Invasion

'No, we decided not to decide yet,' I said.

'Well, I've decided,' Tobias said.

'Suddenly the wimp is a hero,' Marco sneered.

This time Tobias didn't blush. 'Maybe I just found something worth fighting for, Marco.'

'You don't even fight for yourself,' Marco said.

'That was before,' Tobias said softly. 'Before the Andalite. Before he died trying to save us. I can't let that go. I can't let him die for nothing. So whatever you guys decide, I'm going to fight.'

CHAPTER 13

'We find the Yeerk pool,' Tobias said. 'And when we do, we blow it up and kill every one of those evil slugs.'

I expected Marco to start yelling. But Marco is pretty smart. He could tell that Tobias had reached me with his talk about the Andalite. So he just smiled, a little sneakily.

'Remember that cop today, the one who is so interested in finding whoever was at the construction site? The cop who is probably a Controller?'

'What about him?' I said.

'Well, let's see. He invites you to join The Sharing. And now along comes Tom. And suddenly he is very interested in whatever happened at the construction site. And guess what? Tom also invites you to join The Sharing.'

Tobias nodded in agreement. 'Maybe this Sharing is an organization for Controllers.'

Marco smiled. He's my best friend and all, but sometimes Marco really makes me mad.

'We're pretty sure the cop is a Controller. And I don't care what you say, Jake, I think Tom is, too. So, here's the deal. You want to get into this fight against the Yeerks?' Marco asked me. 'Fine. Let's see how much you want to do it when it turns out it's your own brother you have to destroy.'

That stopped me cold.

'It's not exactly some video game, is it?' Marco said. 'This is reality. You don't know anything about reality, Jake. Nothing bad has ever really happened to you. You have this perfect family. Like I used to have.'

His voice cracked a little. He never talked about his mom's death.

I realized he was right. I didn't know about reality. Not the way reality had happened to Marco — and to Tobias.

'So maybe we just walk away from this,' Marco said. 'Let someone else fight this fight. Sorry about the Andalite, but I've got enough death in my family.'

'No,' I said, surprising myself. 'The Andalite gave us the morphing power for a reason. It wasn't just for the fun of being a dog or a horse or a bird. He hoped we would fight.'

'Then maybe Tom is the enemy,' Marco said. 'Maybe it's your own brother you'll end up destroying.'

'Yes,' I said. My throat felt all tight. 'Maybe that's what will happen. Maybe not. But the first step is to find out more. And I think maybe the way to do that is to check out this meeting of The Sharing. Tonight. I'll call the others. Anyone wants to come, cool. You want to stay out of it, Marco, that's cool, too.'

He hesitated. He sent Tobias an angry look. But he said, 'Okay, it's just a meeting, right? We go and see. I'm in for that,'

I called the others. Rachel agreed quickly. Cassie had to think about it for a little while, but she agreed, too.

I told Tom we were interested in attending the meeting. Me and Marco and Rachel and Cassie. We'd already decided Tobias would be there, too. Only in a different way.

'Tonight's a great meeting to come to,' Tom said enthusiastically. 'We're having a bonfire on the beach. You know, hanging out, playing games, and stuff. We play night volleyball, which is so funny because half the time guys can't even see the ball. It's great. It's the best organization. You'll love it.'

Listening to him, it sure didn't sound like The Sharing was connected with the Yeerks. You couldn't really picture Visser Three or a bunch of Taxxons playing volleyball.

I was thinking maybe we were all just nuts. The Sharing was probably just like some new kind of coed Boy Scouts or something.

It wasn't that far to the beach, so we decided not to drive there with Tom. We walked. Tobias walked part way with us, then he stepped behind a dark dune as we got close to the shore. A few minutes later we saw a hawk take flight. There aren't many thermals at night, so he had to work to get altitude. But then I guess he found a decent enough updraft, because he soared up and away till he disappeared.

'I have got to try that,' Cassie said. 'It looks wonderful.'

'Yeah,' I agreed. Ahead, the bonfire burned bright on the dark beach. People were all around it, playing, talking, eating. Kids from school. Adults. People I didn't know. Others I did. Were they all Controllers? I wondered. How could I ever know? And was my own brother one of them?

After about an hour of hanging out there on the beach, I was sure I was nuts. There was no way these guys were aliens. We played some volleyball, me and Tom together on one team. We ate the barbecue ribs they had. I mean, it was just like this normal, good time.

The sand was still warm. The night air was chilly, but near the fire it was nice.

'Now you see why I enjoy this?' Tom asked me.

'It's cool,' I said. I looked around at all the people having fun. 'I didn't realize it was so much fun,'

'Well, that's not all it is,' Tom said. 'I mean, it's more than just fun. The Sharing can do all kinds of things for you. Once you're a full member.'

'How do you get to be a full member?' I asked.

He smiled mysteriously. 'Oh, that will come later. First you become an associate member. Later the leaders will decide whether to ask you to become a full member. Once you become a full member… the whole world changes.'

At that moment, something weird happened. I was looking at Tom, and he was smiling at me. But then his face kind of twitched. His head started to pull to one side, like he was trying to shake his head only he couldn't quite do it. For just a split second there was a look in his eyes — scared or… or something. He was looking right at me, and it was like some different person, some scared person, was looking out of those same eyes.

Then he was back to normal. Or what looked like normal.

'I have to go for a while now,' he said. 'The full members have a separate meeting. You guys stay here and have fun. Have some more of that barbecue. It's great, isn't it?'

With that, he was gone into the night.

I felt like I had swallowed barbed wire.

Marco and Cassie came over. They had just finished playing Frisbee in the surf with some other kids. Marco was laughing.

'Okay,' he said, 'I admit it. I was wrong. These are just normal people having a good time. And Tom is not a Controller.'

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Marco was wrong.

I knew what I had seen in Tom's eyes — he was trying to warn me. Somehow he had managed to gain control of his face for just a second before the Yeerk in his head had crushed him.

Tom — the real Tom, not the Yeerk slug in his brain — had tried to warn me.

CHAPTER 14

'They're all going off to a separate meeting,' I said. 'All the full members. I'd sure like to know what goes on in that meeting.' I struggled to sound normal, but my insides were churning.

'I saw people heading that way.' Rachel pointed. 'Let's see if we can get close,' I said.