When we had all finished Prince Jake said, "Okay. Let's go."

We morphed to birds of prey to fly quickly to the hospital. With harrier eyes I saw that the human Hewlett Aldershot the Third was still in his hospital bed. But there was a major difference.

There were now four large humans seated around him.

In the room next door to the left, we saw four more. And in the room next door to the right, another four.

Human-Controllers, no doubt. And no doubt heavily armed. Twelve armed humans to protect Hewlett Aldershot the Third from us.

Kind of flattering, actually,"; Rachel said. Twelve guys? And maybe more we don't see."; The Yeerks must have some high-ranking people in this hospital,"; Cassie observed. To get two private rooms just for guards like that?"; So how do we get in?"; Marco wondered.

How about a diversion?"; Rachel suggested.

I go into elephant morph, Jake does his rhinoceros, and we rip that place apart!"; I said, As I understand, we each hope to bite the human, so that we can be reasonably sure of extracting sufficient blood. But Rachel, before you can go from elephant to mosquito you must pass through human. I, on the other hand, have no need of an intermediate stage. And nothing would draw the attention of a bunch of Controllers better than an Andalite."; It made perfect sense. Prince Jake agreed that it made sense. So while the others went up to the roof and morphed back to human in preparation for becoming mosquitoes, I landed in a dark, open window at the far end of the hospital.

I fluttered inside, waited, listening. I heard human breathing. My harrier eyes adjusted to the darkness and I could make out a young human female, looking very frail in her bed.

I demorphed as quickly as I could, shedding feathers and growing fur.

Suddenly the girl's eyes opened.

"Who are you?" she demanded. "Are you a fairy?"

ationo. I am an Andalite."; It was all I could think of to say. Besides, I felt reluctant to lie to a sick child.

"What's your name?"

My name is Aximili-Esgarrouth- Isthill."; "That's a funny name," she said. Then she closed her eyes and began to sleep once more.

I took a deep breath. I moved to the door as silently as I could. I opened it and stuck one stalk eye out into the hall. Two humans in white were at the far end of the hall.

I took another deep breath. Well, I thought, I am supposed to create a diversion.

I opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. The two humans did not see me till I had nearly reached them. Then their mouths opened very wide. And their faces began to change color: one turned white, the other red.

I don't know why.

"Holy ..."

"What the ..."

Obviously they were not Controllers or they would have been yelling "Andalite!" rather than "Holy" and "What the." These were innocent humans.

Hello,"; I said. Please, do not be alarmed."; "It's ... it's some weird, mutated deer!"

"It's some kind of trick. It's gotta be a trick. All right, Terry, you can come out now.

Hah-hah, big laugh."

I passed them by and kept walking toward the heavily guarded room of Hewlett Aldershot the Third.

A human went past pushing a cart loaded with food on trays. He never looked up. He just kept looking down as he went. Then I guess he noticed my hooves.

"Aaaahhhh!" he cried, and shoved the cart so hard it turned over.

Clang-clash-Wham!

Thus began the diversion. Suddenly doors opened. Heads stuck out and looked and screamed.

People came running down the hall. Most turned around when they saw me and ran the other way.

"Oh, no! Did you see it? Did you see it?"

"It's a monster!"

"I knew they were doing genetic experiments down in the labs! It's some kind of freak!"

It would almost have been insulting, if I were sensitive.

But then the door to the right of Aldershot's room opened. Out stepped a human. He gaped at me for a second, then yelled, "Andalite!"

He gaped one second too long. He yanked out a gun. I snapped my tail forward and he quickly dropped the gun.

"Andalite!" he screamed again, but with extra hatred this time.

Now the guards came boiling out of all three rooms. They jammed into the hallway, too many to move freely. Human guns were being drawn.

And I saw a couple of handheld Yeerk Dracon beam weapons, too.

In a split second they would all start shooting. The lead slugs from the human weapons would be most dangerous. Not just to me, but because they would rip through the walls and might hit innocent people.

"Shoot! Shoot him, you fools, or Visser Three will have us for lunch!" one of the humans roared.

FWAPP!

I whipped my tail, left to right, a millimeter from slicing open the front row. They backed up, stumbling back into their fellows.

FWAPP!

I whipped again, but now they were ready to start fighting. And I was seriously outnumbered and worried about innocent humans being hurt.

Obviously, I had not planned the diversion very well.

And that's when it occurred to me. The one way to keep from getting shot.

I surrender!"; I cried. I want to defect.";

"What?"

I wish to defect. I am interested in joining the Yeerks. I would like to become a Controller. Do you have any information on membership? Is there a fee?"; A dozen weapons were leveled at me. From behind me, at that end of the hall I heard other human voices.

"What is going on around this place?"

"Is that a horse?"

"Look at the eyes on its head!"

"Where's security?"

The leader of the Controllers made a snap decision. He hustled me out of the hallway and into the room where Hewlett Aldershot the Third was sleeping his comatose sleep.

The room was small. Too small for all the guards. There were only five of them now. Much better odds.

"You want to join us?" one of the Controllers asked dubiously.

Actually, no,"; I said regretfully.

FWAPP!

I struck and the nearest guard leaped back, plowing into his men. I had about half a second before they'd recover and shoot.

FWAPP! CRASH!

I shattered the window with my tail blade.

Here's a trick I learned from Visser Three!"; I yelled. I ran three steps, ducked my upper body, flattened my stalk eyes, tucked my legs, and flew through the shattered window.

Down I fell!

allyaaahhhh!"; Too far, way too far, but better than getting shot.

The window's open, Prince Jake!"; I cried. And the Controllers are--"; WHAM!

CRUNCH!

?--distracted."; I landed in a bush that cushioned some of my fall but also tripped me. I rolled and tried to scramble up, but then realized, as ridiculous as it seemed, that I was trapped inside the prickly, clawing branches of the bush.

Blam! Blam! BlamBlamBlam!

The guards were firing from the window. Bullets tore the branches and slammed into the damp soil all around me.

Human weapons operate on a principle of exploding gases that drive a solid metal pellet along a tube. The tube acts to spin the bullet, thus improving accuracy. It's no Yeerk Dracon beam, or Andalite Shredder, but it does a very good job of blowing large, messy holes in you.

I needed to get small. Small enough to get away!

I began to morph the mosquito.

We're in!"; I heard Prince Jake say. Ax, are you okay? We think we hear gunshots, but our hearing in these morphs is fuzzy."; ally are correct: You are hearing gunfire,"; I said tersely.