Invasion

controlling him. When he talked to me it wasn't even Tom, not really. It was a Yeerk. My brother… one of them. Chapman… one of them.

They were everywhere. Everywhere! How were we going to stop them? How could we even try? If they could take my own brother from me, if they could take Torn, then how was I going to be able to stop them? It was insane. Marco was right.

I think if I had been fully human right then, despair would have just overpowered me. But dogs don't know about despair. It was Homer's simple, happy, hopeful mind that saved me. For a while I just sort of let go and drifted into dog consciousness. I didn't want to think. I didn't want to be a human being. For a while I just wandered around the dunes and smelled things.

But I knew I had a job to do. After a while I let go of the simple happiness of the dog and forced myself back into painful reality.

I waited and listened some more to the meeting. But I was still so upset I didn't really track on a lot of what was being said. I just kept hearing it over and over in my head — 'Make him ours… or kill him.'

The one other thing that did stick in my mind was Tom discussing with some other guy — some other Controller — the schedule for going to the Yeerk pool. He'd just been and was feeling good, he said. He'd be heading back on Monday night.

That was the slug in his head talking. The Yeerk that controlled Tom needed to return to the Yeerk pool.

Then I heard another voice. Cassie!

I slunk quickly around the back of a dune to get closer. But I could hear clearly. Cassie's voice, and another voice it took me a minute to recognize.

It was the policeman. The same policeman.

'Hey, what are you doing back here?' the policeman demanded.

'I was just looking for shells,' Cassie said.

'This is just for full members,' the policeman said gruffly. 'Private business. You understand?'

'Yes, sir,' Cassie said in her most humble voice.

I got to where I could see them, although I have to tell you, dog sight is not exactly great. Everything is like an old TV with bad color and all blurry.

The policeman was staring hard at Cassie. Cassie was trying to be brave, but I could smell the fact that she was afraid.

'Okay, take off,' the policeman said at last. 'But I have my eye on you. Get back with the others.'

Cassie turned and headed away as fast as she could walk. I caught up with her. I guess seeing a dog come bounding out of nowhere startled her, because she jumped.

'Oh, it's you,' she said.

<Yeah. That was close. What were you doing there?>

She shrugged. 'Just wanted to make sure you were okay.'

<I was safer than you were,> I pointed out.

We got back to the spot where Rachel, Marco, and Tobias were waiting. I didn't even want to morph back into my human body. I knew that I could just let myself go again, and in a few minutes my dog brain would forget why my human brain was sad. If someone would just throw a stick out into the surf I could go after it. The water would make me happy. The chasing would make me happy.

Now I knew why Tobias was so reluctant to leave his hawk's body. Being an animal could be a nice way to escape from all your troubles.

I began to morph back into my own body. Cassie and Rachel turned and looked out toward the water.

When I was completely myself again, I said, 'Marco, you were right. Tom is a Controller,' Marco did not look pleased about being right.

I told them what Tom had said to Chapman about bringing me to the meeting to either use me or kill me.

'Wait a minute. Chapman is one of them, too?' Rachel asked. 'Our Chapman? Mr. Chapman the assistant principal?'

'I think he's some kind of a leader,' I said. 'It was him the other night at the construction site. He was the one who told the Hork-Bajir just to keep the head.'

'That is so Chapman,' Marco said.

'I suggest we get the heck out of here,' Tobias said.

'No, it's okay,' I said. 'Chapman told Tom there was not to be any killing at a Sharing meeting. They don't want any suspicious activities. He also said they couldn't just go around killing every kid who might have been at the construction site. They needed to be sure.'

'That's decent of them,' Rachel said dryly.

'Not really. Chapman just said that for a while longer they still have to avoid attracting too much attention. A bunch of kids start turning up dead and people will definitely notice. He said they should just wait — kids can't keep quiet for long about seeing aliens. When the kids talk, the Controllers will find them and get rid of them.'

'Except that we aren't going to talk about what we saw,' Rachel said.

'You got that right,' Marco agreed. 'We aren't saying anything. We are forgetting everything we saw. We are getting on with our normal lives.'

'And leave Tom the way he is?' I demanded. 'No way. Never. He's my brother. I'm going to save him.'

'Just how do you figure you'll do that?' Marco asked sarcastically. 'Let's see, it's you versus Chapman, the cops, a bunch of Hork-Bajir and Taxxons, and, worst of all, that creep, Visser Three. All you can do to fight them is turn into a dog and bite their ankles. It's like being stuck in the most impossible video game ever invented.'

I grinned. Or at least I showed my teeth. 'Yeah, it is, kind of. But I'm pretty good at video games.'

'And he won't be alone,' Rachel said. 'I'm in this, too.'

'And me,' Tobias said.

'Me, too,' Cassie agreed.

'Swell,' Marco said. 'So suddenly you're the Fantastic Four. This isn't a comic book. This is real.'

We heard the sound of people coming through the dunes. The meeting of the full members had broken up.

'Everyone, quiet,' I said. 'We'll let this ride… for now.'

I said that to calm Marco down. I had no intention of letting it ride.

I pulled Cassie aside. 'Listen, Cassie, I need an animal morph that will let me watch Chapman without him seeing me. What do you have at the farm?'

Cassie got quiet for a moment. 'Let me think. We have a lot of injured birds, of course. We have the wolf with the broken leg. We have the wildcat with one eye.'

I waited while she went down a list of all the animals in the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic.

Suddenly Cassie snapped her fingers. 'I wonder… How small an animal do you think we can morph?'

I shrugged. I had no idea.

'I may have something in mind,' she said. 'It's not really in the clinic as a patient. It just sort of lives there. It's small. It can crawl up walls. It's fast, if you need to get away. And I guess it can hear and see okay.'

Which is how I ended up in Cassie's barn later that night, crawling beneath cages full of sick buzzards and between a pair of jumpy deer, looking for lizards.

CHAPTER 16

I did it Monday morning in my locker at school. I turned into a lizard.

A green anole, to be exact. It's a member of the iguana family. Like you care.

I waited till the bell rang for first period, which was English class. When everyone else was out of the hallway, I just climbed into my locker. I tried to act cool about it, just in case anyone was watching.

The locker was about two inches shorter than me, so I had to crouch. And it was so tight I couldn't move. The only light was from the three small ventilation slits. I could hear my heart pounding in the cramped, dark space. I was afraid.