CHAPTER FOURTEEN

::Tobias::

They knew who I was.

It was so obvious when I stepped into that back room. Three of the guys were playing poker cards there, and when I opened the door, they froze upon setting sight on me. One of them was even gaping.

"You're–"

They had to be high-ranking Controllers. Of course, Visser Three couldn't allow his minions to know anything about Elfangor's son. What if he turned out to be some street urchin? Which was the very persona I assumed before. This time, Marco wanted me to take a different approach.

And here he was, right before them. Walking straight into The Sharing. The son of War-Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul. The Visser had to be notified.

Well, that was as much as I churned up in my head as the guys began to stand up.

I muttered an apology and slammed the door behind me. But I couldn't run anymore. Standing before me were the two guys I met at basketball earlier. I thought right then – this is it. They're bringing me straight to the Yeerk pool for infestation. My mind was racing with the plan Marco had outlined for me, and adrenaline was pumping through my veins to get me fired up for all the massive amounts of morphing I could possibly...

No, wait, I couldn't morph. The massive amount of running on two feet that I might have to do.

Swell.

"Hey dude," said the redhead, Cam, his eyebrows knotting together very tightly. "You're not supposed to be hanging around here. It's against the club rules."

"I – err – didn't know," I mumbled. "Was just looking for the gents."

"You just walked past it," said the other guy, Matt. "And it was a clear sign."

"And the sign on that room," Cam pointed at the back room with his thumb, "clearly says no entry, for members only. Were you trying to sneak around?"

I didn't try to protest too much; I merely gave them a weak glance and clutched at my stomach. Some part of this was a nauseous reminder of Andy and Tap-Tap, and I braced myself for worse things to happen than a toilet bowl swirly. When they hauled me up in front of Tom and Jake, I almost wanted to tell Jake goodbye.

Strangely enough, they let me go. Or at least, Tom let me go. Cam was seething with rage when I was allowed to leave with Jake, but he couldn't do anything.

"You didn't eat or drink anything they gave you, did you?" I asked Jake, as we hurried back to Cassie's barn. Jake wasn't looking pleased one bit; of course, not when we hadn't told him anything and kinda just gatecrashed the whole Sharing thing and ruined quite a bit for him.

"No." And he stuffed his hands into his pockets, lips pressed together. At least he was trusting us. Even if he couldn't remember anything about our reality, at least his instincts were pretty much the good old ones we had depended upon time and again.

‹Marco, what now?› I asked privately.

‹I'm guessing Tom's going to put another bait out for Jake to join. But something's not quite right. I mean, although Tom is biding his time, he seems to be quite eager to get Jake to join The Sharing. But why? He's not some bigshot in the community, he's just a sixteen-year-old dude!›

‹Jake's not the point, isn't it? I'm the one who–›

‹No, Jake is the point. Tom, Cam and Matt? Those people had no idea you were Elfangor's son. It's obvious, otherwise they would have kept tabs on you before you could even enter the back room. Only those in the back room knew who you were. So up till just now, even when Tom let you guys go, he had no idea who you were.

‹Aren't you even curious about the people in the back room?›

‹I think Tom's behaviour is worth looking into...›

Marco and I discussed a bit more, but by the time we reached Cassie's barn, and the rest had demorphed, there were more questions to be dealt with. Jake looked like he wanted to begin, but it was Rachel who started ranting.

"Marco, this is insane! What made you so sure that Tobias would be recognised by those in the exclusive room? What made you even sure that Visser Three knows about him? And also the whole point about him being recognised? Now what? You're throwing him right into the pit of Yeerks!" She huffed and sank into the hay bale.

I threw a 'I told you so' look to Marco, who rolled his eyes.

"I get what she's saying," said Cassie, arching an eyebrow at Marco. "We went along with this plan thinking that we were going to get something out of it, but instead, you risked Tobias' cover."

"What's wrong with you guys?" Marco demanded, throwing his hands in the air. "You're getting angry when we've walked a step closer!"

"Closer to what? To damaging the relationship between my brother and I?" snapped Jake, all of a sudden.

"And risking Tobias's life," added Rachel.

"It really wasn't nice that I rejected his offer like that, just because of a dude," Jake jabbed a finger at me, "whom I don't even know, who tells me that I shouldn't eat or drink anything they give me, and fakes being sick!"

"Jake! You–" Rachel's eyes flashed.

I had to tell myself: Jake doesn't remember. He doesn't remember anything.

"They had drugs with them," I said, quietly. "At any moment, they could have drugged you."

Jake's eyes widened. "How could you have– oh. That packet Cam was holding?" He scratched his head. "You guys were sure?"

"I was the fly on the packet," said Cassie. "No mistakes."

"AS I WAS SAYING," Marco cut in, "we've walked a step closer, so Jake's fine, Tobias's fine, and we're going to move on to Step Two."

"You call me your leader, and then you don't fill me in on what's going on?" Jake asked, angrily. "You send my cousin to spy on me and treat me like – gee, I don't know, Marco, I feel like I'm your chesspiece!"

"I'm not trying to control you!" Marco glared at him. "But if we had told you, you'd have been edgy and blown our cover!"

"Next time, at least fill in the rest of us who're supposed to be carrying out your plan then," said Rachel, folding her arms.

Marco opened his mouth to argue, but Cassie put her hand on his shoulder. "Marco, I know you're trying to get things done quickly because you want to get out of this reality. Out of all of us, this reality is the worst for you."

"Really?" I hadn't meant to say it out loud, but Rachel's sharp eyes landed on me. I averted my gaze.

Cassie ignored me. "But we're a team. And we're a team who've lost a lot of our bearings. We can't afford to be divisive. You need to let us know what's on your mind, and not just act upon it straightaway because you can see the A to Z line right before you."

"I have to agree, Marco," said Ax, all of a sudden. This whole argument must have been irritating him. "It would have been nice to be sure of what we were doing this for."

Marco shrugged Cassie's hand off his shoulder, but I could tell Cassie's words had gotten to him. He sat down, pulling his knees towards him. "So are you interested to hear why we've walked a step closer?"

"Because we've alerted Visser Three to Tobias's presence?" Rachel rolled her eyes.

"Yes, and we know that for a fact because Tobias said his mom mentioned meeting a woman called Aria last week who was responsible for hooking Tobias up with our high school. Even though he's supposed to be this super antisocial kid who was thriving on homeschooling."

"Homeschooling?" Rachel stared at me. I shrugged. "What else did your mu – I mean, Loren, tell you?"

I pretended as if I was going to answer her, but Marco cut in anyway. "To enlighten Jake, Aria was Visser Three in morph back in our reality. Tried to masquerade as some cousin of Tobias's to lure him to their side by reading Elfangor's letter to him."

Jake raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Good for him.

"But how can you be so sure that Aria in this reality is Visser Three?" asked Cassie.

"She gave my–," I sucked at my bottom lip, "She gave Loren a Sharing card. But apparently my alter-ego tore it up in a fit of defiance. Loren was ranting about it yesterday."

I could sense Rachel was still looking at me, but I resolutely refused to meet her eyes.

"The whole key to this mystery lies with Tobias's life, don't you think?" Marco continued. "How can Loren have Tobias if not for Elfangor? Clearly if Tobias was recognised at The Sharing, then they know he is Elfangor's son. Why is Tobias homeschooled? Haven't you realised; all of our lives, except Tobias's, are the same as it has been before we met Elfangor. My mom's dead, my dad's grieving. Jake and Cassie like each other. Tom's with the Sharing. Rachel's got her same kid sisters. See, if it was just a manipulation of our lives from the time when we met Elfangor, then Tobias should have been in school along with us. Also, Loren would have been blind and amnesiac."

"Maybe, I should be more concise and say that, the key to this mystery lies with the presence of Elfangor. If we can trace clues to where he is, then maybe he can enlighten us to what this whole shenanigan is about."

No one moved or said a word.

Eventually, Cassie ventured. "Tobias... haven't you asked Loren about this?"

"It's not that easy!" I hadn't meant to snap at her, but just thinking about the way Loren was treating me made me angry. "What am I supposed to do? Ask her if I had an alien dad?"

"Tobias..." Rachel began.

"You all have families!" I burst out. "Good, intact families! And when I crave for one, this crazy reality actually gives me one, I should be happy, right? But no, I have to feel bitter, angry and hurt that this is what I've always wanted, but it's not a world I belong to. I don't want to resign myself to an illusionary world!"

None of them would understand. None of them except Jake, but he had forgotten the pain already. Or rather, this Jake had never known the pain.

I had to bear it alone, once again.