:I agree. I can check in with the teams tonight, get a more detailed debrief from anyone who has already gathered information on which of the Yeerks sometimes visit the ships. It is possible they already have some guesses at specific plans, even, they have been writing down anything they 'overhear' in thoughts but until now we were not sure which pieces would be most important: 

<Thank you. I don't want to divert resources from that but I also want to set up additional underground bases, at this point, so we have fewer single points of failure. We have some sites scoped out. None of your people need to know the distance or direction from here in order to Gate there if I have pictures, right?>

:Only some of my people can do that but I will give you a list. You want to keep knowledge of their locations compartmentalized?: Slight sigh. :I should probably not be involved directly, then, I will be too inclined to figure out where they are from how the Gate feels: 

Approving tail-swish. <All right, send me people who can Gate from pictures but not ones who are clever enough to guess the locations from their Gates.>

Leareth has all two hundred of his vetted mages brought over now, and he can get Matirin a list within ten minutes, and then pass orders for various other people to communications-spell the teams in all the cities and find out if they've learned anything relevant enough to be worth Gating in to debrief in person. 

He hears back from a handful of people who know things about the Yeerks' ground-to-space travel, and has them swap out for a more in-depth debrief, but it's now getting pretty late and he decides it's not urgent enough to keep anyone up all night over, so he just explains what they need and then heads to bed. 

They're out of cream, and the new mage who got sent to replace Cayden because Leareth wanted a report on something or other is much less well-matched with her morning person nature, and still in the slow process of waking up. Elissa, Healer and Mindspeaker stationed in New York, wants her goddamned coffee already. She's known about coffee for less than a month but it's the best thing ever. She and Cayden always did trips together, to watch each other's backs, but the Starbucks is right down the street and they do such a delicious latte. 

:Addan, grabbing a coffee, want one?: 

     :...Mmm? Sure: 

So Elissa leaves the rented apartment, locking the door out of habit, and then stretches out her Thoughtsensing as she starts walking. She doesn't really like mindreading random people all the time, but it doesn't take much of a peek to tell if someone has a Yeerk, and the boss is probably right, it's their best advantage and early warning here. 

New York has some Yeerks, so it's not the first time she has sensed them. Two minds, coiled tightly in the same place. There's eight of them, in a building a couple blocks from here.

That's - weird. Huh. 

:Addan, might have a situation: 

     :Oh?: 

:Buncha Yeerks, down the street: She flashes a mental image of the building front. 

     :–Suspicious:

:Yes, I know. Any chance you can slip out with an illusion up: There's a sort of canopy around their porch at the top of the narrow stairs, she's pretty sure you can't see the apartment door from the building. 

     :Sure, but if it's nothing you owe me dinner: 

Once her Thoughtsensing tells her that Addan is out and on the street, though her eyes see nothing but the faintest of shimmers and only because she's looking, Elissa starts walking.

...What are those Yeerks actually thinking? She tries to avoid reading the human host minds. 

They are comparing her face to a bunch of pictures on a screen, and concluding that she is verified not to be an Andalite. And out alone. Koren-192 tells Linett-089 to call in to ask for approval to go ahead.

Elissa narrows her eyes. :Addan, shield me?: 

And she is going to boldly keep walking in the direction of that building, her invisible mage bodyguard a few yards away, timing his footfalls to hers so the noise won't stand out. 

They get the go-ahead. They grab Yeerk weapons concealed to look like human guns. They step outside from two different entrances, close in on her as she walks down the street. They are planning to make it look like a mugging; that's what made the most sense, when they talked through their options...

"Hey sweetheart," one of them says as he reaches her, pulling a gun out of his jacket. "Give me your phone and your wallet - don't try anything -"

:Addan, go!: She's not sure if the shields will hold off the gun and isn't keen to test it, so, whack with the hardest Mindspeech shout she can manage to the gun-puller and then the other one - some Mindspeakers can knock people out that way, even kill them, she can't do that but she can certainly daze them briefly - and she spins around to make contact with the nearest bare skin she has and shoves hard with her Healing-Gift, it's a little risky knocking people out the violent way but she doesn't, at this moment, especially care - and then she's going for the second Controller. 

Addan, illusioned but distracted enough that it shows as a faint ripple in the air, streaks past and tries to get in through one of the entrances, reaching ahead with his weaker but still usable Thoughtsensing to find the other six. 

Two of them are asleep; the other six are waiting at the doors to intervene in waving off the police or to step in if they're needed, which they - seem to be? They are in the process of hurrying out into the street when Addan reaches the door. 

Addan knows compulsions, obviously, he's one of Leareth's staff. He's not fast at them, though, so he's practiced underpowered levinbolts, enough to stun a human but not kill them, whack whack whack whack whack–

They get off a couple shots in return, which barely sting his shields. They have time to think that that's impossible - and time to think that they should turn up the settings on their weapons, which can do a lot more than stun - 

The one who had time to start that thought gets a slightly-more powerful levinbolt, and then it's all over and he's breathing hard a bit and glancing around. 

...He puts an illusion up over them; there's a diner on the corner that would have a great view of them right now if any of the staff are looking this way. :Help me haul them in before someone calls the cops on us. Tell me if anyone's waking up and I'll hit them again, compulsions take me a while: 

     :–Er, should we be doing that here? What if one of them called for backup: 

:Did you sense anyone thinking that–:

     :No, but there could be an alarm in there or something. Be paranoid, remember:

:We could haul them back to the house and Gate out before they wake up–:

     Elissa sighs heavily, hands on her hips. :I can't carry most of these people, Americans are all fat. You should Gate out here, look, there's a goddamned doorway right there: 

:They might detect it–:

     :And if they send backup and take us down they'll know everything in our heads and detect a lot more things!: 

Addan thinks over it for ten seconds. He doesn't want to face Leareth's reaction if it turns out Gating out wasn't necessary, but, well, getting captured would be worse. 

:Fine: And he raises a Gate, those at least he's gotten really fast at, and recruits Elissa's help in shoving the dazed, moaning human Controllers through. 

And as soon as she's through, Elissa is yelling in Mindspeech for Leareth and Nayoki. 

It's three o'clock in the morning in Alaska, and Leareth is wrenched from a deep sleep, but he wakes quickly and is already on his feet as he reaches back, :what–:

:Some Yeerks just tried to kidnap us! Um, this is Elissa, New York, we both got out but we did an unshielded Gate - eight Controllers, stunned, need compulsions–:

:Coming. You woke Nayoki?: Leareth is already in the hall, barefoot, breaking into a sprint. 

He Mindspeaks Matirin. :Emergency. Gate-terminus room. The Yeerks know we're here: 

He wakes his people up as well and then gallops on over there. He is faster than Leareth because he has more legs. <We should call the other teams back as well and evacuate the houses in Alaska.>

:On it: He's already Mindspoken another three people, asked them to wake everyone else and start rousing the other locations by communication-spell. Orders are to Gate back immediately, try not to leave anything behind but getting out is the top priority. 

He starts slapping compulsions on knocked-out Yeerks until Nayoki gets there and he lets her take over. :Elissa, report:  The eight bodies they hauled through do, in fact, all have the weird double glow of Yeerk-infested brains; thankfully, neither of his people do. 

The Healer stammers out an explanation of what they sensed, and the kidnapping attempt. "Um, was that the right thing, to do a detectable Gate..." 

:It may well have been but we must assume they detected it: Leareth is still out of breath from his sprint. 

<I know you prefer not to let them know you can read their minds but I would be inclined to tell the hosts that they can be helpful to the fight against the Yeerks and to their country by mentally shouting in our direction anything they know about why and on whose orders Elissa was targeted.>

:I have no hesitation with doing that now, this is an emergency: And he does so, and barks mental orders to more of the Thoughtsensers, to come here so he's not trying to personally read six shouting minds and also think at the same time; half the base is now roused from bed and on their way over. 

There's a flare of energy, the first of many arriving Gates. 

:–Tell people to Gate to their bedrooms, not the standard terminus: he thinks to snap to the people doing communication-spells, :we are going to have rather a pileup: pause, focus, :Matirin, I think you should immediately start directing people to the other facilities you had planned, in case they somehow know the location of this one. Do not tell me where: