Secret Safari (6 page)

EJ felt cold metal against her cheek and heard the roar of an engine. Where was she? Still a little groggy from the sleeping dart, she felt a pain in her hands and realised they were tied behind her back with the rope burning into her wrists. She lifted her head and looked around and saw she was lying on the floor of a small cargo plane stacked with rows of empty crates, all marked SWR. On top of one of the crates was a pile of parachutes. Above the noise of the engine, EJ could hear Adriana. She wriggled around and saw her at the controls of the plane, head-set on, talking loudly and quickly.

‘Yes, I have the gorilla,' shouted Adriana into the microphone. ‘Yes, well worth the detour, thank you, or should I say
merci, Madame
! But now I am back on the path. Tell
SHADOW
to get more crates ready, or should that be trunks? Get it? Elephants? Trunks! I'm hilarious; I could be in show business. Oh, but I guess I'm more into monkey business! I crack myself up!'

She's mad,
thought EJ,
completely mad. But also dangerous.

‘I have to drop something off,' continued Adriana. ‘It has been irritating me for quite some time but now I think it will just drop away. Ha, ha, ha!'

EJ had the uncomfortable feeling that she was the thing Adriana was going to drop off. She needed a plan. Quickly.

‘Yes, yes, I know, you told me, spots and stripes are the new black. Don't worry, you'll get your skins,' continued Adriana. ‘It's all on the list. You just let me know where to meet for the pick up.'

Spots and stripes,
thought EJ.
She's going to hunt more animals, for their skins. She is going to kill them! I can't let her do that. Think, EJ, think!

She wriggled her hands behind her and managed to press the red diamond on her wristband. As she did, EJ felt something brush against her arm. Something hairy. She turned to see the little gorilla stroking her hand. She looked into its dark, dark eyes. It was almost as if it were crying.

‘You need to get out of here too, don't you little one?' EJ whispered. ‘Don't worry, I won't let them take you away from your family to a zoo.'

EJ wriggled her hands again to try to loosen the knots of the ropes tying her hands together. Then she rubbed the rope hard against the bars of the cage, hoping the friction would fray the rope. But it didn't. Just as EJ was running out of ideas she felt the rope come away from her wrists. She looked around to see the little gorilla holding it.

‘Good job,' she whispered, ‘and in just a minute, I'll return the favour.'

Quietly, and checking that Adriana was still preoccupied, EJ moved slowly across to the other side of the plane on her tummy. She reached up to the top crate and pulled down one of the parachutes. After making a quick safety check, she put it on and clicked her camouflage button. The parachute pack changed colour to match her shirt and unless you looked really carefully, you wouldn't see it. EJ was just about to open the cage to take the baby gorilla when she accidently kicked over one of the cans on the plane floor. She froze as Adriana looked around.

‘Oh, good, you're awake EJ12. Just in time for me to drop you off.'

‘Are we landing?' asked EJ, keeping her hands behind her back.

‘I'm not but you will, eventually!' Adriana pulled a lever on the control panel. ‘I'm sure my sister will miss you but I won't, you pesky spylet.'

EJ felt a shudder underneath her as the floor began to open. She took a deep breath and with only seconds to spare, EJ opened the cage and grabbed the gorilla. The baby seemed to know what to do and wrapped her arms around EJ, holding on to her tightly.

‘Ha! I can always get another one of those,' cried Adriana. ‘I always knew you were a dropout. Goodbye EJ nothing. For ever.'

Now the flap beneath EJ opened completely and she dropped out of the plane. EJ held the baby gorilla tight, as she began to plummet.

EJ was in free-fall. ‘Hold on, little one,' she said to the gorilla. ‘Not long to go now.'

EJ waited thirty more seconds and then pulled the cord of her parachute. As the chute billowed out, she pressed her camo-button again and, this time, her clothes and the chute turned a streaky sky-blue. If Adriana did happen to look back to check, it would still look as if EJ were falling to the ground.

‘But you're the one who has fallen, Adriana,' said EJ, chuckling as she slowly floated to the ground below. ‘Fallen for my trick.'

Hasi was waiting for EJ when she landed. As soon as EJ had activated her wristband, Hasi had set out from the refuge, tracking her in the SWR jeep. She smiled when she saw the baby gorilla in EJ's arms, its little finger twisted around EJ's.

‘Good job, EJ12!'

‘Yes, but Adriana is still out there and what we suspected is true. She is hunting animals so she can sell them, dead or alive. SWR stands for
SHADOW
Wildlife Retail.'

‘That's bad,' Hasi said.

‘But there is something good,' said EJ, smiling.

‘There is?'

‘Adriana now thinks she has got rid of me for good and that gives me an opportunity. It's my turn to upset a few plans!'

It was a long drive and the three arrived back at the refuge late at night. SJ was up waiting for them and took both EJ and the gorilla into their tent.

‘Poor little thing,' she said. ‘She must be so scared away from her family but she knows you now, EJ. She feels safe with you so she'd better sleep with you. She'll be comforted by your smell and your heartbeat.'

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.