The Invasion by K. A. Applegate Page A

want them real bad. See, it was dangerous what they did. Could have been someone hurt. So we want to find the kids.”
    Suddenly I knew. He was one of
them.
The policeman was a Controller. I looked at his face. It seemednormal. But inside his head was a creature from another planet—an evil, parasitic slug. Just behind those normal, human-looking eyes, something vile lurked.
    “I don’t know anything about it,” I lied.
    He looked at me real close, and I began to sweat.
    “Hey, you know what?” he said. “You look familiar. You look like a young man I know named Tom.”
    “He’s my brother,” I said. I was trying not to let my voice go weird. But I just couldn’t forget the fact that it wasn’t really some normal, human cop I was talking to. It was a Yeerk. This wasn’t even a human anymore. Not really. It was a Human-Controller. The human brain was totally enslaved.
    “Tom’s your brother, eh? Well, he’s a good kid. I know him from The Sharing. I’m one of the adult supervisors. Great group, The Sharing. You should come to a meeting.”
    “Yeah, um, Tom invited me already,” I said.
    “We have a lot of fun.”
    “Yeah,” I repeated.
    “Well, you call me if you hear anything about these kids in the construction site. I should warn you—they may come up with some wild story to conceal their guilt. But you’re too smart to believe a bunch of crazy lies, aren’t you?”
    “He’s a regular genius,” Marco said.
    Finally the policeman took off.
    “Okay, rule number one,” Rachel announced. “We don’t do anything to attract attention. We have to be secret about
everything.
Especially morphing.”
    Cassie looked embarrassed. “Yeah, it was stupid of me. It’s just, man! It is so amazing, running like that. Out in the open spaces, running and running.”
    “How did you manage to morph with
clothing
?” I asked. “When Tobias and I did it … well, let’s just say it’s a good thing neither of you girls was around.”
    “It took some practice,” Cassie said. “And it can only be tight clothing. I tried it with a coat on. It got shredded. I don’t know what we’ll do in the winter.”
    “That’s not going to be a problem,” Marco said firmly. “Because there isn’t going to be any more morphing.”
    “Maybe Marco is right,” Rachel said. “This is too big for us. We’re just kids. We need to find someone important to tell this to. Someone we can trust.”
    “We can’t trust anyone,” Tobias said flatly. “Anyone could be a Controller. We tell the wrong person, we are all dead. And the whole world will be doomed.”
    “I don’t want to stop morphing,” Cassie said. “Do you realize all we could do with this power? We couldcommunicate with animals, maybe. Help save endangered species.”
    “Humans may be the next endangered species, Cassie,” Tobias said quietly.
    “What do you say, Jake?” Cassie asked.
    “Me?” I shrugged. “I don’t know. Marco’s right, we could all get killed. Rachel’s right, this is too major for a bunch of kids.” I hesitated. I didn’t like what I was about to say. “But Tobias is right, too. I mean, the whole world is in danger. And we can’t trust anyone.”
    “So, what do we
do?”
Rachel demanded.
    “Hey, it’s not up to
me
to decide,” I said hotly.
    “Let’s take a vote,” Rachel said.
    “I vote we try to live long enough to get driver’s licenses,” Marco said.
    “I vote we do what the Andalite said—fight,” Tobias said.
    “You’ve never even been in a fight,” Marco sneered. “You can’t handle the bullies at school. Suddenly now you want to kick butt on that Visser Three monster?”
    Tobias said nothing, but a blush spread up his neck.
    “I vote with Tobias,” Rachel said, giving Marco a dirty look. “I wish we could dump all this on someone else. But we can’t.”
    “Let’s think it over for a while,” Cassie said. “This is a big decision. I mean, it’s not like we’re deciding whether to wear