UICK RECAP: claustrophobic, paranoid bird kid, trapped on jam-packed navy tin can of death, submerged under hundreds of feet of water, and now, huge crashing sound and no lights.

Okay, have you got that picture? Now ramp up the adrenaline about 400 percent. Mix in a little terror. Stir.

“That didn’t sound good,” I said, trying to be the calm, confident leader I am, even though every cell in my body was shrieking that I was about to die a horrible, watery death.

Emergency lights flickered on and glowed a dim amber. A Klaxon alarm sounded, just like in all the old

submarine movies. That’s the one you hear right before the sub goes belly-up.

Because metal and water conduct sound well, we could hear pounding and knocking against the hull of the sub. I opened the door and saw sailors rushing past, each knowing what their job was, where they had to be.

“I wish we were in France.” Total whimpered softly.

Out in the corridor, the alarm was louder.

The most horrible thing about this whole experience was that I didn’t know what to do. Ialways know what to do. I am chock-full of knowingness. Every awful thing we’ve come up against until now, I’ve been able to deal with. A mixture of ruthless cunning, wicked fighting skills, and sheer stoic toughness had gotten us this far. But none of that seemed to be worth much in this situation.

To save face, I started barking orders anyway. “Let’s go up front, by the main hatch,” I commanded, oozing confidence. “If we have to abandon ship, that’s where we’ll escape from.”

We waited for a break in the line of running sailors, then threw ourselves into the passageway and started rushing forward. It seemed to take forever, with us hurrying and jumping over all the raised thresholds. Around us, sailors were sealing off compartments with their little turny-wheel things.

All of a sudden Angel stopped dead, causing the rest of us to pile into her.

“Angel, go!” I yelled.

“No, wait!” she said, holding up her hand.

“We can’t wait! We need to get up front! Move it!”

“Wait,” she insisted. “It’s the dumb-bots.”

“Whaat?”

“It’s those M-Geeks, the dumb-bots,” Angel said. “They’re trying to get into the sub.”

Lovely, just lovely. I’ll fight anything on the surface or in the air, but under water? I wasliterally out of my element, so much more than anyone else is whosays they’re out of their element, like at a party. I pictured the M-Geeks drilling through the sub walls, pictured it filling up with water, with us trapped inside…

“Okay,” I said firmly. “We need to stop them. I’ll get theTriton. “

“Does it have weapons?” Iggy asked.

“No. But it has big claw arms,” I said. “Maybe I can whack them or knock them off or something.”

“Here, take this,” Gazzy said, pushing a small metal first-aid box into my hands. “It’s waterproof, so put it in the claw. And here’s a remote. Don’t sit on it or anything. Push the button to watch a DVD, then use theTriton ’s claw to toss it at the M-Geeks. Do it fast.”

“Okay. You guys go forward,” I said. “I’ll catch up soon.”

“I’m going with you,” said Fang.

I looked at him. “I need you to take care of the others,” I said very quietly. After a conflicted moment, he nodded.

“I’ll go with you,” said Gazzy. “I know how to work the IED.”

I hated to let him, but he was right. “Okay.”

“I’m going too,” said Angel.

“No, Angel, please,” I said, trying not to beg. “Please stay with Fang.”

“I want to go too.” There was that face again.

“Angel, come with me,” Fang said, taking her hand. “Iggy, Nudge, let’s move it.” He headed quickly down the hall, all but dragging Angel with him.

I watched them go down the dark narrow corridor, hoping it wasn’t the last time I’d ever see them. I turned to Gazzy and handed him the metal box. “Let’s go. We’ve got aTriton to steal and dumb-bots to kill.”