Animorphs - The Unknown Part 9

'We start out betting whatever we have saved. Like I have about twenty dollars. But if we bet that at say, three-to-one odds, before you know it -'

'Marco, forget it, okay?' I said. 'lt wouldn't be right.'

'- we'd have sixty dollars. Bet that at three-to-one odds you have a hundred and eighty. Then bet that and you have five forty! Then sixteen hundred twenty! Then four thousand eight hundred and sixty!'

'How is it you can multiply in your head like that?' Rachel asked. 'You barely sc.r.a.pe by in your math cla.s.ses.'

'lt's a whole different thing when you're multiplying money,' Marco said. 'A whole different thing.' .

We repeated this conversation with small variations all the way to the Dry Lands.

'Hey,' Tobias said. 'l think we're in luck. Isn't that the same bunch of horses we saw be-fore?'

'The modest horses?' Jake asked.

'Yep. That is them,' Tobias confirmed. 'l remember the markings. Look at the way they move.'

Down below, my osprey eyes spied the horses. They were walking almost in a line. Like soldiers.

Not like wild horses. But alongside the disciplined group were other horses. These other horses were moving normally.

'l think our main group of horse-Controllers has picked up a few tagalongs. It would make sense. The real horses don't know these are Yeerk-infested horses. So they hook up, figuring to be part of the same herd.'

'And look where they're headings Marco said. 'Right toward the base. Right into Zone Ninety-one.'

'l understand what a racetrack is now: a place where horses chase each other in circles as humans scream. But what exactly is this Zone Ninety-one?' Ax asked. 'You were all talking about it before, but I am still confused.'

'You probably already know what's going on at Zone Ninety-one,' Marco said darkly.

Jake sighed. 'lt's a secret base. They say it's a place where the government is hiding an alien s.p.a.cecraft that supposedly crashed here about fifty years ago 'Who is they?' Ax asked.

'Marco is they,' Rachel said. 'Nuts. Wackos. Conspiracy freaks. People who go on the Internet and call themselves DarkTruth or whatever.'

'Ah,' Ax said, like he understood.

Marco was right about one thing, however: The horses were heading directly into the base.

Of course, so were other horses. Horses not connected to the band of horse-Controllers.

'lf you want to infiltrate a heavily guarded base, what better way?' I admitted. 'l saw horses wandering through the base when we were there.'

'True,' Jake said. 'And if you want to watch a group of horse-Controllers, what better way than to join the herd, just like those others did? Let's fly up ahead. Morph to horse. And join up with this bunch. See where they go. What they do.'

'Power those wings,' Tobias said cheerfully. 'We still have some flying to do.'

'AII I'm saying is, think of how cool it would be,' Marco began again.

It took ten minutes to get far enough ahead of the horse-Controller herd with its stray tagalongs. We hid behind some rocks and morphed into our horse bodies. This time we did it quickly. Before base security could begin to think someone was in the rocks.

Once we were morphed I realized we had a problem. 'We look way too good to be scruffy old wild horses,' I said. 'We need to roll in the dirt a little. Run through some brambles. Look like we've been living out in the wild, not in pampered barns.'

By the time the horse-Controllers pa.s.sed by, we were six dirty, dusty, scruffy-looking beasts. But we were also the coolest-looking wild horses anyone would ever see. After all, one of us could be going on to win the Kentucky Derby.

'Here they come,' Jake said. 'Just try to act natural.'

The horse herd came ambling by. A couple of the "real" horses raised their heads to give us a suspicious look and a sniff. But the horse-Controllers totally ignored us.

I resisted my idiot horse urge to challenge the other stallions to mortal combat. We fell into step, not close, but not too far from the others.

And we walked, with the slow CLOP-CLOP-CLOP of horses, right into the heart of the fabled Zone 91.

Chapter 18.

The whole herd of us wandered onto the base. We wandered past even more intense warning signs. The last one actually said YOU MAY BE SHOT. We wandered right past men and women armed with submachine guns.

No one suspected horses.

Of course, if anyone had heard what we heard next, they would definitely have been suspicious.

"Hullak fimul fallanta gehel. Call is feellos."

'Who said that?' I asked.

'Um . . . that horse said it,' Rachel said.

"Yall h.e.l.lem. Fimul chall killim fullat!"

'And that was another horse. We're trapped in a Mister Ed rerun,' Marco said. 'We are in the Nick at Night zone.'

'That's Galard!' Ax said. 'They're speaking Galard!'

'Two questions,' Jake said tersely. 'What's Galard, and can they hear us thought-speak? And answer the second question first.'

'No. They can't hear us. Galard is a sort of universal language spoken by different races throughout the galaxy. It's what people speak when they come from different species and don't share the same language. These horses must have been fitted with speech synthesizers.'

'Why wouldn't Yeerks be speaking Yeerk or whatever?' I asked.

'l don't know,' Ax admitted. 'But the standard speech synthesizers use Galard. Maybe they acquired less sophisticated speech synthesizers. Sometimes it's easier to get older, less cutting-edge technology.'

'You mean they bought speech synthesizers on sale?' Rachel asked.

'At the Pluto Wal-Mart,' Marco said.

'Ax, can you understand what they said?' Jake asked.

'Yes, of course. They said to follow the plan. "If we do this right we'll be off this idiotic a.s.signment, out of these idiotic stupid bodies, and back onboard s.h.i.+p where we belong." That's what the leader said.'

'Uh-oh,' Tobias said darkly. 'They're splitting up.'

'We'll have to split up, too. Follow each group,' Jake advised. 'Me, Ca.s.sie, and Tobias go with one group, Ax, Rachel, and Marco go with the other. Ax? Listen to them if they talk anymore. And let us know by thought-speak.'

'Yes, Prince Jake.'

'Have I mentioned don't call me prince?'

'Yes, Prince Jake, you have.'

I fell in step alongside Jake, trying to look like any old horse walking along, minding her own business.

'This is weird,' I said. 'These horses are definitely on a mission. I'm almost surprised no one has ever noticed how bizarre their behavior is.'

'What sane person would ever even think that a horse would be a security risk?' Tobias said.

'How do you like horse morph, Tobias?' I asked, making conversation to ease my nervousness.

'Compared to flying? It's dull. Compared to the old days when I wouldn't have been able to morph with you guys at all? It's great!'

We were at the side of a road. This part of the base was densely built up with low, whitewashed clapboard buildings, each bearing stenciled numbers. Not far away was a large building with a half-filled parking lot. I couldn't see well enough with my dim horse eyes to read the sign above its door, but people were coming out, pus.h.i.+ng loaded grocery carts.

'Base Exchanges Jake explained. 'Kind of a shopping center for the people stationed here.'

'Must be boring out here,' Rachel said. 'Not much to do but keep secrets.'

A pair of Humvees loaded with uniformed troops came racing down the road. We stepped back out of the way. Totally unhorselike behavior. No one noticed. The guys in the Humvee never even glanced our way. They'd seen wild horses hundreds of times.

The afternoon sun was intense. It was really hot. The horse part of me wanted to go find a nice shady patch and rest. I saw some trees and picnic tables off to one side of the Base Exchange. People were carrying slices of pizza and baskets of fried chicken and potatoes out to the tables.

It was so weird. I was a human in a horse morph. I was walking along with Yeerks inside horse bodies. And we were, all of us, trying to figure out what, if anything, was being kept secret on this base.

Was it true? Had a s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p crashed here back in the fifties? Had the government hidden it all these years? Were the Yeerks determined to get it away from the humans in order to keep us from understanding its technology?

What could be hidden on this base? A Yeerk Bug fighter? An Andalite fighter? Some s.h.i.+p belonging to some other race?

'Hey, Jake? Tobias? Do you smell anything weird?' I asked.

'l smell those french fries over at the Base Exchanges Jake said.

'No, not that. Smell the horse-Controllers.'

'Do I have to? Hey . . . wait... you mean that smell'

'Fear,' Tobias said. 'Nervousness. Great. If they're scared, we should be scared.'

'l have that covered,' I said dryly.

I looked around, trying to make sense of the emotions I was literally smelling. I saw the second group of horse-Controllers. I saw Rachel, and Marco, and Ax along with a couple of tagalong horses. They were converging with us. Converging on the same building.

It was one of the hangars. A very large hangar, maybe fifteen stories high, with doors you could walk a dinosaur through. And it was a very secure hangar. There were guards at the main doors. Guards at every corner of the building. Looking up, I thought I saw the outline of a man with a rifle up on top of the structure.

There was a sign on the side of the building. I squinted but could not read it with my dim horse eyes.

'l miss my real eyes,' Tobias grumbled.

BRRRRRIINNNNGGGG! BRRRRRRIIIINNN-NNGGGG!.

An insanely loud bell went off. I reared up before I could control the reaction. But the horse-Controllers showed no response at all. No response except to grow very still and very focused. They were expecting the bell.

The bell was a safety alarm. It was heralding the opening of the main doors of the hangar. I saw the guards move their automatic weapons down off their shoulders and into easy firing position.

KRRR-Chunk! Rrrrreeeeeeeeee!

The doors began to open, motors whining loudly in my horse ears.

And that's when the second group of horses started to run. Three horse-Controllers, followed, after a moment's hesitation, by Marco, Ax, and Rachel, suddenly broke into full-out gallop straight for the hangar door.

'Oh, man,' Tobias groaned. 'Why do I get the feeling there's going to be shooting soon?'

'Why are they doing that?' I asked. 'lt makes no sense. Why hide in horse bodies so you can come and go without anyone noticing, and then suddenly do this?'

'Because the subtle approach isn't working,' Jake said grimly. 'Remember what they said earlier: Do this and they're out of here. It's a final desperation move.'

'So what do we do?'

'We play follow-the-leader,' Jake said grimly. 'And we hope these Yeerks have a good plan.'

Suddenly, our group of horse-Controllers surged forward. I was startled, but I quickly ran after them, followed by Jake and Tobias.

The first group was racing full tilt toward the hangar. They were almost there. The armed guards were watching them in bemus.e.m.e.nt. But you could see the bemus.e.m.e.nt turning to puzzlement. And finally ... too late . . . fear.

WHAM!.

The lead horse slammed bodily into one guard, knocking him into a second guard. Hooves flashed as the horse ran over the guard. I could see it, even with my weak horse eyes, because we were close now. Running straight for the door of the hangar.

We were there!

A madhouse! Guards mingling with seemingly insane horses. Guards being knocked to the ground.

"Get these horses outta here!" someone bawled.

"Neigh-heh-heh-heh!" the horses screamed.

"Sarge, what do we do?"