"Tell me more about the Leerans," Cassie said.

I shrugged. I don't really know any more than you know. They are amphibians. They live primarily in the oceans. Originally I suppose they came on land to lay their eggs. Now I suppose their technology allows them to do all that in their underwater cities."; "So why do they even care about what happens on the land?"

They wouldn't care. Except that the Yeerks can use the continent as a base for attacks against the underwater cities. Other than that, I don't suppose the Leerans would even ... care ...

what ..."; I stopped breathing. Yes! Of course! Of course that would be Galuit's plan.

"What? What is it?" Cassie demanded sharply.

Prince Jake!"; I cried.

"Yeah?"

We must reach the ocean. If I am right, some Andalites will be in the Leeran cities. In any case, we must get to the sea as quickly as possible!"; "Why?"

I hesitated. Prince Jake ...

Jake ... you must trust me. We cannot stay on land. We have to reach the water."; Prince Jake looked at me for a long time.

"Okay," he said at last. "I trust you."

One more thing,"; I said. If at any time it seems the Yeerks may catch us, if it seems they might take me alive, you must not let them. You must destroy me yourself rather than let them take me. Promise me."; "What? Why?"

Because I think I know what is going to happen. And if I am right, this defeat will become the greatest victory in Andalite history. And that information cannot fall into the hands of the Yeerks. No matter the price. No matter what.";

The continent was small by continent standards, but it still took the rest of the night to reach the shore. We morphed birds and flew. We stopped when we were near the two-hour limit and rested. And all the while I wondered if there was enough time left.

We flew above scenes of recent carnage.

Burned-out ground skimmers, crumpled Andalite fighters and Yeerk Bug fighters.

As the sun rose on Leera, I looked down and saw a still-smoldering Andalite ground attack ship crumpled into a Yeerk ship. They had hit so hard that you couldn't tell where one left off and the other began.

And then, finally, there was the sea. It stretched forever, brilliant blue, far more vivid and bright than the oceans of Earth, which are usually gray.

I tried to look around and spot some landmark.

Some outline of coastline that would seem familiar from my faint memory of the holographic maps.

But it was just endless miles of muddy shallows, overgrown with rushes and reeds and strange yellow trees that swirled horizontally.

Big ocean,"; Rachel said. How do we--"; How do we what?"; Prince Jake asked.

It took several seconds for us to notice, to realize.

Rachel was gone!

Rachel!"; Cassie cried.

Rachel!"; We searched the sky. Nothing. Not even our powerful raptor eyes could see anything. No clue. No sign. Nothing.

What's happening?"; Marco demanded, angry because he was afraid. She was just here!

She was talking!"; Ax, what is this?"; Prince Jake asked. First Tobias, now Rachel!"; I don't know. I don't know."; Maybe someone on the ground shot her,"; Cassie moaned. Oh, God, Rachel!

Rachel!"; There was no Dracon flash,"; I said.

ationothing. One second she was there. The next second she was gone."; Maybe it was someone or something on the ground,"; Prince Jake said. We have to get out of here. Into the water!"; We dove from the sky. I knew no one had fired at us, but I dove as fast as the humans.

Whatever was making my friends disappear, it scared me. Whatever it was, I didn't want to be in its sights.

Down we dove, wings back.

Splash!

I went under, plowing into the warm water. I instantly began to demorph. I bobbed to the surface, already more Andalite than harrier. The water saturated my feathers, but the feathers were disappearing. I sucked air in through a nasty hole that was part beak and part Andalite nose.

I dove under again, and finished demorphing. I surfaced and found Prince Jake, Cassie, and Marco all treading water, finishing their own demorphing.

"Dolphin morph!" Prince Jake said.

"Ax, you'll have to morph your tiger shark."

"Wait, no!" Cassie said. "We don't know what's in this ocean, but the Yeerks thought hammerhead sharks would be the baddest things around, right? That's why they wanted to create shark-Controllers to fight in this ocean. We should all go shark."

"Yeah. Good point," Jake agreed.

"Okay, then. Let's go shark. And everyone watch everyone else. We've had two people disappear. We're not going to have a third!"

Shark, I thought, and began to perform the morph.

I should explain the Earth creatures called sharks. They are fish. They breathe by extracting oxygen from the water itself, using thin membranes called gills.

But there are many fish in Earth's oceans.

Only a few are called sharks. Some sharks are pleasant, peaceful eaters of plankton.

Others are small and prey only on smaller fish.

But there are some sharks that humans call "man-eaters." These sharks are swimming killing machines. If it is possible to imagine a Yeerk having its own natural body, a body perfectly adapted for the Yeerk's ruthlessness and destructiveness, the shark would be that body.

It has massively powerful jaws lined with razor-sharp teeth. It has skin that is literally covered in millions of very tiny teeth. Skin that can rip human flesh. And it has an array of senses each attuned to one thing: finding prey. Finding and killing.

Excellent eyesight. Excellent sense of smell that can detect a handful of blood molecules diluted in a billion gallons of salt water. An electrical field sensor that feels the energy of other living creatures.

If some scientist had sat down to design the ultimate seagoing predator, the ultimate seagoing biological weapon, and had come up with the hammerhead shark, he'd be very proud of his work.

I felt myself morphing the shark. Felt the scythelike dorsal fins grow from my spine.

Felt my tail blade split to become the swept-back, skin-slicing tail. Felt my stalk eyes move out to the sides to become the ugly hammer's head. Felt the new senses come alive in my brain. Felt the teeth--the rows of serrated, triangular, flesh-ripping, bone-crunching teeth.

And I felt the shark's cold, clear, brutally focused mind join my own.

I kicked my tail and moved through the water.

Jake, Cassie, and Marco swam beside me. I suppose, like me, they felt powerful at that moment. And would have felt more powerful still, except for one terrible reality: There should have been six of us.

And now only four sharks swam out into the Leeran ocean.

I wish Rachel and Tobias were seeing this,"; Cassie said. Her thought-speak voice was a mix of wonder and bitterness. This is nothing like Earth's oceans."; It was true. The continent might have been a dull, uninteresting place, but the ocean was amazing. Earth's seas contain many fascinating and wonderful creatures, but most of what you see as you swim there is murky water and a sandy bottom.

In this ocean the water was as clear as air.

Clearer, in fact, than Leeran air, which is so heavy with humidity it sometimes seems like you're breathing clouds.

The water was perfectly, utterly clear. We were swimming in water that was forty feet deep, and we could see every detail on the ocean floor.

And what detail! Huge, billowing creatures like white and yellow sails, triangular with biological propellers at each corner. Brilliant, electric-blue worms or snakes, each seventy feet long, swimming in wild schools. A bizarre creature that rose and fell through the water by blowing air into a bladder so thin it was almost transparent.