"Applegate, Katherine A - Animorphs - 01 - The Invasion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Applegate Katherine A)

I went back to the circle of my friends.
"Here's the box," I told the Andalite.

"I, um . . . was that your family? That picture?"

I'm real sorry," I said. What else could I say?

"What?" Rachel demanded.

We all looked at each other. All except Tobias, who never took his gaze off the alien.

"Powers?" What was that supposed to mean?
the Andalite explained.
"Morph? Morph how?" Rachel asked, her eyes narrowed.
the Andalite said.
Marco laughed derisively. "Become animals?" Marco isn't the most accepting person in the world,

"He's kidding, right?" Marco asked me.
"No," Tobias said softly. "He's not kidding."
"This is nuts," Marco said. "This whole thing is nuts. Yeerks and spaceships and slugs taking over people's brains and Andalites and the power to change into animals? Give me a break."
"Yeah, it is beyond weird," I agreed.
"We're off the map of weirdness by this point," Rachel said. "But unless we're all just dreaming, I think we'd better deal with this."
"He's dying," Tobias reminded us.
"I'll do it," Cassie said. That surprised me. Cassie isn't usually so quick to decide. But I guess, like Tobias, she felt the truth of what the Andalite was saying.
"I think we should all decide together," I suggested. "One way or the other."
"What's that?" Rachel asked. She was looking up toward the stars. Far, far overhead, two pinpoints of bright red light were shooting across the sky.
The Andalite said the word in our minds, and we could feel his hatred.


CHAPTER 4


The twin red lights slowed. They turned in a circle and came back toward us.

"We have to do this," Tobias said. "How else can we fight these Controllers?"
"This is so insane!" Marco said. "Insane."
"I'd like more time, but we don't have that choice," Rachel said. I'm for it."
"What do you say, Jake?" Cassie asked me. It was odd. Like suddenly I was the one who had to decide for everyone?
I looked up at the Yeerk ships. What had the Andalite called them? Bug fighters? They were circling closer, like dogs sniffing for a scent. I looked down at the Andalite and remembered the picture of his family. Would they even know what had happened to him?
I looked at each of the people around me Ч my usually funny, occasionally annoying best friend, Marco; Rachel, my smart, pretty, confident cousin; and Cassie, who everyone knew liked animals more than she liked most people.
Finally, I looked at Tobias. It was weird, the feeling I had at that moment, staring at him. A chill or something.
"We have to," Tobias said to me.
Slowly I nodded. "Yes. We have no choice."

We did. Five hands, each pressed against one side. Then a sixth hand, different from ours, with too many fingers.
the Andalite said.
Something like a shock, only pleasurable, seemed to run through me. A tingle that almost made me laugh.
the Andalite said.
"Two hours," I repeated.
Suddenly some new fear washed through the Andalite's mind. Linked as I was to him, I could feel it as a dread that crawled up my spine. He was staring up at the sky with his main eyes. Something else was up there with the Bug fighters.