Did Marco forget he had a perfectly good llama morph?
quote:
I sighed. "Tobias, look, get up off my back, okay? I know you're thinking Jake will blame you if this all goes bad. But we need to just get along, here, okay?"
Tobias laughed. <Okay. I'm done pouting. Unless we end up getting kicked cross-country by these big goats. Then I'll pout plenty.>
For all the friction in these chapters I appreciate that all the members of the group are actually good friends who like and respect each other. I think you're right about Tobias not being leadership material, but he is - like Cassie - quite intuitive about how the others are feeling and how he needs to respond to that (I'm thinking more the previous chapter here, "you don't have to prove anything dude" etc).
Also it's interesting to see Marco
speculating about being able to spill out all these secrets to his dad one day, since as it turns out he does do that well ahead of schedule compared to the others
jeez I'm sad I had dropped the series by this point, this last chapter was really intense
jeez I'm sad I had dropped the series by this point, this last chapter was really intense
big
The first 5 odd ghostwritten books are quite good, but I think there's a few duds coming up. But also some good ones. It's really surprising to me that they handed the reigns over to ghostwriters and managed to keep the quality up as much as they did.
From memory (no actual spoilers in here, just my assessments): 31 is a forgettable dud, 32 is dumb as hell but I think might actually be Applegate, 33 is probably a lot better and more interesting as an adult than I remember it being as a kid, 34 is meh, 35 is fine but mostly memorable for its excellent ending, 36 is INSANELY dumb but so much so that it's actually good, 37 is meh, 38 is really good!, 39 is dumb, 40 is good.
Sadly, medical issues (and the need to set up a trap for Visser One) means that the next two chapters will be tomorrow. Sorry about that!
Chapter 17
quote:
The next morning we all met at the barn. I was past tired. My butt was sore. My elbows were raw from skinning down the artificial cliff.
Tobias seemed tired, too. Too tired even to tease me about my encounter with the goat. Ax acted as though he'd spent the night snoozing like a baby.
I explained my plan to Jake and the others.
"We take out Visser One. We take out Visser Three. We leave the Yeerks believing they've erased the free Hork-Bajir colony. The free Hork-Bajir end up much safer; the Yeerks end up leaderless."
I avoided looking at Cassie. From Jake there was just the briefest flicker of sadness. But Jake, too, is addicted to the bright, clear line.
Rachel kept her eyes down, focusing on the dirt-and-hay floor.
Rachel's not stupid. She knew anything she said would just make me mad. And I guess she, like all of them, was putting herself in my shoes. Wondering if she could do it.
"If it works, we have them both," I concluded. "But there's a lot to go wrong. A lot of unforeseen things that -"
Cassie put a hand on my arm. "Marco, you know we'll try to help your mother, in whatever way we can."
"She's only one person." I shrugged off her hand and stood up. "And we're supposed to be saving the world, right?"
It was one of the lines I'd practiced the night before. It sounded more bitter and less cool and calm and in control than I wanted.
"Okay," Jake said.
That was it. Just "okay." He didn't come out with any of the lines I'd put in his mouth in my imaginary conversations.
"So we do it?" I asked.
"Yeah. You call the plays, Marco."
I sucked in a shaky breath. "Okay. Okay. Okay, we want to push the timing. Don't give Visser One time to think about it. Keep her off balance. I know the place. I hiked near there once with my dad. I need someone to contact Erek."
Erek is one of a small group of Chee. They are androids. Pacifists by programming. But working to infiltrate the Yeerk ranks. Spies.
The Chee pass as human by the use of sophisticated holographic projections. They live human lives. Many human lives. They've been on Earth since the time of the pyramids.
<I'm on it,> Tobias volunteered, flying down from his perch in the hayloft.
"Okay. We don't let her see us. We play the arrogant Andalites the whole way. Visser One can't -"
"She's your mother!" Cassie exploded. "She's not 'Visser One.' She's your mother! Is everyone just going to let this happen?"
Jake sent her a cold look. "This is not the time, Cassie."
"When is it going to be the time? When Marco's mind is screwed up forever by this? He's in denial. This is his mother, for God's sake."
Jake said nothing. No one said anything. Cassie's words just hung in the air.
"Go on, Marco," Jake said finally.
"We want her to focus on disliking Andalite arrogance," I said. "She hates Andalites. So, we want her to dwell on that. Maybe it will be enough to keep her from seeing the trap. As soon as we're ready, I'll E-mail her."
"Ax, do you think we can play the roles of arrogant Andalites?" Jake asked.
<It will certainly require good acting skills to imbue the fundamentally humble and dispassionate Andalite character with a taint of arrogance.> he said.
"Yeah. Humble is the very first word that comes to mind when I think 'Andalite,'" Rachel said with a drawl.
<I think I should do as much of it as possible,> Tobias suggested. <I spend the most time with Ax. I can do a pretty good "arrogant Andalite.">
<I am very close to taking offense,> Ax huffed.
"Okay, Tobias. But you have to allow time to get to the mountains."
<I'll have a tailwind. And I go "as the bird flies," not on winding mountain roads.>
I went to the computer Cassie and her dad use to keep medical records. "Ax? We need a secure screen name. Something not even the Yeerks could trace back here."
Ax worked at the computer for a few minutes, muttering about primitive human technology. Muttering in a dispassionately humble way, of course.
<You may compose your message.>
I typed. I hit "send." I didn't think about what I was setting in motion.
"Okay. Everyone understands what's what, right?" I asked.
"Yeah."
"Okay. I'm outta here."
I began to morph to osprey. Moments later, I was in the air. Relieved to be away from my friends.
Approximately fifteen minutes later, I landed in a leafy elm tree near the busy corner of Green and Spring Streets.
Tobias sat on a telephone pole across the street, preening his feathers.
<You get Erek?>
<Yeah. He's on it. Think she'll show? Your m -. I mean, Visser One?>
<Yeah. I think she'll show.>
Minutes later she drove up in a rented Audi. She slammed it into a parking space, bullying her way past a family in a Chrysler Town and Country.
She climbed out. The driver of the van yelled something at her. She gave him a look. He decided to drive off.
She wasn't in the disguise, anymore. She looked like my mom again. She was my mom. The olive skin. The shampoo-commercial black hair. The dark eyes.
<Visser One,> I told myself.
She stood pretending to be fascinated by the wares displayed in the window of the Ace Hardware.
<You're on, Tobias,> I told him. <Remember: arrogant Andalite.>
<Visser One, you will follow my instructions literally and immediately,> Tobias said.
Her head jerked. She looked around. She eyed a blind woman's guide dog suspiciously.
<You will be crossing paths with a human-Controller named Chapman,> Tobias said.
"Chapman!" she mumbled. "One of Visser Three's incompetents. He would turn me in in a\ second if it meant his advancement through the ranks."
<Exactly the point, Yeerk. You want Visser Three. Surely you understood that we had to attract his attention. We are delivering him. Do not question me again.>
My osprey eyes could see her mouth form a string of foul words. Tobias ignored her.
<Chapman's afternoon run takes him past the human business called Dunkin' Donuts. It is one street to the east. Walk there now. Make sure he sees you. Do not attempt to escape,> Tobias said. <We will protect you, if necessary.>
Visser One was standing outside Dunkin' Donuts at 1:55 P.M.
At precisely 2:10 P.M., Chapman rounded the corner, dressed in a lime-green and yellow jogging outfit. The Yeerk in my mother's head opened her hand. Her purse dropped. Chapman, always playing the role of pillar of the community, bent to pick it up for her. He straightened and held out the purse.
Visser One formed a smile. Then, the smile froze.
It was convincingly done.
Chapman said nothing. But I could see the blood draining out of his cheeks. He took a step back and then ran off double speed.
From my next perch, on the corrugated tin roof of Fred's Car Wash, I saw Chapman stop at a pay phone a block away and frantically punch the numbers.
Visser One stood fuming. She looked around again, trying to spot us. But there were pigeons and dogs and we could have been anywhere.
<Walk north one street,> Tobias said. <Embark on the large vehicle that stops at the next corner. Disembark at JCPenney.>
"It's called a 'bus,' you Andalite fool," she muttered in response. I happened to hear as she passed by below me.
Tobias's act was working.
<Good job, Tobias. You do a good Andalite. When the bus comes, you fly. I'll ride.>
<You're the boss,> Tobias said.
Two minutes later a bus pulled up against the painted yellow curb.
<Embark,> Tobias snapped.
<Embark?> I asked Tobias.
<I thought it sounded like something Ax would think was right.>
My mother got on the bus. I swooped down off the car wash and landed, scrabbling, on the hot metal roof of the bus. There was nothing to hold on to. But a couple of tiny rivets had popped out and I seized a precarious hold by prying my talon tips into the holes. Not my favorite way to travel.
The bus rumbled back into traffic and began the five-minute ride to the mall. Fortunately it never got over ten or fifteen miles an hour.
Ducking my head down and streamlining my body, I could resist the wind. I could have kept pace from the air, which would have been a lot more comfortable.
Two blocks away from the stop in front of JCPenney, I lifted off. I flapped for altitude. An osprey near the ground sticks out.
I scanned the area for familiar faces. I spotted the hard stare of a peregrine falcon's eyes.
Jake was perched atop a bank out on the periphery of the mall parking lot.
<We're on schedule at this end,> I reported.
<You're sure Chapman saw her?>
<Oh, yeah, he saw her. He nearly wet himself.>
<Good. Were you followed?>
<We can only hope.>
<Any sign of her own forces?>
<We haven't exactly had time to watch everyone,> I said. <How about the others?>
<Rachel and Cassie are in place. Ax should be getting to the mountain soon. I think we can be confident that Erek will be there, on schedule.>
<Okay, Tobias?> I called.
<Yeah, I'm above you.>
<You can go, dude. We got it, here.>
<I've got it, here,> Jake corrected. <Don't forget, Marco. You stay quiet.>
<I know, I know,> I said, a little exasperated. <Don't let her hear my voice. Not even the one in my head.>
<That's right. The clothes are in that Dumpster.>
<You had to stash them in a Dumpster?>
<Hey, you wanted clothes, right?>
I flew to the Dumpster. It wasn't bad. I think it was all boxes and stuff from the Gap and Old Navy. Much better than a restaurant Dumpster.
I demorphed in the Dumpster and pulled on the clothes Jake had stashed there.
Jake landed beside me.
<Fly, right?>
<That's the plan.>
Jake quickly demorphed, then morphed to fly. He buzzed his wings, took a few quick turns, then landed on my shoulder.
I climbed out and we hurried around to a side entrance of the JCPenney.
Visser One had walked from the bus stop through the door. She waited impatiently for instructions. She pretended to shop, tugging fitfully at some kids'-size Michael Jordan jerseys.
My size, maybe. Was she thinking about the son her host body had once had?
No, not likely. She was thinking about the fact that Controllers were everywhere. Thinking about the fact that by now Visser Three had a tail on her. Was watching her. Tightening his ring around her.
I lurked behind a tall potted plant. "Okay, directly ahead," I whispered to Jake. "There's a TV screen hanging down from above. Do you see it?"
Flies are very weak at seeing distances. It's why I had to be human. So I could act as an air traffic controller and direct Jake toward his target.
<I see bright, swirling lights, above and straight ahead.>
"That's the TV. Okay, she's in an almost straight line from here to the TV, just a shade to the right."
Jake took off. I lost sight of him immediately, of course. Hard to see a fly against the confused backdrop of visuals.
<I'm on her,> Jake announced a few moments later. <Beginning contact.>
Seconds later I heard Jake's thought-speak voice, sounding very different. And I saw my mother's head snap up.
<Go to the back of this establishment, Yeerk,> Jake instructed. <Purchase a neck protection garment. Also artificial skin designed for the protection of hands.>
Scarf and gloves. I almost laughed. It was classic Ax-ese.
Visser One must have said something harsh. The next thing I heard was Jake saying, <Do not be foolish, Yeerk. We are using this process to equip you as necessary. And to discover any pursuit. For your information we have spotted four human-Controllers who are already watching you.>
A lie, of course. But Visser One's head snapped around before she got control of herself.
<We are creating a trail, Yeerk,> Jake said with utter smugness. <And you are being watched, so do not attempt anything stupid. One wrong move and we'll kill you now and worry about Visser Three later.>
<Very nice,> I complimented Jake.
<Next stop, the camping store,> Jake said. <Let's see how well she holds up. She's volatile. She could go off.>
<No. She'll stick with the plan,> I said.
I understood Visser One. She saw the bright, clear line, too. Problem was, only one of us could be right.
Marco is a lot less put together than he thinks he is. But the plan seems to be working so far.
Chapter 18
quote:
Rachel, her hair in two dorky braids and a goofy fisherman's cap low on her head, was staked out in Shoes and Handbags.
I was a few aisles over, in Hosiery. I looked slightly out of place. I could only hope that no one from school would spot me as I perused the racks of sheer-to-waist, sandal-foot taupe pantyhose.
That's the kind of thing that stays with you in school.
Visser One stormed into the Scarves, Gloves, and Hats department. She grabbed a gray wool scarf off a shelf, snatched a pair of woefully inadequate fancy leather gloves, and dutifully purchased them with a no-doubt-fake credit card. Then she started to walk back toward the exit leading into the mall. All according to plan.
Then ...
"Excuse me, ma'am? Could you follow me please?"
A security guard. Plainclothes. The kind of guy who always seems to end up following me through a store.
Rachel shot a glance at me. She raised a questioning eyebrow.
I moved closer, carefully, keeping out of Visser One's line of sight.
"Follow you?" my mother's voice snapped. "Why?"
"Just follow me, ma'am. I need to ask you some questions."
The Visser's hand drifted down toward her purse. The guard saw the movement, too.
"You are under arrest for stealing that scarf."
"I bought this scarf," the Visser said tightly. "I have the receipt."
The guard laughed nervously. He glanced around, like he was looking for help. But he sounded determined enough. "If you reach into your purse for the Dracon beam I'm sure you have, I will kill you right here and now, traitor."
Visser One's hand was in the purse.
The guard reached inside his coat.
We were about two seconds away from a shoot-out in a crowded store.
Suddenly Rachel was behind me. "Hide, you idiot. You're gaping like a tourist! I have this," Rachel whispered.
She was right. I was standing in the open, drawn toward her without realizing it. If my mother had turned ...
I ducked behind a display of long velvet shawls.
Rachel moved fast. She locked her hand around Visser One's wrist. Then, in a loud, nasal whine, she said, "I saw you buy that scarf!"
The guard hesitated. Visser One stiffened. She stared closely at Rachel, but Rachel had turned away."
This woman is being arrested, and she didn't do anything! Lady! Lady! You sold her that scarf, now she's being arrested! What kind of a store is this?"
One thing we couldn't do: leave any Controller behind who could recognize us and wonder.
Rachel was avoiding eye contact, hiding beneath her hat and bad hair. Hiding behind a false voice. I hoped it was enough.
"It's ridiculous! This woman is being arrested and she paid for it! She paid too much, if you ask me, for that fabric. It's not cashmere, after all!"
I smothered a grin.
It was working. A crowd was gathering. The saleswoman was in it now, agreeing that Visser One had paid for the scarf.
<What is going on?> Jake wondered, confused.
It's hard to follow conversations when you're a fly. But of course we couldn't answer him.
Rachel moved out of the crowd and grabbed my arm.
"Let's get out of here."
"No one is watching -"
"Security cameras," she hissed. She nodded toward the ceiling. I saw the dark glass blister that hid a camera.
"Oh."
I followed Rachel toward a dressing room.
My first and probably last visit to a women's dressing room.
Rachel led me out a back door. Into a maintenance walkway, all cinder block and steel doors.
We reached the camping store before Visser One and Jake did. Cassie was waiting there.
She ran interference as Visser One was put through her paces buying climbing rope and pitons.
Rachel and I drifted around, pretending to shop. We were watching the others in the store.
Watching those who were watching Visser One.
Jake had bluffed earlier, claiming that we'd spotted four human-Controllers on Visser One's tail. That was no longer a lie. Within minutes we were confident that the true number was not four, but five.
"You wanted to make sure she was followed, Marco. She's being followed. And now we are setting up one heck of a shoot-out at the OK Corral," Rachel whispered. "You'd sure better know what you're doing."
"Yeah. I'd better."
Does he?
Is this the first time the series has acknowledged that security cameras exist?
quote:
<Very nice,> I complimented Jake.
<Next stop, the camping store,> Jake said. <Let’s see how well she holds up. She’s volatile. She could go off.>
<No. She’ll stick with the plan,> I said.
The heck? Did the ghostwriter break the human thoughtspeech rule? And then acknowledge it in the next chapter?
I don't know if he knows what he's doing, exactly, but it sure as fuck is working.
The heck? Did the ghostwriter break the human thoughtspeech rule? And then acknowledge it in the next chapter?
I think it was just a mistake that slipped through editing. These books didn't have long turnaround times, and even in books with longer rounds of editing and rewrites, mistakes get through.
Chapter 19
quote:
She had ropes and pitons, gloves and boots.
She had a tail of human-Controllers behind her as she drove the rented Audi from the mall out of town, toward the distant mountains.
The OK Corral.
All of us were in the car with the exception of Tobias and Ax.
We were in roach morph, crawling beneath the driver's seat.
Fuzzy black carpet was like tall grass beneath my six legs. A long-forgotten, open roll of peppermint Lifesavers was a huge log, its diameter far longer than we were tall.
Way, way overhead, as high as clouds, was the steel tube and coiled spring underside of the seat.
Too far away to see more than huge, indistinct shadows were gigantic feet and ankles pressing on high-rise pedals.
She knew we were with her. She didn't know where we were, but she knew we were watching her.
"Why don't we merely take a helicopter to this Hork-Bajir colony?" she asked.
<You assume the colony is located somewhere high up?> Cassie took over the job of communication. We needed to put Visser One off her guard. Needed her to begin to see us as allies. Cassie was the one for that job.
"Obviously," Visser One snapped. "Am I a fool? Ropes? Pitons?"
<You would not find it from the air. It is in a narrow, hidden valley high in the mountains. Trees would block a simple human helicopter.> She paused. <Your troops, when they arrive, will need to cut their way in.>
"My troops?"
<We are not fools, either,> Cassie said. <You do not intend to merely arrest or discredit Visser Three. You intend to kill him. We both know that with his morphing ability he is far more powerful than you, with your unstable human host body.>
"I can deal with Visser Three."
<Can you? We have tried many times. And yet, he still lives.>
"Humility? From an Andalite?"
<Realism from an Andalite,> Cassie said.
Visser One barked out a laugh. "You're afraid of him."
<Tell her, "yes,"> I said privately to Cassie. <Tell her he's killed a lot of us.>
<Yes. We were far more numerous, once. Many of us have died fighting Visser Three.>
A lie, of course. But it sounded real enough. Visser One would latch on to the information. She would think we were fools for revealing it.
We wanted her to think us fools.
"Do you imagine I will be more gentle when I am in power again?"
I started to tell Cassie what to say. But she was already there, ahead of me.
<No. We simply think you will be weaker,> Cassie said. <The disruption of command will work to our benefit. And in direct battle you will be easier to kill than Visser Three. Humans, Controllers or not, die easily.>
Again, it had the feel of honesty. The insult would make it seem honest.
And it had the added benefit of focusing my mother ... Visser One ... on the danger of Visser Three. We were reminding her just how deadly Visser Three could be.
"And yet ..." Visser One mused. "And yet, the casualty reports from Earth are always weighted heavily toward Hork-Bajir and Taxxons. In fact ... I am trying to recall when I have ever seen a report listing a human-Controller casualty."
My guts were ice.
We had made a mistake. We had made a terrible mistake.
<What do I say?> Cassie demanded.
<I ... I ...> My brain wouldn't work. The thoughts wouldn't form into any sort of order.
Visser One had just put her finger on our greatest secret.
<Say something!> Rachel yelled.
<No, too late,> Jake interrupted. <Too late. Let it go. No choice.>
"Well, well, well," Visser One said.
She knew.
There was only one reason why a group of Andalite guerrilla fighters would inflict more casualties on Hork-Bajir than on humans: The Andalite guerillas weren't Andalites.
A human would spare a human life.
<She knows,> Jake said. <Or at least suspects.>
<Yeah.>
<Marco ...>
<Nothing changes,> I said harshly. <She was going down before. She's still going down.>
Not true. Before it had all been abstract. It had all been about the solution, the line from A to B. Now it was about survival. No one could know the truth about us. It would bring our annihilation.
No one could know what we were, and live.
She figured it out!
Chapter 20
quote:
Visser One drove like a madwoman. The Audi tore around hairpin mountain curves at speeds that would have been high on a freeway.
The roll of peppermint Lifesavers had become a menace. With every wild turn or braking it rolled suddenly, a redwood log coming downhill at us.
<Has your mother always driven like this?> Rachel asked.
<My mother is not driving,> I said coldly. But she was. My mom had always been a wild driver. It used to make my dad crazy. This was the Yeerk tapping into the human host's brain.
<Maybe so,> I amended. No need to start a fight with Rachel. <Maybe that is the way she used to drive.>
<Yeah? Now I know where you get your driving skills.>
Rachel, being nice. I laughed to myself. When Rachel started being nice it meant things were really bad.
Visser One took a hard right and the ride turned bumpy.
An understatement.
The carpet jumped beneath us. We used our roach legs as shock absorbers, but there was a lot of shock to absorb. Wild vibrations that translated to the roach mind as danger.
Suddenly, mercifully, the car stopped.
"I have followed your directions. Andalites," she said.
The final word was said with a half laugh.
<We must be at the Visitors' Center,> I said.
<Good,> Rachel said. <I'm carsick.>
<Unpack the items you purchased. Begin to walk along the main trail.>
"Visser Three's forces will be all over me in seconds!" she protested.
<No. They'll track you,> Jake said. <They won't move till he himself is here.>
"Tell that to the fool back at the mall!"
<He acted out of panic. He wasn't expecting you.>
Visser One got out of the car and slammed the door. We waited until enough time had passed for the Visser to grab her gear from the trunk, change into the hiking boots, scarf, and gloves and start up the trail.
<Let's go,> Jake said. <Rachel? You're first. Keep low.>
Rachel motored out from under the seat onto the back floor mat. She began demorphing immediately, growing, sliding, shifting to keep her mutating limbs from being caught in the tight space back there.
Mostly I saw her feet. They filled my vision. Bare, of course. We'd never learned to morph shoes. Her head eventually rose above the seat back. "Okay," she said. "We're clear. For now."
<Okay. Morph and go.>
Rachel tried to roll down the window. But of course it was power, and Visser One had taken the keys. She cracked the door on the passenger side. She morphed to bald eagle and took off, racing to her appointed position.
If Tobias had not made it, Rachel would. If both made it, so much the better.
Cassie, Jake, and I spread out throughout the car and began to demorph. If we'd all stayed in one place and demorphed we'd have ended up as sardines.
I demorphed on the passenger side. My head rose from the gruesome mass of bug exoskeleton. I could see through the windshield. Really see. Like a human.
She'd chosen a parking space distant from the few other parked cars. Good and bad for us. No one would spot us on the way to their own car. But we'd have a long, open walk to the trailhead.
I looked around. Rachel was just clearing the nearest trees.
I spotted Visser One moving speedily toward the trail. She'd always kept in good shape, my mom. Although sailing had been her thing, not hiking.
Jake was in the driver's seat. "Okay. We go straight to bird morphs. The bad guys won't be far behind us."
"Or far ahead, either," I said, nodding toward the dwindling figure of Visser One.
"One at a time or we'll look like a bird-of-prey convention," Cassie said.
I began to morph to osprey. I was closest to the open door. A few minutes later I was all feathers and talons. I fluttered out through the door, landed on the gravel, and flapped into the air.
I wasn't ten feet up before I saw it: a long, black limousine. It was entering the parking lot. No one goes camping or hiking in a limo.
<Visser Three!> I said. <Heads down. He's here!>
I continued flapping, flapping, fighting dead air, feeling conspicuous.
Not that there weren't birds of prey in the forest. But Visser Three knew by now to look out for hawks and eagles.
The limo skidded to a stop, spraying gravel. Behind it, three big SUV's.
The limo window rolled down. I was maybe thirty feet up, forty feet downwind from the Audi.
A hand thrust out of the limo window. Osprey eyes saw it clearly. Saw what it was holding.
<Jake! Cassie!> I yelled.
TSEEEEEW!
The Dracon beam fired. The front of the Audi sizzled, fried, and disintegrated.
<NOOOO!> I cried.
TSEEEEEW!
Ka-BOOOM!
A fireball exploded from the Audi's gas tank. The entire car, what was left of it, erupted upward, spun halfway on its axis, and landed on the gravel.
It was a charred shell before it hit the ground.
Well, so much for Jake and Cassie! Also, just a thought, which is that they need more bird morphs. They pretty much just have seagulls and birds of prey. They need more flocking birds you can find everywhere. Sparrows or something.
Chapter 19
She figured it out!
Chapter 20
Well, so much for Jake and Cassie! Also, just a thought, which is that they need more bird morphs. They pretty much just have seagulls and birds of prey. They need more flocking birds you can find everywhere. Sparrows or something.
Having seen the local sparrows squabble for control of my back yard, I'm pretty sure sparrows would possess excellent combat instincts. Pity about being golfball-sized, though.
Huh. I thought that scene was later in the series. Either way, I adore it. I love smart villains.
I reckon she - and maybe a lot of other Yeerks - definitely already suspected it but only now managed to make them slip up to push her to being 100% sure. Or more likely, they think it's a combination force of Andalites and humans. (Which is... true, but not with the ratio or power imbalance they'd expect.)
There's also the Spiderman factor - even if they figure out the Animorphs are human, they'd probably be shocked to realise they're just kids. Which is why the Animorphs are probably actually safer than they think from the Toms and Chapmans of the world. In fact it's kind of funny, we make all those jokes about Chapman having to run down the Secret Service deputy director in a minivan etc when he's just haplessly trying to be an assistant principal, but it's like the flipside of that: running a high school is just the human day job that some highly decorated veteran general of the Hork-Bajir war never even thinks about, and if they find out the Animorphs were right under his nose the whole time, he's going to feel awful dumb before his execution. (I kinda feel like high ranking Yeerks just get given random human hosts - I can't recall if we ever get any reason for why Visser One was infesting Marco's mum, who I don't remember having any kind of job that would make her valuable.)
Marco's mother was possibly infested to keep an eye on Marco's father who does space shit or something but I don't think Visser One really cares about having an "important" host body. Like Visser Three drives around in a giant limo all the time because his Yeerk dick is tiny, Visser One already knows she's badass so she drives whatever.
It's been said a few times upthread, but really, if Visser One was in charge of the earth invasion, it'd be over yesterday.
It's been said a few times upthread, but really, if Visser One was in charge of the earth invasion, it'd be over yesterday.
It's really great how here characterization makes it super obvious that she was the one that came up with the whole covert invasion angle and how much better, or more intuitive she takes to it. The slow burn, 'lets just slowly take over and subvert society until out takeover is inevitable' is such an antithesis to Visser 3 entire personality that it actually kinda justifies how terrible he is at it. Aside from the fact that this is a book for children I mean. Many of his plans are big, shock-and-awe style ideas. "Let's infest the president", "Let's infest movie stars", "Invent mindcontrol", to compete the conquest of Earth with one grand gesture. which is the complete opposite of how the whole operation is set up.
Chapter 21
quote:
<Jake! Cassie!>
No answer. Nothing. Silence. Silence but for the crackling of the fire.
<Rachel!> I yelled. <Jake and Cassie are ... I think ...>
But Rachel was already out of thought-speak range.
Slam! Slam! Slam!
Doors opened and closed and the human-Controllers piled out of the SUV's. Boots hit gravel.
Chapman climbed out of the limo and joined the guys coming from the SUV's.
And then, last, came a human who was no human.
Visser Three in human morph.
He looked around, barely sparing a glance at the burning wreck of a car. A park ranger was running from the Visitors' Center.
The Visser jerked his head.
TSEEEEW!
The ranger sizzled and disappeared.
Then, I felt those cold eyes on me. At this distance his voice was faint. If I'd been human I'd never have heard my death sentence.
"The bird," he said. "Kill the bird."
TSEEEEW! TSEEEEW!
To my left! To my right!
The Dracon beams scorched the air on either side of me.
Two seconds for them to aim again. One, one thousand ... Two, one thousand ...
I jerked left.
TSEEEEEW! TSEEEEEW!
Misses, far to one side. And now I was farther away. The nearest tree was only fifteen feet away. TSEEEEEW! TSEEEEEW!
Just in front of my face branches burst into flame.
I flared, lost speed, and dropped. I used the momentum of my fall to whip hard around the tree trunk and zoom wildly, inches off the pine needles.
The Yeerks wouldn't get another shot at me. Not now.
Oh, God. Jake! Cassie!
The burning car was burning right inside my brain. The aluminum skin had been evaporated, leaving nothing but the bones of the car. Bare aluminum posts and fire.
And, though I had not seen them except in my imagination, the singed, heat-cracked bones of my friends.
What now? I asked myself. What now?
The plan. Was there still a plan?
I tried to think. But I could no longer see the bright, clear line. All I could see was flame. Visser Three. I'd been so busy worrying about Visser One I had forgotten that he was our main enemy. I'd intended to harass and trick and distract Visser One into carelessness. But I had tricked myself.
Visser Three was going to win. He was going to kill my mother. And he would not die. He would kill her, and he would not die. I would have set up my own mother for murder by my own worst enemy.
No. No. That couldn't be. I had to think. Had to think.
Tobias, maybe. Rachel, maybe. They were the next step.
Ax. Where was Ax? Clearing the place of campers? Scouting the location?
Where? What were they doing? How ... Show me the line, I begged. Show me the A to B.
My friends. My mother ...
All my fault. And now I was lost. Nothing to do but stand and watch the horrible drama play out. No. No, the awful voice in my head said. The line was still bright and clear. The plan still worked. If Ax and Erek had done their jobs the plan could still work. Only one thing needed to be changed: I would have to play the part of Jake.
I guess the problem with focusing on the bright line is that you can overfocus and, if you don't take into account the whole situation, you're trapped
Chapter 22
quote:
I flew ahead to the appointed rendezvous. I passed over Visser One on the way. She was still moving quickly up the hill. Had she heard the explosion? Did she feel the fear eating at her, the fear that death was coming up behind her?
Or was she filled with anticipation? Was she giddy and energized with the thought of killing her foe, of annihilating the free Hork-Bajir, of living to dance on Visser Three's grave?
I pulled far ahead. I headed for the clearing halfway up the mountain. There was a cluster of lean-tos for campers on the edge of the clearing. Ax, using his morphing ability, should already have frightened them from the area.
We didn't want innocents caught in the cross fire. We didn't want bystanders hurt. That was our plan.
<Tell that to that ranger back there, Marco,> I said to myself. <Tell it to his family. No innocent bystanders in our little war. No place for them, is there? No time to think about the damage you do with our bright, clear line.>
A campfire smoldered below. In one of the shelters two sleeping bags were spread over bunk beds. Two backpacks sat propped against the wall. These nature lovers had left in a hurry.
Ax at work. Maybe. Or maybe Visser Three's forces had come in from this direction as well. More innocents. Dead, or merely terrified?
We'd chosen Wildwood Trail specifically because it wasn't popular. It wasn't very scenic. It wouldn't be wall-to-wall crunchies working out their Timberlands.
And because, a mile or so up, we could cut away from the trail and go cross-country through terrain that would thin out the pursuit.
I spotted Visser One laboring up the slope, fighting the gravity I could easily defy. Her pretty face was dripping sweat. Her lungs gasped.
That was the plan, too. Too rushed, too scared, too tired to think. And yet, she already knew too much. She'd figured out what Visser Three had not.
It was weird, perverse, maybe. But I was proud of her. As if it had been my mother, and not the Yeerk in her head, who had penetrated our deepest secret.
I caught an updraft and soared high into the air. Up into the clean, clear air.
I wanted to keep flying. Just catch a breeze and sail away and leave it all behind. But how could I? How could I, with the possibility of Jake and Cassie being dead?
<No, no, Marco,> I sneered. <Far better that they should die to bring about more death. Yes, that would give their lives meaning.>
I rose high and searched the trail ahead. But not even osprey eyes could penetrate the dense foliage. I did not spot Ax or Tobias or Rachel.
Below, far back down at the trailhead, Visser Three was still in his human morph. He was moving swiftly up the trail. A dozen armed men before him, a dozen more behind him.
But one man was out in front, all alone, moving very fast. He wore a camouflage jacket and blue jeans. A camouflage stocking cap was pulled down, hiding most of his red hair.
The way he was moving he was either an athlete or a very experienced woodsman. He left the trail and went cross-country.
Either going ahead to take a shot at Visser One. Or going ahead to spy out what was happening.
I'd have to watch Red-hair. He made me nervous.
I knew that what I saw was not even the thin edge of Visser Three's true forces. I knew that the sky above me was dotted with shielded Bug fighters. And maybe the Blade ship as well. Not to mention any of Visser One's loyal troops.
The killing had only taken a rest break. It would start again once Visser Three was sure of Visser One's goal. Once all her forces were in the open and committed. Once he was sure of victory.
I circled back to the campsite. Visser One had been instructed to wait there. I floated down, skimmed in, hidden from the Visser's sight. I landed in the middle branches of a tall pine.
Only then did I see the goblin form of a Hork-Bajir, standing perfectly still. So still it could have been a statue.
<Rachel? Tobias?> I called.
<Rachel,> she answered. <Haven't seen Tobias, yet>
<I'm here,> a thought-speak voice answered. <Right above you, Marco.>
I jerked my head upward. The seven-foot-tall, bladed form rested comfortably another twenty feet up the trunk.
<You guys forget: Hork-Bajir are arboreal. Why be on the ground when you can have some altitude?>
<Where are Jake and Cassie?> Rachel asked.
I didn't answer. I couldn't.
<Marco?> Rachel pressed.
I couldn't. Couldn't say it.
<Marco!>
<Visser Three. He got them.>
<What?> Tobias cried. <Captured?>
<No. No. I don't think so.>
Damn.
Please tell me they don't Ellimist their way out of this one.
I'm guessing they had already gotten out or were blown clear or something, this book has been too down-to-earth and hard stakes to have another wizard-did-it fix.
It's actually a pretty good explanation that touches on something that's already been foreshadowed in the book.
I'm guessing the cockroaches were blown clear without being killed.
Also, this book is awesome. I should have kept up with reading the series as a kid.
Chapter 23
quote:
We waited. Silent. Dangerous.
I know Rachel. I know she wanted action, not playacting. I knew she would explode at the smallest provocation.
I know Tobias. I knew that in the face of so much sadness he would retreat from his human side. I knew that he was more hawk now than ever, despite his Hork-Bajir morph.
And what could I say to them? What could I say to lead them? Or control them?
Nothing. Because I know myself, too. I knew that I was scared and desperate and that my insides were being eaten away. I knew that I was focusing all my mind, all my thoughts on the plan, the plan, the plan, shutting out all other thoughts.
I had nothing to say to Rachel or Tobias. They would do, or not do, whatever they chose.
Visser One wandered warily through the abandoned campsite. I saw her as Rachel saw her: the enemy. One of the Yeerk invaders who had cost her the life of her cousin and her best friend.
She was a dozen feet away, two long strides away, from Rachel's Hork-Bajir blades.
Rachel stepped into the open.
Tobias dropped easily from the tree, landing on T-rex feet.
My mother ... Visser One ... swung her backpack forward and reached inside. The Dracon weapon was in her hand in a flash.
I breathed.
Rachel was letting her live. For now. Fast as Visser One had been, she'd never have reached her weapon had Rachel not wanted her to.
"You ..." Rachel said, stepping forward and speaking in the Hork-Bajir voice. "Where are Andalite friends?"
"Your friends are fine, Maska Fettan," the Visser responded.
"My name. You know my name," Rachel said, sounding relieved. Then, a slow Hork-Bajir scowl. "Andalite friends say password. All must speak password."
I spotted a movement so slight only a hawk would have seen it. Red-hair. Only the red hair was hidden now by the camouflage ski mask he'd pulled down over his face.
He was in a stand of bushes. Close enough to see. Not to hear. He had a Dracon beam in his hand. But the way he held it was for self-defense, not attack.
"Freedom now, freedom forever," Visser One recited with an amused sneer.
"Yes." Rachel smiled, if you can call what Hork-Bajir do when they're happy smiling. "You are friend."
"Yes. I am a friend to all free Hork-Bajir." The Visser could hardly resist masking my mother's face with a grin of glee. "How is the free colony faring, Maska Fettan?"
"Good, good! All free now. All happy. Much bark to eat," Rachel said.
"That's good. Love to hear that the bark is tasty," Visser One said, dripping contempt. "Now, conduct me to the colony, as you were instructed to do."
"You change to bird. Fly. Human slow walker."
"Sadly, I am ill," Visser One said. She made a little cough. "I am unable to morph at the moment. I will have to travel as a human."
"Human slow," Tobias interjected with true Hork-Bajir dimness.
"Yes, yes, it's all a mess," Visser One agreed testily. "I wish I could morph to bird and fly, but since that is not possible, perhaps you two geniuses could follow the orders you were given."
"Andalite friend says, Take her to colony,'" Tobias said.
"Yes," Rachel agreed.
"Up there." Tobias pointed off the trail. He pointed up toward a high, naked rock summit. "Up there is place. Up there Andalite friends hide colony."
A naked rock peak. The perfect place to stage a battle that would involve forces on the ground and in the air. The perfect place for an Animorph.
"Up there?" Visser One said slowly. Her eyes narrowed. "Holograms. Cloaking shields? Yes, of course. Few human interlopers, and camouflage and a force field would stop them. It would work. A small, deep valley most likely. Invisible from the ground because of the altitude. Easily concealed from the air or space by Andalite counter-measures. The energy drain would be immense, but not
unmanageable ... ."
I would have smiled. Yes, Visser One, just what I hoped you'd think.
Welcome to the OK Corral, Visser One.
Rachel and Tobias make good Hork-Bajir. Also, Visser One is so arrogant she doesn't realize it's a trap.
Chapter 24
quote:
I'd seen enough. Visser One had fallen for it. So far.
Rachel and Tobias would handle the rest of the climb. It was unlikely the Visser would try to harm the two Hork-Bajir before she had been shown the way to the colony. Unlikely, but not impossible. She was armed. And I knew what Visser One was. Ruthless. Cruel. That she wore the face of my mother - the woman who had taught me about laughter - was a grotesque irony.
<See, that's ironic, Alanis,> I muttered to no one.
The ascent would take hours. Tobias and Rachel would have to slip away whenever possible to demorph and remorph. If Ax was nearby, on-station, it would work. He would substitute. One Hork-Bajir looked much like the next, but this substitution would be even more perfect than that. Some weeks ago, on a friendly visit with the free Hork-Bajir, Ax had acquired the same Hork-Bajir DNA Rachel was using. Not even a Hork-Bajir would notice any difference.
I drifted back down the hill. Back down toward Visser Three and his Controllers.
His force was growing. I don't know how they'd gotten there, but a force of Hork-Bajir was moving up the hill from the right flank, swinging through trees and marching along the ground. I counted thirty before I gave up.
This would complicate things. I'd hoped to isolate the two Vissers. Visser One, prepared as we had prepared her with ropes and pitons, would be able to climb. So would Visser Three who would simply morph something capable.
The jagged, naked rocks would delay the human-Controllers. But Hork-Bajir were strong. And, according to the Hork-Bajir we knew, they came from a planet where life existed entirely within impossibly steep canyons.
The Hork-Bajir-Controllers would be able to keep pace with Rachel and Tobias. Only a limited number of Bug fighters could be brought to bear within the limited space, so the balance of power on the ground was important.
Too much on Visser Three's side of the equation and he'd win without suffering much himself.
And now, the wild card, we Animorphs, were reduced. Thirty Hork-Bajir-Controllers and a dozen human-Controllers, plus Visser Three. It was more than we could handle.
Far back down the trail, Red-hair rejoined Visser Three. So now Visser Three knew that Visser One had linked up with two Hork-Bajir.
Would he put it all together? Would Visser Three realize that these were free Hork-Bajir? That Visser One was on her way to the free colony?
It was getting to be time for me to change morphs. The air was thin, the updrafts nonexistent at this altitude. Flying was a chore. And soon I would stand out all too obviously.
<Where is Ax?> I wondered. <Rachel? Tobias? Have you seen Ax?>
<No,> Rachel said.
<He was supposed to do his best to clear the area then rejoin us,> I said in frustration.
<Plan not working out so well, General?>
<Just get Visser One up that mountain.>
<Face it, Marco, it's a fiasco. It's a total fiasco! We're dragging this woman up the mountain for what? It'd be so easy to just give her a shove off the trail.>
<Shut up, Rachel!> I yelled. <Just shut up!>
<Oh yeah, you're calm and in control,> Rachel taunted. <Jake's gone. Cassie's gone. And the person running this mission is working on setting up his own mother? This is a waste of time. Marco, just fly off somewhere. Just get out of range so you don't have to see what I'm ->
<Rachel, that's enough,> Tobias said quietly.
I couldn't believe what I was "hearing." Tobias never messes with Rachel. I think Rachel was shocked, too.
<Marco has enough load on his shoulders,> Tobias said. <I trust him.>
<You trust him? You trust him?!>
<You just want Visser One?> Tobias said. <Or do you want them both? We need this woman alive as bait>
All the while I could see Visser One scrambling over rocks, climbing, hauling herself up by roots and low branches. And Tobias and Rachel were with her, one ahead, one behind.
<Yeah, his plan's worked out so well so far,> Rachel said. But she fell silent after that. I put her out of my mind. Besides, she was right. The plan was falling apart. I needed reinforcements.
Where was Ax? Where was the Andalite?
So Tobias standing up to Rachel here really is significant. Tobias never really orders around or stands up to anybody, and he and Rachel care for each other (a relationship where she takes the lead).
Also, there's something in the way that he remembers his mother here and the way he contrasts her to Visser One....not that she taught him about kindness, or she taught him about compassion (although I'm sure she did), but that she taught him about laughter. Also, I don't know if you've noticed it, but throughout the book, Marco compares himself to Visser One....that they're both "ruthless", they both "see the straight line",
And there's something to that, really. Marco can be ruthless, Marco is smart, Marco can be arrogant? And Marco and Visser One share his mother. But that's also where the difference lies. Marco isn't Visser One because his mother taught him kindness, compassion, and laughter, which are traits that Visser One doesn't have. Visser One has Eva's body, but Marco has Eva's soul, and that makes the difference.
What I particularly like about this book is how it highlight's Marco's strengths in strategic thinking,. It also shows how important Jake is as the leader: both earlier, when Tobias is clearly not able to challenge or stand up to Marco while Jake most likely would have, and here, where Marco has to fill in for Jake to provide leadership, but fails (but is saved by Tobias, at least).
I know Rachel. I know she wanted action, not playacting. I knew she would explode at the smallest provocation.
I know Tobias. I knew that in the face of so much sadness he would retreat from his human side. I knew that he was more hawk now than ever, despite his Hork-Bajir morph.
And what could I say to them? What could I say to lead them? Or control them?
Nothing. Because I know myself, too. I knew that I was scared and desperate and that my insides were being eaten away. I knew that I was focusing all my mind, all my thoughts on the plan, the plan, the plan, shutting out all other thoughts.
I had nothing to say to Rachel or Tobias. They would do, or not do, whatever they chose.
We've talked a lot about their leadership lately, and who's really best equipped to lead when Jake can't, and I think Marco really sums it up well here: none of them. They don't immediately fall to pieces or anything, as we saw in the time travel book, but Jake is the only one who can really bring a group of disparate personalities together during crises.
Although Ax does seem to be quite good at operating alone or using his own initiative when he has to,
like he's doing right now, maybe because he's the biggest outsider of the group.
We've talked a lot about their leadership lately, and who's really best equipped to lead when Jake can't, and I think Marco really sums it up well here: none of them. They don't immediately fall to pieces or anything, as we saw in the time travel book, but Jake is the only one who can really bring a group of disparate personalities together during crises.
Although Ax does seem to be quite good at operating alone or using his own initiative when he has to, like he's doing right now, maybe because he's the biggest outsider of the group.
I don't disagree with you but i also don't know that this is the best book to use to make your point, given the immensely personal stakes for Marco and the obvious internal conflict he's suffering.
I don't disagree with you but i also don't know that this is the best book to use to make your point, given the immensely personal stakes for Marco and the obvious internal conflict he's suffering.
Agreed, and as others have pointed out I think this ghostwriter does a great job of making him an unreliable narrator (certainly in the first half) in how he's lying even to himself about how conflicted he is.
It's interesting that one of the reasons they don't have an obvious deputy leader is not because any of them are particularly lacking - they're all smart, capable people - but because they'd all have problems with anyone else but Jake being leader. Marco and Rachel in particular would be the first ones to jump to mind as alternate leaders, but they'd have problems taking orders from each other. Ax is out for obvious reasons, Cassie is more "moral" and hesitant than Marco and Rachel would like, and Tobias just doesn't have it in him to be in the spotlight like that (even though, ironically, he's probably the one most liked and respected by all of the remaining four).
Pointing this out for when they inevitably arrive: The Chee aren't androids! They're canoids!
Pointing this out for when they inevitably arrive: The Chee aren't androids! They're canoids!
............
.......................
...
canoid DEEZ-
If any of you are watching 'Inside Job' on Netflix, there's an Animorphs reference in one of the early episodes.
Chapter 25
quote:
I'd been a long time in morph. A quick check on Visser Three, and I would abandon the osprey.
Visser Three himself was still with his group of human-Controllers. They were slowing down, worn out by sliding in their street shoes.
But the Visser was no longer concerned with shoes. He had reverted to his Andalite host body.
He was a nimble, dangerous deer.
No one was sweating more than Chapman. I almost felt sorry for him. But not too sorry. If all went well, my school would be needing a new assistant principal next week.
I circled behind them, staying out of sight as well as I could. I drifted close enough to hear scattered bits of conversation.
Some of it was very interesting.
"Let's kill her now," Chapman urged, gasping like a fish out of water. "Before they get away."
<Why, because you are weak and tired? No,> Visser Three said. <She is heading for the Hork- Bajir fugitives. I know it! Either to unite with them, or to prove their existence to the Council of Thirteen and discredit me. I will have her and the Hork-Bajir fugitives!>
"But, Visser, in these human host bodies, lacking equipment, we may be unable to keep up with you," Chapman said very respectfully.
<Am I blind? Am I a fool? Two columns of Hork-Bajir and Taxxons are even now converging. If you fall by the wayside, so be it. I will not be denied my victory!>
Evidently encouraged by Visser Three's seemingly tolerant mood, another human-Controller made the mistake of offering an opinion.
"It's hard to believe that these Hork-Bajir hosts could form a colony right under our noses. How did we -"
The Andalite tail blade whipped and stopped, quivering, pressed against the man's right leg.
"No, I -" the man cried. "I meant no criticism! No!"
"Visser, we need every man who can fire a weapon," Chapman intervened.
<Yes, you are right, Chapman,> Visser Three said. <It would be foolish to cut off his leg. How would he walk without a leg?>
The man almost had time to breathe a sigh of relief. Then Visser Three whipped his tail again. The man's left arm fell to the ground.
<You all will only hinder my progress,> Visser Three spat. <I will proceed alone from here. The Hork-Bajir and Taxxons will join us soon. And the fleet stands ready. Catch up when your frail bodies allow. I have a morph that will do very nicely for this challenge.>
With his entourage watching, Visser Three began to morph.
Squeeeesh!
His Andalite head flattened to the shape of a B-movie flying saucer. His main eyes closed and sealed. His stalk eyes remained but thickened. The eyeballs bulged and reddened.
Multijointed legs sprouted from his sides. One, two, three - six, total, replacing his quick disappearing Andalite legs and hooves.
His blue-and-tan Andalite fur seemed to be absorbed into him, as though it had been sucked in.
What remained was a translucent skin or shell of no particular color.
The legs lengthened, becoming spindly, almost like a spider's. The two front legs ended in claws. The back four legs ended in sharp, barbed spikes.
And then, before my startled gaze, the shell began to change. From a translucence that revealed vague, distorted blue, red, and orange shadows of his internal organs, it became green and brown.
It became the precise green of the trees overhead. The exact brown of the trail. <A chameleon!> I whispered.
The Visser's bizarre, spindly land crab was nearly invisible, even to my eyes. The colors and patterns of its shell shifted as rapidly as it walked.
Okay, Marco, you knew he'd morph something dangerous. That still fits the plan.
Of course, I hadn't known he'd be nearly invisible.
How very Visser Three to remove somebody's arm rather than their leg os it doesn't show down their progress. I mean, they're going to bleed out anyway, but....
Also, it turns out that middle school vice principals don't have very physically strenuous jobs that make mountain climbing easy.
I also don't know if everybody has heard of carcinization, which notes that multiple times on earth, animals have independently evolved into things shaped like crabs. I guess it's a galactic thing.
Chapter 26
quote:
I landed and demorphed well off the trail.
Strange to be here, so high up. It was quiet. A few birds sang. The breeze rustled the sparse tall grass. The trees sighed.
"All I need is a picnic," I said, wanting to hear the sound of my own voice. "Some chips. A ham sandwich."
Jake and Cassie, burned in Visser One's SUV.
Ax missing.
My mother ...
I could run away. Leave town. Never come back. I had the powers. I could get by. I could go to Hollywood. Or France. Somewhere.
French Marco. I liked it. Were the Yeerks in France? I didn't care. I wouldn't pay any attention to them.
"Oh, God," I moaned. I put my face in my hands.
<Marco! You are very badly located!>
My head snapped up. I looked around, confused, till I saw the northern harrier floating on the slight breeze.
"Ax?" I said, not that he could hear me.
<Marco, a column of Hork-Bajir and Taxxons is coming up the opposite side of this ridge. In approximately two of your minutes they will be able to see you.>
"They're not my minutes, you alien nitwit, they're everyone's minutes!"
But I was busy morphing. Not to osprey again. Wings were of diminishing usefulness now. But I still needed to be able to stay out in front of humans, Hork-Bajir, and whatever strange thing Visser Three had become.
Time for the goat.
Ax had floated lower. He kept to the air, but he could hear me now.
<I discern that the arrival of these additional forces so early in the plan may have created an imbalance that will affect our plans in a negative way,> Ax said.
"Gee, do you think?!" I yelled.
<We need reinforcements.>
"You know some private army you can call, 'cause if you do, now would be the time!" I yelled.
It was sarcastic. I didn't expect him to take me seriously. But before I could object, Ax had caught the breeze and was heading downhill, letting gravity give him speed.
"What the ... What are you doing?" I screamed.
Insane! I'd found Ax and lost him within a minute!
"Okay, okay, get a grip," I told myself shakily. "Get a grip. Okay. Figure it out. Back to Rachel and Tobias and Visser One. The only thing to do. Morph. Come on, Marco, focus!"
I focused on the memory of the big mountain goat, asleep in its safe little zoo habitat.
Stupid, but I was ticked at that goat.
Morphing is never logical, never neat and clean and orderly. The changes don't necessarily start at the head and move on to the toes, though they can. And this time, they did.
Sprooot!
Two sharp, daggerlike black horns sprouted from the top of my head.
I felt an itchiness on my face. I raised my hand and felt a long, rather soft white beard beneath my chin.
The five toes on each of my feet melded together to form two big padded toes, toes that could spread to help the mountain goat keep its balance on snowy, rocky slopes.
White fur began to grow up my legs, which were becoming the stocky, sturdy back legs of the goat. Over the soft, fluffy fur grew coarser hair, protection against wind and rain.
Suddenly, I tipped forward. I fell on my hands, now also split hooves with rough pads underneath.
Screeeesh!
My small human shoulders heaved upward into the powerful, shaggy shoulders of the almost three-hundred-pound male mountain goat.
I felt the mountain goat's mind merge within my own. But I wasn't interested in fighting it. The goat wanted to climb, and so did I.
I bounded off across the sparse, rocky soil. Up, up, straight up.
The power in my legs was incredible! I wasn't climbing against the pull of gravity. Gravity was irrelevant! It didn't exist!
Up through the trees. Leaping easily, playfully over boulders that would have taken a human five minutes to clamber cautiously over.
My legs were pile drivers. I was on pogo sticks, just bouncing, bounding, springing, practically flying.
I spotted and smelled the Hork-Bajir as they crested the ridge, but who cared? They'd never get me. This mountain was mine. These rocks belonged to me!
Up and up, pulling effortlessly away from the Hork-Bajir, I drew level with Visser One and my two friends. They had deployed ropes and pitons now. Visser One was being pushed and hauled like a sack of potatoes.
They climbed the easier path. I took a much harder way. A way with no trail, with scrappy miniature trees blocking my way, with no visible footholds, with tumbling gravel and crumbling rocks.
I went the way that no human climber, no expert rock climber armed with every piece of equipment could have climbed in under half a day.
It was an escalator to me.
My eyes spotted every minuscule crevice. My hooves caught every crack. I hauled three hundred pounds of goat up a sheer wall so easily that I might have been Tinkerbell floating upward on magic dust.
I passed Visser One.
Rachel spotted me.
<Marco?>
<Who else?>
<Yeah. Good luck, okay?>
<No problem-o, Xena,> I said.
Poor Marco.
quote:
<Yes, you are right, Chapman,> Visser Three said. <It would be foolish to cut off his leg. How would he walk without a leg?>
The man almost had time to breathe a sigh of relief.
V3 just slashing hosts, but do we ever hear exactly how long a yeerk lives outside a pool without a host besides 3 days?
Can his buddy just grab him and chuck him back in the pool later?
V3 just slashing hosts, but do we ever hear exactly how long a yeerk lives outside a pool without a host besides 3 days?
Can his buddy just grab him and chuck him back in the pool later?
The Yeerk who helped Cassie get into the Yeerk pool to save Aftran said he would be fine for a few hours if she put him in water so I'm guessing they dry out or something. Yeerks can fit into some pretty tight spaces so you could probably put them in a water bottle and carry them back to the pool.
I want a Bob from Hydra Yeerk whose hosts keep getting killed by V3 and he just wants to be a mundane dude
Lol that Visser Three just calls him Chapman now.
Lol that Visser Three just calls him Chapman now.
Good catch!
I wonder if that's a minor ghostwriter's error, or a reflection that Yeerks are less independent from their hosts than they like to think, or a subtle reminder (as if we needed one) of Marco's mother's situation?
Chapter 27
quote:
I waited atop the mountain, alone. King of the world.
From the peak, the back side of the mountain extended almost flat toward the west. All I saw was a long slope that extended perhaps a quarter of a mile before seeming to be broken by the spine of a ridge.
We had come up the east face. A nearly sheer drop. The southeast and northeast were no better - sheer cliffs.
A fatal fall in three directions.
A fatal fall for a human. Or human-Controller.
Nothing that looked remotely like a hidden valley. Nothing that looked remotely like a secret Hork-Bajir colony.
But then, that was to be expected.
My mother's face appeared very suddenly above the rocks to the east. She was being pushed up from beneath. She clambered up, clearly exhausted.
For a while she just lay flat on her back, gasping and coughing. Rachel and Tobias rose up behind her.
Then she rolled over and with sheer willpower made her body stand.
Once again I felt that strange pride. Even with Rachel and Tobias to help, it was an amazing accomplishment climbing this peak.
A fitting end. The last exertion, the last effort.
So easy for me now. I could throw my three hundred pounds forward, lower my head, slam into her, send her flying, arms windmilling helplessly as she fell and fell and fell ...
The Visser would die.
His helpless host, my mother, as well.
"Andalite?" she panted.
<Of course,> I said. Be so careful, Marco, I warned myself. This was to be Jake's role. He was to talk to her. She can't know who you are.
But what did it matter now? It was over. It would end here.
It would matter because knowing at last that we had tricked her, she might call my name. She might say "Marco."
"Marco! Don't let them kill me, Marco!"
I shuddered.
I was lost. Her life would end here. So would mine, I now knew. How could I live? How could I live, knowing?
"Well, Andalite or human, or whatever you are behind that morph, you'd better know one thing: My loyal forces fill the sky! Betray me and you'll be blasted apart!"
<We have a deal,> I said blandly. <Visser Three will soon join us. He will be alone, or nearly alone.>
"The Hork-Bajir colony. I don't see any colony!"
<Erek,> I said privately, <I hope you're here, dude.> Then, in open thought-speak, <Not to get all Prince of Egypt on you, but ... Behold!>
The ground of the western slope shimmered. Then it disappeared. Visser One actually jumped back. The valley appeared just before her feet.
"Hork-Bajir home," Rachel said, still playing her part.
Below us, beneath impossibly steep cliff walls, a lush valley teemed with free Hork-Bajir.
I watched the sick, eager smile spread across my mother's beautiful face as Visser One peered into the valley below.
Several young Hork-Bajir swung through the trees, playing a game of tag. Adult Hork-Bajir stripped bark from the trunks of the tall pines. I counted at least forty or fifty Hork-Bajir going about their daily routine.
<Okay, we fulfilled our end of the bargain,> I muttered. <Now it's up to Visser Three.>
She smiled, right at me. "I know you. I know you, don't I?"
<I am an Andalite warrior. That's all you need to know.>
"No. Andalites don't make jokes. Let alone human popular culture references. No, you're a human. And ..." She searched her memory, rolling her eyes up. "Someone I knew, once. Long ago, maybe. But someone I knew."
This is why you don't throw around Prince of Egypt references. Good job on Erek's holograms, btw.
Also, Visser One is wrong and we know it. Ax makes jokes. So did Elfangor. Andalite humor tends to be a lot dryer than human humor, but it's there.
Also, while I joke, I find the line "I was lost. Her life would end here. So would mine, I now knew. How could I live? How could I live, knowing?" chilling.
Chapter 28
quote:
I froze. Stiff. Still.
I wanted her to say my name.
I'd given myself away. Deliberately. I wanted her to say my name. I wanted her to call out to me, to say, "Marco, I love you, I miss you, I'm still your-"
Oh, God, I had messed up. The plan, I'd ruined it, just to hear her say my name. I'd been fooling myself. I couldn't do it.
<It's okay, Marco,> a gentle voice said. But not my mom. Rachel. <It's okay, man. It's okay.>
Then, everything happened at once.
Above the lip of the mountaintop he rose, grotesque, half sky-blue, half the color of bare rock. Visser Three climbed up.
<Well, well, well,> he said. <What's this? Visser One perched on the edge of a free Hork-Bajir colony? Chatting amiably with two free Hork-Bajir and, unless I miss my guess, an Andalite?>
She spun to face him. No fear. "It's over, you incompetent fraud! My loyal ships are above us."
<So are mine,> Visser Three hissed. <And they will blow your ships from the sky!>
"So typical of you. You think only of brute violence. Fool. My ships are making a sensor record. They have recorded this valley, this colony of free Hork-Bajir! What do you think the Council of Thirteen will say when they see it?"
Visser Three showed no emotion. Most likely he couldn't.
Visser One reached into her backpack. Out came not a weapon but what looked a bit like a cell phone.
"This is Visser One," she said. "Attack!"
<Yes, by all means, attack me,> Visser Three said with a laugh. <My ships, too, are making a sensor record. A record of the traitor, the former Visser One firing on loyal Yeerks!>
Suddenly, the sky overhead seemed to part, like a cloth being torn at the seam, and there appeared a ship like none I had ever seen.
Huge! Larger than Visser Three's Blade ship. It had eight pods arranged around a central, cylindrical core. Four massive engines bunched at the rear, blazing blue fire.
<A Nova-class Empire ship?> Visser Three gasped.
Just then, streaking out of the west, came a stream of smaller ships, Visser Three's Bug fighters.
Visser One whirled to watch them, a swarm moving quickly across the back of the mountain range. Among them, a giant battle-ax: the Blade ship of Visser Three.
The squadrons flew low over the colony.
"Visser Three!" my mother yelled. "You are under arrest for criminal incompetence!"
<Traitor!> Visser Three roared.
He lunged, front claws snapping.
Visser One drew a Dracon beam.
Visser Three's Bug fighters sped toward Visser One's descending armada. The battle erupted.
The sky was ripped by massive Dracon cannon firing, as Bug fighters and the Blade ship circled around Visser One's Empire ship.
Visser One fired.
Visser Three sliced.
<Aaaarrgghh!>
A sizzling hole appeared in Visser Three's color-shifting shell.
My mother screamed. She staggered and fell. Her clothes were stained red.
<NOOOO!> I cried. I leaped. Leaped at Visser Three, head down, horns ready.
<Marco! Stop!> Rachel cried. <It's the plan! It has to happen! It has to happen! She has to->
<NOOOOOO!> I slammed into the chameleon morph. It jerked back. Visser Three staggered. Three legs crumpled.
Visser One fired.
The shot missed Visser Three. It hit me.
Searing pain. There was a neat semicircle of flesh gone from my haunch. I staggered, blinded and disoriented by the pain.
"Destroy the colony! The colony!" my mother screamed into her communicator. "Don't fire on Visser Three's ships! The colony! Kill them all! Kill them all!"
<Pathetic attempt. You can't hope to conceal your treason,> Visser Three said.
TSEEEEEEW! TSEEEEEEW!
Dracon cannon were firing from the sky above. The Empire ship was blasting the ground. Firing at what they thought was a colony of free Hork-Bajir.
A hologram.
Erek the Chee had created the illusion. And now, as the Yeerks fired, he created the illusion of Hork-Bajir burning, falling, dying.
But the laws of physics could not be denied.
The massive Dracon energies were not descending deep into a valley. They were hitting the mountain peak, only a hundred feet from us.
CRRRRRRR-ACK!
The ground shuddered.
And suddenly, the ground was falling away. A crack in the very rock itself.
A huge fissure opened up.
I staggered to my feet, crippled by the pain of my wound.
The fissure had separated us. Visser Three, and now an army of rushing, eager Hork-Bajir-Controllers on one side. Rachel and Tobias trapped there with them.
I was on the other side of the fissure. So was Visser One. My mother. We were alone.
She stood with her back to the cliff, raging.
"Too late, Visser Three! Too late to stop me!" Then, calling into her communicator, "Detach a fighter to get me off this rock!"
Rachel and Tobias were back against their own dead drop. Hork-Bajir hemmed them in, attacking relentlessly.
In seconds, it would be over.
All over. My plan. Done. Failed. Rachel and Tobias would die. Visser Three would live. And Visser One?
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a Bug fighter roaring out of the sky, rocketing down toward us.
I turned to face her. Visser One. The leader of the initial invasion of Earth.
She stared at me. She moved to aim the weapon at me.
I lowered my head and felt the power in my legs.
It would be a hundred-foot drop.
<I love you,> I whispered. And then, I lunged.
"The boy!" she whispered, amazed. "It's the boy!"
Poor Marco.