As the four of them made their way over to the table, three of them settling down around it while Mom made her way over to the phone to order their dinner, Rachel propped her head up on her right fist. It was her traditional thinking pose when she was sitting at any table, and her family knew better than to interrupt her when she was trying to think. And she most definitely didn't want to be interrupted now of all times.

It was obvious to her that the others needed to know about what George Edelman had said; anything to do with the Yeerks and their activities wasn't something that the Animorphs could just afford to ignore, even through it was probably going to be as dangerous as any of their other missions to date. She didn't know just how it would turn out to be so dangerous, but she'd come to expect a certain level of danger in all of their missions.

This probably wasn't going to be the one to break that trend, no matter how innocuous it seemed at first.

With dinner finished and the leftovers stowed in the fridge, Rachel made her way back up to her room, thinking about how they were going to be able to deal with this new situation all the way. It was going to involve a trip to the nut house, for one. Kind of a strange idea, that, since all of the Controllers she had experience with were all so completely and utterly dedicated to secrecy for their cause.

Briefly wondering just what it was that had made this particular Controller blow his cover so badly, or how his host had managed to gain enough control over himself to do that, Rachel climbed into bed and closed her eyes; there would be plenty of time to think about things like that tomorrow, and if she was lucky, she might even have the chance to get some answers.

XXXX

Making her way into the barn with the food that she had prepared for Shara and Slade, Cassie sighed as she remembered again what her father had confronted her about just last night. He'd thought that she was sneaking table-scraps to the animals; he'd obviously noticed the food that had been missing from the kitchen, and when he'd made her promise not to do it anymore, she'd felt almost unbearably guilty. Sure, she'd made a promise not to bring anymore table-scraps, but the fact that she hadn't been doing it in the first place, combined with the fact that she still had to take food in there to support Slade and Shara, made her feel worse than she would have if she really had been sneaking table-scraps to the animals.

There were times that she would wish that she could ask one of the others to take care of the siblings, but there was really no way to do that without risking the safety of the whole war-effort. Jake had Tom to deal with, trying to work around the Controller in his own family to make sure that he didn't get any of them caught and killed, or worse. The others had pretty much the same problem. Combine that with the lack of unobserved space in most of their houses, and it was clear to Cassie that she was really the only one that either of the siblings could depend on to take care of them.

Of course, there were the Chee, but that wasn't really possible for a number of reasons; the foremost being that Slade and Shara were an integral part of the war effort, and they needed to stay close to remain in it.

As she sat down in front of the two siblings, watching the way they ate, Cassie found herself wondering just what would happen once the Radam had started to make their move. She'd seen the kind of destruction that a single Teknoman could leave in their wake; she'd helped to unleash it, in fact, and the only thing that really made her feel guilty about doing that was the fact that she didn't feel guilty at all.

Banishing those thoughts from her mind with a bit of a mental effort, Cassie noticed that the siblings had finished the last of their meal and Shara had started packing away the dishes that she had brought with her into the bag that she had carried them in with.

"Thanks, Shara," she said, smiling at the other girl's consideration. "I really appreciate that."

"It's the least I could do, after all you've done for us," the other girl said, with a soft smile. Slade, of course, was just beginning to doze off again.

(Cassie, do you think you could get out of your house today?) Tobias asked, and Cassie looked over to see the hawk just swooping in for a landing on the barn's main crossbeam. (Rachel says there's something weird about that man she rescued.)

"What is it?" she asked, keeping her voice quiet enough that she wouldn't disturb the siblings; she knew that, even if Tobias couldn't hear her very well, he would still know what she had said.

(Apparently, he was a Controller,) Tobias said, cocking his head in that hawk-like way he did even when he was a human. (Rachel said that his family wants to put him in the nuthouse because he told people about the Yeerks. Naturally, Jake wants to check things out.)

"Of course," she said, hefting the bag of dishes. "I'll get back to you once I've arranged it with my parents." Meaning, of course, once she had told all the proper lies, the ones that would let her get out of the house to meet up with the others; the ones that had become so habitual that there were times she wondered if she would ever be trusted by her parents again when this war was over. If it was ever over, and she didn't die during the course of it, anyway.

Just as she was about to turn around and start climbing down the ladder, though, Cassie found herself swept into a pair of very strong arms; then, before she could make even the slightest sound of protest, she suddenly found herself flying through the air, to land with a slight shock on the barn floor. The sound of another body landing on the floor distracted her from wondering just what had happened.

"That was kind of rude, Slade," she heard Shara say, along with the telltale rustling of hay that meant the other girl was coming closer.

"You can put me down now, Slade," she said, when she noticed that the only thing he seemed to be doing was looking around the barn, as if he was making sure that they were really as alone as they looked.

"Right," he said, setting Cassie back on her feet after making one last visual sweep of the barn.

She could almost appreciate his dedication, if he wasn't so intense about it all the time. In fact, he just seemed to be intense in general; as if he believed that something was always out there, just waiting to attack them. Cassie suppressed a wince as she remembered that, for the siblings, that was true: Darkon was out there somewhere, and according to Shara, he wouldn't stop at anything until she and Slade were back with the other Radam Teknomen.

Under those circumstances, Cassie supposed that she could forgive Slade his paranoia; it wasn't like he wasn't entitled to it.

While she regained her bearings enough to be able to make her way out of the barn, Cassie checked over her shoulder to see how Slade and Shara were doing. It looked like they were both all right, and their eyes were glowing in that telltale way that let Cassie know that they were both using their telepathy. Probably so they could talk with Tobias without anyone else being able to overhear.

Once the siblings had begun morphing into their respective bird forms, Cassie turned and left. She knew that Slade and Shara could both take care of themselves, though she did still worry about them sometimes given everything that had happened to them, so now all she had to do was to get herself ready to leave. And everything that entailed, she mused with a sigh; no matter how many times she was forced to do it, Cassie knew she would always hate lying to her parents.

Even though she knew just why it was necessary; even though she knew the kind of risks that the truth could pose to them all, if it were revealed to the wrong person.