WAS STILL AWAKE hours later when a tiny noise made my gaze jump to the nylon wall of the tent. There was a shadow moving there — a person, barely silhouetted against the canvas by the fire. Maybe as close as ten feet away.

I let out a breath of relief. The idea of a mere human lurking around at night seemed like fun ’n’ games compared to, say, a hungry lion. I’d not yet been clued in to the wildlife in these parts, and my imagination was fired up. I was definitely not a fan of injury by teeth. Give me a bullet any day.

But then the person stopped and seemed to turn toward our tent. It was a short figure, thick bodied and bulky — pretty much the exact opposite of everyone I’d seen in this country so far. I scanned the silhouette. One of its arms was raised, as if it were holding something, but I couldn’t make out the shape of a gun.

Every nerve came to life, and I tensed, ready to give the alarm and wake the flock.

Carefully, I untangled myself from Fang and lifted Nudge’s hand so I could slip out. My eyes stayed glued to the silhouette as I made my way to the tent’s opening. In one swift motion, I yanked the zipper and burst out.

There was no one there.

After a quick glance around, I jumped and shot out my wings, rising about fifteen feet into the air with a few powerful strokes.

There! Emerging from a ragged stand of trees was that figure again. Raptor vision allowed me to see more detail at night than most people could, but I still couldn’t believe what my brain was telling me.

Chu?

He was one of the most evil wack jobs I’d encountered lately. But that was back in Hawaii. He’d been dumping radioactive waste into the ocean. What was he doing here?

I landed as silently as possible in a nearby tree. He was speaking in a hushed voice. Must have had a cell phone.

“Yes… . Collecting the new subjects … Approximately fifteen minutes.” He disappeared into a small tent with a first aid sign outside. It couldn’t have been big enough to hold more than about ten people.

So imagine my surprise when, over the next fifteen minutes, I saw maybe a couple dozen figures — who appeared to be mostly young-looking refugees from the camp — entering that tent… .

And no one came out.

My curiosity got the better of me, so I left the tree and quietly crept behind the tent. No sounds inside. Not even a breath. WTH?

Swiveling my head around to look for more figures, I tiptoed toward the front. Still silence. There was nothing to do but stride right in, striking my best martial-arts pose as I whipped through the tent flap.

It was empty inside.

So … either I was hallucinating or there was a passage to hell underneath this tent. I had to admit I wasn’t quite ready to accept either option right now.

Frowning, I returned to our own tent, where I picked my way through a cozy tangle of bird kids. I crawled back in between Fang and Nudge, and took Fang’s hand again.

He blinked sleepily, awakening at the slight touch. “Everything okay?”

“Mmm,” I grunted. “Go back to sleep.”

I couldn’t lie to Fang.