Hidden Rock Rescue Page 4

  “Tonight you’ll also have the chance to win the rights to own this male,” Pam cheered. “His intelligence is virtually unparalleled in the ursine species.” After another flash of lights, Kate was on the screen. Spencer gritted his teeth. A video of the cub, Spencer’s best friend in Bearhaven, played for the animal dealers in the garden. Spencer had to look away. He couldn’t stand to see Kate chained up at Moon Farm again. “A cub with endless potential and a coat that will one day be worth thousands.” Another flash showed Ro Ro. “A mother bear will afford you countless flawless cubs.” Pam paused, obviously waiting for something. Nothing happened. He shot another angry glance in Margo and Ivan’s direction. A moment later, a picture of Ro Ro’s cubs appeared on the screen. They were snuggled together in the ramshackle shed that Spencer had rescued them from.

  “And finally … ” Pam boomed. Lights flashed over the garden, and an image of Aldo filled the wall behind Pam. Spencer felt a lump rise in his throat. “A young bear whose strength and majesty are already undeniable.”

  Dora huffed. Spencer tore his eyes away from Aldo up on the screen to look at Dora. Pam exploded in a gleeful, high-pitched laugh. “No, Dora, not more majestic than you, of course. But almost.” He looked out at his guests and gave a dramatic, disgusting wink. “We’ll start the auction with this one,” Pam announced in a voice that made Spencer flinch it was so giddy. He waved a clawed hand up at the picture of Aldo. “Bid high, friends!” he cheered.

  We won’t let him get away with this, Spencer promised himself.

  Kaboom! Another set of fireworks exploded up from behind the glass bears, spiraling loudly into the night sky.

  Pam and Dora moved out of the spotlight. They crossed one of the marble bridges to the courtyard. Pam started to weave around the crowded tables, waving and smiling, but Dora stayed behind on the bridge. She rose up onto her hind legs, swinging her head back and forth, smelling the air. Behind her, Margo stepped out of the shadows. She was holding the clipboard and clutching a microphone. She had one of her usual ugly sneers on her face, and she wore a black tuxedo jacket with a gold bear embroidered on the chest. Her straggly greenish-blond hair had been combed into a bun on top of her head, but it didn’t make her look any more professional, just more mean.

  “Bidding for this strong and majestic bear starts at ten thousand dollars,” Margo croaked.

  Immediately, guests in the courtyard lifted their hands into the air. The auction for Aldo had begun, but Spencer ignored it. He kept his eyes on Dora, who had returned to all fours and was padding around the edge of the courtyard. She crossed the marble bridge closest to Spencer and loped into the dark.

  “I see Dora,” Uncle Mark’s voice sounded in Spencer’s ear.

  “Where is she?” B.D. answered immediately.

  “She’s heading for the parking lot where you are. So am I.”

  Spencer gave the courtyard one last glance. He saw Uncle Mark drop back into the shadows. Nobody seemed to be paying attention to the phony waiter. All of Pam’s guests had their eyes locked on Margo, who was rattling off numbers and pointing into the crowded courtyard, running the auction for the rights to own Aldo as soon as he was captured. The price was climbing. Spencer heard Pam laugh. He found the potbellied man in the center of the courtyard, smiling gleefully.

  Spencer had seen enough. He crept out of his hiding spot between the two flowering bushes. All the flames in the lanterns that had lit the garden earlier were still extinguished. Spencer snuck back down the white pebbled path in what felt like total darkness. He took one step into the dimly lit parking lot and immediately stopped.

  “She’s here,” B.D. said, echoing Spencer’s thought. Dora was there, standing just a few paces away from the Creative Pastry truck. “I can smell her.”

  Spencer heard someone rushing up behind him. He spun around, relieved that it was Uncle Mark.

  “What’s going on?” Uncle Mark whispered urgently. Spencer pointed into the parking lot at Dora, afraid to draw her attention.

  “I think she smells B.D, too,” he whispered.

  Dora rose up onto her hind legs. She batted the back door of the Creative Pastry truck with one of her front paws. A second later, the door swung open, and B.D. jumped out of the truck. Dora shuffled back a few paces.

  Spencer and Uncle Mark looked on in silence. B.D. and Dora hadn’t seen each other since they’d both been in captivity at Gutler University. Spencer knew how long B.D. had hoped to find her. His parents had only been missing for three weeks, and Spencer didn’t think he would really feel like his whole self again until they were together. He couldn’t imagine what B.D. must feel like now.

  “Dora.” B.D.’s voice broke the silence. He stepped toward his sister, but again she shuffled back a few paces. Even in the dimly lit parking lot, Spencer could see there was a softness to B.D. he didn’t recognize. The bear’s voice was different, gentler. “We’ve searched for you for so long.”

  Dora stayed silent, her eyes locked on B.D. After a long moment, she made a long, low series of grunts.

  “We never meant to leave you,” B.D. answered. “We didn’t know what was going on any more than you did.”

  Dora growled a response, but it ended with a jaw pop. That’s a bad sign, Spencer thought, and for the first time, he realized B.D.’s reunion with Dora wasn’t going to go as well as any of them had expected.

  “We would never have gotten on the truck if we’d known you wouldn’t be there with us.” B.D. was trying to explain what had happened at Gutler University, the night Mom, Dad, and Uncle Mark had tried to save the three Benally siblings. Dora was supposed to be the last bear loaded onto the truck, but alarms had sounded before she made it and, with guard dogs approaching, Dora had been too afraid to move. The rescue team had to leave her behind.

  Pop! Dora made the jaw-popping sound again. Spencer looked at Uncle Mark, worried. Jaw popping was one of the ways bears showed aggression. Dora was mad.

  “We’re here to save you now.”

  Pop! Pop!

  “Dora, believe me.”

  Dora responded with a huffing sound. She puffed air out of her snout angrily.

  “B.D., maybe you’d better give her some space,” Uncle Mark said. He knew as well as Spencer and B.D. did, Dora was showing all the signs of a bear on the verge of attacking.

  But B.D. ignored the warning. He took another step toward his sister. She smacked the ground with one of her front paws and huffed.

  “B.D.,” Uncle Mark tried to warn the bear again. Spencer looked over his shoulder, afraid someone might hear.

  “I’m not leaving you here, Dora. We came to bring you home.”

  Dora chuffed and thrust her face into B.D.’s. Still, he didn’t back away. Dora let out a long, loud bellow and swiped at him with one of her front paws.

  “B.D.!” Spencer cried when Dora’s claws made contact with the bear’s shoulder.

  “Quiet,” Uncle Mark ordered.

  Suddenly, Aldo jumped out of the back of the truck. He popped his jaw, heading for Dora.

  “Aldo, stay out of—” B.D. started. He broke off his sentence when Dora lashed out at him again. She tore into B.D.’s leg with her claws.

  “B.D.,” Uncle Mark said, “let’s get out of here.”

  “Dora, I know—” B.D. words were cut off by another attack. Dora had thrown herself onto B.D. She was biting and clawing at him, but B.D. wouldn’t fight back.

  “Mark, what do I do?” Aldo asked. His voice sounded as desperate as Spencer felt.

  “B.D., we can’t sacrifice the mission—” Uncle Mark didn’t finish his sentence.

  Over the sound of Dora biting and slashing at B.D., Spencer heard the sounds of footsteps on gravel. Someone was coming.

  Uncle Mark immediately sprang into action. “Aldo, get the Ear-COM out of B.D.’s ear,” he demanded.

  Aldo lunged forward, he batted a paw at B.D.’s head as B.D. turned, trying to avoid another gash from Dora’s claws. Spencer saw the small trans
lating device fly onto the pavement between himself and the chaotic tangle of bears. He dove for it, scooping the device up off the ground. He shoved it deep into his pocket.

  The sound of footsteps on gravel was getting louder.

  Spencer scrambled up from the pavement.

  “Aldo, Spencer, get out of here!” Uncle Mark ordered. “Stay together and hide.” Uncle Mark turned to face the path to the garden, as though preparing to hold off whoever was coming. He tore his Ear-COM out of his ear and stomped on it, smashing it to pieces.

  “But—” Spencer started. What would happen to B.D.? And Uncle Mark?

  “NOW!” Uncle Mark roared. Behind his uncle, Spencer caught a glimpse of Ivan turning down the path.

  “Spencer!” Aldo called. The bear was running straight at him. Spencer didn’t have time to think. As Aldo raced past, Spencer reached out, grabbed two handfuls of the bear’s fur, and leaped onto Aldo’s back. The fake glasses of his disguise flew off Spencer’s face, clattering to the pavement. Aldo didn’t slow down. With Spencer glued to his back, the bear tore out into the dark, racing deeper into Hidden Rock Zoo.

  Spencer held tight to Aldo as the bear ran through the dark, putting space between them and whatever was happening to B.D. and Uncle Mark right now. Spencer strained to see over Aldo’s shoulder, hoping to recognize something from the old Hidden Rock Zoo map. But Pam had lit only the courtyard where his party was being held, creating an eerie, glowing pocket of evil in the middle of the garden, and leaving the rest of the zoo a pitch-black mystery.

  Thank goodness bears can see better in the dark than humans, Spencer thought.

  “Aldo,” he whispered, hoping Aldo would be able to hear him over the sound of his paws hitting the ground. “What’s going to happen to them? Will B.D. and Uncle Mark be okay?” The second the words left his lips, he felt Aldo slow down.

  “I don’t know … But I don’t feel right about leaving them behind.”

  Spencer hesitated. Uncle Mark had ordered them to stay together and hide, but he hadn’t said where. “Let’s go back.”

  “Not all the way,” Aldo said, immediately understanding what Spencer meant. “But we should know what happens to them. Where they’re taken.” Aldo turned around. He sprinted back the way they’d come. A few minutes later, the dim glow of the parking lot came into view. “Hold on,” Aldo whispered. Spencer didn’t think he could hold on any more tightly than he already was. Aldo rose onto his hind legs and climbed into a tree. He moved silently up into the branches. “Okay,” he said as soon as he’d settled himself. Spencer wrapped his arms around a nearby branch and carefully pulled himself off Aldo, quickly finding footing.

  “The bear’s hurt!” Uncle Mark’s voice rose up out of the parking lot. He was yelling. “You don’t need to handle him like that.”

  “You be quiet, or Ivan will make you be quiet,” another voice hissed. It was Margo.

  Spencer peered through the leafy branches of the tree. In the dark, and with the catering trucks blocking his view, he could only make out a sliver of the scene below, but that was enough to make him understand all the fury he had just heard in Uncle Mark’s voice.

  Three guards were restraining B.D., working together to chain him up. B.D.’s whole left shoulder glistened with blood where Dora had torn it open. She looked on from several paces away. Spencer couldn’t read her expression, but he didn’t care to. Right now, Spencer hated Dora. She had tried to kill B.D.

  “Get your hands off me. I know how to walk.” It was Uncle Mark’s voice again, coming from an area of the parking lot Spencer couldn’t see.

  “Keep your mouth shut, or these could be the last steps you ever take,” Margo threatened. “Let’s go,” she ordered.

  “They’re coming this way,” Aldo whispered.

  B.D.’s chains rattled as the guards dragged him forward. Spencer clenched his fists. B.D. wasn’t resisting the guards. He wasn’t pulling against the chains on purpose, but every time he stepped forward on his left leg, he stumbled. Finally, Uncle Mark came into view. He was no longer wearing his wig, and he was flanked by Margo and Ivan. Ivan had a shiny black football helmet on his head—Spencer had never seen the hulking thug without one—and his huge hand was gripping Uncle Mark’s arm. Margo strode out ahead of the group. Her straggly hair had started to fall out of the bun on top of her head, and she looked even more haggard and mean than before. Ivan pushed Uncle Mark forward behind Margo, and the guards brought up the rear, dragging the wounded B.D. behind them.

  Aldo tensed, and Spencer held his breath. The group was moving toward them, following the very same route Aldo and Spencer had taken to escape before. They passed right below the branches of the tree where Aldo and Spencer were perched together.

  Don’t look up … Don’t look up …

  Nobody looked up. The group disappeared into the dark. When Uncle Mark, B.D., and their captors were out of sight, Spencer started to move out of the tree. He and Aldo had to follow the group! They had to know where Uncle Mark and B.D. were being taken! Maybe Margo and Ivan would even lead them right to Mom and Dad and this mission wouldn’t have to be a disaster. Aldo reached out a paw, stopping Spencer from jumping down.

  “What’s—” Spencer started, but the bear jerked his head in the direction of the parking lot, and Spencer swallowed his words. Dora. She was still there. The bear sat back on her haunches. They couldn’t climb down now. She would see them. Dora wasn’t happy to see them like they’d thought she would be—she was vicious. There was no telling what she would do if she discovered them hiding in the tree. But they couldn’t lose track of B.D. and Uncle Mark! “What do we do?” Spencer whispered.

  “I don’t think we have much of a choice,” Aldo answered. “We can’t go anywhere until she moves.”

  Spencer glared down at the bear in the parking lot. She bent her head to the pavement and sniffed at a splatter of her brother’s blood. It’s your blood, too! Spencer wanted to yell at her. But he didn’t. He crossed his arms and leaned back against the tree to wait.

  After what felt like hours, Dora padded out of the parking lot.

  “Finally,” Aldo growled.

  “I thought she’d never leave.” Spencer swung his backpack off his back. In the eternity they had just spent watching Dora brood in the parking lot, waiting for her to move on, he had mentally reviewed the contents of his mission pack. There was nothing in his pack that would help them get rid of Dora, but he had remembered the night-vision goggles he’d taken from Bearhaven’s plane.

  Spencer pulled the blond wig off his head and stuffed it to the bottom of his mission pack. There was no point being disguised now. Since Uncle Mark’s cover was blown, Margo, Ivan, and Pam would all guess who he was, with or without a wig and glasses. Now Spencer and Aldo just had to stay hidden completely. He pulled out the night-vision goggles, zipped his mission pack back up, and slung it back onto his shoulders. “We’d better hurry,” he said, getting ready to return to the ground at last.

  Aldo climbed down quickly from the tree. The moment the bear reached the ground, he rose onto his hind legs, turning his head from side to side as he tried to smell B.D. and Uncle Mark or pick up any clues about where they’d been taken.

  Spencer could barely see the branch he was sitting on it was so dark. He pulled the night-vision goggles down over his eyes, and his view was totally transformed. He could finally see that Hidden Rock Zoo was more than an inky black desert surrounding Pam’s gardens. Buildings, pathways, trees, and fences all materialized through the special lenses of the goggles. And everything was green. Spencer looked down at Aldo. The bear looked like he was glowing. This is so cool, Spencer thought, then caught himself. Now was not the time to get distracted by spy gear.

  Spencer jumped down to the ground from one of the tree’s lower branches. With the night-vision goggles, he was too fascinated by everything he was seeing glowing green to be afraid of falling. He landed with a soft thud.

  Aldo crouched down, and Spencer climb
ed onto the bear’s back. Without a word, Aldo set off at a run down the path they had watched Margo take. To their right, Spencer thought he saw stables, the first thing he recognized from the old Hidden Rock Zoo map. Soon, they came to a glass gazebo. A small pond glittered beside it. The path forked in front of the gazebo and pond, and Aldo paused, smelling in both directions.

  “Any idea?” Spencer whispered. Aldo chose the path to the left without answering. They picked up speed, but the path forked again. They had come to a big building that looked like a greenhouse, with clear glass walls. Spencer could see straight into the building through the glass, and there wasn’t anyone inside. Aldo went right, then stopped after a few paces and went back to the fork. He took the path forking left. It curled away from the greenhouse-looking building, then led into a grove of trees. Aldo stopped at the tree line.

  “I don’t know … ” Aldo said. He sounded defeated.

  Two fireworks screeched into the sky in the direction of the party. Spencer and Aldo both flinched. The thick smell of sulfur washed over them, carried across Pam’s property by a strong breeze. “Now I’m never going to be able to smell them!” Aldo said. He sounded defeated. “Maybe we should go back to the first fork in the path … ” Aldo turned back.

  Spencer’s stomach twisted. This is bad. There wasn’t any sign of Uncle Mark or B.D. anywhere. There wasn’t even any sign of Margo, Ivan, or the guards who had dragged B.D. away.

  When Aldo reached the gazebo with the pond beside it, he sniffed every inch of the path where it forked. He paced back and forth. “I can’t smell them,” he finally said, sounding increasingly anxious.

  Spencer took a deep breath. “Okay. It’s okay,” he said, trying to calm himself and Aldo down. Spencer climbed off Aldo’s back. How had things gone so terribly wrong?