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 climbed 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?

“We need a new plan,” Aldo said. Spencer could tell the bear was trying to take charge, but Aldo didn’t sound confident at all. Spencer was scared, too. They were alone, with no way to communicate with Evarita or anyone else outside Hidden Rock Zoo. Half their team had been captured. Dora, the long-lost bear they had come to rescue, had turned out to be a violent beast, and they still didn’t have a single clue as to where Mom and Dad were being held.

Aldo was right, they did need a new plan. But they couldn’t stay here, standing in the dark in the middle of the zoo to plot their next move. Besides, Spencer was starving, and Aldo looked exhausted.

“First, we need a hideout.” Spencer reached for the Hidden Rock Zoo map Evarita had tucked into the side pocket of his mission pack. He looked for a building on the opposite side of the zoo from Pam’s party. “How does the Reptile Lodge sound to you?” he said, pointing out on the map what looked to be the farthest building from the Hidden Rock Zoo entrance.

“Is that the best we can do?” Aldo didn’t sound very enthusiastic.

“It’s as far away from Pam and Dora as we can get in this place,” Spencer answered. “And I haven’t seen any zoo animals yet. It doesn’t look like Pam is keeping real animals here—other than bears. If we get lucky, there won’t be a single snake in the place.”

“We aren’t exactly on a lucky streak, Spencer,” Aldo joked halfheartedly. “But I think you’re right. The farther we can get from the party the better. Lead the way.”

Spencer set off in the direction of the Reptile Lodge, hoping with all his might Pam hadn’t knocked it down, and that there weren’t any reptiles waiting for them inside.