"You're just in time for this afternoon's group Were the Yeerks firing this moon ray tonight?!

  efficiency workshop," piped up another of the hu Find your desk, Jake. I looked at my badge. mans. "Peer Communication Skills — Conquest Sector 5-682. The cubicles had number plates: through Companionship."

  679,680,681.

  "Never miss one," I stated positively. I stood over the computer monitor assigned to The lift doors opened onto a vast room. A sea me. A model of the Chrysler Building spire roof short, shiny, stainless steel cubicles shone untated and twisted its way across the screen. It der glaring lights. I followed the taller human was framed by strings of numbers that changed into a large open area with metal stools, most alas the model turned. ready occupied. A holographic short film played It was just like that dream where you show up at the front of the room. It depicted an Andalitefor the final exam in some class, and it suddenly 76

  77

  hits you that you haven't studied at all. In fact, Oh, my God. These guys were working for me you haven't been to the class at all and now you and they'd seen my screen wig out! Did they have to pass the test.

  know I was a phony, a fake, an infiltrator? Could I looked around. Everyone else had silver they tell?

  probes hung on their ears. There was one on my I moved to shuffle papers on my desk, to look desk. It looked like a tape dispenser, but I picked occupied and cover up my ignorance, but there it off the console and fit it to my ear. Looked at weren't any papers to shuffle. "Yup," I said casuthe monitor. And suddenly . . . ally. I tinkered with my earpiece and frowned down Whoa! The 3-D model flashed! The image was at my screen, seriouslike. "I was just, you know, uncontrollable. Unstoppable! My brain was panickgiving the old mind a rest." ing, racing. I tried to mask the monitor from view so After a few seconds, I glanced back at the that my cubicle neighbors wouldn't sound the imcommunal workstation, hoping my crew had repostor alarm. turned to business and forgotten everything Then, I realized . . .

  they'd just seen me do.

  I controlled the movement. The screen reBut when I looked at my crew, I saw . . . my flected whatever command my mind issued. Uncrew . . . der other circumstances, this would have been extremely cool. Slow, I ordered, easy. My mind relaxed and so did the images. I made the screen flip through pictures at a normal speed.

  I was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when I felt eyes staring at me. I looked up. There was a communal workstation directly in front of my cubicle. I'd passed through it on my way. Noticed focused, hardworking aliens of various species, studying their own screens, consulting other screens. Now, they'd stopped working.

  "Boss?" a Hork-Bajir huskily. "You okay, boss?" 78

  79

  my tiger morph. How could he stand?! He wasn't even breathing! His muscles were decomposing!

  And yet he staggered out from behind the console and started toward me.

  He stretched his arm forward, extended his wrist blade and reached . . . reached for me! A C H A P T E R 16

  growling rumbled in a voice box that wasn't there. Tiger jaws had ripped it out.

  I turned to run. I was crazy. 1 was nuts!

  Total insanity was twisting my brain!

  But when I tried to move, my path was blocked by a Leeran's stocky form, its pebbly, slimy skin run dry.

  "Ahh!" Its webbed feet had been severed by a Seats just moments ago occupied by busy shark's teeth. My shark morph's teeth. Only thin, Controllers — healthy, breathing, living Confibrous ligaments kept the feet moving with the trollers — now held . . .

  body. The large, luminous, Leeran eyes were lifeI blinked just to make sure. less.

  Oh, yeah.

  And yet he shuffled toward me, and I felt him The seats held the raw, bloody, dismembered say my name.

  bodies of enemies I had faced in battle. My past Jake, he chanted. Jake. Jake. Jake. Jake. was staring back at me.

  Jake.

  You have to understand that I really didn't I stiffened and backed into my cubicle. I could think what I was seeing was real. And yet, under smell them now. Their decay and rot. Death, pressthe harsh fluorescent lights, there was no mistaking nearer and nearer!

  ing that the corpses were there.

  Behind the Hork-Bajir, a Taxxon's jelly eyes A Hork-Bajir corpse rose out of a chair. His gaped and a three-foot tongue dangled limp from mauled body had been ripped apart by the claws of its open mouth. A tiger slash had flayed it from 80

  81

  neck to belly. Its innards oozed. Flies swarmed at The rat scampered up my leg and sank its

  the opening. Maggots churned in the wound. Lobteeth into my skin. sterlike Taxxon claws clacked like castanets as it

  "Nooo!"

  strained and reached for me.

  The bodies of the enemies I'd destroyed . . . Jake. Jake. Jake. Jake.

  "No, No, NOOOOO!"

  The chanting continued. The smells, the

  "KEEEEEEEE-row!"

  growling, the buzzing flies, the blood . . . I opened my eyes and the cubicle had disap"No," I breathed. It's a vision. This is your peared. I was tumbling through the air, spinning, past. . . haunting you . . . This isn't real!

  plummeting out of control! I was in wild free fall Not real!

  next to a Howler.

  I needed to climb over the cubicle wall. They

  "KEEEEEE-row!"

  were coming!

  Another mind-splitting cry! The planet floor Jake. Jake. Jake. Jake.

  was racing up! The Howler was clawing the air, I put a hand on the partition and tried to pull screaming in rage. Screaming! Because I'd led myself over it, but I had no strength.

  him off the ledge.

  A rat appeared between the corpses' slowRat teeth sliced my skin. Webbed fingers moving feet. Running blindly, frantically. Bumpslapped at my face. A Taxxon tongue covered me ing into dismembered alien parts. Recoiling, with spit. Hork-Bajir blades began to slice . . . then starting out again. I knew it was David. The The ground, racing up!

  kid we turned into an Animorph. The kid who

  "KEEEEEEEE-row!"

  betrayed us. One bad decision after another. I couldn't take anymore. Too much! Too much!

  Trapped and helpless because of me . . .

  "AHH! AHH! AHH!" I screamed and Corpses had crowded into my cubicle! The

  screamed and screamed.

  Leeran's tentacles brushed my arm!

  Then, instantly, all went silent.

  "No!"

  I gasped and jumped up from where I lay,

  The Taxxon's claws closed over my fingers!

  sweating and cowering against the cool cubicle A raw, blood-dipped Hork-Bajir claw pressed wall.

  against my cheek.

  Confused, out of my mind, I stared ahead. I closed my eyes. My heart pounded.

  "Boss?"

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  I jerked my head toward the communal workstation. Normal Controllers sat behind the console, a Hork-Bajir and a Taxxon among them. They looked at me in alarmed disbelief.

  I felt like I always did when I woke from a nightmare. Startled, a little embarrassed, but mostly just grateful that even this reality was less C H A P T E R 17

  than the terror of the dream.

  There was a bustling down the hall.

  Orff and Hork-Bajir steamed through the maze of cubicles. Security was heading straight for me. Leading them, storming fast and angrily, was a stone-faced human, tall and sturdily built. I felt I should know this person.

  There was something familiar. . .

  Magically clear, steel-strong Orff fingers

  "Get him!" he roared. The guards moved as clutched my arms as my father approached. He one.

  looked just as I remembered him. Salt-andIt couldn't be true. Yet it was true. This pepper hair receding slightly. A vertical wrinkle wasn't another nightmare vision. It was real!

  forged above his nose. He hadn't aged a day. The man who was ordering a security force to How was that possible?

  apprehend me was the man who'd played catch

  "Dad . . ."

  with me as a child, who'd taught me how to His face showed no response as his eyes

  swim. The man who had changed my diapers. tracked, sifting his memory.

  My friend. My role model.

  "That's right. Once upon a time, you were my My father.

  host's son. This is quite a coincidence in a city so big."

  My thoughts exactly.

  It was a weird and unlikely coincidence. As an isolated event, maybe. I'm out of commission 84

  85

  for ten years and when I tune in again, my dad's coys? By all biological laws, they should be. They there waiting to arrest me. Sure.

  could be drawing attention away from the body But combined with bumping into Cassie?

  sections that mattered.

  With sighting Tobias? With learning that it was With a sweep of my leg I knocked one to the my carelessness that led to Rachel's death?

  floor. He released my arm and I packed the hardToo much convergence. Too many life lines est punch I've ever thrown at the clearest part of intersecting.

  the other Orff's chest. Just below the head, but There had to be some other current at work above the heart. A section clear as air.

  here.

  The sea-green glow in his eye faltered and

  "You were late for work," the Yeerk in my faflickered out. He moaned and fell, an unconther's head accused. "Late and in the vicinity of scious heap. My father's face flashed alarm. the explosion. You will be interrogated."

  "Take him!"

  The Orff squeezed my arms, nearly cutting off Two Hork-Bajir lunged. I turned and ran for the blood flow.

  the gravity lift, but six more Hork-Bajir came run This is a dream, I thought again. Or maybe I ning from that direction. Roping me in! Closing have a fever. I'll wake up in a cold sweat, back in off escape!

  my room, back with a chance for victory. . . I was blocked. Surrounded. Helpless!

  "Move him!"

  Unless . . .

  The guards pulled me forward. I leaned back. I focused.

  Wake up, I screamed silently. Wake up!

  And the impossible began to happen.

  I wanted it to be a dream. Willed it to be a Bands of color, stripes of orange and black fevered dream.

  inked my skin. Then fur erupted. Tiger muscles The Orffs' blue lungs filled and collapsed, bulged, ripping my suit at its seams. My teeth enfilled and collapsed. Their hearts contracted. larged and sharpened, becoming rows of pointed Their blood coursed.

  spears.

  I rammed an elbow into a lung.

  I was still able to morph.

  No response!

  The Yeerk force stared in horror, incredulous. A flash of insight. What if their organs, those

  "He's not Andalite! It's impossible!" blatant, exposed, vulnerable organs, were de Not so, boys. 86

  87

  I fell forward onto all fours and lunged. Slashed a Hork-Bajir leg. Rip! Slash! Rip!

  Four were down. I turned on my father. He reached for the Dracon holstered on his hip. His hand was on it. His eyes were on me.

  One leap and I'd have him. One leap, and I could take him out.

  C H A P T E R 18

  My dad.

  He lifted the beam from his belt. Started to bring it up.

  One leap . . .

  Take down my father?

  WHAM!

  From behind! A brutal blow. My head exSlowly, very slowly, unconsciousness gave ploded. My legs, crumpling beneath me. And my way to the numb daze of waking up.

  vision . . .

  My limbs were heavy. Utter exhaustion made Red, then black.

  me happy to be lying down. Don't move. Don't even open your eyes. Back to sleep. Yeah . . . go back to sleep, Jake.

  Then suddenly, I remembered.

  Panic knotted my stomach. I was back in human form!

  How did I demorph?

  Hideous red light reflected off a cool, smooth floor. It burned my eyes. Bare, seamless walls. A large room. And I was sprawled near the exit. A door frame with no door. I could go . . . 88

  89

  I staggered to my feet, scanned the hall outchanged. Despite the deep, angular battle scars side for guards. No one. This was it. My lucky that scored it.

  break. I rushed forward.

  I knew that face.

  Kzzzzt!

  That cocky confidence. That swagger.

  It was like being slapped down by a steel

  "Marco?"

  plate. My face, knees, and fists had struck an in"Just the parts of his mind I find useful," visible, electrified force. I raised my head, not came the reply. A voice at once familiar and sure of what had happened, anticipating a secalien. ond strike.

  "Not you, too, man."

  Nothing. Just the opening, still crackling from

  "Your old friend Marco's serving the Empire impact.

  now, if that's what you mean. He finally underI struggled to raise my limp body. stands how much better things can be when we

  "Still putting up the big fight?" It was a deep, all work together. One big happy family. Tell your chiding voice. "After all these years?" old buddy, Marco."

  I looked up. A broad, dark man paused in the An odd expression contorted the man's face. doorway, then strode through the energy barrier. A face so shocked to find it could speak, that the He was flanked by six Hork-Bajir and four heavily mouth could barely form words.

  armed Orff. The Hork-Bajir fell off and took up There was stuttering. A long attempt to utter locations by the entrance. The Orff kept their posomething. sitions on either side of this person, who was

  "N-n-n . . . o."

  clearly in charge.

  And then the mouth stopped abruptly, turning He spoke.

  once again cold and hard. The Yeerk cut in. The

  "When they told me it was you, I didn't believe Yeerk who'd stolen my best friend's mind and it. I thought you'd been disposed of at the beginmade him a slave. ning. My host's old comrade in arms. The former

  "What he means is that no one could be hapleader of that pathetic little gang, the Animorphs." pier."

  The face was adult. Mid-twenties, like mine.

  "Marco would die before he'd choose to help Unmistakable anywhere, despite all that had you."

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  91

  "Evolutionist-Front nonsense. Everyone wants to help the Yeerks. It's the informed choice, the

  'in' thing to do. Life's cool when you share your head."

  This Yeerk was trying hard to tap Marco's humor, but it wasn't working.

  "You'll want to join us, too. We've already got C H A P T E R 19

  a new Yeerk lined up for you. Someone more cooperative with the Empire. He'll help you think things through, help that anarchic brain of yours find peace. But first we've got some business to take care of."

  A new Yeerk? So he, too, thought I was already a Controller?

  I knew I wasn't. I knew it!

  "You were spotted on the street near the And yet when everybody thinks you're somescene of the explosion. You were off duty without thing you're not, when everyone tells you again authorization. Then I hear you're hanging with and again who and what you are, it's hard not to Gotham's most wanted. I have to say it was that wonder, way in the back of your mind, if they particular piece of evidence that sealed your aren't somehow right.

  fate." A familiar smirk lit up the altered face.

  "Old Jake's a terrorist."

  "I don't know anything about the explosion. I was just on my way to work."

  "I anticipated you'd try to resist." Marco snapped his fingers and a Hork-Bajir swiftly disabled the energy barrier. Two Orff marched in, carrying Cassie. Her feet and hands were bound with living handcuffs. They handled her roughly, ignoring her broken arm.

  9 2

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  Despite her injury, Cassie fought them like a gigantic Taxxon on a leash. Each Orff carried a madwoman. She spat in the big Cyclopean eye of long pointed pole with which they jabbed at the an Orff. The orbiting pupil turned from bright Taxxon, keeping it at bay.

  yellow to beet-red. He threw her to the floor at Marco snickered. "This fellow's been brought Marco's feet.

  straight over from the Taxxon home world where

  "Terrorist or not," Marco said to me, "when he made quite a name for himself. He ate his enyou see what I can do to Cassie, you'll do as I tire hive. Mother? Uh-huh. Father? Yep. Siblings?

  say."

  Children? Cousins? Oh, yeah. We tried infesting Cassie started to crawl away, but the Orff him, but it became obvious that he's more effecgrabbed her again and dragged her to a corner of tive at what he does when his natural inclinations the room. They fastened her cuffs to brackets on are left unchecked."

  the wall.

  The Taxxon pulled violently, choking on his

  "I want to meet those people clever enough to leash, oblivious to everything but the search for bring down a building in the center of town, right flesh. Hundreds of legs scrambled. The Orff could under our noses," Marco said, his calm unnervbarely hold him back. ing. "I'd like you to introduce me to that group of Cassie squirmed, struggling to break free. I individuals. If you're willing, Jake, I think we thought she would pull her arms out of their might be able to keep things friendly." sockets. I couldn't watch.

  No. I was going to free Cassie. She needed

  "Help us infiltrate the EF," Marco propositioned smoothly, "and her life will be spared. Tell help.

  me all you know and . . ."

  I was about to morph to tiger when she

  "Tell him nothing!" Cassie snarled. "I'd sooner caught my eye. Her expression held me back. Its die a thousand Taxxon-deaths than aid the Emmeaning was clear. Hold your ground, Jake, her pire."

  eyes said. Tell him nothing. Keep your cool. If She meant it. No childish uncertainty lin you try to free me, you'll tell him too much. gered in her voice. No naive hopes. She was pure So I didn't morph. Instead I turned to Marco warrior, calculating as any visser.

  and said, "I told you, I don't know anything But when I looked at her face, even though it about any group."

  was ten years older than in my memory, I saw Immediately, led in by two more Orff, came a 94

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  only the Cassie I once knew, the Cassie I once the difference? Are you so sure there even is a cared for.