Their snuffling and scrabblings were familiar sounds.
But the distant, low-level drone thrumming through the air wasn’t.
A chainsaw?
The buzzing grew louder. Sharper. Closer.
A low-flying plane?
The mouse zipped out. Stopped. Nose twitching.
THWOK! THWOK! THWOK!
The drone was deafening now.
The mouse tensed.
My hand flashed out and scooped it up.
“Nobody’s going to hurt you,” I said, but my voice was lost in the thundering noise. Something deep in the pit of my stomach stirred uneasily.
It didn’t sound like a plane, it sounded like a …
I stuck my head out of the open barn doors in time to see a helicopter pass and continue out over the woods.
The droning faded.
I shrugged and turned to put the mouse in a cage and nearly ran into Erek who was standing behind me. Erek is one of the Chee.
“Whoa!” I said, startled. “I didn’t see you come in.”
Erek nodded. “Good. You weren’t supposed to. And neither were the Controllers in the helicopter. We have a major problem, Cassie.”
“Uh, I’m the only one here right now,” I said, realizing I was still holding the mouse. I gently put it in an empty cage and then waited to hear the rest of Erek’s news.
“I’ll notify the others, but we have to move on this. The Yeerks have managed to repair the Helmacron ship and they’ve reactivated the sensors that locate morphing energy.”
Oh, great. The Helmacrons. Again.
The Helmacrons are an exceptionally tiny, exceptionally annoying species with delusions of grandeur and egos the size of Montana. Unfortunately, they also have very advanced technology.
Erek continued, “The Yeerks are tracking morphing energy.”
“But I haven’t morphed —”
The blue box. The Escafil Device. It was hidden here in the barn.
“The ship’s sensors aren’t operating at full potential but the Yeerks have managed to hone in on a weak signal from somewhere in this area. That would be the energy from the morphing cube.” Erek’s voice was muted as the helicopter did another flyby. “They’re making another pass. If we don’t get that cube out of here —”
“I’ll get it,” I said, heading to the darkest section of the barn. I’d hidden the cube where it wouldn’t be found by anyone who happened to be stumbling around, but I hadn’t counted on the Yeerks being able to repair something so minuscule as the Helmacrons’ damaged and abandoned ship. “But what good will it do to move the cube, Erek? Won’t the Yeerks just target it again?”
“Yes. That’s why you and the others have to keep it moving until the Helmacron ship can be destroyed,” Erek said as the helicopter’s shadow passed over us, blotting out the sunlight streaming in through the doors. “If that cube falls into Yeerk hands …”
“Don’t even say it,” I said, tucking the cube into the waistband of my jeans and pulling my dad’s huge, old, college T-shirt down over it. “Okay, let’s go —”
But Erek had vanished.
“Cassie?” my mother said, from the doorway. “I’m off to The Gardens. I have animal transports to oversee and —”
“I’ll go with you!” I blurted, while giving the barn a quick once-over for Erek. Was he that bucket? That bale of hay? The Chee were extremely good with holograms.
The sunlight behind my mother shimmered and for an instant, Erek was Erek again and not a hologram of a brightly lit barn door.
I looked at my mom. “Let’s get going.”
About the Author
The Animorphs series, written by Katherine (K. A.) Applegate with her husband, Michael Grant, has sold millions of copies worldwide, and alerted the world to the presence of the Yeerks. Katherine and Michael are also the authors of the bestselling Remnants and Everworld series. On her own, Katherine is the author of Home of the Brave, Crenshaw, Wishtree, and the Newbery Medal—winning The One and Only Ivan. Michael is the author of the Gone and Front Lines series.
The invasion has begun.
Catch up on Newbery Medal—winner K. A. Applegate’s world-conquering series.
#1: The Invasion
#2: The Visitor
#3: The Encounter
#4: The Message
#5: The Predator
#6: The Capture
#7: The Stranger
#8: The Alien
#9: The Secret
#10: The Android
#11: The Forgotten
#12: The Reaction
#13: The Change
#14: The Unknown
#15: The Escape
#16: The Warning
#17: The Underground
#18: The Decision
#19: The Departure
#20: The Discovery
#21: The Threat
#22: The Solution
#23: The Pretender
#24: The Suspicion
#25: The Extreme
#26: The Attack
#27: The Exposed
#28: The Experiment
#29: The Sickness
#30: The Reunion
#31: The Conspiracy
#32: The Separation
#33: The Illusion
#34: The Prophecy
#35: The Proposal
#36: The Mutation
#37: The Weakness
#38: The Arrival
#39: The Hidden
#40: The Other
#41: The Familiar
#42: The Journey
#43: The Test
#44: The Unexpected
#45: The Revelation
#46: The Deception
#47: The Resistance
#48: The Return
#49: The Diversion
#50: The Ultimate
#51: The Absolute
#52: The Sacrifice
#53: The Answer
#54: The Beginning
Text copyright © 1999 by Katherine Applegate
Cover illustration by David B. Mattingly
Art Direction/Design by Karen Hudson
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All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
e-ISBN 978-1-338-21768-1
First edition, February 2000
The Arrival Page 9