The bullet dropped to the carpet.

A hawk zipped by overhead, scraping the walls with its wings. A loose feather drifted down.

"What are you guys doing, looking like that?" Tobias demanded.

"Are they still after you?"

"Yeah, but I lost them temporarily. The room they were guarding is down the hall, then through this big, massive bedroom. You'll see a doorway.

Last time I went past, there were still a couple of guys guarding it."

"What do we do?" Marco asked.

I swear, I almost punched him. If one more person asked me what to do ...

"Morph again. Combat mode. Tobias? Try and reach Rachel and Ax with thought-speak. If you get Rachel, tell her to demorph right now, no arguing. If you get Ax, tell him to -"

"l hear my guys coming," Tobias interrupted. "lnto that side room! It's unlocked. I'll lead them away!"

Marco, Cassie, and I all dodged into the side room. I heard the sound of heavy, weary feet tramping by.

"Where is that lousy bird?"

"What I can't figure is why we're chasing it and blowing holes in the walls and ceiling."

"'Cause we want to keep our jobs, that's why," the first man muttered.

By the time they were gone, I was in tiger morph. The rhino was great for busting things down. But I wanted eyes and ears and reflexes to go along with my power. And nothing I'd ever morphed could do as much damage as the tiger.

Cassie had morphed a wolf, Marco a gorilla. In a fight they were our standard morphs.

"Rachel!" I yelled, as soon as my thought-speak was back. "Rachel! If you can hear me, demorph! Demorph now!" To Marco and Cassie I said, "Come on! Let's do this!"

Marco opened the door with his almost-human fingers and we ran. Down the hall, through a bedroom that I swear, without exaggeration, was as big as a basketball court, and up to the doorway, where two very scared-looking guys stood cradling weapons.

One carried a shotgun. The other a small submachine gun. They were thirty feet away. For a frozen moment, no one moved.

I could cover thirty feet in two seconds.

In those same two seconds, the guy with the machine gun could fire ten rounds. He could easily kill me. If he failed, the force of my leap, my desperate need to defend myself, would ensure that he died.

It was time to gamble. "Look, you two men . . ." They stared at me like they were going nuts. They could guess that it was me they were hearing in their heads. But they had never even imagined talking to a tiger before.

Then again, they'd never expected to be face-to-face with a small, angry zoo, either.

"Yes, it's me, the tiger. Don't worry about how

or why. Here's all you need to know: I don't want to hurt you. But I have to go past you. You may shoot me, but you won't kill me fast enough to keep me from taking you down. See this paw?"

I lifted one paw. My tiger paws are about as big around as a frying pan.

I extended the cruel, yellowed claws.

"With this paw, I can literally knock your heads from your shoulders and send them rolling like bowling balls. Now, I don't know what you're getting paid for this job -"

"Not enough," said the man with the machine gun. "I can't believe I'm talking to animals. But that tiger makes sense."

"We're not getting paid nearly enough," his partner agreed. "We put down our weapons and walk away. Agreed, Mr. Tiger?"

"Agreed. Cassie? Keep an eye on them."

Cassie trained her acute wolf senses on the men. If they had even thought about trying anything tricky, she'd have known it before they did.

"Marco? Now it's your turn to open a door. Open that door." Marco raised his huge gorilla arms back over his head, preparing to swing them down with shattering force.

"Marco? Try the knob first."

"0h."

He opened the door. And I leaped through.

J. bounded into the room. It was dark, but my tiger's eyes could see through the gloom as easily as if it had been lit with stadium lights.

There seemed to be a sky overhead. Green, mostly, with vivid flashes of lightning. Scruffy plants grew from what seemed to be soil beneath my feet. And in the center of the room, perhaps fifteen feet across, was a shallow pond of liquid the color and consistency of molten lead.

There were two cages beside the pool. Ax was in one. He was halfway between his northern harrier morph and his own Andalite body. He was frozen stiff. Unmoving. Not even breathing, like some nightmare statue composed of gray feathers and a scorpion tail and talons and a mouth-less face.

In the other cage was Rachel. Still a bald eagle.

My tiger eyes were very good. My tiger ears were good, too. I heard no heartbeat from her. I saw no slight movement of her chest rising and falling with breathing.

I felt my heart stop beating for several long seconds. Dead. Both dead.

I'd been too late.

There was a man there, too. I recognized the face. Joe Bob Fenestre, the second richest man on earth. Head of Web Access America.

I recognized what he had in his hand, too: a Yeerk Dracon beam. He was not pointing it at me. He was pointing it at Ax.

Wrong again, Jake. This man was a Controller. Had to be.

Marco and Cassie came in behind me. After a few moments Tobias joined us. But Fenestre just kept staring at me.

At last he spoke. "So. Not Yeerks, after all. I'm to be destroyed by Andalites. Well, I suppose there is some honor in that, at least."

"Let my friends go," I said harshly.

He shrugged, "You can take them. I don't care. Killing Andalites is not my life anymore."

"Yeah? My friends are dead," I said.

He frowned. "Nonsense. Don't you recognize bio-stasis when you see it? They are simply frozen in time. I thought you Andalites were supposed to be so advanced when it comes to technology."

My heart quickened. Bio-stasis? What was that?

"Get them out of there," I said.