I arrived at the south parking lot right on time. Jake and Marco were hiding behind a couple of cedar trees. With the fading sunlight casting long, dark shadows, they were almost invisible from ground level.

(Hey guys,) I said as I passed by. They looked up to watch me circling over their heads.

"What are you doing in morph already?" Jake asked.

(I thought we could use a bit of aerial recon,) I said.

"All right, but I'm starting to get a little worried about how much time you've been spending in morph. It's almost like you're addicted to it."

(Don't worry. I'll take a break from it after tonight's mission.)

"OK. I don't suppose you saw Cassie on the way over?"

(Nope. Sorry.)

"Oh. I was really hoping she'd be here by now," Jake said, a little more to himself than to me.

I focused my attention on a bus stop a few blocks down the road. A city bus had just arrived, and I watched the people getting off. One of them, features obscured by the hood of a blue sweater, started walking towards the school.

(Lee? Is that you?)

(Si.)

(Jake and Marco are hiding in the cedar trees about 100 yards ahead on the right.)

He nodded his head.

(Um, you're not still mad about yesterday, are you?)

(I'm not mad, I'm depressed. And kind of embarrassed. It's just... I realized partway into that morph that I wasn't going to just be in a boy's body. I was going to be in YOURS. And that idea just felt weird and creepy, and, well... it would've just been WAY too intimate.)

(Intimate? Oh... I hadn't considered that.)

(And I hadn't either. We got so distracted wondering if we COULD do it that we forgot to ask if we SHOULD. And now that I've thought about it, it's a boundary I don't think we should cross. Someday I might be able to figure out a human morph that puts me in a body I'm comfortable with, but this wasn't the way to do it.)

Something was nagging at the back of my mind. I didn't know what it was in detail, but the general outline felt familiar - it was part of the information Elfangor had dumped into my brain.

(Maybe when the Andalites come back, they can help you with this. They invented the morphing technology, so they must have some ideas about how to work with it.)

Rachel had arrived by now as well, and I directed her and Lee over to the spot behind the cedar trees.

"Has anyone heard from Cassie?" she asked, with a twinge of panic in her voice.

"No," Jake answered, "I was hoping she was with you."

"When I called her house an hour ago, her mom said she wasn't home. She thought Cassie was with one of you guys."

"This is so not like her," Jake fretted.

"Maybe she's just scared," Marco said, "God knows I am. And so are you, if you've got any sense."

(Quiet! We've company,) I said. There were people gathering in the parking lot. I recognized a few of them from the Sharing meeting last weekend. They were definitely Controllers. The nearest door on the school opened, and the Controllers started marching towards it. There were about thirty of them, marching in single file in an almost robotic fashion.

(There's our opening,) I said as the Controllers marched through the doors.

"What about Cassie?" Rachel asked, "Shouldn't we wait for her to show up?"

"If she's not here already, then I don't think she's coming at all," Jake answered. "She's been involved in everything up to now. She knew when and where we planned to do this. We just have to trust that she has a good reason for not being here. But we ARE here, so we're going to carry out the mission."

Jake led the way across the parking lot and up to the doors. Rachel waved for me to follow them in. There was nobody following behind who might get suspicious if they saw a hawk fly in through the doors, so I glided over.

Flying indoors was a lot different than I was used to. There wasn't much space, and no breeze to help me stay airborne, so the best I could do was flutter around from one locker to another. And I had to be careful not to get so far ahead that the Controllers would see me. It took forever to get through the building that way. But just as I was about to give up and demorph so that I could at least be comfortable walking, we made it to the janitor's closet. The good news is that the secret entrance was both unguarded and wide open, revealing a ramp that spiraled down beneath the school. The bad news is that, because the secret entrance was open, we could all hear the screams coming from within.

"Last chance to back out," Jake said. "Marco? I won't hold it against-"

"SHUT UP!" Marco snapped, "I'm scared enough already, and I don't need any extra temptation to flake out. I told you I'd help save Tom."

He took a few deep breaths, stepped through the door, and stopped.

"We should at least think of an awesome battle cry to shout together," he said, "You know, something along the lines of 'Avengers Assemble!'"

Rachel groaned, and shoved Marco to the side. As she took the lead down the ramp, Jake and Lee started arguing with Marco about the merits of various superhero catchphrases. I don't know if they understood it or not, but Marco had done something valuable: he'd used a dumb joke to derail our collective dread of going down into the Yeerk Pool, at least for a few minutes.

About forty feet in, the passageway transitioned from drywall and concrete floor to carved rock. We were definitely underground now. And the screams were getting louder. I was starting to get the impression that we were walking up to the front gates of Hell. And then suddenly, as we turned a corner, the tunnel opened wide. Really, really wide.

We were looking down into a massive cavern. Absolutely gigantic. It was almost like an underground sports stadium. Bigger than that, even. You could probably have fit Lambeau Field in there twice over and still had room for Miller Park. All along the edge were ramps and staircases leading up to various tunnels. On the floor of the cavern, there were dozens of prefabricated buildings and trailers. I could see a few bulldozers, earthmovers, and forklifts parked around the place. And at the center of it all was a large pit filled with gray sludge. Two long piers extended out into the sludge pit - the Yeerk Pool itself.

"This place isn't just under the school," Jake said, "It's under the whole city! Holy-"

That was the first time I'd ever heard Jake swear.

"Oh, man, this is so much worse than I was expecting," Rachel said, "Guys, we gotta be really careful about this."

(Give me a minute to scout it out,) I said, as I flapped up to a guardrail that seemed to provide a decent view. I looked around, and tried to make sense of what I was seeing. On one of the piers, people walked calmly out to the end, kneeled over the sludge, and held still as a little gray blob wriggled out of their ears and plopped into the Pool. From there, the people were dragged over to a set of cages. At the other pier, the people at the end would have their head forced into the Pool. They'd struggle briefly, but after a moment, the Yeerk would seize control. I described it for the others.

"Hey, Tobias? I can't see that well from this far away," Jake said, "But it looks like some of those people are just calmly walking away after the Yeerks leave their heads... like that guy in the red shirt there. See him?"

I did. Even from up here, he looked uncannily like George Takei.

"Look, they're not hauling him to the cages. He's walking over to... to... what is that place? I can't make it out."

But I could see it just fine.

(It's a rec room,) I said, hardly daring to believe it.

"A what?" Rachel said, with air of disbelief.

(A rec room. As in, the people in there are watching TV and playing billiards.)

"Who the hell are those people?" Marco demanded.

(They're... voluntary hosts. Collaborators. It's part of the information Elfangor dumped into my head. The Yeerks prefer hosts who don't fight back, and where they can, they try to persuade people to just willingly let them take over."

"Oh, that's sick," Lee said, sounding like he was about to puke, "Why would anybody just let one of those - those things..."

"Because they think it will make their problems go away," Rachel said, "It's the same way the Nazis took over Germany in the 30s. They tell you that they can fix all your problems, and all you have to do is sacrifice your ability to make the important decisions."

Something down by the infestation pier caught my eye. I needed a closer look, so I jumped off the guardrail and flew as close as I dared to the line of people being herded towards the Pool. One quick look was all I needed. I raced back to the others.

(Lee, Rachel, that cop you kept running into has Cassie. She's almost at the infestation pier. We gotta move fast.)

"WHAT?" Jake screamed, "Where is she, where is she?"

(About thirty feet back from the pier. She's being held by that cop and a Hork-Bajir.)

"I see her," Rachel said.

"So do I," Jake said. "I've got a plan..."