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TWO

Aftran almost froze. She went back to chewing so easily it made me feel ill. "What do you mean?"

"You aren't Cassie," he said simply. "That's Cassie's body, but it's not Cassie I'm speaking with." He gave Aftran a polite look. "You're alone, you're in the body of an ally, and you're here because you know I can't harm you."

Aftran chewed for a long moment. Swallowed noisily. She looked at the other half of the sandwich, then took another giant bite.

Erek watched politely, his face and body language completely neutral, until she was done. "Let's put off the inevitable part where we threaten each other," he said once she'd pushed away the crusts, "we'll get there soon enough. What do you want?"

"A portable kandrona unit," Aftran replied immediately, like this was all completely normal. "One of the self-contained units with a pool and its own generator." She pointed my finger at him. "You." She punctuated with a jab at his hologram. "Are going to make sure it's shielded so that even specialized scans won't pick it up."

I felt numb as I watched. The implications of what she'd just said were too awful to contemplate. I shied away.

"Am I?" Erek asked. He turned and started out of the kitchen, through the living room and down the hall. My feet moved as my body followed him through the door and down the hall, into the basement. Everything from Aftran felt distant. Walled off. I was far down, trapped. Now and then I could feel the strain on her among her emotions, how it was taking a toll on her concentration.

No wonder they look for willing hosts, I thought, and mentally recoiled.

I loathed the thought immediately; preferring a willing host didn't mean anything, didn't change anything if it didn't change actions. That didn't help if this was the outcome. That didn't make it okay to do any of this!

Erek spoke again as we all stood together, as the floor began to drop. His voice was even, unruffled. "I can get you a pool unit. The question is, why should I? Why should I aid you in enslaving my friend? It's a much better move for me to imprison you and make a few phone calls."

"That's against your programming. You can't let them take me if you know they'll kill me."

"Not if I don't know they'll kill you. As long as I'm reasonably sure that Jake will let you live, keep you from harm, I can hand you over. I trust his word."

I listened with growing sick fury as Erek and Aftran discussed my future like I was a thing, a prize in a game. They were both revolting.

Aftran turned and looked at him as we hit the bottom of the chee dog park. Buttery sunlight washed my arms and face from overhead. "But you won't," she said, suddenly sounding confident and assured. "Because you can't know if I have information on a trigger. Prevent me from moving freely, imprison me, and you may doom the Earth resistance."

Erek hesitated. «No.» I said. «No, Erek, that's dumb, she hasn't had time to set up anything, don't fall for this…» He stared at Aftran, straight into my eyes, for a long time. Careful, all of the sudden.

Then he nodded slightly. I felt like I was going to explode. What…?

Aftran felt like she might drown in her own smugness. It reached me even where I was. She glanced my eyes around.

Chee were standing in a loose semicircle around me. Five of them. They did not look hospitable.

I wondered what would have happened if Erek hadn't nodded, if I'd have spent the next several hours subdued, with Aftran getting her choices for the rest of her life explained to her in detail. My fury had a maliciousness in it that I'd very rarely felt before.

"A full, shielded, self-contained Kandrona-Pool support system." Erek said flatly as Aftran turned my head back. His tone swung to formal, setting terms. "On your word that none of the other animorphs or their families are infested or harmed from your knowledge." His voice turned scornful. "Or knowledge from your information cache."

What.

«What.» I said. This wasn't happening. I wanted to start screaming. He knew her threat was empty, that there was no information cache, why were the chee like this—

Aftran nodded my head once. "Agreed. I will need help with transport. You will not disclose the location to anyone but the chee."

This wasn't happening. This wasn't happening.

"Agreed." Erek nodded back, tight. Mirroring Aftran's movement exactly.

She made a show of looking around, staring my eyes hard at the chee around her. "Not that this isn't a lovely place, but I'd like to be on my way." She stopped, glanced over, gave Erek a look. "Unless you happen to have that kandrona on-hand?"

Erek's face hardened. His tone went clipped, harsh. "You have your deal, yeerk." He said. For the first time his voice was angry. "I'll have it ready to move by Friday. It's time for you to leave."

"Friday morning," she amended, and turned to face the assembled chee. "Would one of you give me a ride back up closer to the City Center?"

Erek's voice was tight. "Of course." He took my arm and steered my body to the side with undeniable strength. "Right this way."

She followed at his side to another chee. Followed that chee across part of the park, then stood at a wall as another fake-floor elevator rose me up.

When she left what ended up being the laundry room, Aftran turned and gave the robot projecting an old lady hologram a hard look.

"Friday Morning," the yeerk said, and walked me over to a sliding door. She stepped into the backyard and morphed yet again. An owl flew off into the darkening night.