Free The Invasion by K. A. Applegate Page B

them. I could hear them amazingly well. Sounds that I would barely have noticed with my human hearing were as loud as a stereo set on nine.
    And I could smell. It’s funny about smell. As a human you don’t really get into it. But when I lay back and let my dog abilities come up, smell became as good as sight. Different, but just as good for some things.
    I heard Tom’s voice. And I smelled a subtle combination of things that meant he was not too far away.
    There was a man on guard, but all he did was look down at me, then look away. No one cares about a stray dog.
    I was beginning to realize why the Andalite had given us the power to morph. There are things you can do as an animal that you could never do as a human.
    The members all seemed to be waiting for someone to arrive. I heard Tom say, “He should be here soon. Wait, here he comes.”
    There was a stirring, muttering sound. I heard footsteps approach. I moved closer but stayed out of the light.
    “Everyone, quiet. We have problems,” the voice said.
    The voice! I knew that voice. It was the same voice that had been at that construction site. It was the voice that had said, “Just save the head. Bring that to me, and we can identify it.”
    I crept a little closer. I had to look hard to see him with my dog sight. But then, when he turned just the right way, I saw him. I recognized him. It was someone I knew. Someone I saw every day at school.
    None other than Assistant Principal Chapman.
    My assistant principal was a Controller.
    “Item one. We still have not found the brats who were at the construction site,” Chapman said. His voice was hard. “I want them found. Visser Three wants them found. Does anyone have any clues?”
    For a moment no one spoke. Then I heard a second familiar voice.
    “It could have been anyone,” Tom said. “But it
might
be the one who’s my brother, Jake. I know he goes through the construction site sometimes. That’s why I brought him here tonight. So we could either make him ours … or kill him.”

CHAPTER 15
     
    E ither make him ours … or kill him.”
    I felt like someone had punched me.
    I told myself that Tom was a Human-Controller. Some slimy, snotty slug from another planet was in his brain 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 theycould take Tom, 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 human 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