The Yeerks want these two Hork-Bajir dead. That's good enough for me."

"Me, too," I said. "We'll have to use thought-speak. Talk directly to them."

"Let's do it," Rachel said.

I would have smiled if I'd had a mouth. Rachel is so brave she is just short of being reckless.

I like that about her.

"Hey. Hork-Bajir down there."

I saw them stagger, as though they were shocked and amazed to be hearing thought-speak. Like that was their major problem.

"You're about ten seconds away from being dead," I said. "Listen to me and you just might get out of this alive."

"First of all, stop tearing up the foliage, geniuses. They're following the trail you make. And second of all ... jump left! Now! Jump!" The two Hork-Bajir leaped to their left, just as a pair of motorcycles roared past, missing them by a few feet.

BOOM!BOOM!

One of the Controllers cut loose with both barrels of a shotgun. I could see the pellets tear a tree trunk to wet sawdust.

"0kay, keep going that direction^ I told the Hork-Bajir.

Thought-speak is kind of like E-mail. You can address it to everyone, or you can address it to a

certain person. It sounds complicated, but you get used to it.

"Do you have a plan?" Rachel asked me so that the Hork-Bajir couldn't overhear.

"l hadn't really thought that far ahead," I admitted.

"Do you know a safe place for them to hide?"

I searched my memory. I had to think like a human, not a bird. The Hork-Bajir couldn't exactly hide in trees.

"Yeah. There's a cave I know about. If we can keep them alive till then." The Hork-Bajir were running flat out. But now I saw a pair of big four-by-four pickup trucks coming from the other direction. The trucks raced along a dirt road, coming up to cut off the two fugitive Hork-Bajir. The Yeerks were pulling out all the stops.

"Man, this is like a really bad chess game where the other player has all the pieces," I muttered.

"You know these woods, Tobias," Rachel said. "That's our edge."

"Yeah. We hope." I turned my head left and right. Yes. I did know these woods. I knew where we were. I knew every tree and every ravine and every tiny stream.

"0kay, you guys, cut to your right now. There's a ditch. But there are a couple of Con-trailers in your way. So you need to pass the big rock pile there, keeping it on your left."

The Hork-Bajir hesitated, missed a couple of steps, and looked around in confusion.

"Did you guys hear me?"

"They heard you," Rachel said tersely. "l think the instructions were too complicated."

"0h. Great. Oooookay. In that case, let's play follow the leader." I took a deep breath and glanced around to make sure I knew exactly where I was. Then I spilled a little air from my wings, tried to keep all the speed I could, and dropped down into the trees. "0kay. Time to play "follow the big birdie"!"

I zoomed just over their heads.

"Yeah, me. The big brown bird with the pretty red tail. Follow me and stay close!"

"Tobias!" Rachel yelled. "0ne of the trucks is moving in ahead of you!" I zoomed left and the twin monsters came racing right after me.

Have you ever flown at full speed right through a densely packed forest?

Probably not. So let me tell you - it's exciting. Exciting like a video game set to the highest speed, where one wrong move means you're a bundle of crushed bird bones and feathers.

"Stay with me, boys, we're gonna be hauling butt," I said. I shot between two trees that were

so close together I felt my wingtips brush rough bark. I cranked a right so sudden and sharp I almost splattered against an oak. And then I flapped hard to gain speed before the two not-very-bright Hork-Bajir ran over me.

High overhead, Rachel called down with updates.

"Tobias! Three dirt bikes on your left, converging^

"Tobias, that truck is coming up behind you. They've spotted the Hork-Bajir!"

"Tobias! Look out! Guy with a gun!"

BOOM!BOOM!

Shotgun pellets ripped the air around me and stripped the leaves from a branch.

My flying muscles were aching, but I was too high on sheer adrenaline to care. It was insane! I was rocketing through the woods, barely missing tree trunks, just skimming above the saplings, blowing through territories belonging to other birds who'd have killed me themselves if I'd slowed down.

I was the rabbit and the two deadly Hork-Bajir were the dogs chasing me through the woods. And I'll say this for the Hork-Bajir - they may not be great at following instructions, but they knew how to stay on a target.

ZOOM! Through the trees!

ZOOM! Barely rising fast enough to clear a rocky outcropping!

ZOOM! Left!

ZOOM! Right!

ZOOM! Straight up with every single muscle screaming.

"Tseeeeeer!" I screamed in a combination of fear and total powered-up, red-tailed excitement.

Man, I was doing some serious flying.

But I was not getting close to my goal. And I was not losing the pursuing dirt bikes and four-by-fours.

"Tobias! Oh, man! There's a helicopter coming up from the south. Maybe two minutes away!"

"We're dead meat if that chopper gets here before we lose these Controllers on the ground. There's a stream. Think these monsters swim?"

"They don't look like they do," Rachel said.

"Hork-Bajir. Can you swim? If you can, signal me by quickly slicing down the next sapling you come to."

Slash! A sapling was suddenly shorter.

"AII right then, stay with me!"

I hung a brutally hard right and scraped my belly across a branch doing it. I fought my way through the grasping twigs and leaves and motored on.