Tobias. The bird that Visser Three

  morphed? It was an Andalite bird. It's

  called a kafit bird. From my home

  planet.";

  ally're thinking, what? That Visser Three must have been on the Andalite home world in order to acquire it?";

  all yes. I am worried that the Abomination has set foot on the Andalite home world."; I felt Tobias grow tense. Now

  he was beginning to understand. But he said, Sometimes people must take animals off the home world, right? I mean, just the way you can find an African lion in a zoo in America, Europe, wherever. Right?

  So, okay, someone totally innocent takes one of these birds off your planet. They get hijacked or whatever. And it ends up in Visser Three's hands.";

  I wanted to believe it was possible. So I said, all yes, that could be it.";

  But I didn't believe it. I believed that Visser Three had either been to my world. Or that some ally of his had been there.

  Either way it meant only one thing. The Yeerks had begun to reach into the one safe place in the galaxy: my home.

  We met at the barn where Cassie and her father care for sick or injured nonhuman animals. It is called the Wildlife Rehabilitation

  Clinic. It is a large, dark building made

  of wood. Within it are numerous cages made of steel wire. And within the cages are the sick animals.

  Tobias was high in the rafters. From up there he can see out through a sort of window and can warn us if anyone is approaching.

  Everyone else was on the ground level.

  Cassie was working, pushing piles of dirty hay with a very large, three-pronged fork. Prince Jake would occasionally lift something out of her way. Marco and Rachel were just chilling.

  That's what humans call it. I believe it refers to the fact that when humans sit very still and do nothing, their body temperature drops. Thus,

  "chilling."

  Someday, when I am old, too old to be a

  warrior, I will write a book about humans and their strange habits and speech and technology. For example, did you know that humans invented books before computers? Because of this they believe computers to be superior, despite the very obvious fact that it takes one of their computers as much as thirty seconds to "load" a page, while a book page can be accessed with zero effective delay.

  One would almost dismiss humans as a quaint, unimportant, backward race.

  Except for two things. First, these are, after all, the creatures who have raised the art of taste to incredible levels. Humans may be

  technologically primitive, but they have created buttered popcorn, the Snickers bar, chili, and cigarette butts. (although humans themselves become very upset by the idea of eating cigarette butts.)

  And let us not forget: Humans, for all their faults, have created the cinnamon bun. Some day, after the war, there will be pilgrimages of Andalites streaming to Earth to morph into humans for a day and do nothing but eat cinnamon buns.

  Get the extra frosting. It's worth it.

  "Ax, are you paying attention?" Marco asked. I snapped out of my daydream. all yes, of course.";

  "Because, see, I've said the same thing to you twice now, and you just keep staring off into space like you're a million miles away."

  Please tell me a third time and I will

  pay attention.";

  "I said, by Visser Three morphing an Andalite bird, maybe he was sending a

  message. I mean, he still thinks we're all Andalites. He was pretty sure he was chasing an Andalite in morph, right? So he chooses to morph an Andalite bird? That's not a

  coincidence. That's a message."

  And that's the second reason not to dismiss humans as unimportant. They are

  unbelievably quick to adapt. Just a few months ago, Marco didn't believe there was life on other planets. Now he's accepted that fact, absorbed an entirely new world view, found himself in the middle of a war using morphing technology he doesn't understand, and even managed to have insights that I miss.

  all yes,"; I said slowly. all yes. But why? What message?";

  Marco shrugged his shoulders. "He's rattling your cage. It's like, "Hey, pal, while you're stuck here on Earth I've been in and out of your house, hanging out with your buddies, and eating your mom's cookies.""

  My mother does not make cookies,"; I pointed out. The sense of taste is unknown among--";

  "The Visser's yanking your chain," Rachel said.

  "Messing with your mind," Cassie agreed. Jerking you around,"; Tobias said.

  "Trying to baffle you with ... oh, never mind," Prince Jake said. "The point is, you have two questions: How did Visser Three acquire this bird? And why did he morph it to attack you?"

  "That's not the real question, though," Cassie said.

  "The real question is what are we going to do about this Hewlett Aldershot the Third?"

  Marco stuck up his hand. "Get him to change his name?"

  "You know, it's a pretty good plan Visser Three has," Prince Jake pointed out. "He acquires our man Hewlett Aldershot the

  Third, then he walks into work at the Secret Service offices, punches up anything he

  wants on the computer, sits in on secret

  conferences, and ends up knowing everything the Secret Service knows."

  What does the Secret Service know?"; I asked.

  "A lot," Marco said.

  Ah.";

  "It's not just what he can find out, it's who he can talk to and get access to," Rachel said.

  "He can find out if any information about Yeerk activities ever gets to--"

  "Whoa!" Marco shot straight up on his two wobbly legs. I can never get past thinking humans will topple over when they do that.

  "What whoa?" Prince Jake asked mildly.

  "Whoa, as in whoa, Rachel is right. H.a. Third can talk to anyone, right? He can talk to his boss, right? So, if he was to walk in and say, "Boss, guess what? Parasite

  slugs from outer space are invading Earth!" Well, okay, they'd throw him in the nuthouse. But if he was to walk in and say, "Parasite slugs from outer space are invading Earth, and guess what, I can turn into a rhinoceros," and then he actually did turn into a rhinoceros

  ... well. Suddenly, boom! The secret is

  out. The Yeerks are screwed."

  "Unless his boss is a Controller," Rachel said.

  "If she were a Controller, why would Visser Three be bothering with H.a. Third?" Cassie pointed out. But then she turned to Marco. "What exactly are you thinking? Are you talking

  about morphing Mr. Aldershot?"

  "Duh. Yeah."

  "We don't do that," Cassie said. "I thought we decided we don't do that. We don't

  morph humans."

  I morphed Prince Jake,"; I said.

  I was excited by Marco's idea. But there are times when my human friends are reluctant to do whatever it takes to hurt the Yeerks. Sometimes so am I.

  And Cassie morphed Rachel that time,"; Tobias said.

  "First of all, Ax, you're not a human, so maybe it's okay if you morph Jake. Besides, Jake would have given his permission if he hadn't been infested with a Yeerk. And Rachel did give me her permission," Cassie said.

  "Excuse me," Marco said with an edge of sarcasm in his voice. "Our man H.a.

  Third can't give permission. He's a

  vegetable. He's a carrot. He's a

  cabbage. He's a tomato."

  "I thought tomatoes were fruit," Rachel interrupted, trying to provoke Marco.

  "It's called a "persistent vegetative state," thanks so much for your sensitivity, Marco," Cassie said. "But we don't know if Mr. Aldershot is that bad off. He could just be in a coma. We don't have the right to go stealing his DNA."

  "The man is a brussels sprout," Marco said.

  "We'd never get in there, anyway," Prince Jake said. "Visser Three knows we know. We have to be in human form to "acquire" Aldershot's DNA. You think we could do that with Visser Three on guard? Not likely."

  Everyone looked downcast. Prince Jake was correct.

  But then Cassie said, "Oh, man."

  "What?" Marco demanded.

  Cassie sighed. "I'm totally against this. But

  ..."

  "But? But? But what?"

  Cassie turned to me. "Ax, is it possible to acquire DNA from blood alone?"

  all yes. It should be.";

  "Blood?" Rachel made a face.

  "We're gonna get this guy's blood? Not me, my friend. Hepatitis, HIV,

  uh-uh."

  Diseases cannot be transmitted during

  acquiring,"; I said quickly. The acquiring process absorbs only DNA, and that DNA

  is isolated, encapsulated within your own

  bloodstream in a super-low temperature--and thus very stable--naltron molecule sphere. You see--";

  "I think my brain just fell asleep," Marco interrupted. "So, okay, the blood is safe for us. So, Cassie, how do we get it?" Cassie explained.

  All the other humans, even Tobias, said

  "gross." They said "gross" very loudly and repeatedly.

  I've learned something from my time with humans. When they say something is gross, they are almost always right.

  "So how do I acquire it without it acquiring me at the same time?" Prince Jake asked nervously.

  "Don't be a big baby," Marco said. "Like you've never been bitten by a mosquito?"

  "Never in cold blood," Prince Jake said.

  It was several days later. My human friends attend school five days in a row, then do not attend for two days. They don't know why. But they try and arrange for missions to take place on non-school days.

  We were in the barn, surrounding a transparent glass box. In the box were a number of small, fragile-looking flying insects.

  "You need to catch one in your hand. Don't squeeze too hard or you'll kill it,"

  Cassie said. "Like this." She stuck her hand in the box. After two unsuccessful attempts, she

  enclosed a mosquito in her hand.

  She withdrew her hand, covered the box again, and began to focus on the mosquito. After a moment she opened her eyes. "Okay, who's next?"

  "Just hand me your mosquito," Marco said.

  "It probably already bit you, so maybe it's not hungry anymore."

  "We can't all morph the same mosquito," Cassie said. "Only females suck blood. Males are useless."

  "Amen," Rachel said, then laughed.

  "So what's that mosquito in your hand?" Marco demanded.

  "Like I know?" Cassie said. "I don't have a magnifying glass that good. And even if I did, how exactly do you tell a male from a female?"

  "That's easy," Marco said. "The males think loud belching is funny and the females don't."

  "Is there any chance we could just get on with this?" Prince Jake asked.

  all yes,"; I said. I do not fear the bite of these tiny insects."; I put my hand inside the glass cage. I had some difficulty grabbing one of the creatures, though. Human hands are stronger and faster than Andalite hands. In the end, Cassie grabbed a mosquito and handed it to me. Thank you,"; I said, and began to acquire the necessary DNA.

  When we had all finished Prince Jake said,

  "Okay. Let's go."

  We morphed to birds of prey to fly quickly to the hospital. With harrier eyes I saw that the human Hewlett Aldershot the Third was still in his hospital bed. But there was a major difference. There were now four large humans seated around him. In the room next door to the left, we saw

  four more. And in the room next door to the right, another four.

  Human-Controllers, no doubt. And no

  doubt heavily armed. Twelve armed humans

  to protect Hewlett Aldershot the Third from us.

  Kind of flattering, actually,"; Rachel said. Twelve guys? And maybe more we

  don't see.";

  The Yeerks must have some high-ranking people in this hospital,"; Cassie observed. To get

  two private rooms just for guards like that?"; So how do we get in?"; Marco wondered. How about a diversion?"; Rachel suggested. I go into elephant morph, Jake does his

  rhinoceros, and we rip that place apart!"; I said, As I understand, we each hope

  to bite the human, so that we can be reasonably sure of extracting sufficient blood. But

  Rachel, before you can go from elephant to mosquito you must pass through human. I, on the other hand, have no need of an intermediate stage. And nothing would draw the attention of a bunch of

  Controllers better than an Andalite."; It made perfect sense. Prince Jake

  agreed that it made sense. So while the others went up to the roof and morphed back to human in preparation for becoming mosquitoes, I landed in a dark, open window at the far end of the hospital. I fluttered inside, waited, listening. I heard human breathing. My harrier eyes

  adjusted to the darkness and I could make out a young human female, looking very frail in her bed. I demorphed as quickly as I could, shedding feathers and growing fur.

  Suddenly the girl's eyes opened.

  "Who are you?" she demanded. "Are you a fairy?"

  ationo. I am an Andalite."; It was all I could think of to say. Besides, I felt

  reluctant to lie to a sick child.

  "What's your name?"

  My name is Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill.";

  "That's a funny name," she said. Then she closed her eyes and began to sleep once more. I took a deep breath. I moved to the door as silently as I could. I opened it and stuck one stalk eye out into the hall. Two humans in white were at the far end of the hall.

  I took another deep breath. Well, I

  thought, I am supposed to create a

  diversion.

  I opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. The two humans did not see me

  till I had nearly reached them. Then their mouths opened very wide. And their faces began to change color: one turned white, the other red.

  I don't know why.

  "Holy ..."

  "What the ..."

  Obviously they were not Controllers or they would have been yelling "Andalite!" rather than "Holy" and

  "What the." These were innocent humans. Hello,"; I said. Please, do not be

  alarmed.";

  "It's ... it's some weird, mutated deer!"

  "It's some kind of trick. It's gotta be a trick. All right, Terry, you can come out now. Hah-hah, big laugh."

  I passed them by and kept walking toward the heavily guarded room of Hewlett Aldershot

  the Third.

  A human went past pushing a cart loaded with food on trays. He never looked up. He just kept looking down as he went. Then I guess he noticed my hooves.

  "Aaaahhhh!" he cried, and shoved the cart so hard it turned over.

  Clang-clash-Wham!

  Thus began the diversion. Suddenly doors opened. Heads stuck out and looked and screamed. People came running down the hall. Most turned around when they saw me and ran the other way.

  "Oh, no! Did you see it? Did you see it?"

  "It's a monster!"

  "I knew they were doing genetic experiments down in the labs! It's some kind of freak!" It would almost have been insulting, if I were sensitive.

  But then the door to the right of Aldershot's room opened. Out stepped a human. He gaped at me for a second, then yelled, "Andalite!" He gaped one second too long. He

  yanked out a gun. I snapped my tail forward and he quickly dropped the gun.

  "Andalite!" he screamed again, but with extra hatred this time.

  Now the guards came boiling out of all three rooms. They jammed into the hallway, too many to move freely. Human guns were being drawn. And I saw a couple of handheld Yeerk

  Dracon beam weapons, too.

  In a split second they would all start

  shooting. The lead slugs from the human weapons would be most dangerous. Not just to me, but because they would rip through the walls and might hit innocent people.

  "Shoot! Shoot him, you fools, or Visser Three will have us for lunch!" one of the humans roared.

  FWAPP!

  I whipped my tail, left to right, a

  millimeter from slicing open the front row. They backed up, stumbling back into their fellows.

  FWAPP!

  I whipped again, but now they were ready to start fighting. And I was seriously outnumbered and worried about innocent humans being hurt.

  Obviously, I had not planned the diversion very well.

  And that's when it occurred to me. The one way to keep from getting shot.

  I surrender!"; I cried. I want

  to defect.";

  "What?"

  I wish to defect. I am interested in

  joining the Yeerks. I would like to become a Controller. Do you have any information on membership? Is there a fee?";

  A dozen weapons were leveled at me. From behind me, at that end of the hall I heard other human voices.

  "What is going on around this place?"

  "Is that a horse?"

  "Look at the eyes on its head!"

  "Where's security?"

  The leader of the Controllers made a snap decision. He hustled me out of the hallway and into the room where Hewlett Aldershot the Third was sleeping his comatose sleep.

  The room was small. Too small for all the guards. There were only five of them now. Much better odds.

  "You want to join us?" one of the Controllers asked dubiously.

  Actually, no,"; I said regretfully.

  FWAPP!

  I struck and the nearest guard leaped back, plowing into his men. I had about half a second before they'd recover and shoot.

  FWAPP! CRASH!

  I shattered the window with my tail blade. Here's a trick I learned from Visser

  Three!"; I yelled. I ran three steps, ducked my upper body, flattened my stalk

  eyes, tucked my legs, and flew through the shattered window.

  Down I fell!

  allyaaahhhh!";

  Too far, way too far, but better than

  getting shot.

  The window's open, Prince Jake!"; I cried. And the Controllers are--";

  WHAM!

  CRUNCH!

  ?--distracted.";

  I landed in a bush that cushioned some of my fall but also tripped me. I rolled and tried to scramble up, but then realized, as

  ridiculous as it seemed, that I was trapped inside the prickly, clawing branches of the bush. Blam! Blam! BlamBlamBlam!

  The guards were firing from the window. Bullets tore the branches and slammed into the damp soil all around me.