David

Cannon reminderAs the title indicates, this chapter takes place during volumes 20 to 22.

As a reminder, in this volume a human child named David accidentally finds remains of an Andalite ship, including an artifact capable of giving morphing technology to anyone. Unaware of what it is, he sells it on the internet, and the Yeerks show up at his place at the same time as the Animorphs. There is a fight, his parents are captured by the Yeerks and turned into hosts. However, the Animorphs recover the artifact and David faints.

Upon waking up, David finds himself in the middle of a group of strange teenagers who explain to him that his parents are now controlled by an alien slug located in their heads, that he must hide because the yeerks are after him, and that from now on, he will have to participate with them in various extremely risky missions to fend off the yeerks. And also that since he touched the artifact, he has the power to change into an animal. And precisely, to start, they will have to infiltrate a hotel guarded to the teeth by secret services from all over the planet, because the leaders of the most powerful countries in the world will meet there in a few days and the yeerks want to take the opportunity to infest them all.

As you might guess, he reacts calmly to the situation and becomes a valued and valuable member of the group of animorphs. Of course not. He completely loses it.

oOoOoOo

Jack, do you have a minute?

Yes, of course, come in.

Once I had closed the door, I asked him point-blank:

What do you intend to do to prevent Visser-12 from carrying out his plan?

Uh, well. For now, we haven't decided anything.

For a few seconds, I froze.

Sorry?

For now, we have another problem. I'll let you know if we need your help. In the meantime, try to get as much information as possible about Visser-12's plan.

What could be more important than preventing Visser-12 from taking control of the G7 leaders?

If it were up to me, I would tell you. I'm sure you could help us. But the others are opposed to it.

You're messing with me. We had an agreement, just so you know. Should I understand that it's an operation I would disapprove of?

I can't tell you anything. But I assure you that if you knew, you would approve 100%. Anyway, it will be resolved quickly. Besides, if I were you, I would avoid being near Visser-12 tomorrow. He might not be in a very good mood.

He is never in a good mood. But I take note: I must trust you blindly, but in return, you refuse to even keep me informed. And that without any valid reason.

You too are hiding things from us. You still refuse to tell us why Jera456 made a donation of one million euros to the wildlife rehabilitation clinic.

This donation has absolutely nothing to do with the war. Tom must have confirmed it to you.

Yes, and that's enough for me. But others are starting to think that you're putting pressure on Tom, even when you're not in his head.

How can they believe such stupidity?

It's not stupid. Tom is at your mercy 90% of the time. And to a lesser extent, so am I.

It's rather me who should be saying that. With Andalite technology, you could easily kill me and hide my disappearance for several days. I got annoyed.

Don't yell at me. I'm on your side. I'm just reporting the point of view of others to you. I know you and I don't believe for a second that you would betray us. But that's not the case for them, and understand that after everything we've been through, we've become wary.

Let's admit it. Can you at least explain to me why you've been twiddling your thumbs for a week while Visser-12 is about to take control of the planet?

I never said we twiddled our thumbs.

He seemed to hesitate, then continued:

We questioned our other sources of information among the Yeerk and (..).

Are there other Yeerks working for you? Who is it? Could it be a spy? I worried.

My reaction seemed to amuse him. Jack shook his head and explained:

No, it is not a Yeerk, and I am 100% sure of its reliability. This time, I think you will understand that I won't tell you more. He is as keen as you are to ensure that as few people as possible know his exact role in this war.

I nodded and he continued.

So we questioned him and he told us that one of the G7 leaders has already been infected. Could you find out who it is?

Your informant is wrong. None of the leaders is infected. But if you don't hurry to act, it won't last very long.

He states it with certainty and without wanting to upset you, I have complete confidence in his information. Could you investigate? Without taking too much risk, of course.

I will check the records and ask Jera456 if it is possible that it is not up to date or if Visser-12 has hidden certain infestations. But I doubt I will find anything. Besides being a great victory, infesting one of your heads of state is a logistical challenge. You have to infest at the same time all his staff, a large part of his government, and the media that follow him so thatTheir Yeerks could go feed every 3 days without anyone noticing anything. Such success would be widely reported by the empire's propaganda. Unless! Is your source of information a human?

He hesitated.

Yes and no. I cannot be more specific.

So it is not a human. He may have made a mistake. A few years ago, one of the humans we infested became the head of the French state, even though all the polls predicted he would lose and his party had presented another candidate. His name was Jacques Chirac. But upon learning this, Visser-12 decided to replace his Yeerk with one of his loyal followers. However, it was a notorious incompetent who knew nothing about French politics. And he could not rely on the abilities of his host, who was hardly more talented.

Shortly after his election, annoyed that something called the parliament refused to obey his orders, he decided to dissolve it on a whim. Don't ask me what it means, I have no idea. All I know is that for a week Visser-12 kept punishing everyone within reach, shouting: 'What an idiot! What an idiot!'. And a month later, it was made official that France was no longer under the control of the Yeerks, even though Chirac was still president and consequently, we still had to allocate enormous resources so that he and his subordinates could feed discreetly. In any case, it is not him who will represent France at the G7, but a human named Lionel Jospin. And he is not a host.

Your story is strange. If he won the elections, how can he no longer have power?

I can't help you. Tom has never been very interested in politics. Even less so in that of France.

Well, if it's true, it's good news. Still, try to find out more. And don't take others' mistrust too much to heart. In time, they will change their minds.

That's what I thought at first. But I have already given you some time. The truth is, no matter what I do, to you I will always be just a Yeerk. You will never trust me.

I left, slamming the door to his room before he could answer.

oOoOoOo

Author's note: For the younger ones, here is a historical reminder of this great political moment that was the dissolution of the parliament by Chirac:

C'est l'heure de la cohabitation pour Chirac : tellement culte ! - Les Guignols - CANAL+

Author's note 2: additionéIn 2024: This chapter was written several months before the dissolution ofMacron and does not refer to it in any way.