Chapter 21

It didn't take long for the innocent part of the trip to come to a close. The zoo ended up being a lot of fun, don't get me wrong. Sara got her face painted like a jaguar, though Jordan said she was too old for it. But the meerkat exhibit was open to the public after all, and Jordan was beyond thrilled.

It wasn't an outing completely devoid of responsibility. Rachel said she was responsible for feeding her sisters for the night - her mom usually had leftovers in the fridge or money for delivery - and I had to be home by seven, as per the standing agreement with my parents concerning driving privileges on school nights. Pretzel dogs and Dairy Queen Blizzards at the zoo makes for a pretty damn good evening, honestly.

We all got some good morph ideas, though the pragmatics of watching a zoo animal during the day versus actually being able to touch it at night wasn't getting any clearer, and knowing we were going to have to wing it wasn't doing anything for my nerves. And knowing we were going to have to split up during a night mission was starting to creep into my thoughts as we headed back to my SUV.

The drive back was okay, but all of us were subdued in some kind of unspoken way. I wondered if Jordan and Sara picked up on any of it. They didn't seem to notice that Rachel was being quieter than usual, or that she was taking her time looking at them while they worked on the rest of their homework. She was their big sister, and she tried to protect them from shit. She was protecting them now. From an alien invasion, no less. We knew we couldn't stop it, not really. And she couldn't tell them anything.

She couldn't even tell them good-bye.

Cassie sat next to me in the passenger seat, Marco sitting in the center row with Tobias. She was looking out the window, watching the trees go by, the sun low in the wooded hills. "It's beautiful," she said.

I could only nod.

I didn't know what to feel. I never gave much thought to how I would die. But looking at Cassie, Marco, Tobias, and my three cousins… I didn't feel scared. Sad, yes. Nervous, oh hell yes. But I felt a peace, too. If we were all going down, we were all going out together. And really, when you think about it, what else can you ask for on your way out?

We'd had fun, all of us. But that was over in a heartbeat, it seemed.

It was a quiet evening at home after I dropped everyone off. I played Xbox with Tom, nothing really significant, but it was cool all the same. I missed hanging out with my brother and if this was going to be my last night home, I was glad we had that. Mom and Dad had gone out with friends for their cards night or whatever the hell adults did without kids. I had a hard time picturing my mom throwing back drinks at the club or anything, but I was glad they weren't home. I don't think I could've dealt with seeing my parents.

Tomorrow was going to be the real end game. Once Rachel had Chapman's key card and I shook Chapman's hand, we would be on our last mission. It would either work or it wouldn't, and there was no guarantee any of us would come back.

But the trip back to The Gardens wasn't insignificant.

It was just after ten when I opened my window and flew out into the night. It wasn't long before I found other ravens heading north. There was a little glitch when I realized there were only three of us, and for a second I was worried - or maybe even optimistic - that one of us had bailed. But it turned out that Tobias had simply left earlier than the rest of us.

Made sense, I guess. He was the only one of us that didn't have someone waiting on him at home. Marco might not have had the best home life after his mother's passing, but he did still have his dad, in whatever capacity.

It was only a twenty-minute flight to The Gardens as the raven flies. And sure enough, Tobias was waiting for us, perched atop the main entrance gate.

*How long have you been waiting?* I asked.

*Not long. Maybe ten minutes.*

*Well might as well get to it. We're going to have to split up. Marco and I will head down to the African and Asian sections. Tobias, you stay with Rachel and Cassie. We'll meet back at the Dairy Queen by the giraffes.*

I had no idea what Tobias was going to pick. I knew Rachel wanted the grizzly, Cassie wanted the wolf, Marco had settled on the silverback gorilla, and I had chosen the tiger. That was the shopping list. Actually getting through here and checking out, that was going to be the real challenge.

We stayed in our raven morphs, and not for the first time, I wished we had acquired an owl for night flying. We really did suck at the planning stages. But while I couldn't speak for the others, I had no intention of demorphing if I I could avoid it. Walking around the zoo at night, in gym clothes, after hours, was not my idea of a good time.

I could hear the lions actually. Not surprising, I guess. Half the zoo was nocturnal. But if you've never heard lions in the distance in the dark, it's not what I'd count as a positive omen.

It was quiet, and it was dark, but there were some dim floodlights on the footpaths below. The towers of the sky tram stood to my immediate left like silent sentinels, the shadows of the hanging tram cars waved an undulating darkness as they swayed in the night breeze. It just felt creepy. But Cassie had told all of us that there most definitely was staff here and night security. Like I said, a lot of the animals were nocturnal, and the zoo had a solid night shift to handle the animal care that can't go on during operating hours.

There were people cutting up fruits, vegetables, fish, and assorted animal caracasses. Feeding lions, hyenas, bears, tigers, leopards, and so on involved a lot of meat, and it was a horror show behind the curtain. The herbivores weren't any easier. It takes an astonishing amount of fresh fruit and greens to take care of two monkey houses, add in literal tons of hay for the rhinos, hippos, bison, and elephants, and the grocery bill for any large zoo is ridiculous. Cassie said this place wouldn't be too busy till about four in the morning when they had to be ready to receive deliveries, but obviously we weren't planning to stay that late. Nonetheless, the zoo was apparently never completely empty. Some of the enclosures were cleaned overnight, too, so she told us to be aware that enclosure lights could come on at any time.

*You as creeped out by this place at night as I am?* Marco asked.

*Oh, hell yes,* I said.

*Well, let's hurry up and get to the primate house.*

The zoo had mandrills, chimpanzees, and mountain gorillas. Each had a separate outdoor enclosure during the day, but each enclosure led into a different floor of the primate building, where they could be kept indoors at night or whenever the weather wasn't suitable.

The gorillas were conveniently located on the third floor.

We saw the illuminated cones of flashlights below, and I had to take the mental equivalent of a deep breath.

*Well,* Marco said, *there's some of that night security Cassie mentioned.*

*Yeah,* I said stoically. Thanks for that, bro. Really helps. The primate house was on view now, so I opted to change the subject. *How do you want to get in here?* I asked.

*You're asking me?*

*I value your opinion,* I said, patronizing.

*We could see if any of the windows are open,* he said after a minute. *Maybe try raccoon mode and try the vents if windows are a bust?*

He didn't have to say the last part. If we couldn't fly through a window or crawl through a vent, that left only the staff entrance. My lizard was small enough to get through a locked door if it came to that, but I was really hoping it didn't.

Of course it did, though.

None of the windows were open, which wasn't a surprise. And the ventilation on the roof turned out to be inaccessible. We demorphed on the roof and gave it our all, but without tools, there was no getting in.

"Jake?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it. Go to raccoon and follow me down. Give me a wide berth, though. I don't want the lizard instincts going through the roof."

I felt the ground rush up at me as I shrank, the bizarre itching cascade sensation as my skin transitioned into pebbled scales, and the uncomfortable sensation of my tail shooting out behind me. My limbs shriveled and suddenly the night became a little clearer as my lizard vision replaced human eyesight. Depth perception was still a bit wonky in lizard mode, but the reptile eye was better in the dark than the raven had been.

Marco was finishing the last changes to raccoon and I moved my lizard butt into gear and down over the side wall. As I expected, the lizard brain wasn't happy about the raccoon behind me. I stopped at the nearest window to see if I could squeeze in at all, but no luck. No surprise really. What was surprising, though, was that I quickly find out that the staff door was actually too snug-fitting to its frame for my lizard body to squeeze through.

*Now what?* Marco asked.

I cursed inwardly. *Let me think,* I said. *I guess back up to the roof and lizard my way through the vent we can't open.*

Marco didn't answer. His adorable raccoon face was looking at the side wall around the corner. *I think there's a vent over there,* he said. *Wanna give it a shot?*

*Why not?*

I went up the wall and across the brick façade while Marco stayed on the ground in the bushes. How did I end up here again? I really was hoping there were no spiders in this vent. The vent was dark, slightly warm, and offered adequate protection from the raccoon, all of which the lizard liked. I was less thrilled by far, but at least there were no bugs. Actually, the vent seemed to be rather dusty or something. There was an oddly familiar taste to the air, something I could probably have figured out if I had been human, but that only registered as the unhelpful 'not food' to the lizard instincts.

Suddenly, I was falling. The floor had given out below me and I tumbled end over end for what felt like forever. It must have only been a few feet at most, but to my relative size, that was impressive. The vent had transitioned to a vertical cylindrical section, and I wasn't able to go up easily. I ended up moving through an elbow joint and then found some kind of steel mesh barrier. It felt fuzzy and weird, and I realized I was trapped.

I panicked.

My lizard body thrashed against the mesh, and I felt the screen brush against my scales. The screen moved. It wasn't a very strong screen, whatever it was, and it seemed to move easily. I asserted my human mind over the panicking lizard instincts and pushed against the screen. It took some effort and a few minutes, but I got the screen to move till finally I found a gap I could get through.

The second I pushed past the screen, I immediately fell again. This time, I landed on something soft. I crawled through what seemed to be a deflated tent. What in the hell kind of vent was this? I moved through the fabric nightmare, and found a plastic wall blocking my path.

I would have laughed if I could.

It dawned on me immediately that I had just crawled through the dryer exhaust vent of a staff laundry room. I was in a goddamned dryer. The smell in the ductwork had been fabric softener or dryer sheets, and the flimsy steel screen had been a lint trap. And to add to my humiliating trials, I discovered that my tiny little lizard body wasn't strong enough or heavy enough to open the dryer door.

I doubted the dryer was big enough for my human form. It might have been. It was the larger type of industrial machine they use in hospitals, I think. But I had no real choice in the matter. I was fairly confident that my expanding human mass would be enough to push the dryer door open.

The drum of the dryer seemed to get smaller and smaller as I grew increasingly larger. I felt my shoulder press against the round plastic door of the dryer. I was maybe half-way between human and lizard. My skin was lightly pebbled, but in between the scales, my normal human hairs had grown through. I was maybe forty pounds, toddler sized. But the door didn't open. I wondered how long I could stay between morphs. Half human and half reptile, I had no idea how the Andalite technology kept me alive with internal organs that couldn't possibly be at all viable. I focused on human and kept growing.

Finally, about three-quarters to human, the dryer door popped open. I moved indelicately and awkwardly through the round door and stood on completely human legs. I felt the last few changes as the last remnants of reptile DNA cleared my system, and I took a deep breath.

I doubted the whole thing took more than ten minutes, but it felt like hours.

The laundry room was dark, and it took a minute to find the door. I opened it slightly and looked out into the hallway. There were dim amber safety lights spaced along the wall, but the fluorescent overhead lights were off. It was a little reassuring that there were no obvious signs of zoo staff as I stepped out into the corridor.

Before I did anything else, I had to let Marco in, so I went down to my left and opened the door. Marco must have thought I was zoo staff, because I didn't see him anywhere. "Marco!" I whispered, loud as I dare.

For a minute, nothing happened. Then, comically, like I was letting the cat in or something, the raccoon waddled into the hallway.

A few minutes later, he was back to human. I really hoped the zoo didn't have security cameras.

"Sooner you get this over with, the better," I said.

"Like I want to hang around longer than I have to."

I don't know what I expected the back rooms of a zoo. Maybe I thought there would be all kinds of monkey noises or something. The design of the building was more aesthetically pleasing on the exterior, but the interior was very utilitarian. The bare cinder block walls had been painted a light cream yellow, there were exposed pipes and ductwork along the wall and ceiling. Really, it just felt like the school basement. The staff room had a little break area with a coffee machine, we walked passed a kitchen area with no fewer than three refrigerators and a food prep table. There were staff lockers, towel racks, a row of boots, white boards with all kinds of animal notes and schedules. I had to wonder what a day working at the primate house would be like.

At the far end of the corridor, we came to a landing. We could either go to the mandrill area or up the stairs to the other primates. And we weren't there for the mandrills.

I was a few stairs up when I realized Marco wasn't behind me.

"Marco?" I whispered, still worried someone was going to hear us.

"One sec," he said, and went back down the hall.

"What the hell, man?"

He was back less than a minute later holding an apple.

"You went back for a snack?" I asked.

"Yep."

I rolled my eyes and we rounded the stairs as fast as we dared. I took a second to catch my breath as we came to the door for the gorillas' indoor enclosure. This was it. This zoo had six eastern lowland gorillas, a male and five females. Each of them was strong enough to kill a human before you could say Harambe. But a silverback eastern lowland gorilla is the largest gorilla - the largest living primate - in the world.

When we had been here earlier with Jordan and Sara, I read the placard on the other side of the glass. Their resident silverback, which they had named Big Jim, was over five hundred pounds. They could get up to six hundred. The placard also mentioned that gorillas are proportionately six times stronger than a human and have a bite force stronger than a great white shark.

This could go bad so easily.

"Ready?"

"Ready as I'm gonna be."

Red light spilled out as we opened the door. It was like stepping into a dark room, really. We could smell the gorillas the second the door opened, the smell of hay and fruit. I heard a low grunt as we stepped inside.

The nighttime enclosure was essentially a very large series of concrete rooms with plexiglass windows. The first area we came to was something of a training area. It looked like the visitor center of a prison. A bunch of booths with a metal screens. Cassie told us later that they use that area for something called target training. They teach the gorillas to show ears, noses, mouths, hands, or whatever, to the staff so they can be checked for injuries or parasites, or give them medication if needed.

We came to the next area and found where they kept the gorillas overnight. It wasn't as habitat authentic as their other areas. On the other side of this wall, they had a lovely slice of climate-controlled African rainforest and outside they had a large expanse of trees, tire swings, and other toys.

This wasn't much more than a concrete room, about double the size of my living room, filled with hay and banana leaves to make something of a soft bedding area. There were a few rope hammocks hanging from a steel girder in the ceiling, a few trees or ferns in planters set in the corner, but otherwise it was just a room with concrete walls and a sliding steel door.

And all of them were asleep. I could see okay in the red light, but the pile of sleeping gorillas looked like just a huge mass of black fur. It was hard to determine a single animal, save for one sleeping in one of the hanging hammocks.

There's an old adage for situations like this: Let lie sleeping giants.

Equally relevant, if nowhere near as poetic: Please, do not tap on glass.

Marco did both.

Big Jim sat up.

My heart stopped.

"Marco, what the hell?"

Marco pointed to something like a mail slot to his left and then gestured for me to keep quiet. I wanted to scream.

In the wild, dominant males protect their harems. And Big Jim was the first gorilla to move, though not the only one to wake up. He didn't charge the glass or anything like I was worried he might do. I should've realized he was pretty used to people, even if he wasn't particularly used to people coming in at night. Gorillas are obviously incredibly smart, and Big Jim was more curious about our presence than he was threatened.

Or so I hoped.

He approached the glass slowly but surely and then sat down right at the wall.

"Here goes nothing." I could hear the waver in Marco's voice. But he held up the apple and Big Jim suddenly was very keen on Marco. Marco very slowly opened the metal slot window and held the apple out for the gorilla.

A large, black-furred hand the size of a car battery appeared in the slot. Marco, very tentatively, touched the gorilla as he handed him the apple.

Big Jim sagged a bit on the plexiglass wall as Marco acquired his DNA, but the trance lasted no more than a few seconds. The giant hand retreated back into the slot and before he went back to his harem, I got to see those giant gorilla canines bite into that apple.

"Holy shit," I breathed.

Marco turned slowly, and somehow managed to look incredibly pale in the red light. "Okay, let's get the fuck outta here."

I nodded. I didn't want to linger either. And as brave as Marco had just been touching the giant silverback, this had been the easy part.

I doubted the tiger would be as docile.