The Missing Grizzly Cubs

by Judy Young

  “Some of those cracks are hundreds of feet deep,” Craig told them.

  “Why is it blue?” Toni asked, her camera focused on a deep fissure.

  “It’s complex, but over time the glacier ice becomes so compact and dense, it absorbs all the different color rays except blue. The blue color rays escape, so that’s what you see.”

  Craig asked Bernie to fly closer to a jumble of huge ice boulders that had split off from cliffs of ice. Some were bigger than houses and lay like toppled piles of rock. The chopper had barely moved that direction when suddenly, over the headphones, a gritty voice cut in.

  “Bravo Alpha Delta four eight niner. This is Alpha Tango Charlie. Over.”

  “Alpha Tango Charlie. This is Bravo Alpha Delta four eight niner. I read you, over,” Bernie said back to the voice.

  “Orders to take Craig to Toklat rest area immediately, over,” the voice said.

  “Affirmative. Roger. Out,” Bernie stated. The voice made no more replies.

  “Looks like I’m needed at Toklat,” Craig said into the headset mic as Bernie swung the helicopter around and accelerated. “Bernie will take you back to Tek after he drops me off.”

  It wasn’t long before the tentlike gift shop and the parking lot were below them. A green bus was just pulling out, and several others were parked side by side. People scattered around the observation area looked up at the chopper as it approached, and one man almost dropped the caribou antlers he held to his head.

  The helicopter continued on to an unpaved parking lot that couldn’t be seen by the tourists. Some maintenance equipment was parked there, and another ranger stood beside a truck, waiting for Craig. The chopper stopped its forward movement and hovered in midair for a few seconds. After last night’s rain the whole parking lot was muddy, and big puddles dotted the area. Waves churned in the puddles as the helicopter hovered above them. Bernie moved the chopper backward slightly so it wouldn’t land in a puddle, and soon its skids touched down in the mud. They were landing only long enough for Craig to jump out, so Bernie did not turn off the rotating blades.

  “Here, Buck,” Craig said, “put my headset in that console.” Craig took off his headset and handed it to Buck. Buck opened the console. Inside was a camo jacket. He pushed the jacket out of the way and gasped. In the bottom of the console sat a red backpack with a curved bear claw attached to the zipper pull.

  Buck quickly looked to the front. Bernie was focusing on the dials, paying no attention. Craig had jumped out of the helicopter and was about to close the door. Without hesitating, Buck yelled as loud as he could. Craig looked in at him.

  “Yes, Bernie will take you to Tek,” Craig yelled back, and then closed the helicopter door. Over the noise of the rotating blades and without a headset, it was clear Craig did not hear him correctly. But everyone else still had on their headsets, and neither Toni nor Bernie had any trouble understanding what Buck had yelled.

  “That’s not Bernie; it’s Rek!”

  TAKE 15:

  “GRIZZLIES ARE FAST! THEY CAN RUN UP TO THIRTY-FIVE MILES PER HOUR. THAT’S FIFTY-ONE FEET IN ONE SECOND!”

  The helicopter rose rapidly above the ranger truck. Toni was looking wild-eyed at Rek. Leaning close to the window, Buck waved both arms frantically, trying to signal to Craig that something was wrong. Craig looked up, smiled, and waved, then turned his back to them to talk with the other ranger.

  The helicopter moved quickly away and, as it did, Buck looked back and saw that it had left two parallel lines etched into the mud.

  That’s what I was forgetting last night! he thought.

  “So you think you’ve got it all figured out, huh, kid?” Rek said as the helicopter gained momentum. Buck didn’t answer. “Well, you don’t even have a clue.”

  “We do too,” Toni blurted out. “We know you took the bear cubs.”

  “And you used this helicopter to do it,” Buck added. “That’s why you didn’t fly up the ravine to the cliffs today, isn’t it? You didn’t want Craig to see where the skids smashed down the tundra on the flat spot above the cliffs.”

  “Shut up. Both of you,” Rek said. Anger was escalating in his voice.

  Buck looked at Toni and put his finger to his mouth, then quietly slid the sketchbook from the seat pocket.

  It’s ok, just keep quiet, he wrote. He held it so Toni could see it but kept the sketchbook low, behind Rek’s seat, so it was out of his sight.

  Buck turned a page and wrote again.

  Rek shaved his beard and mustache, but I should have recognized the sunglasses.

  Buck held it up for Toni to read again, then laid the sketchbook on his lap and looked out the window. They were following the road back toward Tek, and soon Buck saw the Teklanika Bridge below and then the two loops of the Tek Campground. But the chopper did not slow down or lose altitude. In fact, it was going higher.

  “If you go back and let us out, we promise we won’t tell,” Buck said.

  “You really think I believe that?” Rek sneered.

  “You’re going to get caught,” Toni said. “When Craig gets back to Tek and we’re not there—”

  Rek interrupted her. “Craig won’t be back to the campground for hours. We’ll be miles from here by then.”

  We’ll think of something, Buck wrote in the sketchbook, but his heart was beating fiercely as he stared out the window at the park road below him. Without warning, the helicopter turned to the left and headed away from the road.

  “Where are you going now?” Buck demanded. “The Denali airport is near the entrance.”

  Rek ignored Buck. He turned a dial, pushed a button, and started talking again.

  “Golf Echo Romeo two five three. This is Bravo Alpha Delta four eight niner. Over.”

  Static came through the headphones, and soon another voice.

  “Bravo Alpha Delta four eight niner. This is Golf Echo Romeo two five three. I read you, over.”

  “Change of plans. Move my car from Denali airport to alternate landing location. Over,” Rek said.

  “Why? Over.”

  “I have extra baggage. Over.”

  “How much extra baggage? Over.”

  “Two. Over.”

  “What type? Over.”

  “Immature human. Over.”

  “Help!” Buck yelled as loud as he could. “He’s kidnapping us!”

  “Shut up!” Rek snarled. He quickly pushed the button, and the static over the headsets instantly quit.

  “He didn’t even hear you!” Toni exclaimed.

  “Oh, he heard him all right,” Rek said. “He just didn’t care.”

  Rek started laughing. Not a funny laugh. A wicked laugh.

  “You probably wish you’d kept your mouth shut, Bucko, old boy. I would have had no idea you recognized me. You’d be back at that green camper of yours, spilling the beans, and the rangers would be waiting for me at the Denali airport. So I guess I have you to thank, don’t I, Bucko?”

  Buck felt his face redden.

  He won’t get away with it! he wrote.

  As he showed it to Toni, he could feel tears well up in his eyes. Toni looked scared too, her face tense. Buck quickly blinked away the tears, and wrote down more, showing Toni the message sentence by sentence.

  We’ll be all right.

  We just have to stay calm.

  As Buck looked out the window at the thick spruce forest that covered the mountains below, he quietly took the compass out of his pocket. Then he wrote Going NE 38°. He held it up for Toni to see, and she nodded. They kept flying in the same direction until a road became visible in the distance. There were no green buses on it. It was busy with cars and semitrucks. Also in the distance was a small town.

  We’ve left the park, Buck wrote. We’ll probably land soon. I have a plan. Buck opened to a new page and continued writing.

  HELP!!!! Rek Malkum (also called Bernie) kidnapped us. Call Ranger Craig at Denali immediately.

  Buck Bray and Toni Shoop

  B
uck quietly tore the paper out of the sketchbook and showed it to Toni. He slid the note into the seat pocket, but when he looked back out the window, the chopper had gone over the town and was once again flying across the forest. Finally the chopper slowed to a hover above the forest, and Rek’s voice came through the headset.

  “We’ll be landing soon. Toni, get my backpack out of the console.”

  Toni pulled out the bright red backpack and handed it to Rek. Rek unzipped it and pulled out a canister of bear spray and put it in his lap.

  The helicopter regained speed, flying just above the spruces toward the red tin roof of a lodge. Several red-roofed cabins were lined up on either side of it, and a narrow drive wound through the forest in front of the buildings. The drive continued to a clearing with a big square of pavement. A large white circle with a big letter H in the middle was painted on the square. Rek’s black car was parked near the helicopter pad. The chopper hovered above the circle and landed perfectly within its border.

  Rek turned toward the backseats.

  “Okay, listen up. If either one of you does anything—yell, run, act at all weird—the other one will get a shot of this,” Rek threatened, holding up the bear spray. He flipped the safety off and held his finger on the trigger. “And believe me, if it will hurt a thousand-pound grizzly, it’ll hurt you, too. Understand?”

  Both Buck and Toni nodded as Rek opened his door, climbed out, and then opened the back door.

  “Now get out,” Rek commanded. “Bring all your stuff and my jacket, too.”

  Buck stuffed the sketchbook into Toni’s backpack, grabbed Rek’s jacket, and climbed out. Toni started to open the door on her side.

  “Oh no, you don’t, missy,” Rek called to her. “You get out on this side too.” Toni scrambled over the console and jumped out beside Buck, the camera bag in her hand. Rek started to shut the door but stopped and looked at the back of his seat. A small corner from a page of paper stuck out of the top of the seat pocket. He reached in, pulled out the piece of paper, and read it.

  “Thought you were pretty smart, didn’t you?” He angrily crammed the paper into his pocket and then grabbed Buck tightly by the arm.

  “Toni, get in front of me, walk normally over to the car, and open the front door,” Rek said, still grasping Buck’s arm. “Now, see that lever beside the seat? Pull it up.”

  Toni did as he instructed, and the trunk opened.

  “I can’t trust you’ll stay out of sight in the car, so get back there and climb in,” Rek commanded. “Quickly!”

  Toni put the camera bag into the trunk and scrambled in.

  “Your turn, Bucko.” Rek gave Buck a hard shove. Buck hit his head on the edge of the trunk lid as he fell in, landing on what looked like Rek’s blue tent. He quickly pulled his feet in just as Rek slammed the lid down. Suddenly it was pitch-black. A few seconds later the car started and they were driving away.

  “Do you think he’s going to kill us?” Toni asked, her voice cracking between sobs.

  Tears were sliding down Buck’s cheeks too. He took a deep breath and forced himself to sound calm.

  “No,” he said, wiping his tears away. “He would have just left us in the wilderness for the grizzlies.”

  Buck squirmed around. “Lift your head up. We can use the tent as a pillow.”

  The two lay quietly on their backs. The air was stale, and they heard the whine of the tires on the pavement. At first the car moved slowly, making several turns. Then it sped up, driving over a twisty, curvy road.

  “Does your watch light up?” Buck asked.

  A faint light suddenly glowed on Toni’s wrist. The watch didn’t offer much light, but there was enough for her to get a look at Buck.

  “You’re bleeding,” she said.

  “I know,” Buck said, touching his forehead. He could feel the sticky blood on his fingers. “I hit my head when Rek shoved me. I’ll be okay, though.” As he talked, he pulled the compass out of his pocket.

  “We’re heading south. We must be on the highway we took to get to Denali,” Buck said. “What time is it?”

  “A quarter till one,” she stated. “Why?”

  “We can guess how far we’ve gone if we know how long we’ve been driving,” Buck said.

  “I wonder if there’s a flashlight or something in here,” Toni said. “My battery will go dead if the light’s on too long.”

  Buck squirmed around again until he was on his hands and knees, and then he felt around in the dim light. A T-shirt, a rain jacket, and an open box. He rummaged through the box. It contained a couple of cans of soup, a roll of duct tape, and a granola bar. Just one. Buck took out the granola bar and then pushed everything back into a corner as far as possible to give them more room. He then scrambled around until he was lying on his back again.

  “Did you find anything?” Toni asked, letting her watch go dark again.

  “No flashlight, but there’s a granola bar. We can share it.”

  Buck broke the granola bar and gave half to Toni.

  “I keep thinking I have it all figured out, but then something messes it up,” Buck said between bites. “On Monday, Rek took GPS readings so he could locate the cubs by air. Once he knew where the cubs were, he didn’t need to stay at Tek, so he left Tuesday morning. But this is where it messes up. I know he flew in to get those cubs, and at some point he landed on the flat.”

  “So how’s that messed up?” Toni asked. “Rek saw us shooting the moose, parked the helicopter on the flat until we were gone, and then flew down and got the cubs.”

  “That won’t work,” Buck said. “Don’t you see? He can’t be in two places at once.”

  Toni thought for a moment. “You’re right. He can’t be hiding in the bushes and flying a helicopter at the same time. We’re still missing something.”

  TAKE 16:

  “A GRIZZLY BEAR’S BEHAVIOR IS USUALLY MORE PREDICTABLE THAN A HUMAN’S. THEY ARE MAINLY CONCERNED WITH PROTECTING THEIR YOUNG, THEIR FOOD, AND THEIR PERSONAL SPACE.”

  Buck and Toni had gone through all the possibilities they could think of and were now silent. They lay there, each with their own thoughts, as the car continued down the road. Finally the car started slowing down.

  “Are you awake?” Buck lightly shook Toni.

  “Yeah, I’m awake.”

  “Remember the town we saw with all the gift shops and lodges? I think we’re going through it now.”

  “Maybe we’re going back to the park!” Toni said, her voice sounding hopeful. “If we yell when we get there, maybe someone will hear us.”

  But the car never turned and before long, it was gaining speed again.

  “We’ve gone past the park entrance, haven’t we?” Toni said.

  “I think so,” Buck said. He let out a big sigh. “What time is it now?”

  The trunk glowed. “One thirty.”

  “Do you think Dad and Shoop miss us yet?”

  “It’s been over two hours since Rek dropped Craig at Toklat,” Toni said as the trunk turned dark again. “I’m sure they’re looking for us by now.”

  “Well, it won’t be as hard to track down a missing helicopter as it is to find missing cubs,” Buck said. “Plus, the rangers will have Rek’s license plate number since he camped at Tek. Maybe there will be some roadblocks.”

  “I wonder where he’s taking us,” Toni said.

  “I don’t know, but I hope it’s not too far. I know it’s the least of our problems, but I have to pee.”

  “Me too,” Toni said, and they both laughed a little.

  It felt like a long time before the car slowed down again. It made a left-hand turn but only sped up a little. The car lurched about, and rocks could be heard hitting the underside.

  “I think we’re on a dirt road now,” Buck said as he and Toni bounced around inside the trunk. “What time is it?”

  Buck looked at the compass as Toni looked at her watch. “Ten after two.”

  “We’re going due east now,” Buck sai
d.

  To their relief, they only bounced around for about ten minutes. Then the car slowed, stopped, and started slowly moving backward. As it moved in reverse, the car turned and seemed to be on smooth pavement for a few seconds before it stopped again. Then the steady beeping of an open car door could be heard over the sound of the running motor.

  “I think we’ve backed into a driveway or something,” Buck whispered.

  “Yeah, and it sounds like Rek’s gotten out,” Toni said. “I bet we’ve gotten to wherever it is he’s taking us.”

  “Hopefully, we’ll be out of here soon,” Buck said.

  A few seconds later the car door slammed shut, and the car slowly moved backward some more and stopped again. This time the motor turned off. The door opened and slammed shut again. Then nothing. Buck and Toni waited, but the trunk never opened.

  “Where do you think we are?” Toni whispered in the dark.

  “I don’t know. I don’t hear anything.”

  “I think he’s gone,” Toni said. “I think he’s left us someplace.”

  “We have to get out of here,” Buck said. “Move over. Maybe I can kick the backseat out.”

  Buck scooted around until his head was at the rear of the car, both feet flat on the back of the seat. He gave several forceful kicks. They made a lot of noise and the seat budged a little. He kicked again and again.

  Suddenly a loud bang sounded from above them on the lid of the trunk, and they heard Rek yell, “Stop kicking at the seat! You’re going to destroy my car.”

  Buck yelled the first thing he thought of. “I have to pee! You want me to pee all over your trunk?”

  Instantly the trunk opened. Glaring lights hurt their eyes as they looked up at Rek looking down at them, bear spray in his hand.

  “I have to pee too,” Toni said.

  “Okay, you first, missy. Bucko, you stay there and keep down,” Rek said, aiming the bear spray at Buck’s face. “The john’s over there.”

  Buck saw Rek point back behind him as Toni climbed out of the trunk, but lying flat on his back, he couldn’t see much else. All he could tell was they were in a tall metal building. He lay there, looking at the rafters and keeping his eye on Rek. Rek seemed anxious about something and kept looking at his watch.