Jake saw what I was looking at and rolled his eyes. "At least he didn't eat the plate this time."

"Hello," Ax said to me. "I am Jake's cousin, Phillip. Jake's cousin. Scousin.

Scuzzin. I am from out of town."

I couldn't help but laugh. Ax had long ago created a human morph out of DNA he'd acquired from the four of us. He was a weird blending of each of us. He was male, but sort of pretty in a weird way.

He looked like a human. He basically was a human. But he still had a lot of problems adjusting to the human morph. For one thing, since Andalites have no mouth, he found his human mouth utterly fascinating. He couldn't help but play with the sounds of words.

And the boy was dangerous around food.

"Were the nachos good?" I asked him.

"They tasted of grease and salt. Plus, there was another flavor that reminds me of some delicious engine oil I tried once. Oil. Oil-luh."

"Engine oil?" Jake asked. "Ax ... I mean, Phillip . . . You know how I mentioned you can't eat cigarette butts or dryer lint? Add engine oil to the list."

Ax nodded. "Yes. There are many rules for eating."

33 Marco pushed out a chair for me to sit in. "Okay, if we're done with the little side trip into the bizarre-o zone, let's deal with business."

"Tobias came by this morning," Jake said, keeping his voice low. "He watched the place from high up. He thinks the Controllers at the site have little transponders on their belts that let them pass through the force field."

"So we just have to grab a transponder," Rachel said.

"No," Ax said. "The transponder would be keyed to the biochemical signature of the wearer.

The Yeerks are not as -"

"Don't say that word," Jake hissed.

I saw Marco's eyes dart quickly, looking to see if anyone was close enough to have overheard.

"Sorry. Ree. Saw-ree," Ax said. "Rachel's plan would not work."

Jake sighed. "Tobias also saw something else. Inside the force field. There are tiny holes in the wood foundation of the building. He thinks it's termites at work."

"Termites?" I asked.

Jake nodded. "Yep."

I swallowed. "Jake, termites are awfully close to being ants."

"They aren't as vicious," Jake said. "I looked up some information on the Internet. Besides, if we make sure we morph a termite from that very colony, we'd fit right in."

I was having trouble breathing. I noticed Marco's face turning gray. Even Ax looked grim.

"You're not serious, right?" I asked Jake. "I mean, termites? Termites?"

I probably sounded slightly hysterical. I know I felt slightly hysterical.

"I don't know how else to do it," Jake said. He was looking down at the table and biting his lip. "Cassie, you were right when you said the real question is how these guys got permission to start logging. That's their weakness. We have to know how they pulled this off. To know that we have to get inside that building."

"Through termite tunnels?" Marco asked. "Look, how do we even get a termite to acquire?

They're all inside that force field, right?"

I wanted that to be the truth. But when I looked at Jake, he just shook his head a little.

34 "Tobias says they were working on the building a little today. Putting in extra Dracon beams.

They had to cut away some of the logs."

Jake reached into the pocket of his jacket. He pulled out a small, glass vial. The top had tiny holes in it to let air through.

Inside the vial was a tiny, tan-and-white bug. It was about the size of an ant. It had an enlarged brown head.

"Same colony," Jake said. "From the same building."

I stared at the termite. It tried to climb up the side of the glass, but it slipped back down.

It was helpless. It was trapped in what must have seemed like a huge glass cell held by a creature so gigantic that the termite could never even begin to imagine it.

Jake took the top off the vial.

"We don't do this unless everyone agrees," he said. "But we can't let the ... them . . . start tearing through the forest."

Rachel held out her hand. Jake tapped the vial till the insect landed in her palm.

I saw it crawl across Rachel's lifeline. And I saw it become still, as Rachel acquired the termite DNA.

I imagined being that termite. Crawling across the gigantic hand. Thinking every crease in Rachel's palm was as deep as a ditch.

When Rachel was done, I held out my own hand. It was shaking. It was shaking and I couldn't stop it from shaking.

The brightly lit mall food court suddenly seemed dark.

Lord, that tiny insect scared me.

Deep down inside, it truly scared me.

35 Chapter Nine

We decided would go that night. That very night.

We were supposed to use the afternoon to deal with chores and family stuff and homework.

Try it sometime. Try doing homework when you think you may be going to your doom in a few hours. Try concentrating on math when you're thinking you have to turn into a termite and sneak into a heavily defended building.

Good luck.

I went out to the barn. My dad was out there, making his rounds. He didn't need my help, but he didn't say no, either.

"Did you finish your homework?"

"Mostly." I added another lie to the pile I'd already had to tell. "I was going to take a closer look at your skunk from last night. She was very agitated so I had to give her a mild sedative.

"

"It's a female?"

"Yep."

My father carried the cage into the little side room he uses to examine the patients. I eased the skunk from her cage and cradled her out to the examination table. She seemed very calm now, but it was an unnatural, drugged calm.

The night before, my dad had bandaged the wound and now he carefully removed the gauze.

The sight of the burn made me wince, even though I've seen hundreds of injured animals.

"Hmm. Hmm. Pah. Pah. Pah. Hmmm."

That's the sound my dad makes when he's examining something interesting. "Pah." I don't know why, he just does.

"Weird. Very unusual. I cannot for the life of me guess what caused this burn. It's too neat.

Too clean. The only good thing is, whatever caused it was so hot it partially cauterized the tissue."

"Muscle damage, or is it just superficial?" I asked.

My dad glanced at me and smiled. "It's mostly fur and skin that were burned. But I see some moderately severe damage in the shoulder here. Much deeper and the spine would have been burned. But she'll live. I wish I could say as much for her kits."

"Her what? She has babies?"

"Yeah. I'd say probably about six, seven weeks old."

36 "She has babies? Out there somewhere in the woods?"

My dad started applying a new bandage.

"Cassie, you know nature plays rough."

"But they're too young to survive on their own, aren't they?"

"I can't be sure," he said, not looking at me.

It occurred to me then that sometimes maybe he lied to me, too. For my own good. Or because of what he thought was my own good.

"They're sitting in some den wondering where their mother is," I said. "They'll starve to death. Or be eaten by predators."

"Hand me the scissors," my father said.

"Yeah. Okay. Urn, look. I meant to ask you, is it okay if I spend the night at Rachel's tonight?

"

"Sure, honey. You know, if your mom says it's okay. Hey. You never asked how my meeting went with the cat food people this morning. We got some additional funding!"