Those of you who know me well, probably realize how very tempted I was to simply hold off on posting this chapter until I was completely finished with the next one. I've gotten most of the next one done, but not quite entirely so, yet.
Oh, well, at least this way it serves as an incentive to hurry up my writing.
Chapter Thirteen
"Goom, are you alright?" the Richard imposter asked, looking up from his book, and doing an impeccable impression of bewilderment. "Hey, where's Aquilai? Did he log out, or . . . ?"
Goom steadied his nerves, painfully aware than any particularly marked move he made would be recorded as a post for the false Richard to easily see. If he even
thought too hard about what was going through his mind right now, there was a chance that the imposter might be able to see those thoughts.
"Oh, god," Goom said, trying his best to act like the only thing he was shocked about was Aquilai's absence. "Not another one! Aquilai? Aquilai! Where are you!"
"Aquilai?" 'Richard' called out, sounding anxious. "Aquilai! Where on earth are you? If this is some kind of joke . . . "
Goom was taken aback. In some part of his mind, he had half-expected the imposter to start cackling madly, only to launch into a detailed explanation of his brilliant evil plan. Strangely, the false Richard honestly seemed as distraught over Aquilai's disappearance as Goom was. But, of course, since his actions were nothing more than posts typed up on his computer, it would have been easy enough for him to fake any emotion he chose. Even so, the perfect realism of his actions was deeply unnerving.
He was like a controller, Goom realized. Able to act perfectly like the person whose form he had stolen, but in actuality something completely different beneath the surface. This must have been how Jake felt, having to act like nothing was different between him and Tom.
But, why would he even pretend? Richard's status as the site's founder would surely have given him powers that no other RAFian possessed. If he wanted to do anything to RAF, it had to be well within his power to do so. Not to mention the fact that, as an outerworlder, he was beyond any RAFian's ability to harm. All he had to do was log out and he would be safe. What else could he possibly have wanted with RAF, that was still beyond his grasp? Why the secrecy, when he had nothing to hide from?
Goom left the data room, under the pretense of looking for Aquilai. Once outside, he allowed himself to breathe a small sigh of relief. It was good to be away from . . . whatever that was.
So, then, the question became, who were 'they'? 'They've hacked my account!', the real Richard had said. Goom guessed that Richard must have sent more than one text message, but only the latest one had been displayed. The way he said it, it sounded like Richard had at least some idea who 'they' were, or else he would have just said '
someone has hacked my account.'
The other missed text messages probably would have explained more, and Goom regretted that he now had no way to access those messages in any way that the imposter couldn't trace. Every move he made would automatically become a post, and so he would have to be meticulously careful about every thing he said or did, saving the element of surprise for when he really needed it.
Goom kept thinking about 'them,' curious about what Richard could possibly have meant. Hmm. Perhaps Richard had fended off 'their' earlier hacking attempts only to fall victim to a more concerted attack? So, maybe he didn't know who 'they' were, either, merely that there was a 'they.'
Goom made his way to the Social Board, hoping to find something useful in Aquilai's quarters. A hunch. Goom knew that Aquilai had been busily inventing things for most of the day, so perhaps Aquilai would have something that he might have thought would prove useful, before his work was cut short. Goom stood on his tiptoes to look up the Time Lord's lair on the display in the Social Board's lobby, and made his way down the hall.
Much like a TARDIS, Aquilai's room was set up to be bigger on the inside than the doorway, or the space between neighboring doorways, would have seemed to indicate. Inside his chamber, there was a metallic mesh walkway raised up above a darkened floor below, encircling a strange pillar of high-tech gadgetry. Towards the edges of the room the walkway spiralled off into other assorted areas. One such area held a multi-tiered rack of gadgets that seemed to be at various stages of completion. Another, a model of a galaxy that seemed to be floating as if by magic in the empty air. And then there was a closet that looked out of place just for being such an ordinary piece of furniture.
Goom headed towards the work area with the various devices. He spotted one that looked remarkably like a tracking device, complete with a little blinking red light. As he approached, he noticed little descriptions under each device, and his heart leaped as he read more about the tracker-like object that had caught his interest. It was indeed a tracking device. And it had two parts, one to read its website location from anywhere on the internet, and the other that would function as a global position-finder if the device were to be brought out into the real world.
Finally, things were looking up. This could be used to track down the missing RAFians! If he could attach it to somebody who . . . oh, but that was the catch. There was only one such device, and no way to predict who would vanish next. No way to know who to attach it to.
Goom sighed, but then perked up, as the tracking device had given him a different idea. Tracking. That was the key. Goom realized, with a start, that if the false Richard was indeed behind the disappearances, he would have had to be using RAF's own software to do it!
And that kind of activity could be traced.
Goom would wait until the imposter logged out, he reasoned. The hacker had to log off sometime, he couldn't stay online forever. Then he might be able to make a hacking attempt of his own, at least enough to see what the imposter was up to, and whether or not he was connected to the disappearances.
In the meantime, he somberly considered whether or not he was even up to the task. Goom considered himself a fairly advanced hacker, but who knew what kind of security he might be dealing with?
When he finally realized the obvious answer, he would have facepalmed if he'd had hands. He needed a hacker. He was on an Animorphs forum. There was only one person he needed to see.
Goom left the tracking device where it was in Aquilai's lair, figuring that picking it up would have triggered a post detailing what he had done. Maybe later, when more people found out about Aquilai's disappearance and their curiosity brought them to his profile, and their posts would obscure his own, he would come back.
Goom walked to the Animorphs Board, and cautiously entered the building. He knew that there was a chance that Richard might notice him here, but at least here there would be enough people still searching for Noelle and Estelore to quickly bury any posts Goom might create. Or so he hoped, but it was a chance he would have to take.
Within the mismatched terrain, he quickly spotted a grassy meadow, and slowly shuffled his way towards it, doing his best to keep a low profile. As he approached, an Andalite came into view, his form blurred just so slightly that you only noticed the blurring if you were looking for it. His description in the books, after all, was detailed enough that there was little disagreement on what he looked like, although there was still some. His tail, in particular, sported at least three distinct styles of blade that Goom could see, although there may have been more that were simply less visible.
Ax tensed his tail as he spotted the strange large-headed brown creature that was intruding in his meadow. He immediately suspected that a new alien race must have come to earth, because it certainly did not look like any other earth species. But, if it was alien, it was a race that he had never seen before.
<Who, and what, are you?> he asked, holding his tail forward threateningly, making it clear that he wasn't to be taken lightly. <And what business do you have here, with this planet?>
Goom gulped. "Uh, my name is Goom. I'm a goomba. Don't hurt me, I come in peace." It suddenly occurred to him that he hadn't really thought this through. How was he supposed to convince Ax that they were on the same side? And why should he have expected Ax to take his side at all?
"Look, I'm not a controller," he began, and flinched as Ax's tail shifted forward another couple inches at the mere mention of that word. "I can prove it. I know the Animorphs are human. Their names are Jake and Rachel Berenson . . . Tobias, uh, Fangor? And Cassie and Marco . . . hmm, nevermind. The point is, if I were a controller, you guys would be screwed."
Ax thought about this for a moment, then relaxed his tail a couple inches. But his suspicion was still plainly written in his eyes. <Alright, you have my attention, goomba,> he said evenly. <What do you want?>
"I want your help," Goom said earnestly. "I may be being monitored, so-"
In a motion that was too fast to see, Ax pressed his multi-layered tail blade against Goom's throat, his face an expression of rage. "But not by the Yeerks!" Goom quickly amended, his voice little more than a squeak. "A friend of mine may have been taken by this . . . other enemy. Please, you have to help me."
Ax withdrew his tail, contemplating. <What is it you would have me do?>
"That's the thing. I can't tell you everything. But, I can tell you that I need your technological expertise. And I need to know right now if you're in or out, because I cannot risk giving you more information unless you're in."
Ax kept his eyes and tail focused tightly on the the goomba, as he silently thought about what the strange being had said. <If it's in the name of freedom, I will help,> Ax finally said, realizing he had little to lose, when the odd creature already knew all the information he would have needed to doom the Animorphs. <What do you need of me?>
