Jailbreak! (3 page)

Out in the corridor, Bindi thought hard. ‘We need to get moving, and quickly. I need you to find Chris, Tess. We'll need his expertise when we start our own search party.' Bindi pointed to Ella. ‘Can you get a message to Mum so she knows she
has to keep stalling the audience for a little longer?'

‘Sure!' both girls said in unison. They were out the door in a flash.

Bindi turned to her brother. ‘Adam's going to stick around and clean up his own mess.'

Robert nodded. ‘Okay, but how do we get him to stay?'

Bindi noticed the mobile phone Adam had thrown to the ground. ‘Call his agent back. I'm sure they've signed some kind of contract. They will want him to stay as much as we do.' Bindi handed Robert the phone. ‘I'll find Adam and meet you backstage.'

Bindi took off towards the foyer
entrance and found Adam arguing with the hotel receptionist.

‘I'm sorry, Mr Starr. But taxis up here are few and far between. It would take at least an hour for a taxi to get here.'

Bindi tapped Adam on the shoulder. ‘Excuse me?'

Adam swirled around to be met by a sweet-faced and smiling Bindi. ‘You again?' He looked less than impressed.

Bindi took a deep breath. She wasn't sure what she could say to convince Adam but she had to give it her best shot.

‘Look, we got off on the wrong foot. You're an actor, not a wildlife
warrior. But you're also a big name star and the devils need that star power to help spread the message.'

Adam sniggered. ‘You've got that right. Those mangy mutts need some serious help with their public image.'

Bindi ignored his rudeness. ‘You're a good-looking guy and you're talented so it's easy for people to like you. But the devils have a bad reputation, and they're noisy, messy eaters, and people think they're scary because of their name. It's not fair.'

Adam rolled his eyes.

Bindi continued. ‘Where cases of Devil Facial Tumour Disease
have been discovered, it's wiped out 90 per cent of the devil population in that area. It's a rare form of cancer that is highly contagious. Now, the devil may not be your favourite animal but they are an Australian icon. We can't just stand back and allow them to be wiped out. Please help us, Adam!'

Adam sighed. ‘Whatever. I have to wait for the stupid taxi anyway. I'll do the auction.'

Bindi gave a huge sigh of relief. ‘Excellent. But first you can help me find the devils!'

Adam nodded reluctantly, and rearranged his carefully constructed mop of hair.

While Bindi and Adam took off to find Chris and begin their search for the devils, Robert was helping Terri keep the audience entertained. He roped in Tess and Ella to join him onstage.

Robert took the microphone. ‘Ah, g'day, folks. We've had a slight change of plans. We've decided to give you even more musical entertainment. Adam will host the auction a little later.'

With that, the sound technicians put on some music and Robert,
Tess and Ella broke into a very spontaneous dance routine, inviting the audience to join them!

Chris was as concerned as the others about where the devils might be. He, Adam and Bindi had decided to begin by looking upstairs in case they had managed to sneak into someone's bedroom.

All of a sudden a loud shriek was
heard coming from the kitchen.

They took off in the direction of the commotion. Adam trailed along behind Chris and Bindi. The staff entrance to the kitchen was a pair of swinging doors. Chris and Bindi slipped in through one of the doors but as Adam was a beat behind he caught the door on the backswing and it slammed into him, hitting him square in the face.

‘Ahhh!' Adam stumbled forwards into the kitchen, clutching his head.

‘Are you okay?' Bindi approached him, genuinely concerned.

‘I'm fine' replied Adam tensely. He turned to check out his reflection
in a large saucepan to make sure there was no cosmetic damage but accidentally knocked over a pile of saucepan lids, which fell clattering to the floor. This was definitely not the suave Adam Starr that the public was used to seeing!

Looking around, Bindi realised most of the staff were standing on chairs, benches, whatever they could find that was off the ground.

‘Looks like the devils have been and gone,' she remarked calmly to Chris.

‘Which way?' called Chris to the hotel staff. Two waiters pointed in the direction of the restaurant.

‘Uh oh. Their table manners are
not fit for a restaurant,' grimaced Bindi.

She and Chris took off in hot pursuit of the devils. Adam staggered after them, clutching his sore face.

The restaurant was chaos. People were screaming and jumping onto chairs. Through the midst of colour and movement Bindi caught sight of a flash of black-and-white fur.

‘There!' she pointed to the edge of the far wall.

Chris looked really worried. ‘All these people are scared but I can tell you the devils are a lot more scared. I'm concerned about what this kind of stress could do to them.'

Bindi noticed that the far door to the restaurant was closed. ‘At least we have them in a contained space now.'

But Bindi spoke too soon. The hotel receptionist opened the door to the restaurant to see what the commotion was about.

‘Close the door!' cried Bindi. Too late! Two furry blurs shot through the gap and disappeared from sight.

Adam caught up to the others. He had the beginning of a nasty swelling growing on his face.

‘You're going to have a shiner,' commented Chris.

Adam scowled but said nothing.

Bindi grabbed his arm and pulled
him along with her. ‘Come on, Adam. Are those sequins weighing you down?'

They took off across the restaurant towards the outer door.

The two escapees skidded across the polished floors of the foyer with claws and paws flying everywhere. The few guests who were in the foyer were taken by surprise, especially when Bindi Irwin, dressed as a convict, burst through the door sprinting
after them, closely followed by a keeper in khaki and Adam Starr, the famous actor, in his sequined suit.

The devils looked around them and scampered behind the reception desk. Bindi and Chris saw their chance.

‘Easy now,' said Chris in a low voice. ‘I think we've got them cornered.'

Chris nodded to Bindi to move over to the other side of the reception desk while he slowly leaned down and opened the latches on the wire cages he was carrying.

One of the devils let out a loud distinctive growl and bared his teeth.
Adam took a step backwards. ‘See! That's what they did to me when I was in the supply closet. Scared the life out of me!'

Bindi shook her head. ‘They're just bluffing. It's a display they perform more from fear and uncertainty than from aggression.'

Chris lined the cages up side by side, filling up the area directly in front of the devils so that they would have no option but to enter. ‘Normally they'd be happy to come to me but they've had such a night of it they don't know what's going on or who to trust.'

He nodded to Bindi to begin walking and as she did so, the
devils backed slowly away from her towards the open cages.

Just when it looked as if everything was going to be all right, a bellboy wheeled in some luggage, opening the main entrance doors into the foyer. The devils took one look at the open door and scampered past Bindi towards freedom.

‘Shut the door!' cried Chris, but it was too late. The bellboy pushed the trolley straight ahead and dived out of the way of the speed-demon hairballs. Adam was meanwhile checking out the bruising on his face in the foyer mirror. He didn't notice the luggage trolley as it whizzed right at him.

‘Ahhh,' he cried, doing his best not to lose his balance, and managed to stop the trolley before it smashed into the mirror.

He turned around, expecting congratulations on stopping the accident, but Bindi and Chris had already raced over to the main entrance to see the devils disappearing into the bushland outside.

Adam began to follow them, grumbling under his breath. The bruise on his face was swelling, his face and hair were streaked with clumps of dirt, and sequins were coming off his suit. If he'd been going for the ‘distressed' look, he was wearing the perfect costume!

As he raced down the front steps, he was almost blinded by a series of flashes. There was a small group of Adam Starr fans camped out on the grass in front of the resort, hoping for a peek at their hero.

‘Oh my gosh, it's him!' one especially excited fan shouted. The girls jumped up and down, taking out their mobile phones and snapping photos.

Bindi turned around to see Adam and his fans. ‘You've got to be kidding!' she yelled back at him.

‘Hey,' replied Adam, annoyed. ‘It's not my fault I'm famous.' He caught up with Bindi as Chris raced ahead.

‘Follow them. It's Adam!'

The five teens gathered their stuff together and hastily ran after Adam and Bindi.

Adam and Bindi didn't have time to tell them to turn back, and they continued running through the thick scrub, hopefully in the direction of the escaped devils, with Adam's fans jostling along behind, calling out for autographs.

Suddenly, Bindi and Adam burst into a clearing. Bindi caught sight of the moonlight shimmering on the water and pulled up just in time in front of a boggy swamp. But Adam couldn't see much past the moonlight glistening off his sequined suit, and
kept running. He tripped over the log and fell face forward into thick mud.

‘Oh no, not again,' said Bindi, expecting another diva outburst of volcanic proportions.

Bindi and the fans watched Adam lift his face from the mud and begin to splutter. His sequins were no longer shining. For the first time that day, Bindi felt a little sorry for Adam Starr. She noticed the fans had gone quiet and even restrained themselves
from taking photos. They seemed nervous about what Adam might do next.

‘Are you okay, Adam?' asked Bindi gently.

Adam sat up and wiped the mud from his eyes and mouth. His long fringe was a soggy mess, hanging over his face. He looked like some kind of ancient creature of the deep, the mud monster that parents made up stories about to frighten little children.

Bindi struggled to hold in just how funny he looked. She let out a kind of snort, which caused Adam to look up at her sharply. Bindi started to giggle.

‘I'm sorry,' she laughed. ‘It's just you look so …' She shook her head as she tried to pull herself together and took a deep breath.

‘So what?' spluttered Adam.

Bindi reached out a hand to pull Adam up. ‘So un-Adam Starr like?' She burst out laughing.

Suddenly Adam's spluttering turned into a chuckle.

‘Would you look at me?' he said as he shook his head in disbelief. ‘I'm a creature from the black lagoon!' As he laughed, globules of mud splattered on the ground around him. The fans started giggling too.

Adam reached out to take Bindi's hand. ‘Thanks for the helping hand,
friend.' As he pulled himself up he pulled Bindi down into the mud with him.

‘Aahh!' she cried out as she slipped and ended up sitting in a swampy puddle next to Adam. By this stage she was crying with laughter.

Adam looked at the five girls gaping at him. ‘This is the photo opportunity of a lifetime, girls. Better get snapping!'

Adam and Bindi posed for the cameras while having a laugh, much to the delight of their adoring teen paparazzi.

Finally Bindi stood up and carefully stepped onto dry land. ‘You know, Adam, you should get into
clowning. You have a real talent for comedy.'

‘It's funny you should say that, Bindi,' replied Adam as he stepped out from the mud. All of a sudden Adam did a backflip into the air and began walking on his hands. He then flipped to his feet and did a funny clown walk.

‘That's brilliant!' cried Bindi, before remembering the task at hand. ‘But we need to stop clowning around and find those devils!'

He nodded and turned to the fans. ‘I think you girls should head back to the resort. I don't want to be held responsible for losing six girls as well as two Tasmanian devils.'

The girls looked disappointed but began the trek back to the hotel. Bindi and Adam started scouring the undergrowth, looking for signs of life. Moments later, they came across an out-of-breath Chris jogging towards them. He did a double-take when he saw Bindi and Adam.

‘You two have taken camouflage to a whole new level,' he noted.

Bindi was disappointed to see that the cages he carried were empty. ‘No luck?' she asked.

Chris shook his head. ‘Not yet, but I have an idea where they might have gone.'