by K. E. Rocha
“It’s nine o’clock,” Evarita whispered urgently as she strode across the courtyard, pushing Yude ahead of her. She headed straight for a big door the size of Spencer’s garage at home. Warehouse Entrance, the white paint above the open door read. Spencer hurried along behind with Aldo.
He tried to ignore the workers who continued to trudge out of the employee exit, but he couldn’t help looking over after every few steps to make sure nobody was coming toward them. Nobody even glanced in the Bearhaven team’s direction. The plan is working!
Spencer rolled Aldo into the enormous warehouse and realized exactly why the plan was going to keep working. The cavernous room was lined with shelves that stretched from the cement floor to the ceiling, three stories up. Every shelf Spencer could see held row after row after row of stuffed animals. It was like stepping into a huge, towering, plush zoo. The largest, life-sized stuffed animals were on the bottom shelf: bears, crocodiles, and perfectly coiled, brightly colored snakes. The stuffed animals on the second shelf up were a little smaller, and the stuffed animals on the shelf above that one were smaller still. An array of different types of plush birds lined the whole left side of the aisle, their wings and beaks poking out every which way.
Evarita swung her cart to the right, and then into an aisle in the bear section. “You ready to head outta here, Ed?” a voice called from somewhere close by.
“Just about,” another voice answered. “Doin’ final check.”
Spencer rushed to spin his cart into the aisle Evarita had chosen. She was there, hurrying Yude onto a bottom shelf, pushing aside a life-sized stuffed polar bear to make space.
“I gotta go back for that last bear,” Evarita grumbled, signaling to B.D. over Ear-COM she was on her way back for him. “Hide,” she added in a whisper to Spencer, then grabbed her empty cart and dashed back the way they’d come.
Aldo forced his way in between a black bear and a grizzly and disappeared into a sea of fake fur. The sound of heavy footsteps rang out in the next aisle over. Spencer dove in between two stuffed brown bears and moved as far back on the shelf as he could, burrowing deeper into the soft, oversized toys to hide. He stopped only when he hit something that grunted quietly. It was Aldo. Spencer stationed himself behind the bear to wait. His heart pounded in his chest. Nobody had told him what to do if he got caught. Running wasn’t an option now that he was surrounded by huge stuffed bears.
The footsteps were getting louder. Spencer held his breath. He was terrified of making even the tiniest sound.
“Aw, man, someone left a cart again, and this shelf’s a mess,” a voice whined from a few feet away. Oh no … Some of the stuffed bears shifted around him. The guy’s rearranging the shelf! Spencer realized with horror. “Makin’ these things look more real every day,” the voice muttered.
“Just leave it, Ed. Morning shift’ll have to straighten it out. We’re gonna miss the boat back to the mainland. C’mon.”
“All right, all right,” Ed called. The stuffed animals at the front of the shelf stopped rustling, and the sound of heavy footsteps picked up again. “Shut the big door, will ya?”
A loud metallic rattling sound filled the warehouse.
“They’re shutting the door!” Spencer hissed, knowing the message would reach Evarita and B.D. “Where are you?!” He listened hard for an answer, but nothing came.
There was a thud and the rattling stopped. The warehouse’s fluorescent lights snapped off. Spencer couldn’t see a thing. He couldn’t hear anything except for the quiet breathing of the two real bears hidden among the stuffed animals around him. Then Evarita’s voice was in his ear.
“We didn’t make it in.”
“Nobody panic.” Yude’s voice came through Spencer’s Ear-COM. But it was too late. Spencer was panicking. Evarita and B.D. were on the other side of the warehouse door. If they tried to get in now, an alarm would sound, they’d all get caught, and Kate would never even know they’d come for her. But without Evarita, Spencer would be the only human operative on this mission, and without B.D.—
“Yude,” B.D. growled. “You’re in charge.” Spencer’s stomach flopped. Putting the past behind them so they could work as a team to save Kate was one thing. Trusting Yude to lead the mission to save Kate was a different thing altogether.
“Evarita and I will stay with Professor Weaver,” B.D. continued. “We’ll prepare the escape route so that we’re ready to get you three and Kate out of there. You can reach us by Ear-COM at any time.” The bear fell silent, and for a second, Spencer had a horrible feeling that was the last they’d hear from B.D. and Evarita. He reached for his jade bear. Was the mission doomed? Was Kate going to end up just like Zoe after all?
“Team,” B.D. finally said. “Just because this mission is not going according to plan doesn’t mean it’s over. You will get Kate out of there tonight.” The bear fell silent, then after a moment, disconnected the full team communication.
“Aldo, Spencer,” Yude said, taking over. His voice was confident, as if he led successful missions to Moon Farm every day. “Let’s move.”
Spencer was suddenly swept up in a big, furry avalanche as Yude and Aldo pushed through stuffed bears to get to the front of the shelf. Spencer tumbled out onto the darkened warehouse floor, then scrambled to his feet.
“I can’t see anything.” He tried to get his eyes to adjust to the dark, but it was no use. The darkness was so complete it was like being blindfolded.
“You don’t need to see right now,” Yude answered. “You just need to hold on.”
“Hold on?”
“To Aldo,” Yude explained. “For the climb to the roof.”
Spencer gulped. “Climb?” he asked weakly. “To the roof?”
“As long as you hold on to Aldo, you won’t be in any danger,” Yude assured him. “Aldo, the climb is three stories up the metal shelves. They’re bolted to the floor and ceiling. They’re stable. I’ll meet you at the top.”
“Okay,” Aldo answered. “I’m right beside you, Spencer. Climb on.”
The last thing Spencer wanted to do in the pitch-black warehouse was climb onto Aldo’s back. Going three stories up a set of metal shelves didn’t sound at all danger-free to him, either, but he didn’t have much choice. He was an operative and Yude was giving the orders.
Spencer reached an arm out in the dark and found Aldo. He climbed onto the bear’s back.
“You okay up there, little man?” Aldo asked softly. He can probably feel my hands shaking, Spencer thought, embarrassed by how afraid he was.
“Yes. Let’s go.” He tried to sound as confident as Yude. He felt Aldo straighten up, walk a few paces, then rise onto his hind legs. The bear started to climb. The higher Aldo climbed up the metal shelves, the more difficult it became for Spencer to hold on.
“We are way too high off the ground,” Spencer muttered through gritted teeth. His hands were sweating and images of himself falling flashed through his head, making his whole body freeze up. The only good thing about climbing higher was the closer they got to the roof, the more Spencer could see. Moonlight was shining in through a skylight.
“Almost there, little man,” Aldo answered quietly as he continued to scale the three stories of shelves. A moment later, the bear grunted, then dropped to all fours on the highest shelf in the tower. He crouched down, giving Spencer the chance to slide off his back. Spencer landed on wobbly legs in a moonlit section of the metal shelf that had been cleared of toys. He could see Yude was already there, up on his hind legs, pushing against the glass skylight.
Spencer rushed over to the bears, searching for any way he might help open the skylight. The sooner that skylight opens, the sooner we’re off these shelves and on the roof.
Yude grabbed Spencer’s shirt in his teeth. Spencer felt himself swing up toward the open skylight and into Aldo’s outstretched paw. The bear scooped him onto the roof and set him down carefully. A moment later, Yude scrambled out of the warehouse to join Spencer and Aldo in the moonligh
t.
Spencer looked down the long, wide roof. The far end seemed like it was a mile away. On top of the farthest section of roof, there was a stone tower. It reminded Spencer of a medieval castle, and it only made Moon Farm look even more threatening. “This building is huge,” he whispered. He tried not to imagine how many bears were being kept in all this space or how long it might take them to find Kate.
“Yes, it is,” Yude answered. “Which is why we need to move quickly. We’ll go in through one of the skylights on the other half of the building. Come on.” With that, the bear set off down the roof. Spencer and Aldo hurried to catch up.
When they reached the first skylight on the half of the building that housed Moon Farm’s illegal operations, Yude, Aldo, and Spencer stopped running. Spencer stayed back a few paces, afraid of what he might see if he looked down into the building. Whatever was on the floor below them was still brightly lit, the light glowed up through the glass.
“Spencer, you have tools in your mission pack?” Yude asked.
“A hammer and a crowbar,” Spencer answered. He slipped his pack off and unzipped it.
“Use the crowbar to get the skylight open,” Yude directed, swinging his head toward the glowing glass.
Spencer pulled the tool out of his mission pack. He stepped up to the skylight and examined the window frame. “That’s weird. It looks like someone just did this.”
“Did what?” Aldo asked.
“Broke in with a crowbar. Look!” Spencer pointed to where the metal window frame was bent, and the section of scratched glass beside it. He didn’t think Evarita would have gone so far as to pry open a skylight yesterday when she was scouting Moon Farm, but who else would have taken this route in?
“For now, please focus on getting us inside, Spencer,” Yude said, moving his head away from the evidence that someone else had broken in through this very same skylight.
“All right. Sorry,” Spencer mumbled. He crouched beside the skylight and for the first time, looked into the building below. What he saw there wasn’t anything like what he’d expected.
There were no bears in cages, and thankfully there weren’t any parts of bears anywhere in sight. Instead, the big, brightly lit room below looked like some kind of heavy-duty gym. It reminded him of the Bear Guard’s training field and the Bear Stealth practice course that was in Bearhaven’s schoolyard. Obstacles were placed around the cement floor. A cluster of stone pillars ran from the floor to the ceiling in one section of the room. They looked like they were supposed to simulate trees, and Spencer got a terrible feeling that training to get through them might prepare someone to get through Bearhaven’s outer tree wall. He continued to search the room. Near the cement columns, Spencer spotted an enormous, perfectly round boulder. It looked like it had been abandoned mid roll. Spencer spotted a stack of monster-truck-sized tires and various other heavy-looking objects strewn about, but the room was so big he couldn’t see all of it through the skylight.
“Yude,” Spencer whispered. “What is this place?”
“It’s a training room,” Yude answered.
“A training room for what?” Spencer didn’t remember any mention of training in B.D.’s explanation of bear smuggling.
“Bears, I would assume.”
“But—” Before Spencer could ask why bears were being trained at Moon Farm, Yude cut him off.
“Operative, now is not the time for questions. The bears are held on the first and second floors. We have to get in to find Kate, and you’re the only thing stopping us from doing that. Now open the window.”
Spencer snapped his attention back to the crowbar. Yude was right, there wasn’t time to waste on questions, but Spencer had a feeling the real reason Yude wouldn’t answer was that he didn’t know why bears would be trained here, either. Spencer fit the tip of the crowbar into the seam between the glass and its frame and slowly levered the skylight open. He was careful not to make a single sound. After a moment, the job was done. Eager to see what else the mysterious training room held, he poked his head through the skylight.
If Spencer’s hands hadn’t been gripping the edges of the window frame, keeping him from falling from the roof to the cement floor, he’d have clapped a hand over his mouth to keep himself from screaming. Instead, it took everything in him to keep even the tiniest gasp from escaping his lips. His heart started hammering in his chest. As quickly as he could, he pulled his head out of the building and scrambled back a few feet.
“Margo!” he whispered. “And Ivan! They’re in there!”
“Did they see you?” Yude asked urgently.
“No,” Spencer whispered. “They have their backs turned.”
Margo’s raspy voice drifted up through the skylight, but she was too far away. Spencer couldn’t make out her words.
“What’s she saying?” Yude asked. “Humans who aren’t wearing Ear-COMs don’t translate.”
“I don’t know,” Spencer whispered. “I can’t hear her well enough.” Spencer crept closer to the edge of the skylight so he could get a view of the room below. He strained to hear more, but Margo was moving toward the far side of the room as she spoke to Ivan.
“What could the Lalickis being here mean?” he whispered urgently to Yude and Aldo. “Do you think Uncle Mark is here? And Mom and Dad?!”
“Or did they kidnap Kate?!” Aldo whispered. “They must have been the two unidentified humans outside Bearhaven.”
“No, that can’t be right,” Spencer answered before Yude could. “They were in the picture that Uncle Mark got. They were part of his lead. Mom and Dad must—”
“Quiet,” Yude growled. His eyes flashed angrily from Spencer to Aldo. “There are only three of us on this mission now. Kate’s chances of getting out of here are already in jeopardy. If you two can’t focus, she may never see Bearhaven again. Do you understand me?” Yude’s fangs flashed in the moonlight. His tone was biting. “We aren’t solving a mystery tonight, we’re saving a cub’s life. Now pull it together.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Spencer saw Aldo drop his head.
“Sorry, Yude,” the younger bear mumbled.
Spencer whispered an apology of his own.
Yude padded closer to the skylight and lowered his head to the opening. “We have to go through that room,” he said after a moment. “There’s no other way to gain access. There are no doors that join the two halves of the building from the inside. The illegal staff uses a separate dock and there’s a much more heavily guarded entrance. We have to get through here.”
“What about Margo and Ivan?” Aldo piped up.
“We’ll have to get them out of the room.”
“How are we supposed to do that?” Spencer whispered, as much to himself as to Aldo and Yude.
Both bears turned to look at him at the same time. Spencer gulped.
“Me?” he managed to say.
“You have the best chance of getting into the room unnoticed,” Yude said. “And you’re the only one who can understand what they’re saying once you’re in. How’s your Bear Stealth?”
“I’ve trained,” Spencer answered. He didn’t feel as confident as he sounded. He searched Yude’s face. Could he really trust the bear? Or was Yude just going to use Spencer for bait? Yude looked back. The anger Spencer had grown used to seeing in the bear’s eyes was completely gone. “I can do it,” he said at last.
“Good,” Yude said. “We’ll lower you down.”
Spencer was suspended in the open skylight. His whole body was shaking. One wrong move and he’d plummet to the cement floor and into the clutches of Margo and Ivan Lalicki. The back of Spencer’s shirt was clamped between Aldo’s teeth. The bear was waiting for the signal to lower Spencer into the room, and Spencer was waiting for Margo and Ivan to make some sound that would cover the thud of his feet hitting the floor when Aldo let him go. Spencer could feel his shirt starting to slip from between the bear’s clamped jaws.
In the room below, Margo and Ivan stood with their
backs turned, their attention absorbed by a single bear in a cage. Margo had a clipboard in one hand and a remote control in the other. They’re testing the bear, Spencer thought. He knew enough about Margo’s remote control to know that the bear in the cage was microchipped, and Margo had complete control over its actions by using the remote control. Suddenly, Margo erupted into loud hacking coughs.
Finally! Spencer pointed down, and Aldo lowered him as far as he could, then opened his mouth and let Spencer go. Spencer’s feet hit the floor just as Margo stopped coughing. Spencer caught his breath and ducked behind a nearby boulder. He looked up at the open skylight; Yude and Aldo were both watching him. At least if anything went wrong, there were two bears who could come to his rescue.
Reassured, Spencer moved to peek around the boulder. Before he could see anything, Margo’s voice sent him back into hiding.
“I’m going to run him through it one more time and then we’re leaving. Are you listening to me, Ivan? Put that boulder down,” she commanded.
Bang! What Spencer guessed was the sound of the boulder hitting the cement floor made him jump.
“They’re leaving soon,” Spencer whispered so quietly he wasn’t sure the Ear-COM would pick up his message to Yude and Aldo. He wanted to feel relieved. He wouldn’t have to trick the Lalickis into leaving the training room long enough for Bearhaven’s team to get into the building, but he didn’t know what Margo meant when she said she was going to “run him through it one more time.”
Whoosh! An enormous bear ran right past the boulder at full speed.
Spencer clapped a hand over his mouth to stop himself from screaming. The bear had come within a few feet of Spencer’s hiding spot, and now he was weaving through the cement pillars. Margo was running the bear through the training course! Spencer looked to the skylight; Yude and Aldo watched the bear intently. Aldo looked ready to launch himself into the room, and Yude’s expression was grim.
Spencer was trapped. When the bear turned to go back to Margo, he would find Spencer, but if Spencer moved now, Margo and Ivan would catch him. Adrenaline pounded through Spencer’s veins as he watched the bear race through the obstacle course of cement pillars. His paws hit the ground heavily with every stride. He was implanted with a microchip. There was no doubt about that. The bear’s motions were more robotic than the way Bearhaven’s bears moved. His paws landed too heavily on the floor, as though he didn’t have any real control over where they took him next.
