Secret Safari Page 5

  EJ wasn’t going to argue and she and the baby wrapped in her arms were both asleep within minutes.

  The next morning the baby gorilla was the centre of attention. SJ gave her a thorough check and she and Rafiki prepared to return to Bwindi to reunite her with her family. EJ meanwhile was planning a family reunion of her own. She was now more determined than ever to stop Adriana and send her back to A1.

  ‘Where will you look now?’ asked Hasi.

  ‘Where I was going to before,’ replied EJ. ‘Adriana kept repeating she was back on the path with spots and stripes, the next item on her evil shopping list.’

  ‘So back to the wildebeest migration path?’

  ‘Exactly. I’m betting that spots and stripes mean leopards and zebras. Both animals follow the wildebeest migration path, don’t they?’

  ‘You’re right, EJ,’ said Rafiki. ‘SWR monitors the herd and we can track their location exactly. It is now leaving this area and moving back down towards the Serengeti. They will be easy for Adriana to find.’

  ‘And what will you do when you find Adriana?’ asked SJ.

  ‘I have a plan to give her a taste of her own medicine,’ said EJ, twisting her charm bracelet. ‘But first I need to find her.’

  ‘You will,’ said Rafiki, ‘Woforo dua pa a.’

  ‘Okay,’ said EJ. ‘But what does it mean?’

  ‘It means when you climb a good tree, you are given a push. In other words, when you work for a good cause, you will get support. It’s another Adinkra symbol and it has been beaded onto this bracelet. Take it for good luck, EJ.’

  ‘Thank you,’ said EJ, tying it around her wrist next to the one Hasi had given her. It’s a little like a SHINE heart charm, she thought. Maybe that’s what A1 meant when she said help would come in different ways.

  ‘The right people are always rewarded,’ said Rafiki.

  EJ smiled. ‘I have a friend who said that too.’

  ‘Well, she’s very wise. It sounds like she’d make a good agent, too,’ said Rafiki. ‘You need to get going, EJ12. We have prepared one of the SWR Safari jeeps.’

  EJ saw SJ’s worried look as she climbed into the jeep.

  ‘Mum,’ whispered EJ. ‘I’ve just parachuted out of a plane, I think I’ve got jeep driving covered. You just get that little one back to its parents.’

  ‘I will,’ said SJ, giving her a hug. ‘You just make sure you get back to me.’

  EJ waved as she drove out of the compound and down the track, heading south. Gazelles leapt over the high grass, eagles soared in the sky looking for prey, while giraffes strolled the plains. EJ even passed a lake so covered by flamingos that it looked completely pink. It really was the most beautiful place on earth.

  EJ kept driving across the hot, unsheltered grasslands criss-crossed with wildebeest and zebras. After a while she stopped by a cluster of trees to take a drink in the relative cool of the shade. It was when she parked the jeep and walked towards the trees that she could see she wasn’t the only one taking a break: a long, sandy-coloured and black-spotted tail was hanging down from one of the branches, twitching. EJ stopped in her tracks and looked up to see a large leopard lying in the tree above, its legs hanging down on either side of the branch and its eyes fixed on the ground below. EJ tracked to where the leopard was looking and saw two leopard cubs pouncing and rolling in the grass. She slowly edged her way back towards the jeep. She knew she had to get away before the mother thought she was a threat to her cubs. From the safety of the jeep, EJ watched as one of the of the cubs, with a distinctive trail of black rosettes rushing down its cheeks, lay down flat in the grass and kept very still while the other was chasing a butterfly, trying to catch it with its paw. As the cub followed the butterfly closer and closer to the other cub, EJ watched the other cub prepare to pounce on her sister. But then a commotion broke out somewhere on the savannah and a strange noise echoed across the plains. Like lightning, the mother leopard was on the ground standing over her cubs, ready to protect them.

  ‘I don’t like the sound of that either,’ said EJ and she drove off in the direction of the noise. The closer EJ drove to the sound, the more clearly she could make it out. It came from an animal, many animals, and it was sad. EJ drove on, afraid of what she would find. When she drove over a hill, her worst fears were confirmed. A herd of elephants, maybe fifteen, were walking round and around in circles. EJ stopped the jeep and with her binoculars watched them lumbering, slowly circling a large elephant lying in the centre. What was wrong? EJ needed to find out but also to keep her distance. The elephants could easily crush her if she came any closer.

  She drove her jeep round to a clump of trees on the other side of the herd and as she did saw the front of the elephant lying down. EJ gasped and her eyes began to fill with tears as she realised what had happened. The elephant’s tusks had been cut off and it lay still breathing but only just alive on the ground. Its family was trying, too late, to protect it. Or were they crying? Did they know it was too late?

  Then EJ noticed something shiny, glittering in the sun on the ground near the elephants. She tracked the ground with her binoculars and saw a metal dart, an SWR dart. Adriana. Again. EJ’s eyes were now stinging with tears, tears of sadness but also anger. She had been too late to stop her.

  ‘But I’m not too late to help this elephant,’ she said to herself as she sent a text to the refuge.

  Piinngg!

  There was a return text from Rafiki straightaway.

  But how would she do that? EJ took off her friendship bracelet and carefully tied it around a branch of one of the trees. She again pressed the red diamond, and then checked back at the elephant on the ground. The elephant’s eye opened and she looked at straight at EJ.

  ‘Someone will be here to help you soon, I promise,’ she said, looking across to the large grey eyes of the elephant. The elephant blinked. Did it see EJ? Did it understand she was trying to help?

  EJ was angry now, really angry. Angry at Adriana but also at herself. She was always getting there too late to stop Adriana. EJ knew she must be close but that wasn’t good enough. She needed to get ahead of her. It was as if Adriana was on a secret safari and EJ couldn’t find the way in. She looked at her scarf and the Adinkra symbol. I really need that push up the tree, she thought.

  Piinng!

  Maybe this will be it, thought EJ. I really hope so.

  EJ looked at her phone. SHINE had intercepted another message and from the symbols EJ could see it was from the same person as the last message.

  Well, that’s too easy, thought EJ. She cut and pasted the text into the backwards-writing app and pressed ENTER. Okay, maybe not, she thought as she looked at her screen.

  I think it’s the right way around now but what is the code? thought EJ. Then she spied the ‘That’s not an English letter,’ she said to herself, ‘so maybe this is not in code at all but another language, like the first message.’ And then EJ remembered Adriana talking on the plane. She said ‘merci, Madame’. That’s French, so perhaps this whole message is in French. EJ ran the text through her language app. ‘That’s better,’ she said when she was done.

  It was Adriana who had stolen the elephant’s tusk and left it to die and now she was going to be rewarded for it. Emma didn’t think so.

  ‘Well, we’ll see about that,’ said EJ to herself. ‘I only just missed Adriana and so that means the pink lake is probably the flamingo lake I drove past earlier. Any further away and Adriana wouldn’t make the delivery in time. Dusk is when animals come to drink, once the heat of the day has passed.’

  EJ checked the time. It was a few hours before dusk but there was still no time to lose. She needed to be back at the lake before Adriana returned at dusk. EJ jumped back into the jeep, started the engine and turned back down the track the way she’d come. She had stopped Adriana twice before but only caught her once—she wasn’t going to let her get away this time.

  EJ knew she was getting close to the lake when she drove past the tree
s where the mother leopard and her cubs had been playing. They weren’t there any more and EJ didn’t give it another thought until she saw a cub alone on a rock close to the road. It looked familiar. EJ recognised the trail of uneven spots down both sides of its face and knew it was one of the cubs she had watched earlier. But now it was all alone, meowing.

  ‘Where are your mother and sister?’ EJ wondered out loud, looking out across the grasses. ‘Are you playing hide and seek?’

  EJ waited, she wanted to make sure the mother leopard returned; a little cub out here on its own would be easy prey for predators. But the mother didn’t come. EJ walked slowly up to the cub who, being too young to be frightened and run away, stayed on the rock. EJ saw the grass around the rock had been flattened, as if someone had dragged something heavy away. Next to the rock was something EJ recognised, another dart, also marked SWR. Had Adriana taken the cub’s mother and sister too? The cub’s meows grew louder and it looked up at EJ.

  ‘You’re hungry, aren’t you?’ said EJ, taking the bub-feeding charm from her bracelet. She twisted the small baby-bottle-shaped charm and a bottle appeared with a dial around the rim. EJ turned the dial to the ‘wildcat’ setting and offered the bottle to the cub, who gulped at it noisily, its thick paws reaching for the bottle. ‘This will fill you up,’ EJ said, smiling as the cub spluttered down the milk. ‘But you’d better come with me. You’re much too young and much too appealing to the vultures to be out here by yourself. And if you are coming, you better have a name.’ EJ remembered Rafiki’s story. ‘I’ll call you Tandi,’ she said. ‘And I hope you will be reunited with your family, too.’

  EJ got back in the jeep and with Tandi on the seat next to her drove back towards the lake. As they drove past another family of meerkats, lined up, watching, an idea began to form in EJ’s mind. She stopped the jeep and took the meerkat charm from her bracelet. She twisted five times and five life-sized meerkat models appeared. They were completely life-like except for the small night-vision cameras in their eyes. She got out and put the first meerkat-cam by the side of the road and activated the camera. EJ then drove another kilometre or so and placed another meerkat-cam on guard by the road. She then drove past and around the flamingo-covered lake, setting more cameras at the different tracks leading to the lake. Finally EJ drove her jeep right up to the lake and parked it by a group of trees. Tandi leapt out and began chasing a butterfly.

  I can’t leave the jeep here, EJ thought. It will give me away. She looked under the dashboard and found the button marked ED, Eco-Deco. All SHINE equipment had one. Pushing it would cause the jeep to self-destruct and rapidly decompose. EJ pushed it and moved quickly away. She knew Eco-Deco could be a smelly process. In minutes, nothing was left of the jeep.

  EJ turned on the meerkat-cam monitor on her phone. She would now wait for Adriana. Like the animals she had been watching on the savannah, she would look and listen and wait for just the right moment to pounce.

  EJ kept checking her phone, flicking between the meerkat-cams she had set up along the road to the lake. With one posted at every possible approach to the lake, Adriana would not be able to get through without her knowing. She waited patiently and Tandi played in the long grass by the lake. As the sun began to set over the plains and orange and purple streaks once again began to fill the sky, more and more animals made their way to the lake to drink. And then meerkat-cam 1 alarm sounded on her phone.

  SQUEAK-SQUEAK, SQUEAK-SQUEAK.

  Then meerkat-cam 2 and then 3 went off.

  SQUEAK-SQUEAK, SQUEAK-SQUEAK.

  SQUEAK-SQUEAK, SQUEAK-SQUEAK.

  Adriana was on her way.

  EJ watched as Tandi climbed up a tree and all but disappeared amongst the speckled leaves and branches. EJ looked at her scarf.

  ‘Woforo dua pa a,’ she remembered out loud. ‘When you climb a good tree, you are given a push.’ She looked up at Tandi again. ‘Well, maybe not given a push but a good idea,’ said EJ. Once again activating her camo-button, she followed the cub into the tree, pulling herself up onto a high branch and wrapping her legs around it. The two of them lay in the tree, almost completely invisible, waiting. EJ checked her screen again and saw a large truck with the letters SWR on its side heading towards the lake.

  Clever, EJ conceded. No one would suspect a truck with the letters SWR of carrying captured animals. They’d think it belonged to the refuge.

  The truck then passed meerkat-cam 5. EJ knew it would soon be at the lake and she could now hear the noisy rumble of its engine. She kept her head down as she watched the truck pull up a little around the lake from EJ’s tree. It stopped but no one got out.

  She’s waiting, thought EJ. Waiting for more animals to come down to the waterhole at dusk. I can wait too.

  It was now nearly dark. EJ twisted the night glasses charm that she had been given on one of her early missions and put them on. She watched as gazelles, then wildebeest and zebra came to drink at the waterhole. Then some lions came but the other animals weren’t worried. It was as if there was a natural law that the lake was a safe place where all animals could drink without fear of being hunted. Then she spied a cheetah walking in the tall grass, moving towards the lake. If EJ could see it, she was pretty sure that Adriana could too and that she would be preparing to close in on the cheetah. Spots. Adriana needed spots, cheetah spots. EJ knew that Adriana would not respect the natural law.

  EJ turned to see Adriana getting out of the truck and stand behind the door for protection. When Adriana raised her dart gun and aimed at the cheetah, EJ knew she had just seconds to act. There was no time to plan, she just had to do something, anything. She took her camera-catch charm and twisted it as she jumped down from the tree and ran quickly towards Adriana, yelling as loud as she could.

  ‘Yeehah!’ she screamed at the top of her voice. The animals scattered from the lake at the sudden noise and EJ watched as the cheetah bounded away, safe.

  ‘Who’s there?’ Adriana swung around, squinting to see. ‘EJ12? It can’t be.’

  ‘It is,’ said EJ. ‘Now drop the dart gun, Adriana.’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ said Adriana, turning and aiming it at EJ. ‘What are you going to do to stop me?’ sneered Adriana. ‘Take my photo? Bah!’

  Adriana squeezed the trigger as EJ ducked into the grass. She heard the dart whizz past.

  ‘Something like that,’ replied EJ, standing up once more. Before Adriana had time to shoot again, EJ clicked the camera and a net shot out, covering the SHADOW agent. There was a hiss as the gas released and, in seconds, Adriana was asleep on the ground.

  EJ worked quickly. She walked around to the back of the truck and opened the door. She gasped as she saw cages and cages of animals stacked inside, including a leopard and its cub, Tandi’s family. She knew she couldn’t release them here because she didn’t know how the wild animals would react to being suddenly let out. She would need to take them back to the refuge along with Adriana. With some effort, she dragged Adriana over and rolled her onto the hydraulic lift attached to the truck. As it lifted Adriana up, EJ opened an empty cage and then rolled Adriana in.

  ‘See how you like being in a cage,’ she said as she locked the cage door.

  Adriana stirred. She was waking up but it didn’t matter because she was trapped now.

  ‘EJ12, we can make a deal,’ she muttered. ‘These animals are worth a lot of money. Think of all the beautiful things you could buy.’

  ‘But these are the beautiful things, Adriana,’ said EJ. ‘What could be more beautiful?’ She slammed the truck door and climbed up into the cab. With Tandi on the seat beside her, EJ turned the key, turned the steering wheel of the truck and headed back on the road to return to the refuge. She could hear Adriana shouting from inside the back of the truck. EJ grinned as she turned the radio on and turned the volume up loud.

  ‘Sorry, Adriana,’ she said. ‘Change of plans.’ EJ was starting to like being unpredictable.

  Everyone was waiting at the refuge for EJ
and her precious cargo to return. The SWR staff worked quickly to unload the cages and begin the medical check of the animals. They would be treated and microchipped before they were released. SJ took EJ out to the enclosures where she saw the large elephant standing, hosing herself with water.

  ‘She will be ready to return to her herd soon,’ said SJ. ‘Clever thinking to use the bracelet so we could find her but you can have it back now.’

  EJ took the bracelet and tied it around her wrist. Now it would be there to remind her of Africa. ‘Look!’ she cried. ‘Tandi’s mother and sister are being released.’

  The cage with the cheetah mother and her cub was placed at the gates of the refuge. As the cage door opened, EJ set Tandi down on the ground. The little cub sniffed the air and meowed. A roar came from the mother cheetah and Tandi raced across towards the cage. The mother cheetah ran out and began to lick her cub while the other began biting its tail. EJ’s eyes watered with happy tears.

  ‘That family is back together, thanks to you, EJ,’ said SJ45, also wiping a tear away. ‘And Adriana is on her way back to SHINE detention and A1. And it’s time for our family to get together again, too. Our work is done here. You have rescued the animals and the microchipping program is in place.’

  ‘But what about whoever Adriana was working with?’ asked EJ.

  ‘We’re too late,’ said EJ. ‘SHINE agents just missed catching her in West Africa. We think she escaped to France.’

  ‘So we have to go home,’ said EJ sadly.

  ‘Not quite,’ said SJ. ‘Remember we still have one bit of the holiday left. We are going to meet the boys on the beach at Zanzibar before we fly home. And, I must say, I wouldn’t mind a few days at the beach.’