I saw Tobias sitting perched on his branch. I felt his instinctive hawk's caution as a flight of five horned owls flew past.

The day belonged to the hawks. But night was ours.

"Good luck," Tobias said. "Don't eat anything I wouldn't eat. "

"Hah-hah," Marco laughed. He was high on the thrill of a good morph. So was I, I guess.

There is a rush of power that comes from being an animal in its natural element. Particularly a predator.

In the air at night, nothing could touch us. We reigned supreme in the forest.

We flew in a loose formation, not soaring above the trees, but flitting through them. Our wings didn't make a sound. An owl's wings are as carefully designed as the wings of the most advanced stealth fighter. More, really. The feathers are designed not to flutter or ruffle as the owl glides through the still night air.

Frightened mice, listening for any possible danger, hear nothing at all as the owl swoops down for the kill.

As well as I could see, I could also hear everything. I could hear as well as the wolves.

As we flew to what might be our destruction, I tried to focus on my other goal -- listening for the cries of skunk kits. Watching the ground below for the waddling, shuffling walk of a lost baby skunk.

"This is so weird," Marco said. "I love this part. It's the next part I'm not looking forward to at all."

"It'll be okay," Jake said.

41 "Yeah, I mean, what could possibly go wrong?" Rachel asked dryly.

I swooped and zoomed through the trees. All the while I watched the ground below me and focused my hearing, and in that way I reached the Yeerk compound without having to think too much about what was coming next.

42 Chapter ELEVEN

"Almost there," Jake said. "Another couple of minutes." Even in thought-speak I could hear the tension in his voice. I felt something like a cold hand squeezing my heart.

Then . . .

A noise. A noise against a background of noises. But this noise was one that the owl's brain wanted to hear. A noise the owl's brain had evolved to notice. The sound of helplessness. The sound of a weak creature. Weak, tiny, helpless babies.

There! It was coming from a hole that no other animal would have seen in the pitch-black of night. A hole dug beneath the roots of a thorn-bush.

Four... no, five separate voices. were they the skunk kits? Maybe. I couldn't be sure. But it was night, and they sounded like they were alone. It could be.

I looked around, swiveling my owl's neck. I tried to form a picture of the place. The trees.

The outcropping of rocks just twenty feet away. I wanted to be able to find the place again.

If I was still around to find anything.

The mewling sound of the babies reached something inside me. Inside the human Cassie. But to the owl it was the sound of a meal.

It's strange to have those two feelings in your head at the same time -- human compassion and the cold ruthlessness of the predator. Strange.

"Okay," Jake said, a few seconds later. "Here. "

We swooped low and landed. I started to de-morph quickly. I didn't want to feel that predator in my mind anymore. Not right then.

The world went dark as my human eyes reemerged. The forest was a darker, quieter place to Homo sapiens.

I looked around and couldn't see any of the landmarks I'd tried to spot. I would never find those skunk kits in the dark. Not with human eyes, anyway. Maybe by the light of day. I could come back in the morning.

If. . .

"Okay, we have to get as close to the edge of that compound as we can," Jake whispered.

"We can't be spotted as humans. But we can't morph termites too far from the building.

Termites don't exactly move fast."

"I have a suggestion, Prince Jake," Ax said.

43 Ax is under the impression that Jake is the equivalent of an Andalite prince.

"A distraction," he continued. "We could give the Yeerks something to chase. " I knew instantly what he had in mind. "An Andalite?" I asked him.

"The Yeerks would not be able to resist," he said.

"You could end up very dead that way," Marco said.

"No, Ax," Jake said. "We need you inside. There may be Yeerk computers in there. We need you. But a distraction isn't a bad idea." Jake looked at me. "Anyone want to volunteer? It would probably be safer than going inside."

He was offering me a way out. A way to avoid having to become a termite. I should have said yes. I wanted to say yes. But I couldn't do it. I couldn't take the easier way out.

"Okay, we draw straws. All except Ax. He goes in, regardless."

Jake pulled up four strands of tall grass. He shortened them all to about six inches. Then, he took one and shortened it further. "Short straw plays tag with the Yeerks."

He concealed the bottoms of the straws in his fist.

"Next time let's play some other game," Marco said as he drew a straw. "Yahtzee, maybe. I don't like games that involve life and death."

One after the other, we each drew a straw. A long straw. I looked carefully at the straw in my hand. Yes, it was a long one.

Jake looked shocked. He held the short straw.

We were all shocked. Somehow it just seemed automatic that Jake would be there with us.

Marco grinned. "Sooner or later we had to try a mission without you, oh great and fearless leader."

Marco could joke about it. But none of us felt right going in without Jake. Now it was too late to change that.

"Okay," Jake said briskly. "You guys know what to do. I'll use the wolf morph. The Yeerks will be on the lookout for wolves." He started to walk away. Then he stopped and looked back. "Be careful, all right?"

"Go ahead, Mom," Rachel said. "We can handle this."

"At least we hope we can," I muttered.

Jake walked away and was quickly out of sight.

44 "Okay, we have to be ready as soon as Jake starts making trouble," Rachel said. "We hear something go down, we run toward the perimeter of the compound, staying just back in the trees, morph, and hope we can find the way to the building."

"What do you know about these termites we are morphing?" Ax wondered.

"They're like ants," Marco said.

"Actually, they're related to cockroaches," I said. "I looked them up in one of my mom's books. They have a society like ants, but roaches are closer relatives. They eat cellulose -- the stuff in wood. Bacteria in their guts digest the wood. The worker termites . . . they, urn, they eliminate their waste. And the soldier termites kind of eat it. I think, judging from the termite Tobias brought us, that we are going to be morphing soldier termites."

The three of them were staring at me, looking a little sick.

"Well, Ax wanted to know," I said.

A light!

"Look!" I hissed. "Way off through the woods. That must be on the far side of the compound.

The spotlights just went on."

We could hear the sounds of human voices yelling. And then, the wild, defiant howl of a wolf.

"That's it. Let's rock," Rachel said.

We ran toward the compound. We ran, hunched low, scurrying from tree to bush. Then, as we got still closer, we dropped down and crawled on all fours.

I heard shouting and the eerie zap of Dracon beams being fired.

"I hope he's okay," I whispered. I didn't think anyone could hear me.

But Ax said, "Prince Jake is very smart. He will be fine. "

"Do you guys think we're close enough now?" Marco wondered.