If they demorph surrounded by Controllers ... I mean, they'll know Rachel is human, which means they'll figure out that we're all human.

All except Ax."

"l know," I said. Actually, it was worse than that. See, Rachel knew she couldn't demorph where she could be seen by Controllers. If I knew Rachel, she'd rather be trapped forever in her eagle's body than let the truth out. She knew that if the Yeerks ever learned we were humans, not some bunch of renegade Andalites, our days were numbered. In low numbers.

"Being trapped in eagle form may not be the worst thing facing Rachel," Tobias said.

"0h, yeah, you'd think that!" Marco sneered with savage sarcasm.

"Maybe Rachel doesn't want to spend the rest of her life eating mice and living in trees like you, Tobias."

"That's not what I meant," Tobias snapped back. "l meant she may not be alive. Or the body she's trapped in may be injured beyond saving."

"Ax was alive, I'm sure of that," Cassie said, a bit calmer than the other two.

"Didn't any of this show up when you researched this lunatic's mansion?" Marco demanded of me.

I didn't answer. I had to think. Time was running out. Tobias and Marco were at each other's throats. Cassie was starting to moan about how they'd find her parents, sooner or later. How once they had Rachel it was only a matter of time.

I had to make a plan. But who was I to be making plans? I'd led everyone into a disaster. Rachel ... Ax ... all of us, maybe.

"l don't know what to do." It came out as a sob. I hadn't planned it.

Hadn't meant to say it.

"What?" Tobias said.

"Ticktock, ticktock," Marco said angrily. "We need a plan. Time is running out!"

"l don't have a plan, all right?!" I yelled.

"Don't give me that," Marco shouted in my head. "You got us into this, now get us out!"

"Leave him alone," Cassie said, coming to my defense.

But Marco's words had been spears aimed right at my heart. And Cassie defending me just made things worse.

My mind was split in two. Part of it was racing like an Indy car whose engine is ready to explode. Another part of it was swimming through molasses, stuck on the awful fact that Marco was right. I had failed my friends.

"We ... we could use cockroach morphs," Cassie said. "Crawl into the mansion and -"

"No time," Marco said. "We'd have to morph way outside the outer fence, then get all the way up the hill, hundreds of yards. Besides, they're Controllers in there. They'll be ready for us now."

"No," I said suddenly.

"No, what?" Tobias said.

"They aren't Controllers," I said, suddenly absolutely sure. "Any time we've ever gone after the Yeerks they may have used a lot of human-Controllers. But backing them up were always Hork-Bajir. No Hork-Bajir. And everyone used guns. Plain old, everyday guns. And dogs.

The Yeerks wouldn't use dogs."

"What kind of a human being would tell his guards to shoot birds?" Marco demanded.

"l don't know. But these are humans. Just humans. But Rachel and Ax may not know that.

We have to get them out of there. And we don't have time to be subtle."

"They still have guns," Cassie pointed out. "They may not have Dracon beams or squadrons of Hork-Bajir, but they still have guns and fences and dogs and probably some big, thick doors."

"Yeah, they do," I agreed. "And we don't have any morphs between us that are fast enough, and tough enough to bust into that place without getting shot up. But I have an idea. How far are we from The Gardens?" J. flew as fast as my falcon body could carry me, which was pretty fast.

But the wind was against me. I tried to tell myself it would all work out because on the way back the wind would be with me. But who can tell with the wind?

I left Marco and Cassie behind to keep an eye on things. I gave them instructions to do nothing. I didn't want us to get back and find they were captured, too.

But who was I to be giving anyone orders? I'd led my friends into a trap. A trap I might have expected if I'd taken the time to do some research. But no, I'd spent the night wasting time with my family.

Cassie had been right all along. We should

have tried to save Gump. That would have been the easy thing to do.

Instead I had to try and play the big general and decide to go after Fenestre, even without any preparation.

Tobias flew with me to The Gardens. I wanted to be alone, really, but Tobias is a hundred times more experienced than any of us in the air. He knew the winds and clouds and thermals. He could help me fly faster.

We'd had less than an hour and a half. By the time we were flying above the animal habitats of The Gardens, we would have less than an hour.

Half an hour to get back. That left half an hour to do what I had come to do, and to rescue Rachel and Ax back at the mansion.

There was no time to waste.

"Are you going to tell me what we're here for?" Tobias grumbled.

"Right down there," I said.

Below us was an outdoor habitat of mixed grasses, a muddy wallow, and a water hole. Four shapes were visible in the habitat. Four large shapes that looked like fugitives from the age of dinosaurs.

"Rhinos?" Tobias asked incredulously.

"Yeah. I need a morph that can go straight through those fences, through the doors, and take a couple of bullets if need be. You have a better idea?"

"Nope. Not me. But how are you going to get close enough to acquire one of those things?"

"Two of the rhinos are off at the far end of the habitat. The crowds may not able to see them all that well."

"You're just going to go right in?"

"There's no time for anything else."

"0h, man. Look, at least let me provide a distractions I hesitated. Tobias was waiting for me to say yes or no. What if I was wrong? Again? Still, I could use a distraction. "Yeah, okay. But don't get hurt. You hear? Do not get hurt."

Tobias peeled off and I floated down, down, like going down a spiral staircase. I aimed right for the broad back of the biggest rhinoceros. I flared my wings, reached out with my talons, and landed as gently as I could.