Big Game (30 page)

“And I suppose you're going to say that I purposefully allowed you all to see me out in SafariLand as well?” Athmani chided.

“No,” I said. “That was an accident. I think you were going to take another shot at Rhonda, this time from close range, to worry us even more. That's why you brought a silencer that time. Because you didn't want the shot to alert security while you were on the property. Only we happened to see you. But that actually worked out for you, because it was even more proof there was a hunter on the loose.

“However, Doc still refused to cut the horns off, so you made one more attempt to convince us all the rhinos were in serious danger. Since security was now amped up in the park, you had to shoot from World of Reptiles. I'll bet that this time, you actually planned to hit Rhonda. Not to kill her or anything, but to wound her so we'd know you meant business. But then Summer and I stumbled across you. You didn't end up shooting at the rhino, but it didn't matter. You had finally created enough evidence to convince J.J. the rhinos should all be dehorned.”

“And what would be the point of all this?” Athmani asked. “I didn't steal the horns. They're locked in J.J. McCracken's safe!”

“No, they're not,” I said. “The ones in the safe are fakes.”

Mom, Dad, and Hoenekker gasped in surprise at this.

Athmani didn't. He flinched. But then he quickly did his best to pretend that he hadn't. “What are you talking about?”

“The pink stuff I found in the rhino house that you said was clay wasn't clay. It was dental alginate. Dentists use it to make molds of teeth and stuff, but according to the Internet, sculptors use it too. You're a sculptor. If you took a mold of a rhino horn, I'll bet you could make a copy of it that looked exactly like the real one.”

“I sculpt
stone
,” Athmani said, pointing to the Shona sculptures in his office. “A rhino horn made out of stone would weigh forty pounds and wouldn't look a bit like the real thing.”

“You didn't make the fakes out of stone.” I bent and picked one of the curled bits off the carpet. As I'd suspected, it wasn't stone at all. It was plastic. “You made it out of
this
. Right here in this office. Stone doesn't curl. But plastic does. And the right kind of plastic probably looks and feels exactly like rhino horn. Or at least close enough to allow you time to get away with the real ones.”

Hoenekker took the curl of plastic from my hands and examined it closely. Then he looked at Athmani suspiciously.

“Oh, come on, now!” Athmani cried. “This is even crazier than I suspected! Remote-controlled rifles and fake rhino horns! These are the inventions of a boy with an overactive imagination!”

“You were the one who delivered the horns to McCracken's safe,” Hoenekker said suspiciously. “In fact, you volunteered to do it. No one was with you during that time. You could easily have stopped by here on the way, swapped the real ones for the fakes and then delivered those to McCracken's office.”

“I could have, but I didn't,” Athmani said flatly. “I have done nothing but try to protect those rhinos!”

“You've been arguing for dehorning them harder than anyone else,” Hoenekker replied.

“To protect them!” Athmani argued back. “From a poacher who is still out there while you entertain ridiculous stories from a meddlesome boy!”

“It wouldn't be hard to check out Teddy's story,” Mom said. “All we'd have to do is have J.J. open the safe and examine the horns left inside.”

Hoenekker nodded, then turned to Athmani. “I think that'd make sense. Though you'll be staying right here until we get to the bottom of this.”

“I'm afraid that won't be happening,” someone said.

Hondo stood in the doorway, his gun aimed at us. “Get the horns,” he told Athmani. “Looks like it's time for us to go.”

All of us put our
hands up.

Among the many unpacked boxes in Athmani's office was one marked
LAW ENFORCEMENT SUPPLIES
. Hondo found several sets of handcuffs in it and tossed them onto the desk beside Athmani. “Lock them up and let's get out of here.”

“I didn't do anything,” Athmani told us weakly.

“Oh, for crying out loud.” Hondo groaned. “Drop the innocent act already. There's no point anymore. The kid figured everything out, and we have to go.”

Athmani sagged. Up to that point, he'd done an impressive job of feigning innocence and pretending to be offended by my accusations. But now he showed his true self. He picked the handcuffs up, looking embarrassed about how everything had turned out.

Hondo took Hoenekker's gun from him, then ordered us, “Get down on the floor.”

We did as he said.

“I'm sorry,” Athmani told us as he cuffed Mom to the leg of his desk. “I didn't mean for this to happen.”

“We trusted you to protect those rhinos,” Mom said angrily.

“And I
did
.” Athmani turned his attention to cuffing Dad. “Hondo wanted to simply kill them and take their horns. I came up with a way that let them stay alive. If Teddy hadn't caught on, we wouldn't have to do this.”

“And you would have gotten away,” Mom spat.

“We
are
getting away,” Hondo reminded her. “Hand over your phones.”

We did. Hondo pocketed them.

Athmani finished cuffing Dad to the desk and moved on to Hoenekker.

Mom glared at Athmani. “If you sell those horns, you're just as bad as any poacher. You'll feed demand for more, which will lead to more dead rhinos. And for what? A little bit of money?”

“No,” Hondo taunted. “A
lot
of money. Listen to yourselves, getting all worked up about some butt-ugly beasts. If you can't eat an animal, what's the use of it?” He turned to Athmani and asked, “Where are the
real
horns?”

Athmani nodded to a closet in his office. Hondo opened it. A large black duffel bag was sitting on the floor. Hondo unzipped it to make sure the horns were there, then zipped it back up and hoisted it onto his shoulder. He ripped Athmani's desk phone out of the wall so we couldn't use it, then turned to me and grinned. “You were clever to figure it out, kid. But not clever enough to stop us.”

He grabbed the handcuffs that were already on my wrist, apparently thinking Athmani had put them on me—what twelve-year-old ran around wearing a set of handcuffs?—and clipped the other end to a desk leg. “Come on,” he told Athmani. “The plane's waiting.”

Athmani followed him to the door, then looked back at us with genuine sadness. “I really am sorry,” he said.

Then he shut the door on us and hurried down the hall.

“Of course he's sorry,” Hoenekker muttered. “If it hadn't been for Teddy, he'd have been able to disappear without a trace.”

Mom, Dad, Hoenekker, and I were all cuffed to the desk, unable to go anywhere and without phones. However, I still had the key to my cuffs in my pocket. I quickly fished it out.

“Where'd you get that?” Dad asked, surprised.

“From Marge. They're her cuffs.”

“So you can get loose?” Mom asked, relieved.

“Yes.” I unlocked myself from the desk, then tried the key on Dad's handcuffs.

“It won't work,” Hoenekker told me. “Every set of cuffs has a different key. Don't waste time with us. You have to stop Athmani and Hondo! If they have a plane nearby, they could be in Mexico in less than an hour.”

I looked to my parents. They seemed to agree.

“Be careful,” Mom warned. “Hondo has a gun. Do what you can, but protecting those horns isn't worth losing your life over.”

“I'll do my best,” I told her, then raced out the door.

Hondo and Athmani were already long gone. Both of them were strong men in good shape. They could probably run much faster than I could. I was still tired from all the morning's excitement, but I gave it my best, racing through the hall and then down the stairs.

I emerged into the lobby of the administration building, expecting to find the guard who'd been on duty there that morning. Unfortunately, he was gone. One glance at his desk indicated his absence was probably due to Pancake. The place was a disaster area. The orangutan had yanked out every drawer and dumped out the contents.

There was also a huge hole in the front window that had apparently been made by an orangutan throwing the guard's chair through it. The chair lay in the entry plaza, busted into pieces.

I ducked through the broken window and sprinted into the park.

Far ahead of me, Hondo and Athmani were nearing the front gates. Beyond the gates, I could see Hondo's car idling in the drop-off area. There was no way I could catch them. They had much too big a head start. The only security officer I could see was stationed in the booth at the employee entrance. He was too far away to hear me, but I yelled to him out of desperation anyhow. “Stop those guys! They stole the rhino horns!”

Inside the security booth, the officer didn't budge. Hondo heard me, though. He gave me a mocking wave good-bye.

And then I heard purring. Or at least I
felt
it. I turned and spotted the elephant herd heading back home after their morning walk, closing in on the front gates.

Something slammed into me, knocking me to the ground.

It was Large Marge. She was still coated in icing and various pastry fillings. Her hair stuck out from her head in sticky coils that, combined with the rage in her eyes, made her look like Medusa. “I told you I'd get you!” she snarled.

“Marge!” I yelled. “Athmani and Hondo are stealing all the rhino horns! If you stop them, you'll be a hero!”

“Shut up!” Marge knelt over me, pressing me flat on the ground. “I've had it with your shenanigans once and for all!”

Athmani and Hondo were almost to the front gates.

“I'll let you arrest me if you want,” I pleaded. “But I need you to—”

Marge clapped a chocolate-frosted hand over my mouth and roared. “I. Said. Shut. Up!”

Only, the last word wasn't exactly “up.” It was more like “Ungggggh.” Because Pancake whacked her on the head with a fist as she said it.

Marge's eyes rolled upward, and she collapsed on the ground beside me. Her face splatted right into an elephant poo the keepers hadn't got around to cleaning up yet.

Normally, I might have rolled her out of it, but there were other things to deal with.

“Thanks,” I told Pancake, then yanked the gun out of Marge's holster. “Cover your ears. This might be loud.”

Pancake did exactly as I'd asked.

I fired the gun into the air again and again.

The elephants trumpeted in alarm.

“Oh no!” Bonnie cried. “Not again!”

I kept firing. I'd never shot a gun before. The recoil was bigger than I expected, so I had to use my other arm to steady it. I pulled the trigger until it clicked empty.

The elephants stampeded in the opposite direction from me, right toward the front gates. Just as they had two days before, they left a trail of droppings and a river of pee, and they flattened everything in their path. The beautiful landscaping of the entry plaza was trampled within seconds.

Athmani and Hondo were right in the elephants' path. Athmani had the presence of mind to keep running, but Hondo flipped out. The guy already had issues with animals, and now the biggest ones in the world were charging right at him. He screeched like a little girl and froze in terror. As the elephants bore down on him, he whipped out his own gun and pointed it at the oncoming herd.

“Stop!” he ordered. “Or I'll shoot!”

The little gun probably wouldn't have made a dent in the elephants' thick hides, but they bore down on him before he could fire anyhow. The lead elephant swatted him aside with her trunk and he flew through the air like a well-hit baseball. He smashed through the front window of the FunJungle Emporium and landed in a pile of Henry Hippo Junior commemorative merchandise.

The elephants then plowed through the front gates, knocking them off their hinges like living battering rams. The gates crashed to the ground and were crushed beneath the elephants' feet.

Athmani reached the getaway car, but there was no time for him to get inside. The elephants stormed right over it. A steamroller couldn't have done a better job. The tires exploded and the windows shattered. By the time the last elephant got to the car, it wasn't much thicker than a sheet of tinfoil.

I was about to run after them all when I heard a strange wailing noise coming from nearby me. At first I thought it was an animal in pain, but then realized it was coming from Marge.

She was sitting up, wiping elephant poop and frosting from her face and crying. “I give up,” she sobbed. “Whenever I try to stop you, I lose. No one cares that you're a menace, and look at what happens to me!”