Each team with an armed man."
"Colonel Hogan would never get out of this place," I said. I was pleased when Marco and Tobias laughed. "l guess now we know who watches Hogan's Heroes reruns on Nick."
Cassie, with her osprey eyes that were designed to spot fish down below the water, said, "There's some sort of underwater fence, too. I can't see it all, but there's a definite line beneath the water."
"ls this human in great danger?" Ax wondered.
"Nah, that's just the way rich people are," Marco said.
"0kay, so how do we get into this place?" I asked. "Anyone have any brilliant ideas?"
"Fly right in through an open window," Tobias suggested. "There's one on the back side of the house."
"Then what?" Cassie asked. "We need to be able to move around inside the house. Find Mr. Fenestre's office maybe. And be able to overhear what's going on."
"We could do flies again," Marco suggested.
"We could do ants, too," Cassie said, taking an uncharacteristic shot at Marco, who had sworn never to morph an ant again.
It was time for me to decide. "0kay, first of all, we go in like Tobias said. Only Tobias stays outside and uses his eyes and ears to report what he sees through the windows. Inside half of us morph to fly, the others to cockroach. We spread out and keep in touch by thought-speak.
Anyone finds Fenestre, he calls the others. Okay?"
"Let's do it!" Rachel said as she spilled air from her wings and plummeted toward the open window.
Down she went, huge wings swept back, talons up, her blazing white eagle's head up to keep her eyes focused on the window.
Cassie was about twenty feet behind her, then
me, then Marco and Ax. Tobias caught an updraft and soared higher, up to a level where he could see everything happening on the estate.
Down Rachel went. Down I went, fast as a bullet.
Rachel flared at the last minute to kill some of her speed, brought her talons forward, and sailed through the open -
TSAPPPPP!
"Break off! Cassie, break off!"
Cassie was already reacting. She opened her wings, yanked a hard right, and skimmed within inches of the rough stucco wall of the mansion.
"Rachel!" I yelled. "Rachel!"
She had gone through the window. She was inside. But she wasn't answering. And with my falcon's eyes I could just make out a dim shape lying sprawled on the floor of the room inside.
Rachel was unconscious.
At least, I hoped she was only unconscious.
Rachel! Trapped!
"Sheer off! Everyone back! Get altitude!"
BRRRRRRINNNNNNNGGGG!
ScreeeeEEEE! ScreeeeEEEE! ScreeeeEEEE!
Alarms were ringing. A siren shrieked. I heard men's voices shouting.
I saw Cassie shoot high up, passing the top of the wall to keep her momentum. But Marco and Ax were struggling with dead air. So was I. I flapped hard, but the air down that close to the ground was still and cool. I flapped harder and rose, but slowly. Too slowly.
"Shoot them!"
"What, the birds?"
"Yes! The birds! Those are the orders!"
"Prince Jake!" Ax cried out, "l have been hit!" I saw the northern harrier stagger in the air and start to fall. Could I reach him before he hit the ground?
"Hold on, Ax-man, I'm coming," Tobias said. He was the only one of us with any altitude. Down he came in a mad, suicidal stoop, plunging toward the ground.
Ax had been thirty feet in the air when he started falling. Tobias was fifty feet up. It was impossible!
But down Tobias went, like a reddish bullet. He caught up with Ax when Ax's fluttering body was three feet from hitting the ground.
"This is gonna hurt!" Tobias yelled. He sank his talons into Ax's shoulder and chest, opened his wings, and swept down along the falling slope of the lawn, never more than an inch from disaster.
Cassie was rushing to help. She grabbed one of Ax's wings and she and Tobias managed to drag and haul the injured Andalite over the inner fence and the second fence. But they dropped him in the dog run.
A team of Rottweilers came tearing for him.
The dogs were racing, salivating, their big jowls shaking. Their trainer followed more slowly, unlimbering a submachine gun.
"Cassie! Tobias! Now or never!" I yelled as I went into a shallow dive. Too shallow, too slow. The dogs were sure to see me coming. But I aimed right for them. Right for the eyes of the nearest animal. I swept my talons forward.
The dog caught sight of me out of the corner of his eye. He turned! I struck!
Snap! A massive, crushing jaw closed over my left wing tip. But the teeth found nothing but feathers. I hit the grass, rolling. The dog came after me. In three bounds he'd have me. I was helpless.
Then something rocketed down, just behind me: a second osprey! Marco!
Marco raked the dog from behind, tearing a red line up the back of the dog's neck.
ROOWWWRR!
The dog spun, Marco flapped away, and I worked like a madman to get off the ground.
But the second dog had kept his focus on Tobias, Cassie, and Ax. Tobias and Cassie were flapping madly, dragging Ax's tattered bird body along the grass. They would almost get off the ground, then slip back. The dog was on them.
"leave him!" I yelled.
"No way!" Tobias cried.
"Do it! Do it or you're all dead!"
Tobias and Cassie released Ax's body. They
fluttered away and the dog ran straight to the injured Ax and snatched him up in his jaws.
"Keep! Keep, Achilles!" the dog handler yelled.
With my keen vision I saw the dog freeze his jaw. He held Ax but did not bite down.