During the events of this chapter Jake discovers the entrance to the Yeerk Pool. After acquiring more powerful morphs they make a desperate attack on the Yeerk Pool and escape with their lives.
As Sean is on the plane, Erek is having an important discussion with the other Chee involving the Animorphs; the five on the west coast and the one on the east coast.
Nothing. I was just supposed to go home. Great.
I spent every second of that flight either sneaking glances at Dad's ear or trying to sleep.
"Are you all right?"
I should have tried to sleep more.
"I'm fine," I said.
Dad raised an eyebrow. My heart skipped a few beats and I started to run my stomach.
"Guess I'm just feeling a little woozy."
Inside of his head was an alien slug, connected to his brain. That slug was going through Dad's memories of his time raising me and trying to find out if what I had said was normal for my behavior.
Fifty thousand feet in the air and my biggest worry the whole flight was whether or not I would wind up with a Yeerk in my own head. A Yeerk that would learn of my ability to morph and of the Chee…why would Erek take the risk? If I had been his position, I'd have locked me away and thrown away the key. And that would be before I morphed the turkey.
I tried to sleep for the rest of the flight. Because even if I didn't know about the Yeerk, I had to admit, staring at his ear the whole time was pretty weird. Asking a kid you barely knew if you could show him something in the bathroom weird. (Erek will always be that kid to me, billion year-old android or not.)
We got home late Monday night. I had to go to school the next day so I tried to get some sleep, but there was so much on my mind that I wound up lying there in bed, staring at the ceiling. Every time the floorboards creaked I expected, Dad to bust in through the door with those guys from the construction site and shove a Yeerk into my brain.
Or…what was that guy saying about a pool? And Erek mentioned that the construction equipment was being used to build pools? Is that where the Yeerks stayed when they weren't…controlling people? You would definitely need a place to hide then, to keep your host from running free and telling others what's going on.
My thoughts drifted to the turkey morph. Yeah, it could have gone a little better, but…I was a turkey! And not in a metaphorical way, I was a genuine wild turkey.
What else could I be? All I had to do was touch it and…I could be a wolf! Or a bat. Or a…oh man, what a would morphing a humpback whale be like?
Ever since I saw Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, I was so jealous of Spock getting to communicate with Gracie the pregnant humpback. How awesome would that be to really talk to other humpbacks? Or blue whales, or dolphins?
Flying! Could I actually become a bird and fly? That would be so awesome. And all I had to do was touch one. And all because I tripped and fell while running for my life.
I was about to give up on falling asleep and get up to grab a glass of milk when I heard Dad's voice. He was in his room next to mine, which also doubled as his office.
"Hang on," his muffled voice came through the door. "I think the boy is awake."
I stopped moving. The walls were thin and he would hear me clearly, so I stayed quiet and waited. A few seconds went by.
"All right. Finish what you were saying." Silence. Then, "No. That idiot doesn't suspect a thing, as always. For someone with two sets of eyes, he misses quite a bit. But your suspicions were correct Sestran. There are quite a few Yeerks under his command who would gladly buy their way out of his service."
There was a pause as he rustled some papers.
"Oh Sestran…this host is very valuable. If Visser Three only knew what this man had begun to uncover he would have never allowed this man to live. His mistake will cost him, just as mine did…Don't get weak on me now Sestran. You can't afford it and you know it. Make sure everyone you recruit knows it as well. May the Kandrona shine and strengthen you, brother."
My dreams of morphing a humpbacked whale deflated as the reality of the situation crashed down on me. Every time I tried to convince myself that it was all a dream, something like this happened. Only now Erek wasn't here to explain everything to me.
Visser Three? Kandrona? Erek mentioned a Kandrona before. It was what the Yeerks needed every three days. And Visser Three was the guy they wanted to bring me to at the construction site. He was in charge of all of this?
No…Visser Three may have been in charge, but it sounded like Dad…well, the Yeerk controlling Dad had a grudge against his boss.
I need more information. I thought.
"We'll contact you," Erek's words echoed in my head.
Great. In the meantime I could wind up dead, or worse.
If I couldn't sleep before, I certainly couldn't sleep wondering what the Yeerk in my dad's head was doing, or planning to do. So I waited another hour and got up. The Yeerk didn't know I knew anything, so I had the advantage as long as it didn't try to make me a controller.
I crossed the hall to the bathroom.
"Sean?"
My heart pounded but I didn't turn too quickly. Instead I pretended to yawn and turned around. After all, I was tired, I just couldn't fall asleep. Dad, on the other hand, was still dressed in the same clothes he was wearing on the flight in.
"Gotta pee," I said, smiling sheepishly.
"Thanks for the info," he said, smiling. "You sleeping okay?"
Did you hear anything? That's what the Yeerk wanted to ask, but Dad never hides anything from me. Every story he's working on, every lead he follows, he always tells me something. If anything were to happen to him, whatever he told me could be valuable for the police. So the Yeerk knew not to act suspicious.
I'm figuring it out on my own, I thought. Erek must have known I would think of something. If the Yeerk makes a move to take me, I may have to try and run.
"Yeah," I said. "I guess I just drank too much soda on the flight."
Dad nodded.
I expected him to ask me what soda. I was asleep the whole time and I didn't even eat anything. The Yeerk didn't seem to pick up on that. So long as I didn't know what it was up to, that was all that mattered.
"Well…" I pointed to the bathroom.
"Go to it," Dad said, before turning back into his room.
I went into the bathroom and made a bit of noise. The window was open. I half considered morphing back into a turkey and seeing if those wings would get me anywhere, but I decided against it. The window was too small for a turkey to fit through anyhow.
Besides, I couldn't just run. Dad was all I had.
Mom was…God only knew what she was doing. She'd been doing it since I was six but it didn't have to do with me. And all Dad was trying to do was tell people the truth. And he was so good at it that the Yeerks wanted him dead…or to use him as a tool in their personal agenda against each other.
I went back to my room. The clock on my drawer said four-thirty. Damn it. School wouldn't be for another four hours and I had no reason to leave the house.
Movement?
There was rustling of papers. Dad was packing something. I barely had time to turn my head from the door and close my eyes as he opened it, checking to see if I was asleep. It was warm outside, but the room felt cold suddenly.
No goodnight. No, "I love you." No instructions on what to do if he didn't get back. Dad…the Yeerk…someone this Sestran guy was clearly afraid of…left the apartment. He didn't stop in the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee or something for breakfast, he didn't even leave a note. This Yeerk was doing everything wrong.
The car was parked in a lot directly below my window. I stayed in bed as the halogen lamps flooded the room. Then when the car backed up and the car was out of the driveway, I got up and watched as the car drove away.
School was in three and a half hours. That means I had two hours to find a bird that could keep up with that car. And I knew just where to look.
Visser Three may have made a mistake letting my Dad go. But this Yeerk made an even bigger mistake. Assuming I was stupid.