“Richie!” Ella called out. “C’mon already!”
Richie, who was bent down on one knee, finished tightening the laces on his running shoes—the kind he was noted for, a flashy pair with swirls of vibrant color—and hurried after his friends, the Action Scouts, who’d just stepped through the front entrance of the Clarksville Zoo. At the gates, Richie pitched his hip forward, plowed through a turnstile, and quickly caught up to Ella, Noah, and Megan.
It being only nine-fifteen on a cold Saturday morning, the zoo was all but empty. The air was heavy and humid. An overnight dusting of snow was beginning to melt, its wetness pasting dead leaves to their shoes.
The four friends were dressed for the weather. Ella wore her usual earmuffs, fluffy pink things that resembled globs of cotton candy. Megan wore her sporty outdoor headband, which allowed her thick pigtails to droop down. Richie wore his stocking cap, his head circled by a bulky ribbed cuff and crowned with a bushy pom-pom. And Noah wore his now-favorite hunting cap, which Blizzard and Podgy, two animals from the Secret Zoo, had given him. Bright red with big earflaps, it was every bit as goofy as Richie’s hat, but it was warm, and Noah liked how it reminded him of his first journey into the magical world just beyond his backyard.
The zoo was decked out for its annual Festival of Lights. Countless colorful bulbs dangled from eaves and coiled around fence rails. Even the trees in some outdoor exhibits were decorated.
“Remind me where crosstraining is today,” Ella said. Her ponytail jumped across her shoulders as she scanned her friends.
“Kangaroo Kampground,” answered Megan.
It had been only a week since their last full-scale adventure with the Secret Zoo. The scouts had spent this time training as Crossers, Secret Cityzens who traveled between the ordinary zoo and its magical counterpart. Mr. Darby had assigned a number of Secret Cityzens to assist in their training: a hulking man named Tank; four teenagers known as the Descenders; and a group of animals that included Blizzard, a powerful polar bear; Podgy, a flying penguin; P-Dog, a rambunctious prairie dog; Little Bighorn, a bold rhinoceros; and Marlo, a kingfisher that served as a messenger bird, delivering notes between Mr. Darby and the scouts.
In classroomlike settings held in various exhibits, the scouts had begun to study the wondrous world of the Secret Zoo. They’d discussed the history of the Secret Society, a band of humans and animals living in harmony, and learned why it existed—primarily to protect every animal species from extinction. They’d learned about the Secret Council and its principles for governing. They’d learned about the magic that had helped create the Secret Zoo—how it had flowed from Kavita, the world’s only real magician, to eventually power her four sons, each born to a different mother thousands of years later. They’d learned about “straight drops,” tunnels that led directly from the Clarksville Zoo to areas in the Secret Zoo known as sectors. These sectors resembled the zoo exhibits joined to them, only on a grander scale, and they connected to the core of the Secret Zoo, the City of Species, which was crowded with animals and people and built in a lush forest.
The scouts crosstrained at least twice a week. Their parents believed they were serving as zoo volunteers as part of a program hosted by their school. Living next to the Clarksville Zoo made this easy. The four friends could walk out their front doors, meet at the zoo, train, and be home in less than two hours. On school days it was even easier. The children could swing by the zoo on their walk home, spend some time crosstraining, and still beat dinner to their tables. As incredible as it seemed, it was simple for the four of them to maintain their normal lives while being members of a secret civilization. They could be studying math one hour, then riding a polar bear the next.
Now, they neared Kangaroo Kampground. The exhibit was in a new log building that deliberately looked old. Flat logs were stacked high, their corners interlocked. A gable roof sat on rafters that protruded beyond the outside walls. A wide boulder chimney helped frame one side of the structure. The front booth of the exhibit seemed a dilapidated shack at the world’s most rustic campsite. A weathered wooden sign read “Kangaroo Kampground! Jump on in!”
Richie glanced at his watch. “Nine-thirty. Right on time.”
The front steps squealed and moaned as the scouts headed up them. The foursome stopped at the front doors, where a metal sign spoiled the rustic ambience. Across its silvery sheen, bold black letters read “CLOSED FOR CONSTRUCTION!” Knowing this really meant “CLOSED FOR CROSSTRAINING!” Noah dug into his pocket for the magic key that could open any door at the Clarksville Zoo and seated it into the slot. With a click! the door popped open. The scouts glanced over their shoulders to make certain no one was looking and slipped inside.
The exhibit was an open type where visitors could walk freely among the animals—dozens of kangaroos in this case. Trees and plants grew in the large space, and light poured in from a few big windows. Several zoo employees normally patrolled the open exhibit, but now it was empty.
The scouts stepped onto the main visitor aisle, a dirt path pitted with small holes. Campsite items were all around—tents, picnic tables, barbecue grills, and fire pits with piles of fake logs that seemed to smolder. Occasional signs pretended to show the direction of campsite attractions with painted arrows: “Pool Area,” “Playground,” “Showers,” “Vending.” Blinking Christmas lights dangled from the heights.
Kangaroos were scattered about. Most were lounging on their sides, looking bored. A few, seeing the scouts, jumped to attention. With their powerful hind legs, rabbitlike ears, doelike eyes, and jumbo feet, they seemed like caricatures put together from the features of other animals. Several hopped over to the path and curiously sniffed the four friends.
“Hey, dudes,” Ella said as she reached out her hand, donned in a pink winter glove, and playfully tapped their heads. One kangaroo lapped its long tongue against her sleeve.
The scouts turned down a path that led to the entrance of a big tent. Inside was a series of ten aluminum benches, equally spaced. Toward the front of the tent, a television was mounted high on a pole. Normally this television looped a ten-minute video detailing kangaroo habits, but today it was turned off. Between the pole and the first row of benches stood a portable whiteboard. Beside it was a teenager with a knit cap pulled over his eyebrows and a scraggly beard dangling from his chin. It was Tameron, one of the Descenders assigned to crosstrain the scouts. He peered out from under the short brim of his cap. “What’s up?”
Noah nodded as the scouts took seats along a bench toward the middle.
Tameron planted his foot on the bench in front of him. He looked like an army sergeant ready to grill a squad of soldiers who’d messed up in a serious way.
“A couple days ago,” Tameron began, “we had an incident.”
“Uh-oh,” Ella said. “An incident. Already this doesn’t sound good.”
“Tank was in the Grottoes and guess what he found? Sasquatch tracks.”
The scouts winced. They all knew the sasquatches had never reached as far as the Grottoes.
Tameron continued. “He tracked the prints into a gift shop along the east wall of the zoo.”
“The Knickknack and Snack Shack,” Megan said. “That’s right by Fort Scout. You can see it from our tree.”
Tameron nodded.
“Did it get out?” Megan asked.
“Didn’t look like it. The tracks went straight back to the Grottoes. Tank thinks it was scouting the area, looking for the easiest way to invade your neighborhood.”
Fear moved Noah’s insides.
“This is sooooo not good,” Richie said.
“The east wall . . .” Noah said. “That’s the part you guys have trouble guarding at night. Because there aren’t many trees, you can’t post animals along it, right?”
Tameron nodded. “If the sasquatches decide to move on that part of the wall, we might not spot them until it’s too late.”
Ella said, “So not only do we have to stop the Shadowist from getting in the zoo, now we have to stop the sasquatches from getting out!” Everyone knew the Shadowist as the near-mythical man trying to get inside the Secret Zoo.
“Things just got more complicated,” Tameron said. He seemed to consider something, then added, “What do you guys know about the patrols, the ones we do at night?”
“Only what you’ve taught us,” Ella said, “which is”—she stared into the corners of her eyes and scanned her thoughts—“pretty much nothing.”
“Well, that’s about to change right now.”
Richie greedily rubbed his hands together. “Sweetness! The perimeter patrols! I’ve been waiting to hear about this for weeks! Spare no detail!”
“I’ll recap what we know,” Megan volunteered. “There’s the concrete wall, obviously. It goes all around the zoo. It’s about fifteen feet high and surrounded by huge trees. You guys guard the zoo at night by somehow getting animals into those trees. The animals look out for DeGraff, the Shadowist.”
“This part has always baffled me,” Noah said. “I mean, the animals . . . what kind can possibly sneak into our trees?”
Ella said, “Probably not elephants, I’m thinking.”
“Mostly small, arboreal animals,” Tameron said.
“Ar-bo-what-e-al?” Ella said. She passed a curious stare across the group of Crossers and said, “Did we just switch languages or something?”
Richie jumped at the opportunity to demonstrate his knowledge. “Arboreal animals—they dwell in trees.”
Tameron nodded. “Along the perimeter wall we post koalas, lemurs, galagos, and all kinds of possums. A few others, too. Almost all of them are nocturnal—we need them because they see good in the dark. We also use owls and bats. And prairie dogs, but they have a different role.”
Noah felt his jaw drop. “All these animals . . . right there in our backyard trees. How do they not get spotted?”
“Oh, they’ve been spotted,” Tameron said. “Quite a few times.”
“Huh?”
“Remember about seven years ago when two lemurs were spotted on Zinnia Street in a tree in some lady’s backyard?”
The scouts nodded. Though they were too young to recall the incident, they’d heard the story.
“That was us. The lemurs were on watch. The lady called the police, who dispatched Animal Control. They trapped the lemurs and shipped them back to the zoo.”
“Any others?” Richie asked.
“A few,” Tameron replied. “People sometimes see our owls, but they don’t think nothing about that. And our prairie dogs—they’re always getting spotted. But people think they’re squirrels. Or gophers.”
“Unreal,” Megan said, shaking her head.
“There’s more,” Tameron said.
“There usually is with you guys,” said Ella.
“The animals don’t stop at the trees around the zoo wall—they go into the trees throughout your whole neighborhood.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Megan said.
“We only use tarsiers for this.”
“Tarsiers?” Noah said. “What are they?”
“You’re going to find out in just a little bit.”
Ella said, “Well, whatever they are—how in the world do they make it down our streets without getting noticed?”
“Tunnels,” Tameron answered.
“In our neighborhood?” Richie said.
“Yep. They branch off the Grottoes and go everywhere. They’re built and maintained by our prairie dogs. They work in them every night—cleaning out debris, widening them, extending them, burrowing new ones, and closing off old ones that are no longer needed.”
“Way, way, way cool,” said Richie. “This is the kind of cool you only see in the movies.”
“Why don’t people notice holes in their yards?” Ella asked. “I mean, the tarsiers have to come out somewhere.”
“You tell me,” Tameron said. “It’s your neighborhood. You ever see weird holes in your grass?”
The scouts shook their heads.
“The prairie dogs aren’t dumb. Their tunnels rise up in private spots. Beneath bushes, sheds, decks. Into the open space beneath porches. Inside dark tree hollows. All kinds of places.”
“How many tunnels?” Richie asked. “If you had to guess.”
Tameron shrugged. “Don’t know. It’s a big neighborhood, kid. Hundreds, I guess.”
“Hundreds!” Richie gasped.
“Like I said . . . I don’t really know. Teach P-Dog to talk and maybe he’ll tell you.”
Just then a kangaroo hopped into the tent and stopped at the back bench. He looked different from the others because one of his ears was bent sideways, as if broken. The way his short front arms dangled in front of his stomach reminded Noah of a T. rex. He poked his snout toward the scouts and sniffed the scents out of the air, seeming a bit surprised at the gathering, his eyes wide and unblinking.
Noah said, “For all the time the tarsiers spend outside the zoo—eight, nine hours a night—they never get noticed. That’s amazing.”
“Your neighborhood’s dark. No streetlights. And the trees are big and full. Even in the winter you can’t see anything in them—all the branches blend together. And the tarsiers, they’re practically . . .” Tameron’s voice trailed off. “Well, you’re about to see.”
Megan said, “Do animals patrol from inside the zoo at night?”
“Yeah. Mostly in the trees and places with a good view of the grounds—the taller exhibits. We put them where there’s almost zero risk of being seen.”
“Any other animals?” Richie asked.
Tameron nodded. “Owls. And bats—lots of bats. We use them for their echolocation.”
“What?” Ella said. “Echolocomotion? Isn’t that a song at a wedding reception—the one where everyone stumbles around in a line, pretending to be a train?”
“Echolocation,” Richie said, anxious as ever to share his trivia knowledge. “It’s a way to tell where something is by the echo it makes. Bats use it to help them see at night—to locate prey.”
“Yep,” Tameron said. “And guess what the prey is in this case.”
“DeGraff,” Noah said. “The Shadowist. But how can the bats tell him apart from anyone else?”
“Remember what we told you about DeGraff? That he’s part human and part shadow, his decaying body kept together by the magic in the shadows?”
“It’s kind of hard to forget a thing like that,” Ella said. “It’s the kind of thing that hangs out in your brain, giving you nightmares and stuff.”
“His body gives off a very distinct sound. Our bats . . . they’ve been trained to pick it up.”
Noah thought about this. It made sense. Objects produced different echoes. Surely DeGraff’s body would give off a sound like no other.
“Okay,” Richie said. “Besides the tarsiers and the other arboreal animals, we have owls and bats. . . . and prairie dogs digging tunnels. Anything else?”
“Monkeys,” Tameron said. “Police-monkeys. We usually have around ten circling the zoo. They move in groups of two or three.”
Richie said, “Always on our rooftops, right?”
“Yeah,” Tameron answered. “And the trees. They try to keep off the ground.”
“How is it possible that we don’t hear them?” Ella asked.
“We use smaller monkeys—night monkeys, spider monkeys, and others that see well at night. They don’t weigh much. And they move so swiftly that they hardly make a sound.”
The kangaroo that had entered the tent hopped up to the scouts and stopped beside Ella, who was sitting closest to the aisle.
“What’s up, bub?” Ella asked.
The kangaroo tipped his head to one side and then the other, studying Ella. The end of his bent ear dangled limply.
“What’s his name?”
“Punchy,” Tameron answered. “He likes to punch things.”
Ella scrunched up her face at the kangaroo and said, “Don’t even think about it—not unless you’re looking for a black eye.”
Tameron steered the conversation back, saying, “The monkeys stay on the backs of the roofs—the sides that face the zoo. You can’t see them from the street. And the monkeys are smart. If they see someone, they avoid all the nearby houses and move quietly through the trees. They’ve only been spotted once, and that was by some girl in a tree fort.” Tameron raised an eyebrow at Megan, who offered a weak smile in a half-apologetic way. “Can you guys think of anything else that you know about the perimeter patrols?”
Silence was the scouts’ response.
“Let me see if I can fill in the blanks. There are three main groups of Secret Cityzens involved: owls, other animals, and Descenders—me, Hannah, Sam, and Solana.” He turned to the whiteboard and drew a large square. “Okay—here’s the Clarksville Zoo.”
“Looks just like it,” Ella teased as she tipped her head to one side, pretending to contemplate the drawing as one might fine art. “Just like the view from a satellite, only better.”
Tameron circled the top line of the square and wrote the letter S. He then circled the other sides of the square and marked the circles E, N, and W. “The territories,” he said.
“Practically like using my mom’s GPS,” Ella quipped.
Tameron scowled at Ella. “You going to be making jokes the whole time?”
Ella shifted her eyes nervously. “Ummm . . . I’m thinking that was probably the last one for a while.”
“Good.” Tameron turned back to the drawing and said, “Four territories. Thirty, maybe forty owls assigned to each one. Each territory has a single type of owl dedicated to it. We use the smallest ones we got—pygmy owls and elf owls, which are the smallest in the world, barely the size of a sparrow. The owls perch in the highest spots in the trees, places that have good views of the neighborhood. We let them out around ten. At the same time we release the bats. The bats aren’t assigned to a specific territory; instead, they continuously circle the zoo. Got it so far?”
The scouts nodded.
“Around ten-thirty, we release the animals. The ones that post in the trees along the wall just jump into them. The tarsiers move into your neighborhood through the prairie dog tunnels. Once they’re out, they climb the trees and quickly settle into their posts.”
The scouts stopped their questions and absorbed this new information. Noah realized the wonder and mystery of the Secret Zoo never seemed to end—seemed, in fact, to always be evolving into something greater, something more magnificent.
“Okay,” Ella said. “So we’ve now got owls and a bunch of ar-bo-what-ev-er-eal things in our trees. What about you and your buds?”
Tameron said, “We post around the zoo. We stick to tall structures, something with a view. The water tower, Metr-APE-olis—places like that.”
Richie said, “But the animals . . . what do they do if they spot DeGraff?”
“They’re trained to report the sighting back to the nearest Descender.”
“How?” asked Ella.
“The owls. Their purpose is to keep watch on the animals in the trees. If an arboreal animal spots DeGraff, it’ll shake a branch to alert the owls. An owl will swoop in, confirm the sighting, then fly to the nearest Descender, who knows to treat the owl’s arrival as a message that DeGraff’s been seen. The Descender will contact the guards at the Clarksville Zoo using one of these.” Tameron touched his ear, where a tiny earset with no visible wires was mounted. “They’re just sophisticated radios,” he explained. “The guards wear them, too. Once the guards get the message, a few will team up with the Descender and follow the owl to the place DeGraff was spotted.”
Megan asked, “But that’ll take some time—what if DeGraff goes somewhere else?”
“The animals are trained to show his location by shaking branches.” Tameron paused, then explained it another way: “They follow him from the treetops.”
The scouts contemplated everything they’d just heard. Ideas and thoughts roamed in Noah’s head, creating images. His gaze wandered. On the ground was Tameron’s canvas backpack. The size of an army pack, it had bulging pockets with zippers and buckles and snaps. Velvet patches were stitched to it. Though they seemed to be decorative, Noah understood their real purpose. They supplied the magic that enabled the thing inside the canvas bag to join to Tameron, becoming a natural extension of his body—an extremity that he could control. Coiled inside the backpack was Tameron’s tail, his special power as a Descender.
Noah turned to Ella and saw Punchy poke his snout forward and sniff one of her poofy earmuffs. The kangaroo softly punched it, then curiously looked her over.
“Kanga dude,” Ella said, “they’re not my real ears, you know.” To demonstrate, she pulled out one earmuff and let it snap back into place. Punchy jumped away a few feet, startled and suspicious of Ella’s large, pink, retractable ear. He hopped behind the scouts to where Richie sat and took an interest in him.
Richie, looking nervous, scooted down the bench. “What do you want?”
Punchy plunged his snout into the softball-sized pom-pom on his cap, sniffed, then sneezed all over Richie.
“Ewww,” Ella said to Richie. “Kanga boogers. That’s really, really gross.”
The kangaroo reached up his thumbless forelimb and angrily punched the pom-pom, the thing that had made him sneeze.
Richie grabbed his hat by the cuff and held it down. “Hey! Go pick on Ella’s earmuffs again!”
Noah, Ella, and Megan broke into a laugh. After a bit, Tameron turned back to his rudimentary drawing of the Clarksville Zoo. He drew a small square in four spots along the inside of the zoo, each one near a different wall. “Lookout points for the Descenders. One Descender per lookout point. We rotate to stay fresh.” He then shaded in areas along the zoo border, saying, “Trees.” Then, on the outside of the wooden area, he drew little triangles. “The houses that back to the trees.”
“It’s like Google Earth,” Ella said. “Look! I think I see my mailbox!”
Tameron touched the circles representing the territories, saying, “Remember, one type of owl is assigned to each territory.” He swapped his black marker for a red one, then dropped dots in each of the circles. “Their only purpose is to watch for alerts from the animals and communicate them back to the Descenders.” He traded the red marker for a blue one and drew a cluster of spots. “The bats.” Dragging a dashed line around the zoo, he said, “They fly around the zoo all night.” He grabbed a green marker and bespeckled a triangular shape that represented a house. “The police-monkeys. They move through the trees and across the rooftops.” He picked up a yellow marker and drew a scattered cluster of dots all around the zoo. “The prairie dogs. They’re responsible for the tunnels.” Then, with a purple marker, he spotted the trees. “The rest of the arboreal animals. Tarsiers, when you get away from the wall.” He drew a small square outside the eastern wall and scrawled the letters F and S inside it. “Fort Scout,” he said.
“Ah yes,” Ella said. “Our home away from home.” She squinted at the picture. “Look, there’s Richie playing with his electro-toys!”
Tameron stared out at the scouts from the shadow of his brim. With his scraggly beard and his arms crossed over his chest, he looked just about like the toughest guy Noah had ever seen. He looked, in fact, like someone who might punch you in the head just for the fun of it. He turned back to the whiteboard and studied his elementary drawing, tipping his head from side to side. “There’s just one thing we need to change.”
“What’s that?” Noah asked.
“We need to change this . . .” With the palm of his hand, Tameron wiped out one of the four squares that represented the Descenders’ lookout points. Then he picked up a black marker and drew a similar square around Fort Scout. “. . . to this.”
As Noah realized what Tameron was getting at, his whole body clenched.
“What are you trying to say?” Ella asked.
It was Noah who answered. “He wants to move one of the lookout points to Fort Scout to keep a better watch on the east wall.”
The other scouts, wide-eyed with disbelief, stared at Tameron.
With a smirk, Tameron said, “You guys got it wrong. That’s not what I’m saying at all. It’s Darby doing the talking.” He lifted his backpack, punched his arms through its straps, and headed for the exit of the tent, saying, “C’mon, let’s go see the boss.”
The scouts hurried out into Kangaroo Kampground and followed the brawny Descender toward a place in the exhibit that would magically deliver them to the Secret Zoo.