The Warning (Animorphs)

infobox Book |
name = The Warning
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Jake morphing into a rhinoceros.
author = K. A. Applegate
illustrator =
cover_artist = David B. Mattingly
country = United States
language = English
series = "Animorphs" #16
genre = Science Fiction
publisher = Scholastic
pub_date = March 1998
english_pub_date =
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages = 151
isbn = 0-590-49430-9
preceded_by = The Escape
followed_by = The Underground

"The Warning" is the sixteenth book in the "Animorphs" series, written by K.A. Applegate. It is narrated by Jake.

Plot Summary

Jake discovers a Yeerk website, but is it what it seems? It looks like a crazy mix of fact and fiction. He's not sure if it's a Yeerk trap, or a place for potential Yeerk-fighters to meet. Jake and the Animorphs decide to travel to the Web Access America headquarters, a two-hour flight from their own city. The kids can't afford plane tickets, so they morph flies. Tobias acquires a fly, and dives into a toilet. Later, a man sits on the toilet, but Jake and Marco help him out. They follow a baby's diaper "gravy", as Marco calls it, to the airlines. After Marco dabbles in a first-class passenger's Salisbury steak, and the occupants on the plane are alerted. A flight attendant swats Jake, nearly killing him. A shaken Jake survives and tries to hide his fear, but Cassie takes notice.

At Web Access America, Marco and Ax hack into the WAA records and discover the identities of some of the screen names on the Yeerk website. They need a distraction, so the children morph and create a spectacle for anyone working in the offices. One of them is the founder of WAA himself, Joe Bob Fenestre - the second richest man in the country. Marco also discovers that his online girlfriend is in fact a seventy-three year-old retired postal worker. On the way back to the airport, Cassie objects to Jake morphing the fly again. Jake disagrees - arguing that a leader needs to help his subordinates to be brave - rather than giving in to it. Their relationship is strained for the time being.

Back home, Jake needs to form a new plan to infiltrate Joe Bob Fenestre's multi-million dollar compound. Cassie objects, wanting to save Gump, a Yeerk forum regular, from confessing to his Controller father what he knows. Jake and the others, though, decide Fenestre's the centre of the issue. Jake, without any prior intelligence or preparation, sends the Animorphs to the billionaire's property. They are immediately attacked by gun-toting humans, pack hounds, and Rachel is shocked unconscious by a bug zapper. Ax is captured by the dogs. Jake and the others, shaken, need to find another way to break in. Jake travels to The Gardens zoo complex, and acquires a rhinoceros morph. He morphs and breaks through the entrance to the Fenestre mansion, impervious to human shotguns. The others follow, and morph their standard battle morphs.

They find Fenestre, along with Rachel and Ax in a suspended time state known as 'biostasis'. Fenestre explains to Jake, Cassie, Marco and Tobias that he is Visser Three's twin brother - Esplin 9466 Lesser. Visser Three, unwilling to share his power with his sibling, banished him to Earth as a lowly telephone operator. Fenestre, combining his Yeerk technical knowledge with his host's human knowledge, created a web service that would serve as a vast pool of information for the Yeerk invasion. The Visser was enraged, and has been plotting to kill him.

Jake asks Fenestre how he survived without a Yeerk pool. Fenestre, his eyes void of emotion, tells him that he finds human-Controllers on the Yeerk forum. He has them kidnapped, splits the hosts' heads open, and feeds on the Yeerk inside. "One every three days. Ten a month." Fenestre admits that he is a cannibal serial killer. A horrified Cassie tries to attack him, but Jake stops her. He'd rather allow Fenestre to kill as many Yeerks as he could - even it means sacrificing the host. Cassie is enraged. Jake threatens Fenestre, and they leave with Rachel and Ax.

Jake later meets with Cassie, who'd been talking to Gump at his elementary school. The saddened Cassie tells Gump never to trust his father. Jake tries to comfort her, but to no avail. Later on, Jake watches a news report that Fenestre's house had been burned down. He hints that he may have burned down the house out of disgust for the cannibal killer.

Morphs

Trivia

*According to the Anibase, Cassie's dissenting attitude towards the Internet is a reflection of the author's own views: "I'm afraid I have a fairly one-sided view of the Internet... I find the Web a huge disappointment. If I want research, I can get what I need ten times faster in any Barnes & Noble. Chat rooms... tend to sink rather quickly to the level of the lowest common denominator... Then again, maybe I'm just old."
*The front cover quote is, "Now it'll take more than the truth to set you free...."
*The inside front cover quote is, "Sometimes you have to blow your own horn...."