Ethan sits down at her table at lunch and announces, "I was questioned by police yesterday!"

"So was I. Good times, good times."

He laughs. "Actually it was rather dull."

"Yeah. I have no idea where Trouble went. I don't think the cops really thought I would, but they had to ask, I guess."

"They seemed to suspect I'd given him a hand somehow, actually. But I'm as clueless as the next fellow. Pity; I'd've liked to get a goodbye kiss."

"The cops said if he sends us a postcard or anything we should tell them," volunteers Andi.

"Yes, they told me something similar. Not bloody likely. If I get a postcard from Trouble, I'll assume he means for me to set it on fire."

"They kept talking about how we might think we're helping him by keeping quiet but we're really not and it'd be best for him to go home," says Andi.

"And we told them we agreed completely and thought Trouble would too as soon as he was safe at home and had a few days to calm down," says Bella piously.

Ethan snickers.

"So apart from our friend the runaway, how are things?"

"Boring, mainly. And with you?"

"Likewise. Lots of writing. We're going to fly up to see Charlie in a week and a half, but we can bump the flight if Robin needs us to in order to come along."

"Have fun," he says dryly.

"We will do our best."

"Well, don't strain yourself."

"We'll do our best at that too."

He snorts.

Trouble still hasn't made contact. By the time school ends and the last final has been taken in and Renée is starting to formulate summer plans for what she'll be up to in the twins' absence, Bella is beginning to seriously entertain the hypothesis that he flew off with his new friend Aspret The Duck, never to return.

"Yeah -"

"Sure."

Bella morphs too. <Hi, Trouble! I was wondering if you were ever coming back. What have you been up to?>

<I figured that the best way to make running away look good would be to actually do it. So I did. Got back yesterday. Are you guys alone in there, can I come in and demorph?>

<We're alone in the room, but Renée is home. Maybe stand in the closet and be ready to morph Robin if she comes up the stairs.> And she opens the window.

In comes a pigeon. He makes for the closet.

Bella and Andi remain in each other's shapes for the benefit of thoughtspeech. <Where'd you go?>

"Vegas," says the closet. "Then Forks, in morph, just for the hell of it. Pigeons are really good navigators."

<How's Aspret taking to duckhood?>

"Haven't seen her," he says, opening the closet door slightly so they can hear him better. "She seemed pretty happy when she left, though."

<Good.>

<Did she take to it like a duck to water?> asks Andi innocently.

Trouble snickers softly.

<Can I unauthorize the use of my body to make terrible jokes?>

<Nope!>

<Oh well. Anyway. Do we know interesting things about Yeerks now?> Bella asks, reaching for a notebook and a pencil.

"Yep," says Trouble. "First interesting thing about Yeerks: they can dump whole memories on you when they feel like it. Aspret gave me a bunch. It was easier than figuring out everything we might possibly want to know and then telling me in words, but it makes it harder to just start summarizing."

<...Okay, where does that leave us in getting the info out of your head?>

"If you had Aspret here to ask her questions, what would you want to know first?"

<Where the pools are, how they're guarded, stuff about Yeerk tech - what they have, how to sabotage it, how to steal it - anything the Yeerks know about the likelihood or likely effectiveness of Andalite intervention, if there are any other aliens making themselves relevant out there, if there are any other strike points besides the three day cycle, odds on whether we can talk other Yeerks into becoming ducks-or-something without getting sold out, if they know anything Elfangor didn't get a chance to tell us about morphing, anything cultural or psychological useful for picking Controllers out of a crowd or spooking them.>

"...First, Bella, first," he says, giggling softly. "Not first through tenth."

<Tech first,> Bella says after a long moment's thought. <What they have besides their sluggy little selves, space travel, beam weapons, and pools.>

"Okay..." He chews on his lip. "I mean, that's most of it. They stole a lot of their shit from the Andalites - there's some history there, but Aspret wasn't around for most of it so she's kind of foggy on the details. They've got three different kinds of spaceship here. The one we saw that looked like an axe is Visser Three's Blade ship, that he usually keeps hidden on the ground somewhere, and then there's a Pool ship in orbit and a bunch of Bug fighters - those're the little guys. The Pool ship has a big Yeerk pool on board; the Blade ship has a smaller one. When they can, though, they like making pools on the ground. They name the ones on the ground when they're big enough; the one under Phoenix is called Selt Arash. Aspret was born there - she was one of the first. She got up to a host so quickly because she studied biochemistry while she was in the pool; they have computers they can access in there."

<How does an in-pool Yeerk do computing?>

"They hook up to the interface like they'd hook up to a brain. Basically. The connection's not nearly as good."

<Do you think we could steal a ship? Do the laser guns have stun settings or do they only come in 'vaporize', and either way could we get ahold of those? How do the pools work - how can we throw a wrench in the works?>

"The zap guns are called Dracon beams. At maximum power they vaporize; lower settings burn things, lower than that will stun, and the lowest just hurts like hell. They keep track of 'em, and anybody who loses one is in deep shit, but we could probably get our hands on one if we tried. If you keep asking me three questions at once, I'm gonna keep forgetting the other two by the time I'm done answering one."

<I also asked if you thought we could steal a ship. I imagine it would be conspicuous as hell, but if Aspret knew how to fly one and now you do too it'd be a good option to know about.>

He shakes his head, just visible through the partly open closet door. "She was never a pilot. They use Taxxons - good reflexes - and she steered clear of Taxxon hosts 'cause they have such high attrition."

<Okay, that's that out. If we ever catch a helpful Yeerk with a more cosmopolitan history could we get a ship?>

<How come you want a ship so bad?>

<Don't necessarily, but if we had a plan set up to get one it'd be handy if we ever needed to convince a lot of people at once or someone in authority that there are aliens invading.>

"Hell if I know," says Trouble. "I mean, sure, if we can get somebody who knows how to pilot one, maybe we can steal something. But it's not like Aspret spent a lot of time analyzing their security. Oh - that guy who got shot in front of Robin was an escaped host, by the way. Aspret saw him make a break for it. Happens once in a while, but they almost never get as far as the door."

<They ever get farther than that?>

"Not that Aspret ever heard about. And if they did, somebody'd track them down and kill them. They're really serious about not letting anybody know they're here."

<Where does Visser Three live when he's at home?>

"Who the fuck knows. Blade ship, maybe. His security's top-notch. The guy's kind of a tool, though. Like, that important project Aspret was assigned to - she got kicked off and demoted because he overheard her saying that what he was asking for was impossible and made no sense. He gets into these moods where he'll kill anybody who looks at him funny."

<What was her project?>

"...It's top secret, it's never gonna get off the ground, and she really doesn't want us to know what it was because if the Yeerks somehow get the idea that we know about it they're bound to figure out she talked to us."

<So she didn't tell you or you don't want to tell us?>

"So I'm not gonna tell you unless you can think of a really good reason why you need to know or we find out about it some other way."

<Because you think we'd change something that would give the fact that we talked to Aspret away?>

"Because she really didn't want you to know, and from where I'm sitting I don't see it helping you any."

"They don't all know each other - there's too many. And you can't tell by sight who's in somebody's brain. There's a whole bunch of entrances - one in the used bookstore, one in a McDonald's, one in our school, one behind a bus station, two more Aspret's never come in by, and then there's a tunnel going to a hangar way out of town where they keep a bunch of Bug fighters, but she's never been down it. They guard it, but they're not expecting an Andalite strike force - they're gonna think we're Andalites, even Aspret kept catching herself thinking of us as Andalites and she sure as hell knew better. We could probably get in and out pretty easy as bugs or something, until they figure out we exist."

<After they find out the place is doused in pesticide?>

"They could install a filter at all the entrances that disintegrates unauthorized lifeforms. They haven't because it's a huge pain and they don't think they need to."

<Unauthorized - individuals? Species? Weight ranges?>

"Species."

<So we could still get in if we were morphed Yeerks, or humans, or the other host types.>

"It'd just about have to be humans," he says. "The other host types almost never poke their noses out, 'cause of secrecy, and a Yeerk slurping along the floor would be out of place as hell."

<Well, yes, but we could go in stacked Yeerks-in-humans if that were a good idea for some reason, and if we ever acquired Hork-Bajir such a filter probably wouldn't zap us, though it'd still be risky.>

"...Who in who?"

<I don't have an actual plan contingent on us presenting through a filter that isn't installed for purposes that don't exist as three humans instead of five such that we need to figure out a configuration today. I'm just noting that the constraint is 'go in as humans, Yeerks, or other host species' and not 'go in as humans' - come to think of it, unless Visser Three likes having equipment around that can zap him, Andalite morphs would probably be safe too.> (Write, write.)

<Anyway. How - unified, I guess, is the Yeerk population? Are the ones on Earth generally on board with the infiltration effort or is there a chance of dividing them against themselves?>

"If anybody's got qualms, they're not dumb enough to talk about 'em."

<Okay. Other aliens besides Yeerks, Andalites, Hork-Bajir, and Taxxons who might be relevant at all?>

"Not that Aspret knew about."

<How likely do they think Andalites showing up and saving the day is?>

He shrugs. "There was that one ship that Elfangor came off of, but nobody acts like they're expecting another one."

<And all Elfangor's shipmates were wiped out, like Visser Three said? Or was he posturing?>

"Down in flames," Trouble confirms. "That's the story. So if he was lying, he lied to his own side too."

Write, write. <If he kicks it, who takes over?>

"Good question. I'm not sure," says Trouble. "He got the job from Visser One, and that's pretty much all I know about Visser One, so maybe Visser One will come back or maybe somebody'll get promoted."

<How does the general structure of Vissers and so on work?>

"There's a Council of Thirteen back on the home planet, and they're the big bosses. Then there's Vissers - no idea how many - the lower the number, the more important they are, and a bunch more Sub-Vissers with the same deal. The rest of them have numbers too - Aspret is Aspret 112 - but that just means they're the umptieth Yeerk born with that name."

<Are the local Yeerks in pretty regular contact with the higher-ups?>

"Well, Aspret sure wasn't. If anybody else was, she didn't hear about it or it didn't seem important."

<What about ordinary Yeerks on other planets?>

"What, are these ones in contact with them, you mean? No. The higher-ups might be; the grunts aren't."

<Interstellar communication is expensive? No one thinks it's important? They're on radio silence for security reasons?>

"I think it's more like a hierarchy thing. You have to get a ways up the ladder before you're allowed into the fancy shit."

<What sorts of things earn rewards like that?>

"Not that she told me about."

<Do you have any based on what she told you?>

"Not off the top of my head."

<Will you let me know if you think of any?>

"Sure."

<Did she know anything that could let us sabotage Kandrona generators?>

"Nope," says Trouble. "She didn't even know where the one in Phoenix is."

<So it isn't, say, essential to station it exactly ten meters above the exact center of the pool, or anything. Damn.>

"Nope, no such luck."

<Thoughts on how likely it is other Yeerks we manage to take alive will take the duck deal and not sell us out?>

"Most Yeerks wouldn't even think of taking the duck deal. Aspret was just, you know, fed up and terrified."

<What about it wouldn't they like, exactly?>

"...When I say they wouldn't even think of it, I mean it like... that almost doesn't make sense as a question. Like, imagine you went up to a random person on the street and offered them twenty bucks to shoot the President. I bet you can guess most people wouldn't take it, but I sure couldn't tell you exactly what about it would put people off, except, you know, some kid just offered them twenty bucks to assassinate the President? Maybe some people wouldn't go for it because they believe in democracy, and some people wouldn't go for it because they don't want to kill anybody, and some people wouldn't go for it because it'd be dangerous, and some people wouldn't go for it because they wouldn't even know how, and some people wouldn't go for it because twenty bucks is too low, or a bunch of those reasons or a bunch of completely different reasons or just because there's no room in their head to even take an idea like that seriously."

<Fair enough, I guess.>

Trouble shrugs. "It was a good deal for Aspret because she was already on the outs with the boss and she probably couldn't have survived any other way - even if she had sold us out, he could've killed her anyway, he does that sometimes when somebody pisses him off and then tries to make it up to him too fast. Most Yeerks we catch won't already be in deep shit like that."

<Noted. Disappointing but it makes mass opportunistic slaughter more appetizing, I guess, if they're generally going to be unsalvageable in non-parasitic forms.>

Trouble snorts. "Yeah, there's that."

<Hmm. And the other question in the initial bunch of them was any good way to pick Controllers out of a crowd.>

"Even other Controllers can't do it unless they already know somebody is one. There's some faces I'd recognize now, but mostly people don't bother telling each other their hosts' names, so I can't give you a list or anything."

<If you spot anybody while one of us is available to have them pointed out, do.>

"Course I will," he says agreeably.

<And if you think of anything else useful we should know, share it, but I'm out of questions I'd expect Aspret to have the answers to. Do you have a plan for where to crash overnight when you can't just be animals most of the time?>

"Yeah, I'm all set."

<How should we find you if something comes up?>

He shrugs. "I'll keep in touch, I guess."

<I'd really like to have something more specific set up. No school, can't call you, you can't even show up at the house and ask Renée for our whereabouts in case she knows where Robin is. Where are you going to be?>

"I don't know, around? I'm not planning to disappear for another week or anything. You'll hear from me."

<Could you come by regularly - like, I don't know, lunchtime every day? So we know when to start worrying if we need to start worrying.>

"I don't think I can manage regularly," he says. "But I can try for often."

<Why don't you think you can manage regularity?> asks Bella tightly.

<By which she means she wants a good head start if Yeerks get you again,> Andi contributes. <Or whatever.>

"I don't have good access to clocks while I basically can't be human-shaped in public," he says. "Or, like, food, for that matter. And doing things at the same time every day is hard even when I at least theoretically know what time it is."

<Perhaps we could get you a clock to stash in whatever hideout you will be using most often. Certainly we can feed you, at least in morph, even if human-amounts of food going missing would be suspicious. Is there anything else we can do to make it less hard for you to let us know that we do not all have to panic and melt into the desert on some reasonable schedule?>

"I'm not really gonna have a place to stash a clock. I'm not really gonna have a place," he says. "I can't be that pinned down. Anytime somebody in Phoenix sees my face, they might kill me or drag me off to a Yeerk pool. And I have to sleep at least a few hours a day. So every day, I have to find somewhere to sleep where I'll be safe for a few hours. But the best places aren't always going to be the same, and the best times aren't always going to be the same either. Keeping to a routine isn't just hard anymore, it's dangerous."

<I had imagined, like, a rooftop accessible to pigeons but not humans where you'd hang out when you needed to be a human for a minute. Wrong mental image?>

"Yeah. I mean, maybe I'll find a place like that - one that's safe to use that often - but I don't know I will; I don't know there's such a thing."

<Okay. But you'll check in as often as you can?>

"Yeah. With whoever I can find out of you guys and Ethan and Robin."

<We need a way to refer to you on the phone.>

He shrugs. "Make up another nickname, I guess, it's not like I can only have one."

<Okay, I'll think of something.> Write write.

<Do you need anything while you're here?>

"Something to eat would be nice."

And Bella goes down the stairs, and comes up with a Rubbermaid of tuna and bowl of strawberries.

Om nom nom.

"I could sneak you a brownie but then I wouldn't get one after dinner, how hungry are you?"

"Pretty hungry. But I'd rather not steal your brownie."

"I can get another brownie tomorrow, I don't even know what you're going to be able to find if you're hungry now, if you haven't been getting food on the regular."

"I've mostly been eating as a pigeon. Seems like that - doesn't keep working. I'll take the brownie, I guess."

Bella goes and gets him a brownie. There is a barely-audible conversation between her and Renée about the brownie. She comes back with the brownie and a glass of milk and a little bag of chips, and without Renée.

"Thanks," says Trouble, smiling at her.

"No problem."

Mmm, food.

"As long as you're going to be pigeoning around until we go get Charlie anyway, do you think you can scope out the known pool entrances and see who goes in?"

"Yeah, I'll keep an eye out."

Bella nods, glances over the last few pages of her notebook, and says, "Do Robin and Ethan know you're back yet?"

"Yep."

"Okay, cool. I'm worried Renée's going to start up the stairs and you won't have time to morph and get out of here; is there anything else that should be said sooner rather than later?"

He shrugs. "Not that I can think of."

"Okay. See you tomorrow? We can talk stowing away on the plane when we go to Forks, if you don't want to fly there as a pigeon again."

"Stowing away on the plane sounds like way less of a hassle."

"Yeah. Find some small bug we can carry with us and take to the bathroom after an hour and a half, acquire it, figure out how it works so you don't become obsessed with whatever obsesses bugs and bother someone and get squished. Housefly is probably a good all-purpose choice - flea might work if you can get one, though, probably easier to hide and harder to squish."

"Housefly's probably easier to find."

"Unless you hang out with the right fellow pigeons."

He grins. "Yeah, there's that."

"Either way. See you tomorrow. I'll try to see about getting you a more regular food supply."

Bella keeps a nervous eye on the door till he's all done.

He walks out of the closet on little pigeon feet, flutters up to the window, and leaves.