I drove Eva to the construction site as fast as I dared. But we knew that no matter how much I sped, it wouldn't be enough. The Andalites were already touching down by the time we got to the car.

Who knows what they were doing right now while we were fighting Friday night traffic?

"I'm sure you know this already, but don't mention anything about the Yeerks to the Andalites," Eva spoke up. "If we're lucky, we'll pass for regular humans who just happen to investigate UFOs, and we'll convince them to leave without a fight."

"Right," I nodded. "The rifle in the trunk is only a last resort."

The fact that it's a weapon aside, the Dracon rifle was distinctly Yeerk technology. The sight of it would be a dead giveaway. Although I felt safer having the flashlight-shaped Dracon beam in my pocket.

The construction site was isolated, sort of. There was a highway separating it from the mall, and an open field separating it from the suburbs. A spaceship landing here wouldn't actually be next to a highly populated area, but it would still be too close for comfort for me.

We finally arrived, almost exactly the same time Chapman's car did. We each drove through the opening in the chain-link fence, completely ignoring the "NO TRESPASSING" sign.

It was dark. And the construction site was very big. I don't know what they were supposed to be making here, but they hadn't done any real work in forever. The earth movers and excavators were left abandoned. It looked like a ghost town of half-finished buildings. I don't mind saying it was downright spooky. And with uneven ground and obstacles in random spots, this place wasn't meant to be driven through.

But we didn't have to go far before we saw the ship.

We parked the cars and got out, leaving the headlights on. Chapman, Eva and I huddled together.

"Alison didn't come with you?" Eva asked.

"She's at home watching Melissa," Chapman answered, keeping his voice low. "I left Iniss there too, swimming in a tank."

"You mean you're just Chapman now?" I asked.

"It's a precaution. If they have another thought-wave pulse and all of us were bonded, we'd be devastated," Chapman said.

Tem and I hadn't even thought of that. Then again, Chapman was the only one of us who had experience fighting aliens without Yeerk backup. He was the natural choice to be unbonded.

The three-slash-five of us turned towards the ship. Took one last moment to steel ourselves. And moved forward.

Driving through the darkness, we saw the light before we noticed the ship. The hatch by the front end was open and a strong white light was spilling out. The ship was about twice as long as a school bus. The back end curved up and forward with a sharp point, like a scorpion's tail. Or rather, like an Andalite's tail.

That shape distinctly identified it as an Andalite ship. They have a thing about their tails.

The ship looked badly damaged - scorch marks and deep gashes. The lights on the outside of the ship were off. There was just the bright light of the inside shining through the doorway.

"Did someone attack it?" I whispered to the others.

"Could have been zero-space turbulence," Chapman said. "It's hard to tell at a glance."

The hatch was open, and a straight metal ramp led to the ground. But no one was in the doorway. We all turned and looked around the area. This was definitely an Andalite fighter ship . . . But where were the Andalites?

"Hello?" Chapman rose his voice. "Is anyone there?"

No response. No sign of anyone.

"We come in peace?" I tried. Still nothing.

If I was going to hide inside my spaceship, I wouldn't open the door and put the ramp down for no reason. But if I was going outside, I also would have locked up behind me.

"They abandoned their ship?" I wondered out loud.

They had to be here somewhere, didn't they? They didn't land that long before we arrived.

"Boys," Eva spoke up. "Look at that."

She took out her flashlight and aimed it at the ground. There were tiny puddles of liquid sinking into the dirt. With her light shining on it, I could tell it was a dark blue color.

"That's blood." I wasn't asking.

Chapman kneeled down, took a vial out of his coat pocket, and scooped up a bit of the non-human blood. I looked around, but I couldn't find any sort of blood trail. If there were hoofprints, I wouldn't notice them in ground this uneven and with old footprints from the construction workers covering everything.

What on Earth happened before we got here?

We heard a car coming up behind us. We all spun around, then relaxed when we saw it was Mr. Tidwell's car.

He quickly parked and jogged over to us on foot. "I'm sorry I'm late. What'd I miss?"

"We all missed it," Chapman said in exasperation. He gestured to the ship. "They left already. Nothing's here."

Tidwell looked at the open hatch warily. "Is there any chance they're still inside?"

We followed his gaze. None of us wanted to go inside the ship of our mortal enemies. But we didn't come all this way just to ignore it.

I stepped forward, but Tidwell grabbed my hand to stop me. "Wait," he hissed. "BioFilters!"

I froze. Tem and I had both forgotten about that.

Gleet BioFilters were Andalite technology specifically designed to find out if someone had a Yeerk inside or not. If there was one built into that ship and I walked inside carelessly, I would've been incinerated.

"I'm just a human right now," Chapman told Tidwell. "I can go."

With a calmness that made me irrationally jealous, Chapman walked up the ramp. We hosts followed close behind him. Chapman didn't actually go through the doorway. He paused right at the threshold to look inside. "Is anyone there?" he called out cautiously. I looked over his shoulder to see what he was seeing.

Compared to the darkness outside, the interior of the ship was extremely bright. It took my eyes a few moments to see clearly. The cockpit was mostly empty; no chairs, barely any buttons or levers. But there was a big computer screen on the wall. It showed large alien symbols that changed every second. Tem didn't have much practice with the Andalite written language, but he quickly realized they were numbers. 11. Then 10. Then 09.

[It's counting down,] Tem thought.

[To what?] I wondered.

I think every single one of us realized it at the same moment.

"Run!" Chapman turned and pushed us away. "RUN!"

We all sprinted away from the ship.

FSSSHHHHOOM!

It wasn't an explosion as much as an extremely loud sizzling sound. Like one of those spinning fireworks. I turned back to look. The hull of the ship cracked all over, and glowed a orange-yellow light. Even from this far away, I could feel the heat on my face.

The ship wasn't just blowing up. It was dissolving. Shredder energy tore through the ship and crumbled it up section by section. Sparks flew. The metal screeched. It was like the Fourth of July contained in a bubble.

But the whole thing took less than a minute. The noise and lights died down, and there was nothing left of the Andalite fighter ship but ashes and tiny scraps of burnt metal.

"Did . . . Did we set that off?" Eva wondered as the destruction was winding down.

"No," Chapman sounded certain. "The self-destruct would have been counting down since they left."

"Why would they destroy their own ship?" I practically shouted. "Why would they leave themselves stranded on Earth? And where ARE they already?!"

"If I had to guess, I'd say the ship was too badly damaged to be flown again. So they destroyed it to stop the locals from scavenging the technology," Chapman said.

"But that's so extreme," I said.

"I hate to be racist. But, you know." He shrugged irritably. "Andalites."

There was a sound. Like footsteps on the hard dirt. It was faint and far away, but my body was charged with so much adrenaline I would've noticed a fly buzzing at that distance.

The others noticed it too. Eva aimed her flashlight. Out in the distance was a low concrete wall on top of a short hill.

There! Something moved in the shadows.

"Who's there?!" Chapman yelled authoritatively.

I ran after it, sprinting full speed. I reached the incline and ran up and around the wall. I got out my own flashlight and searched through the darkness. But I couldn't see anyone.

In one direction was a half-finished building. In another direction, at the edge of the site, were a bunch of trees. And then there was the open field that led to the suburbs. Which way did they go?

Did I imagine it? No, I couldn't have. There was definitely someone here. But I lost them.

I kicked at the ground and sent dirt flying. "Dammit!"

The Andalites could be anywhere now.

The other Sharing members caught up to me. "We need to get out of here," Tidwell said. "The cops will be here any minute to investigate that explosion."

I followed them back to the cars. I was frustrated. No, I was more than frustrated. I was furious. Ten minutes ago I was terrified and hyped up, bracing myself for the fight of my life against the Yeerks' greatest enemies. Instead we completely missed our best chance to confront them. And now the Andalites were hiding hell-knows-where and plotting hell-knows-what.

"What's the plan?" I asked. "Do we have a plan?"

"I want to go back to the Yeerk ship," Eva answered.

"The scanners will never be able to find individual life forms from that far away," Tidwell reminded her.

"I'm going back because I don't think the pool should be left unguarded right now."

Chapman looked at her. "Will you stay there overnight?"

"Why not? It has sleeping quarters," Eva said with a shrug. "I live alone. Nothing waiting for me at home."

"I live alone too," Tidwell mentioned. "You want company? If anything happened, there's safety in numbers."

Eva nodded. "Thanks."

Chapman handed her the vial of Andalite blood. "When you get there, analyze this. Learn what you can from it. And take the scenic route. Make sure no one and nothing is following you." He glanced around nervously, then leaned close and lowered his voice. "Remember, they can look like anything."

Andalites could disguise themselves as other life forms. It the most dangerous thing about them on a long list of dangerous things.

We all looked around again, searching the darkness carefully. We strained our ears for any kind of noise. Anything that could be a bird or a stray cat, eavesdropping on us.

"I'm going home. I'll let Alison know what happened," Chapman said. "I have a police scanner at the house. I'll tune in and see if they learn anything."

"What do I do?" I asked.

"You should probably go home," Eva said.

"To do what?" I was confused. "I don't really have any equipment there."

"No, I mean," Eva nodded at me, "you should go home."

My eyebrows shot up. "Are you kidding?! Andalites loose in the city. Our biggest emergency ever. And you're benching me?"

"Tom, I get that you're worried and you want to help. But there's really nothing any of us can do until the Andalites make a move," she said.

"I could stay at the ship with you. Safety in numbers, remember?"

"You can't stay out all night," Eva said incredulously. "Aren't your parents expecting you?"

I stammered. Tried not to blush. "I - I can make up an excuse, or something!"

"The police are coming and we don't have time to argue!" Chapman spoke up sharply. "We need to go, now! We will call you tomorrow and think up a better plan. Until then, the best thing to do is regroup, get some rest, and wait for information."

I was about to say something, but Tem interrupted. [They're not wrong, Tom.]

I clenched my jaw. I stared at the three humans.

Was there really nothing more we could do tonight?

"Fine," I grumbled. "But if you learn anything about where they went, no matter what time it is, call me, okay? Don't care about what my mom and dad will think."

We quickly moved the Dracon rifle from my mom's car's trunk to Tidwell's. Tidwell drove Eva to the ship. Chapman went to regroup with Iniss and Alison . . . And I drove home to avoid breaking curfew. As I drove away, I saw in the rear view mirror flashing lights that might have been cop cars arriving at the construction site.

I hated this.

I was physically strong and fast and agile. And Tem was just as smart and educated as any other Yeerk. As a unit, we should have been one of the most capable members of the team. But I couldn't escape my status as the underage kid.

I wanted to be a grown-up.

I wanted to be useful.

I didn't want to be the dumb kid who couldn't even drive to the construction site in time to do anything about the invaders.

I almost slammed my hand hard against the steering wheel. Instead I forced my body to relax and gave Tem full control of the driving. I worried that I was too angry to drive safely.

[How are you able to stay so calm?] I asked him.

[I dunno. Maybe I'm just used to feeling helpless,] he thought sadly.

After a moment, I thought, [Nah, you just have less testosterone than me.]

Tem laughed. [Well, you're not wrong.]

.

I walked through the front door. "I'm home," I called out, not really putting any effort into faking happiness. The adrenaline drained out of me by now. The evening turned out to be really anti-climactic. Now that the Andalites were in hiding, we were reduced to playing a waiting game.

If the Andalites didn't know where the Yeerk ship was, we were still okay. But if they knew already . . . Would Eva and Tidwell really be okay by themselves?

Those thoughts were interrupted when my mom called from the other room. "Is Jake with you?"

"No," I answered. "Why?"

Mom walked into the living room. "It's starting to get late. I was hoping you found each other and you gave him a ride."

"What, you mean he never came home?" I stopped home before going to the pool and Jake wasn't here, but I just assumed he'd get back shortly after I left. His curfew was earlier than mine after all.

"He called after school to say he and Marco were going to the mall," she said. "But he was supposed to be back by now."

[He was at the mall?] Tem repeated in shock.

I froze.

The mall was just a parking lot and a street away from the construction site.

There were two ways to walk home from the mall. One: You stick to the sidewalks and go the long way, completely avoiding the construction site, like Jake was supposed to. Or Two: You take a shortcut through the site, which would have put Jake smack in the middle of where the Andalite ship landed.

[What if Jake got there before we did?] Tem worried. [Did the Andalites see him?!]

[No, Jake's a good kid,] I told him. [He wouldn't break the rules like that. Mom and Dad have threatened to ground us until we're twenty if either of us ever walked through there at night.]

[Didn't stop you, though,] Tem pointed out.

[That's different.]

[Tom . . .]

I sensed his thoughts and tried to cut him off. [He's fine!]

[Tom.] Temrash was concerned, sad, trying to be gentle. [It's a distinct possibility. If Jake went through there to try and get home on time . . .]

. . . Then he would have been there right when the Andalite ship touched down. If the Andalites wanted to eliminate witnesses, they wouldn't have cared that Jake was only a child. And there was blood at the scene. But only alien blood. There was no red human blood. Was there? Did we miss it?

I told myself Tem was just being paranoid. I was being paranoid. Jake could have left the mall earlier. He could have left later. He could have taken a different route. There were a million possibilities. There's no evidence he was ever there.

But the impossible-to-ignore fact was that my little brother was not here!

Right then, when my thoughts were spiraling completely out of control, the front door opened. It was Jake.

I sagged from relief. Then I thought angrily at Tem. [You jerk! You got me worried over nothing.]

[Sorry,] he thought meekly. [I only thought it was possible . . .]

"There you are," Mom said to him.

"I'm sorry," Jake said as he briskly walked in. "I know I'm late. I'm sorry." His face was pale. And he was breathing heavy, like he had been running.

"You should have called," Mom said. "I'd rather one of us come pick you up instead of you walking alone after dark."

"I know! I'm really sorry!" He sounded guilty, but rushed past us and went straight up the stairs towards his room.

"Jake?" Mom watched him leave. She sighed and shook her head. "I'll talk to him later."

The old me probably would have made a joke. Something like, "it's the day we've been dreading; Jake's officially become a moody teenager" or whatever. But I wasn't in the mood.

I had more important things to worry about.