"Why? Do they fart in public or something?"

"Leerans are supposed to be psychic. They can read minds. At least they can do it if they're within close range. We have technological and military secrets we don't want the Leerans to know. Plus, you know, thoughts you might not want strangers listening in on. Now, where did you hear about Leerans?"

"Erek. The Chee. He says there's some kind of secret underwater thing going on with the Yeerks. He says some Leerans are involved."

Ax looked puzzled. "Yeerks and Leerans? It doesn't make sense. The Yeerks could never invade the Leeran world like they're doing with Earth. The Leerans are psychic. They would instantly know if one of their people were a Controllers

"Yeah. You're right. On the other hand ... if you could make Controllers out of these Leerans. Psychic Controllers?"

Ax swiveled his stalk eyes toward me. "They would be able to root out spies. Like the Chee. They would be able to sense traitors."

"And they would be able to find five human kids and one Andalite," I said. "They would see

right through an animal morph. They would mean the end of us."

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Through a gap in the trees I spotted a hawk soaring just over the treetops. Maybe Tobias, maybe not.

In addition to fantastic sight, hawks have excellent hearing. I wondered, if it was Tobias, if he'd overheard my conversation with Ax.

"I guess it doesn't matter," I muttered.

"What doesn't matter?"

"Anything," I said with a laugh. "It doesn't matter, does it?" I guess !

always knew my secret would come out sooner or later. Funny-boy Marco is destined to look pathetic. My friends will look at me and think, Poor, poor Marco. I shook my head. "Never fails, you know. The Irony Gods.

They wait for the chance to twist your life around. Mr.

Cool-and-Detached ends up being the object of pity. Great. Perfect."

"These Irony Gods are a human religion?" Naturally Ax was totally mystified by my babbling.

"No. They're just a Marco religion," I said. "The Irony Gods wait to find out whatever it is you don't want. And that's what they do to you."

"And this is funny?" Ax asked. He's a little unsure of human humor.

"Absolutely," I said. "If it was happening to someone else, it would be hysterical."

In the end I told Jake we had to do it. We had to find out what the Yeerks were doing on Royan Island.

But I told him not to tell the others the rest of it. About my mom. I still hoped somehow we'd be able to avoid my dark secret. And avoid pity.

"Royan Island is a small, private island about twenty miles off the coast," I told the others when we were assembled in Cassie's barn. The barn is also the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic. The place where Cassie and her dad take in injured or sick wild animals.

It was Saturday morning. We were planning to take a first, casual look at Royan Island.

"It's about four miles long and three miles wide and shaped like a crescent moon," I continued.

"Very poetic," Rachel said. "Crescent moon."

"Hey, it's a quote from the guidebook, all right?!" I said. I winced. I shouldn't have snapped like that. I should have had a comeback ready. I looked tense, snapping at Rachel.

I took a deep breath. "Anyway, Ax says these Leerans are psychic. So we have to be very careful. We can't get near one of them."

"How near is near?" Jake asked Ax.

"l don't know," Ax admitted. "l think a few feet. But I don't know."

"How do we get to the island?" Cassie wondered. "By air or by sea?"

"Twenty miles is a long way to try and swim," Tobias pointed out. He was up in the rafters, as usual. Keeping an eye out through the open loft and listening with his hawk hearing.

"So we do a combination," Jake said. "Fly out there. Rest. Morph to dolphin."

"Not everyone has a dolphin morph," Tobias pointed out. "l can fly cover." I saw Cassie cock an eyebrow at Tobias. I think we were having the same thought. It was a little like Tobias didn't want to morph, now that he had his morphing power back.

"Ax has a shark morph from when we first rescued him," I said. "That will do as well as dolphin. And if Tobias doesn't want to morph -"

"l didn't say that," Tobias said quickly.

Jake looked at his watch. "Tobias, you could still fly out to The Gardens and acquire a dolphin morph. The Gardens are on the way, more or less."

"l have to remain in my own body to acquire a morph," Tobias pointed out. "Kind of obvious, a red-tailed hawk suddenly landing on a dolphin."

"Yeah. Well. Never mind, then," Jake said. "Come as you are." He smiled.

"You've always been our secret weapon just the way you are."

Tobias hesitated. "No, you're right. I should do the dolphin thing.

Twenty miles over water. . . those aren't really my best flying conditions. You tend not to get thermals over water. I'll do it. I'll acquire a dolphin morph. Okay. I'll definitely do it. And then, hey, no problem. Right? I mean, a dolphin in water, that's like a bird in the air, right?"

We were all staring at him. Tobias isn't usually a babbler. But he was babbling. It was Cassie who figured it out first.

"Tobias? Are you afraid of water?"

"Water? Afraid? Me?"

"I'd say that's a yes." I laughed. "You're not afraid to be a mile up in the air, but you're afraid of water?"

"Not water," he said hotly. "lt's just that, you know, there's no air in the water. You can't breathe. It presses in all around you."

"Hey, how about if we stop busting on Tobias, okay?" Rachel growled. "If he doesn't like water, he doesn't have to like water."

"No, it's okay," Tobias said shakily. "l'm cool. I mean, I'll be a dolphin, right? They live in the water."

I nodded. "Yep. We've established that dolphins live in water."