It was nighttime in Argentina. Cooping up six bird kids in a weensy plane for hours had been a mistake on Dr. Dwyer’s part. We’d gotten twitchier and twitchier as the long flight went on, and when we finally touched down in San Julián, Gazzy had burst through the emergency exit, setting off alarms and making the inflatable ramp deploy.

We had then resisted her efforts to get us into a car. Yeah, yeah, we’d signed up to save the world, but that didn’t mean we had to agree to being in a small enclosed space again.

Which was why we were flying low over Dr. Dwyer’s Jeep, trying to stay out of sight of the scarce traffic on this winding, narrow road. It was dark, cold, and windy. Maybe parts of Argentina, like up north, were warm, but down here close to the tip, it was cold. Great.

In just a few minutes, we were at the ocean, the same ocean that we’d swum in off the East Coast of America. But this was the South Atlantic Ocean, and that had been the North. This part of the ocean had chunks of real ice floating in it. I gritted my teeth, beginning to get why my mom had kept our destination a secret.

Dr. Dwyer drove her Jeep onto a broad dock. A large boat was tethered at the end of it, or maybe it was a small ship. Who knows? The Jeep stopped, and Dr. Dwyer got out, peering up at the sky, looking for us. We circled high above the area, searching for signs of danger, but everything was quiet. Finally we came to gentle landings about thirty feet from her. Total immediately jumped down and began sniffing the dock.

“You really can fly,” Dr. Dwyer said softly, almost to herself.

I shook out my wings, feeling the heat from exercise course through them.

“Well, it’s not just an elaborate hoax,” I said.

“It’s . . . very beautiful,” she said, then seemed surprised at herself for saying it. Smiling slightly, she shook her head and began to walk with us toward the boat. “I’m sorry. I know being able to fly wasn’t your choice, and I know only some of the trauma you’ve endured because of it. But to me, on the outside, it seems both beautiful and enviable.”

No one had ever put it that way before, and I didn’t know what to say. She sorta seemed to get the whole pluses/minuses thing of being a bird kid. Not many people did.

“This is our research vessel,” said Dr. Dwyer, pointing at the waiting boat. “We’re from the International Earth Science Foundation.”