Mission to Moon Farm

by K. E. Rocha

  0-8-8-0, he keyed. The light flashed green.

  Yes! Without sparing a second, he swung the metal door open. Aldo nearly knocked Spencer over as he barreled into the dimly lit room. Spencer ran in after the bear. He skidded to a stop the moment he was inside.

  “Kate!” he cried.

  A metal collar was fastened around Kate’s neck. A ring at the back of the collar was attached to a thick chain that was bolted into the cement wall. Kate struggled to lift her head from the floor. Her shackles were too heavy. She lay slumped on the cement, a prisoner beside the wooden crate she was meant to be shipped out in.

  Spencer didn’t want to look around the room. It was way too scary, but he had to find the key to the collar around Kate’s neck.

  “Is it definitely in here?” he asked Yude over the Ear-COM one more time.

  “Yes.” Yude was certain. The key to unlocking Kate was in the shipping room. “You have to find it,” he ordered. Spencer looked up at Aldo. The bear was clawing at Kate’s chain where it was bolted into the stone wall. He growled angrily. Spencer could tell Aldo’s desperation was mounting. Spencer felt the same way. The sight of Kate like this was horrible.

  Spencer was crouching beside the cub. She was still curled in a ball on the cement floor. His hand was on her paw, but she hadn’t looked at him yet. She whimpered every so often but hadn’t managed to raise her head. The chain and collar were too heavy.

  “Yude,” Spencer said quietly. “Do you have any ginger root?”

  “Yes. Are you hurt?” The bear’s answer was calm but came quickly.

  “Not me. They put a tag through Kate’s ear. It doesn’t look good.” Spencer’s stomach lurched when he looked down at Kate’s swollen ear. Her chestnut-colored fur was matted with blood where a gold metal tag in the shape of a bear was pierced through. The numbers 5758 were engraved on the metal tag.

  “Just focus on getting her out of there, Spencer. Start with finding the key.”

  Spencer didn’t want to leave Kate’s side, but Yude was right. If they didn’t get her out of Moon Farm, the infection caused by the tag in her ear would be the least of Kate’s problems.

  “Aldo,” Spencer called to the bear. “Can you come be with Kate? I have to look for the key, and … I don’t think that’s going to work.” Spencer nodded to the barely visible scratches Aldo’s claws had made in the stone wall around Kate’s chain.

  The bear gave a frustrated snarl and slumped down to all fours. He quickly padded over to Kate’s side.

  Spencer patted the cub’s paw once more in a gesture he hoped felt reassuring, then stood up. He took in the room around them. It was round, just like the tower, and had four barred windows. The crate next to Kate was made of wood, with three small air holes drilled into each side. On the wall behind the crate there was a huge digital display listing sale details. Spencer scanned the list. Each entry on the list was more horrible than the last.

  5756—circus—shipped.

  5757—thirty-two teeth—shipped.

  5757—hide—shipped.

  5757—four paws—shipped.

  The next number on the board matched the number on the tag in Kate’s ear.

  5758—private collector—awaiting shipment.

  Spencer wanted to smash the board with the hammer in his mission pack. He wanted to find a way to put a stop to Moon Farm’s operations tonight so no bear would ever have to be shipped out of this room again. Kate whimpered, snapping Spencer’s attention back to the task at hand: finding the key to Kate’s collar.

  On the far side of the room there was a big, sleek black desk. Its surface was threateningly empty, like a table in a lab, or a hospital. There were only two things on the desk: a big black computer, its screen dark, and a gold paperweight in the shape of a bear’s head, its jaws open in a roar. Spencer ran over to the desk. He did a lap around it, searching for a drawer where the key might be hidden. There wasn’t one. He ran his hands along the underside of the desk thinking maybe the key was attached there. It wasn’t.

  “It has to be here somewhere,” he said, talking to himself. His eyes landing on the gold paperweight.

  “It’s there.” Yude’s voice surprised Spencer. He’d forgotten the Ear-COM would transmit his words into Yude and Aldo’s ears, even when Spencer was only thinking aloud.

  Spencer reached for the large gold paperweight with both hands.

  “Ugh!” he grunted. The bear head paperweight was too heavy to lift, so he stepped closer. The space between the open golden jaws looked like a dark cavern with two rows of gleaming fangs at the opening. Before he could talk himself out of it, he darted his hand into the bear’s mouth. He felt something right away. Spencer grabbed it and pulled his hand out. It was a key.

  “I have it!” he shouted, and sprinted to Kate’s side.

  “Hurry!” Aldo urged, making space for Spencer beside the cub. Spencer knelt down and reached for the collar. Kate shrank away.

  “It’s okay, Kate,” Spencer whispered. “We’re getting you out of here.” He knew she wouldn’t be able to understand him without her BEAR-COM, but he hoped the tone of his voice might still reassure her. He reached for the collar again. This time, Kate let him take hold of it. He fit the key into the collar’s lock and turned it. The collar and chain clattered to the floor.

  Aldo moved forward, gently nudging Kate to all fours. Without the metal around her neck, she managed to stand, but her legs shook, as though she was only barely strong enough to stay upright. Aldo stepped even closer. Kate leaned against him for support.

  “Okay, we have her,” Spencer reported. “But she’s not doing so well.”

  Yude didn’t answer.

  “Yude?”

  Still nothing.

  “Yude,” Aldo tried.

  Spencer, Aldo, and the barely standing Kate waited, frozen in the silent shipping room for Yude’s answer. It didn’t come.

  Spencer didn’t know where Yude was or what the bear was doing, but there wasn’t time to waste. They had to get out of the shipping room and off this island, with or without Yude’s instructions.

  “Let’s move,” Aldo said, as though reading Spencer’s mind. The bear’s voice was confident, but he didn’t move an inch. Kate looked like she might collapse if he did.

  “How are we going to get her down the ladder?” Spencer looked from Kate to Aldo. “There’s no way she can climb on her own.”

  “I could carry her down, but I don’t think she’s strong enough to hold on to me,” Aldo said. “We’re going to have to come up with something,”

  “All right, let’s think like operatives,” Spencer muttered. He quickly ran through each category of his STORM training in his head, searching for a skill that might help them. None of it seemed right. If only he had a specialty talent like Yude with his strategy and Evarita with her background checks. Then Spencer had it. He did have a special skill! Knot tying!

  Spencer swung his mission pack off his back. Dad had taught Spencer how to tie sailing knots, and Spencer’s knot tying had helped him on the mission to save Ro Ro and her cubs. Maybe Dad had been preparing Spencer for Bearhaven missions all along! He pulled a bundle of rope out of the backpack. Kate might not be able to hold on to Aldo for the climb down to the roof below, but maybe Spencer could make it so she didn’t have to. A plan was starting to take shape in his mind. He began tying knots in the middle of the length of rope.

  “You have an idea?” Aldo asked, eyeing Spencer’s knots with concern.

  “I’m going to make a harness and tie her to you.” Spencer’s fingers flew across the rope as he fashioned a seat of interlocking knots for Kate. He tied the harness around her, careful not to catch her fur in the knots. She kept her head bowed. Then Spencer wound the rope around Aldo, who stood perfectly still, quiet Ragayo rumbling out of his throat.

  He must be comforting Kate with those growls, Spencer thought. Whatever the bear was saying, he was saying it so softly that the Ear-COMs weren’t even picking it up to transl
ate. Spencer secured as many knots as he could with the length of rope. By the time he stepped back, it looked like Kate was sitting in a hammock or a baby carrier that had been strapped tightly onto the larger bear’s back. The cub looked at him for the first time since they’d found her.

  Spencer swallowed hard. “Shala,” he growled softly, using the Ragayo word for “safe” she’d taught him herself. The knots would hold. They had to.

  “Aldo, Spencer.” Yude’s voice came through Spencer’s Ear-COM, startling him.

  Where have you been?! Spencer wanted to shout at the bear who was supposed to be leading them. Yude rushed on. “Someone’s trying to transmit a large amount of data on the island. It’s interfering with the Ear-COM technology. What’s your—” Yude’s voice cut out again. In the very same moment, a spotlight clicked on above Spencer’s head. It shone directly on the section of cement floor where Kate’s empty collar and chain now lay. Little red lights popped on, one after another after another all around the room.

  “What the … ” Spencer lifted an arm above his head to shield his eyes.

  Aldo bared his teeth and crouched down low. Kate buried her face in her brother’s fur.

  “What’s going on?” Spencer cried.

  A roar erupted outside; Spencer ran to one of the barred windows. He could still make out Pam’s enormous video screen in the brightly lit courtyard far below, but the image it displayed had changed. Now the screen was split between two separate video feeds. Pam and his huge bear companion were on one half of the screen, and on the other half Spencer saw himself. And Aldo. And Kate.

  Spencer spun around. Each of the little red lights that surrounded the room was a camera! The cameras were feeding footage directly into the midnight assembly in the courtyard! Spencer gulped. Pam, Margo, Ivan, and their entire bear army were watching Spencer, Aldo, and Kate’s every move.

  That roar was the sound of eighty-eight bears growling at once.

  “Aldo,” Spencer whispered. “Run.”

  The spotlight above Spencer’s head suddenly blinked off. He turned back to the barred window and looked out. No! The army of bears in the courtyard was storming the building, disappearing into an entrance to the tower below where Spencer, Aldo, and Kate were now.

  “They’re coming!” Spencer shouted.

  “The door!” Aldo yelled at the same time. “Hurry!”

  Spencer spun around. The open metal door they’d broken through to get to Kate was swinging shut—fast. The electric keypad was only on the outside of the door. If it shut, they’d be trapped!

  Aldo, with Kate tied to his back, raced toward the heavy metal door. It was inches from sealing shut. Spencer broke into a sprint. We’ll never make it!

  BANG!

  Spencer opened his mouth to scream but the sound stuck in his throat. Aldo skidded to a stop. The bear crouched low, baring his teeth and snarling at the door.

  Spencer’s heart thundered in his chest. The door hadn’t slammed shut like he’d expected. Instead, at the very last moment, someone had jammed a crowbar into the closing space between the door and the doorframe. Now, whoever was on the other side of the metal door was levering it open. Spencer didn’t know whether to help open the door or prepare for an attack from whoever was on the other side.

  He heard a grunt, then the sound of metal scraping against metal. The door swung open again. Aldo stepped back a few paces and rose up onto his hind legs, shielding Kate. Spencer kept his eyes on the doorway. A dark figure stood there. The moonlight from the roof outlined a man’s body. Spencer could make out the shape of the crowbar gripped in the man’s hand. He wielded it like a weapon.

  “We’re trapped,” Spencer whispered, willing the Ear-COM to transmit the message to Yude—wherever he was.

  “No, we’re not,” Aldo said, nodding toward the figure. He dropped back to all fours and broke into a run as Spencer watched in shock.

  “Hurry, Spence. You have to get out of here,” the man said urgently. “Now, kid!” he yelled as he stepped aside to let Aldo run through the door.

  “Uncle Mark?!” Spencer rushed forward.

  “Come on!” Uncle Mark turned and ran after Aldo. Spencer followed, his eyes glued to his uncle. It was really him, but how?

  “How did you know where to find us?!” Spencer called. “Where are Mom and Dad?!”

  “No time for questions. We have to get out of here!” Uncle Mark called back.

  Spencer ran out onto the roof of the tower after his uncle. Aldo and Kate were already there. The neon outlines of a helicopter pad glowed eerily in the dark. The building was shaking beneath them. The sound of eighty-eight bears thundering up the spiral staircase echoed out of the building.

  Uncle Mark spun around. “Give me your mission pack,” he demanded. Spencer handed it over as quickly as he could. Uncle Mark grabbed something from his back pocket and shoved it into Spencer’s pack before handing the bag back.

  “Everything you want to know is in there, Spence—I’ve got a lead on your parents. You have to trust me, just like I’m trusting you. Take Kate away from this place. I’ll meet you back in Bearhaven, I promise.” He pulled Spencer into a quick hug. “I’m going to work on holding them off. Get Kate home, operative.”

  “Wait!” Spencer cried, but it was no use. Uncle Mark was already disappearing back into the dark tower. Spencer resisted the urge to chase his uncle down and demand an explanation. Uncle Mark had called Spencer “operative” because, tonight, that’s what Spencer was. There was no time to get distracted by all the unanswered questions filling his head. Growls thundered from the tower. This may be the only chance he, Kate, and Aldo had to get out of here tonight.

  “Spencer!” Aldo called from the edge of the roof.

  Spencer rushed over. Beside Aldo, the top of a ladder was poking up into the night sky. Spencer looked down and winced. The metal ladder was bolted into the tower’s stone wall. It ran from the helicopter pad, where they stood now, down to the roof below, where Yude was supposed to be waiting with a plan for their escape. The ladder was so long that it disappeared into the dark. Spencer couldn’t see the end of it, but he knew it was way too far down.

  “Spencer, Aldo.” It was Yude! Two days ago, Spencer never thought he’d be happy to hear Yude’s voice in his ear. Now he was so relieved to be back in communication with the bear he wanted to cheer.

  “We’re coming down now,” Aldo said, mounting the ladder.

  “Come as quickly as you can, Pam’s army—”

  “Is after us. We know.” Spencer finished Yude’s sentence. The bear didn’t answer.

  Once Aldo, with Kate tied firmly to his back, had started to descend, Spencer took a deep breath and climbed onto the ladder. Focusing on one rung at a time, Spencer moved down the side of the tower as quickly as he could. Below him, Aldo dropped to the roof, landing on all fours. Spencer was relieved to see that Kate was still securely tied to her brother’s back. His knots hadn’t slipped an inch.

  Spencer made it to the last rung of the ladder and onto the rooftop at the base of the stone tower just as the first of Pam’s bears appeared on the helicopter pad.

  “Yude,” Spencer called.

  “I’m here,” Yude answered. He stepped out of the tower’s pitch-black shadow. “What’s the rope for?” he asked immediately.

  “We weren’t sure Kate could hold on by herself,” Aldo answered quickly. The microchipped bears stared down at them, snarling and snapping their jaws on the tower’s roof, and a few of them climbed onto the ladder, getting ready to come down.

  Yude nodded. “This way.” He took off at a gallop, stopping only when he’d reached the edge of the roof. He looked out over the iron railing. Aldo followed, then stopped beside Yude. Spencer sprinted to catch up, but he stopped running a few feet farther from the edge of the roof than Yude and Aldo. Railing or no railing, there was a three-story drop from the roof to the ground below. Just because Spencer understood where his fear of falling came from now didn’t mean he’
d overcome that fear yet. And their new position on the edge of the roof was giving him a very bad feeling about Yude’s escape plan. Yude turned around. He looked over the knotted harness Spencer had made. “Nicely done, Spencer,” he said quickly. “Now untie Kate from Aldo, but leave that harness on her and tighten the knots.”

  Spencer went to work, following Yude’s orders. Untying the knots gave him a reason not to look back at the tower. He didn’t want to know how close Pam’s bears had gotten. Hearing their growls as they approached was bad enough.

  Once he’d untied Kate from Aldo then tightened each of the knots in Kate’s makeshift harness, Spencer looked back to Yude. The bear was scanning the night sky, searching for something.

  “How are we getting off the roof, Yude?” Spencer asked. He couldn’t see anything that looked like an escape route, and they’d never have time now to go back through the warehouse. Spencer’s heart started to pound. What were they going to do?

  Yude started to murmur in Ragayo to Kate. The cub was still shaking, her fur rippling in the moonlight. The Ear-COM didn’t translate Yude’s unusually soft words, but Spencer heard shala for “safe” and val for “home” rumble gently out of the older bear’s throat.

  Spencer couldn’t help himself; he looked up at the tower. The first of Pam’s bears were already halfway down the ladder. The column of bears descending the rungs above them seemed endless. They were pouring down the tower wall toward Bearhaven’s team.

  “Yude!” Spencer shouted now. “What are we waiting for?!”

  Pow! A flare shot up over the water. Spencer whipped around to see where it had come from. The flare illuminated the ocean beneath it. In the center of its circle of light idled a white speedboat.

  “That,” Yude answered. “That’s what we were waiting for.”

  The escape route Yude, B.D., Evarita, and Professor Weaver had put in place was the worst way out of Moon Farm Spencer could imagine.

  “There has to be another way!” he protested. “I’d rather take my chances with them!” he shouted, gesturing angrily in the direction of the chipped bears that would be dropping from the tower ladder to the roof any minute.