And the attack was underway! "We have to break through and run," Jake said. "Bunch up. Bunch up in a wedge and we'll power our way through." We did as he said. We sidled in close together, and on Jake's signal we shot straight ahead. We were one big dolphin fist.

"Don't stop for anything!" Rachel yelled.

But the sharks were already reacting. They had figured out our plan.

They were rushing to cut us off. I glanced back and saw that they had left a rear guard just in case we turned around.

Impossible. The sharks were acting together. Like a pack of wolves.

And they were plenty smart about it.

"Keep going!" Jake said.

More and more of the sharks had managed to get themselves in front of us. We were closing in on them, and they were closing in on us. I could see individual teeth as they opened their mouths in greedy anticipation of dolphin flesh.

Then I had a flash. A flash of inspiration born out of pure terror.

"Surface!" I yelled.

"What?"

"Sharks don't jump!" I said. "Sharks do not jump." Inches from the rows of ripping teeth, we turned and headed up. I rocketed for the surface.

FWOOOSH! Out of the water we came.

PLOOOSH! Down we came. But we came down on the other side of the row of sharks. They turned to chase us, but we had gained several feet on them.

We hauled. The sharks came after us. And unfortunately, we were aimed away from shore out into deep and deeper water.

"Can we outrun them?" Tobias wondered.

"We're about to find out," I said.

Then . . .

Scree-EEEE-eeee-EEEE-eeee-EEEE-eeee!

It was a siren, just loud enough to be heard with acute dolphin hearing. If I'd been human I doubt I'd have heard it at all. But instantly, without hesitation, the sharks turned around and swam away.

"What was that all about?" Rachel asked.

"Why did they retreat?" Ax wondered, after catching up to the rest of us.

Cassie expressed my own personal feeling at that moment. "Who cares why?

Let's just get out of here before they change their minds again."

"Amen," Tobias said.

But like an idiot I said, "We should go below. See what called them off." I guess I was starting to realize how it must have looked when I bolted before the others.

"l agree with Marco," Rachel said.

Naturally, Rachel agreeing with me convinced me I was obviously wrong.

But it was too late. We all sucked in a deep lungful of air and went down.

"Yahh! Look out!"

Not twenty feet below us was a submarine. But not a submarine any human ever built. It wasn't all that big, I guess, although it seemed like it when it was right below us. It was shaped like a stingray. It had downcurved water wings on either side. And at the back was a cluster of what looked like three engines, each a twenty-foot-long fattened cylinder, like a comical cigar.

But what was insane about the sub was that about three-quarters of it was perfectly clear. Except for the engines, and occasional tools, implements, and furniture inside, it was a glass submarine.

We could see directly into the sub. I saw three decks, all transparent.

It looked like the crew, a mix of human, Hork-Bajir, Taxxon, and Gedd, were all just calmly walking and sitting and standing in the water itself. Plus moving by at a good twenty miles an hour.

At the front of the sub was what had to be the command bridge. There were Hork-Bajir and Taxxons working at red-and-yellow computer terminals. And in the center of the room was a chair. It reminded me of Captain Kirk's chair on the original Star Trek.

Standing beside the chair was a bizarre creature. It had pebbly yellowish skin that seemed slimy, like it was coated with Vaseline. It sat like a frog on big hind legs with webbed feet. But instead of a frog's tiny front legs, this creature had four tentacles spaced evenly around its body.

It had a big head that just sat on its shoulders with no neck. The face was curved outward, with a hugely wide mouth that seemed frozen in a sort of idiot grin. There were two eyes, both brilliant green and large.

As the sub passed beneath us, this creature

seemed to shake, like he was having just a slight tremor. I saw him turn around to face us as we receded behind the sub. He gazed at us with his blazing green eyes.

The person sitting in the captain's chair must have said something.

Because the frog thing sort of looked troubled, then shrugged in a very humanlike gesture.

The person in the chair stood up. She stretched. She turned around and looked up. Right at us. Right at me.

And I swear I had to stop myself from saying, "Hi, Mom."

"Visser One!" Rachel said harshly. "So the main creep is here on Earth." The sub blew past without making a sound. The sharks fell in behind it.

And the sub, its occupants, and the sharks all disappeared into the hologram of a nice, normal seabed.

I had homework to do when I got home. Tons of it. I was supposed to do a book report, among other things, and I had to have it in by Monday. Five pages. And my English teacher doesn't respond well to five pages of babble and baloney.

I said hi to my dad. He asked what I wanted to eat for dinner. I said, "Anything but fish."

"Pizza?"

"No anchovies. That's all I'm saying."

I went upstairs and found the book I was supposed to read. It was under a dirty sweatshirt I'd thrown on my desk. I looked at the cover. Lord of the Rings. It was three books long and each of the three books was as long as three books. I only

had to report on the first book, but even that was impossible.

"What was I thinking, choosing a book this long?" I moaned.

Of course, I knew the answer. I was supposed to have started reading it like a month ago. I flopped down on my bed and placed my headphones over my ears. Then I pulled a pillow over my head. I fumbled blindly for my remote control and hit play.

Reggae. Some good old classic reggae. Bob Marley. I'd bought the CD at a point when I was considering growing dreadlocks. Never mind why. Okay, it had to do with this girl at school.