"He'll think she's a traitor," Ax said instantly. "lt's what he wants to believe. And when he sees that we've let her live, it will be all the evidence he needs."

"l'm sorry, Marco," Rachel said. The violent frenzy of battle was drained from her now. "l didn't know."

"Shut up, Xena," I said harshly.

"Hey, I'm trying to be nice."

"l know. So shut up."

Ax had gone back to the computer. "She's locked me out. It could take me ten minutes to bypass."

The movement was just a blur out of the corner of my eye. I had no time to yell. I just saw Visser One - my mother - grab the Dracon beam she had dropped. She rolled with it, brought it up, and aimed it squarely at Rachel.

Too far away to grab her!

Instinct took over. Not gorilla instinct, but human instinct. The lightning-quick, intelligent, and ruthless decision-making that had allowed Homo sapiens to rule over all the other animals.

I snatched up a chair. It was heavy. Steel and leather.

And I flung it with all the power in my gorilla arms. I meant to throw it at my mother. I missed. Or maybe I meant to miss. Maybe I'll never know for sure.

But the chair flew fast and hard.

It hit the bubble window.

CRUNCH!

The glass wasn't shattered, only cracked. But the pressure of the water beyond was too great. It began to seep and then to spray through.

My mother flinched.

TSEEEEWWW! The Dracon beam missed.

Rachel reacted swiftly, slapping Visser One with the back of her paw. A nasty blow, but not a fatal one.

"That window is going to break!" Ax yelled.

"We have to get out of here!" Rachel yelled. "Now, now, now!"

"l have to save her!" I cried.

"Run, you idiot, or no one will be saved!" Rachel cried.

CRRR-UMPH! The window exploded inward!

FWOOOOOOSH!

It was like standing with your face two inches from a fire hose. The power of the water was insane! It was like getting hit by a log.

I was instantly knocked off my feet, swirling and swirling in the insane, foaming avalanche of water.

The room was a tornado. Water whipped everything around in a spiral. And then something long and brilliant yellow came shooting into the room.

Visser Three! The sudden suction had overwhelmed him and drawn him in, like lint being sucked by a vacuum cleaner.

The office door popped out like a cork. Rachel, Ax, me, and Visser Three's huge sea serpent morph went flying down the hall. It was like we'd been shot out of a cannon.

Down the hallway as the walls collapsed outward.

FWOOOSH!

Out through the annihilated wall of the building. The water spread out a little then and I could see where I was. I looked for her and saw her floating facedown a hundred yards away.

I tried to swim to her. But the current was too powerful.

"Morph!" Rachel yelled.

But I had already begun. I was halfway to hu-

man again. I saw Rachel, mostly still a bear, go spinning by.

I caught a glimpse of something with pebbly green-and-yellow skin moving easily through the raging tidal wave. Its tentacles seemed perfectly designed for resisting the current.

The Leeran!

He was heading for my mother.

To save her? To destroy her? To capture her so that Visser Three could enjoy watching her suffer?

I don't know. Because I was swept into the dock and sank down into the deep water.

I gasped desperately for air, my human lungs on fire!

And I searched for the shark inside me.

he sharks were waiting for us. The super-hammerheads. They were there, circling the facility. I don't know how, but somehow they'd been put on alert. Or maybe the destruction of the facility just had them agitated.

"Here they come!" Cassie warned.

If you have ever wondered what fear looks like, I can draw you a picture: It's a dozen hammerhead sharks looking at you and grinning their evil, down turned hammerhead grins.

On they came. And I didn't care. I didn't care. I wanted battle. I wanted pain. And I wanted to inflict pain. I wasn't the calm, emotionless shark. I was a boy who'd watched his mother die. Again.

I didn't wait for the sharks to reach me. I

kicked my elegant hammerhead tail and I went for the nearest, biggest shark I could see.

We closed, like two colliding cars. Face-to-face. Hammer-to-hammer.

I twisted my hammer head and planed sideways, then twisted instantly back. My foe had tried to react. But he was only a smart shark, while I was a human. I knew how he would react, and I was ready.

Too late, he saw my mouth open. Too late, he saw the rows of serrated triangles. I bit. I closed my jaws down with enough power to sever a leg.

I ripped a chunk out of that shark and yelled, "Yes! Yes! Come and get some more!"

"Marco! Stop it!" Jake shouted.

I twisted till I was upside down, kicked, turned my head, and grabbed the tail of my opponent. I sawed my teeth and removed the upper lobe of the shark's tail.

"Marco! I said stop it!"

Suddenly a shark body slammed into me. It knocked me sideways. My opponent swam away, definitely not interested in fighting anymore.

I turned toward this new shark.

"lt's me, Marco," Jake said. "lt's me. They're leaving. They've broken off. They've lost the signal from the facility and they are escaping." I just stared at him. At the shark he was.

"lt's over, Marco. Let's get out of here."

The blood lust faded. I looked around and saw the last of the engineered sharks heading away.

Huge bubbles were erupting from the underwater facility. Explosions rocked the sea, like echoing hammer blows through the water. The hologram that disguised the facility shimmered and disappeared as we swam away from the absolute horror.