"Are we taking turns? I'm in. I don't think we should have the whole conversation in public, but I'm not sure my parents are safe. Anyone have a neutral location?"

"It would be nice if we had something more useful. At least we can do some intelligence gathering if we pick the right options."

"I'll share everything whenever and wherever you guys want. My house isn't safe."

"We can meet at my house, if you guys don't want to do this here, but I don't want to put this off..."

Rowan frowns, twisting her fingers together in front of her.

"Liam and I are grounded. So we'll have to meet at school. We're not allowed to go anywhere else." 

"Anyone can hear us at school. I don't think we should talk about anything sensitive."

"We can't just wait for them to be un-grounded."

She leans forward.

"Rowan, you had questions? I think we should start there."

"They'll just think we're talking about a game, or a British TV show or something," Liam scoffs.

"You'd be amazed what people can ignore."

"Yeah," Rowan says fondly. "And by this time tomorrow Liam will have made up a bunch of fictional details for it so we can all play along." 

She leans toward Allison.

"So, for starters - any idea why you?"

"It's kind of unbelievable. He didn't spend much time explaining it, but my grandfather was one of them."

"One of what."

" - huh." 

Rowan frowns. "An Andalite, or a Yeerk?"

"An Andalite. He died a few years ago. Before my parents were infested."

"How much did he tell you? It couldn't have been more than a minute."

"It was like he sent a really long letter, and I've been reading it ever since."

"Wait." Liam is frowning. "Your parents. Are you - "

Clearly she's not okay. " - are you safe?" 

"They've been distant, and I've been adjusting. I think I can act normal."

"We need to find out if anyone we know is one of them. If they aren't, we stand a chance of mobilizing a resistance."

"You're kidding, right? We can't tell anyone about this."

"If we can verify that they're not Yeerks, we could use allies who are actually adults, or in power."

"Do we have a lot of those lying around? Trustworthy adults are pretty rare."

"We can verify whether someone is infested or not, it just takes three days. Yeerks need some kind of- technology- called the Kandrona to survive."

Rowan raises an eyebrow.

"And how exactly do you plan to keep an adult under constant supervision for three days?" 

"Kidnap them? If we can figure out if our parents are safe, then we'll know how much freedom we have."

"We know yours aren't. And even if ours are safe now, that could change pretty much anytime. No adults. No one who's not at this table."