Bear Adventure (17 page)

For the first time since his true mother had been lost, the great bear was happy. He knew at some level that these others weren't quite the same as him, but they were close, close enough. He had saved the little one from the trap. And the big one … she would look after him. She would show him how to do the things that bears do. How to fish, and find berries, and dig into bees' nests for the honey and the grubs. And he would use his strength and his might to defend them from anything that would try to hurt them.

He did not fear the small humans who had tried to steal the baby away. He was aware that they were still close, but to him they mattered no more than the trees or the rocks.

He had found his family.

Then he heard that click. It was the click that came before the bang that took away his first mother, his true mother. He looked up and saw that there were big humans there, beyond the small ones.

He stood.

These ones would not be permitted to harm his new mother, his baby sister. He would protect them. He would … kill.

He got clumsily to his feet, pushing the mother and the baby away from him, away from danger.

And then he charged.

Amazon had her back to the bears. She was facing the two hunters, trying to stay in between them and their prey. Frazer was doing the same – they both knew that the hunters would never risk firing through them.

Because their backs were to the bears they never saw the charge.

But Ben, who was still clinging to Amazon, looking back over her shoulder, did.

What he saw was a bear apparently charging straight at him.

He screamed.

Amazon and Frazer both turned.

They saw the great pale beast eating up the few metres between them. They both knew instinctively that he was not coming for them. They knew that he was trying to save the family that he had only just found.

Yet still it was the most frightening thing any of them had ever seen.

And then the rifle shot rang out – a sharp but strangely quiet sound, almost like a heavy ‘tut' from a cross schoolteacher – and the bear stopped, looking almost surprised. It seemed to gather itself again and began to come on. But its mighty front legs buckled beneath it and it fell, almost comically – had it not, that is, been so tragic – right at their feet.

Amazon spun again to scream at the hunters, or rather at the murderers. She saw that they had already turned to run. One had even dropped his rifle – or hurled it away in terror.

And she saw something else. Standing by the wreckage of the aircraft some twenty metres away was another man. He was also holding a rifle. A very strange-looking rifle.

‘Uncle …?'

‘DAD!'

It was Hal Hunt, looking gaunt and resolute. He was carrying the X-Ark – the high-precision tranquillizer gun favoured by TRACKS.

A few minutes later, they were gathered together under the wing of the wrecked aircraft, sheltering from the falling snow.

The two scruffy hunters, whose rifles had been confiscated by Hal Hunt, were arguing.

‘How could you drop your gun like that? When it went off, it cudda blowed my head off.'

‘Well, you started running, an' it sorta spooked me. If you hadn't been yella, I'd have –'

‘I suggest,' said Hal in a voice made more intimidating by its quiet precision, ‘that you gentlemen shut your mouths and get the heck out of my sight, before I decide to put
you
to sleep, and lay you down next to that bear.' He tapped the X-Ark. ‘And, believe me, he'll wake up long before you will.'

The two hunters gulped.

‘OK,' said the first hunter, ‘but I gotta report in this whole incident, including this here crashed aircraft and those freaky bears.'

‘Yep, you should probably do just that,' said Hal Hunt.

‘Can we have our guns back?' said the second hunter.

‘Sure. You can get them back from the Canadian Mounted Police station in Prince William. That's supposing you have the right permits, of course. The Canadian government is very strict, I understand, on the legality of carrying firearms in the State Parks …'

The hunters looked at each other shiftily, and then headed off back into the woods, still arguing.

‘Told you we shoulda gotten them permits …' was the last thing they heard.

Alone at last, the three Trackers embraced.

Hal's eyes were moist.

‘I was worried about you. I thought I might have lost you as well … And look at this big boy! Ben, I know a mom and dad who are going to be very pleased to see you.'

‘I bet I get a really gigantic present,' said Ben, a broad white smile on his grimy face.

‘How did you find us, Dad?' asked Frazer.

‘The GPS function on your watches. I could track you on my laptop. Or get a rough fix at least. I flew the plane in and landed on a lake five miles that way.' Hal pointed down the canyon.

Amazon couldn't control herself any longer.
She hadn't wanted to talk about her parents' disappearance in front of the hunters, but now she had to ask.

‘This is it, isn't it? This is my mum and dad's plane. Where are they? What's happened?'

Hal nodded. ‘We'll talk about that in a moment. But first you tell me your story. How did you come to be out here?'

And now at last Amazon and Frazer, with frequent interjections from young Ben, explained everything that had happened. The radio news announcement that made them realize that Hal was looking in the wrong place for Ben, the bike ride, the cougar, the landslide, the mother and baby bear, the wolves, and finally the discovery of the wrecked plane …

‘That's some story,' said Hal, shaking his close-cropped, grizzled head. ‘You're lucky to be alive.'

‘What can we do with the big bear?' asked Amazon. ‘Frazer thinks it's a cross between a grizzly and a polar bear. A grolar …'

‘Yep, I reckon he's right.'

‘We think it might have wanted to join the others, as a … family.'

The mother and baby bear had run away into the forest at the shot and had not yet returned.

Hal shook his head.

‘No, that can't work. They're different species and they just don't belong together.'

‘Well, what's going to happen to it?' asked Frazer.
He was worried in case his father was going to say that it would have to be put down.

‘What it needs is its own kind. And at the moment that means in a zoo or wildlife park. I know the people at Copenhagen Zoo, where they have a female grolar that was reared there. I'll pull some strings. It'll mean getting a freight-carrying helicopter out here, but that's what TRACKS does. I'll call one up on the sat phone.'

At the thought of the bear and its lost family, Amazon's eyes began to fill with tears.

‘Now, Uncle Hal, tell me, this is my parents' plane, so where are they?'

‘They were obviously here, and not long ago,' said Hal, surveying the scene. He walked round the site, looking at the discarded rubbish and mess. Then he knelt down in the circle of flattened grass that Amazon had noticed earlier.

‘Talking of helicopters, one has already been here, earlier today, unless I'm mistaken,' he said thoughtfully.

Amazon gasped.

‘That must be the one we heard this morning!' exclaimed Frazer. ‘I knew it wasn't just the thunder.'

‘Hey, I heard the hellycopter before
anyone
!' said Ben, who had been listening carefully to everything that was said.

‘Sure it was,' said Amazon, and then spun back to face Hal Hunt. ‘You mean they were rescued?' Her mind was buzzing with hope and confusion.

Hal slowly shook his head.

‘I've been in radio contact with the authorities. They would have let me know. This was something else. It looks to me like they've been
taken
.'

‘Taken?' said Frazer. ‘What do you mean … like kidnapped?'

‘Possibly, yes.'

‘Why do you think that, Dad?'

‘I'll talk you through it. We know that Roger and Ling-Mei had found out something important, something earth-shattering, and they were flying back to tell me about it face to face. Their plane came down, and we heard nothing more. Now look at this crash site: you can see that they've made a real effort to hide the wreck. The branches have been cut and folded over so it's almost invisible from the air.

‘Why would they do that? Wouldn't you think they'd want to be rescued? That suggests to me that they knew that someone – the bad guys – were after them. And then there's the evidence of the helicopter landing – a helicopter that the authorities know nothing about. And it's obvious to anyone that the camp was searched. For what, I don't know.'

Frazer looked at Amazon. To his astonishment she was grinning.

‘Zonnie,' he said, disturbed. ‘What are you laughing at? Did you hear what my dad just said? Your parents may have been kidnapped.'

Amazon's smile became even broader.

‘Don't you understand, Frazer? If they've been kidnapped, it means that THEY ARE ALIVE! ALIVE! ALIVE! I'd given up hope. I thought they were dead and gone forever. If someone's kidnapped them, it means that they want to keep them alive for some reason. There's hope. It's all I needed, a tiny ray of hope. We'll find them, Uncle Hal, won't we?'

Hal looked her straight in the eye.

‘Yes, Amazon, we'll find them. I don't know how, but yes, we'll find and free your parents, I swear it.'

They had been standing close to the dead fire. Now Hal Hunt began to kick lightly at the ash and cinders, a thoughtful expression on his face.

‘What is it, Dad?' Frazer asked.

‘Just a hunch. Roger and I used to play spies a lot when we were kids. Hiding secret messages, stuff like that. There was one trick we learned from some dime-store book on being a secret agent. It was full of junk, but it had some good ideas on where to hide your papers, or where to leave things if you wanted your partner to find them.'

‘And one of them,' said Frazer, getting excited, ‘was underneath a fire!'

Hal didn't answer, but reached down into the cold ash. He pushed aside the soil beneath it and pulled something out.

It was a little leather-bound notebook. The cover was scorched black, but it had not been consumed
by the fire, and had partially protected the paper within.

Hal Hunt grunted, and Amazon and Frazer gathered closer. Hal opened the book and began to read. Then he closed it again and handed it to Amazon.

‘You should be the first,' he said.

‘What is it, Dad?' asked Frazer.

But it was Amazon who answered.

‘It … it's a diary,' she said. ‘The diary of … Roger Hunt.'

1. KERMODE ‘SPIRT' BEARS
   are a sub-species of the black bear race but about 1/10 have white coats.
   
2. SPIRT BEARS
   only live on the Pacific coast of British Columbia in Canada.
   
3. Scientists estimate there are less than four hundred
   SPIRIT BEARS
   in that area.
   
4. KERMODE BEARS
   are sacred to the local Native American culture because of their unique colouring.
   
5. According to Native American Legend,
   SPIRIT BEARS
   are a reminder of times past, specifically the white colour of ice and snow. The master of the universe created one white bear for every ten black bears as a reminder of the hardships during the Ice Age.
   
6. KERMODE BEARS
   may have evolved over the last 10,000 years from black bears that become isolated on the coast more than 300,000 years ago.
   
7. Living in Lush forests,
   KERMODE BEARS
   are lucky to have lots of food – they eat fruits, bulbs, insects, rodents and nuts in addition to salmon.
   
8. Because of their Light fur,
   SPIRIT BEARS
   are less visible to fish than black bears, making them 30 per cent more efficient at capturing salmon.
   
9. They can run up to 50 Km per hour.
   
10. KERMODE BEARS
    were named after Francis Kermode, former director of the Royal British Columbia Museum.