Read Online The Invasion by K. A. Applegate - Free Book Online Page B

expected Marco to start yelling. But Marco is pretty smart. He could tell that Tobias had reached me with his talk about the Andalite. So he just smiled, a little sneakily.
    “Remember that cop today, the one who is so interested in finding whoever was at the construction site? The cop who is probably a Controller?”
    “What about him?” I said.
    “Well, let’s see. He invites you to join The Sharing. And now along comes Tom. And suddenly he is veryinterested in whatever happened at the construction site. And guess what? Tom also invites you to join The Sharing.”
    Tobias nodded in agreement. “Maybe this Sharing is an organization for Controllers.”
    Marco smiled. He’s my best friend and all, but sometimes Marco really makes me mad.
    “We’re pretty sure the cop is a Controller. And I don’t care what you say, Jake, I think Tom is, too. So, here’s the deal. You want to get into this fight against the Yeerks?” Marco asked me. “Fine. Let’s see how much you want to do it when it turns out it’s your own brother you have to destroy.”
    That stopped me cold.
    “It’s not exactly some video game, is it?” Marco said. “This is reality. You don’t know anything about reality, Jake. Nothing bad has ever really happened to you. You have this perfect family. Like I
used
to have.”
    His voice cracked a little. He never talked about his mom’s death.
    I realized he was right. I didn’t know about reality. Not the way reality had happened to Marco—and to Tobias.
    “So maybe we just walk away from this,” Marco said. “Let someone else fight this fight. Sorry aboutthe Andalite, but I’ve got enough death in my family.”
    “No,” I said, surprising myself. “The Andalite gave us the morphing power for a reason. It wasn’t just for the fun of being a dog or a horse or a bird. He hoped we would fight.”
    “Then maybe Tom is the enemy,” Marco said. “Maybe it’s your own brother you’ll end up destroying.”
    “Yes,” I said. My throat felt all tight. “Maybe that’s what will happen. Maybe not. But the first step is to find out more. And I think maybe the way to do that is to check out this meeting of The Sharing. Tonight. I’ll call the others. Anyone wants to come, cool. You want to stay out of it, Marco, that’s cool, too.”
    He hesitated. He sent Tobias an angry look. But he said, “Okay, it’s just a meeting, right? We go and see. I’m in for that.”
    I called the others. Rachel agreed quickly. Cassie had to think about it for a little while, but she agreed, too.
    I told Tom we were interested in attending the meeting. Me and Marco and Rachel and Cassie. We’d already decided Tobias would be there, too. Only in a different way.
    “Tonight’s a great meeting to come to,” Tom said enthusiastically. “We’re having a bonfire on the beach.You know, hanging out, playing games and stuff. We play night volleyball, which is so funny because half the time guys can’t even see the ball. It’s great. It’s the best organization. You’ll love it.”
    Listening to him, it sure didn’t
sound
like The Sharing was connected with the Yeerks. You couldn’t really picture Visser Three or a bunch of Taxxons playing volleyball.
    I was thinking maybe we were all just nuts. The Sharing was probably just like some new kind of coed Boy Scouts or something.
    It wasn’t that far to the beach, so we decided not to drive there with Tom. We walked. Tobias walked partway with us, then he stepped behind a dark dune as we got close to the shore. A few minutes later we saw a hawk take flight. There aren’t many thermals at night, so he had to work to get altitude. But then I guess he found a decent enough updraft, because he soared up and away till he disappeared.
    “I have got to try that,” Cassie said. “It looks wonderful.”
    “Yeah,” I agreed. Ahead, the bonfire burned bright on the dark beach. People were all around it, playing, talking, eating. Kids from school. Adults. People I