The Secret Zoo Read Online Free PDF

saw three bears! Is that possible? I was
    That was the end of the back of the page.
    Richie said, “Wait…the zoo only has two polar bears.”
    â€œYeah,” Noah said. “And it’s only supposed to have fifty birds—not thousands.”
    The scouts stood together in silence. The wind blew Megan’s note, making it flutter and snap in Noah’s hand.
    â€œThis is real, isn’t it?” Ella asked.
    â€œYeah,” Noah said. “This is really happening.”
    â€œC’mon,” Richie said as he settled the wiggly pom-pom on his cap. His voice sounded unusually courageous. “Let’s go to the tunnel and see how many bears we find.”
    They turned and headed deeper into the zoo.
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    Arctic Town was an area of the zoo designed to look like a cold Arctic landscape. From the concession stands to the restrooms, all the buildings were shaped like igloos. Plastic icicles dangled from every ledge, sheets of plastic ice lay across the sidewalks, and signs cautioned visitors, WATCH FOR ICE ON PATH ! The design had a cool effect in winter, but a rather lame one in summer. Could children believe it was cold when snow cones were melting down their fingers?
    In no time, the scouts reached the Polar Pool. Set on an icy-looking landscape, the exhibit had a long, winding inground pool. A flight of narrow stairs descended twenty feet into the earth and led to a glass-walled underwater tunnel, which reached across the middle of the pool.
    â€œLet’s go,” Noah said.
    They rushed down the stairs and stepped into a glass room that looked into the pool. Though this room had a spectacular view, the real attraction was the tunnel. It started at the room they were in, snaked through the water, and opened into a second glass room at the other end, which was barely visible from here. It was like a hamster’s plastic tunnel, but a thousand times larger.
    The scouts strolled into the tunnel; they felt as if they were walking directly into the pool. Inside the tunnel, they joined a bunch of kids who were watching Blizzard. The bear was trying to sink an orange barrel with his thick legs, which moved sluggishly through the water. He was enormous. After a while, Frosty started to wrestle with Blizzard. A few minutes passed, and Blizzard swam over the tunnel, casting his shadow over the visitors beneath him. He planted his paw on the glass directly above Richie. It was bigger than Richie’s head.
    The scouts stared into the tank, hoping to catch sight of something unusual—a third bear, perhaps—but they saw nothing. Noah suggested that it was too early for anything weird to happen. To kill time, they decided to leave the tunnel and have a snack at one of the igloo concession stands upstairs.
    On their way, Richie pretended to slip on a patch of fake ice that had spilled across the sidewalk.
    â€œHey, guys!” he called. “Whooaaa!”
    His arms flailed and the pom-pom on his cap wobbled. About twenty seconds into his routine, he lost his balance and crashed on his butt.
    â€œRichie!” Ella said. “If you don’t knock it off, we’re gonna put you in with the monkeys.”
    Richie climbed to his feet and rubbed his sore rear end.
    After wasting an hour, they returned to the Polar Pool, made their way into the tunnel, and waited anxiously for something to happen. Before long, a lady announced through a loudspeaker that the zoo would close in fifteen minutes. Parents collected their children and headed for the exit. Within minutes, the Action Scouts were the only ones left in the tunnel.
    â€œMegan said it happened late in the day,” Noah said. “And that’s when all that stuff with the birds happened to me.”
    â€œYeah,” Ella said.
    Frosty and Blizzard swam at one end of the pool, their massive paws deftly slicing the water.
    â€œSee anything unusual?” Noah asked.
    â€œNunh-unh,” Richie said.
    The three