I expected Marco to say something sarcastic. But he said, "Yes. He's magnificent." Then he added, "But let's get out of here before he shows us why he's king of the jungle."
"That's lions," I said. "They're supposed to be king of the jungle. But let's not tell him that. You ready?"
He nodded.
"Now!" I yelled.
I jumped up and we tore for the ladder. In my head I was counting off the seconds: one-one thousand, two-one thousand, three-one thousand…
Something moved. Fast! An orange and black blur!
Right then I realized it. Duh. There was more than one tiger in the habitat.
I heard screams coming from the spectators above. I guess they could see us now that we were out of the bushes.
Marco leaped and grabbed the rungs of the ladder. He scrambled up. I was about one-tenth of a second behind him. The tiger leaped. His claws scraped the concrete just inches below me. And then he let out a roar that made the rungs of the ladder vibrate in my hands.
Ggggggrrrrraaaawwwrrrr!
What a noise! It echoed and reverberated and made my insides turn to liquid.
Marco practically flew up the ladder and over the side of the wall. I flew right after him.
It's amazing how fast you can climb a ladder when there's a tiger roaring for your blood.
"There they are!" someone yelled, "Get them. Stop!"
Guards! At least three of them.
"Should we morph?" Marco yelled to me.
"No! Just head for the crowds! There! Over by the dolphin tank."
It was a close call, but we made it to a big crowd just a dozen feet ahead of the guards.
From that point, all we had to do was hunch down and squirm between all the people till the guards lost sight of us. We worked our way to the front gate, always crouching so our heads wouldn't show above the crowds.
"What did you do, morph into a midget?" It was Rachel. She was right in front of me, looking amused. Tobias and Cassie were there, too.
"The guards were after us," I said. I had almost stopped shaking from my close encounter with the big cats. Almost.
"Oh, quit playing around, Jake," Rachel said. "Let's get out of here. I have to be home for dinner."
It turned out the other three had not been chased at all. They'd lost the guards easily, and had just gone on acquiring morphs while Marco and I were risking our lives in the tiger habitat.
The most annoying thing was that none of them even believed our story. Marco and I were a little resentful over that.
We climbed on board the bus and practically collapsed into the seats.
"We could have been killed," Marco said, pouting. "Really. I'm telling you. It was down to a few inches."
"Yeah, whatever," Rachel said. "Don't obsess over it. After all, we still have tonight to deal with. Whatever danger you think you had today, it will probably be nothing, next to what's going to happen tonight."
"Tonight." Cassie shook her head. "And I haven't even thought about studying for that math test tomorrow."
Rachel laughed. "We may not have to worry about tomorrow."
"Thank you, Little Miss Cheerful," Marco muttered under his breath.
CHAPTER 21
"Where have you been all afternoon and evening?" my mom asked me as we sat down for dinner. My family is very old-fashioned about dinner. We ah have to sit at the table. No TV. My mom's a writer, so she hates TV unless it's one of her favorite programs.
"Where have I been?" I repeated the question. "I'm… hanging out. You know. Hanging with Marco."
"I don't know why you bother to ask," my dad said. "His answer is always the same — hanging out."
"So what did you do at work today, Dad?" I asked him. "Hung out," he said. He gave me a wink and we all laughed.
I glanced over at Tom. He was eating chicken cacciatore like the rest of us and laughing. He seemed so normal.
"You doing anything tonight, Tom?" I asked him. "Why?"
I tried to look casual. "You know, I was thinking maybe we could shoot some hoops," I said. "Maybe you could teach me some new moves and I could take another shot at making the team."
"Sorry, man," he said. "I have things to do tonight."
"Yeah, like what?" I asked.
"Hanging out, no doubt," my mom said. "Eat the broccoli, Jake, it's good for you. It's full of trace minerals and vitamins you can't get anywhere else."
"Okay," I said to my mom, "You know how much I love trace minerals." I popped the smallest piece of broccoli I could find and tried to gag it down. I guess it wasn't any worse than eating a live spider.
"So, Tom, what was it you said you were doing?" I asked again.
He gave me a dirty look. "Do I have to check in with you now? I have things to do. Is that okay, little brother?"
"A girl," my dad commented. "I know these things. I'm a doctor."
No, Dad, not a girl, I wanted to say — a Yeerk pool. What's a Yeerk pool, Mom? Well, it's kind of a long story.
I decided to try one more time. I guess a part of me still refused to believe what Tom was. "Maybe you're just afraid to shoot hoops with me. Maybe I'd kick your butt."
"Yeah, that's it. Happy now?" Tom sneered.
His gaze met mine. Was there some sign in those eyes? Some evidence of the selfish, evil creature that was controlling him? No. I wish there had been.
But there is no way to know who is a Controller and who isn't. No way. It's what makes them so hard to stop. They can be anyone. Anywhere.
Even a person you think you know. A person you admire. Look up to. Love. I broke my gaze away from Tom's and looked down at my food.
A few minutes later, Tom got up to go. I knew where he was going. After he left, I went to the upstairs phone, where my parents couldn't overhear me. I called Marco.
"He's on his way," I said.
I called Tobias and Rachel. I tried to call Cassie, but I got her mother instead.
"She's not in," her mom said. She sounded worried. "She wasn't home for dinner. She went out to feed some of the animals and didn't come back."
My stomach clenched.
"She's probably just out riding one of the horses," I said, trying to reassure myself as much as Cassie's mom. "You know Cassie."
"All the horses are in their stalls," she said.
I took a couple of deep breaths. Something was wrong. What had happened to Cassie?
"I'll look around for her," I said. "Don't worry. I'll bet she just saw some injured animal or something and went off to rescue it. You know Cassie," I said again.
"Yes, I'm sure she's fine."
Right. She was about as sure as I was. But what could I do? The plan was set to attack the Yeerk pool and rescue Tom. Maybe Cassie was already at the school, waiting.
Maybe.
I had a very bad feeling as I rode my bike to the school. I hid the bike across the street, the way we had planned. Then I hooked up with Marco and Rachel.
"Cassie's missing," I said. "And where's Tobias?"
Rachel pointed up at the sky. The sun was setting fast, but I could see Tobias circling high overhead.
"What is the matter with him?" I exploded. "He's got a two-hour time limit and we don't know how long this is going to take!"
"Maybe we should bail until we find out what happened with Cassie," Rachel said. "Could be she's just scared," Marco said. "I am."
"Maybe," I agreed, although I doubted it. But they say you never know who's going to be brave or cowardly in a battle.
I just hoped I wasn't a coward. The truth was, my mouth was already dry and my heart was already pounding. And we hadn't even done anything yet.
Tobias swooped down and perched on Rachel's shoulder, ft surprised me a little. Why would Tobias perch on Rachel's shoulder? And she didn't seem at all annoyed. She rubbed her head against him a little.
<Are we doing this, or not?> Tobias asked.
This was not starting off right at all. The bad feeling in my stomach was just getting worse. Cassie missing. Tobias already morphed.