His stomach tightened, though he already knew. “Tell me everything,” he said. Lena explained that the power had flickered twice overnight. A fallen branch had damaged one of the outer cameras. The backup generator kicked in, but its low hum had unsettled several animals. Mara, always sensitive to unfamiliar sounds, had paced through much of the night. “What about the inner gate?” Elias asked. “Closed,” Lena said. “But the service corridor gate near habitat three—there’s mud everywhere. We found scrape marks.”
Elias pressed harder on the accelerator. Habitat three was connected to the old transfer chute, a narrow passage used years earlier before the bear enclosure was expanded. It was supposed to be sealed except during maintenance, but contractors had been repairing drainage behind it that week. One loose latch, one frightened bear, and one dark, stormy night, and now Mara had followed the creek line straight into the city.