Leopard Adventure

  ‘As well as these field missions,’ Dr Drexler continued, ‘TRACKS also runs captive-breeding programmes to support conservation projects. Recently, for example, we’ve been involved in returning red pandas to the foothills of the Himalayas. And, finally, we provide equipment and resources to other wildlife charities and organizations. We really are the good guys, you know. And there’s always room for eager new recruits …’

  Amazon was taken aback. Was Drexler asking her to become a Tracker?

  ‘What, you mean …?’

  ‘All things are possible. We can discuss it with your parents, when we see them.’

  ‘And what exactly do you do in all this, apart from babysit Frazer?’ asked Amazon, her doubts still adding a hard edge to her voice.

  Dr Drexler twitched, and there was a cold twinkle behind his spectacles as he replied, ‘I’m TRACKS’s chief veterinary surgeon.’

  ‘He’s good,’ said Frazer. ‘Look, he even cut out my appendix when we were in Mozambique and I couldn’t get to the hospital. He used a penknife and, well, I don’t know, a spoon or something.’

  Frazer pulled up his shirt, to show a neat purple scar.

  Amazon rolled her eyes.

  ‘You exaggerate somewhat, Frazer,’ said Dr Drexler. ‘I had a proper medical kit. But thank you, anyway. And can I now suggest that we all take this opportunity to get a little rest. Tomorrow will be a busy day.’

  Their first-class seats converted into beds. Soon the lights dimmed, and in a few minutes Amazon heard gentle snores coming from one side, and a low mumbling, as of someone talking in their sleep, from the other.

  There were so many things on her mind, so many unanswered questions that she thought she would never sleep, but eventually she drifted into unconsciousness and found herself lost in a dream of hot pursuit and fear, and of a snarling mouth full of glistening teeth.

  They were met at JFK Airport by a tall, young, suntanned Australian guy.

  ‘Hey, Zonnie,’ he said, inventing Amazon’s new nickname on the spot. ‘I’m Bluey.’ He pointed at his mop of violently red hair, as if that explained everything.

  Frazer winked at her. ‘Zonnie – that’s gonna stick!’ She gave him a playful slap – the first of what would turn out to be many.

  Bluey showed them to a big, growling jeep that took up two spaces in the parking lot.

  ‘Not very environmentally friendly,’ said Amazon as they climbed into the air-conditioned interior. Her own parents drove an electric car whenever they were back in England.

  ‘This old girl?’ said Bluey. ‘Nah – she’s been adapted to run on hydrogen. The only emission she gives off is pure water.’

  ‘Really?’ said Amazon. ‘That doesn’t seem very likely.’

  ‘Simple chemistry,’ replied Bluey. ‘Hydrogen plus oxygen equals H2O.’

  ‘Hummff, I knew that,’ said Amazon, annoyed that she had forgotten it from her science lessons. She’d always drifted off in chemistry and physics – it was biology that she really loved.

  It took three hours to drive to the TRACKS HQ, first along the highway, then on smaller roads and finally down bumpy country tracks.

  Bluey and Frazer chatted away about the Trackers, and Frazer got very excited when Bluey told him that something called the ‘X-Ark’, whatever that might be, had arrived. Their enthusiasm was infectious, and Amazon found herself smiling, almost against her will, at the stories of polar bear cubs and dolphins and wallabies. Her parents had never taken her on any of their expeditions, and she was suddenly jealous of the lives of Frazer and his friends.

  Could it really be true that she might become one of them?

  The old farm that had become the TRACKS HQ was half hidden in the folds of a green valley, a couple of miles from the sea. After all the talk of technology and investment, Amazon had expected gleaming metal and glass, like something from a sci-fi movie. However, the scene before her now was charmingly rustic. There was a large, old farmhouse with a porch, two huge barns, a stable block, fields and paddocks. The only thing that marked it out from any other American farm was the variety of animals grazing in the fields.

  Amazon felt instantly excited, and it wasn’t just the prospect of seeing her parents. Her mouth fell open as she spotted a couple of zebras, a small herd of wildebeest, a mother rhino with her calf, and a bizarre-looking bird like a small, grumpy ostrich with a blue neck and a vicious-looking bony crest on the top of its head.

  ‘That’s Lady Gaga, our cassowary,’ said Bluey, noticing the direction of her gaze. ‘Watch out forher – if she doesn’t headbutt you, she’ll give you a good old slash with those claws. Nearest thing around here to a velociraptor.’

  They pulled up outside the farmhouse, and a young woman wearing a white lab coat came out to meet them. She strode forward, looking very serious. Amazon got the impression that even if there were nothing serious for her to look serious about, she’d still look serious. She had serious glasses and serious hair and a very serious nose. Without saying anything to the others, she took Dr Drexler to one side and whispered in his ear.

  He turned back, and Amazon knew at once that something was wrong.

  ‘Let me introduce you to Miranda Coverdale, my veterinary assistant.’

  The woman nodded curtly, and Dr Drexler continued. ‘It would seem that there’s been a change of plan. I’m afraid that your parents, Amazon, haven’t managed to make it here, quite, ah, yet. And it also appears that your father, Frazer, has gone off to … well, er, for want of a better word, find them.’

  Amazon felt a little wave of fear pass through her. She shook it off, the way you’d shrug away a whining mosquito.

  ‘They’re always getting lost. It’s what they do,’ she said, trying to be brave.

  ‘Wherever they are, my dad will find them. It’s what he does.’ Frazer smiled at Amazon, and for the first time she smiled back. ‘Let me show you up to your room,’ he said. ‘It’s next door to mine.’

  Together they walked to the farmhouse. On the ground floor there was a big kitchen, a living room and a library full of old books. Amazon’s room was up in the attic. It was small and rather bare, but comfortable enough after the horrors of Millbank Abbey.

  ‘You get settled in. After lunch I’ll show you round the place,’ said Frazer. ‘You’ll like it here, honest. And I know your parents will be fine. Dad’ll bring them back.’

  Amazon nodded, but said nothing.

  Lunch was sandwiches in the kitchen, eaten with half a dozen other Trackers. Frazer introduced them all, but it was too much for Amazon to take in, and they blended together into one big bundle of youth and enthusiasm and excited talk of animals and rainforests and oceans.

  After lunch, Frazer and Bluey gave Amazon what they called ‘the grand tour’.

  ‘Everything here’s powered by solar energy,’ Frazer gushed, apparently hoping this would impress his cousin.

  ‘And when it rains?’

  ‘We have a mini-hydro plant that acts as a backup.’ Luckily, Frazer had a lot of patience, with both animals and people.

  They began the tour with the barns, which were divided up into sections containing all kinds of smaller animals. There were cages with tiny marmosets – golden-haired primates no bigger than kittens. Bluey opened a cage and let Amazon feed them pieces of cut-up apple as they perched on the palm of her hand.

  Other cages contained cold-eyed lizards as long as Amazon’s arm.

  ‘What are they?’ she asked.

  ‘Komodo dragons. Babies. When they grow up they’ll be big enough to take down a buffalo. They have venomous saliva that rots your flesh.’

  Amazon decided against having a go at feeding the dragons.

  There was a big outdoor aviary full of noisy parrots, toucans with huge colourful beaks and ominous fruit bats hanging upside down wrapped in their leathery wings. Then they came to an enclosure with a pool, in which wallowed a pair of pigmy hippos.

  ‘There’re only a few hundred left in the wild,’ said
Frazer.

  One of the hippos waddled over. It came up to Amazon’s waist.

  ‘Sweet,’ said Amazon. She put her arm through the fence, meaning to stroke the dark grey nose.

  Then she remembered something her father had told her: a full-sized hippo, despite its almost comical appearance, was just about the most dangerous animal in Africa. It could bite a person clean in half with one crunch of its huge jaws. This guy was only a quarter of the size of its bigger relative, but still … She pulled her arm back in the nick of time – the pygmy hippo snapped at her with vicious ten-centimetre-long canines.

  The little tyrant snorted dismissively, and waddled off again, having shown the world who was boss.

  ‘You OK?’ said Frazer anxiously.

  Amazon laughed with relief at her narrow escape. ‘Yeah, sure, just about. That ga-ga cassowary, the dragon, the hippo … Is there anything here that doesn’t want to kill me?’

  ‘I know something,’ said Frazer, ‘come with me.’

  Leaving Bluey with the hippos Frazer led the way to the stables. ‘Can you ride?’ he asked.

  There was genuine longing in Amazon’s voice as she replied. ‘I’m not very good, but I can, sort of. I’ve always loved horses, and my dad always promised me a pony, but we never lived anywhere long enough or big enough to get one. But I had some lessons last summer.’

  As they approached, a long grey head appeared over one of the stalls.

  ‘Hey, look, there’s Joey. He’s my horse.’ Frazer went over and took the soft muzzle in his hands breathing gently into the horse’s nose.

  ‘He’s beautiful,’ sighed Amazon.

  ‘He is. And kind too. Not a mean bone in his body. We can ride out tomorrow if you like – there’s a lot more to see.’

  ‘I’d love that.’

  ‘You can have Joey, and I’ll take Sheba – she’s more of a handful.’

  On cue, a black head joined the grey one, and blew a loud raspberry, spraying Amazon with slobber.

  ‘Eeew!’ she squealed, but there was laughter in her voice.

  That night Amazon lay awake a long time thinking about everything that had happened to her. It was only a little over a day ago that she was stuck in Millbank Abbey, with nothing but her badgers to look forward to. And now here she was on the other side of the Atlantic, surrounded by zebras.

  Zebras!

  And then there was Frazer. He wasn’t dumb, by any means, but he had a kind of simplicity and openness that made it impossible not to like him.

  And yet there was the nagging fear about her mum and dad. If only they were here everything would be perfect.

  She got up and padded over to the chest of drawers into which she’d dumped her clothes. In the bottom drawer she found what she was looking for: a red neckerchief with white spots, faded and worn smooth with time. It had been a present to her mum from her dad on their first expedition together, years and years ago. And then her mother had given it to Amazon before she’d gone on the latest trip.

  She climbed back into bed, wrapped the neckerchief round her fingers and breathed through the old material. Although it was clean and fresh, the neckerchief still somehow smelled both of her mother and of the exciting places she had visited: Africa, the Himalayas, dark jungles and scorched deserts.

  As she drifted towards sleep, Amazon remembered one of the few times that they had all been able to spend the whole summer together. They’d gone sailing in the Lake District. It was the happiest time of her life. And soon she was dreaming of light sparkling on water, and the tinkling sound of her mother’s sweet laughter, and the kind touch of her father’s hands as he taught her how to tie knots and whittle sticks.

  The next morning there was still no sign of either Amazon’s parents or Frazer’s father.

  ‘No word yet,’ said Dr Drexler, smiling sympathetically.

  Amazon thought she detected something uncertain behind the smile. It wasn’t quite as if he were trying to hide something he knew – more, she thought, that he was trying to convince himself that everything was OK.

  Frazer noticed it too. Frazer’s response to any troubling news or awkward situation was always the same: throw yourself into action.

  ‘Come on,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘Let’s go for that ride, before it gets too hot.’

  ‘That’s a fine idea,’ said Dr Drexler. ‘You could ride out to the enclosure with the giant forest hogs. I’m going over that way with Miranda to take a look at the old boar. I think he’s got a bad tooth and I may have to extract it. You can use your new toy to put him under, Frazer.’

  ‘My X-Ark! Awesome idea!’ agreed Frazer.

  The X-Ark turned out to be a very hi-tech tranquillizer gun, moulded from a gleaming metal alloy. Amazon hated guns, but even she thought it looked pretty cool, in a Star Warsy kind of way.

  ‘Remember when you missed that elephant in Namibia, Fraze? From, what was it … four metres?’ chuckled Bluey. ‘You could have reached out and poked the dart right in him.’ Turning to Amazon he added, ‘Poor old Frazer here can shoot anything with his camera, but put a tranq gun in his hands and he’s completely –’

  ‘That wasn’t my fault! I was in a tree, and it was windy. And the sights were bent on my last rifle. But the X-Ark comes with a laser scope. Can’t miss.’

  ‘We’ll see,’ said Dr Drexler. ‘Even more importantly, it’s a chance to field-test the new tranquillizer mix we’ve developed for the darts. We put a lot of time and money into researching it, Amazon. As well as an unusually fast-acting anaesthetic, it contains a paralysing agent extracted from the skin glands of certain South American tree frogs, which takes effect almost instantaneously. Normally, when you dart an animal, it can take several minutes to go under, and that can be dangerous – for you and the animal. But the new mix just turns the lights right out. That, at least, is the theory, and so far the laboratory tests have corroborated it.’

  Amazon shrugged. It was all quite interesting, but didn’t seem particularly relevant to her.

  ‘Bluey,’ Dr Drexler continued, ‘perhaps you could drive Miranda and me out to the giant forest hogs in the jeep. We’ll meet you two over there.’

  Amazon and Frazer walked through the morning mist to the stables. Frazer helped Amazon get Joey saddled. She had forgotten the sheer fun of just being around horses: the rich smell, the snuffly sounds they made when they were happy, the sudden exhilarating moment when they startled and you realized how immensely powerful they were. It was all exactly what Amazon needed to take her mind off her parents.

  She’d grabbed a couple of sugar lumps from the breakfast table, and soon Joey was her best friend. He’d slobbered all over her hand as she fed him, and then blew a raspberry in her ear.

  ‘It’s his way of saying that he likes you,’ laughed Frazer as she cleaned out her ear with a handkerchief. ‘Here, you’d better take this,’ he said, handing her a hard riding hat. Joey’s as gentle as a kitten, but if you’re not used to riding –’

  She shook her head. ‘No way! I’m in America; I’m on a ranch – I want one of those!’ She pointed to a Stetson hanging from a peg.

  ‘This is not a ranch and –’

  ‘Just gimme the flaming cowboy hat!’

  It was pointless arguing with his English cousin, and as this particular Stetson had a built-in helmet Frazer could appear to let Amazon win this one, and save it up as credit. He gave her the hat.

  ‘How do I look?’ she said, striking a pose.

  ‘Like a rootin’ tootin’ cowgirl.’

  ‘Oh. Are rootin’ and tootin’ good things?’

  ‘I have no idea. Now shall we get on? I have an enormous pig to shoot.’

  Luckily there was a mounting block to help the riders climb into the saddle. Frazer held Joey’s reins while Amazon climbed on board, and then adjusted her stirrups.

  Once she was safely in the saddle, Amazon realized something: she’d never been on a horse this big before. She felt as though she were a hundred metres off the g
round. Easily high enough, in fact, for her fear of heights to kick in. She pulled her mother’s neckerchief from her pocket and tied it round her neck for luck.

  ‘You OK, Zonnie?’ Frazer asked. He had already swung himself effortlessly into the saddle, like he was just throwing on a jacket.

  Amazon gulped. She really wanted to climb down again, but she wasn’t going to let Frazer see that she was afraid. She forced herself to smile, and gave a jaunty thumbs-up sign.

  ‘Just follow me, then,’ said Frazer, and he led the frisky Sheba down the track.

  Amazon dug her heels into Joey. Nothing happened for a second or two, then the horse looked round at her, blew one of his famous raspberries and followed Sheba.

  Soon they were trotting through the gently rolling countryside. The sky above them was so clear and blue Amazon found it hard to believe that it could ever be cloudy again. Joey was placid and easy to ride, and her fear had burned away like the morning mist.

  ‘Looking good, Zonnie. Can you gallop?’ asked Frazer.

  ‘Yes. Er, no. Maybe. Let’s try!’

  Amazon had only galloped once before, on a little show pony, but she was learning fast. Joey seemed to know what she wanted before she had fully formed the thought.

  Frazer led them down a shortcut through the field with the zebra and wildebeest, and urged Sheba into a canter. Amazon followed, nervous at first as Joey picked up speed, but gaining confidence as he moved into an exhilarating gallop. The African animals scattered at the sight of the galloping horses, the wildebeest honking like angry geese, and the zebra whinnying and bucking. Sheba whinnied back, and Frazer had to fight hard to control her, but Joey was as smooth and relaxed as melted butter.

  ‘This is the best fun I’ve ever had in my entire life,’ yelled Amazon, her voice carrying away like a banner in the wind behind her.

  In twenty minutes they’d reached the enclosure: a slice of primordial swamp, dumped down on Long Island. There was a sty at the far end, and as she slowed Joey back to a trot Amazon could hear contented pig noises, mingled with deeper grunts and a few high-pitched squeals.