Secrets and Shadows Read online

  THE

  SECRET

  ZOO

  SECRETS AND SHADOWS

  BRYAN CHICK

  For the kids at Waterford Knudsen

  and their librarian, Sandy Feltzer,

  who first opened the Secret Zoo

  Contents

  Prelude - The Request

  Chapter 1 - A Decision at PizZOOria

  Chapter 2 - The Mystery of Metr-APE-olis

  Chapter 3 - Inside the Secret Metr-APE-olis

  Chapter 4 - The Swing of Things

  Chapter 5 - Four Mysterious Escorts

  Chapter 6 - Old Friends, Familiar City

  Chapter 7 - The Library of the Secret Society

  Chapter 8 - A Proposition at the Fountain Forum

  Chapter 9 - Kavita and Khufu

  Chapter 10 - The Taking of the Shadows

  Chapter 11 - The Plan

  Chapter 12 - The Chickadee Ceremony

  Chapter 13 - Butterfly Nets

  Chapter 14 - The Unknown Something

  Chapter 15 - The Grottoes

  Chapter 16 - Wide Walt

  Chapter 17 - An Instant Marlo

  Chapter 18 - The Wotter Park

  Chapter 19 - The Scouts Get Wet

  Chapter 20 - Break on Through to the Otter Side

  Chapter 21 - Across the Wotter Tower

  Chapter 22 - Above the City of Species

  Chapter 23 - The Ocean in the Sky

  Chapter 24 - Back into the Wotter Park

  Chapter 25 - Words from a Dictionary

  Chapter 26 - Back to the Grottoes

  Chapter 27 - The Scouts Wake Up

  Chapter 28 - Troop 112 Spots a Paw

  Chapter 29 - Noah Gets Spotted

  Chapter 30 - The Boy with Big Orange Freckles

  Chapter 31 - A View from Fort Scout

  Chapter 32 - Frosty Steps Aside

  Chapter 33 - Noah Gets Stuck

  Chapter 34 - Old Iron and Pinky Pedals

  Chapter 35 - The Depths of the Polar Pool

  Chapter 36 - The Ba-eh and the Ba-oy

  Chapter 37 - The Underwater Handoff

  Chapter 38 - Old Iron Makes a Fuss

  Chapter 39 - Flamingo Fountain

  Chapter 40 - The Escape into Giraffic Jam

  Chapter 41 - The Confrontation

  Chapter 42 - The Strike of the Sasquatch

  Chapter 43 - The Descent

  Chapter 44 - The Descenders

  Chapter 45 - The Chase

  Chapter 46 - The Truth

  Chapter 47 - Charlie Makes a Decision

  About the Author

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Prelude

  The Request

  “You ready for this?”

  Noah’s eyes dropped to the note in his hands. He scanned the page and returned his attention to the Action Scouts. The four friends were huddled on Noah’s bedroom floor, sitting cross-legged. They’d just stepped in from the cold outdoors, so they were still wearing their winter headgear: Richie, his cap with the oversized pom-pom; Ella, her big pink earmuffs; Megan, her sporty fleece headband; and Noah, his red hunting cap that he’d discovered in the Secret Zoo. Noah’s eyes met Ella’s, then Richie’s, and finally Megan’s.

  Richie responded with a quick nod, sending shivers through the pom-pom on his cap.

  Noah held out the note that Marlo, the tiny kingfisher from the Clarksville Zoo, had delivered to them just minutes ago in their tree fort. He coughed into his fist and began to read.

  Dearest Action Scouts,

  I’m afraid I have regrettable news. In the struggle to hunt down the sasquatches that fled the Dark Lands, our Secret Society has met with complete failure. The sasquatches have hidden in different sectors. We don’t know where they are or what they’re capable of. I cannot write more about this here except to say that there are elements concerning the Secret Zoo that I have alluded to but never fully explained to you.

  Tomorrow after school, can you meet with Tank and me in PizZOOria, the large cafeteria in the Clarksville Zoo? Tank and I will cross to the Outside and await your arrival. Our meeting will be brief. We have a proposition for you. Our only requirement is that you arrive with an open mind.

  Sincerely,

  Mr. Darby

  Noah folded the note and turned his attention to his friends. “Well?” he said. “What do you make of that?”

  For a moment, no one spoke. At last, Richie said, “It sounds like they need our help.”

  “Yeah,” Noah said. “But are we ready to give it? I mean . . . really give it?” It had, after all, been only two weeks since Noah’s sister, Megan, had been rescued from the Secret Zoo.

  “I don’t know,” Richie answered. He pushed up his big eyeglasses. “Let’s meet Mr. Darby and hear what he has to say.”

  “I agree,” Megan said.

  Ella nodded.

  “Okay,” said Noah. “After school. Tomorrow. Marlo will be back in the morning. I’ll send our reply then.”

  The scouts stared at one another in silence. Then Noah folded the note and set it on his nightstand.

  On their dark walk home from Noah and Megan’s house, Richie and Ella couldn’t stop talking about the note from Mr. Darby. He was the leader of the Secret Society, a band of humans and animals living side by side in a magical kingdom that existed behind the walls of their local zoo. As the two scouts rushed through their dark neighborhood streets, Ella suddenly halted and swung out her arm, thumping Richie across his chest.

  “Ow!” Richie said. “What are you—”

  “Quiet, Richie—I mean it!”

  In the silent intersection, the two of them stood perfectly still. Ella looked out at the dark surroundings: a street in every direction; houses on corner lots; empty cars parked along curbs.

  “I saw something,” she whispered. “Something . . . something moving.”

  “Like what?” Richie asked with concern. Then a gleam of hope flashed across his face. “Like . . . a chipmunk?”

  Ella glanced at him. “Someone’s watching us.”

  Richie’s face sank with such force that Ella half expected his eyes, ears, and nose to tumble to the ground and lie there like Mr. Potato Head pieces. He kept his voice to a whisper. “What? Seriously, where?”

  Ella directed a finger across the street to a yard whose densely planted spruce trees grew higher than the surrounding telephone poles. A dark blur moved from the shadow of one spruce into the shadow of another.

  Keeping perfectly still, Ella said, “Did you see that?”

  “Yes. What was it?”

  After a moment of silence, Ella delivered the simple truth. “It was him.”

  Every cell in Richie’s body froze. Finally, he said, “If by him, you mean Mr. Peters, checking his mail, then I’m cool with that. But if you’re talking about—”

  “It’s the same guy I saw standing in your neighbor’s yard, Richie, the night I woke you up to sneak into the zoo. And it’s the same guy Tank was talking about—the man who lives in the shadows—who is the shadows.”

  Ella recalled their first meeting with Tank, the enormous Clarksville Zoo security guard formally known as Mr. Pangbourne. Her memory restored an image of the man looming above the scouts, his bald head shining, his muscular arms crossed as he spoke for the first time of the Shadowist—the near-mythical man who was hunting for the Secret Zoo.

  Now the scouts stared into the shadows of the yard. Besides swaying branches, there was no movement. If a man had been there, he was gone now.

  “C’mon,” Ella said. “Let’s get out of here.”

  And the two of them did. As fast as they could.

  Chapter 1

  A Decision at PizZOOria

&nb
sp; The following morning, Marlo showed up at Noah’s window as promised, and Noah gave the tiny blue bird a note that simply read, “See you after school.” Clutching the paper in his little talons, Marlo flew across Noah’s yard, which backed against the Clarksville Zoo, then darted over the high wall. Within minutes, the king-fisher would find a hidden tunnel to the Secret Zoo, pass through it, and deliver the note to Mr. Darby.

  At three-thirty that afternoon, the scouts headed to PizZOOria. They had more than two hours before any of their parents would return home from work—plenty of time, since their houses were next to the zoo. On the way, Ella and Richie shared again their account of someone watching them from the shadows on their walk home. Megan and Noah listened to it all, just as frightened as they had been the first time.

  At PizZOOria, the foursome pushed through the big double doors and walked in side by side. Noah imagined how they must have looked: steadfast and purposeful, like soldiers marching into battle.

  Tank and Mr. Darby were sitting at a booth. Mr. Darby was drinking something from a plastic concession cup shaped like a hippo. The cup looked out of place against Mr. Darby’s long gray beard and serious demeanor. Mr. Darby had traded his usual velvet trench coat for common pants and a sweater. Perched on his nose were his regular sunglasses, concealing his eyes. Tank was eating. He’d passed on PizZOOria’s traditional dish in favor of something greasier. In front of him was a wobbly stack of cheeseburgers and a mountain of French fries. His enormous arms bulged as he fed fries into his mouth.

  Mr. Darby beamed as the scouts approached. He rose to his feet, saying, “My dear scouts!” The old man swept his arm toward the booth, inviting them to take a seat.

  The children plopped down, shaking the booth and almost toppling Tank’s tower of cheeseburgers.

  “Tank!” Richie said. “Good to see you . . . but even better to see your fries. Mind if I—?”

  With a wink, Tank said, “Help yourself, bub.”

  Noah turned to Mr. Darby and said, “Good to see you again.”

  “Indeed it is,” the old man replied.

  Tank nodded, winked again, and devoured half a cheeseburger with a single bite.

  “First things first,” Ella said. She leaned across the booth toward Mr. Darby. “Last night, Richie and I, we saw that guy in our neighborhood again—that shadow dude.”

  Mr. Darby lifted his eyebrows above his sunglasses. “What?”

  In an attempt to say, “It’s true,” Richie said, “Did-poo” and sprayed chewed-up potatoes into the air.

  Megan adjusted her glasses and spoke. “He followed them home.”

  Mr. Darby frowned. “And how can you be certain it was”—he reduced his voice to a whisper—“him? How can you know?”

  Ella said, “Well, not too many of our neighbors run around their yards at night in trench coats and funky-looking hats.”

  Mr. Darby said nothing, but he and Tank shared an uneasy glance.

  “I thaw that,” Richie said as he moved in for another sloppy helping of fries. His hand bumped Tank’s and seemed puny and pale against the big man’s dark-skinned mass of knuckles.

  “Yeah,” Noah said. “I saw it, too. If there’s any chance that we might be in some kind of trouble, you guys need to tell us.”

  “You’re right,” Mr. Darby said. “You need to know all that we know about the Shadowist—that is certain. However, this is not the time or place—which leads in nicely to why I asked the four of you here.”

  “Go ahead,” said Noah.

  “When will it be safe for the four of you to come back?”

  “To the Secret Zoo?” Megan asked. “I’m not so sure I ever want to see that place again!”

  “Understandable, given your past plight, dear Megan.” Mr. Darby was referring to the three weeks she’d spent trapped in the Dark Lands, a forbidden land at the edge of the City of Species inside the Secret Zoo. “Do you all feel the same way?”

  The scouts glanced at one another. They kept silent.

  “Perhaps you would consider a single trip back, yes? Then we can talk about this matter further. After you cross over, Tank and I will arrange for an escort to see you back safely to the City of Species.”

  “An escort?” Ella said.

  “Yes, we’ll arrange guides to see you across the sector.”

  Knowing that sectors were different regions of terrain inside the Secret Zoo, Noah asked, “What exhibit do you want us to enter through?”

  Tank cut in. “Metr-APE-olis. Isn’t that what we’re thinking, Mr. D?”

  Mr. Darby nodded. “Your entire commitment will be less than two hours. What do you say?”

  The scouts traded a look of uncertainty, and then all eyes settled on Noah. After a moment, Noah said, “Okay. We can check it out, at least.”

  “Excellent!” Mr. Darby clapped his hands and rubbed his palms together. “What day will you come?”

  After waiting for Richie to free up enough space in his mouth to talk, the scouts decided on Saturday morning, which was two days away, as long as they could clear it with their parents. They decided on eight o’clock, an hour before the zoo opened.

  “Very well! I’ll instruct the zoo guards to allow the four of you into the zoo early.” Mr. Darby stood up along with Tank.

  “But how do we get inside?” Megan said. “At MetrAPE-olis, how do we get in?”

  “Just find Daisy,” Tank said. “She’ll know what to do.”

  Mr. Darby added, “Your parents permitting, we’ll see the four of you Saturday.” He tipped his head, and he and Tank left through the double doors.

  “That’s it, then,” Noah said.

  “Yep,” Ella said. “Saturday at Metr-APE-olis.”

  The scouts exchanged empty expressions. With the back of his hand, Richie wiped ketchup from his chin. Then the four of them rose from the booth and stepped outside. As they made their way to the front gates, no one said a word. To Noah, the silence felt strange. It was as if they all wanted to save their words for whatever they might face on Saturday—whatever they might discover in Metr-APE-olis. Noah had had enough experience in the Secret Zoo to know that could be just about anything.

  Chapter 2

  The Mystery of Metr-APE-olis

  “What time is it now?” Noah asked.

  Megan checked her watch. “Just past eight.”

  Noah scanned the cold zoo landscape a final time. It was barren. Except for his friends, he couldn’t see a single person, and most of the animals were tucked away in caves and other warm spots. He stared up at the MetrAPE-olis building. It was enormous—four stories high and constructed from bricks the size of shoe boxes.

  “Okay,” said Noah. He waved the scouts forward, leading them up the brick path to the front door of the exhibit. Around them, crisp autumn leaves whirled.

  A man’s voice rang out behind them. “Hey! Hold up over there!”

  The scouts spun around. Strolling toward them was a tall, lanky man. The wind swirled his shock of red hair, making it look like his head was on fire. Charlie Red, a Clarksville Zoo security guard . . . and their nemesis. Wagging his finger, he said, “The zoo ain’t open! How did—” His words stopped and his eyebrows dropped when he realized who he was talking to. “Oh—you. What the heck are you doing here so early?”

  Ella stepped forward, hands on her hips. “We’re on special scout business—at the orders of Mr. Darby!”

  Charlie Red threw back his head and howled with laughter. “Well, well! Special scout business! Now, that does sound important.”

  “Knock it off, Red,” said Ella. “You need to deal with the fact that we’re part of the team now.”

  “The team?” Charlie stepped up to Ella, lowered his head, and pushed his face close to hers. “You ain’t part of no team, kid! You’re a bunch of spoiled brats that snooped your way into something you got no business being part of. You might be on Mr. Darby’s good side, but as soon as everyone sees what a mistake it is to keep you guys around, you’ll be
out of here. You’re nothing but a bunch of—”

  “Button it, Red!” Ella barked. She leaned forward, the tip of her nose nearly touching Charlie’s. “You think you scare us? If you don’t stay out of our way, I’ll have Tank drop-kick you over the zoo wall.”

  Charlie shot her a menacing look, then turned to leave. As he headed down the path, he called back to them, “I’ll be watching the four of you runts. Believe me—I’ll be watching!”

  The scouts watched him go, then headed into MetrAPE-olis. The doors creaked and groaned, as if annoyed at being opened. As they slammed behind the scouts, their latches clicked sharply shut.

  Metr-APE-olis was the size of a vast warehouse and contained a small jungle. The trees weren’t real, but it was impossible to tell. Their trunks were thick—too thick for an ape to wrap its arms around—and the branches started low to the ground, just above the apes’ heads. Streams wound across the grassy floor, and waterfalls plunged from the heights.

  Visitors to Metr-APE-olis could explore the exhibit from within a maze of glass tunnels. Outside the clear walls, the exhibit was entirely open. Apes could walk up at any point along the passage and put themselves mere inches from the visitors.

  Metr-APE-olis got its name partly from the small huts that were nestled in the trees, creating the feeling of an elevated city. Constructed mostly of bamboo, these huts were often connected to one another by rope bridges or monkey bars. Tire swings dangled from branches, and apes played in them, twirling and swinging and bouncing around.