by K. E. Rocha
Adrenaline pounded through Spencer’s veins. He could practically feel himself falling all over again.
“It was all an unfortunate accident,” Yude growled. “Your parents never brought you to Bearhaven with them after that. They said it was unsafe for a small child, though everyone knew they really thought it was only I who was unsafe. I was removed from Bear Guard training for ‘instability,’ which meant—”
“You could never be Head of the Guard,” Spencer finished Yude’s sentence. “I … had no idea.” He wanted to be mad at the bear. Yude was the reason Mom and Dad had never told him about Bearhaven. Plus, Yude was the reason Spencer had a fear of falling he’d never been able to explain until today. Still, he understood. Whatever he’d done as a little kid had made something in Yude snap. Spencer had been acting like a curious human kid, and Yude had reacted like a bear whose only experience with humans was torture.
“I wasn’t aware that you didn’t remember that incident, or that you hadn’t been told,” Yude added. Spencer shook his head, still trying to collect his thoughts.
No matter what had happened between himself and Yude in the past, right now they were on the same team, and tomorrow night they were going to save Kate. They had to.
“Yude,” Spencer cleared his throat. He could hardly believe what he was about to do. “How do you say ‘I’m sorry’ in Ragayo?”
Yude didn’t answer for a long moment. He looked Spencer over, then lifted a claw to switch off his BEAR-COM. “Acha kunchaich,” he growled, then turned the BEAR-COM back on. “We use it as an apology,” Yude said. “But it means, ‘I didn’t know my own strength.’ ”
“Acha kunchaich,” Spencer repeated.
The bear nodded gravely, then turned and padded quietly out of the wardrobe car. His green cloak hid most of his body from sight as he left.
Spencer looked out into the dark tunnel of the TUBE. “Kate isn’t the only bear whose life you’ve damaged,” Yude had said. Even though Spencer and Yude had put the past behind them, the bear’s words still stung.
“We have to get to Kate before anything happens to her,” Spencer whispered. He watched the copper-colored window whip past signal lights. The TUBE was flying through the tunnel, but Spencer didn’t think it could possibly go fast enough.
Spencer hopped off the TUBE and onto the station platform in Florida. The station looked identical to the one in Bearhaven, but it was hotter here, much hotter. Spencer wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. He had his mission pack slung over one shoulder and a few pages of scrawled notes folded in his pocket. He’d enlisted Aldo’s help that morning to reconstruct as much of the STORM journal as they could on a piece of scrap paper. He’d wanted to review his operative training before the mission, and he’d spent the rest of the TUBE ride doing just that. Now he was ready. Whatever happened at Moon Farm, he’d handle it like an operative.
“Spencer,” a voice rang in Spencer’s ear. It was Aldo. “Was there any honey in your mission pack?” the bear asked. Spencer lifted a hand to his ear, carefully adjusting the volume on his Ear-COM the way Professor Weaver had shown him. He was still getting used to wearing the translating device. It felt as if someone had filled his ear with clay. Even so, Spencer had never felt so cool.
“Why would there be honey?” Spencer answered. He knew his Ear-COM would transmit the words right into Aldo’s ear now that their devices were connected, but he couldn’t imagine what good honey would do them on the rescue mission.
Aldo lumbered off the TUBE. His BEAR-COM and silver cuffs were gone, and there was a gold foil bear tag attached to one of his ears.
“There’s a Raymond’s fuel bar in mine,” he said when he reached Spencer. “But those things could always use a little bit of honey if you ask me.”
“Nope, no honey. Sorry,” Spencer answered. “And I think if we’re in enough trouble that we need to eat our emergency food supply, we’re probably not going to be too worried about how sweet it is.”
“That’s what you think.” Aldo’s tone was playful but forced, like he was trying to keep them both from getting too nervous about the mission. “You’ve never had a Raymond’s fuel bar. Disconnect.” The bear cut the connection between his Ear-COM and Spencer’s.
Spencer laughed and rushed to catch up with B.D., Yude, and Professor Weaver, who were stepping into an elevator on the far side of the platform.
“B.D.,” Spencer called. “What about my clothes?” He looked down at the jeans and plain gray T-shirt he’d worn out of Bearhaven twenty-one hours ago. “Should I change into some kind of disguise?”
“Evarita will handle your wardrobe,” B.D. answered. “Human clothing isn’t exactly my strong suit. Disconnect.”
The Head of the Guard hit a button in the elevator once all the bears and Spencer were packed inside. The doors slid shut. Not a minute later, they slid open again, revealing a cluster of palm trees outside. Spencer moved to leave the elevator right away, but B.D. stopped him.
“Team,” Evarita said from somewhere nearby, connecting all the Ear-COMs at once. “All clear.” B.D. moved aside, letting Spencer out of the elevator. He spotted Evarita right away. She was off to the left, leaning up against a big ice cream truck on a dirt road a few yards away.
“Chipwich or Choco Taco?” she called. Spencer ran over to her.
“Is that a uniform?” he asked. Evarita was wearing blue pants, a button-down short-sleeved shirt, and a blue baseball cap. An outline of a bear was printed in white on the front of the baseball cap. It matched the foil tag on each of the Bearhaven bear operatives’ ears. The letters M.F. were embroidered in gold on the pocket of the shirt.
“A Moon Farm factory uniform, actually. I have one for you in the front of the truck. B.D., you four should get out of sight,” Evarita hurried on. “There’s more traffic on this road than I’d expected.” She swung open the back doors of the truck. Spencer poked his head inside to look into the big empty space. No ice cream. Aldo hurried past him and climbed aboard. Yude climbed into the truck next, then Professor Weaver and B.D. With the four very large bears in the truck, there was hardly any space left.
“You’re riding up front with me,” Evarita said to Spencer as she shut the doors, hiding the bears. “Hurry up and change. I’ll stay here until you’re ready.”
Spencer rushed up to the front of the truck and opened the passenger-side door. A uniform just like the one Evarita was wearing was folded up on the seat. He climbed in and changed as quickly as he could. Once he’d transferred his jade bear from the pocket of his jeans into the factory uniform pants, he shoved his regular clothing underneath the passenger seat. “All right!” he called as he pulled the blue cap down on his head. A second later, Evarita opened the driver-side door and slid in behind the wheel.
“You look ready for a mission, Spencer.” Evarita started the truck. “Team, can everyone hear me in the back?” she asked.
“We can hear you, Evarita,” B.D. answered. “Can you give us the update?”
Evarita pulled onto the dirt road and made a quick U-turn that was met with a chorus of grunts and growls from the back of the truck. “Sorry!” she called to the bears.
“All right,” she began. “Yude and I have spoken about strategy, and we’ve determined that since we have both bears and humans on our team, getting into Moon Farm may actually, ironically, be the easiest part of this rescue mission. The place is filled to the brim with stuffed animals, some of them bigger than you, B.D. We’re going to use that to our advantage.” Some of Spencer’s nervousness faded away. Everything seemed to be under control.
“The last shift in the factory gets off at nine o’clock p.m. At eight-fifty, Spencer and I are going to wheel three of you bears in on metal carts. You all have the gold tags on your ears already, just like the ones Moon Farm uses to mark their products. If you stay completely still, you’ll pass as stuffed animals, and if anyone asks, we’ll tell them you’re part of a late shipment. I doubt anyone will ask, though, not at nine o�
��clock at night. The workers want to get out of the factory and home as soon as their shifts are over.
“Spencer and I will each bring one of you, then I’ll double back for the third bear. Timing may get a little tricky, so we’ll have to move fast. Once the warehouse door closes for the night, it’s alarmed. There won’t be any getting in after that, so we all need to be in the warehouse and hidden by the time the last workers leave.
“Once we’re inside, we’ll need to locate Kate as quickly as possible. Yude’s knowledge of Moon Farm’s floor plan from the last rescue attempt has given us a good indication of where to start; the layout seems to be the same. The building is divided into two halves. The part that’s accessible to the cargo dock where we’ll be arriving is the factory section, where the toy business—the legal side of Moon Farm’s business—all happens. That toy business is the cover for the illegal bear smuggling. It’s the other half of the building we’ll have to cross over to where all the illegal operations take place.
“Once we’ve gained access to the smuggling section of the building, Aldo, your sense of smell will be necessary as we search for Kate. Professor Weaver, since you’re most comfortable using the mechanical hand, Yude thought it would be best if you were the one to stay with the boat. You’ll need to get it out of sight, then bring it back for the getaway when necessary.”
Boat? What boat?
“Of course,” Professor Weaver agreed.
“Any questions?”
“I have a question,” Spencer said after a pause. “What boat?”
“Nobody mentioned it?” Evarita sounded surprised. “Moon Farm is an island. Makes things a bit more complicated, huh?”
Spencer didn’t answer. He looked straight ahead as they merged onto a highway. The coast spread out alongside it, and the waves crashed against the shore. An island? He was starting to see why everyone kept calling this mission risky.
Evarita opened the back doors of the ice cream truck and stepped aside.
The campsite parking lot she’d pulled into was empty except for a single motorcycle parked on the far side of the lot, but the motorcycle’s rider was nowhere in sight. With the low-hanging branches of a few trees concealing the whole back half of the truck, the coast was clear.
“Team, come on out,” she said to the bears, who looked more than ready to leave the cramped ice cream truck behind. “The boat isn’t far, but we should move quickly.”
The bears leaped down from the back of the truck one by one and hurried into the trees as Evarita locked up the truck.
“Lead the way, Evarita,” B.D. said. Spencer couldn’t see the bear, but B.D.’s voice came through loud and clear in his Ear-COM. “We’ll follow out of sight.”
“All right, this way.” She took off at a jog toward a hiking trail that led from the parking lot into the trees, and Spencer followed. He glanced into the trees as he ran, looking for the rest of Bearhaven’s team. Every once in a while, he caught a flash of fur or heard a twig snap, but mostly it seemed as though he and Evarita were completely alone.
The hiking trail ended at a small, rocky beach. It was abandoned except for a rickety-looking dock with a big, flashy, white speedboat parked beside it. The boat was bigger than Spencer had expected. He guessed it could hold at least twenty people, or maybe ten people and a few large bears. A small cabin for the driver sat in the middle of the boat, and an awning-covered seating area took up the back half.
One by one, the bears emerged from the trees and sprinted across the beach ahead of Evarita and Spencer, kicking up sand and pebbles as they ran. They tore across the dock, which creaked beneath them, then hurtled aboard the boat.
By the time Spencer and Evarita jumped aboard, the boat had stopped rocking dangerously from the impact of the bears, and B.D., Professor Weaver, Yude, and Aldo lay motionless and silent in a heap. If it weren’t for their heavy breathing and the movements of their eyes, Spencer was sure they’d pass for four oversized stuffed toy animals.
“Can you untie us from the dock, Spencer?” Evarita called, heading for the driver’s cabin. “Be careful though, those wooden planks were treacherous before four bears thundered over them.”
“Sure.” Spencer stepped back onto the dock, which quaked beneath his weight. He’d better make this quick. He rushed to the back of the boat and released the rope from the metal cleat it was tied to, then untied the rope at the front and tossed it into the boat. He stepped aboard, then grabbed the fenders, the rubber bumpers that kept the side of the speedboat from scraping against the dock, and pulled them in after himself.
Spencer went to join Evarita in the cabin. He looked around at the shiny wood paneling and the white leather driver’s seat. Before he could ask where she’d gotten the boat, its engine roared to life.
“Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?” Evarita said. She handed him a life vest that matched the one she’d buckled around herself. “We have a late shipment of very large, very important stuffed animals to deliver. Hold on to something while we’re moving,” she added.
Spencer scrambled to get his life vest on and buckled as Evarita backed the boat away from the dock. A second later, she pushed the throttle forward, sending them soaring out into open water. Spencer grabbed on to the windowsill beside him in the driver’s cabin, steadying himself as the boat picked up speed.
As the boat sailed across the water, Spencer tried hard to calm his nerves. The faster they approached Moon Farm, the more anxious he was to see Kate. There was no telling how they’d find her or what it would take to get her out. Kate had helped him with each one of his STORM training exercises, but neither of them had ever expected he’d been training for the cub’s own rescue. What if he wasn’t ready? Spencer pushed the thought away. He was ready. He had to be.
“There it is,” Yude’s voice came through Spencer’s Ear-COM, interrupting his thoughts.
Spencer looked up, bracing himself for his first glimpse of Moon Farm. An island loomed on the horizon. Cliffs rose up out of the water. On top of the cliffs, a solid cement wall extended high into the sky and seemed to surround the entire island. The eerie silhouette of a bear was painted in white on the cement wall, towering over the water. The bear silhouette was at least fifty feet tall.
Moon Farm looked like a terrifying prison. And Kate was locked inside.
Spencer jumped off the boat and onto a wide, sturdy dock at the base of one of Moon Farm’s rocky cliff sides. They’d found the place where shipments were loaded and unloaded, but it was dark, and getting late. There was nobody else here, and aside from a small silver dingy tied farther up on the dock, there weren’t any other boats.
Spencer unbuckled his life vest and tossed it back into the boat. He caught the rope Evarita tossed him and quickly wrapped it around a cleat in a secure figure-eight. B.D., Aldo, and Yude were slumped on the floor, still pretending to be a late shipment of huge stuffed bears. Professor Weaver had moved to the cabin just before they arrived, staying out of sight, then preparing to drive back to the abandoned dock until it was time for the getaway.
Evarita joined Spencer on the dock and strode over to a row of L-shaped metal carts. Each cart’s flatbed was large enough for a bear to stretch out on top of it with his back propped against the handle. Evarita rolled the first cart over.
“Help me grab one of those stuffed bears, will ya?” she said, getting right into character as a Moon Farm worker.
“Uh … sure,” Spencer replied. How am I supposed to do that?
“Just hold this thing steady,” Evarita added, as if reading Spencer’s mind. He took the cart handle and Evarita got back on the boat. She approached Yude and wrapped her arms around him. When she set him down on the cart, it looked as if she’d carried him there, but Spencer could tell the bear hadn’t been carried at all. There was no way Evarita would have been able to lift him. Yude had walked, dragging his paws as he went. Spencer didn’t think anyone who wasn’t standing right there would be able to tell.
He hur
ried across the dock to grab a second cart. Evarita returned to the boat for Aldo, who mimicked Yude’s performance, helping Evarita get him onto the cart and into position.
“I’ll be back for the last one,” Evarita called, as though she was really letting the boat driver know to wait. She grabbed the handles of Yude’s cart and started to push. “Let’s go.”
Spencer braced himself against the handle of Aldo’s cart and pushed with all his might. The cart flew forward! He’d expected pushing the cart to take all his strength, but Aldo must be lighter than he’d thought. He glanced down at Aldo, then up at Yude and Evarita, who were rolling steadily forward, and realized his miscalculation. Both Aldo and Yude had two of their legs flopped over the sides of their carts. The bears are helping to push!
“Hurry.” He heard Evarita’s voice in his ear.
Spencer started to push again. He and Aldo raced to catch up with Evarita and Yude just as they disappeared through the black iron gates into Moon Farm.
A small tunnel waited on the other side of the gates that opened into a stone courtyard. Across the courtyard, a huge gray building rose up into the night sky. The building spanned the entire width of the island, sandwiched between the cement outer wall on both sides.
A huge spotlit neon sign read MOON FARM FACTORY.
A minute later, the lights illuminating Moon Farm’s sign blinked off. A door with the words Employee Entrance painted above it banged open, and people started to trickle out of the building. They were all dressed identically in blue pants, short-sleeved button-down shirts, and blue baseball caps. The white bear on their caps and the gold letters, M.F., on their shirts were becoming all too familiar. Just like Evarita predicted, the factory workers looked exhausted and more than ready to go home as they trudged toward a tunnel farther down the cement wall.
