"I'll go first and look around. See what's what," Jake announced. "Here goes. Whoooaaaaa!

Man! Whooooaaa! Yah!"

"Jake! Jake, are you okay?" Cassie cried.

"Oh, yeah! What a rush! They should have a waterslide like that at The Gardens. It's like being sucked up a straw by a giant."

"Cool," Rachel said. "I'm next."

"No, let me look around first," Jake said. "I seem to be in some kind of big tank. It's not very deep. At least not yet. It's filling up. With these lame fish eyes I can't see beyond the surface of the water very well. But I think up in the ceiling there's an opening. Like a grate or something."

"Up on the ceiling? How are we going to get up there?" Marco asked.

72 "Well, I think if they fill this whole tank, we'll be near the top eventually. We should be able to morph to human, let ourselves out, then morph into something more dangerous than our human bodies."

"Excuse me," Marco said. "But does anyone else ever stop to realize that some of the things we talk about doing are totally INSANE?"

"What? Turning into fish, so we can be carried by a hawk and let ourselves be sucked up the pipe of an alien spaceship, so that we can then turn into tigers and gorillas and whatever, and overpower the creepy aliens?" Rachel said. "Is that what you mean by insane?"

"That's it exactly."

"Yep," Rachel said. "It is insane."

"Well, okay," Marco said. "As long as we all know we're nuts. Let's do it!" 73 CHAPTER 23

There was nothing to do but wait. Wait while the water level inside the ship rose and carried my friends toward the top of the chamber. Up to where the grate was.

I could not maintain my level flight beneath the ship any longer. I said good-bye to my friends and zoomed out the far side. The open air was a blessing. I soared high on a nice thermal pattern created by the ship itself. I rose high up and over the top of the ship.

The Park Rangers were all around on the ground. The helicopters and two of the Bug fighters were still parked on the ground in the little clearing. The Blade ship was there, too.

Two other Bug fighters continued zipping around at treetop level.

While I watched, they brought the Hork-Bajir who had carelessly fired off the Dracon beam.

They dragged him before Visser Three.

We'd gotten so we thought of Hork-Bajir as these totally fearless, deadly monsters. But this Hork-Bajir was not looking very brave. He collapsed on the ground before Visser Three. I almost felt sorry for him.

It was one of the terrible things about our battle against the Yeerks. See, our enemy was just the Yeerk slug that lived in the heads of Controllers. That Hork-Bajir may have been made a Controller totally against his will. He had lost his freedom to the Yeerk in his head. Now, he was about to lose his life, for something that he had no real control over.

I couldn't hear what was happening down on the ground. But I could see. My hawk's eyes could see far too well.

I turned away. I won't tell you what was happening to the Hork-Bajir. That memory will be my own private nightmare.

But when next I looked, the Hork-Bajir was gone. And in his place was a sudden rush of other Hork-Bajir and Taxxons and humans, all surrounding Visser Three. The Visser looked angry. He was pointing at the sky.

Within a few seconds, the helicopters were lifting off.

The two Bug fighters powered up and took off.

I had a very bad feeling that I knew what had happened. The doomed Hork-Bajir had told Visser Three about the bird he had fired at. And some other Controller had probably said, "Oh, yeah, I saw a bird acting suspiciously, too." And someone had no doubt said, "Hey, wasn't it a bird that distracted the Hork-Bajir yesterday and let that human get away?"

Visser Three had put two and two together. An animal acting unlike an animal meant just one thing to him: Andalites in a morph.

I guess I should have been flattered that Visser Three believed we Animorphs were true Andalite warriors. But it didn't make any difference whether he thought I was an Andalite or a human. He was sending his creatures into the sky. Looking for a bird that was no bird.

74 Me.

A Bug fighter skimmed over the trees. Its twin Dracon beams fired again and again in short, sharp spears of burning light.

My heart was in my throat. They were killing every bird they saw!

The hawk! This was her territory.

But then, behind me, a helicopter! Thwak thwak thwak thwak! Ssshhhheewww!

A Dracon beam. A near miss. I couldn't get away. Between the Bug fighters and the helicopters, they were too numerous, and too fast.

But there was one place no one was going to risk firing a Dracon beam. Not after what Visser Three had just done to the careless Hork-Bajir.

I let go of the air beneath my wings and dropped. Down, down, down. Toward the vast truck ship, spread below me like a steel meadow.

In an instant they were all on me. But the angles were wrong. I was too close to the ship.

They couldn't fire!

I landed on top of the hovering ship. I planted my talons on the hard, cold metal surface. It stretched in every direction around me. The surface curved down and away from me so that I couldn't even see the edges. It was as if I were standing all alone on a metal moon. Over my head hovered helicopters and Bug fighters. I could see human and Hork-Bajir and Taxxon eyes all focused on me.

I knew the look in their eyes. The look of the predator.

And me, their prey.

75 CHAPTER 24

It was not looking good for me. If I tried to fly off-that ship I would be Draconed ten different ways before I could get away.

It was an eerie scene. I stood on the vast metal plain while over my head they hovered, a swarm of deadly predators.

Then things got worse. A lot worse.

It floated up into my vision like a dark moon - the Blade ship of Visser Three.

It hovered just a few hundred feet up. I felt my last reserves of courage beginning to fail.

Tobias, old buddy, I said to myself, you are not going to get out of this alive.

But they just all hovered there. Slowly I began to realize the truth - they didn't know what to do about me. They couldn't shoot me without hitting the ship.

"Andalite!"

The voice in my head made me reel. I almost took wing out of sheer fright.

He had never spoken directly to me before. It was a voice of such absolute power. Such utter confidence. The mere silent sound of it in your head makes you want to obey. Makes you quiver and fear. It is the voice of dread. The voice of destruction.

"Andalite. Fool. Do you think I don't know what you are? A true bird would fly away." Say nothing! I ordered myself. Nothing! If I tried to reply, he might know me for a human. I would not tell him that. I would not give him anything.

I closed my mind. But I could not shut out that dark voice.

"Give yourself up, Andalite. I will give you a quick and painless death. As soon as you tell me where the others are."

I had seen what Visser Three did to the Hork-Bajir who displeased him. The memory was fresh in my mind.

"Have it your way, Andalite. I am patient. I can wait here for as long as it takes. And then you will die. Quickly by Dracon beam. Or, perhaps, if we can snare you, more slowly here in my Blade ship. Much more slowly."

Just then, I heard another voice in my head. A very different voice. It was faint. As if it were far away.

"Tobias? Tobias, can you hear me?"

Rachel!

"Yes, I can hear you!"

76 "Tobias! We're trapped! The tank is full, but the grate won't open. Cassie and Jake have already morphed back to human, but they can't get it open. We're trapped in here!"