B29C7 - Plan

"Are any of your people surgeons?" I asked.

Erek shook his head. "The guy who plays my father? He was a doctor back in fifteenth-century France. He knows nothing useful, trust me."

"Erek, does the Yeerk pool have toilets?" Marco demanded suddenly.

"Marco, not the time," Jake muttered.

"Marco," Rachel warned, "be useful, or shut up."

"Come on. It's practically like a city down there," Marco continued. "They must have a place for the human hosts to take a leak or get a drink of water," he insisted.

"Sinks, toilets. They've got the works, sure," Erek answered.

The Chee are heavily programmed against violence. But that doesn't mean they don't hate the Yeerks. And they are the best spies you can imagine.

"That means they have plumbing. Pipes. And that also means we have a way into the Yeerk pool," Marco announced. "We morph into something small, something that can swim. Climb in one of our toilets, have Erek give us a flush, swim a little, and come out in one of the Yeerk sinks or toilets."

"Oh, yeah, that should work," Rachel said. "What are you, nuts?"

<The water pressure would be pretty hard to swim against,> Tobias commented.

Jake lifted his head. "Not if we started from the water tower. Then we'd go with the pressure all the way." He started to sound a little excited. His eyes glittered. "Erek, can you tap into the city water department computers? Combine it with . . ." Jake sighed and wiped his mouth. "Combine it, with, um, with all you know about the Yeerk pool and . . . you know . . ."

"And give you a map? Directions?" Erek nodded. "I can give you directions to any sink or toilet in the place." He pointed at the computer my father and I use to keep records on the animals. "Mind?"

"There's no modem," I said.

Erek smiled. "Not necessary. I can be a modem."

Marco shot a triumphant glance at Rachel. "See? Still think my idea is nuts?" His face darkened. "Wait a minute. It is nuts. What's the matter with me? Am I insane?"

<Do we have a morph that could work?> Tobias asked.

"Maybe cockroach," I answered.

Jake shook his head. "There's a lot of pipe between the water tower and the Yeerk pool. I know they don't need to breathe much, but they do need to breathe eventually."

Tobias said, <I have an idea. Eels. They have them in tubs behind the bait shop. They're thin. And they're pretty fast, I think. Tasty.>

When I made a face, he said, <Hey, you think it's easy catching a mouse every day?>

"Eels? Do it," Jake ordered. A second later, Tobias was gone.