wall of ropes and rigging.

  Not happening.

  WHUMP.

  The Taxxons continued to surge forward until It shook the floor. An exploded balloon. And at last, the woman's faulty weapon wouldn't fire boy, did it stink.

  anymore. She hurled it at the closest Taxxon, but The woman streaked behind a drop painted

  it was like a toy in his mouth. It was swallowed with a scenic country setting. There was a red up without hesitation.

  barn and green pasture. Horses and farm animals I frantically disconnected rope after rope. The grazed in the background.

  racing whine of pulleys filled my ears as a whole But no sooner had she disappeared than . . . batten of heavy stage lights came crashing to the

  TSEEEW!

  floor. And then another. And another.

  She burned a Dracon hole in the faded canvas I let myself look. Three bloated Taxxons were landscape and vaulted through. Chasing after her pinned to the floor, writhing. Still caught under were three of the fastest Taxxons I'd ever seen. She the delicate scrim net.

  stumbled, running backward, firing her weapon I ran to the woman. Her arm was being crushed again and again. But the discharges grew weaker by a now-limp Taxxon. Her body was washed in a and weaker, pathetic slaps in the face to the hulkpuddle of vile drool. She flinched as I neared her, ing Taxxons.

  still ready to fight.

  And I was weaponless!

  I bent low and freed her arm. She finally I looked up at row upon row of heavy lights. I seemed to understand that I wasn't going to hurt wondered . . .

  her.

  I ran into the wings, where the myriad ropes Our eyes met.

  converge in neat rows anchored by stacks of steel

  "Cassie."

  weights.

  I wanted to hug her. Tell her everything was 58

  59

  okay. That she was brave. That we would make it out alive.

  But her eyes were like a wall or a mask. I searched them for the peace and sensitivity they used to hold.

  Neither was there.

  Her lips curled into a fake smile, a very unCassie-like look. And she finally spoke. C H A P T E R 12

  "So. You're not dead."

  I answered with a smile, the kind of look I'd have given her if we were back in the world I knew.

  "This city's been doing all it can to kill me. But no, I'm not dead. I've been alone. Where are the others? How . . . how did you get here?" She didn't answer, but swung her legs over the stage apron, heaved a sigh, and dropped into the orchestra pit. I followed her down, where she stooped in a corner and uncovered a stashed case.

  "Cassie, what's going on?" It wasn't like her to ignore me. She didn't even look up. "I got into bed, just last night, I think," I continued. "I was at home, living with my family. We'd just come back from our last messed-up mission. Remem60

  61

  ber? I wake up this morning and I'm freakin'

  ate to fight the Council. I led the team responsible twenty-five years old. With a beard and no memfor the blast this morning. That's why the Taxxons ory of the decade in between. Is this Crayak? The like me so much. The damage will set them back, Ellimist?"

  even though we didn't hit the . . . "

  "I haven't thought of those names in years,"

  "What!" An uncontrollable wave of nausea she said. Her tone was not nostalgic. She was knotted my chest. It was like hearing my dad rummaging through the case, I guessed for banconfess to being a drug pusher or a murderer. It dages to fix a splint to her arm. The case was was an impossibility. "Cassie, what are you sayfilled with first-aid supplies, five or six handheld ing? You engineered a blast that must have killed Dracons, another purple suit, emergency food rahundreds of refugees, the very people the EF is tions, and . . .

  trying to help? That makes you a terrorist! How She turned her head just in time to see my can you possibly justify that?"

  eyes widen.

  "In a war, Jake, anything is justified." She Spools of blast cord. Blocks of plastic explospoke with an unnerving confidence. "I'm not a sives. Detonators. Dynamite. A crazy mix of lowkid anymore. I'm not concerned with the nonand high-tech destructive potential. sense I used to be."

  "I take it you're not with the EF?" she said.

  "Like life and peace? You think that's nonsense I shook my head.

  now! Don't you remember our last mission — the

  "The Evolutionist Front. The Yeerk rebel group?

  Ragsin Building battle? The comedown? You You know, the so-called Insurrectionists, dedicated needed to talk when we got out and I turned you to turning away from parasitism and toward the use away. Just didn't want to deal with it. I was an idiot of artificially created symbiotes?"

  that night, Cassie. You were on target with your She shoved a Dracon into my hand and took doubts, just like you always were. You have to realtwo for herself. And then I glimpsed an emerize that." gency Kandrona particle emitter as she closed She laughed dismissively. "You're talking the case.

  about a different lifetime, Jake. There were so

  "You're a Controller?"

  many missions back then. All just a pitiful blur of She laughed. "What else would I be? My Yeerk's youthful idealism. You don't get it, do you? I'm name is Niss. We're in the EF together. We coopersaying that I finally understand war." 62

  63

  The way she was speaking, the way she was sort of talking down to me, made me feel like I was about as important to her as a screw in the stage floor.

  Was there really no connection between us?

  Was my friend so changed?

  "The Taxxons own the subway," I said. "The Orff rule the streets. Cassie, if you look around, C H A P T E R 13

  it's obvious that somehow we lost our chance to win this war."

  "The war is not lost!" she hissed. Her eyes were on fire. She looked ready to attack me. But then her eyes moved to the badge on my chest and all at once her anger vanished. Her face relaxed, then brightened. Her expression You're a planetary engineer? Working on the changed so quickly it was frightening.

  Chrysler Building project!" Suddenly, I was the most interesting thing in the theater. I didn't know what to say. She moved toward me. Her uninjured arm gripped my arm. Her voice was intense, almost obsessed.

  "Jake, the Yeerks want the moon. They want to make it a small, Kandrona-radiating sun. If they succeed, it means an Earth bathed in Kandrona rays for the rest of eternity! It'll be something the EF could never touch and never disable. No one could."

  I felt like a customer subjected to an intricate and manipulative sales pitch. The deal-maker was 64

  65

  just around the corner, I could feel it. And I knew it My heart stopped.

  somehow involved me.

  "Me!"

  "Your job brings you closer to the moon-ray

  "Well, you were a Controller by then, of course. technology than anyone in the EF. You know that You can thank Tom for that."

  shell over the Chrysler Building? The Yeerks have

  "My brother?"

  been working under there for months, fine-tuning She nodded. "The Yeerk in Tom's head finally the energy beam that will ignite the moon. The put it all together. Clues, maybe. Carelessness. I targeting has to be precise. Absolutely precise. don't know. But he suspected you of being an The Yeerks need the beam to fire exactly the way

  'Andalite bandit' and then one night, he was you and your team have calculated, or else . . ." sure. He planned his attack so well that when it She was animated. Her eyes glistened as she came, you didn't stand a chance."

  stood before me. There was the spark I knew. She continued. "You, Marco, and Ax were Only it wasn't love of people or animals that put taken immediately, in my barn. Rachel was killed it there. It was thoughts of sabotage, terrorism, outright. They caught me the next day. Only Tostrategy. bias escaped."

  And now she was drawing me into it, too.

  A tightness constricted my throat. Rachel I brought my fingers to the badge her eyes dead?! There was a time when I'd encouraged still fixed on. I yanked it off, breaking her trance. her recklessness. I'd put her, more than any of

  "Tell me right now! How did we get here?

  the others, in dangerous spots. And Tobias? With Where are the others? How were you captured? Is a hawk's life span, he'd be dead by now.

  this even real?"

  Cassie told me all of this matter-of-factly, like I Her enthusiasm settled. The fake smile reshould know the story. Like I should have known appeared. She didn't want to answer my questhat this, all of it, was because of me . . . tions, but if she wanted my help, she had to.

  "Move!"

  "If you really don't remember, I'll tell you," she

  TSEEEW!

  said. "You won't like the answer." She laughed The black metal music stands in front of me again a little. Less ruthless, more rueful, she vaporized.

  looked me in the eyes. "How was I captured? I was

  "Get down!"

  betrayed, Jake. By you."

  TSEEEW!

  66

  67

  Cassie returned fire, striking the Taxxon. He keeled over, falling forward, falling right over the rail above the orchestra pit! Flailing fifteen feet to the floor. Crash! Writhing in agony at our feet. He was badly wounded, but he'd live. Maybe Cassie'd shot him in the hind quarters on purpose, so he'd survive. All we had to do was run. I opened the access door to the crawlspace C H A P T E R 14

  under the stage.

  "Cassie, come on!" She ducked in. I followed. But then she stopped. She turned. She aimed right past me, back through the door.

  TSEEEW!

  A second hole sizzled through the Taxxon's vital organs, coldly finishing him off. We burst into the street. Ran away from the I looked at Cassie, searched her for an ansound of sirens and hover ships and a still-chaotic swer, tried to understand eyes ablaze with ruthcrime scene. lessness.

  Every hundred yards, Cassie turned back to re"They're just dogs," she said. "The Orffs' unturn fire. The Taxxons finally fell off and we stopped official police squad let loose to catch us soat a smashed-up storefront. An old newsstand. called terrorists. The Orff don't mind too much if Sweating and panting, I glanced at the racks. Taxxon hunger gets out of control and they eat us The sunburned, wind-tattered cover of an old instead of bringing us to the station. An eye for Sports Illustrated caught my eye. I picked it up. an eye, I say."

  "My dad . . . " I said with surprise. "He just I wondered if maybe this was Niss talking. got this issue in the mail!" Cassie looked at the The Yeerk, and not Cassie.

  date.

  "Come on!" she yelled.

  "Yeah," she said flatly, "it's been about ten I followed her.

  years. The Yeerk conquest concluded in a matter 68

  69

  of weeks after we were captured. Turns out we No. Cassie's Yeerk was feeding me lies. She were more than a thorn in the side of the Empire. was wearing me down. She knew . . . she knew We'd actually started to shift the balance." from Cassie's memory what would get to me, And then I'd blown it.

  what could make me snap.

  I'd gotten careless and cocky and ruthless But I wouldn't snap! I wasn't crazy. My friends myself. I'd been too ready to use the others, esw e r e n ' t . . . No. My friends . . . No!

  pecially Rachel.

  Suddenly, I was running down an empty street.

  "The others," I said. "Where are they now?" I didn't care that I had nowhere to go. I'd just keep Cassie paused next to a ratty pile of romance running and running until I collapsed. "Free or novels. "Ax became a high-ranking Controller. die," I repeated to myself. "Free or die!" From what I heard, he was the key player in the

  "Free or. . . "

  Yeerk attack on his home world. The Andalite

  "Stop it!"

  planet was decimated. Millions died. Tens of thouCassie cut in front of me and pushed me sands of Andalites were taken. EF leadership against the wall. Only then did I feel my face thinks there are some still free in deep space, but I streaked with tears. My eyes blurred. My chest can't imagine . . . "

  heaving.

  I sank to the floor beside a stack of yellowed

  "It was good luck that I met you, Jake. The New York Times dated three weeks from the night job you have as planetary engineer is an incrediI fell into bed in spandex bike shorts. ble chance for the EF." Cassie was intense and

  "Tobias became a leader of sorts. Anti-Yeerk." obsessed again. "The controlled burn of the

  "Does he — did he — know about Rachel?" moon the Empire is planning? We need to make

  "Yes. As for Marco." Her voice turned colder. it uncontrolled. The perfect targeting of the en"Marco's Visser Two now, in charge of Earth. He's ergy beam? We need it to be off. Exploding the done things . . . terrible things."

  moon will shower the earth with debris. It will This wasn't real. I couldn't be hearing this. I knock out satellites, destroy spacecraft, disrupt didn't believe it.

  the entire Yeerk social structure. It will create an

  "The Visser Three you remember was made opening for attack by the EF. Jake, do you hear head of the Council. The supreme Yeerk leader. me? It will be the opening the EF and free huEmperor." mans have been waiting for."

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  71

  Two of her words struck my ears like bells. Dracon beam in my hand and emptiness in my

  "Free humans?"

  heart.

  "Yes. Small groups still survive in the counWas I on her side? I thought I wanted to be. tryside. Hunted groups of fugitives." She'd assumed I would be.

  "So, there's hope?"

  But she was so changed. Driven. Obsessed.

  "I told you the war wasn't lost. But it will be. Ultrafocused. She'd become a cog in the war maAll hope will be erased if this energy beam fires chine. But then, who here wasn't?

  as the Yeerks want it to. Go to work." She knew Was I a pawn in her mind? A mere tool?

  I'd help her. She knew she was my leader now. I knew the answer.

  "Live the life your badge describes. Watch, lisBut I didn't care. ten, get information, scope things out. But don't It might help me save her.

  act until I contact you. I'll send someone who works with me to give you instructions. We'll need a code word."

  Reluctantly, I clipped my badge back onto my jumpsuit. "How about 'peace'?" I said with a weak smile.

  Cassie looked at me like I was a naive twoyear-old. She reached out and touched my face tenderly. And for an instant, one sweet instant, the mask of hardness lifted. The girl I'd loved was looking back at me.

  But she was gone as quickly as she'd come.

  "It's too late for peace, Jake. All that's left now is to drive the invaders away by force. Make Earth too dangerous for them. How about a different code word? How about. . . 'Animorphs'?" I agreed and she was gone, leaving me with a 72

  73

  trate enemy science headquarters, corrupt the latest state-of-the-art Yeerk technology, blow up the moon. Hey, that even sounded vaguely familiar. We'd done stuff like that before, right? No problem.

  But it wasn't that simple. She said I had to wait.

  C H A P T E R 15

  Wait for orders from a Cassie I didn't even know! Why was I letting it happen? No Animorph would ever take orders from a Yeerk. Hadn't I made that a ground rule?

  I stepped across the threshold. Secondguessing my decision to help Cassie. And thirdguessing it, and fourth-guessing it. i. boarded a shuttle that dropped me on an The panel shut behind me, sealing out the empty docking pad, cantilevered off the face of immutable hum I'd come to know meant Yeerk the building two hundred feet above the street. business as usual. Small, triangular lights redThe Chrysler Building's Mylar wrap gleamed dened the floor, pointing me toward a nearby reddish-brown in the city's frightening glow. gravity lift. With all the false confidence I could A powerful gust slapped me off balance and muster I entered the clear, semicircular encloripped at my hair as I stepped toward a heavy sure, hovering in the air just outside the Mylar steel panel.

  sheath. There were a half-dozen other riders. Two The panel began to rise.

  humans, an Andalite, and some pinkish creaHow would I save our moon from transfiguratures I'd never seen before. tion, from becoming a beacon of Yeerk strength, an

  the Andalite teased.

  the chance that Kandrona would forever taint

  "Had to visit the clinic. Problems with my Earth's surface with its malignant rays?

  host. He has a rebellious history."

  If only I had clear-cut instructions, like: Infil"I hear you, man," said a tall human male. 74

  75

  "My host used to work for the ACLU and he just Controller passing the cubicle of a Hork-Bajirwon't shut up about how I'm infringing on his Controller.

  rights. I don't want to worry you, but the pills

 
  you,> the Andalite said. The Hork-Bajir didn't reThe lift rushed upward with unsettling accelspond, just kept working. eration. I put a hand on the wall for balance and The holo paused at that frame and a female Anlooked out over the corridor of death and wreckdalite at the front of the room asked the assembled age carved by the explosion. The collapsed skygroup,
  that could have facilitated team compatibility?>

  the That's a tough one, lady, I thought. But I'll go Andalite commented. He didn't say who "they" out on a limb here and guess that it's free will. were, but I knew he meant the EF. His voice was I turned on my heels and wound through the calm enough, the way you'd expect a member of paths between cubicle walls. I had no idea where I the ruling class to sound when speaking of the was going, but I pretended I did. Almost everyone oppressed. But his tone revealed more. Today's smiled as I passed. One guy even slapped my back explosion marked a turning point. In the mind of and said, "Hey, Essak. Ready for the big night?" this Andalite-Controller, the EF had just crossed The big night. What was that about? The guy the line from nuisance to threat.

  in the hovercraft had asked me about a launch.