this sense that he was out of phase with everyone it slow because if you just dump a hundred years else. Like he was a half step ahead or behind. of technological advances overnight the stock Of course this just made him into the strong market goes nuts. It worked out okay, though. and silent type and he always was a big, goodThe Andalites can definitely teach us a lot about looking guy, so he got marriage proposals (and computer architecture. But it was Microsoft and other proposals) from girls as young as twelve Sony and Adobe and Nintendo that came up with and women old enough to be his grandmother. the killer apps. I mean, the new Palm Pilots will No interest.

  be actual pilots.

  He loved Cassie, of course, but I don't know The Andalites flatly refused to let us share what happened there. I know when I talk to

  their weapons technology. But NASA has had a Cassie I ask her if she's seen him and the answer definite revival: The first human Zero-space vehiis always no. The same when I talk to Jake, alcle will be built jointly by Boeing and Lockheed though he always says he's just about to call her, and be ready for launch in three years. H. sapijust about to. ens was going to the stars. Look out, universe, Write a book? No thanks.

  we're coming to build a Starbucks near you. Endorsements? No thanks.

  As for Jake, well, my boy Jake has always had Every college on the planet tried to recruit a serious side to him. I mean, I tried to talk to him. No thanks. West Point offered him a gig as him about things. But some guys shake off a war an instructor in the Tactical Application of Emergand move on, and other guys don't. ing Technologies and Xeno-Warfare. No thanks. If Jake carried Tom and Rachel and those sevhe'd been old enough he could have run for presenteen thousand Yeerks around his neck like the ident as the candidate of Democrats and RepubAncient Mariner and his albatross. licans both. Jake was the biggest hero the world Being Jake he didn't lose it. He didn't go off had ever seen because he was a hero for all huand become some kind of drug addict or have mans, not one nation. He had saved the lives and some big breakdown or whatever. He was still freedom of the entire human race. I mean, he Jake. But he was a different Jake. Smaller and could have snapped his fingers and had anything bigger at the same time, if that makes any sense. he wanted.

  He was closed off, inward. He would sound alThe problem was, he didn't want anything. most like the old Jake sometimes but you just got 71

  70

  Except for Tobias to come back! For Rachel and Tom to be alive. For the chance to unlive one fateful moment when he gave the order that

  doomed seventeen thousand defenseless Yeerks. I worried about him.

  Okay, I worried about him while sitting by my pool or driving my Maserati or escorting some bubbly Hollywood honey past the rope line at the CHAPTER 11

  most exclusive clubs. I worried about him.

  Cassie

  I hadn't seen Jake or Cassie in a couple of months when my lawyer called to say the date had been set.

  And now, the three of us would be together

  again. In The Hague, Netherlands.

  "Is Jake here yet?" I asked Marco. I figured We were to testify in the war crimes trial of I might as well find out right away. I wasn't eager the Yeerk prisoner, Visser One.

  to see Jake. I mean, yes, I was. But the Jake I was eager to see might not even exist anymore. The Jake I wanted to see was the one who had talked about us being together after the war was over.

  The war was over. We weren't together. Now, this reunion was just bound to be awkward if not painful.

  "I haven't seen him," Marco said.

  "When did you get here?"

  "Here?" Marco looked around, puzzled. We were in the modern lobby of one of The Hague's best hotels. "Oh, here at the hotel? I'm not stay73

  72

  ing at the hotel. My business manager set me up Maybe I'm in eagle morph and I happen to see in a rented villa. There's a fence, a gate, it's eashim." ier to keep the groupies away."

  "So how is he, really?"

  I laughed and he grinned in response. "You're

  "I'm not exactly a psychiatrist, Cassie." actually completely serious, aren't you?" I asked. I wasn't going to accept that. "Marco, you

  "Cassie, how long have you known me? Am I have a very subtle mind and you're a good obever completely serious?" server. And he's your best friend."

  I felt a wave of affection for Marco. We had The waitress brought us beverages and a plate never been the closest of the Animorphs — our of some kind of snack. She gave us the familiar connection went through Jake, it wasn't direct.

  "I know you!" smile and left only reluctantly. But here we were, in some way the only two real

  "She wants me," Marco said. Then, realizing survivors. We had even prospered. Each of us that I wasn't going to be diverted, he sighed and was far better off by most measures than we'd said, "Like I say, I'm no psychiatrist. But he's dehave been without the war. pressed. You know, like not just sad but some"Is Jake staying at this hotel?" I asked. thing deeper? Like clinically depressed. Like a Marco nodded. Then, with sudden fire, he

  party balloon with half the helium gone. Like a said, "I wish he would see you, Cassie. You're flashlight with low batteries. He hangs around what he needs. I mean, I try and talk to him but the house with his mom and dad. Sometimes

  you know Jake, he can go totally opaque when he he'll go for a drive — you know, at least he kept wants to. You ask him if he's okay, he says, 'Sure.'

  the free Jaguar. I mean, if he'd refused that I'd You ask him if he needs anything, it's 'No, I'm have had to kill him personally. And," Marco good.' But he never seems to do anything. Not added with a significant look, "he goes to see that I know of anyway."

  her."

  "How often do you see him?" I asked. I knew who Marco meant by "her."

  Marco started to answer, stopped, gave a

  "He doesn't put flowers on the memorial or guilty shrug. "Officially? As in, I see him and he whatever, there are always lots of those. He goes sees me?"

  when no one's around, late, after hours. The guys

  "Ah. You're spying on him?"

  at the gate let him in. He parks and just kind of

  "I'm still an Animorph. I still like to fly. sits there like he's hanging out with her. I don't 74

  75

  one to morph to dolphin or falcon or whatever think he talks to her. Sad as it is to say, I wish he might not be a good way to let them put the little did. Talking to a dead person is better than not stuff in perspective."

  talking at all. He sits there for an hour, some"Morph therapy? I think I feel another besttimes two, stares out at the ocean. Watches the selling book coming on. Oh, man, Oprah would sun go down. Then he leaves. Sometimes I think eat that up. And you know the Andalites are sayhe's waiting there hoping Tobias will show up." ing now they may make morphing technology

  Tears were welling in my eyes. The image was more widely available on Earth."

  too sad. I'd been to Rachel's memorial too. But I frowned. "Really? Why?"

  not like that. "Rachel would be so mad at him."

  "They want a Krispy Kreme franchise back on

  "Yeah," Marco agreed. "Get over it. Shake it the home world. You have a fair number of Anoff. That's what she'd say." dalites who possess a human morph now, all

  "You think that's what he should do? Shake it back home after their tour on Earth. Still looking off?"

  for a donut."

  "Don't you?"

  The idea was so absurd I had to laugh. "We're I wasn't sure what I thought. "Sometimes I'm going to trade donuts for morphing technology?" ashamed that I have moved on, you know? I guess Marco and I sat there in silent enjoyment for I wonder if there's something wrong with me a moment, sipping our Oranginas.

  when I enjoy the day, or enjoy my job or my

  "I think you're right," Marco said after a classes."

  while.

  "You still morph?" Marco asked.

  "About what?"

  The question surprised me. "Yeah. Of course.

  "Morph therapy. I think it could be useful I . . . I don't know, I guess I couldn't see why I when someone is in a funk, let's say." shouldn't. It helps with my job. It's just easier I looked at him to see whether he was kidgetting around way back in the woods if I'm flyding. He looked back. All of a sudden neither of ing, or in wolf morph."

  us was kidding.

  "I can't be sure, but I have this feeling Jake hasn't morphed since . . . since."

  "It gives you a different perspective," I said.

  "I mean, I've often wondered if allowing some77

  76

  ecutors said he was eligible for something like eight hundred years in prison. And since they had about a hundred witnesses drawn from former human-Controllers, Hork-Bajir, and we Animorphs, there wasn't much question about the outcome.

  Alloran would not be allowed to testify. It CHAPTER 12

  came too close to being self-incrimination, the courts said.

  J a k e

  It had taken a year to organize the trial. The biggest problem was how to have the accused be present and involved in the proceedings. There was no way the visser could be allowed to take a host body. I mean, how does a court order one of the very things it considers a crime?

  "...Did conspire to subjugate the people of Fortunately Ax's people were willing to help. Earth through subversion, terror, and violence. Very willing. Andalite technicians created a Yeerk Four. That the defendant did conspire to overbox. It was about the size of a hardcover book. It throw all legitimate forms of government through contained a miniaturized Kandrona source, a subversion, terror, and violence. Five. That the computer-interface, and a voice synthesizer. The defendant did commit numerous acts of atvisser could hear and "see" and speak. The box, tempted murder. Six. That the defendant compainted lavender for some obscure Andalite reason, mitted murder in the specifics contained in sat on a pedestal facing the curved judges' bench. appendix 2C. Seven. That the defendant comThere was a panel of five judges, American, mitted or caused to be committed numerous acts Dutch, Chinese, Kenyan, and Chilean.

  of torture in the specifics contained in appendix The visser had half a dozen appointed lawyers. 2D. Eight. That the defendant did . . ." They looked very professional, very slick, and like The reading of Visser One's indictment was

  they knew they had zero chance.

  going to take a while. The War-Crimes Tribunal There was a gallery down one side of the

  didn't have a death penalty, just prison. The pros79

  78

  anyone lately. Maybe I was getting stupid in my courtroom for media. They had crammed what

  old age.

  looked like a hundred cameras of every conceivPart of me wanted what we'd had in the old able type into a space smaller than a men's days, Cassie and me. But that wasn't possible. I room.

  knew that. I had come to accept that all of that, The whole world was watching. We were live

  all of what I'd had with Cassie, Tobias, Ax, even on every station everywhere.

  Marco, all of it was "in the war." And the things The building was ringed with security. Probathat were "in the war" didn't seem to translate bly half the people sitting in the audience were into real life. Like they were written in incompatsecurity or intelligence people. American, French, ible computer languages or something.

  British, Russian, Chinese, Indian, Israeli . . . it I still cared for Cassie, for all of them. I alwas like a security convention. And that wasn't ways would. My life was divided into three parts: even counting the overt security inside the room, before, during, and after the war. And that mida dozen heavily armed Dutch Special Forces dle section was so overwhelming, so big, so inguys. tense, it made the other two portions seem dim People were very determined that the visser and dark and dull.

  not escape.

  That's how I felt now, pretty much all the

  Marco leaned close and whispered, "If anytime. Dark. Dull. Slow and stupid. Distracted, one so much as farts there's going to be about but not by anything in particular. Just like there ten thousand rounds fired off before you can say, was something else I should be thinking about

  'It wasn't me!'"

  but I couldn't recall what it was.

  I smiled.

  I understood Tobias. I didn't think he ran

  Marco was enjoying this. But then, he enaway out of rage or even out of grief. I mean, joyed the attention. If he made it through his tesmaybe at first, yeah, but I wondered if maybe, timony without making a dozen bad jokes I'd be like me, he wasn't just looking for simplicity. amazed.

  Maybe.

  Cassie was sitting just beyond him. We had

  Why wasn't Marco like that? He thrived on it exchanged smiles and awkward hugs. I had

  all. The attention, the fame, the excitement. Maybe dreaded this for months. I didn't know what to he was just more resilient.

  say to her. I didn't seem to know what to say to 81

  80

  head lawyer was on her feet looking nervous and Ax was to my right. Not sitting, they had

  smug at the same time.

  removed chairs so he and Alloran and an offiThe president of the court, the Chilean judge, cial Andalite legal observer named Salawan

  leaned forward. "What is the nature of your obcould stand comfortably. jection?"

  " . . . mayhem. Sixteen. That the defendant

  "Your honor, this witness should himself be did perform medical experiments upon human

  under indictment as a war criminal. If the alsubjects without permission. Seventeen. That leged war crimes of the Yeerk military officer, the defendant did drive more than a million Visser One, are to be tried in this court, it must people from their homes. Eighteen. That the debe in the pursuit of impartial justice. Truly imparfendant did .. ." tial justice cannot be applied only against one I wondered what the visser thought of all this. side in a conflict. If my client is to be tried for his It was a very un-Yeerkish scene. The Yeerks reactions in the human-Yeerk war, then so must served trials only for the highest-ranking officers. the actions of this witness. With all due respect And they would certainly never try a member of a to this court, this witness is a mass murderer. A different species. They had quicker, more direct war criminal."

  ways of dealing with aliens.

  The objection was denied. My testimony was

  Suddenly the reading of the indictment was

  to proceed. But I found I couldn't speak. I felt over. The prosecution was ready to call its first like I was choking, like the air wouldn't come. witness.

  Billions of people were watching my reaction.

  "We call Jake Berenson."

  Billions of people saw me freeze. Billions of I stood up. My legs were stiff from sitting. people thought, This is the famous Jake the I walked to the front and sat down in a chair Yeerk-Killer? He doesn't look like much. placed in a little booth so that I faced the judges

  "Apparently the witness is having some diffiand the defendant. It seemed odd to see Alloran, culty," Visser One's lawyer said with only the the face I associated with Visser One, standing slightest smirk.

  behind the prosecution desk, free, while my en"The witness is disconcerted by this unjustiemy was represented by a blank lavender box. fied and vicious assault," the prosecutor said

  "The defense objects to this witness." heatedly.

  A murmur through the courtroom. Visser One's 83

  82

  w

  leader. Marco inventing the name: Animorphs. The Chinese judge asked if I needed a moLeader of the Animorphs. ment to compose myself.

  The tiger. My battle morph so many times. So

  "No," I said. "I'm ready." But I wasn't. I was many battles.

  fighting the urge to run from the room.

  The prosecutor prodded me with questions. I

  "State your name and occupation, for the answered them. But memories filled the courtrecord." room. I couldn't get them out of my head. And

  "Urn, Jake Berenson. My occupation? I guess each question triggered more.

  I'm unemployed."

  When they adjourned for the day I didn't no"Are you a student?" the prosecutor sugtice at first. I'd been on the stand for just an gested helpfully.

  hour, I had barely begun my testimony. And then

  "No. Not really."

  would come cross-examination.

  "All right. Please tell the court how you first What was the matter with me? I knew I was

  became aware of the presence on Earth of the screwed up. I knew I'd made a fool of myself. I'd Yeerk species."

  let everyone down.

  "All right," I said. But then memory crowded I left the courtroom straightaway and found in and pushed the court into the shadows. I remy way back to my hotel room. I sat on the bed membered being at the mall with Marco and Toand just held my head in my hands and stared. I bias. We ran into Rachel and Cassie. We decided don't know how long.

  to walk home together. We decided to take a I heard a noise. I looked up.

  shortcut through the construction site.

  A gorilla.

  A light in the sky.

  Marco, of course. Cassie was demorphing, risThe Andalite fighter. The wounded alien creaing from the carpet in one corner. Out of the corture, the Andalite, staggering, falling. ner of my eye I saw Ax.

  The attack of the Yeerks. Chapman.

  Marco said.

  Seeing Tobias morph to a cat.

  Then he swung his cinder block gorilla fist My first morph.

  into the side of my head.

  My first battle. The Yeerk pool.

  The realization that Tom was one of them.

  The decision, not my decision, that I was the 85

  84

  I kicked hard and started to rise. I ripped off my shirt, buttons twirling away in the water. I took my shoes off. I was going to freeze to death.

  Then, air!

  I sucked in deep, spit water, breathed again. A wave crashed over me, buried me, turned

  me upside down. Then, air again. But air wasn't enough. I was freezing. I couldn't see anything CHAPTER 13

  down in the valley between waves. No boat, no J a k e

  shore, no plane. How had I ended up here?

  Already couldn't feel my fingers. Thought

  slowing.

 

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