The Invasion

  “Oh, man. Oh, man,” Cassie said. With that, she took off down one hallway. Rachel and Tobias went after her.

  Marco was already twenty yards down the other hall, the one that led out to the large exhibits. I ran to catch up.

  The guard reached the corner. I saw him glance toward Tobias and the girls. Then he looked at me and Marco. I guess Marco and I looked more suspicious, because he chose us.

  “Stop! You kids better stop!”

  “Let’s grab the golf cart!” Marco said.

  “Steal a golf cart?”

  “If we don’t take it, that guard will.”

  “Good point.”

  We jumped in the cart. Marco slid behind the wheel. He turned the key to “on.” He looked at me. “Just like driving bumper cars, right?”

  “Only you try not to hit anything.”

  He put his foot down on the pedal. The electric motor made a whirring sound, and we took off. Straight toward the wall.

  Bam!

  “Hey, try steering,” I yelled.

  We backed up and took off again. We picked up speed. Enough to pull away from the guard, but when I looked back, he was still jogging after us.

  “He’s going to have a heart attack,” I said.

  “Which way?”

  “What?”

  “Which way?”

  I turned around to face forward. We had reached a T-corner. “Right!” I yelled.

  Naturally, Marco turned left. I nearly fell out.

  Almost immediately, we reached another corner. This time Marco did choose right. And I did fall out of the cart.

  I hit the linoleum and rolled. Then I was up and racing to catch the cart.

  “What are you doing?” Marco demanded when he saw me. “Quit playing around.”

  I just gave him a dirty look and climbed back in.

  “I think we lost the guard,” Marco said.

  “I’m fine, thanks for asking,” I said. “Just a few bruises. Maybe a cracked skull. Nothing serious.”

  “Where do you think we are?”

  “I think we are in the longest tunnel I’ve ever seen,” I said. It was more and more like a tunnel now. The floor was still linoleum and the walls were still whitewashed, but the lights were getting more spread out, so you definitely had the feeling you were underground.

  “I wonder if they caught the others,” Marco said. “Now do you see why it’s crazy to think we can beat the Yeerks? I mean, come on: We can barely beat zoo security.”

  “We haven’t beat anyone yet,” I said grimly. “Look!”

  Way up ahead, there were two guys in brown uniforms.

  “Maybe they don’t know who we are,” Marco suggested. “They might think we’re regular employees.”

  “Maybe. But not if they get a good look at us.” I pointed. “There’s a turnoff. Take it.”

  We turned. At the same time, the guards started yelling. The side corridor grew narrow. Too narrow for the golf cart.

  “Ditch it!” I jumped out. Marco jumped after me. We could hear the guards’ footsteps as they ran down the main tunnel. These guys were in better shape than the old man. These guys could run.

  The corridor ended abruptly. There were two doors, one a little to the left, one a little farther to the right. They were labeled P-201 and P-203. No help at all.

  “Pick a door,” Marco said.

  I took a deep breath. “Door number one.” I opened P-201. A blast of fresh air hit me. Sunlight blinded me. I blinked, trying to get my eyes to adjust.

  The rhinoceros blinked, too. “Ahhhh!” I yelled.

  “Ahhhh!” Marco yelled.

  We jumped back and slammed the door.

  “Wrong door!” Marco said.

  “Definitely wrong!” I agreed.

  “Hey, you kids! Stop right there!”

  The guards were just at the end of the corridor.

  “Gotta try door number two!” I said.

  “Do it!”

  We opened the door and ran through.

  There were trees all around us. Trees and grass. We were in the shade. Sunlight filtered down through the leaves. Just ahead the bushes gave way to open grass.

  “Where are we?” Marco asked.

  “Like I know?”

  We worked our way through some bushes, keeping a careful eye out in all directions. We didn’t see any animals. Just some birds up in the trees.

  “Hey, there are people!” Marco said. He dropped down behind a bush and pointed.

  There were people lined up behind a railing. They were high up. Or else we were low down. I parted the bushes to get a better look. The people were leaning against a railing at the top of a high concrete wall. They couldn’t see us because of the bushes. But they were definitely all staring at something.

  “We’re definitely in one of the habitats,” I said. “Those are people looking at … at whatever is in here with us. I’m just hoping it isn’t that rhino. That thing was way too big.”

  “How do we get out of here?”

  “I don’t know, let’s just get away from the door. Those guards will be coming after us any second.” But, you know, in the back of my mind I was thinking, Hmm, why haven’t those guards come after us yet?

  Marco and I crawled through the bushes and around the bases of the big trees. We reached a corner of the wall, hidden from all the people above.

  “That is an awfully high wall,” Marco observed. “That’s got to be thirty feet high. This is not good. That wall is high for a reason. There’s something in here that they don’t want to escape.”

  I scanned the wall. There was a steel ladder set into the concrete about fifty yards away. “I guess that’s the only way out.”

  “Let me ask you something,” Marco said. “Why haven’t the guards come after us? I mean, if this was, like, the deer and antelope exhibit, they’d come right in, wouldn’t they?”

  “We have to think, not panic,” I said. “I am trying not to think about why the guards didn’t come in here.” I moved back into the shadows of the bushes. “Besides, maybe there’s nothing in here at all.”

  I squatted down on my haunches.

  My butt touched something warm.

  I had a terrible feeling right at that moment. I looked up and saw Marco. Normally, Marco has kind of a dark, tanned face. But his face was white. And his eyes were very large.

  “Marco,” I said, very slowly and very quietly, “is there something behind me?”

  He nodded.

  “What is it, Marco?”

  “Um … Jake? It’s a tiger.”

  CHAPTER 20

  A male Siberian tiger, to be exact. Ten feet long. Seven hundred pounds of deadly speed and unbelievable power.

  You know those old Tarzan movies you see on TV sometimes, where Tarzan is wrestling a tiger? And actually winning? Let me tell you something. You want to know what your chances are of wrestling a tiger and coming out alive? They’re about the same as your chances of jumping off the Empire State Building and surviving.

  “I have an idea,” Marco said shakily. “Let’s leave.”

  “Don’t run,” I said. “It might just get his attention.”

  “I think he’s noticed us,” Marco said. “I think he knows we’re here, Jake. I think he’s looking right at us! Look at his teeth!”

  “Don’t freak! I have an idea. The morphing. If I acquire him, it’ll put him in a trance.”

  “Acquire? Acquire what? You can’t acquire anything about him. He’s the acquirer, and you’re the acquiree. He’s going to acquire your butt for dinner! He’s going to acquire you and spit out the bones.”

  I swallowed hard. I tried to touch the tiger, but my hand was shaking too much. I took a couple of deep breaths. I heard somewhere that’s supposed to calm you down. I guess it works. Unless you’re practically sitting on a tiger. Then absolutely nothing calms you down.

  “Nice tiger,” I whispered.

  He just watched me. He had this lazy “who cares?” look. This look
of total, complete, absolute confidence. Almost like he thought I was funny. Like maybe he enjoyed watching me shiver and shake.

  “Please don’t kill me,” I said.

  “Don’t kill me, either,” Marco added.

  I reached my shaking hand toward the tiger. His eyes followed my hand. I touched his flank. It rose and fell with his breathing.

  “Concentrate,” Marco whispered.

  I was already concentrating real hard on the tiger. I was concentrating on his teeth. I was concentrating on the rippling muscles under his pale orange and black pelt. I was totally concentrating on the fact that he could swing that big, massive paw of his and send my head flying across the grass like a soccer ball.

  Then the tiger’s breathing slowed. His eyes fluttered a little and slowly closed.

  “How long does the trance last?” Marco whispered.

  “Well, about ten seconds after you break contact. That’s what it was with Homer.”

  “Ten seconds? Ten seconds?”

  “Yeah. So be ready to run.”

  “I’ve been ready to run!”

  I started to pull away, but then I hesitated. It was a strange moment, because right then I realized what I was doing. It hit me. This tiger was becoming part of me. All that power and confidence was becoming part of me.

  “He’s beautiful, isn’t he?” I said.

  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 all 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. “Um … 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 bre
aths. 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. It 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.

  Everyone was looking at me, waiting for me to decide.

  “Yeah, we’re doing it,” I said.

  The school was locked up for the night. But Marco had taken care of that little problem. He knew of a window in the science lab that didn’t lock.

  We crawled into the science lab through the window. It was dark, except for the dying light of the sun that glinted off the glass beakers and test tubes. Tobias drifted through and landed neatly on the teacher’s desk.

  “Let me take a look,” I said. I opened the door as slowly as I could and peeked out through the crack. I could see down the nearly dark hallway to the janitor’s closet. Instantly I pulled back in.