"Here's Jake," Tom said. There was a scuffling sound as he handed the phone off. Then Jake's voice.
"Hey, Marco. What's up?"
I went off. "What's up?! What's up? Those scumbags are after my father, that's what's up! How do you live with that? How do you look at that piece of crap every day? He's all like, "Bring your dad to The Sharing, do a father-son bonding thing, and oh, by the way, would you mind if we stuck a - ?"
"Shut up," Jake hissed.
I shut up. But my hand was squeezing the receiver so hard I could have snapped it. Jake let me calm down for a minute. He made "uh-huh"
noises in the phone, like he was listening to me talking. He made a couple of laughing sounds. I guess Tom wasn't far away from the phone.
I knew Jake was right. We don't talk secrets over the phone. There's no way of knowing who might be listening in.
"Okay, I'm cool," I said. I wasn't cool, but I was under control again.
"That sounds good to me," Jake said, still pretending to have a conversation.
"We have to get together," I said. "It's a nice day out."
That was the signal that we should meet in the woods.
"Okay. Later," Jake said casually.
He hung up.
I took a couple of deep breaths. Then I took a couple more.
The Yeerks had taken my mother. They weren't getting my father. Before that happened I'd tell him everything. Before I'd let that happen I'd take Tom down, no matter what Jake said.
I'd take Tom, I'd take Chapman, I'd take every Controller I knew of before I'd let them have my father. I had power. Deadly animals lived inside me. Their DNA swam with my own.
I could feel the rage flowing through me, the blind, violent rage that became little films in my head -- little head-movies of revenge and destruction. I pictured the things I would do to Tom ... to Chapman . . . someday even to Visser Three. I would do terrible things to them. Terrible, violent things.
It was a sick feeling. It was sick, and I knew it, and yet I ran those images over and over in my head.
Rage is addictive, you know. I guess it's sorta like a drug. Anger and hatred get you high.
They get you high, but like any addiction, they hollow you out and tear you down and eat you alive.
I guess I knew all that. But all I could think of was that they were not getting my father.
So I ran the scenes of violence over and over in my head. I rode that rush of fury till at last it burned itself out and left me feeling empty and beaten.
-L hooked up with Jake and the two of us rode our bikes to Cassie's farm. He didn't say anything about my conversation with Tom. Jake knew how I felt. We've all felt it before.
From Cassie's farm we walked across the fields to the edge of the forest. There's a place we meet there, deep enough in the trees that no one is likely to see us.
Rachel and Cassie were already there. Cassie was on her knees in the pine needles, looking into a burrow hole. I have no idea what was in there, but she seemed fascinated. Rachel was sitting on a fallen log.
"Tobias is off finding Ax," Rachel said as we approached.
"I think there are three of them," Cassie said. I guess she was talking about whatever was in that burrow.
"So? What's the big panic?" Rachel asked.
Before Jake or I could answer, I heard something crashing through the brush.
He leaped into view, sailing over the log Rachel was sitting on.
Aximili-Esgarrouth-lsthill.
"Hey, Ax," I said. "Very dramatic entrance."
Of course, any appearance by Ax was going to be dramatic. Ax is an Andalite. The only Andalite to survive when their Dome ship was destroyed by the Yeerks in high orbit. He's an alien.
You know how on Star Trek the aliens are always just humans with a little nose putty and some bad outfits? But they basically look human and act human and speak English? Well, Ax isn't like that. You take one look at Ax and you know he isn't from around here.
Picture a sort of big, blue-and-tan deer.
Only instead of a deer neck and head, you have a semi-human chest with two weak arms, topped by a head that is definitely unusual. Ax has no mouth and four eyes. Two of his eyes are in the usual location, but his other two eyes are mounted on stalks on top of his head. The stalk eyes can aim totally independently. Ax can look right at you with his two main eyes, and still be looking behind him with one stalk and off to the right with his other stalk.
It's kind of unsettling, till you get used to it.
But not nearly as unsettling as his tail. The tail makes you think scorpion. It curves up and over, so that the razor-sharp blade-tip is usually poised somewhere above his sloping shoulders.
That tail is fast and dangerous. Very fast, very dangerous. Basically, Ax could slice-and-dice a human into bite-sized chunks in about two seconds.
Fortunately, Ax is on our side.
"Hello, Prince Jake.
Hello Marco, Rachel.
Cassie? Did you lose something?"
Cassie stood up. Then, as an afterthought, she brushed off her knees. "Baby opossums,"
she said, by way of explanation. "Too big for the pouch, not ready to leave the den."
"Don't tell Tobias," I said. "He'll eat "em."
"I already know about them." Tobias said.
I looked up in surprise. He was in the tree above me. I hadn't heard him arrive.
Cassie shrugged. "Tobias is a hawk. He has a right to be a hawk." Then she looked up at Tobias and smiled. "Of course, they are awfully cute."
"0h, man." Tobias groaned. "0kay, okay, this litter is off-limits. Happy now?"
"You're a sweetheart, Tobias," Cassie said.
"We should move while we talk." Tobias suggested. "There are some kids playing soldier just about three hundred yards west. Let's stay well out of range."
We all started walking east, and Tobias went up again to scout ahead for any danger.
"Okay, Marco," Jake said after a few minutes. "This is your party. What's up?"
I told them all what Tobias and I had seen. Tobias came back and added some details.
Then I looked to Ax.
"So, Ax, you're the official alien. What does this sound like to you?"
Ax turned his head toward me, making eye contact with his main eyes. "Marco? Something has happened to your hair. I believe it has become shorter. Are you suffering from some sort of illness?"
"That does it!" I yelled, as the others all broke up giggling. "It'll grow out, all right? It'll grow out. Besides, it's easier to take care of. Man! I make one little change!"
"Have I said something wrong?" Ax wondered.
"No," Jake assured him. "Not at all.
Marco is just a little sensitive. Go ahead, Ax.
What do you think about this Erek person?"
"I do not know. It ... it doesn't sound like any species I know of."
"What? Dude, you're the expert on aliens," I pointed out.
"Marco, even we Andalites don't know every species in the galaxy."
I swear he sounded embarrassed. Although since he was using thought-speak, maybe "sounded" isn't the right word.
"You don't recognize the description?" Jake asked.
"No."
"The way you guys describe it, it sounds more like a robot or something," Rachel ventured.
"But how does it pass for human?"
"0h, that is technologically possible." Ax said, relieved to be able to add something to our speculation. "lt's probably a holographic projection. Like your primitive TV, only three- dimensional."