I'll tell you about it later, well, at least the stuff that's not classified."
"Alright." He said with a grin in his voice. "See you later Xena"
"Yeah, bye Marco."
That was such a strange conversation; I decided to call Cassie next to see what she was up to. She basically told me she had gotten the letter, but was too busy with vet school, the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, and the free Hork-Bajir in Yellowstone national park that she wasn't going to go. She also said that Jake had called her and he wasn't going either.
Wait a second. If Marco had already spoken to Jake as he'd said then . . . he just tricked me into going out to breakfast with him – alone. The little weasel! I told Cassie this and she just started laughing. "That sounds like Marco, all right!" she'd said.
-August 18th 4pm-
-Marco-
I got to the airport – Rachel had given me her flight details – and met her at the gate when she got off the plane. I carried her luggage to my limo, which was waiting outside and we went to the hotel – I'd reserved a room in the same hotel. We chatted on the way there, not about anything special, really. She was just as beautiful as ever.
"So." She asked while we were in the elevator on the way up. "When are the others getting here?"
I didn't really know what to say. The others weren't coming. Obviously she didn't know that. "I don't know" I lied. "Maybe we'll see them when we get there?"
So we went into our separate rooms, changed, and went back down to my limo to go to the White House. The others weren't there. Rachel acted surprised it was just the two of us. She glanced at me and the president started to discuss the mission – which was to start in the next week.
They suspected an organization in Australia to be similar to The Sharing! They thought the Yeerks might have come back and tried to attack the other side of the planet instead! They needed us to check it out and we were the only ones who had weapons that couldn't be taken away – our morphing powers. We were to go in as ourselves, morph something small in the bathrooms, and sneak into the "full members" meeting. Then report.
Rachel and I left to discuss it, and we decided to take the case. She wasn't too happy about it being just the two of us, but she wasn't about to turn it down – she was still Xena, after all.
At breakfast the next day, she asked me why I'd asked her to breakfast and hadn't mentioned the others wouldn't be there. I told her I just wanted to catch up. She'd been out of contact for so long, I had no idea what she was up to. She had acted like she bought my explanation, but by the look on her face, she clearly thought I was trying something else. She was right. I was trying to get her to move on, realize that she didn't have to be loyal to Tobias now because he was dead. It didn't seem to be working ... yet.