The Stranger Page 2

  large and elaborate. They are an important part of Yeerk life. The centers of their lives, really. The pools are, for the Yeerks, what forests and mead ows are to Andalites. greater-than "Tobias and I have been working out a pattern of surveillance," Marco went on. "For the last week, we've followed our very favorite human-Controller, Assistant Principal Chapman, everywhere we can. Tobias tracks him from the air. Then I follow him when he goes into a building." "Why didn't you let the rest of us in on this?" I demanded. Marco shrugged. "It was a two-person job, that's all." Jake looked as annoyed as I felt. Then I realized why Marco had kept this quiet. Jake had just been through the terrifying ordeal of being infested by a Yeerk. For three days he had been a human-Controller, a prisoner in his own body. Marco had been letting him rest. "So?" I asked, a little more patiently. "So what?" Marco answered. "So where is this entrance to the Yeerk pool? Duh." "Well, I was hoping to amaze and entertain you all with the whole story of our brilliant detective work, but the short answer is

  - in a dressing room at The Gap. In the mall. That's the entrance. People go in, looking like they're going to try on clothes, and they never come out." less-than At least they don't come out through The Gapeagreater-than Tobias added. less-than They come out through the movie theater. When the crowd leaves the movie at the end of the show, there are always more people leaving than went in. greater-than "In through The Gap, out through the multi plex." Marco laughed. "Are these Yeerks on top of popular American culture, or what?" "Good job," Jake admitted grudgingly. "The question is, now what do we do?" less-than Attackffgreater-than Ax said instantly. "We tried that once," Cassie said quietly. "We didn't exactly win. There were dozens of Hork- Bajir and Taxxons down there. And human-Controllers. And

  he was there . . . Visser Three. That's when Tobias was trapped in a morph. Like I said, we didn't exactly win." "We got hammered," I agreed. "Ax, you know I'm usually all for going on the attack, but the Yeerk pool is just too big." less-than A warrior is judged by the power of his ene mies caret Ax said stubbornly. But he didn't sound quite as enthusiastic anymore. "Attacking the Yeerk pool is out," I muttered. But an idea was occurring to me. "Hey, Ax? What can you tell us about the Kandrona?" He swiveled his head toward me, while his stalk eyes turned slowly this way and that, searching the woods for trouble. less-than The Kandrona is a miniature version of the Yeerks" home sun. It emits Kandrona rays, which concentrate in the Yeerk pools. It is what nourishes the Yeerks. That is why the Yeerks must swim in their natural state in the Yeerk pool every three days

  - they need Kandrona rays. greater-than "So their real weakness is not the pool itself, but this Kandrona," I said. "This miniature sun." less-than But the Kandrona may be many miles away from the Yeerk pool xfeagreater-than Ax explained. less-than The Kandrona rays may be beamed to the pool from almost anywhere. So, although I am in favor of attacking the Yeerk pool, we should not do it expecting to find the Kandrona there. greater-than "I agree," I said. "But what if we didn't

  at tack the Yeerk pool? What if we just spied it out? We might find out where the Kandrona is." Marco laughed. "That's more like the Rachel I know. You were starting to worry me there. You were sounding so sensible." "How big is a Kandrona?" Jake wondered. less-than lt would depend on how many pools it had to support. It might be as large as Cassie's barn. It might be the size of one of your human cars. greater-than "The size of a car? Surely a bunch of ail-American kids like us could manage to wreck a car," Marco joked. "How much would it hurt the Yeerks?" I asked. "That's the question. Is it worth running the risk of going down there again? Down to the Yeerk pool?" We all looked at Ax. less-than lt would depend. If they have a spare Kan- drona, it wouldn't hurt them very much. In any case, they have one aboard their mother ship, so we would not wipe them out entirely. greater-than We all sagged with disappointment. less-than However, it would not be practical for the Yeerks to shuttle their human-Controllers back and forth to the mother ship to keep them alive. greater-than "So what would they do?" Marco wondered. "How would Visser Three react?" "Visser Three is totally ruthless," I said. "He would save as many as he could. But he'd have to let the rest die." less-than Yeseagreater-than Ax agreed. less-than lt would be a very serious blow. They would survive, but they would be weakened. greater-than "We'd have to find this Kandrona thing first," Cassie reminded everyone. "And wherever it is, it will be guarded." Right then I guess we all realized we were go ing to do it. We were going back to the Yeerk pool. Jake shook his head slowly. "Down to the Yeerk pool again. I still have nightmares about the first time." "Yeah," Marco agreed. "Done that." "The Yeerk pool," Cassie said grimly, and looked away. I didn't say anything. I don't like talking about nightmares. But I'd had them, too. They were pretty bad. less-than like am not very good at understanding human emotionseagreater-than Ax said. less-than But you all seem afraid. And your fear is beginning to scare meeagreater-than "Good," I said. "I don't know if you Andalites believe in places like heaven and hell. But let me just tell you

  - the Yeerk pool is definitely not heaven." hat's for dinner?" I asked my mom as soon as I got home. The walk in the woods had made me hungry. Being outdoors always does that to me. So does fear. I just kept picturing the Yeerk pool. The cages full of involuntary hosts, humans and Hork-Bajir, temporarily free of their Yeerk parasites. I kept hearing them. Crying

  - that's what most of them did while they waited to be rein- fested. Others screamed. Some begged for mercy. Or worse. My mom was standing by the kitchen counter. She was more dressed up than she usually was in the evening. She was munching nervously on some Doritos and kind of staring off into space. "Mom? Hello?" She looked like she hadn't noticed me. "Oh, hi, honey." "What's for dinner? I'm starving." "Your father is coming over tonight. For din ner. He said he would pick something up." I felt my stomach clench. Something was wrong. Since the divorce, my dad never came over for dinner. My two sisters and I spent one weekend a month overnight at his apartment in the city. Plus the every-other-weekend outing. But he did not come over for dinner. I wasn't hungry anymore. "What's going on?" I demanded. My mother got this worried look on her face, which she tried to hide. "Your father has something he wants to tell you girls. He was supposed to tell you the other night at the circus. I guess he forgot." The way she said "I guess he forgot" made it clear she didn't think that was the truth. I took my mother's arm. "Mom? I don't like suspense, all right? So just

  - his The doorbell rang. I heard Sara running down the stairs. I heard Jordan yell, "Stop running on the stairs, you'll break your neck." She sounded just like my mother. It almost made my mom and me smile. "That will be your father." I went to the front room. Sara was leaping into my dad's arms and Jordan was hovering a couple feet away. Jordan shot a quick, question ing glance at me. Unlike Sara, Jordan was old enough to realize something was up. I shrugged and shook my head. "Rachel!" my dad said. "How's my girl? Come take this bag from me. Thai food. We have curry. We have pad Thai. We have chicken satay. We have those imperial heavenly whatever-they-call- "em shrimp." He handed me the paper bag. He was being too cheerful. My father's a reporter for one of the local TV channels. He does a lot of investigative journal ism. Plus he anchors the news on Saturday and Sunday. So he's always wearing nice clothes, and always has great hair, and he looks tan even in the total depths of winter. I took the bag to the dining-room table and started to unpack the little white boxes of Thai food. "Hello, Dan," my mother said, coming into the room with plates and silverware. "Naomi," he answered. "How have you been?" By now even Sara had figured out that this was not going to be a happy evening. We ate a little and struggled along with some small talk about nothing. Until finally my mom said, "Dan, just get it over with." My dad looked embarrassed. He sent me a sheepish smile, like some little boy caught doing something wrong. "Okay," he said. He cleared his throat. He sat up straight in his chair. Just as if he were waiting for the cameras to come on so he could do the evening news. "Kids, I have something I have to tell you about. I've been offered a job. A better job. I wouldn't just
be the weekend anchor. I would have the top spot. I'd be anchoring the six o'clock broadcast and the eleven o'clock. And I'd get to do specials. Maybe do some really impor tant work." Jorda n looked at me, confused. It sounded like good news. "There's just one problem," my father said. "It's not here in town. In fact, it would mean I would have to move." "Where to?" Sara asked. "To another apart ment?" He forced a smile. "To another city, sweetie. In another state." "A thousand miles away," my mother said. You know, it's funny how the mind works. See, I've been through more bad things, more terror, more worry, more pain since I became an Animorph than most people deal with in a lifetime. I would have thought I could handle some thing like my dad moving away. A thousand miles away. "Congratulations," I said, trying not to show any emotion. "It's what you've always wanted." My dad wasn't fooled. He knew I was upset. "It's the job, Rachel. It's the way it is. It's not like I won't see you kids. I know it sounds like a long way and all, but that's why we have jets, right?" "Yeah," I said. "That's why we have jets. I think I'll just go upstairs and do some homework now." "Wait, I need to ..." my dad protested. I didn't slam any doors. I didn't throw any thing. I just left. Let him feel what it's like, I told myself. Let him feel what it's like to have someone just walk away. I went up to my room and locked the door

  be hind me. I couldn't breathe. I kept clenching my fists and wanting to pound something. I think I would have cried, but I was just too angry. "Rachel?" It was him. He knocked lightly on my door. "Can I come in?" I couldn't say no. It would have sounded like I was upset. "Sure. Why not?" He came in. "I'm guessing you're a little up set," he said. I shrugged and turned my back to him. "I see. Rachel, you didn't let me finish what I had to tell you downstairs. Rachel . . . Jordan and Sara are still too young to consider this. But you're older. You can look after yourself when I have to work late. They can't. And . . . anyway, look, the thing is, I've talked to your mother about this, and she's not happy about it, but she says it's up to you." I turned to look at him. "What's up to me?" He smiled uncertainly. "Well, it's like this. Carla Belnikoff teaches in the city I'm moving to. You know, she takes in three or four promising gymnastics students every year. If you wanted . .

  . well, it would be the best thing in the world, as far as I'm concerned, if you came to live with me." I almost asked him to repeat it. I couldn't be lieve I had heard right the first time. Students of Coach Belnikoff have won two gold medals and a bunch of silver ones. "Dad, Carla Belnikoff isn't going to take me on as a student. She handles professional-level gymnasts. I'm too tall, and not good enough to ... besides, you're saying I should move out? Leave Mom and Sara and Jordan?" "You're the only one who can decide that," my dad said. "But as for Coach Belnikoff, you're wrong. You have the talent. I know. If that's something you want to do, if you want to make that your life, you could go places in gymnas tics." I shook my head. Not to say no, just to try and clear out the confusion. "Dad, are you asking

  me to go with you when you move?" "Yes. I know it would be hard on you and your mom and your sisters, but we could make it work. I mean, this job pays a lot of money. You could fly back here any time you wanted. Every week if you wanted." Was he serious? It sounded ridiculous. Was he actually serious? I sat down on the edge of my bed. My thoughts were everywhere all at once. Leave? Leave my mom and my sisters? This was just because my dad felt guilty. He felt bad about leaving. This was about pity. He felt sorry for me or something. "And I know it would mean changing schools," he said, "but, gee, Rachel, I think

  it could be okay, you know? I mean, for one thing, they have serious mountains there. We could do some rock climbing together on weekends. Go hiking. And it's a huge sports town. I need someone to go with me to games. It would be like in the old days." Then he winked. "And hey, it's a much bigger city, so think of all the shopping." No, it wasn't pity or guilt, I realized. At least not completely. I think my dad was feeling lonely. He was picturing himself lonely in the new town. "Oh, man," I said. "I don't know what to say." My dad nodded his head. "Don't decide now. I wouldn't want you to. Talk to your mom. And Jordan and Sara, too. You think about it. I just think . . . you know, I've just missed you, sweet heart. We have fun trash-talking the umpires at games, don't we? And hiking? Remember the time we got lost?" "Of course, I remember," I said. "I just ...

  I just have to think it over. You know." I wanted to say, Dad, you don't understand. It isn't just about Mom and Sara and Jordan. I have a date, Dad. To go back to the Yeerk pool. My friends are counting on me. See, I'm supposed to

  be Xena, Warrior Princess. I'm supposed to go back down there . . . down into the last place on Earth I want to go. "I have to think it over," I repeated. "Yeah. S. Anyway, I'm gonna go now." "Okay, Dad," I said. "I love you, Rachel." I wish he hadn't said that. I was doing fine till he said that, and then the tears started. After my dad left, I talked to my mom. She said what I expected: She wanted me to stay. But it was up to me. She trusted me to think it through. Up to me. Great. I could hurt my mom and my sisters, or I could hurt my dad. Perfect. Isn't di vorce fun? After I went to bed, I just lay there, staring up at the ceiling. My brain kept churning like a computer you can't turn off. Too many things to think about. My dad. My mom. And the big, huge, massive thing I didn't even want to start thinking about: my friends. The An- imorphs. The war against the Yeerks. Finally, I knew I had to get out of there. I needed air and open spaces. The walls were just way too close around me. I climbed out of bed and opened my window all the way. I changed from the T-shirt I sleep in to the black leotard I usually wore under my clothes. My morphing outfit. I couldn't think about it anymore. I just needed some space to not think about my father. Not think about choices. I focused my mind. I concentrated. Just some time to think, I told myself, as my fingers be came feathers and my toes curled into talons. I guess every kid has times he wants to just get away. But I had the power to do it. I could even get away from myself. I launched myself into the night. I flew in absolute silence. The wind rushing over the top of my wings never ruffled a feather. The moon was low on the horizon, just a sliver. High clouds blocked the starlight. The grassy field just a few feet below me would have been black and featureless to human eyes. But I was not looking through human eyes. My eyes were so large, they nearly filled my head. They looked through the darkness like it was noon on a sunny day. I could see individual blades of grass. I could see the ants crawling beneath the grass. My hearing was so acute that I could hear a mouse step on a twig from seventy-five feet away. I could hear the beating wings of a sparrow that was flitting from tree to tree. I had morphed into a great horned owl. The night killer. The predator of darkness. I flew lower still, closer to the ground, letting the owl's mind search out prey. Here a mouse. There a shrew. There a vole. And all the many lit tle birds. They were all meat to the owl. I could de scend, silent and deadly, on a rat or rabbit, spread my talons wide, and strike. I could squeeze my talons until they burst the skulls of my prey and ... no. No, I told myself. I was not Tobias. He had no choice but to be a predator. I had a choice. Like my father had a choice. He could just not move. And then I wouldn't have to make this awful decision. If he knew ... if he understood everything ... he wouldn't do this. He would un derstand that I was part of the battle to help save Earth. But I couldn't tell him. Not even my dad. He could be one of them. That's what knowing about the Yeerks does to you. You look at everyone and wonder what's living inside their brains. Even though I felt like somehow I would just know if my dad were a Controller. I guess I've always had a close relationship with my dad. Right from the start, going back as far as I can remember, we were always doing stuff together. I mean, I have this photograph of me when I was three years old, standing on a balance beam, with my dad holding me up and grinning at the camera. I love that picture, even though I look lame in the outfit I had on. I keep it on my desk in my room. When my mom was pregnant with my littlest sister, Sara, .1 overheard my parents talking.

  My mom was saying maybe this time she would have a boy. "I know you've always wanted a bo
y," she told my dad. "Oh, come on," he answered. "That was years ago. I thought I had to have a boy to do all the fun 'dad" stuff with. But I have Rachel. She's

  as good as any boy. She's already tougher than most boys her age. Have you seen the vaults she can do?" My mom groaned. "Don't ever let her hear you say that. Little girls do not want to be told they are as good as a boy." But she was wrong. I know it was sexist and all, but I still just thought it was great. My dad thought I was as tough as any boy. Cool. If only he knew what I was doing now, I thought. How could he expect me to make this deci- sion? I couldn't leave my friends. I couldn't. They were counting on me. We were going back to the Yeerk pool, and they were counting on me to be brave and strong. That's what they thought I was. But if I was so brave and so strong, why was I suddenly imagining a very different life, a long, long way from the war with the Yeerks? Why was I imagining a life of gymnastics classes and ball games with my dad

  - a place wher e I was just a person? Where no one ex pected me to go back down into that hell of screams and despair called the Yeerk pool? If I was so brave and so tough, why was I imagining a normal life? L flew into Tobias's territory. It was also the territory of at least one real horned owl, who would not be happy to have me around. It belonged to Tobias by day and to the owl by night. I knew a tree where Tobias often slept. Sure enough, he was there. I stopped beating my wings and glided up. I was already flaring my wings to come in for a landing when Tobias noticed me. less-than lt's okay, it's okay, it's me, Rachelffgreater-than less-than 0h, man! You almost gave me a heart at- tackffgreater-than less-than Sorry. greater-than less-than Sorry8ffgreater-than he demanded angrily. less-than lt's night, we're in the woods, I'm a hawk and you're an owl who comes zooming up in attack mode. Don't do that kind of stuff, Rachel. greater-than less-than l'm just an owl, not an eagleeagreater-than I protested. I knew that some eagles and some falcons will at tack hawks. less-than 0kay, okay. It's just that hungry owls have been known to go after hawks. It doesn't happen a lot, but owls scare me. I know everybody sees cute cartoon owls and thinks all they do is say "hoot, hoot" and act wise. But let me tell you, I've watched owls work. They aren't cute. They're tough. I don't ever want to have to fight one. greater-than I settled on the branch beside him, sinking my talons into the soft bark. I could see why To bias liked this perch. It gave a perfect view of the meadow, with all its tasty prey. less-than l'm really sorry, Tobias. I guess I forget that your life can be so dangerous. greater-than less-than Yeah, well, it has advantages, tooeagreater-than he said. less-than No more first period gym class. So what are you doing out here playing owl8greater-than less-than like had to get out of the house. greater-than less-than Ah. Why? Unless it's not any of my business caret less-than like don't know. Nothing. Nothing. I was just hyper. greater-than Tobias didn't say anything. Obviously, he knew I was lying. He just waited for me to tell him, watching me with gold-brown eyes that seemed to drill holes through me. But I didn't really want to tell him. I mean, I guess I had wanted to, or why else would I have flown out to see him? But now it just seemed ridiculous to lay my problems on him. less-than like was just thinking about going down into the Yeerk pool ageagreater-than I said. less-than You're worried8greater-than he teased. less-than You8greater-than less-than like get worried sometimeseagreater-than I said defensively. less-than like was thinking about flying out to The Gardens, to the zoo. Maybe acquiring some new morph. Something really strong and mean in case we get into a fight down there. A lion. Or a grizzly bear or something. Thought maybe you'd want to fly over there with me. greater-than less-than Rachel, you know I don't fly much at night. I can't see that well in the dark. Plus, there aren't any thermals at night, so I can't soar. I just have to flap the whole time, and that's miles away. I mean, a little trip around here, sure, if you want to go flying. But that's a haul. greater-than less-than Yeah, okay. Forget it. greater-than less-than like have an idea. Why don't you tell me what's really bothering you? You're all ... weird. You don't seem like you. greater-than less-than lt's nothingeagreater-than I said. less-than Sorry I scared you. I'm going to head on home. greater-than less-than Rachel, you know you can always talk to me, right8greater-than less-than Yeah. Look ... I have a question for you. Do you ever think about years from now? Like when it's time for college and stuff8greater-than As soon as the words were out of my head I wished I could call them back. But Tobias was cool. He just laughed silently. less-than Yeah, I'm thinking I could get easy A's in