Okay, Jake said. Let's remember one thing. This isn't an acquiring party, it's a surgical strike operation. Get in, get the morph, get out. Get it?

Got it, Marco responded immediately.

Good.

"Get it, got it, good?" Man, you'd think they had been practicing. I commented privately to Tobias. He was several hundred feet away, wheeling above the Gardens with the rest of us. After some hesitation, Tobias had morphed a seagull. Tobias doesn't like morphing seagull.

It's from some old movie, he returned snippily in private thoughtspeech.

We spiraled lower in the air. Mary Sue was clinging to my feathers. I was still performing the role of guardian for the little alien. Just a few more hours, and we would be rid of her forever.

Sure is busy today, Cassie said, swooping down. A whole lot of people and . . . hey! A ton of junk food!

That got our attention. See, the seagull body is good for a lot of things. Nobody notices them flying around. They're great for landing out in the middle of the sea. And they notice junk food. They seriously notice junk food.

Little girl with cotton candy.

Old woman with bag of pretzels.

Pizza! Some punk with a whole pizza all to himself!

Before I could reign myself in, I hit pavement and began hopping towards Mr. Pizza.

Hey! Let's not lose control here, guys! We're on a mission, remember? Jake reminded us from somewhere above.

I intimidated a real gull into backing off. That pizza was so mine, if the punk dropped any. And maybe even if he didn't.

But, Prince Jake, Ax complained from the mass of seagulls wheeling and diving, there may be Controllers in this crowd. We would not wish to attract undue attention by not behaving like normal seagulls.

Marco snorted. Right, Jake. It's a matter of planetary security that Ax steal that bag of Cheeze-Its.

I could hear the smile in Jake's thoughtspeech. Okay, good point. You guys can have a *little* fun out there. But don't attract attention.

I scarcely even listened to him. Mr. Pizza was watching me. Smiling. Any second, he was going to throw some sausage my way.

Come on. Come on . . .

He was actually lifting his arm to throw the meat when he was joined by a friend. I mean, come on! I let out an offended squawk and took to the air.

As I gained altitude, I heard the friend speak in a low, furtive voice. "Hey, Zack. Hannah said to tell you that it's bright out here today."

"Bright?" Zack repeated. "Great. Just great."

Weirdoes, I muttered moodily.

Okay, Jake announced, everybody circle the dumpster with the graffiti twice. I need to get a headcount, then we need to go.

I looked around. Spotted the dumpster. It was big, green, with the Gardens logo painted onto it. On the top, the letters F.C.R. were spray painted in bright yellow. I gained some altitude, and looped lazily around it, taking note of which other gulls joined me.

Good. We all here? Rachel?

Right here.

Marco?

Yo.

Jake quickly counted us, then had Cassie dip into a quick dive to identify herself. Everybody follow Cassie to the aquariums.

Slowly, in big zigzags and loops, we all made our way to a big, modern building bearing "Ocean: Earth" in futuristic letters ten feet tall.

This is it, Cassie said.

Great. Now we just demorph and head in.

One thing before we do, Jake, Marco interrupted. Has anybody else heard a lot of people talking about how bright it is?

Yeah, what's up with that? Tobias asked. Three different groups were talking about it.

I have heard several mentions of unusually high diurnal illumination as well, Ax said.

I heard that, too, I said. So they think it's bright. So what? They're probably all just computer nerds who never see the light of day.

Except that it's not that bright, Marco said. It's actually pretty cloudy out here.

Why are you humans discussing lighting? came Mary Sue's high pitched voice. I had almost forgotten she was there at all. She was unusually quiet, for a Helmacron.

It's just weird. They way they're saying it is kind of secretive, too Marco said. Maybe I'm paranoid, but . . .

Maybe? I scoffed. *Maybe*? There's no "maybe" here, Marco. You are *seriously* paranoid. I paused, then added, And I mean that in a good way.

Gee, thanks.

Jake flapped to gain altitude. So, what are you thinking, Marco?

I'm thinking that we should be extra-careful. There's something weird going on here.

Okay, Jake said. We'll watch ourselves. Let's land in that corner, by the back. We can demorph without being seen there.

We flew down, one by one, spacing ourselves out. As it happened, I was the last to go down. I began my dive, but flared my wings and spun back higher at the sight of a familiar face. A very, very unwelcome face.

Chapman. Our school's vice principal.

Seeing a vice principal outside of school is bad to start with. Add to that the fact that he's a pretty important Controller, and the last person you'd expect to see kicking back at the Gardens, and you know you've got trouble.

"All right, people!" he shouted to a large group that tagged after him. "Sharing Group Fifteen, listen up! We're going into the aquarium, then over to the rides! I want you all to remember that the whole Sharing organization is here today to promote membership. Be friendly, and talk to anybody who will listen!" The whole group nodded.

Shoot.

Shoot, shoot, shoot.

The whole Sharing. Oh, man.

"And remember," Chapman added, "It's bright out here today, so be on guard against any unexpected guests. You know who I mean." There was serious danger in his eyes as he added those last words. Then, he put on a phony grin. "Let's have fun!"

Suddenly, it clicked. 'Bright out here' was code for the Andalites.

Andalite bandits.

Us.

The whole Sharing was here, and they were expecting trouble.

Minutes later, we were hauling tail feather.

I motion, Marco gasped, that we postpone this mission until tomorrow.

I second that, Tobias said, demorphing as he flew.