Free Secrets of Bearhaven by K.E. Rocha Page A

persistent than I would have given you credit for, but at the moment I have more important things to do than hear about your little game of hide-and-go-hunt in the Lab.”
    “It’s not a game !” Spencer’s voice was louder than he’d intended. “I came to see the council!”
    B.D. and Aldo stared at him, then Aldo swiveled around to face the bank of computers. Uh-oh.
    “I beg your pardon?” B.D. said slowly, quietly.
    “I have to talk to the Bear Council,” Spencer said more calmly. “I know they’re meeting here.” B.D.’s eyes bore down on him. He wanted to run, but he stood his ground. Mom and Dad needed help. His help. “B.D., please? It’s my family they’re talking about. I have to help find my family.” For a second, Spencer thought he saw a glimmer of sympathy in the bear’s eyes, but then it was gone.
    “I’m sorry, Spencer, but council meetings are closed. I’m sure you will be given information about your parents shortly. Aldo will show you to the exit.” At the sound of his name, Aldo jumped to attention. B.D. lumbered over to one side of the room and stepped onto a large silver slab on the floor. He hit a white button that blended into the wall behind him. The slab, which Spencer saw now was really a platform, lowered B.D. quickly into the ground with a soft hydraulic whooosh .
    It was the same as the platform in the tree last night. The council must be meeting underground, beneath the Lab. A moment passed and the silver platform reappeared, without B.D. on top of it, and closed the gap in the floor.
    “All right, Spencer,” Aldo said, “time to go.”
    I’ve got to get down there.
    “I’m sorry for getting you in trouble, Aldo,” Spencer said, turning to the bear whose job it was to keep him from doing what he planned to. Distracting Aldo was his only chance.
    “It’s okay,” Aldo answered. His demeanor had changed. B.D. might not have been swayed by Spencer’s plea to help his family, but Aldo looked much more sympathetic . . . He was Bunny’s son after all. “It was my fault, really. Silly mistake. I smelled you, but I was watching Kirby on the screen. Should’ve known that human stink was way too strong to be coming from her out there.”
    “So that girl—Kirby?—she’s taking pictures and trying to get into Bearhaven?” Spencer walked over to the bank of computer screens. There were a dozen of the oversized monitors, each numbered with a metal plate at the top, and from the control panel below it looked like the Bear Guard could change the angle of each camera. They must be able to survey every inch of the perimeter from in here . . .
    “It’s hard to say,” Aldo said, sitting down at the console again. “Kirby’s been poking around for a while now. She’s definitely looking for something, but we don’t think she knows exactly what she’s looking for.” The bear shrugged, tapped some buttons on his oversized keypad, and looked beyond Spencer to scan the security screens. “B.D. thinks it’s important to take all activity close to the perimeter of Bearhaven seriously, though.”
    The fog that the bears had manufactured to engulf Kirby was fading, and through the misty feed of camera two, Spencer could tell that the girl was gone now. He was disappointed not to get another glimpse of her. She wouldknow how he’d felt . . . out there alone in that thick fog. Had it made her think the same things he had—all of a sudden needing to go home?
    “So you sent it?” Spencer suddenly asked, remembering what B.D. had said. “The fog?”
    “Yeah, sorry about that . . . It was a mistake. B.D.’s not too happy with me about it.” The bear glanced down at his silver cuffs.
    Spencer scanned the screens, but didn’t find Kirby anywhere. The Bear Guard’s fog must have worked, sending her back to wherever she’d come from.
    “How’d you get in here anyway?” Aldo asked, heading toward the door and motioning Spencer to follow.
    “I sort of just,