by K. E. Rocha
“What?” Aldo’s voice rang in Spencer’s ear. The bear was on the other side of the shed.
“Oh, nothing.” Spencer dropped the bear figurine back into its velvet-padded box, and closed it up. He didn’t need to think about Pam’s plans for Darwin, or the evil work he did at Moon Farm, because tonight’s rescue was going to be the first step in stopping Pam’s plans altogether. It had to be.
“I think I found something,” Aldo called. Spencer pointed his flashlight in the direction of Aldo’s grunts. The bear had a long coil of pool lane dividers looped around his neck. He was holding one end up in his claws. “Looks like rope to me.”
“Perfect!” Spencer exclaimed. He made his way over to Aldo, who had found a pile of five pool rope lane dividers. “Let’s bring two, just in case.” Spencer took the lane divider from around Aldo’s neck. He popped off the plastic buoys one by one, leaving only the thin, strong nylon rope of the lane divider. Then he started to coil the rope into the tightest ball he could. “Now we need a hook.”
Aldo padded deeper into the shed. A minute later, he returned. Spencer shone his flashlight on the bear, who was sitting back on his haunches, a huge garden tool in his claws.
“I think Raymond has one of these,” Aldo said, examining the oversized garden fork. Spencer laughed with relief. It was definitely bear-sized, but after seeing how big Pam’s gardens were, Spencer wasn’t surprised there was such a tool at Hidden Rock Zoo. The garden fork had a long wooden handle and a metal head with four curved prongs. It was exactly what they needed. They could use this garden tool as a grappling hook to send down to Mom and Dad and Uncle Mark.
“All right, we have everything,” Spencer said. “Now we just need to get it all to them.” Spencer reached for the garden fork. It was way too sharp to drop into the empty tank the way it was. He took the second lane divider and used it to wrap the tines of the heavy fork tool. When he was halfway done, Spencer remembered the Ear-COM. They had to find a way to drop it safely, too. “I have an idea!” He rushed back over to the boxes of bear figurines and grabbed one. These creepy gifts are good for something after all! he thought, opening the box. The stone figure glared at him. Spencer grabbed it and shoved it deep into his pocket, where the jade bear was supposed to be. He hurried back to where Aldo was waiting with the other supplies. “Look,” he said, shining the flashlight into the velvet interior of the box.
“For the Ear-COM?” Aldo guessed. “Good thinking.”
Spencer grabbed B.D.’s Ear-COM from his pocket and placed it inside the small gift box. He put the box on top of the garden fork with the partially wrapped tines. “Can you hold this here?” he asked Aldo. Aldo extended a claw, pinning down the gift box to the garden fork. Spencer continued to wind the lane divider around the garden fork, wrapping the Ear-COM in its protective box into the bundle. Aldo removed his claw when the box was secure. “Okay. All set,” Spencer said, knotting the last bit of rope to the garden fork’s handle. He stood up. The garden fork looked like half of a giant Q-tip. Spencer picked it up and swung it onto his shoulder, propping it there. “I can carry this. Can you get the other lane divider?”
“Sure,” Aldo answered, eyeing the garden fork on Spencer’s shoulder. “We’re going to have to be extra careful now.”
“I know,” Spencer answered, looking up at the white rope. “This thing looks like a white flag, but we are definitely not planning to surrender.”
Getting from the pool shed to the Aqua Theater took forever. Because of the tools they were transporting, and the way the lane-divider-wrapped garden fork ended in a bright white bulb, Aldo and Spencer again had to stick to the darkest part of Hidden Rock Zoo—its perimeter—and this time, Spencer couldn’t ride on Aldo’s back. He had to walk on his own two feet.
When the Aqua Theater finally came into view, Spencer was so happy he wanted to cheer. He was about to see Mom and Dad again, and he was finally going to show them he had become a full-blown Bearhaven operative since their disappearance. He could hardly wait.
“Spencer, hold on,” Aldo whispered, hanging back in the shadows of Alligator Alley. He’d dropped the coil of rope he’d been carrying to the ground. “I don’t think we should both go into the Aqua Theater. One of us should stand guard.”
“Okay, I’ll go,” Spencer said right away.
“Well … ” Aldo hesitated.
“What?”
“Are you sure you’ll be able to stay calm? And think like an operative?” Aldo asked. Then he rushed on. “It’s just that after what happened with B.D., and then in the aquarium … ”
“I can do this, Aldo,” he said. “I promise I won’t let my emotions get in the way again.” Spencer picked up the coil of rope. Through the night-vision goggles, it looked like a bright green soccer ball. “You stand guard. I’m going in.”
“All right,” Aldo agreed. “I’ll wait in the pear grove. It’s closer to the Aqua Theater, and I’ll be able to see more from there. Let me go first. Once I’m in position, I’ll give you the signal to go.”
“Okay,” Spencer said, though he hated the idea of waiting even another five minutes before delivering the rescue tools to Mom, Dad, and Uncle Mark. Aldo loped out of the swampy, overgrown protection of Alligator Alley.
The bear’s voice was in Spencer’s ear a few minutes later. “I’m in position. Go ahead.”
“Got it,” Spencer whispered. He adjusted the garden fork on his shoulder and tucked the ball of coiled rope under one arm. If he got intercepted by guards halfway between Alligator Alley and the Aqua Theater, he would be in deep trouble. With all this gear he was carrying, he wasn’t exactly going to be able to run for it. Spencer crept out of Alligator Alley and onto the path winding through the zoo. There wasn’t much to protect him from view, just a few trees, so Spencer went as quickly as he could. When he reached the Aqua Theater, he found a set of glass double doors.
“Aldo,” he hissed, suddenly starting to panic. “What if the doors are alarmed like the other entrance?!” Spencer couldn’t believe they hadn’t thought of it before!
“Do you see any other way in?” Aldo asked. Spencer scanned the glass building.
“The windows at the top are open … ” Spencer whispered, though he’d rather try his luck digging his way in with the garden fork—anything other than climb.
“Can you get to one of them?”
“I think so,” Spencer answered reluctantly. The walls of the Aqua Theater were made of panels of glass, and each panel was set into an iron frame. Spencer could scale the wall, using the iron frames as a ladder. He just really didn’t want to.
“You can do it, Spencer,” Aldo urged as though reading Spencer’s mind.
Spencer took a deep breath and sprang into action. He knew the less he thought about the climb, the better it would go. He unraveled the lane divider and tied one end to the garden fork, and the other to one of the straps on his mission pack.
Spencer reached for the lowest bar of one of the iron frames and hooked one foot over it, then reached for the next highest bar, pushing himself up the wall. The long coil of rope stayed slack between him and the garden fork on the ground below, just as he’d hoped. Frame by frame, Spencer climbed the glass wall. He tried to think about only the next step in the plan—giving Mom, Dad, and Uncle Mark the tools they needed to escape—and before he knew it, he had reached the window. Spencer hooked one leg inside the building, finding a stable seat on the window frame.
“Good work, little man,” Aldo said through the Ear-COMs.
“Thanks.” Spencer felt a little more confident knowing Aldo was watching him so closely. He reached for the long rope that attached his mission pack to the garden fork.
Slowly, and careful to keep his arms extended so the garden fork wouldn’t smash into the glass wall, Spencer began to pull up the fork. It felt like all the muscles in his body were working. He gritted his teeth. Eventually, Spencer was able to grab hold of the garden fork’s handle, pull it inside, and quickly lower it to
the floor.
“All right, now for the hard part,” he whispered, trying not to look down.
“What’s the hard part?” Aldo asked.
“Climbing down the other side.” Spencer looked down. His stomach lurched.
“Good luck.”
Spencer took a deep breath. With both hands gripping the window frame he was perched on, he got a foothold on an iron rung inside the building. He swung his other leg inside and started to climb down until he hopped off the last bar and landed with a soft thud.
“I’m in,” he whispered. He rushed over to the side of the tank and dropped to his knees. “Mom! Dad! Uncle Mark!” he whispered. They were all standing in a row at the bottom of the tank below, looking up at him, as though preparing to react to whatever happened next. They must have heard me coming! he thought.
“Spencer!” his parents whispered back up to him at the same time.
“Are you okay?” Spencer asked, his voice hushed but bubbling over with the excitement of finally talking face-to-face with Mom and Dad even though they were forty feet below.
“Yes, we are!” Mom answered.
“We’re okay, Spencer,” Dad added. “But is it safe for you to be here?”
“Where’s Aldo, Spence?” Uncle Mark called up.
Spencer wanted to jump down into the tank and hug his family. He wanted to change the plan and get them out of the tank now, but he remembered what he’d promised Aldo. He wouldn’t let his emotions get in the way tonight.
“Aldo’s standing guard. We’re escaping tonight,” Spencer whispered, leaning down over the side of the tank and getting right to the point. “All of us. Hold on!” Spencer scooted backward and ran to retrieve the garden fork and rope. As he rushed back to the side of the tank, he was relieved to see a short metal ladder was anchored into the cement surrounding the tank. The plan he and Aldo had come up with for Mom, Dad, and Uncle Mark’s escape was going to work. The ladder led a few feet down, just like a ladder in a human pool—though, the bottom of the tank was way farther down than the bottom of a human pool—and the marine animal trainers would have used the ladder to get into the tank with the whales for shows. He remembered that from his trip to the aquarium with Cheng and Ramona. Spencer untied the rope from his mission pack.
“Watch out!” he called, lowering the garden fork into the tank. When it hit the floor, Spencer dropped the rest of the length of rope in on top. “That’s everything you’ll need, including an Ear-COM,” he explained. “Keep it all hidden however you can until I give you the signal to go, in case someone comes to check on you.”
“Got it, Spence,” Uncle Mark replied. He strode over to the pile of supplies and started to unwind the rope around the garden fork. Spencer guessed he was searching for the Ear-COM. Before Spencer could call down about where to find it, Dad’s voice was rising up out of the tank.
“You’re sure you’re safe, Spencer?” Dad called.
“I’m sure, Dad. Don’t worry, Aldo and I have a plan. We’re getting out of here tonight!”
“Spencer, if anything goes wrong, I want you to get yourself out of Hidden Rock Zoo. Do you understand?” Mom asked, her voice firm. “We’ll be fine.”
“Mom, nothing’s going to go wrong. We have something Pam doesn’t have.”
“What’s that?” Dad asked.
“Wanmahai.”
Spencer was halfway down the glass wall, on the outside of the Aqua Theater when he suddenly panicked. He hadn’t lost his grip. Nothing about his climb down from the open window at the top of the wall had changed. But he’d thought about falling, and now he couldn’t shake the images out of his head.
Not now! He tried to push it away, but before he knew it, the memory that always made him panic when he was climbing hit him. He squeezed his eyes shut and held tight to the wall as the images crashed into his head.
He was being carried roughly up into a tall tree by a furious bear, his head was scraped and bleeding. He was struggling to get away, then he fell, careening toward the ground, rushing faster and faster through leaves and branches and—
“Team.” Mom’s voice was suddenly in Spencer’s ear. He blinked his eyes open. He was panting, still holding firmly to an iron ledge, halfway between the window at the top of the Aqua Theater and the ground. He wasn’t falling through trees. He wasn’t reliving the moment when he had fallen from Yude’s clutches on his first trip to Bearhaven as a child. That first visit to Bearhaven had changed everything, making Mom and Dad think they had to keep Spencer safe from Bearhaven by keeping it a secret from him. Spencer wasn’t back there now. He was in control.
“Mom.” He breathed a sigh of relief, then continued his climb to the ground.
“Spencer, I’m about to turn the Ear-COM over to your uncle so he can finish out this mission in communication with you, but I need you to know—”
“Yeah?” Spencer hopped to the ground and set off at a jog toward the pear grove.
“You can trust Dora.”
Spencer hesitated. The memory of Dora attacking B.D. flashed into his mind, and then the way she’d made Spencer risk going into Pam’s house twice to get and then return Darwin, and the way she’d sent them into the aquarium without warning them it was alarmed … Spencer and Aldo planned to rescue Dora tonight … but could they trust her?
“You’re sure?” Aldo’s voice suddenly chimed in. Spencer had forgotten the bear’s Ear-COM was connected as well.
“Yes, Aldo,” Mom answered. “I’m sure.”
“Okay,” Spencer whispered, jogging up the hill and into the pear grove.
“Be smart tonight,” Mom said. “Both of you.” Then, after a pause, she added, “Abragan.”
“Abragan.” Spencer puffed up with pride. Mom had spoken to him in Ragayo, like he was a real operative.
“For the bears,” Aldo said, his growls translating through the Ear-COMs.
“Here’s Mark.”
Spencer crept around the outskirts of the pear grove, searching the tree branches for Aldo. “I’m at the edge of the pear grove, Aldo,” he whispered. “Where are you?”
A pear dropped to the ground a few inches from Spencer. He jumped aside and looked up. Aldo was there. A second later, the bear’s head extended down from some of the lowest branches. He grabbed the back of Spencer’s T-shirt between his teeth and hoisted Spencer up into the tree.
“Oof! I could have climbed up here myself,” Spencer whispered as he settled himself on a branch.
“I’ve never heard you say that before, Spence.” Uncle Mark’s voice suddenly came over the Ear-COM.
“Uncle Mark!” Spencer whispered, happy to have his uncle back in communication.
“So what’s the plan, gentlemen?”
“We’re heading to the guardhouse soon.” Aldo immediately launched into the plan. “I’m going to act as a distraction. Spencer’s going to get inside and try to reestablish communication with Evarita. He’ll let you know when to start your escape. You, Shane, and Jane just need to focus on getting yourselves out of the tank and over to the pool shed. Do you know where it is?”
“Jane, do you know where the pool shed is?” Uncle Mark said. Then, a moment later, “Yes, we know where it is.”
“Okay,” Aldo continued. “We’re eventually all going to meet there. You three, B.D.—”
“What’s B.D.’s condition?” Uncle Mark asked.
“He’s hurt,” Spencer jumped in. “But I’m going to help him get to the pool shed.”
“We’ll also have Dora and her cub,” Aldo added.
“Jane told me about the cub,” said Uncle Mark. “We can’t leave here without him.”
“We won’t,” Spencer confirmed.
“Once we’ve all met in the pool shed, we’ll make our final escape. Evarita will be ready with a getaway vehicle,” Aldo finished.
“All right. We’ll wait for your instructions to go, Spence.”
“Okay.” Spencer looked at Aldo. “We should get moving.”
�
��See you in the pool shed, Mark,” Aldo said.
“We’ll be there.”
Spencer and Aldo crouched in the dark beside Hidden Rock Zoo’s outer wall. They had the guardhouse in sight. They were ready.
Almost.
All that was left to do before starting the escape mission was to remove Aldo’s Ear-COM. But as soon as they did, Spencer and Aldo wouldn’t be able to communicate. They had gotten this far together, as a team. The idea of separating now seemed like a flaw in the plan.
“All right,” Aldo said. “I guess it’s now or never. If we wait too long, the sun’s going to rise.”
“Yup,” Spencer said. “This was the plan.”
“This is the plan. It’s a good plan. It’s going to work.” Aldo sounded like he was trying to convince himself as much as he was trying to reassure Spencer. “We make a good team, little man,” Aldo said, headbutting Spencer in the shoulder. “Now let’s finish this mission so we can all go home.” The bear bowed his head.
“You’re right. Let’s finish this mission.” Spencer took Aldo’s Ear-COM from the bear’s ear and slipped it into his pocket. Aldo nodded, then started toward the guardhouse. Spencer followed. When they got close, Spencer dropped to his hands and knees and crept into position beneath one of the open windows on the side of the small building.
Aldo paused. He started to huff and snort loudly. The sounds of chairs moving came out of the guardhouse. The second they did, Aldo lurched forward and lumbered around the side of the building. He gave another aggressive grunt and snort.
“Ahhh!!!” A scream sounded from the guardhouse. Spencer smiled, then heard the thundering footsteps of a bear breaking into a run.
“Stop screaming!” a guard shouted. “One of the bears is out! We gotta get him before Pam finds out! Come on!” Spencer listened to more commotion, more shouts, then footsteps running into the distance. He leaped up and darted around the side of the guardhouse. He slipped in the front door and closed it behind himself, pushing the night-vision goggles up to the top of his head.