The Invasion Page 5

  Instead I told him the other thing I was afraid to tell him.

  “I, uh … I didn’t make the team,” I said.

  “What team?” he asked. He looked puzzled.

  “What team? The basketball team. Your old team.”

  “Oh. Too bad,” he said.

  “Too bad?” I repeated. I could not believe how little he seemed to care.

  “It’s just sports,” he said. He munched another big bite of toast.

  “Just sports?” I couldn’t stop repeating what he said. Tom, saying sports were no big deal? No way. He lived for sports. “Yeah, I guess I just don’t have your total skill.”

  He shrugged. “Well, I quit the team, anyway. A couple days ago.”

  I practically fell off my chair. “You quit? You quit the team? And you didn’t even talk to me about it? What’s the deal?”

  “I didn’t say anything because I knew you and Dad would make a big thing of it. Look, there are more important things than throwing balls through hoops,” he said. He had this mysterious look in his eyes. I figured he meant girls were the more important thing. “Besides,” he added, “we do much cooler stuff at The Sharing. Maybe you should join up.”

  I was stunned. Obviously, Tom and I were further apart than I had realized.

  When we were done talking, I headed outside to mow the lawn. I mow the lawn every Saturday. It’s my major chore. That, and taking out the trash, which I hate, because we have to do all this recycling stuff.

  When I was finally done mowing and trimming and raking, I hopped on my bike and took off.

  I had arranged with everyone to hook up at Cassie’s farm. It isn’t exactly a normal farm, although it had been in the old days. And they do still have horses and a cow. But now the big red main barn is the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic. Cassie’s father runs it. They take in any kind of injured animal except pet-type animals. There are always lots of birds, along with squirrels and deer and skunks and so on. Sometimes they get a bobcat or a fox or even a wolf.

  Cassie’s mom is a vet, too, but she works at The Gardens. That’s this huge amusement park that also has a zoo—or I guess they call it a wildlife park. Luckily, Cassie really loves animals. It would have been hard, having her parents, if she didn’t really love animals.

  Me, I have a dog. Tobias has a cat. Cassie has everything from porcupines to polar bears.

  By the time I got there, Marco, Tobias, and Rachel were already waiting outside the barn. Rachel had her face turned up to catch the tanning rays of the sun. Cassie wasn’t there yet. I figured she was doing chores. She had tons of work to do around there.

  “Hey, guys,” I said.

  Rachel opened her eyes and immediately thrust a newspaper at me. “Look,” she said, pointing to an article.

  I started to read the article. It wasn’t very long. It said that police claimed there had been a disturbance in the construction site the night before. It said several people had called, claiming they’d seen flying saucers landing there, followed by bright lights.

  “Cool,” I said, looking up. “So the cops know about it now. That’s a relief.”

  “Keep reading,” Rachel said.

  The article went on to say that the police had arrived on the scene and found a group of teenagers playing with fireworks. The teenagers had run away. Fireworks were discovered at the scene. The police spokesman had laughed at the reports of flying saucers. “It was just a bunch of kids playing where they shouldn’t have been,” he said. “There were definitely no flying saucers. People shouldn’t be so quick to believe nonsense.”

  “But this is a total lie,” I said.

  “Ding ding ding ding! Correct answer. Johnny, tell our contestant what he’s won,” Marco said.

  “Did you see the last part?” Rachel pressed.

  I read the last sentence. It froze me up good, I can tell you. Police were offering a reward for information on the teenagers.

  “They’re looking for us,” Marco said.

  “Why would the police be … I mean, why would they lie?” I wondered aloud. But the answer was pretty obvious.

  Marco laughed his sardonic laugh. “Let’s see, Captain Brilliant—would it be because the cops are Controllers?”

  “Probably not all the cops,” Tobias pointed out.

  “If the police have been infiltrated by the Controllers, who knows how many others have, too?” Rachel asked. “Teachers? People in the government? The newspapers and the TV?”

  “Math teachers, for sure,” Marco joked.

  We all looked around nervously, like we expected to find ourselves surrounded by Controllers.

  “I tried to tell myself it was all a dream,” Rachel said.

  “Been there,” I said.

  For a while no one said anything. We all felt the same terrible feeling — like we were all alone. Like suddenly we were dealing with stuff that was way, way, way over our heads.

  Marco spoke first. “Look, why do we have to deal with this? I say we just forget it. We never talk about it. We never morph. We just deal with our own lives.”

  Tobias and Rachel both looked at me. They were waiting for me to argue with Marco.

  “Marco, I halfway agree with you —” I started to say.

  Suddenly Marco just went ballistic. “We could get killed!” he yelled. “Don’t you get it? You saw what happened to the Andalite. I mean, this is perilous stuff, Jake. This is for real. Real! We could all get killed.”

  Tobias was looking at Marco with this side-ways look, like he thought maybe Marco was some kind of coward. I knew better. Marco had his reasons.

  Marco shook his head. In a quiet voice he said, “Look, I think these Controllers are jerks. But if something happened to me … my dad. He wouldn’t be able to handle it.”

  Two years ago, Marco’s mom died. She drowned. They never even found her body. Marco’s dad lost it big-time. He totally fell apart. He quit his job as an industrial engineer because he couldn’t handle being around other people. Now he was working as a night janitor, making barely enough to support Marco. He spent his days sleeping or watching TV with the sound off.

  “You can all think I’m a weasel if you want,” Marco said. “I don’t care. But if I get killed or something, my dad will flat-out die. He’s only hanging in there because of me.”

  I wondered if I should go pat him on the back or something. But if I had, Marco, being Marco, would have just said something sarcastic.

  “There’s Cassie,” Rachel said, shielding her eyes and looking off across the open field.

  A horse, galloping across the green. Its black mane was flying in the warm breeze. I didn’t see any rider.

  The horse slowed, trotting closer, and suddenly I had a strange feeling about the horse.

  “Cassie and I have been here for a while,” Rachel said by way of explanation. “She’s really good at this. Look how fast she can do it.”

  The horse nickered softly. Then the animal began to melt. The big brown eyes became slightly smaller. The long muzzle became a human mouth.

  A thing that was part horse and part Cassie smiled at us with big horse teeth and said, “Hey, kids.”

  Marco suddenly sat down. Very hard. He had never seen a morphing.

  “It’s cool,” I said, trying to sound very relaxed. “It’s just Cassie.”

  I decided I’d better be a gentleman and look away. After all, when Tobias and I had morphed, we’d kind of morphed right out of our clothes. But I noticed that as Cassie emerged from the horse, she was wearing a skintight blue outfit. One of those outfits girls wear to the gym.

  I watched and saw something beautiful happen. For just a few seconds, she stayed half horse and half human. She reminded me of the Andalite. I realized it was deliberate. Cassie was controlling the way she morphed.

  “Jeez, Rachel,” I said. “You’re right. Cassie is good.”

  Suddenly we heard the sound of tires on gravel.

  We all spun around. Down the gravel and dirt road came
a single black-and-white car. “The cops!” Tobias cried.

  CHAPTER 11

  Cassie. Morph. Now!” I snapped. The police car was coming fast. “We do not want to have to explain a half horse half person.”

  “Which way should I morph?” Cassie wailed. “Horse or human?” She reared up slightly on her hind legs.

  I knew what was happening. She was fighting the horse’s urge to panic.

  “Human, human, human!” I said. “Everybody, stand in front of her!”

  The police car squealed to a stop, sending the gravel flying. A single policeman stepped out.

  I waved at him.

  “Morning,” he said. “You kids, uh … hiding something?”

  I wanted to look over my shoulder and see what kind of shape Cassie was in. But that would have been a mistake. “Hiding something?” I repeated.

  “Step aside, all of you,” he ordered.

  We did, revealing Cassie. Fully human.

  The policeman looked puzzled. But then he shrugged.

  I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

  “Can we help you, officer?” Rachel asked in her best “responsible” voice.

  “We’re making some inquiries,” he said, still looking at Cassie like something must be wrong with her. “We’re looking for some kids who were shooting off fireworks in the construction site across from the mall last night.”

  Suddenly Marco started coughing.

  “Something the matter with him?” the policeman asked.

  “Nope,” I said. “Nothing wrong with him.”

  “We want these kids,” the policeman said. “We want them real bad. See, it was dangerous what they did. Could have been someone hurt. So we want to find the kids.”

  Suddenly I knew. He was one of them. The policeman was a Controller. I looked at his face. It seemed normal. But inside his head was a creature from another planet—an evil, parasitic slug. Just behind those normal, human-looking eyes, something vile lurked.

  “I don’t know anything about it,” I lied.

  He looked at me real close, and I began to sweat.

  “Hey, you know what?” he said. “You look familiar. You look like a young man I know named Tom.”

  “He’s my brother,” I said. I was trying not to let my voice go weird. But I just couldn’t forget the fact that it wasn’t really some normal, human cop I was talking to. It was a Yeerk. This wasn’t even a human anymore. Not really. It was a Human-Controller. The human brain was totally enslaved.

  “Tom’s your brother, eh? Well, he’s a good kid. I know him from The Sharing. I’m one of the adult supervisors. Great group, The Sharing. You should come to a meeting.”

  “Yeah, um, Tom invited me already,” I said.

  “We have a lot of fun.”

  “Yeah,” I repeated.

  “Well, you call me if you hear anything about these kids in the construction site. I should warn you—they may come up with some wild story to conceal their guilt. But you’re too smart to believe a bunch of crazy lies, aren’t you?”

  “He’s a regular genius,” Marco said.

  Finally the policeman took off.

  “Okay, rule number one,” Rachel announced. “We don’t do anything to attract attention. We have to be secret about everything. Especially morphing.”

  Cassie looked embarrassed. “Yeah, it was stupid of me. It’s just, man! It is so amazing, running like that. Out in the open spaces, running and running.”

  “How did you manage to morph with clothing?” I asked. “When Tobias and I did it … well, let’s just say it’s a good thing neither of you girls was around.”

  “It took some practice,” Cassie said. “And it can only be tight clothing. I tried it with a coat on. It got shredded. I don’t know what we’ll do in the winter.”

  “That’s not going to be a problem,” Marco said firmly. “Because there isn’t going to be any more morphing.”

  “Maybe Marco is right,” Rachel said. “This is too big for us. We’re just kids. We need to find someone important to tell this to. Someone we can trust.”

  “We can’t trust anyone,” Tobias said flatly. “Anyone could be a Controller. We tell the wrong person, we are all dead. And the whole world will be doomed.”

  “I don’t want to stop morphing,” Cassie said. “Do you realize all we could do with this power? We could communicate with animals, maybe. Help save endangered species.”

  “Humans may be the next endangered species, Cassie,” Tobias said quietly.

  “What do you say, Jake?” Cassie asked.

  “Me?” I shrugged. “I don’t know. Marco’s right, we could all get killed. Rachel’s right, this is too major for a bunch of kids.” I hesitated. I didn’t like what I was about to say. “But Tobias is right, too. I mean, the whole world is in danger. And we can’t trust anyone.”

  “So, what do we do?” Rachel demanded.

  “Hey, it’s not up to me to decide,” I said hotly.

  “Let’s take a vote,” Rachel said.

  “I vote we try to live long enough to get driver’s licenses,” Marco said.

  “I vote we do what the Andalite said—fight,” Tobias said.

  “You’ve never even been in a fight,” Marco sneered. “You can’t handle the bullies at school. Suddenly now you want to kick butt on that Visser Three monster?”

  Tobias said nothing, but a blush spread up his neck.

  “I vote with Tobias,” Rachel said, giving Marco a dirty look. “I wish we could dump all this on someone else. But we can’t.”

  “Let’s think it over for a while,” Cassie said. “This is a big decision. I mean, it’s not like we’re deciding whether to wear jeans or a skirt.”

  I was relieved. Thank goodness for Cassie.

  “Yeah, let’s wait for a while,” I agreed. “In the meantime, no one say anything to anyone. We just go back to normal life.”

  There was a smirk on Marco’s face. He thought he’d won. But I wasn’t so sure. Tobias was still blushing. He sent a secret, grateful look to Rachel.

  Marco and I took off toward my house again, trying to act normal. We talked about the baseball season. We talked about who was going to slaughter who in Dead Zone 5, which is this game we were going to play at my place.

  By the time we’d reached my house, we’d run out of stuff to talk about.

  We played Dead Zone for a while. Neither of us did very well. Face it, games just weren’t all that interesting anymore. My mind was totally not there.

  Tom came in after a while. “Hey, you guys,” he said. “Can I give that a try?”

  It had been months since Tom had done anything with me like play a game.

  “Sure.” Marco moved over and gave Tom his control stick.

  We played for a few minutes, and Tom did pretty well. But then it was like he got bored or something. He gave the control back to Marco and just sat back and watched.

  “You guys hear about all the stuff going on with the construction site last night?” he asked me.

  Marco jerked in surprise.

  “What stuff?” I said.

  “It was in the newspaper,” Tom said casually. “They said some kids were there shooting off fireworks. A bunch of morons who live around there decided it was flying saucers or something.” He laughed. “Flying saucers, right.”

  Marco and I both laughed, too.

  “Yeah. And it was just these kids playing with fireworks,” Tom said.

  “Uh-huh,” I said. I was trying very hard to concentrate on the game.

  “You were out at the mall last night, weren’t you?” Tom asked me.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Did you come back through the construction site?”

  I shook my head. “No way.”

  “Didn’t see any kids hanging around there, maybe?”

  “Nope.”

  “It’s not like I’d get them in trouble,” Tom said. “I mean, I think it’s kind of cool. They’re just shooting off fireworks and they get al
l these people terrified of flying saucers.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Flying saucers,” he said. He laughed again. “Only complete dips believe that kind of stuff.” He leaned close. “You don’t believe in that, do you? Aliens and spaceships and little green men from Mars?”

  I wanted to say no, none of them had been little or green. But I just said, “No way.”

  Tom nodded and stood up. “Cool. You know, Jake, I feel like we haven’t been hanging around much lately.”

  “I guess not,” I agreed.

  “That’s too bad,” he said. He snapped his fingers like he’d just had an idea. “You know, you should join The Sharing. Marco, too.”

  “Why should we join?” Marco asked.

  Tom just grinned. “I gotta go,” he said. He gave me a playful punch on the shoulder. “See you guys later. And don’t forget—let me know if you hear anything about those kids at the construction site.”

  He left.

  Marco looked at me. “Jake. He’s one of them.”

  “What?”

  “Tom. Tom is one of them. Your brother is a Controller.”

  CHAPTER 12

  I swung my fist and caught Marco in the side of the head.

  He jumped back and I swung again. But Marco was quick. He dodged my second swing, and I slipped and went down.

  Marco snatched the bedspread off my bed, threw it over me to tangle up my arms, and sat on me.

  “Jake, quit acting like a stupid jerk,” he said.

  I was trying to grab him, but he had me pretty good. “Take that back!” I yelled.

  “Not likely,” Marco said. “You think it’s just a coincidence he’s suddenly all interested in what happened at the construction site?”

  I knew it looked bad. Even while I was struggling to get free and kick Marco’s butt. I had this sudden flash about the smell I’d noticed on Tom when I was morphed into a dog. And there was that laugh I’d heard at the site.

  But no. No! This was Tom, my big brother. Tom would never, ever have let those slimy creeps into his head. Never.

  “I’ll let you up if you’ll calm down,” Marco said. “Look, maybe I’m wrong, okay?”