by K. E. Rocha
Evarita was right. Something bigger than Jay Grady’s bear baying was definitely going on here. Spencer pressed his hands against the silver doors. There was no handle or button or anything that might allow him to enter. He pushed, but the doors didn’t budge.
“This place is as bad as the Lab,” he muttered. Or maybe it’s just like the Lab! Even though Spencer didn’t think Jay Grady was half as smart as Professor Weaver, he had to give it a shot. He looked around, making sure nobody was watching. Leaning closer, he blew a big breath of air on the doors.
When nothing happened, Spencer cleared his throat and straightened his flannel shirt. Nobody had to know he’d tried that.
He ran back through the trees to the barn and headed for the front entrance. He had to find Uncle Mark and Evarita now. Even if that meant he had to go through Ivan to do it.
Ivan was still blocking the only open entrance to the barn, but Spencer had planned on that. He headed straight to the Grizzlee Den, grabbing the materials he needed from the ground and abandoned picnic tables as he went. By the time he ran up the stairs and burst into the empty room, he had two plastic cotton candy bags, a popcorn box, a plastic fork, and a plan.
He let himself into the unlocked cage. It stank, but Spencer had planned on that, too. This’ll teach them to clean up after their bears, he thought, his anger flaring as the image of two cubs being caged in such a horrible place filled his mind again. Using the popcorn box, he scooped bear droppings off the ground and filled the bags.
With a bag of poop in each hand and the fork in his back pocket, Spencer sprinted from the Grizzlee Den, descending the stairs in one giant leap. He raced to the barn, ducking behind a trash can just as Kate had shown him in Bear Stealth training. He stayed crouched, hidden not far from where Ivan was standing.
A loud cheer burst out of the barn. I just have to get in there, Spencer assured himself. The noise and the crowd will cover me once I’m in . . . He pulled the fork from his pocket and quickly jabbed holes in the two bags, tearing at the plastic with the fork to widen the punctures.
“Here goes nothing.” Spencer crawled to one side of the trash can. He focused on a spot beside Ivan’s feet, took a deep breath, and lobbed one of the bags.
Nailed it!
The bag of poop smacked down on the ground beside Ivan, causing the hulking man to grunt and jump away from the smelly mess. His footwork was surprisingly fast for a lumbering giant, but Spencer couldn’t worry about that. Now was his chance. With the second punctured bag in hand, Spencer pulled his cap down and his T-shirt up over his nose. Ivan looked angrily in his direction. Just then, Spencer leaped up.
As Ivan stalked toward him, Spencer aimed at the cage of Ivan’s football helmet. He threw the second bag of poop as hard as he could, like he was rocketing a baseball straight into a catcher’s glove, nailing a game-ending out. Spencer’s accuracy was perfect. Cheng would have been proud.
Smack!
Ivan bellowed, but another cheer erupting from the barn drowned out the giant’s voice. Spencer dashed forward, easily avoiding Ivan’s swinging arms. The bag of poop had done its job. Lodged in the cage of Ivan’s helmet and oozing bear droppings, the successful hit bought Spencer the time he needed to get through the door and into the barn. He’d have to thank Ivan later for wearing that creepy football helmet. Without it, the bag would have just dropped messily to the ground. Instead, it was stuck in the plastic cage, blocking Ivan’s sight and filling his face with the disgusting muck.
Spencer slipped into the raucous crowd, weaving through the first row of cheering people as fast as he could. He needed to put as much space as possible between himself and that door. Spencer shimmied out of his flannel shirt and plunged it deep into a nearby trash can. Ivan would probably come looking for him, and he might as well make himself a little harder to identify.
The people around him were on their feet, stomping and yelling in the rows of bleachers that made up the grandstand. Spencer pushed through, trying to get a good look at the dirt ring in the middle of the barn.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Jay Grady’s voice roared. “You have waited long enough!” The crowd grew louder. Spencer pressed forward, squeezing between burly men, ducking in front of cheering women. “I promised you a show,” Grady cried over the loudspeakers. “And now you’re gonna get one!”
“Gotta be better than last week,” a bearded man in front of Spencer shouted to the man beside him. “That grizzly’s no fighter.”
She’s not supposed to be a fighter! And she’s NOT a grizzly! Spencer wanted to shout, but yelling at them wouldn’t help anything. Instead, he rammed his way past. Breaking out on the other side of the two men, Spencer finally had a view of the ring.
Immediately, he wished he didn’t.
Chained to a thick metal stake dug deep into the dirt, Ro Ro was pacing at the far side of the ring. She stopped for a moment to paw the ground and let out a pained cry, then resumed her pacing.
“Let’s see if this ol’ mama bear can’t find her fighting spirit!” Grady cried. The crowd cheered in response. “Bring ’em in, boys!”
On the far side of the barn, two men appeared, holding a metal ring, straining to pull something forward. Attached to the single ring were two chains, and at the end of each chain, with metal collars clamped around their necks, were Ro Ro’s cubs. The cubs thrashed and dug in their heels, trying to fight the men who continued to drag them forward. Their terrified whimpers filled the grandstand.
No! Spencer’s pulse raced. His stomach twisted and turned. The cubs were only a little smaller than Kate and looked just as spirited and incredible as any cub he’d seen in Bearhaven. How could anyone treat them this way?
One of the men yanked hard on the chain of the closest cub. The animal was jerked forward, and in the moment of imbalance the two men got the cubs into the ring and their shackles attached to the stake.
Ro Ro rushed frantically back and forth between her cubs. They were two little brown balls of fluff crouched behind her, their chains tangling, their panic identical to their mother’s.
A bell rang, and four mangy brown-and-white dogs streaked across the arena, released from a passageway between two sets of bleachers.
Spencer gritted his teeth, afraid he might vomit. He hadn’t expected four dogs. He also hadn’t expected . . . these dogs. Hurtling toward the bears, barking ferociously, the dogs looked underfed, their ribs visible beneath their hides. At least two of them had scars, and all four looked crazed.
The dogs launched themselves at Ro Ro, who snapped and growled at them, trying desperately to stop them from reaching her cubs. She cuffed one of the dogs with a heavy paw, and it tumbled backward into the dirt.
The crowd cheered. Spencer wanted to scream. How could so many people stand here and watch this happen? How could they enjoy it? He stared into the ring, his eyes welling with tears of anger.
Ro Ro strained at her chains, shaking and miserable, while her cubs bleated in terror. The dogs snarled at them, then moved in to bite Ro Ro’s paws and the soft fur of her throat. They kept on coming, barking and snarling and grabbing at her fur.
As soon as two of the dogs started to drag Ro Ro down into the dirt, another lunged around her to go after a cub. Ro Ro roared and threw herself on top of the dog. The fourth dog leaped on top of her, sinking its teeth into her throat.
“Ro Ro! No!” Spencer cried. He couldn’t stop himself. He felt as trapped as she was.
For an instant, Spencer thought that Ro Ro might have heard him. He was sure he’d seen her head flick in his direction. Then, it didn’t matter if she’d heard or not. Ro Ro was rising up on her hind legs. A new snarl rippled through her body. She grabbed one of the dogs by the collar and thrust it aside. The audience gasped, then erupted into screams and whistles.
Spencer wanted to look away. The sight of so many animals fighting for their lives was too much . . . too horrible . . . but he kept his eyes locked on Ro Ro, willing her to be strong enough to protect hers
elf and the cubs. At least until this horrible show was over and Uncle Mark, Evarita, and Spencer could get to them—
A hand clamped down on Spencer’s shoulder.
Adrenaline thundered through Spencer’s veins. Every muscle in his body was tense, ready to spring into action. Ivan wasn’t going to get him without a fight. Gritting his teeth in a snarl to match Ro Ro’s, Spencer prepared to whirl around and face that helmet-wearing—
“Billy, you know you’re not supposed to be in here!”
Evarita!
Spencer spun around. “How’d you find me?” he practically gasped in relief, barely resisting the urge to hug her again. The warning look in her eye answered his question. He wasn’t exactly making himself hard to find. “Sorry . . . I can explain!” In the shock and chaos of the bear baying, Spencer had forgotten why he’d come into the barn in the first place. Now he wanted to tell Evarita everything he’d found out.
“Not in here you can’t, mister.” Evarita took hold of his arm, but Spencer pulled back. He couldn’t go out the front, not if Ivan was there. He took Evarita’s hand. If anything, holding her hand would signal that something was really off.
“I think it’s this way, Mom,” he said determinedly, shooting her the most meaningful look he could manage.
Pulling Evarita along behind him, Spencer made his way through the crowd. It wasn’t nearly as hard to move now as it had been before. Men looked down angrily when Spencer tried to push past them, but then they saw Evarita in her flowery pink shirt, and suddenly their path opened up.
As quickly as he could, Spencer led Evarita to the door at the back of the barn that he’d tried to get in through earlier. Hidden behind a set of bleachers, it stood unguarded. To Spencer’s relief, it wasn’t the lock itself that had held the door shut from the outside, just a wooden bolt that he could easily push aside.
“Billy, I’m not sure we want to be back here,” Evarita said, looking around, but there was nobody there to see them. A surge of cheers and hollers burst out of the crowd, echoing loudly in the space beneath the stands.
“I can’t go out the other way,” Spencer whispered urgently. “Ivan’s out there. Margo’s here, too.”
“You saw Margo?” Evarita whispered back. “I saw Ivan on the way in.” Spencer pushed the door open just enough to slip out, then closed it quietly once Evarita had stepped out behind him.
“I saw her,” Spencer rushed on, still whispering. “I wanted to tell Uncle Mark, to warn him. But, Eva—” She cut him off with a warning look. “There’s something really weird going on here,” he continued, dropping his voice even lower.
Another roar from the crowd thundered out of the barn. Evarita glanced over her shoulder. “I have to get back. The show sounds like it’s getting close to the end. We don’t know where they’re keeping the bears yet—” She broke off midsentence. There wasn’t time to explain. “Go back to the Cadillac. We’ll meet you there as soon as possible.”
“Wait—” Spencer needed to tell her about the wiring he’d found in the ground and the silver doors that the buried wires had led him to. He needed to explain that there was more to Grady’s Grandstand than they’d thought; he was sure of it now.
“I can’t wait any longer, but don’t worry,” Evarita said. “We’ll get them out of here.” Without another word, she slipped back into the barn. Raucous cheers washed over Spencer as the door swung shut behind her.
He kicked the bundle of wires that he’d dug out of the ground earlier. He wasn’t going to wait in the car doing nothing. Not when Ro Ro and the cubs were in danger and needed help.
Spencer walked into the trees again. Following the path that the wires made, he returned to the silver doors set into the hill. He pushed on the doors again, but they didn’t move. Maybe there was a button hidden nearby, some sort of trigger he’d missed. He studied the surface of the hill but didn’t come up with anything. He searched the surrounding trees, running his hands along their bark, feeling for anything unnatural.
Bang! The door of the barn slammed open. Quickly, Spencer ducked behind the tree he’d been inspecting, flattening himself against its trunk. Shouts and whistles flooded out of the barn. The show was over. Spencer peeked around the tree to look back down the hidden path to the barn.
He almost choked. Ro Ro’s head was only inches from his face and she was staring right at him! Before either of them could move, the chain around her neck jerked violently, and she was forced to look away. Spencer scanned his surroundings, preparing to use Bear Stealth to escape if he had to, but apparently Ro Ro’s handler hadn’t cared to follow her gaze.
“Open it already,” a gruff voice said.
“I’m trying,” another voice shot back angrily. “Keep hold of ’em so I can hit the button.” Chains rattled and Ro Ro huffed.
“You expect me to hold ’em both?” a third voice spat.
“Gimme a break! Here.”
The silver doors slowly slid apart, opening a wide entrance into the hill. Three muscled thugs walked through, the first leading Ro Ro inside on a chain, and the other two following behind with the cubs.
I have to do something! Spencer rose and stepped toward the doors. No. He hesitated. Find Uncle Mark and Evarita first. The doors started to slide shut. There’s no time! The goons were disappearing into the hill with the bears. This could be the only chance we have!
“Let me GO!”
Spencer whirled around. Evarita was struggling in the doorway at the rear of the barn, a thick arm wrapped around her waist to hold her back. There was another shout, and Uncle Mark pushed into the doorway behind Evarita. He was fighting someone off, trying as hard as Evarita was to get out of the barn and follow the bears. Spencer hesitated. The silver doors were almost closed; he had to move now.
He locked eyes with Uncle Mark. Shock passed across his uncle’s face. Suddenly, a red football helmet entered the scuffle, and they lost sight of each other.
Now!
Spencer ran toward the silver doors. He leaped into the air and spun sideways, slipping through the last bit of space between the closing doors. A second later, they sealed shut behind him.
The bears’ chains shook loudly, the metallic clanking echoing through the passageway. Relieved that no one had heard him over all of the noise, Spencer didn’t wait to catch his breath. Soundlessly, sticking close to the wall, he crept along behind the thugs as they hustled the bears forward.
Just as Spencer had suspected, the tunnel sloped downward sharply, leading them into the ground. The floor was covered in gray tiles, and the walls and ceiling gleamed silvery gray under a harsh row of lights that ran the length of the passage. There were no doors, and nothing Spencer could hide behind if one of the men were to turn. It was like being in a huge metal tube.
The tunnel flattened out and opened into a wider corridor with doors on either side. In the glare of bright lights, Spencer was even more exposed than he’d been in the tunnel. Still, he continued to follow, stealthily silent-walking as closely behind as he could.
Ro Ro protested with every step, pulling against the chain, swiping a paw at the metal collar around her neck. Spencer couldn’t stand to watch the bear’s agony, but the trouble she was causing was keeping all three men busy. The goon with Ro Ro’s chain strained to keep hold of her, dragging her along, and the goons with the cubs each brandished a menacing-looking prod to threaten and herd the animals, though the cubs had stopped struggling. Whimpering and staying as close to each other as they could, the cubs padded along behind, looking exhausted. Ro Ro’s strength was obviously diminishing, too. Spencer could see she was favoring her left hind leg, and blood speckled the gleaming gray floor every few yards. She was hurt. How much farther could they be taking the bears?
One of these doors must lead to the bears’ cages. Spencer craned his neck to peer into a room as he slipped by, but he couldn’t see much through the half-open door. He kept moving, but instantly realized his mistake. The rattling chains had quieted. The men had st
opped in front of an elevator at the end of the corridor.
Without a second thought, Spencer took a step backward and slipped through the half-open door. Right away, he realized this was a whole new mistake.
The dimly lit room wasn’t empty. Instead, the very last person in the world that Spencer wanted to see was standing inside. Margo.
Wearing a lab coat and that orange hat, Margo stood with her back turned to Spencer. She must not have heard or seen him yet. Goose bumps rose on Spencer’s arms.
Now what? He couldn’t leave or else the thugs would spot him, but being this close to Margo definitely wasn’t a good idea, either. He reached into his pocket, taking hold of the jade bear.
Margo was facing a long, crescent-shaped console lined with large computer monitors. It looked so much like the surveillance room in the Lab that for a second, Spencer felt like he was back in Bearhaven. The feeling didn’t last long. The loud rattling of the bears’ chains suddenly poured into the room from the hallway. Sure that Margo would turn at the sound, Spencer ducked behind a file cabinet. He dropped to his hands and knees, ready to move again if he had to. He didn’t hear the chains anymore. The goons must have taken the bears to another floor.
Beside the file cabinet there was a long black desk with a rolling leather chair pushed in behind it. Determined to see what Margo was up to, Spencer crept under the desk. He stayed close to the file cabinet, keeping his body in its shadow, and peered out from under the sleek black surface.
Suddenly, a huge screen started to lower out of the ceiling. Margo erupted into a series of hacking coughs, startling Spencer so much that he almost screamed.
