But it was worth the risk, since he knew more about Hork-Bajir than any of us did. Besides, I was providing security. From my place up in the rafters, I could see out through the hayloft to Cassie's house. And since I have excellent hearing as well as sight, I'd know if anyone approached the barn.
Cassie's barn is actually the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic. It is full of every kind of local wild animal. The wire cages are piled high all around the barn.
Both Cassie's parents are veterinarians. Her mom works at The Gardens, which is this big amusement park and zoo complex.
Her father runs the clinic with a lot of help from Cassie. They take in injured or sick wild animals. And right now, beneath me in the cages, there was a sampling of all the animals that lived in the area - opossums, voles, rabbits, skunks, foxes, raccoons, squirrels, and so on.
Many of them would have made a nice snack for me, but Cassie and I have an agreement about that - I don't eat her patients.
In addition to the land animals, there were bats and birds. Cassie actually rescues pigeons and crows and even jays. I have nothing against pigeons, but I don't like crows and ravens and
jays. They're like the gangsters of the bird world. Plus, they're smart. They can work together to mob peaceful raptors like me. Sometimes a bunch of them will actually try to steal a kill from me.
And believe me, you get six or eight big, fat jays or crows attacking you all at once, and it can be very annoying. But that's another story.
"How exactly do you tell a man Hork-Bajir from a woman Hork-Bajir?"
Marco asked. "Do the women put makeup on their wrist blades? Do they use nail polish on those big nasty toes of theirs?"
Rachel rolled her eyes. "We didn't have a chance to go into it, all right? We barely got the one Hork-Bajir to the cave."
"I mean, do female Hork-Bajir cry at 'chick' movies?" Marco went on, talking mostly to himself. "Do they get all goo-goo when they see a baby?"
"What about the female?" Jake asked Rachel and me.
Rachel shrugged and looked away.
"We don't know," I said. "We saw her get knocked into the ditch. That was it."
"Man, this whole thing stinks. It's a trap. It's a setup," Marco said.
"But I think the real question is, do female Hork-Bajir get all weird around bugs and snakes?"
"l don't think so. About the trap, I mean."
"Weird around bugs and snakes?" Cassie asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Is that how girls are, Marco?" With that, she reached into a low drawer beneath the bottom row of cages. A second later, a snake was lightly tossed through the air in Marco's direction.
"Ahhh! Ahhhh! Ahhhh! Get it off me!"
Cassie retrieved the harmless garden snake and put it back in its drawer while everyone laughed. Except Ax, who doesn't always get human humor.
Even Marco had to laugh. "Oh, that was so not fair. Funny, yes. Fair, no. Can we please act more mature here?"
"Sure, Marco," Rachel said. "Why don't you leave and we'll automatically be a more mature group?"
"Could we stick to business?" Jake asked. But he was still smiling from the snake thing, so no one took him too seriously.
"Why would a Yeerk . . . even a Yeerk inside a Hork-Bajir, want to run away?" Marco asked. "Sooner or later he has to get back to the Yeerk pool. It doesn't make any sense."
Rachel sighed. "Marco, how dumb are you? Don't you get it? These aren't Controllers. There is no Yeerk. Somehow these two Hork-Bajir are free."
Cassie looked thoughtful. "Isn't it kind of a
coincidence that you just happened to be in the area where the Hork-Bajir were escaping?"
"Yes," I said. "Definitely. Especially since I wasn't even heading there. I was actually trying to go somewhere else."
I saw the two stalk eyes on Ax's head swing up to focus on me with new interest. His main eyes stayed on Jake.
Cassie gave me a tilted-head puzzled look. "You mean -"
But Rachel interrupted. "Look, we need to decide what to do about this.
We've got this Hork-Bajir male in a cave. But the Yeerks will keep looking for him. And I have to tell you, this Hork-Bajir is not exactly Stephen Hawking."
"Who?" Cassie asked.
"He is a human physicist," Ax responded. "l've read some of his writings. He is very brilliant, but also very wrong about several things. For example, when he refers to the structure of atoms in -"
Jake threw up his hands in exasperation. "Is there any chance we could stick to business?"
"I remember when Jake used to be fun," Marco said in a loud whisper.
"Now he's such a grown-up."
"I was never fun," Jake said with a tolerant smile.
"No, you were never smart, but you were a/ways fun," Marco teased.
"The question is, what do we do about this Hork-Bajir?" Rachel asked.
"He's sitting out there in a cave in the woods moaning about his kalashi. What do we do with him?"
We all looked at Ax like he'd have the answer.
"l have never known of a free Hork-Bajir," Ax said. "They've been slaves of the Yeerks for a long time. But it is possible. Maybe somehow, while this Hork-Bajir's Yeerk was in the Yeerk pool, the Hork-Bajir managed to escape. It is possible. His wife as well. In which case these may be the only free Hork-Bajir in the entire galaxy. The only two free members of their species."
"Imagine . . ." Cassie whispered. "Imagine being the only two free humans in all the world ..."
Somehow no one felt like messing around anymore. Even Marco looked thoughtful. If the Yeerks won, humans would be no different than the Hork-Bajir - absolute slaves of the Yeerk empire.
"So what do we do with the only free Hork-Bajir in the galaxy?" Marco asked.
"What does the Hork-Bajir want to do?" Ax asked me and Rachel.
Rachel and I stared blankly at each other. "You know," I admitted, "we never asked."