Once he and Ax had demorphed, in the shelter of a low bush and with Tobias to make sure that no Controller was close enough to see either of them, Tommy took a deep breath and started morphing into the spider he'd acquired back at Cassie's barn. It wasn't a morph he was particularly looking forward to, especially not after what he'd learned about the process of morphing itself, but Tommy knew that it was something he needed to do.

They needed to know just what Erek was, and if he was going to be helping the Yeerks, or if they might have been able to bring him over to their side.

The mind of the wolf spider, awakened by the short, whisker-like hairs that had sprouted all over his body once the morph had finished, was as pure a predator as the lion and eagle he'd morphed before. It might have been trouble for one of the others to handle, so Tommy was even more glad that he'd been the one to volunteer for this mission. He really was the best-suited to handle this kind of thing.

The first morph into a predator was one of the most difficult to handle; almost harder than a prey animal, since unreasoning fear was one of the things that Tommy had trained to deal with.

(I think Erek and the human-Controllers are this way,) Ax said, once the pair of them had gone fully into their respective spider morphs.

(All right, let's see what we can find,) he said, nerving himself up as well as he could without being able to take a deep breath or straighten his stance as he and Ax set off to find Erek.

To see what they would be able to see without relying on human eyes.

A grasshopper landed between them, seeming to be about the size of an elephant, and then leaped off like the world's largest antelope. Tommy would have laughed, if he'd been remotely capable of the action. There were times, when he found himself morphing smaller animals, when Tommy would find himself fascinated by the new perspective he had on the world.

Even after what he'd learned, Tommy was still interested in seeing it.

(Tommy, Ax, are you guys in position?)

(Yes, Prince Jake,) Ax answered, before Tommy could say anything in response.

(We're right here with you, Jake,) he said, looking around even as the three of them spoke. (We haven't managed to find anything yet, though.)

(Yeah, neither have we,) Jake said, and Tommy quickly snuffed out the small flare of annoyance he'd felt. (We'll keep looking, though.)

(Yeah, we will,) he said, just as a large shoe crashed down between him and Ax. (You know, I'd almost been worried about someone stepping on us, but I never realized how slow they are at this scale.)

(Be careful anyway,) Jake admonished. (Stay in contact, and let me know if you find Erek.)

(We will, Prince Jake.)

The pair of them set off again, sticking close enough that they would be able to communicate, but still far enough that they wouldn't both be caught underfoot by anyone walking around. The both of them kept pace with each other, and soon enough they had caught sight of something. At first, it looked like one more of the pairs of bare feet he'd seen running around the lakeshore, but even as he watched the foot flickered.

It almost looked like he was staring at a staticky TV image, caught between two channels, with a second image visible just beneath it. That second image was, well, Tommy could have only really described it as some kind of thin, elongated, metal paw. it was hardly the strangest thing he'd ever seen, since that meant quite a bit coming from an Animorph, but it was a strange thing all the same.

There was also something about it, something about the way it registered to his spider senses, that as good as shouted to Tommy that it wasn't alive; at least, not like all of the people, animals, and insects he and Ax were surrounded by.

(It looks like some kind of machine,) he said, focusing as well as he could on the image under the flickering light of the hologram.

(Yes,) Ax said. (I think that Marco's friend Erek may be an android.)