"There's a lake just a little way ahead. It's crawling with Park Rangers who aren't really Park Rangers."
"Yeah, I thought I smelled water. And humans," Cassie said.
"How do you know they aren't real Park Rangers?" Jake asked.
"Because real Park Rangers don't carry machine guns," I said. "Plus, they don't hang around with Hork-Bajir."
"Hork-Bajir?" Cassie asked shakily. "You're sure?"
"Oh yeah," I said. "It's kind of hard to confuse them with anything else. The Park Rangers are clearing out the area around the lake. They hustled some campers out of there real fast. At gunpoint."
"Hork-Bajir," Marco said with distaste. "I really don't like those guys." Rachel asked, "This lake, it's in the same direction your big invisible ship was moving?"
"It's in a perfectly straight line," I said. "Whatever that ship was, I'd bet anything it was heading for that lake."
"And judging by the way you say these Park-Ranger Controllers and Hork-Bajir are acting, it's on its way again," Marco said thoughtfully.
"I'll tell you one thing," I said. "These guys all looked like they'd done this many times before. You know what I mean? Like this was a real common routine. They had it down."
"We don't have a lot of time left in morph," Jake said. "But it would be a shame to miss the chance to find out what this is all about."
"I say go for it," Rachel said.
25 "You always say go for it," Marco muttered. "If just once you would say, 'Hey, let's not do this,' it would make me so happy."
"You have about forty minutes left," I told them. "The lake is about five minutes away."
"Okay. Let's go. But in and out fast," Jake warned. "Just enough to see what's going on." They took off, with Jake in the lead. "Remember, just act like wolves."
"Yeah, so if anyone sees the Three Little Pigs, don't forget to huff and puff," Marco said.
I went airborne again, but this time I stayed close by.
"Park Rangers just ahead," I said.
"Yeah, I can definitely smell them now," Rachel replied. "And hear them, too."
"Okay, look, wolves would try to steer clear of humans," Cassie advised. "So a little slinking would be perfectly normal."
They moved in a cautious circle around the phony Park Rangers. But I could see that the Rangers had spotted them. They tensed up, then relaxed when they saw it was just a wolf pack minding its own business.
I decided to get some altitude. Unfortunately, since there were no convenient thermals, I had to flap my way up. I was a few thousand yards high, able to see my friends and the lake, when I felt its presence again.
I looked up.
The invisible wave. The slight ripple in the fabric of the sky. It was there. It was moving slowly overhead. Even more slowly than before.
And then, as I watched, it was invisible no more.
26 CHAPTER 9
"Don't act suspicious or freak," I called down to the others. "But look up."
"Oh my God," Rachel gasped.
"It's . . . it's huge!" Cassie cried.
It was huge. But the word huge doesn't really begin to describe it.
Have you ever seen a picture of an oil tanker? Or maybe an aircraft carrier? That's what I mean by huge. Compared to this thing, the biggest jumbo jet ever built was a toy.
It was shaped like a manta ray. There was a bulging, fat portion in the middle, with swooped, curvy wings, one either side. On top of the wings were huge scoops, like air intakes on a fighter jet, but much bigger. You could suck a fleet of buses in through those scoops.
The only windows were in a small bulge at the top. The bridge, I realized. Focusing on it, I could see the shadowy shapes of Taxxons inside.
But mostly that ship was just big. Really big. As in, it blocked out the sun, it was so big.
Suddenly, out from behind the ship, a pair of Bug fighters zipped into view. We had seen them before. They are small, for spaceships. You couldn't park one in your garage, but you could land it on your front lawn. They look like metal cockroaches with two serrated spearlike protrusions pointed forward on either side.
"I have Bug fighters up here," I called down to the others, "A pair."
"Who cares about Bug fighters?" Marco asked. "They're nothing compared to that . . . that whale!"
"The Bug fighters are circling the lake. I guess they're looking around for troubles "Try not to look like trouble," Jake advised dryly.
I did my best to look like a normal, harmless hawk. Doing normal hawk things. But the main ship was unbelievably intimidating. I mean, nothing that big should be floating in the air.
Suddenly one of the Bug fighters went shooting right past me, low and slow. I could see in the window. Inside was the usual crew: one Hork-Bajir and one Taxxon.
The Taxxons are the second most common type of Controller. Imagine a very big centipede.
Now imagine it even bigger, twice as long as a man. So big around, you couldn't get your arms around it if you wanted to give it a hug.
Not that you'd ever want to give it a hug. Taxxons are gross, disgusting creatures. Unlike the Hork-Bajir, who were enslaved against their will, Taxxons chose to turn their minds over to the Yeerk parasites. They are allies of the Yeerks. I don't know why, and I probably don't want to.
The Bug fighter shot past, not interested in me.
27 The huge main ship sank slowly down toward the surface of the lake. "Are you guys seeing this? It looks like it's going to land on the lake."
"Are we seeing it? No. We've totally missed the fact that a spaceship the size of Delaware is hovering in midair."
Marco, of course.
"It's incredible," Rachel said. "Incredible."
"You know, I hate to be a pessimist," Marco said, "but when I look at that thing I get a bad feeling about our chances. Four hounds and a bird versus a ship the size of ldaho!"
"A minute ago it was just the size of Delaware," Cassie pointed out mildly.
"What's it doing here? That's what I want to know," Jake said.
They had reached the shore of the lake and were prowling along, looking like wolves should look. But they were also glancing regularly up at the massive ship. I worried a little that some Controller, human or Hork-Bajir, would notice that they were paying a little too much attention.
"You guys? Watch how you act. The Yeerks will be looking for any animals that act strangely," I said. "They're on the lookout for Andalites who can morph."
"He's right," Marco agreed. "Jake? Start peeing on things again."
"Very funny," Jake said.
Then something began to happen. "Hey. Look!"
From the belly of the ship, a pipe began to lower into the water. Then a second pipe, and a third.
"They're like straws," Cassie said. "They're drinking!" I could hear the sucking sound. Thousands, maybe millions of gallons of water being sucked up into the ship.
"That's why it's so big," Marco said. He laughed. "Well, well, well. What do you know? We have just discovered that the Yeerks have a great big weakness."
"A weakness?" Rachel demanded. "You can look at that ship and talk about weakness?" But I understood what Marco meant. "It means they need something," I said.
"Exactly," Marco said. "Those big scoops on the sides? I think those are for air. That's why they fly so far through the atmosphere when they come down. They're scooping up oxygen.
And now they are sucking up water."