The Missing Grizzly Cubs

by Judy Young

  “Your dad’s the best, Toni,” Dad said. “That’s why he’s called One-Shot Shoop!”

  “Nah, just your basic cutting and pasting,” Shoop said, but he was smiling.

  They continued watching, seeing Craig load the tranquilizer into the rifle, Buck looking at the sleeping grizzly’s paws, and the helicopter taking the darted bear away. They saw Buck standing among the herd of caribou, and later balancing across the knife-edge. An Arctic ground squirrel fiercely lectured him as he crawled into the bear’s den, and an eagle lifted off, flying over his head, the top of Denali in the distance, floating above the clouds. The video ended with the moose shot.

  “It’s only a little more than half done,” Dad said. “We still need to add about twenty minutes’ worth into the middle, but with the beginning and ending done, the hardest parts are behind us. I think it will be a hit!”

  “Play back the moose part again,” Buck said. Shoop fast-forwarded the video until Buck stood, a grazing bull moose on the hill behind him. The moose lifted its head and its antlers glowed. Then, in one of the rays that radiated from its antlers, golden words started appearing as if someone were actually writing with a ray of light. The Wild World flowed from one antler point, and from another came the words of Buck Bray! Buck watched intently as the moose lifted its head, and his own voice overlay could be heard, saying, “Join us next week for another episode of The Wild World of Buck Bray.”

  “That’s awesome how the writing comes out of the moose’s antlers,” Buck said, “just as I say the words. It was almost like I was reading the rays of light.”

  “It was a little tricky,” Shoop stated. “I had to edit the green bus out of the background. Remember how one came around the bend just after the moose trotted away? I thought I had missed it when filming, but you could see it behind the moose.”

  “That was a lucky shot all the way around,” Toni added. “Remember? The audio was messed up by that helicopter too. But you did a great job syncing Buck’s voice in, Shoop.”

  “Thanks,” Shoop said, then looked at his watch. “No wonder I’m starved. I can’t get used to the time around here. You’d think it’s early afternoon by the looks of that sun.”

  “I’ll get the grill started,” Dad stated. “Buck, heat up some beans.”

  Dad grabbed a package of pork chops from the refrigerator. Shoop turned off the computer and followed Dad outside. Toni headed for the door too, but Buck stopped her.

  “We need to look at that moose shot again,” he whispered.

  “Why?”

  “I saw something else.”

  “Are you sure? I didn’t see anything. What was it?”

  “I don’t know. I didn’t get a good look, but there’s definitely something there that isn’t supposed to be.”

  “Okay,” Toni said. She looked out the window. Shoop and Dad were both standing by a small gas grill they had placed on the picnic table. “But we have to be quick. Shoop would kill me if he caught me messing with his laptop.”

  Toni opened the laptop but hesitated.

  “They’ll hear it when I start it up,” she said.

  Buck thought for a moment and then opened a drawer, pulled out a hammer and nails and stuck his head out the door.

  “Hey, Dad. Can I hang the ‘Bear Danger’ sign on my door?”

  “Sure,” Dad answered.

  Buck made a racket pounding the sign to the door as Toni started the computer and brought up the program. She pushed mute as Buck joined her, and fast-forwarded the video to the moose shot.

  “Stop. Right there,” Buck said.

  Toni pushed another key, and the image froze. Buck bent forward to look more closely at the screen.

  “Now zoom in on this area over here.”

  Buck pointed to some alders that were quite a ways from where the moose stood. As Toni zoomed in, the image became pixelated. They couldn’t tell what it was, but the color was unmistakable.

  “Rek’s red backpack!” Buck said. His eyes met Toni’s for just a second before they both turned back to the screen.

  “And look at that!” Toni said. She pointed to a hint of a black shape beside the tiny bit of red. Buck looked. It was a squarelike shape. A shape that doesn’t usually appear in nature.

  “It looks like Rek’s black case!” he said.

  “Are you sure?” Toni said, shutting down the computer. “I really couldn’t tell what either the red or black things were.”

  “I don’t know, but I’m certain they have something to do with the missing cubs,” Buck said as he opened a can of beans.

  “Shouldn’t we show this to Shoop and your dad?” Toni said.

  “No, you heard Dad. He hardly paid any attention when I told him the cubs were missing. And Shoop would just edit that stuff out of the shot and we’d lose the evidence. What we need to do is find out what’s in that case.”

  “It might not have even been his case. It could have been something else,” Toni argued. “Just because Rek’s a jerk doesn’t mean he has anything to do with the cubs.”

  “That’s why we have to see what’s in it,” Buck said. “Whatever’s inside that case could prove he’s involved somehow.”

  “I guess so,” Toni said just as Dad announced the pork chops were ready.

  Dad and Shoop ate slowly, talking business almost nonstop, but Buck and Toni rushed through dinner.

  “We’re going for a walk,” Buck announced. “We’ll stay in the campground.”

  “You were gone all day. Aren’t you guys worn-out yet?” Dad asked.

  “Some people camping here were in our compass class today, and Toni promised she’d show them her sketchbook,” Buck said quickly.

  “Well, okay. But don’t stay too long and don’t leave the campground.”

  “We’ll be back before dark,” Buck said, laughing, then turned to Toni. “I’ve been dying to say that for two weeks!”

  Toni grabbed her backpack. “Where are we going?” she asked as they headed over to the first loop.

  “To Rek’s campsite,” Buck answered.

  “You don’t even know if Rek’s case is still there,” Toni said. “And if it is, how are you going to see what’s in it without getting caught?”

  “You can cause a distraction. I’ll climb into the car real quick, open it up, and take a look.”

  “What if the door’s locked? Or the case isn’t in the car anymore? Or what if Rek catches you? What are you going to do then?”

  “I don’t know. We’ll just see when we get there, okay?”

  They were almost to Site 13. Stopping behind a spruce tree at the edge of Site 12, they peered into the next campsite. They could see a black car, but it blocked their view of the tent. They crept deeper into the trees that separated the two campsites until they could see better. A green tent was set up beside the picnic table.

  “Are we at the right spot?” Buck whispered. “I could have sworn he had a blue tent.”

  “He did,” Toni said.

  “Grrrr-roar,” a deep growl thundered out right behind them. Buck nearly jumped out of his skin, and Toni gasped as they both spun around. Gerald stood there, laughing.

  “You two sure are jumpy,” he said. “Thought it was a bear, didn’t you?”

  Romana was also laughing, from the doorway of an RV parked in Site 12.

  “No, you just startled us,” Buck said. He quickly made up an excuse for being in the trees. “We thought we saw a moose in that campsite, but it ended up being just a shadow.”

  “Yeah,” Toni said. “We were actually looking for you guys. I want to show you my sketchbook.” Toni pulled her sketchbook from her backpack.

  “Wonderful. Come on in,” Romana said. “We can see better inside.”

  Toni walked toward the RV. Gerald followed, but Buck hesitated. I need to get a better look at Rek’s campsite, he thought.

  “I’ll be just a second,” he called out. “Need to hit the outhouse first.”

  “You can use our RV’s joh
n,” Gerald said.

  “That’s okay,” Buck said. “I like outhouses.”

  “Didn’t I tell you, Romana?” Gerald said as he headed for the RV. “For some strange reason, kids just seem to have a fascination with outhouses. They’re always going in and out, in and out.”

  “Just the boys,” Toni said. “I prefer the one in our RV.”

  Buck just shrugged and headed for the road. As soon as he heard the RV door close, he turned back around. This time, instead of going in between campsites, he walked right to the front of Site 13 and looked down the drive. In it was a black car. A green tent. A picnic table. A bike leaned against a spruce by the path that led to the river, and a boy with a hoodie sweatshirt stood near the fire ring, holding a handful of kindling. A small trickle of smoke came up from the fire ring. The boy looked up at Buck.

  “Hi,” he said. “What’s up?”

  “Nothing much,” Buck said. “I saw you at the airport the other day. Just thought I’d say hi. When did you get here?”

  “My mom and I got here just before noon today and couldn’t believe this site was open. It’s the best site in loop one. There’s a better spot in loop two, but it was taken. Some weird-looking green camper is there. Have you seen it?”

  “Yeah, it’s beastly,” Buck said, smiling to himself. “Did you happen to see the guy who was camping here before you?”

  “Was his name Rek Malkum?” the boy answered.

  “Yeah! Do you know him?”

  “No, he left his registration tag on the post. I never saw him.”

  “Too bad,” Buck said. “He had a really cool bear claw on his backpack.”

  “Wow,” the boy said. “I wish I had seen that!”

  “Well, I have to go,” Buck said. “Maybe I’ll see you around.”

  “Okay, see ya,” the boy said, and returned to putting sticks on the fire.

  Buck went back to the Rails’ RV, knocked on the door, and walked in. It was much bigger than the Green Beast. To the right was a living area. The driver’s and passenger’s seats swiveled around to make lounge chairs, and there was even a couch. Toni sat on it between Romana and Gerald, her sketchbook open on her lap, a pencil in her hand. Buck glanced at what she was drawing. The Dall sheep horn. Then he sat down in one of the lounge chairs and looked across the living area toward the kitchen.

  “Wow! You guys have a TV?” he said. Built into the wall was a small set.

  “Gerald can’t do without watching the news every day,” Romana said.

  “News?” Buck asked. “How can you get news here?”

  “Come here. I’ll show you,” Gerald said, getting up and heading toward a door beyond the kitchen. “You’re going to love this.”

  “I’m not sure everything is put away in there, Gerald,” Romana said.

  “Yes, it is. I put everything away while you were cooking supper.”

  “My mom is like that too,” Toni said without even looking up. “Doesn’t want one little thing out of place. Shoop drives her crazy.”

  Romana smiled and said, “I guess I’m just a neat freak.”

  Buck followed Gerald through the door. A bed sat in the middle of the room, with space to walk on either side. On the back wall, narrow closet doors stood on each side of the bed. The room was neat as a pin. The only thing out of place was Gerald’s backpack. It sat on the bed, its top flap lying open across a quilt. Something was sticking out of the top. Over Gerald’s shoulder, Buck couldn’t see what it was. Just a little point of something. Something brown. Gerald nonchalantly reached over and flipped the flap of the backpack closed. Then he walked over to a closet, opened the door, and shoved some clothes aside.

  “See that thing?” he said, pointing to a little crank on the ceiling. “Turn that, and a satellite dish pops up on the top of the RV. We can get TV, Internet, cell phone, everything.”

  “Cool!” Buck said.

  Toni didn’t even look up as they came back into the kitchen. “Shoop’s been telling your dad he needs to update the Green Beast. He says your dad is the biggest procrastinator about technology he’s ever seen.”

  “It’s true. Dad doesn’t even have an electric coffee-maker,” Buck explained to the Rails. “He makes it in a pot on the stove.”

  “Just bring him over here,” Romana said. “We’ll get him convinced.”

  “You don’t know my dad. He wouldn’t even let me bring DVDs to watch on his laptop. You’d think being a TV personality, he’d want to watch stuff, but he says it’s distracting when he’s on a shoot.”

  Gerald sat down again, but Buck headed for the door.

  “We’d better get going, Toni,” he said. “Maybe we’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

  “I doubt it,” Gerald said. “We’re leaving tomorrow morning.”

  “It was great hiking with you two,” Romana said. “We can’t wait to see your show.”

  TAKE 13:

  “A GRIZZLY IS MOST ACTIVE FROM DAWN TO DUSK, BUT WHEN STOCKING UP FOR HIBERNATION, A GRIZZLY MAY BE AWAKE MORE THAN TWENTY HOURS A DAY.”

  “Did you see inside the case?” Toni asked as soon as the RV door closed.

  “No, Rek left. Did you notice that kid at the airport with the hoodie? He and his mom are camping there now. He said they got there this afternoon. But I’m certain Rek has something to do with the missing cubs,” Buck said as they walked up the campground road. “I just can’t figure it all out. The bears were there after the moose shot on Tuesday. And we now know Rek was hiding nearby when we shot the moose.”

  “The bears were missing Wednesday morning,” Toni added, “and remember, on the bus Monday? It looked like Rek was taking GPS coordinates of every animal, including the sow and cubs.”

  “Wait a second. We have to get organized,” Buck said. “Give me your sketchbook and a pencil.” Buck sat down at a table in a vacant campsite. “It’s just like with a shoot. We have all these different episodes recorded all out of order, but then we have to put them together so they’ll make sense.”

  Buck turned to a new page in the sketchbook and wrote Missing Grizzly Cubs at the top. The two of them started naming off all the important clues they could think of, and Buck wrote them down in the correct order.

  1. SUN—Saw man with red backpack and black case at airport. His name is Rek Malkum and he camped at Site 13.

  2. MON—Saw cubs with the sow. Rek took GPS readings of bears’ location.

  3. TUES—Rek was hiding in the bushes during the moose shot. Saw his red backpack and black case in the video. Saw cubs with sow after the moose shot.

  4. WED—Cubs gone in morning before first bus got there. New campers moved into Site 13 before noon so Rek left Tek before noon.

  Buck finished writing and read it out loud.

  “There’s something missing,” Toni said.

  “Yeah, the most important part,” Buck said. “How he did it.”

  “And why,” Toni added.

  “Why is easy. For money,” Buck said. “Some rich guy will pay a lot of money to have his own personal bear cubs.”

  “But that’s illegal.”

  “Yeah, that’s why we have to catch Rek.”

  “I think we should tell our dads.”

  “They’d just say we’re imagining things. But if we can figure out how he did it, then they’d believe us.”

  As they walked back through loop one and headed toward loop two, they brainstormed more.

  “He couldn’t just grab two bear cubs,” Toni said. “The sow would kill him.”

  “That’s another easy one. Rek could have tranquilized the sow and the cubs.”

  “But how would he have gotten them out of there?” Toni asked. “He can’t just walk onto a green bus carrying two bear cubs.”

  Buck stopped. “I think I know what he did. He tranquilized them. Then came back here, packed up his camp, drove back, and put them in his car. But he’d have to have time. Do you remember what time it was when we shot the moose scene?”

  “I don�
�t know,” Toni answered, “but we got back to Tek before eight, so it had to be around five thirty. Why?”

  “I think I’ve got it! Come on! We have to find out what time the last bus leaves.”

  They ran to the main road and over to the bus stop. Tacked to the wall on the inside of the pavilion was a schedule. Buck followed his finger down a column.

  “You were close. The bus we saw just after the moose shot left Eielson at five thirty. It takes about fifteen minutes to get where we shot the moose. That must have been the bus Shoop edited out of the moose scene. So it went past us at about five forty-five. We left shortly afterward and saw the sow and cubs. So they were still there at about five fifty-five or so.”

  Buck quickly jotted the times down in Toni’s sketchbook. Then he turned back to the schedule, tracked another column, and scribbled down more times, explaining as he wrote.

  “There was only one more bus after the five-thirty one. It left Eielson at six thirty. So it went past Stony Dome at about six forty-five and was back here at Tek about eight fifty.”

  “So?” Toni said.

  “Don’t you see? It was the last bus. Rek was still hiding out there when we left, so he had to get on that six-thirty bus, and it got to Tek at eight fifty.”

  “I still don’t see what difference that makes.”

  “It’s all about timing. Rek was here at almost nine. It would take him about two and a half hours to get from Tek back to the tranquilized bears and then another two and a half hours back to Tek. That’s five hours.” Buck looked at the schedule again. “Add another forty-five minutes to get to the checkpoint and another thirty to the park entrance. That’s six hours and fifteen minutes.”

  Buck looked at the schedule one last time. “The first bus coming into the park in the morning gets to Tek at seven twenty-five, and it would take two and a half hours before it would get to the bears. That’s about ten o’clock. So . . .” Buck started counting backward on his fingers, but Toni spoke up before he could finish.

  “I get it! He’d have to leave Tek by three forty-five in the morning on Wednesday in order to have time to get the bears and get out of the park before Jerry came along in the first bus and found the cubs gone!”