"But profitably sadistic's all right?"

"Well," says Bella. "I still plan to kill it, this without knowing how good a painkiller the acquisition trance happens to be."

"Are you going to experiment with that?"

"If someone's going to acquire Trouble and hasn't yet, it's worth checking."

"I might," she says thoughtfully. "And me and Ethan haven't acquired each other yet, either."

"Are you likewise up for investigating how good an anaesthetic we're carrying around?"

"Sure."

"Do inform us, then."

And Bella writes.

Bella opens the door to the garage. "Renée's not home," she says. "You can demorph and come in and get dressed the rest of the way."

Well, Andi averts her eyes, but does not faint.

"To check each other for icky brain-contents," Andi says. "We can probably acquire Dad's."

"Andi and I could just about tolerate having each other run checks, if it were necessary, Robin says maybe Ethan and probably vice-versa, how about you?"

Trouble shrugs. "I'd let you," he says. "Or Ethan. Or Robin." With a wry smile, "You might not want to, though."

"I don't want to morph a Yeerk at all; the question is whether it's better than some appreciable risk of discovery and hostile infestation. If we're pressed for time and can't just find a way to contain you for three days."

"It's not the only way to check, though, is it?" he says thoughtfully. "I mean. You could beat me up for a while and see if the Yeerk bails. I wouldn't mind."

"I had thought of that, too, as it happens."

"...Really?"

"I don't know how well it'd work. It depends on things we don't know about how Yeerks react to injured hosts. But yes, I thought of it."

Trouble giggles.

"It has the additional disadvantage of not generalizing well."