McKenzie’s Oregon Operation

by Shari Barr

“What else did this guy tell you?” McKenzie asked as she flicked a piece of cheese at Mickey. He snapped it between his jaws and stared at her, waiting for more.

  “All sorts of stuff. He was quite the history buff.” Aunt Becca picked up her empty paper plate and stuffed it in the trash. “He knows all about sea lions and their habitats. I’d introduce him to you girls, but he’s heading back to his home in Texas in the morning.”

  Aunt Becca grabbed the leash from the hook by the back door. “Will you girls finish cleaning up? I need a good long walk before dark. I’ll take Mickey with me.”

  The girls agreed. Aunt Becca stepped outside with the dog dancing and yipping about her feet.

  McKenzie sighed as she sat in silence with Alex.

  “Maybe this guy would know where someone might hide sea lions, but now we can’t ask him,” she said. She popped a cookie in her mouth and thought for a moment. She pushed her chair back, propping her legs on the corner of the table. Then she glanced at Alex, and their eyes met.

  “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Alex asked after downing her last swig of milk.

  McKenzie grinned. “I’m thinking we need to use our free tour and go up with Aunt Becca in the Skyview. If we can’t talk to that guy, she can at least show us the old sea lion harbor!”

  Up, Up, and Away!

  “Are you sure you want to take the Skyview for your free trip?” Aunt Becca asked after breakfast the next morning. “I might be able to arrange a free trip if the plane isn’t already full and the other tourists agree.”

  “We know,” McKenzie said, “but then we’ll have to fly the regular routine. We just want you to fly us along the coast and look for caves. You can do that, can’t you?”

  “Sure, all flights are paid by the hour. So we can fly anywhere you want to go as long as we’re back in one hour. I can take you up later this morning.” Aunt Becca glanced at the clock. “But right now I need to run to the grocery store. Anyone want to ride along?”

  “Not me,” Alex said, sitting at the kitchen table in her pajamas. “I want to take pictures this morning while the light is good. I’m still not sure what picture I’m going to enter in the contest.”

  “I’ll go,” McKenzie announced, thinking of the picture she wanted to print as a surprise for Alex.

  “Okay,” Aunt Becca said as she cleared the table. “When you’re dressed, we’ll go.”

  Twenty minutes later, McKenzie entered the supermarket and headed for the customer service department. While Aunt Becca shopped, McKenzie stuck her camera card in the machine and printed off a large picture. She quickly chose a mat frame from the rack and paid the cashier for both items.

  When she and Aunt Becca arrived back home, Alex was standing on the dock taking nature pictures. After hiding the framed photo under her bed, McKenzie joined her friend on the beach.

  Later that morning, Aunt Becca took the girls to the airport as promised. Within minutes the Skyview took off into the clear morning sky. The plane skimmed the treetops, and Aunt Becca circled above the resort before heading north along the beach.

  “Okay, look to your right,” Aunt Becca said as she managed the controls. “It’s high tide, but you can still see the cave in the side of the cliff that Mr. Tagachi told me about.”

  McKenzie peered out the window. At first she couldn’t see the cave, but then she spotted a dark hole in the rocks. Water from the cove rushed through the entrance, disappearing into darkness.

  “Doesn’t that look like the cave we found the other day?” McKenzie asked quietly, so her aunt wouldn’t hear. “Right after the Frankses about ran us over.”

  “Yeah, I think you’re right,” Alex answered, lifting her camera and snapping a picture.

  “So there used to be a ledge there for sea lions?” McKenzie asked. She tried to imagine what the cove might have looked like years ago.

  “That’s what Mr. Tagachi told me,” Aunt Becca answered from the front seat. “When the ledge was destroyed, the sea lions moved farther south.”

  McKenzie thought for a moment. If sea lions used to live in the cave, maybe the Frankses could be hiding Mario and Bianca there. We thought maybe there were clues hidden in the cave, but maybe it’s the sea lions. That would make sense. The Frankses really were trying to scare us away that day when they tipped our sailboat over.

  McKenzie’s mind wandered as she tried to put the pieces of the mystery together. When she and Alex had entered the cave the other day, she had heard no sea lions barking. Surely we would have heard them echoing in the cave, she thought. Unless there’s another entrance! That must be it! But where?

  The roar of the plane made it difficult to talk, so McKenzie decided to wait until the plane landed to discuss her ideas with Alex. The hour passed quickly, and soon the Skyview touched down at the airport.

  “I have another tour going up shortly,” Aunt Becca announced when they climbed out of the plane. “These tourists are from our resort, so you two can catch their shuttle bus back to Emerald Bay. Okay?”

  As the girls rode to the resort, McKenzie’s cell phone rang, signaling a new text message. “It’s from Sydney. She said she sent us an important e-mail message.”

  McKenzie couldn’t wait to get back to the beach house. What in the world is so important? Could it be something about the maps? she wondered.

  The girls hurried home from the resort, stopping at the mailbox. McKenzie pulled out a thick, brown padded envelope addressed to her.

  Ripping it open, she cried, “The video sunglasses are finally here!”

  Alex snatched them from her, and they raced inside to the computer. Two messages waited for them—one from Sydney and one from Elizabeth. Eager to see their messages, McKenzie opened Sydney’s first.

  This took some digging on the Internet, but I finally got it done! Check out the attachment.

  The moment McKenzie opened the attachment, her jaw dropped open. “Look, Alex! She found maps of caves in this area!”

  After printing the maps, McKenzie laid them out on the desk. She quickly located the old sea lion harbor. She traced the dark line that represented the underground cave. It curved and then branched off into two different directions. One tunnel appeared to stop at a dead end. The other one ended near the north end of the Emerald Bay Resort.

  “There’s the other entrance.” Alex jabbed her finger at a dark spot on the map. “Isn’t that up by the Hideaway?”

  McKenzie squinted at the tiny markings on the map. “It sure looks like it. Maybe we can find it.”

  Now that she had the map, McKenzie started feeling nervous. What if we go to all this work searching for the cave and Mario and Bianca aren’t even there?

  Alex tapped her on the shoulder. “See what Elizabeth has to say.”

  With a click of the mouse, McKenzie opened Elizabeth’s e-mail.

  Hey guys. Thought you might need a little encouragement. I really feel you’re getting close to solving this thing. Don’t give up. Think how Susie will feel when you find her pups. Proverbs 12:10 says, “A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel.”

  Let me know the minute you find them.

  “I don’t know about you, Alex, but I really needed to hear that right now. I was starting to think this was too much for us to handle. But now I know we can do it.” McKenzie grinned at her friend.

  “I agree. We have to try,” Alex said, flipping her hair over her shoulder. “We don’t have much time left. We leave the day after tomorrow.”

  McKenzie glanced at the clock. “We need to look for it while the Frankses are gone. Surely they would be at Sea Park now, training the animals. Even if they come home for lunch, that shouldn’t be for a while yet. I think we’d better go for it.”

  “I’m game. Let’s go,” Alex said, her eyes flashing with excitement.

  McKenzie grabbed Alex’s backpack by the door. She shoved in two flashlights she found in the kitchen cupboard and the pair of video sunglasses
.

  Alex raced to their bedroom and returned with sweatshirts.

  “Since we know caves can get pretty cold,” she said, shoving them into the backpack with her cell phone. She slung the strap of her camera around her neck. “Just in case I need to take pictures of the evidence.”

  “Good idea, but we’d better get going.” McKenzie scribbled a note to Aunt Becca and left it on the table. Then she folded the cave map and stuck it in her pocket.

  Minutes later, they walked down the service road past Mr. Carney’s cottage and the lot of spruce trees. A wooden sign reading HIDEAWAy CABIN marked the narrow drive through the trees.

  “I hope they’re not home,” McKenzie said. The girls couldn’t see the Frankses’ cabin through the forest of evergreen trees until they rounded several curves.

  Alex whispered, “This doesn’t look like any resort cabin I’ve ever seen. Look, it has a storage shed. I didn’t see it the other night.”

  “Aunt Becca told me that the three cabins on this end—ours, Mr. C.’s, and the Hideaway—are for renters staying awhile. Maybe that’s why this one has a shed. Or maybe it’s just an old equipment shed,” McKenzie said.

  “Their car isn’t here,” Alex noted.

  McKenzie spoke softly as she stepped behind a stand of flowering shrubs. “I hope we don’t have to go into their yard to find a trail to the cave. If one of them is home, we could be in big trouble.”

  Alex tugged on McKenzie’s arm. “See that break in the shrubs on the far side of the yard? Could that be a start to the trail?”

  McKenzie peered in the direction Alex pointed. “It could be. Let’s stay in the trees and circle around that way. Then if someone is home, they won’t be able to see us.”

  Together the girls walked through the trees. They ducked behind the shrubbery in case someone was watching from the house. Moments later they stepped onto a faint trail leading from the yard of the Hideaway through the trees.

  “It looks like somebody has driven back here,” Alex said as she snapped a picture.

  McKenzie glanced at the double row of tracks leading over a hill and then disappearing from sight. “These are tracks from an ATV.”

  She peered back toward the cabin. Only a portion of the Hideaway was visible through the trees. If anyone was home, they weren’t outside. She didn’t see any signs of an ATV at the house.

  “If they have an ATV, I guess it could be parked in the shed,” she said.

  “It’s not big enough for a car, but an ATV could fit easily,” Alex said. “Let’s go before it gets any later.”

  McKenzie hurried down the trail, deeper into the timber with Alex close behind. The wind whistled through the evergreens. Though McKenzie couldn’t see the seagulls, she heard them calling. The track twisted through the trees before dropping into a narrow valley strewn with sand and rocks.

  “Hey, look over there!” Alex grabbed McKenzie’s arm and pointed to a dark opening in a rocky cliff. “There’s the cave!”

  McKenzie scurried to the entrance and peered inside. “Someone drove the ATV in here, at least for a little ways. It’s a pretty wide tunnel.”

  Alex slipped her backpack off and pulled the sweatshirts out. After slipping hers on, she retrieved the two flashlights and handed one to McKenzie. She hoisted the backpack onto her shoulders and said, “I have a funny feeling about this. I hope we don’t get caught, especially by the Frankses.”

  “There’s no way they’ll catch us. Nobody saw us come back here. The Frankses will be at work until later this afternoon,” McKenzie said with certainty.

  McKenzie took a deep breath and stepped inside the cave entrance. She flicked on her flashlight and swept the beam back and forth. Shadows danced eerily on the rough stone walls as she pointed the beam down the tunnel.

  “Are you ready for this?” she asked, her voice trembling and echoing off the cave walls.

  Alex edged closer to her friend. “I guess, but I’m only doing this for Mario and Bianca.”

  “They’d better be here,” McKenzie said softly as she crept down the tunnel.

  McKenzie shivered beneath her sweatshirt and breathed in the damp, musty smell. When they approached a bend in the tunnel, she turned and looked behind her. The cave opening, now far behind them, was no more than a dot of light. The tire tracks that had led them into the cave continued deep into the tunnel.

  “This is soooo creepy!” Alex said in a loud whisper, clutching McKenzie’s arm.

  “Yeah. We had better find the sea lions, or I’ll really be mad.” McKenzie’s teeth began to chatter.

  “We’d better not be doing this for nothing.” Alex paused, turning on her flash and taking a picture of the tire tracks on the ground.

  The girls crept onward. The tunnel turned and sloped downward. Whoosh! McKenzie jumped when something fluttered above her head and she felt a quick rush of air on her face.

  “What was that?” she cried.

  “I think it was a b-b-bat!” Alex stammered, huddling closer to McKenzie.

  Don’t look up! McKenzie thought, trying to calm herself. Then I won’t see a gazillion red, beady eyes staring at me. She scrunched her shoulders and linked arms with Alex, keeping her flashlight focused in front of her.

  “I don’t like bats. I don’t like bats. I don’t like bats,” she muttered anxiously.

  As they rounded a corner in the cave, McKenzie stopped and flashed her light around. The tunnel had opened into a large, high-ceilinged room. Something sounds different, she thought. A strange gurgling and splashing sound came from the center of the room.

  Stepping forward cautiously, she pointed her flashlight down into a large gaping hole. A rock ledge about ten feet down ran around the edge, surrounding a small underground pool.

  McKenzie swept her flashlight beam across the pool and two grayish brown masses lay on the ledge above the pool. She edged closer and peered downward. Her skin felt clammy, and her voice trembled. “Look, Alex. There are two sea lion pups down there!”

  “Are they Mario and Bianca?” Alex asked, aiming her light on them, too.

  “I’m not sure. It’s too dark in here.” McKenzie pointed her light at the far end of the pool. “Look over there. There is some kind of a wire gate on that end. An underground stream feeds into this pool, and someone has made a type of cage to trap the sea lions.

  “This is a pretty fancy setup,” she continued as she swept her light along the floor of the cave surrounding the pool. “Look! There are lights set up all around the pool. There must be a portable generator somewhere.”

  The girls scanned the room with their lights.

  “There it is!” Alex cried, hurrying to a large metal box on wheels. She leaned over and flicked a button on top.

  Ka-chunk! McKenzie jumped as the generator powered up with a bang. Spotlights lining the edge of the pool flickered on. Their humming echoed in the vast cave. The two sea lion pups on the ledge lifted sleepy eyes.

  McKenzie’s heart raced as she stared at the animals. I would know these two little guys anywhere, she thought. “Oh, Alex. We’ve found them. Mario and Bianca are alive!”

  Alex raced to McKenzie’s side, bubbling with excitement. “I don’t believe it! We really found them.” She lifted her camera and clicked photos of the sea lions and their surroundings. When she finished, she tucked the camera into her backpack.

  McKenzie hurried to the ledge above the sea lions and peered down at them, calling them by name. As if answering her, they slipped one by one into the pool with a splash.

  McKenzie jerked her head up as a rumble echoed from somewhere deep in the cave. She felt a vibration beneath her feet.

  “Alex!” she cried. “Somebody is coming on the ATV! We’ve got to get out of here!”

  Mission Possible!

  Glancing around, McKenzie spied a dark tunnel on the opposite side of the chamber. “In here!”

  She darted into the inky darkness with Alex close behind. Scurrying, McKenzie searched for a place to hide.<
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  The roar of the ATV grew louder as it approached the pool chamber. Fleeing deeper into the cave, McKenzie grabbed Alex’s arm and pulled her into an alcove. She flattened herself against the wall, relieved by the temporary safety of the darkness. Peering around the corner, she saw headlights of the ATV reflecting off the rock walls.

  “Oh, no!” she whispered with disgust. “We left the lights on! They’ll know someone’s here.”

  Alex tugged McKenzie’s arm. “Get back! We don’t want them to see us.”

  McKenzie shined her light down the tunnel before her, then turned back to Alex. “Let’s go. We can’t stay here or we’ll get caught!”

  The girls fled down the dark, sloping floor of the cave. McKenzie stopped when she heard the rumble of the ATV shut off behind them. Muffled voices echoed down the tunnel. She strained to make out the words, but the people were too far away. Boots thumped on the stone floor, growing louder as the intruder approached the tunnel where the girls hid.

  “Someone’s over here,” a woman’s voice called. “I see flashlights down this passageway.”

  A man’s voice yelled something while heavy footsteps clamored across the chamber floor.

  A shiver ran down McKenzie’s spine as she recognized the voices of Mel and Tia Franks.

  “We have to find a place to hide,” she whispered. “Turn your light off. One light won’t be as bright as two.”

  “Where are we going to go?” Alex whispered fearfully as they hurried deeper into the cave.

  “I don’t know.”

  McKenzie stopped. The tunnel branched into two different directions.

  The ATV rumble had started again.

  It’s coming our way! her thoughts screamed as the roar grew louder. Dear God, help us get out of here, she prayed.

  She quickly scanned one trail and then the other.

  A sudden idea came to her. She pulled a piece of gum out of her pocket and tossed it just inside the entrance to the narrower tunnel.

  “That way is too narrow for the ATV. Hopefully, they’ll see the gum wrapper and go that way on foot. Then we’ll have a few extra minutes to get away.”