He seemed satisfied with that.
"I became an invaluable asset to the invasion. All by myself I had become a powerful human with vast information. But of course, my brother couldn't tolerate that. He had me declared a traitor. He cut me off from the Kan-drona. He would have killed me. For the crime of being as great as he, he'd have murdered me."
Joe Bob Fenestre's eyes bored into me. And I felt a chill of premonition. See, right then I knew who this twin brother was. Who he had to be.
"0h, my God," Cassie whispered. She'd guessed, too.
"Yes, only one twin can be great," Fenestre said bitterly. "Only one of us could be the mighty Visser Three."
first encountered Visser Three within minutes of finding the Andalite prince, Elfangor.
Visser Three showed up and murdered the helpless Elfangor. Since that time we have fought him many times. He is the only Yeerk in all the universe ever to have successfully taken over an Andalite body, long ago in another war on another planet. When he took the Andalite body as a host, he acquired the Andalite's ability to morph. He is the only morph-capable Yeerk.
And now I understood why his brother, this Yeerk living in the head of Joe Bob Fenestre, would instruct his men to shoot at birds and any other animal they saw. Any one of them might be Visser Three in morph.
"I gather, from your silence, that you know my brother," Fenestre said.
"We have fought him," I said simply.
"And yet, you're still alive. Not many can say that. My compliments."
"How do you survive without having access to the Yeerk pool? I see you have created a replica here in this room, but surely you haven't managed to create your own Kandrona to supply the vital Kandrona rays." Fenestre nodded. "Well, well. So you know a Yeerk pool when you see one.
And you know about the Kandrona." He shrugged. "I have found a way to stay alive without a Kandrona. That's not important. What's important is ... what now?"
"He's lying," Cassie whispered instantly. "0r at least he's not telling the whole truth. The Kandrona. He doesn't want to talk about that." I nodded my tiger head. It probably looked funny, such a human gesture coming from the huge cat. "Your brother must know where you are. He could kill you anytime he wants. He could hit you from orbit and leave this place a big, smoky ruin."
"No, no, that would be too noisy. Some idiot human with a camcorder could manage to record it."
"He could send in Hork-Bajir. They'd cut
through your guards just like we did. Or he could come himself. If he wanted to kill you, he would. He could. He hasn't. So why not?" Fenestre smiled a wintry smile. "Clever, clever Andalites. So good with your computers and your magnificent Dome ships. You still think you're the lords of the galaxy, don't you? We spread from planet to planet and you keep falling back. And yet your arrogance is so unbelievable you never pause to consider that maybe you're not so clever, after all."
"Cassie's right," Marco chimed in. "He's weaseling. He's trying to distract you."
"Yeah, you're both right," I said. Then to Fenestre I said, "lf you want to live, answer my questions. Answer me, and you'll live. Lie . . ." I let the threat hang in the air.
Fenestre looked at me long and hard. "I suppose I'll have to rely on Andalite honor," he said in a mocking tone. "All right. My brother has not killed me because I have information he wants and needs. He doesn't want me dead, he wants me in his torture chamber aboard his Blade ship.
You see, I have found a way to survive without the Kandrona. And Visser Three would give anything to know how."
Fenestre lowered the Dracon beam he'd been pointing at Ax. "There's a way to process and refine Kandrona rays from another source. It can be made into an edible product. A food, so to speak, that I can consume with my human mouth and digest."
I felt a cold chill. If that was true, there would be no stopping the Yeerks. Their reliance on Yeerk pools and Kandrona rays was one of their greatest weaknesses.
"You're lying," I said. "lf there was a way to keep Yeerks alive without Kandrona rays and Yeerk pools, that information would make you invulnerable, even to your brothers
This time the wintry smile was even colder. If that's possible. "Oh, maybe not. For one thing, there is a long, involved process. But that's not the problem. The problem is the raw material. The raw material is my brother Yeerks. I must destroy and process and consume a Yeerk every three days to survive. I have become a cannibal."
"Whoa," Marco said.
"My brother would use this process for himself. But, as you can imagine, it would never become popular around the Yeerk Empire."
"You really are Visser Three's twin," I said. I felt sick. Then I felt sicker. "How do you get the Yeerks?"
He shrugged. "What do you think that silly Yeerk forum is about, that silly mix of fact and fiction? I control Web Access America. I know the identity of all the screen names. The chat room is
full of different types: people who are actually Controllers, trying to throw suspicious humans offtrack; humans who have discovered our little invasion and are trying to rally opposition to us; and then, there's me. I spot the Controllers. I spot the humans who think they have found family members who are Yeerks. I monitor the real gung ho Yeerk-fighters who identify potential Controllers. I track down the screen names. I find the Yeerks. One every three days. Ten a month."
"Cool by me," Marco whispered. "Give the man a pat on the back, and let's get Ax and Rachel outta here."
I had the same feeling. Fenestre was a sickening creature, but as vile as he might be, he was wiping out a hundred or more Yeerks per year. So much the better.
But then Cassie exploded. "How are you getting the Yeerks from the human hosts?!"
Fenestre cocked an eyebrow at her. He seemed surprised. I saw a shadow of suspicion in his eyes. Cassie's question had not been whispered. It had been shouted angrily.
Why, he was asking himself, would an Andalite care?
"How am I getting the Yeerks from their human hosts?" His face was dark.
His eyes empty. "How do you think I get them?"