The Hidden Read online

  For Michael and Jake

  CONTENTS

  TITLE PAGE

  DEDICATION

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  SNEAK PEEK

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  COPYRIGHT

  My name is Cassie.

  And you wouldn’t know it to look at me but I’m in the middle of a violent war to save Earth from an alien, parasitic species called the Yeerks.

  Well, most of the time I am. Right now I was kneeling in the barn, waiting for an injured mouse’s curiosity to get the better of him. And when it did, when he crept out from beneath the cage he’d scurried under, I was going to scoop him up and take a look at his crooked, back leg.

  I guess that’s just me. It’s who I am. I don’t like seeing an animal in pain if there’s something I can do about it. And I usually am doing something about it, because my parents are vets and I guess you could say I’m following in their footsteps.

  Except that in one way, I’m already way ahead of them.

  I’m an Animorph. An animal morpher.

  My friends and I were given the ability to acquire the DNA of other creatures and morph them. This power is the only real weapon we have in our fight to save humanity.

  But it’s more than that. For me, at least.

  Every time I morph an animal, I experience the world as that animal does, sensing it, sharing its instincts. That’s knowledge my parents will never have. And I’m not sure not having it is such a bad thing.

  I mean, it’s one thing knowing that a humpback whale can weigh thirty tons but it’s a whole other story to actually weigh that much. To cruise the ocean with the certainty that you actually are that animal. The only way to really understand is to become that creature, and they can’t teach that in vet school.

  But this isn’t just about becoming an animal. It isn’t just about the morphing. See, we use our morphs to fight this war. To divert and battle the Yeerks. That’s why Jake, our leader, doesn’t like us using the morphs for our own purposes. I can’t say I never have — there’s nothing like frolicking as a sleek playful dolphin, and being a horse has certainly come in handy on occasion — but I like Jake a lot — okay, maybe I feel even stronger than “like” — and what he says makes sense, so I try not to do anything that would put us at risk.

  But the risk isn’t the worst of it. This is a war and people die. And using this power to destroy others is hard to get used to. But as much as I hate inflicting pain and sometimes death on the other Yeerk-infested species, I can’t just sit back and allow their evil to consume us, the human race, too.

  The Yeerks are like a disease, except they spread with malice and intent. A Yeerk will squirm into your ear canal, flatten out its blind, deaf, sluglike body, and weave into the crannies of your brain. Tap into your thoughts. See through your eyes, speak with your voice. You are a hostage, trapped inside yourself. Screaming for help but no one can hear you.

  We call people infested by Yeerks Controllers, and there are more of them every day. Like I said, the Yeerks have taken over other species, too, and they’re using some of them to wage this poisonous war on Earth.

  We, the Animorphs, are the only active resistance. Me. My best friend Rachel. Jake. His friend Marco. Tobias, who stayed in his red-tailed hawk morph longer than the two-hour limit and now lives as a bird of prey. A nothlit, as Ax would say.

  Ax is an aristh, an Andalite warrior-cadet, and it was his brother Elfangor who gave us the blue morphing cube before Visser Three murdered him, so that we could continue the battle.

  That’s pretty much it on our side. Well, unless you count the Chee, a nonviolent race of androids, who help us by spying on the Yeerks and infiltrating their cover organization called The Sharing. But when it comes right down to it, we’re the only ones out there aggressively defending our species.

  So you can see why I need to work with wounded animals. To help heal them. And in some way, I think they help heal me, too.

  Movement.

  A tiny, twitching nose poked out from under the cage.

  The barn turned Wildlife Rehab Clinic was quiet today. We had only three patients and all were on the mend.

  Their snuffling and scrabblings were familiar sounds.

  But the distant, low-level drone thrumming through the air wasn’t.

  A chainsaw?

  The buzzing grew louder. Sharper. Closer.

  A low-flying plane?

  The mouse zipped out. Stopped. Nose twitching.

  THWOK! THWOK! THWOK!

  The drone was deafening now.

  The mouse tensed.

  My hand flashed out and scooped it up.

  “Nobody’s going to hurt you,” I said, but my voice was lost in the thundering noise. Something deep in the pit of my stomach stirred uneasily.

  It didn’t sound like a plane, it sounded like a …

  I stuck my head out of the open barn doors in time to see a helicopter pass and continue out over the woods.

  The droning faded.

  I shrugged and turned to put the mouse in a cage and nearly ran into Erek who was standing behind me. Erek is one of the Chee.

  “Whoa!” I said, startled. “I didn’t see you come in.”

  Erek nodded. “Good. You weren’t supposed to. And neither were the Controllers in the helicopter. We have a major problem, Cassie.”

  “Uh, I’m the only one here right now,” I said, realizing I was still holding the mouse. I gently put it in an empty cage and then waited to hear the rest of Erek’s news.

  “I’ll notify the others, but we have to move on this. The Yeerks have managed to repair the Helmacron ship and they’ve reactivated the sensors that locate morphing energy.”

  Oh, great. The Helmacrons. Again.

  The Helmacrons are an exceptionally tiny, exceptionally annoying species with delusions of grandeur and egos the size of Montana. Unfortunately, they also have very advanced technology.

  Erek continued, “The Yeerks are tracking morphing energy.”

  “But I haven’t morphed —”

  The blue box. The Escafil Device. It was hidden here in the barn.

  “The ship’s sensors aren’t operating at full potential but the Yeerks have managed to hone in on a weak signal from somewhere in this area. That would be the energy from the morphing cube.” Erek’s voice was muted as the helicopter did another flyby. “They’re making another pass. If we don’t get that cube out of here —”

  “I’ll get it,” I said, heading to the darkest section of the barn. I’d hidden the cube where it wouldn’t be found by anyone who happened to be stumbling around, but I hadn’t counted on the Yeerks being able to repair something so minuscule as the Helmacrons’ damaged and abandoned ship. “But what good will it do to move the cube, Erek? Won’t the Yeerks just target it again?”

  “Yes. That’s why you and the others have to keep it moving until the Helmacron ship can be destroyed,” Erek said as the helicopter’s shadow passed over us, blotting out the sunlight streaming in through the doors. “If that cube falls into Yeerk hands …”

  “Don’t even say it,” I said, tucking the cube into the waistband of my jeans and pulling my dad’s huge, old, college T-shirt down over it.
“Okay, let’s go —”

  But Erek had vanished.

  “Cassie?” my mother said, from the doorway. “I’m off to The Gardens. I have animal transports to oversee and —”

  “I’ll go with you!” I blurted, while giving the barn a quick once-over for Erek. Was he that bucket? That bale of hay? The Chee were extremely good with holograms.

  The sunlight behind my mother shimmered and for an instant, Erek was Erek again and not a hologram of a brightly lit barn door.

  I looked at my mom. “Let’s get going.”

  Have you ever had one of those horrible dreams where something is chasing you and no matter how fast you try to run, you’re not getting anywhere?

  Well, that’s exactly how I felt driving to The Gardens with my mother.

  The helicopter was buzzing back and forth over the woods. And we were getting nowhere fast because my mother was talking while she was driving, and when she does that, she always takes her foot off the gas pedal. She doesn’t do it on purpose but it’s still nerve-racking.

  Speed up. Slow down. Speed up. Slooowwww dooowwwnnnn….

  BEEEEEEEPP!

  “What’s wrong with him?” my mother asked, scowling into her rearview mirror at the car behind us; it was crawling right up our butts. “The speed limit’s forty-five on this road.”

  “Yeah, but you’re only doing thirty, Mom,” I said, gazing pointedly at the speedometer.

  C’mon, Mom, hurry!

  “Thirty?” my mother asked, pressing the gas pedal. The speedometer needle was on the rise. Sort of. “There. That’s better.”

  But it wasn’t better because the car behind us floored it, passed us on a double line, then cut right back in front of us and promptly slowed down.

  “What are you doing!” my mother shouted, braking and glaring at the back of the driver’s head.

  “Mom, don’t say anything,” I warned, watching as the driver finally sped up.

  “But he’s driving erratically,” my mother said, speeding up and then slamming on her brakes as he slowed down again. “What is he doing?!”

  “Mom, stop! He can’t hear you!” I said. “Just back off. It’s either road rage or …”

  Or a Controller sent to steal the blue box.

  I looked up at the sky. The helicopter was the size of a horsefly in the distance. If it had pinpointed us, it wouldn’t send just one Controller for the box. No way. Stealing it would be a major victory for the Yeerks and they’d send an army to do it, not one bald guy in a Ford Taurus.

  “… or he’s a complete imbecile?” my mother snapped, but backed off enough for him to pull ahead. “I don’t know what is going on around here today.”

  “You mean with all those helicopters?” I asked as casually as I could while keeping an eye on the car in front of us. It was on the move now and was pretty much history. “I thought maybe an animal had escaped from The Gardens or something.”

  “No, they would have called me,” my mother said. “And I haven’t heard any news bulletins about any hikers lost in the area, either.” She smiled. “I guess it’s just one of those days, huh?”

  “I guess so.”

  By the time we pulled into The Gardens, my neck was cramped and my stomach was twisted. One from watching the helicopter, the other from sheer worry. What if Erek hadn’t gotten word to everyone?

  What if he had?

  Wouldn’t the Helmacron sensors pick up three kids and an Andalite in morph? Of course they would. Tobias would be okay, but was getting us all together really that great an idea?

  The frantic fluttering in my stomach got worse.

  I left my mother in the employee parking lot and headed into the park. I told her I was going to check out a few of the new animals and then grab a bus back home. I tried to look as normal as I could in my baggy, dirt-stained jeans with a blue morphing cube hidden beneath my T-shirt.

 

  Thought-speak. Rachel was here somewhere. Good. Even though I wasn’t in morph and couldn’t answer her, I felt better.

  Marco smirked.

  Jake said.

  I nodded slowly, paused by the American buffalo enclosure, and casually looked around — then up.

  A red-tailed hawk circled high above me.

  Two identical seagulls landed near the buffalo wallow. A third landed on a nearby Dumpster. A fourth strutted past, eyeing up a little girl eating french fries.

  That one had to be Ax.

  The kid giggled and threw him a fry.

  He gobbled it down and screeched for another. And another.

  Marco quipped, swooping down and chasing Ax away from the kid.

  Jake said quietly but firmly.

  I scanned the crowd, following one woman’s gaze into the sky. Another helicopter had joined the first.

  I glanced back at the woman, who didn’t look surprised or even curious. Just sort of … eager.

  She disappeared into the crowd.

  The knot in my stomach was back with a vengeance.

  The helicopters were circling closer and it wouldn’t be long before they pinpointed a whole lot of morphing energy in one place.

  I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t communicate with anybody —

  Tobias called down.

  < Cassie, move,> Jake said tersely.

  I stepped backward, away from the buffalo enclosure. Where? I mouthed silently.

  Jake shouted, taking off.

  Tobias said.

  And suddenly, I saw one of the guys in the suits.

  I didn’t run. I didn’t want to attract attention.

  I waited until he turned away.

  Then bolted.

  Tobias said.

  I did, my heart pounding in my ears. My all-too-human ears.

  I was so helpless as a human. I had brains but no brawn. No claws, no fangs, no wings. Nothing to give me even the slightest advantage over the Yeerk-infested human-Controllers tracking me.

  If only I could morph without attracting the sensors.

  If only the others could distract the Controllers long enough for me to get away.

  If only, if only!

  Deal with the realities, Cassie. Keep going.

  The alley finally led me to the loading area, where a couple of huge trucks were parked.

  Tobias yelled.

  Where was I supposed to go? I flattened myself up against a white transport truck, the only thing left between me and them.

  And if one of the helicopters buzzed over now, they’d see two Controllers not ten feet away from a terrified, trapped-looking kid plastered up against a truck, with the sharp corner of the morphing cube poking up from beneath her grubby T-shirt.

  They would know it was me they were hunting for.

  This was it. There was no escape.

  No way out!

  I couldn’t morph so I couldn’t fight or fly.

  I couldn’t drop the cube and run because if the Yeerks got the cube, it would all be over.

  My stomach pushed into my throat.

  s a driver getting into the cab. Your mother’s making him sign something. The Controllers are at the back of the truck! If they look around the side —>

  He didn’t have to say anymore. I already knew what would happen. They’d see me. Grab me. My mother would get involved and then it was down to the Yeerk pool for both of us and total annihilation for my friends.

  Trying not to hyperventilate, I inched along the truck toward the cab. At that moment, I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I had to get farther away from the back of the truck.

  Not that two or three feet would make that much of a difference, but it was all the space I had.

  Something jabbed me in the back.

  I flinched and glanced behind me.

  A door handle.

  There was a small, side entry door in the wall of the transport truck’s bed.

  “Chopper’s picking up a reading from this area,” one of the men behind the truck said. “If we find the Andalite bandits and the morphing technology, Visser Three will be extremely pleased. If we don’t —”

  “Don’t even mention what’ll happen if we don’t,” the other Controller said nervously. “The chopper pilot says the signal’s strong in our radius. Let’s just keep looking.”

  Panicking, I yanked on the door.

  Nothing.

  The truck started up. Idled.

  It was going to pull away and leave me here, exposed.

  I yanked again. Saw the pin. Pulled it out and pulled the door open, scrambled up into the back of the heavily fenced transport truck, and quietly closed the door behind me. Doubled over, panting, heart racing.

  I had made it.

  That’s when something very large bellowed very loudly.

  I shot up and staggered back against the wall.

  There, looming in front of me, with its huge, broad head held low and its massive, curved horns, stood almost a ton of solid, muscled African Cape buffalo.

  Aka the widow-maker.

  Several things happened at once.

  The truck rumbled and jerked to life.

  The Cape buffalo stumbled backward, bound by two ropes around its horns and two around its neck. The ropes were knotted into metal loops on the truck’s walls.

  The ropes were frayed and flimsy-looking compared to the buffalo’s massive head. But then again, most people wouldn’t have to worry about the ropes because they would never, ever get into a truck with a widow-maker.