Secret Safari by Susannah McFarlane

tent.
    â€˜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.
    â€˜Where will you look now?’ asked Hasi.
    â€˜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.’
    â€˜So back to the wildebeest migration path?’
    â€˜Exactly. I’m betting that spots and stripes mean leopards and zebras. Both animals follow the wildebeest migration path, don’t they?’
    â€˜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.’
    â€˜And what will you do when you find Adriana?’ asked SJ.
    â€˜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.’
    â€˜You will,’ said Rafiki, ‘ Woforo dua pa a. ’
    â€˜Okay,’ said EJ. ‘But what does it mean?’
    â€˜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.’

    â€˜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.
    â€˜The right people are always rewarded,’ said Rafiki.
    EJ smiled. ‘I have a friend who said that too.’
    â€˜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.
    â€˜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.’
    â€˜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