Secret Safari Page 3

  She woke with a jolt a few hours later as the jeep hit a pothole in the road. EJ blinked sleepily and looked around. They certainly weren’t near a city now. The track twisted and turned among seemingly endless plains of tall, green-brown grass that swayed in the gentle breeze. Boulders cropped up around the grasses, and acacia trees, with their spindly trunks spraying out into flattop leafy branches, provided the only shade. Flocks of birds flew in the sky and crowded the trees. And, in the far, far background was the purple-brown of a distant mountain range and above it all was a large and deep blue sky that seemed to curve down and touch the plains while strips of white cloud streaked high above.

  ‘It’s beautiful,’ gasped SJ.

  ‘It’s awesome,’ said EJ.

  ‘It’s the African savannah,’ said Rafiki. ‘Home to millions of wild animals and now is the perfect time to see them all. When we get to the top of the hill, you’ll see them in the next valley.’

  As the jeep came to the crest of the hill, EJ looked out and dotted across the plains below were hundreds, thousands of cattle-like animals with brown shaggy beards and horns.

  ‘Wow, there are so many of them!’ exclaimed EJ. ‘They’re wildebeest, aren’t they?’ She remembered them from her on-flight briefing.

  ‘Correct, and they are on the great migration,’ said SJ. ‘I’ve seen it once before. Look, EJ, there are zebras, too.’

  ‘When have you seen it?’ asked EJ as she watched the black and white striped zebras trot amongst the wildebeest herd, grazing on the grass.

  ‘Oh, I’ve been OM here a few times,’ replied SJ. ‘It is quite amazing.’

  ‘Indeed it is,’ said Rafiki, as she turned the jeep off the track, driving in amongst the herd. ‘The great migration is a natural wonder of the world. It is the annual round-trip journey of the wildebeest herd. After grazing in the Serengeti Park further south from here, hundreds of thousands of wildebeest, and zebras, move north to enter this reserve to feed on the sweet grass caused by the spring rains. After they have grazed here, and the rains have come again to regrow the grass in the Serengeti, the herd then moves back southward again. More than half a million make the journey and the beest follow the same path every year.’

  Wildebeast? Path? Something clicked in EJ’s mind.

  ‘That was in the message, on path of wildebeast,’ said EJ. ‘Do you think Adriana was talking about the path of the great migration?’

  SJ looked proudly at her. ‘I think you’re right, EJ.’

  ‘Well,’ said EJ, ‘that means if Adriana is following the wildebeast herd, we are now following her.’

  ‘And look,’ whispered Rafiki. ‘Someone is following us.’

  EJ turned to see a small herd of giraffes making its way through the herd and towards the jeep. Emma had seen giraffes hundreds of times on TV and she had seen them in zoos but seeing them in the wild was completely different. There were five of them, one a baby, walking across the long grass on their long, long legs with a jolty gait, picking their way around the wildebeest as if they were on stilts. They swung their necks down to the ground sweeping up some grass and munching as they walked. They walked all the way up to the jeep. Standing up in the jeep, EJ was face to face with the baby, staring at the big brown eyes with long, pretty black eyelashes, blinking back at her. For a moment EJ thought the baby giraffe was going to stick its head right through the window.

  ‘How cute is she!’ cried Emma. ‘I can almost touch her!’

  ‘But don’t, EJ’ cautioned Rafiki. ‘Remember these are wild animals and they are dangerous, especially if they feel threatened.’

  ‘Even the babies?’ asked EJ. ‘They are so cute.’

  ‘Cute but wild,’ repeated Rafiki. ‘And very unpredictable.’

  What isn’t at the moment? thought EJ.

  And then, as if to prove Rafiki’s point, one of the adult giraffes came up to the jeep, swung its neck down and butted the side with its head. It then pushed the baby giraffe back from the jeep.

  ‘That was a warning, wasn’t it?’ said EJ.

  ‘Yes,’ said SJ. ‘Parents are very protective of their children.’

  Tell me about it, thought EJ.

  ‘Now look to your right,’ whispered Rafiki. ‘Meerkats.’

  EJ and SJ now swung round to their right and looked out over the plain, squinting. First they saw a pile of rocks in amongst the grass then, behind the rocks, standing like soldiers, were a family of meerkats. Standing up on their back legs, as if to attention with their arms in front of them, their little heads, brown with black-tipped ears, turned from side to side. Now and then their long, thin tails gave a twitch. Each taking a different position, the meerkats were on the lookout, their black-ringed eyes wide open, on high alert.

  ‘They are the guards of the savannah,’ explained Rafiki. ‘They scan the area, on the look-out for predators and have a highly developed system of calls to let their family know if trouble is approaching.’

  Now I know why IJ thought of the SHINE meerkat-cam, thought EJ.

  ‘Quick,’ whispered Rafiki again. ‘Look straight ahead.’

  ‘I can’t see anything,’ said EJ.

  ‘Look again, closely, there in the long grass,’ said SJ.

  Then Emma saw it, or at least, she thought she saw something moving amongst the long stalks of yellow grass. Then she saw two ears, sandy-coloured, almost the same colour as the grass, and two amber yellow eyes, looking, blinking through the grass.

  ‘It’s a leopard,’ she cried.

  ‘Close,’ said SJ. ‘It’s a cheetah. Leopards and cheetahs look almost the same but there are a few telltale differences, particularly the black tear stains down from the cheetah’s eyes. The dark tear marks stop sunlight reflecting into their eyes.’

  ‘The tear stains sound so sad,’ said Emma.

  ‘There’s an African story about that,’ said Rafiki. ‘Kwasuka sukela, which means “long ago” in the African language of Zulu, there was a lazy hunter sitting under an acacia tree. He watched as a group of gazelle grazed in the long grass and wished he could have the meat without having to hunt for it. Then he spied a female cheetah sneaking up on one gazelle that had wandered from the herd. He watched as the cheetah crept up, slowly, silently stalking the gazelle. The cheetah, named Tandi, which means “beloved”, leapt at the gazelle with such speed it was helpless and the hunter watched as the cheetah dragged her prize back to three small cheetah cubs that had been waiting for their mother. That gave the lazy hunter an idea—he would steal a cub and raise it to hunt for him. So the hunter waited until sunset and then watched as the mother cheetah hid her cubs in a bush and set off for the waterhole to hunt again. The hunter went down to the cubs and took all three, stuffing them in a sack.’

  ‘That’s awful,’ said EJ.

  ‘The mother cheetah returned and, finding her babies gone, cried and cried. She cried so much that the tears made dark stains down her cheeks. She wept all night and into the next day. Then a wise old man from the local village heard the mother crying. When he discovered what the wicked hunter had done, he became very angry. The lazy hunter was not only a thief, he had broken the traditions of the tribe: a hunter must use only his own strength and skill. The old man returned to the village and told the elders what had happened. They found the lazy hunter and drove him away from the village. The old man returned the three cheetah cubs to their mother. But the long weeping of the mother cheetah stained her face forever. Today the cheetah wears the tear stains on its face as a reminder to the hunters to hunt honorably.’

  ‘But what does that mean?’ asked EJ. ‘Isn’t all hunting wrong?’

  ‘To hunt merely for sport, for fun, that is wrong,’ explained Rafiki. ‘But to hunt for food, to survive, is honourable, part of the natural cycle of life.’

  ‘I suppose so,’ said Emma. She could see that it was true, she just didn’t like the idea of any animal being killed. But hunters had to kill to eat. If they didn’t eat, they would die. It was the law of na
ture, the law of survival.

  ‘And look,’ said SJ. ‘This cheetah has seen something.’

  They all looked as the cheetah stood as still as a statue, its tail twitching. It shot off, like a canon, sprinting across the grassland. The cheetah then slowed and stopped.

  ‘Whatever it saw seems to have gone,’ said Rafiki. ‘She’ll have to wait for next time.’

  EJ was relieved she didn’t see the beautiful cheetah kill something. She understood it was the law of nature but it still made her feel a little sad.

  They drove on across the plains and the sun began to set over the savannah, the sky slowly turning a dark burnt orange, streaked with purple and black. Soon it was completely dark. Rafiki turned off on to a smaller dirt track and towards a clump of acacia trees. As the jeep drove around the trees, the jeep’s headlights shone on a gate with a sign.

  ‘We’re here,’ said Rafiki. ‘It’s late so everyone is asleep but you will meet the team in the morning.’

  They got out of the jeep. Rafiki shone her torch towards a wooden hut with tent canvas pulled across the top of the roof and anchored to the ground with tent poles.

  ‘This is your tent,’ said Rafiki. ‘I’ll see you in the morning. Lala salama, sleep well.’

  EJ and SJ entered the tent. There were brightly coloured and patterned rugs on the floor and two camp beds, each with a canopy of mosquito netting covering and a black carved wooden table in between. On the table was an oil candle lamp, casting a cosy glow around the tent.

  ‘Okay, into bed, EJ12,’ said SJ. ‘Even agents of the year need their sleep.’

  EJ didn’t argue. She got into bed and lay down but her mind was swimming with the animals she had seen and the animals she would see, the story of the cheetah and hunters. And Adriana, who was out there, following the wildebeest, hunting black. She was sure that Adriana would not be hunting honourably. EJ was determined to stop her but not tonight. The long flight, the drive and bombardment of sights had taken their toll. To the croaking of frogs and the whistles, the rustling and grunts that made up the night-time sounds of the savannah, EJ fell sound asleep.

  EJ woke early the next morning to the sun beating through the window. Her mum was already up so EJ quickly changed into the safari clothes A1 had given her. She looked out over the savannah as the sun was rising and saw the brightly coloured hot air balloons that took tourists across the reserve for animal spotting. The bright stripes and colours of the large balloons were striking against the red and yellow streaks of the morning sunrise. She walked out and joined Rafiki and SJ, who were having breakfast with other members of SWR. Behind them were more tented huts. EJ took a piece of apple from a bowl and was about to eat when a white bird with a long, black curved beak jumped on the bench in front of her and grabbed it.

  ‘Hey, Isi,’ cried Rafiki. ‘Get your own! Excuse Isi’s manners. She thinks she runs the place. She’s a black-faced ibis.’

  When the bird flew down from the bench to the ground, EJ saw it had only one leg.

  ‘What happened to her?’ she asked.

  ‘She probably stayed on the waterhole a little too long and a little too close to a crocodile,’ said Rafiki. ‘We found her on one of our patrols and brought her back here. She could easily return to the wild but I think she prefers the food here.’

  EJ laughed and went to take another piece of fruit when there were loud squawks and screeches from behind the kitchen hut. She looked up at Rafiki, a little startled.

  ‘Don’t worry, EJ,’ said Rafiki, ‘that’s just our vervet monkeys letting us know they are up too. Come and have a look.’

  EJ took a banana and walked with Rafiki and SJ behind the kitchen hut and towards a row of large enclosures as Rafiki explained the work of SWR.

  ‘SHINE Wildlife Refuge takes in animals that have been wounded by poachers or the baby animals that have been orphaned when hunters kill their parents. Some of the most beautiful animals of Africa are also the most hunted. Poachers hunt them for their skin, for their ivory or capture them for use in experiments or for private zoos, where they are often kept in appalling conditions.’

  ‘That’s terrible,’ cried EJ. She remembered the story of the hunter and the cheetah. ‘That’s not honourable hunting.’

  ‘No, it’s not,’ agreed Rafiki, ‘and it’s getting worse. We are finding more and more animals left to die after hunters have taken what they want. Now, here are our treatment rooms.’

  Rafiki showed them the surgery tents and they watched as nurses worked on a baby giraffe whose tail had been cut off.

  ‘People like to buy the tails as good luck charms,’ explained Rafiki.

  ‘That’s disgusting,’ said EJ.

  ‘The new SHINE spray cream will really help these kinds of cases,’ said SJ. ‘It stops infection spreading and makes the wound heal fast.’

  ‘Well, we need all the help we can get,’ said Rafiki, as they moved to the next tent. ‘Here is a hippo whose tusks have been removed. All these animals are endangered yet are being hunted for their skin, for their tusks or something that people can sell. Our noisy vervet monkeys were all found at the airport crammed in a crate with hardly any air holes. They were being sold for use in illegal experiments. CC12 saw the crates were marked SWR but it certainly wasn’t us. That’s when we first suspected SHADOW was involved.’

  BEEEP

  It was Rafiki’s phone. She took the call and EJ and SJ watched her smile turn to an angry frown.

  ‘We need to go,’ she said. ‘There’s been an attack on a black rhino not too far from here. One of our animal carers has found it and needs help.’

  They jumped into the jeep, drove out of the compound, down the track and back on to the main dirt road. The jeep rattled and lurched along as they drove past impalas and water buffalo grazing and more giraffes making their slow, elegant way across the grass. But this was no time for sightseeing. EJ looked out, scanning the plains, and saw a jeep like the one they were in parked by a small waterhole.

  ‘Over there!’ she cried.

  As their jeep drove up, a flock of birds that had been feeding on the water’s edge flew up, creating a flash of white in the sky. Next to the jeep stood a young girl about EJ’s age. She was wearing the same sort of SWR safari clothes as EJ but had brightly coloured scarves and bracelets around her wrists and ankles. Her jet-black hair was braided with colourful beads. EJ thought she was beautiful. She was leaning over a huge black thing. Was it a rock? EJ couldn’t quite see what it was but as they got closer she realised with horror what she was looking at.

  ‘Oh, EJ,’ said her mum. ‘This might be upsetting.’

  And it was.

  EJ could now see the girl was standing next to a baby black rhino and that the big black thing in the grass was not a giant rock but its mother, alive but clearly in pain. At first EJ couldn’t see why but as she walked around the other side of the rhino she could. The rhino had no horn. It had been hacked off and there was now a bleeding wound. It was the worse thing EJ had ever seen in her life. And, next to the rhino was a knife with the letters SWR burnt into the handle.

  Now EJ was angry. Adriana could not get away with this.

  They had brought the rhinos back to the compound. SJ45 was working with the SWR vets on the mother. She was using the new spray cream.

  EJ and the girl were waiting nervously outside.

  ‘My name is Hasi,’ she said. ‘It’s short for Hasina which means …’

  ‘“Good” in Swahili,’ said EJ, ‘and also in Egyptian.’

  ‘How did you know that?’ asked Hasi.

  ‘Oh, I knew someone with that name,’ said EJ. ‘Someone else who looked after things. She was from Egypt. What do you do, Hasi?’

  ‘I help here at SWR. Our tribe has been on these lands for centuries. We hunt for food but this kind of hunting is cruel.’

  ‘It’s terrible,’ agreed EJ, still shaken from seeing the poor rhino. ‘Why would someone take the horn and just leave her there with her baby?’<
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  ‘The black rhino’s horn is very valuable,’ said Hasi. ‘In some countries, it is believed to have special healing powers. People pay a lot of money for it. It doesn’t have any powers but that doesn’t stop people wanting it. And it’s been getting a lot worse lately.’

  SJ45 came out of the surgery. EJ and Hasi jumped up, looking hopefully at her.

  ‘She’s going to be fine, girls, but she will take some time to heal, even with our new cream. We will have to look after her baby for her.’

  ‘I can do that,’ said Hasi.

  ‘And I am going to stop who did this,’ said EJ.

  ‘You are?’ said Hasi looking impressed. ‘You know who did it?’

  ‘I think so,’ said EJ. ‘It is Adriana X, a SHADOW agent. She sent a message to say she was “hunting black” for her own SWR and now we have found a hornless black rhino near a knife with the words SWR. It has to be Adriana.’

  ‘But what does her SWR do?’

  ‘I’m not completely sure yet but if CC saw Adriana with packing crates, the same crates we discovered the monkeys in, then I think Adriana is sending animals out of the country,’ said EJ. ‘Her message mentions a shopping list and maybe that means Adriana has a list of animals she is hunting for her SWR. I need to stop her before she can tick off any more of her list.’

  ‘Then you’d better take this.’ Hasi untied one of her friendship bracelets. It had a bright and beautiful pattern made of beads. In the middle was a row of red diamonds, bordered by black, then yellow, then blue. And at the top and bottom were two rows of black and white checks.