Chapter 10

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Chapter 10 My mind is racing and I can't slow it down. I'm trying really hard to figure out the next step to take so that we can find Appa. I'm trying to understand why nobody in this city wants to talk about a war that's on the verge of destroying their home—and the rest of the world! What is with these people? Katara, Sokka, Toph, and I decided to go put up MISSING BISON posters all around the city, in the hopes that maybe someone had seen Appa somewhere. When we got back home, someone knocked on the front door. I was certain it would be someone with good news about Appa. But to my disappointment, it was only Joo Dee—the first Joo Dee—holding one of our posters. When we asked her where she had been, she told us that she took a short vacation at a place called Lake Laogai. Weird! Then she told us that we were forbidden to put up posters. What CAN you do in this city? Anyway, I'm done listening to these people. It's obvious they don't want to help us, so we'll just help ourselves. "We don't care about the rules, and we're not asking permission. We're finding Appa on our own, and you should just stay out of our way!" I slammed the door in her face. "From now on we do whatever

it takes to find Appa." We headed out of the house, more determined than ever. Then—I couldn't believe it—Katara ran into Jet, this rebel we had met earlier in our travels. What's he doing in Ba Sing Se? Now that I think back on it, Katara kind of had a crush on Jet—until he put a whole innocent village in danger trying to fight the Fire Nation! That's when Katara decided that she wanted nothing to do with him. I don't mind that part at all. "I'm here to help you find Appa," said Jet. He told Katara that he had changed, that he had given up his gang. I know she doesn't trust him, but at this point I really need all the help that I can get. Jet led us to a warehouse where he had heard Appa had been taken. But when we got there, it was empty. At first Katara thought it was a trap, but then we found some of Appa's fur on the ground. "They took that big thing yesterday," said a voice from a dark corner of the building. A janitor pushing a broom stepped into the light. "Some rich guy on Whaletail Island bought him—maybe for a zoo, or maybe for the meat." FOR THE MEAT! I have to sit down. This feeling in my stomach is not good.… The idea of someone buying Appa for meat made me nauseous and furious

at the same time. Appa is the last of a noble, proud breed, not somebody's dinner. I wasn't going to let anything happen to him! "We've got to get to Whaletail Island right away!" Sokka looked it up on his map and discovered that it was really far away, back near the South Pole. But I don't care how far away it is or how long it takes to get there. If there's a chance to find Appa, we have to take it. On our way out of the warehouse, we ran into the members of Jet's gang, who told us that Jet had been arrested and dragged away by the Dai Li a few weeks earlier. Jet denied it and looked at them like they were crazy. He also denied being part of the gang altogether. Toph is kind of like a human lie detector, and she studied their heartbeats and breathing patterns and told us that both Jet and his gang friends were telling the truth. "They both THINK they're telling the truth," Sokka realized suddenly. "That's because Jet's been brainwashed by the Dai Li!" We grabbed Jet and brought him back to his apartment, where we tried to jog his memory. "The Dai Li must have sent Jet and that janitor to mislead us," Katara said.

That made perfect sense! They wanted us out of Ba Sing Se, because we were stirring up trouble with our talk about the war, so they brainwashed Jet to lead us far away. "I bet they still have Appa right here in the city!" I said, feeling hopeful again. "Maybe he's in the same place they took Jet!" I leaned in close to Jet. "Where did they take you?" "Nowhere!" he cried, squirming in his chair. "I don't know what you're talking about!" Katara used the water from her pouch and formed a sparkling band of healing energy around Jet's head to jog his memory. Slowly he began to relax. "They took me to Dai Li headquarters," he said finally. "It was underwater, under a lake." "Joo Dee said she went on a vacation to Lake Laogai," Sokka recalled. "That's it!" Jet cried. "Lake Laogai!" I'm certain now that's where we'll find Appa. I hope that we won't be too late. I don't know what I'll do if—NO, Aang, don't think that way! We WILL find Appa, and he'll be all right. Sokka, Katara, Toph, Momo, and I traveled to Lake Laogai, along with Jet and two members of his

gang, Longshot and Smellerbee. It was a big, beautiful lake surrounded by a thick woods. But there was no sign of a headquarters or any kind of passageway leading under the water. Then Toph found a rock hatch in the water at the edge of the shore. She Earthbended the hatch open and revealed a stairway leading down under the lake. We hurried down the stairs and into a tunnel. "It's coming back to me now," Jet said. "I think there's a cell big enough to hold Appa just ahead." We're so close now. He might even be right around the next bend! We made our way along the tunnel, which had rooms and holding cells on either side. In one of the rooms I saw a bunch of women all being trained— brainwashed, actually—to be Joo Dees. It was so creepy, like they were all preprogrammed robots. Yuck! Continuing along the tunnel, we soon came to a door where Jet stopped. "I think it's through here," he said, flinging open the door. Wait a second—this isn't Appa's cell. It's a room filled with Dai Li agents. There's Long Feng! Did Jet lead us into a trap, or did he just make an honest mistake? "By breaking into our headquarters you have made