Invasion

CHAPTER 19

We left straight from the mall, hopping a bus out to The Gardens, which is clear across the city. On the way, I tried to catch up on my homework. I had missed a lot of classes that day, so I borrowed class notes from my friends. Rachel kept perfect notes. Tobias had terrible notes with all kinds of little drawings in the margins. It took a while before I could figure out what they were. They were buildings and people and cars, the way they looked from high up in the sky.

'I don't really need to go in,' Tobias said as we pooled our limited cash to buy tickets. 'I'm happy with just my hawk morph. I don't want to be anything else.'

'I think that's a mistake,' Rachel said. 'Our one real weapon is the power to morph. We should acquire as many useful morphs as we can.'

'What kind of animal morphs are going to be able to deal with Visser Three when he turns into that big monster that ate the Andalite?' I asked. There was nothing in this zoo or any other that was going to kick that big monster's butt.

Marco winked. 'Fleas? No one can kill fleas. We'll itch him to death.'

I had to smile. 'So now you're suddenly Mr. Hopeful?'

'No, I'm just so scared I'm getting weird,' he said. 'I haven't done this morphing stuff. You guys all have. I'm not even a full-fledged Animorph yet I'm still normal.'

'I still feel normal,' Cassie said. She looked troubled.

'Cassie, you can turn into a horse,' Marco said. 'Very few normal kids can do that. It's different for Jake, turning into a lizard. He's always been a reptile.'

I took a good-natured swing at Marco, but he dodged it. It was cool having Marco with us — even if he was giddy.

It took about a half an hour to reach the main gate of The Gardens. I climbed down off the bus feeling nervous — not at all like I usually felt going there. I mean, The Gardens is just about my favorite place to go, normally. But normally I'm not going there to get personal with dangerous animals.

The main part of The Gardens is rides. They have all the usual stuff, like roller coasters, which are my personal favorite, and Ferris wheels and water slides.

But they also have an animal part, which is like a zoo, only cooler. They do dolphin shows, and there's this whole section where you can get close to some of the safer animals. And this monkey habitat they have is like a whole monkey city, practically. Anyway, if I were an animal, and I had to be in a zoo, I'd want to be there.

Cassie led us to the main building, which holds all kinds of exhibits. It has everything but the really big animals that need lots of space. Those animals are farther out, mostly, in big grassy habitats that look like parks. Parks with walls and moats and fences around them.

The main building is supposed to be like a rain forest, I guess. It's where they keep animals that need to be warm all the time. There's a pathway that winds around with tall tropical trees overhead, with bushes here and there between the exhibits.

Some of the exhibits are tiny, and some are really big, like the area they have for otters. It has a waterfall and a water slide for the otters to play in.

We were near the otter habitat when Cassie stopped. 'Okay, now everyone stay together, and try not to be too suspicious-looking,' she said. I'm taking you inside.'

'Inside where?' Marco asked.

'Well, the way it works is, there are walkways behind all these exhibits. That's how they feed the animals and give them meds or whatever. Meds are medicines. Sorry.' She pointed to an inconspicuous doorway. 'Anyway, we can go in through there.'

It was an odd change from outside to inside. One minute, we were in this fake rain forest. The next minute, we were in what looked like a hallway at school. Only the smell was worse — kind of damp and moldy and musty. More like the boys' locker room.

'Okay, look, if any staff people stop us, the story is we're here to see my mom,' Cassie said. 'Of course, it's so late in the afternoon she won't be here. I hope. Because if she finds out I've been dragging four of my friends around back here… Well, I can't be saving the world from alien invaders if I'm grounded. Hopefully, there won't be many staff people here at all.'

We shuffled along the hallway, feeling like we definitely did not belong. Which we didn't. On either side of the main hall, there were side paths that led to the different exhibits. Unfortunately, the doorways to the exhibits just had numbers on them. I knew we'd have to rely on Cassie's knowledge to find our way around. Behind some of those doors were animals you didn't want to just walk in on.

'How do you guys feel about gorillas?' Cassie said. She had stopped by one of the numbered doors. 'This is Big Jim's cage. He just came over from another zoo, so he's in his own private environment for now. He's very gentle.'

Slowly it dawned on me what Cassie was saying. 'Oh. You mean, does one of us want to acquire his DNA?'

'That is why we're here, Jake,' Rachel pointed out. She batted her eyes at Marco. 'How about you, Marco? Haven't you always wanted to be a big, hairy guy?'

Marco didn't look like he was crazy about the idea. But I knew how to handle Marco.

'Maybe Marco should try something easier for his first morph,' I said. 'You know, like a cuddly little koala or something.'

That did it.

'Koala?' Marco said, giving me a dirty look. 'Open that door, Cassie.' He hesitated. 'You said gentle, right?'

'Gorillas are extremely gentle,' Cassie said. Then, in a quieter voice, she added, 'Unless you make them mad.'

Cassie opened her backpack. She took out an apple and handed it to Marco. 'Here. You just open the door. The way it's set up, none of the visitors will be able to see you unless you walk clear out into the cage. Besides, there's an extra security gate, so he can't just jump out and you can't just walk in. So we just open the door, and hope Big Jim feels like eating.'

Behind the door was a second door of steel bars, with a little cutaway section for the handlers to shove the food through. The entire door opening was concealed behind a fake rock ledge so it wasn't visible to the people looking into the cage. But Big Jim noticed us right away. He climbed heavily down from his perch on a rock ledge and took a good look at us through the bars.

Big Jim was definitely big. He had fingers the size of my wrist. But Jim didn't seem to mind us being there. Mostly he seemed interested in Marco's apple. He looked Marco over, snorted like he wasn't impressed, and then held out his hand.

'Hand him the apple,' Cassie directed. 'He wants the apple.'

'I loved your work in King Kong Versus Godzilla,' Marco told the ape. He stuck his hand through the bars and held out the apple. With surprising daintiness, the gorilla lifted the apple and began inspecting it closely.

'Hold his hand,' I said.

'Yeah, right,' Marco laughed.

'When you acquire DNA, the animal goes-into a kind of trance,' I said. 'Go ahead, grab his hand and concentrate.'

Marco tentatively touched the gorilla's wrist. 'Nice monkey.' The gorilla ignored him. Big Jim was much more interested in the apple than in any of us.

'Concentrate,' Rachel urged.

Marco closed his eyes. The ape closed his eyes.

'This is so cool,' Tobias commented. 'You realize that gorilla could pull Marco apart like he was a paper doll. Look at those arms!'

Marco opened one eye. 'Tobias? Being terrified gets in the way of concentrating. So how about if you shut up about his arms?'