Animorphs: 2010 - Chapter Eleven
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Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Nine (18+)
Chapter TenMarco packed like he was traveling to Tibet instead of an hour down the road to my house. His suitcase would barely fit in the trunk of the little sedan I’d rented, but things went better once I turned it in and got my truck back.
“What the hell do you think we’ll be doing that you need to pack so much?”
“I don’t know. I like to be prepared.”
“For what, the apocalypse?”
“It could happen.”
A second after he said it, we both realized that ‘apocalypse’ was actually a real possibility now and it put a damper on any further bickering. We made the rest of the ride to my house in silence.
I lived in a housing community on post, a neighborhood of identical, dun-colored duplexes that were almost scary in their uniformity. A few people kept yard decorations or flowers in planters in an attempt to break up the monotony. My roommate and I had a large pot filled with rocks and a fake fern since neither of us could keep a plant alive.
Marco had been to visit before so he wasted no time claiming the couch in the living room. I check to make sure that Schneider, my roommate, wasn’t home before I grabbed a pair of Cokes from the fridge and went to join him.
“He’s not telling us everything, you know.” Marco took the can from me without looking.
“We haven’t given him much reason to.” I didn’t like the situation any more than Marco did, but I could at least understand Ax’s position. Stuck in a hostile environment and dependent on strangers, it was no wonder he played his cards close to the chest.
“Doesn’t change the facts. If we don’t find a way to pick that boy’s head, we could all end up killed. This shit’s bad enough without us running around in the dark being led by some guy who doesn’t care what happens to us.”
“He’s not leading us,” I said firmly.
“Right. You are.”
“I’m not either.”
Marco chuckled and didn’t answer. He might as well have called me silly and patted me on the head.
The front door crashed open and Marco flinched, but I didn’t. Schneider never could figure out how to enter a room quietly.
I’d lived with Schneider since moving back to California. He wasn’t in my company and we’d been strangers, but such was the lot of singles living in on-post housing; we never got to pick who we lived with. In the past year we’d become good friends, though, despite his tendency toward exuberance.
“Hey, Marco,” he said as he came in and noticed our guest. “What’re you doing here?” They’d met on plenty of previous occasions.
“I came to steal your couch. I’m going to stake out here and name it Marconasia.” Marco plopped his coke can on the back like it was a flag.
Schneider just laughed. He disappeared into the kitchen and came out with a beer, then joined us by sitting in his armchair. “Hey, you’re in Captain Hash’s company. Did you hear about this crazy new project?”
I struggled to keep my expression from getting too serious. “Crazy new what?”
Schneider blinked at me. “Man, I thought you’d be all over this one. It’s like a mentor program or something to this Boys and Girls Club wannabe they got going over in your hometown.”
I had heard something along those lines; I just hadn’t paid any attention to it. The Sharing sounded like a good idea, but I was too focused on getting into flight school to seriously consider volunteering. “Why is that crazy?”
“’Cause your command is all trying to push it in everyone’s face, you know? I swear, they’re going to make it mandatory soon. Bad enough I already got to give up half my Saturdays now for these extra duties I’m on.”
Marco and I exchanged uneasy looks. If my command was pushing for this new program, then it couldn’t be anything good. It wasn’t unusual for an officer to get a Good Idea Fairy and become convinced that his half-baked scheme would change the world, and I’d been ‘voluntold’ to participate in a great many such exercises, so it wouldn’t raise any eyebrows. But if Hash was really pushing for this, then I had to assume it was something connected to the Yeerks. It wouldn’t make sense for him to waste his time on it otherwise.
At least Schneider didn’t seem on board. I had to hope that meant he was still himself.
We chatted idly for a while about unimportant things, and I would have been happy to stay there all day, but we had to get back to tailing people by that afternoon.
Since our goal was to find someone going to feed, we decided to switch our focus to 1SG Polk. We would have to follow one person consistently to make sure we didn’t miss the departure and Hash’s family had too many parts to it. Polk lived on base with just his wife, as their children had already grown up and moved out.
We drove to his house just to have the truck nearby, even though it was fairly close. A quick check confirmed that both Polks’ cars were in the drive. Across the street was a small park, and Marco and I brought a Frisbee to toss so we wouldn’t look out of place.
That got dull after a few hours, and we lounged on the grass, discussing plans for how to keep an eye on the house at night.
Just as we were beginning to think about sending one person out for food, Polk emerged from his house and ambled over to his car. Marco and I pretended not to notice, then scrambled to get to the truck as soon as he was out of sight. We caught up to him fairly quickly as he headed out the front gate and followed him from as great a distance as I could manage. I didn’t want to risk spooking him.
Polk took an exit near the edge of town and pulled into a strip mall parking lot. We pulled into an In-N-Out drive-thru line in the same parking lot and kept an eye on him while ordering dinner. Polk got out of his car but merely leaned against the trunk, as if waiting for someone.
Marco noticed it before I did. “Dude, look. Shop for sale. Right next to a grocery store.”
Sure enough, a Ralph’s made up most of the strip mall, and a few doors down from it sat an empty store front with the windows covered with paper. A ‘SOLD’ sticker had been stuck over the signs advertising the space for rent. Could this be the same shop that Hash and his daughter had been discussing earlier?
We parked and ate in the truck. A few minutes later another car arrived and the driver got out to shake hands with Polk. Even though our objective was just to tail the man and find out where he went, I couldn’t help but want to know what those two were talking about.
Fortunately, Marco was of the same mind. As soon as they disappeared into the store, we got out and followed them. The front door was slightly ajar as we approached, and I could tell why. The air coming out of the shop was musty and hot. Clearly the air conditioning hadn’t been started up yet.
“...how you got it closed so quickly,” Polk was saying. “Approval just came down this morning.”
“We figured it would just be neater to take the realtor. Cut down on the hassle. Paperwork’s still going through, but we can begin construction as soon as we’re ready.” The second man’s voice had a nasally, youthful quality, even though he’d appeared to be in his mid-40s.
“As soon as we get the tunnels finished, we can step up our recruitment efforts. Won’t have to wait for the entire front to be set up.” Polk sneezed several times in rapid succession, no doubt due to the dust. “Get someone in to clean this place today, though. It’s filthy.”
Nasal wandered past the sliver of open door we could see through, writing something on a notepad. “Right away, sub-visser. The tunnel from the Pool is already under construction. We were just waiting on a final location to complete the last leg. Should only take a few more days.”
“Good. I’m sick of making that drive every time I have to eat.”
Marco and I traded confused looks. A tunnel to a Pool? But Ax had said that they went up to their ship to feed. Why would they need a tunnel?
Polk and Nasal wandered further into the store discussing contractors and layouts. It quickly became clear that they were going to turn the space into a branch office for The Sharing, which only cemented my assumption that the organization was connected to the Yeerks. After they moved out of our hearing, Marco and I stepped back from the door.
“You heard all that?” Marco asked, disbelief clear in his voice.
“Yeah.”
“I think Little Boy Blue got a few things wrong.”
I just nodded absently. I was too stuck on Polk’s mention of ‘recruiting’ to catch on to what Marco was saying.
He elbowed me hard in the side to get my attention. “Jake. That alien nut-job wants to get off the planet harder than anything. What if he knew about this and just let us think otherwise?”
“Oh, come on, Marco. He wouldn’t-” I had no idea what Ax would or wouldn’t do. I wanted to believe him, wanted to trust that he wouldn’t outright lie to us. The way he communicated made me feel like I could almost read his mind and lured me into taking everything he said as true. But I had no way of knowing that for sure. “It...it could have just been a mistake. Let’s not start creating new enemies. These guys are bad enough.”
We heard footsteps coming toward the door and darted into the shop next door to avoid being spotted. Through the window, we saw Polk and Nasal shake hands one more time and part ways. As we hurried to get to my truck again, I thought to myself that there had to be a better way to tail someone. I could have at least kept the rental car.
Polk got back on the highway and it quickly became apparent that he was headed to my hometown. Comments about ‘making the long drive to eat’ floated through my head as we followed and I couldn’t help but wonder if we’d hit a stroke of luck so early in the mission.
Staying out of sight on the highway wasn’t easy. We had to keep far enough back from Polk that he wouldn’t recognize me, and there were very few cars out on that particular stretch of road. We almost missed it when he took an exit in a residential section of town, but Marco caught sight of him pulling into a diner parking lot just off the highway. I turned around at the next exit and headed to the diner.
Mel’s was an old staple in our town. It was the epitome of a greasy spoon, with cracked vinyl seats and kitschy décor, but they had the best grill in town. Still, something told me Polk hadn’t driven an hour out just to try the hash.
We parked on the opposite side of the lot from Polk and headed inside. I was nervous about being spotted, but I needed have worried. Polk wasn’t anywhere to be seen. We took a seat in a corner booth and hunkered down behind our menus in case he reappeared.
“He’s got to be in here somewhere,” Marco said, his eyes darting out to the parking lot. There weren’t any other shops around for him to have ducked into.
“Maybe he’s in the bathroom?”
“Yeah, he drove fifty miles out of his way to use the john. Come on, man, you know there’s something hikky going on here.”
“Fine. So there is. But this is Mel’s. What could they possibly do in a diner?”
“Install new security cameras for one.” Marco nodded over my shoulder, and I turned around to ask the guy behind me for his salt as a cover for checking. Sure enough, there were new cameras installed over the door that led to the bathrooms and the kitchen. They were the kind covered by a tinted dome so you couldn’t tell where the camera was pointed.
“Something tells me that ain’t there just to discourage hooligans.”
“Hooligans?”
Marco shrugged. “Blame the diner. It brings out the ‘50s in me.”
“Fine. So how are we going to get past the cameras, Gramps?”
“You’re the expert. How would you get past it?”
“Marco, I’m in the Army. If the Army wants to go somewhere, we just go and flip the camera the bird on the way past. ‘Fraid I’m not an expert at sneaking except in the woods.”
Marco thought for a moment and chewed on his lower lip, his gaze occasionally darting back over to the door. “Well, might as well do it your way. It’s not like we’re not allowed to be in here, after all.”
I shook my head. “I’d rather not be caught on camera following my boss around. I don’t think I’d enjoy the way these guys ask questions.”
Marco rolled his eyes. “Fine. Got to do everything the hard way, don’t you?” He stood up to leave and waved me back into my seat when I started to follow. “Hey, get me a cherry pie. And be ready to head back there when you get the signal.”
“What signal?”
“The one I’m going to send that says ‘Hey, dumbass, this is the perfect opportunity.’”
I tried to make a smart remark, but Marco was already on his way out before I could think of one. Instead, I just slouched in my seat and grumbled to myself. The waitress came around and I ordered two slices of pie and some coffee. The wait became interminable as I kept an eye on the entire diner, wondering if every little thing was supposed to be my ‘signal.’
I stopped wondering when every light in the place went out. Even the lights in the parking lot went dark. Several people cried out, startled, and someone in the kitchen dropped a dish. The sun had just set outside and there was just enough ambient light to see the general outlines of things, but not enough to make out any details. I darted out of the booth and made a bee-line for the bathroom door, swerving around confused patrons.
The door led to a short hallway with four doors leading off it: the men’s room, the women’s room, the kitchen, and what I supposed was a supply closet. Five people came out of the closet door and I jumped into the bathroom to avoid being seen. I held open the bathroom door just a sliver, but I couldn’t make out any details of the people filing past.
Once they were gone, I checked to see the hall was clear and went into the closet. Just as I’d suspected, I found nothing but shelves of odd items that I couldn’t make out in the dark. But five people had come out. There was hardly enough room in the closet for myself, let alone four others. I fumbled around, looking for a secret switch or button or anything that would tell me where those extra people had come from. Before I could find it, the back wall of the closet swung open like it was on a hinge and I was faced with a huffing, wheezing, portly man with grey hair.
“What’s going on out there?” he demanded.
I snapped to attention out of habit. It seemed safest, since I didn’t know what rank this man was and he didn’t seem inclined to shoot me on sight. “Power went out. We’re not sure why. Already sent some people to check it out.”
“Good. And what are you doing here?”
“Um...couldn’t find the way in in the dark.”
The man laughed at that and waved for me to go in past him. We traded places and the man left through the closet door.
The secret door led to a wide staircase of shallow, narrow stairs, lit by dim emergency lights on the ceiling. I could see why the man had been out of breath, if he’d taken these in a hurry. They descended down for a couple hundred meters and then turned out of sight. Without much of a choice, I headed down the stairs.
After the turn, the stairs got steeper, and a faint purple glow illuminated the bottom. Judging from the decent, whatever was down there was at least several stories underground. I could guess well enough that it would be ‘the Pool,’ but I still had no idea what to expect. Elfangor and Ax’s descriptions were always of a dull sludge, but surely that couldn’t be it.
At the bottom, the stairs turned again and came out in a wide cavern after a few more steps. I stopped before the final turn and peaked around the corner, then remained unmoving out of pure shock.
The cavern was enormous. The size of four or five football fields, at least. The actual Pool took up very little space, comparatively. It couldn’t have been more than a sixth of the overall size of the place and sat against the far wall, two short piers jutting out over the sludge. A square device attached to the roof of the cavern cast everything in a dull red glow, except where electric lights had been installed and the angry red cast pink or purple shadows.
But that wasn’t the most shocking part. The entire cavern was filled with activity. One corner had construction equipment busy at work building some sort of prefab building. Humans and Hork-Bajir and some other race that looked like giant centipedes hurried this way and that. One entire wall had a row of offices and another appeared to be an open-sided warehouse, filled with enough boxes and crates and mysterious packages to carry an army through a siege. Tunnels led off in every direction, wide enough to pass a train through. Some of them did have trains. Compact little cars that looked like bullets and didn’t run on any tracks I could see, but which disgorged their passengers and then sped off again faster than I could blink.
It wasn’t just a feeding ground. It was an entire command post. Everything they needed to run their invasion, even if they got cut off from outside help, could be found right here in this underground nightmare.
I was so distracted by the enormity of what I was seeing that I missed the cages at first. A scream drew my attention. Next to the pool, enormous cages two levels high had been erected. Only the bottom level had anyone in it, a small group of humans huddled into one corner. As I watched, two Hork-Bajir dragged a woman kicking and screaming out of the cage while the other humans stayed well clear of their blades. I gripped the corner of my wall hard enough to turn my knuckles white, but there was nothing I could do to stop what was happening and I knew it would be suicide to try.
The Hork-Bajir dragged her over to the shorter of the two piers and the woman stopped struggling. She just collapsed between her captors and sobbed. It was the soft, tired crying of someone who couldn’t control it and didn’t care to try. The sound was quieted when they shoved her head under the sludge.
A few seconds later, the woman stood up on her own, made a face as she wiped sludge out of her hair, and calmly walked off as the Hork-Bajir went back to the cage for their next victim. One of the others stood up as they entered the cage, defiance clear in her stance, and I turned away. I wouldn’t be able to watch what happened next without doing something, and doing something down here would spell disaster. The odds were a thousand to one.
I ran up the stairs, and the sound of screaming followed me.
Boys and their Toys
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