But mostly my mind was on the job at hand. We had reached the threshold. We scampered across it and out into the alley.
The alley was a mix of gravel and cracked, torn-up blacktop. The blacktop was like running across hard oatmeal, all bumpy and uneven. The gravel was more difficult. The pieces of rock were as big as we were, and even with our six clever legs, there was a lot of stumbling and slipping.
"I'm going airborne," Tobias said. "You're out on the sidewalk. Turn left. There's better light out here so I'll be able to watch you from the top of the telephone pole."
"Okay, we'd better spread out. Don't forget, these are Controllers. Yeerks. They believe there is a group of Andalite warriors running around loose. In other words, they'll be on the lookout for morphs. So act like normal roaches."
25 "You mean I should crawl inside an open box of cereal?" Marco asked. "I had that happen once.
I almost ate the bug. Yuck."
We fanned out, staying several inches apart as we moved toward the building. I stopped when I reached the whitewashed cinder block of the exterior wall.
"Crack!" Cassie called. "l found a big crack here. I'm going in." The rest of us waited. I felt obvious, just sit ting there. Obvious and helpless. The big guy at the door could decide to step on me. I couldn't see him, but I knew he was there.
"This is good," Cassie said from deep in the wall. "I think we can follow it all the way inside." One by one, we scurried to her location. I felt better when I was inside the crack. Until I thought about what would happen if I tried to demorph in such a tight spot.
I didn't even want to start thinking about that.
"We're going in, Tobias," I called to him. "Get somewhere safe."
"I'm cool," he said. "Good luck."
We were traveling single file, sideways, along the crack. It was like exploring a cave. There was no light, but my antennae felt the way, picking up the scent of the others, reading the tiny air currents, sniffing for familiar aromas.
Then I saw a faint light that grew brighter as I advanced. Cassie was in the lead. "It worked. It goes all the way through. I'm inside."
I sidled up beside her. I could see through the crack opening now. I could see brilliant light. And I could feel vibration.
The vibration of sound. Of speech.
I concentrated. It was impossible to tell much about the voice. Who it was. It seemed too high to be someone old.
Was it Tom?
I listened to the words.
". . . the day is here at last. It is time to strike the decisive blow in the invasion of Earth."
" What is this, a Yeerk pep rally?" Marco wondered.
Cassie started giggling - well thought-speak giggling - , and pretty soon all of us, except Ax, were laughing silently. It was very nervous laughter.
26 "We need to get out of this crack," I said. "Spread out a little. We look too obvious just sit ting here, and we should try to see if we can identify some of these people. Move out. But wait! Not all at once!"
Too late. We were all scampering down the wall from the crack to the floor. To anyone watching it would have looked like "Invasion of the Roaches." Five roaches, moving all together, is an easy thing to notice.
But I had forgotten one thing. Humans hate roaches. A human will spot a roach very quickly.
But Yeerks couldn't care less. Even though these were all human-Controllers, they were with their fellow Yeerks now. They didn't have to keep up the "human" act.
No one stomped us. Although I waited for a big shoe to drop from the sky.
We separated a little, then headed along the edge of the wall, where bare concrete floor met painted cinder block walls.
"Hey, guys? Can you hear me? It's Tobias."
"Just barely, but I can still understand you," I called back. Thought-speak gets weaker over distances. Same as regular speech. Although walls and so on aren't a problem.
"There's a car pulling up outside here. A limo. And there are two other cars with it, full of very tough-looking dudes."
"What are they doing?"
"Getting out, now. Like six guys. They have guns! I can see them under their coats. Now there's a guy getting out of the back of the limo."
"Who is it? Or should I say, what is it?"
"He's a human. He staggered a little, walking toward the door. He looks like a normal guy, but all the others are acting very nervous. And ... I know this sounds dumb, but I get a bad feeling from this guy ."
Now I could hear the vibrations of many feet walking fast. "They're coming our way now, To bias. Thanks for the warning."
I tried to use my eyes, but they were hopeless at any kind of distance. All I could tell was that several men had arrived and were marching through the room.
"My brothers-in-arms," some loud, booming voice said, "I present to you, our leader. Visser Three."
There was a gasp from the group. There was a silent gasp from us, too.
Visser Three?
27 Visser Three had an Andalite body. He was the only Yeerk ever to obtain an Andalite body, with all its morphing power. But surely, Tobias would have mentioned seeing an Andalite getting out of a car.
"I see that some of you are surprised," a new voice said. "Surely you must know that I can morph a human, as well as any other body."
"Oh, man," Marco said. "Visser Three can morph a human?"
"Certainly," Ax said. "Just as I do. Humans are animals, after all. You have DNA." The voice we now knew as Visser Three spoke in a hard, curt tone. It was odd, hearing his words. We had only heard him thought-speak before. Now he had a voice. And, if we could only see it, a human body. But he was too far away for our weak and distorted roach vision.
"This mission has two parts. One. We will use the front hospital to take involuntary hosts. I expect to be able to make two hundred new Controllers per Earth month. We will concentrate on police, broadcasters, writers, teachers, people in finance, and especially anyone in a position of political power."
There was a murmur of excitement from the assembled crowd.
"Just what we were afraid of," I said.
"Unfortunately," Marco agreed. "Man, two hundred new Controllers a month?"
"You have done well recruiting human doctors and nurses, so that we now control the hospital facility. But this brings me to the second part of the mission," Visser Three said. "Until now this secret was known only to me and a very small group."
The room was almost totally silent, listening, anticipating.
"The second part of my plan is even more important than the first. In a few days, the governor of this state will have some minor surgery performed. His secretary is one of us, and she has steered him to our facility. He will check in for the minor surgery. When he checks out ... he will belong to us."
"No," Rachel gasped.
"What does it mean? What is a governor? Is this some sort of prince?" Ax asked.
"Yeah. A prince. The governor controls the state police," I said. "And the National Guard. And the schools."
"It's worse than that," Rachel said grimly. "Don't you guys ever pay attention to politics?"
"What are you talking about?"
28 "Don't you know? Our governor is getting ready to run for president next year. A year from now there could be a Controller in the White House."