Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Ono changed again. Every comic book and every action movie swirled in Jaime’s mind. He was sure he’d see Ono transform into some sort of fighting robot, sure he’d see Ono take on the eagles one by one. But Ono was only Ono, and it wasn’t growing but shrinking, pulling its elongated limbs back in. It was little Ono that Jaime caught in one hand.

“Land. Kings,” Ono said. If Jaime didn’t know better, he would have thought the robot was breathing hard.

Jaime pressed Ono into his pocket and skidded over to where Theo lay dazed. Tess was crouched next to him, pressing on his arms and legs.

“Theo? Theo! Are you okay? Is anything broken?”

“What?” said Theo. “No, I don’t think so. What happened?”

“One eagle knocked you over, and another eagle caught you,” Jaime told him.

“Caught me?”

“Yeah.”

All three of them turned their heads toward the ceiling. Not one, not two, but many eagles darted in and out of the shattered window, swooped and dived. Underway passengers, so sleepy and uninterested before, were screaming, throwing themselves under benches or over countertops, running in crazed circles.

“How many do you think there are?” Tess said.

“Twenty-two,” said Theo.

“You counted?” Jaime said.

“There were twenty-two eagles on the stone frieze on the front of the building,” said Theo.

“And we woke them up,” Jaime said.

“This isn’t going to be pretty,” said Tess.

“It’s not pretty now,” Jaime said. “We should get out of here.”

“Not before we get the next clue!” Tess said.

“Maybe we need to follow the eagles like we followed Ono,” Theo said.

“Yeah, but they’re not going anywhere in particular,” Jaime said. “They’re just flying around in circles terrifying people.”

“They’re good at it,” said Theo.

Right in front of them, an eagle landed with a BOOM! on sharp metal claws. They all screamed and scuttled backward. The eagle lowered its silvery head, fixed them with a gaze like some sort of fire, red and jewel-like. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! It walked toward them, the claws scratching the marble floor, the metal beak clicking.

“Oh no, oh no, oh no,” they all said when the eagle emitted a metallic shriek, clicked and clicked again. When they hugged one another and squeezed their eyes shut, the eagle only shrieked louder, clicking, clicking, clicking.

Jaime opened one eye and jumped. The eagle’s beak was only inches away, but its clicking beak wasn’t biting, the claws were not tearing.