elp! Please, someone help us!"

We had been hearing cries like that all the way down those steps. But now we were close

enough to give the cries a human face. It cut straight to my soul.

There was a second steel pier. That was the loading station. There the host bodies were dragged

from their holding cages to have the Yeerks reenter their heads. It was a pretty basic process. They

grabbed the hosts, whether human or Hork-Bajir, and forced their heads down into the pool.

The people sometimes fought and screamed, and sometimes just cried. But they always lost.

When their heads were yanked back up out of the pool, we could see the slugs still slithering into

their ears.

After a few minutes they would become calm again, as the Yeerks regained control. Then off

they went, once more slaves of the Yeerks.

It was a horrible assembly line, from the unloading pier, to the holding cages, to the infestation

pier. They moved the poor victims through at a pretty speedy rate.

But there was another area we could only now see. There humans and Hork-Bajir waited on

comfortable chairs, sipping drinks and actually watching TV. Taxxons squirmed around like gigantic

spiny maggots.

I heard the faint sound of a television set. I was sure I could hear laughter from the humans. They

were watching the show and having a good laugh.

<Those are the voluntary hosts,> Tobias said. <Collaborators.>

"What are you talking about?" I demanded.

<You remember, what the Andalite told us. Many humans and Hork-Bajir are voluntary hosts,>

Tobias replied. <The Yeerks persuade them to let them take over.>

"I can't believe that," Rachel said. "No person would ever let this happen to them. No one would

ever give up control of himself."

"Some people are scum, Rachel," Marco said. "Sorry to burst your balloon."

<The Yeerks convince them that taking on a Yeerk will solve all their problems. I think that's

what The Sharing is all about. People believe that by becoming something different, they can leave

behind all their pain.>

"Like spending all their time as a hawk," Marco pointed out.

Tobias had nothing to say to that. He spread his wings and flew up and away.

"Tobias! Come back," I called to him.

"We have to get moving," Rachel said. "We've been standing here staring for too long." She

looked at Marco. "Don't be a jerk to Tobias, okay? We need everyone."

Tobias came swooping back toward us. <Cassie,> he said. <She's on the pier. The infestation

pier. They're going to turn her into a host.>

With my normal human eyes I couldn't see that well in the purple gloom. I could just make out the

cop's uniform and the small shape beside him.

"Do you see Tom?" I asked Tobias.

In answer he flapped his powerful wings and gained altitude. I saw him high over the pool. Then

he came back toward us in a power dive.

<I see him,> he said.

I hesitated before asking. I wasn't sure I wanted to know the answer. "Is he in the cages? Or is he... voluntary?"

<He's in a cage,> Tobias said. <He's yelling his brains out at the Hork-Bajir guards.>

"Yes!" I knew Tom would never have gone voluntarily. I knew they must have taken him kicking

and punching.

<Cassie is getting near the end of the pier,> Tobias warned. <We only have a few minutes before

they infest her!>

It was time. We were at the bottom of the steps.

We ran over to hide behind a storage shed of some kind. Marco pulled me around the corner,

drawing me close so that I could hear him whisper. "Look, before we do this, there's one thing, Jake.

You have to promise me."

I knew what he was going to say.

"If I have to die, okay. But don't let them take me. Don't let them put one of those things in my

head."

"It'll be okay -"

"You!" a voice yelled. A human voice. "You two. Who are you?"

I spun around. A man. Just one man. But beside him, flanking him, was a big Hork-Bajir, looking

suspicious. And on the other side, a Taxxon.

Somehow the man hadn't seen Rachel. She was just around the corner of the building. But he had

seen Marco and me talking. I guess it hadn't looked quite right to him.

"Us?" Marco asked. "Who are we? Hey, who are you?"

"Take them," the man ordered.

The Hork-Bajir advanced on us. The Taxxon slithered forward on its dozens of sharp spiny legs,

red jelly eyes quivering, mouth opening and closing in anticipation.

I knew I had to morph. But I was frozen with fear.

Then I saw Rachel. She had gotten around behind the Controllers.

And she was getting very, very large.