When all of them had gathered back in the barn, Shara found herself staring down at a glass box full of fluttering mosquitoes. The rest of the other Animorphs, with the obvious exception of Ax, were all more than a little dubious about reaching into the box to grab one of the fluttering insects. So, Shara grabbed one of them by the wings, plucking it out of the box as Cassie quickly closed the lid again.
"All right, I've got one," she said, smiling slightly as she offered the mosquito she'd caught to the rest of her and Slade's fellow Animorphs.
"Wait, is that a female?" Cassie asked, narrowing her eyes as she looked at the struggling insect that Shara had just caught.
"It looked like one when I caught it," she said, holding it up so that the pair of them could get a closer look at the insect.
Once Cassie had satisfied herself that Shara had managed to capture one of the female mosquitoes, the rest of the Animorphs acquired it and they all left the barn in their various bird forms. When they all reached the hospital's airspace, however, they found that the Yeerks had prepared for them. Or, at least the Andalites they thought the Animorphs were.
(Kind of flattering, actually,) Rachel said, a hint of amusement in her otherwise flat thought-speak voice. (Twelve guys, and maybe more we don't see.)
(The Yeerks must have a lot of high-ranking people in this hospital,) Cassie said, and Shara caught a thin thread of worry in her thought-speak voice. (To get two private rooms just for guards like that?)
(How are we going to get in?) Slade asked, as they took turns circling over the clearly Yeerk-controlled hospital.
(How about a diversion?) Rachel suggested. (I go into elephant morph, Jake uses his rhino, and we tear that place apart!)
(As I understand, we each hope to bite this human, so that we may be reasonably sure of extracting sufficient blood,) Ax said. (Before Rachel or Prince Jake morph from elephant to mosquito, you must first pass through your human shape. I, on the other hand, have no need of an intermediate stage, and nothing would draw the attention of a group of Controllers better than an Andalite.)
(I'll stay in contact,) she said, once the rest of the Animorphs had agreed to allow Ax to distract whatever Controllers they hadn't been able to spot when they were flying over the hospital.
As she fluttered down to land on the hospital's roof with the rest of the Animorphs, making sure they were all out of sight of the human-Controllers in their separate rooms while they demorphed, Shara quickly began morphing into the mosquito that she and the others had acquired. It was a strange thing to think about, how small she was steadily becoming, even after all the small animals she had already morphed into beforehand.
Shara supposed that some things simply took longer to get used to than others.
Once all of the Animorphs were fully morphed into the mosquito she'd caught for them, Jake got them formed up as enough of a swarm that they could at least try to follow each other to the room that Mr. Aldershot was convalescing. The mosquito's senses seemed a great deal more fine-tuned to locating heat-signatures than any other insect she'd morphed before, which she supposed fit, considering how and what mosquitoes ate, but it was still a rather unique experience.
(The window's open, Prince Jake!) Ax called suddenly, drawing all of their attention. (And the Controllers are,) Ax paused for a moment, as though something had suddenly come up for him. (Distracted.)
Shara didn't have to spend much time thinking about it, with the feel more than the sound of gunfire rattling through her.
(We're in!) Jake reported, as their tiny swarm blazed in through a nearby window. (Ax, are you all right? I think we're hearing gunshots, here.)
(You are correct,) Ax said, the tension he was clearly feeling carrying even through the flatness of ordinary thought-speak. (You are hearing gunfire.)
(Stay safe out there,) she said, trying to be as comforting as she could be, under the circumstances.
(Thank you, Shara.)
(Of course,) she said, returning her attention to what the rest of the Animorphs were doing.