He'll shake your hand. Then Cindy Sue will shake your hand, unless she's in a snit. Then you sit. Don't worry about which camera to look at, just look at Barry and Cindy Sue. Barry and Cindy Sue will ask you about all this alligator stuff -"
"Crocodile," I corrected.
"You tell them your little story. If Barry does this with his hand, that means speed up. If he does this with his hand, it means wrap it up because we're done. Got it? Good. Nothing to worry about."
She stopped suddenly and stared at Cassie. "Who are you?"
"I'm Falling Girl's partner, Dropping Chick," Cassie said.
Clipboard woman stared at her.
"She's my friend," I said. "You know, for moral support."
"Yeah, whatever. Come on. Our greenroom
can't be used. We had some band on the show last week and they trashed the place." She was still yanking me along by my arm, which would have made me mad. Except that I couldn't get mad. Or sad. Or anything, without setting off an allergic reaction.
Clipboard woman planted Cassie and me on two tall stools. We were in a dark corner, up against a cinder block wall covered in wires and cables and switches.
Bart Jacobs, the animal guy, was sitting on an identical stool. He was smoking a cigarette and talking to one of his animal handlers.
Lined up against the cinder block wall were half a dozen cages filled with Bart Jacobs's animals. A lion cub. A baby elephant. A python. A golden eagle.
From our gloomy corner we could see out onto the familiar Barry and Cindy Sue set. It was made up to look like a living room, with comfy-looking chairs clustered in the center. Facing the chairs were the cameras - one on each side and one right in the middle.
Beyond the brilliant light of the set was a studio audience. Not that I could see them. They were in darkness, and the lights on the set blinded me for anything else.
Then, in a rush, Barry himself came blowing
past. "Hello, everyone, we're looking for a great show today. Hope you're all really up. Up! Up! Energy! Keep that energy high! See you out there!"
Ten seconds later, Cindy Sue swept by in a wave of perfume, followed by a man who was trying to comb Cindy Sue's hair as she walked.
She flashed a fake smile at me and a disdainful look at Bart Jacobs.
The animal guy leaned close to me, took his cigarette out of his mouth and said, "She's never forgiven me for one of my little beasties wetting on her dress."
From out beyond the lights I heard the welcoming roar of the audience. I saw my dad standing on the far side of the set, talking to clipboard woman. He saw me and flashed a smile and a wink.
I was not nervous. I was not scared. No emotion. No emotion. It was the only way. I could do it. I could.
Barry and Cindy Sue were chatting out on stage. Then Jeremy Jason came blowing past like a small thunderstorm. He looked mad. I heard him mutter to a frightened-looking man, "What do you mean the greenroom is closed? You can't keep me standing around! I'm Jeremy Jason McCole!"
Of course, he was probably not really Jeremy Jason McCole anymore.
He was probably a Controller, I reminded myself. Right now, the real Jeremy Jason was caged in a corner of his own mind. He was watching helplessly as the Yeerk controlled his every movement, his every action, his every word.
Was it beginning to occur to the vain, ambitious jerk that he had been tricked? Had he realized yet that there is no such thing as partnership with a Yeerk?
The Yeerk is master. The human host is a slave. Period. And when the infestation is voluntary, the human slave is even weaker. Even less able to resist.
It made me sick to think of it. Jeremy Jason had asked for it. He'd let himself be tricked. Still, it made me sick . . .
Wait a minute. I did feel sick.
, no, I pleaded silently. Not now.
I looked at Cassie. "Cassie? I don't think I'm going to make it."
"What do you mean? Look, if you're scared or whatever, you just have to control the emotion."
I shook my head. "It's not that. I feel . . . weird. I feel distorted. I feel like something is happening inside me."
"The allergic morphing?"
"I don't think so. I have that under control for now. I think maybe I'm having that thing." "What thing?" "You know."
"The hereth illint? Now? Here? Now?" I nodded. "Yeah. Here. Now."
?Oh, no," Cassie wailed.
But she wailed quietly, because Bart Jacobs was still sitting next to us. He was talking to his assistants and getting ready to go out on stage.
Barry had finally finished telling a funny story. The audience roared with laughter. Cindy Sue was starting to introduce the animal guy. He stood up and straightened his clothes. An assistant came rushing up with a leash for Bart to take. On the end of it was the llama.
"Hi again," Marco said. "Hey. We're in show b\z\ I always knew I'd make it. Maybe I didn't exactly expect to make it as a llama . . ."
". . . here he is, Bart Jacobs!"
Applause. Bart moved out, dragging Marco
along behind him. His assistants were already lining up the other animals. Jeremy Jason was in a dark corner having an angry conversation with someone.
Meanwhile, I was falling apart.
Ax hadn't mentioned that hereth illint is extremely unpleasant. It started with a wave of such intense nausea I almost launched my lunch right then and there. But behind the sick stomach came something much worse. Total disorientation. My body was rejecting the crocodile DNA.
But the croc inside me didn't go peacefully. Before it could leave, it surfaced inside me. I could feel the cold, calculating crocodile mind bubbling up within my own.
I was losing control of my own body!
At exactly the same time, in the same body, two completely separate brains were looking out at the world through my eyes. The croc was nervous. He wasn't used to this. He didn't know where he was.