Secret Safari by Susannah McFarlane Page A

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.
    â€˜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.
    â€˜But I’m not too late to help this elephant,’ she said to herself as she sent a text to the refuge.

    Piinngg!
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    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.
    â€˜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.
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    Piinng!
    Â 
    Maybe this will be it, thought EJ. I really hope so.

EJ looked at her phone. SHINE had intercepted another message and from the symbols EJ could see it was from the same person as the last message.

    Well, that’s too easy, thought EJ. She cut and pasted the text into the backwards-writing app and pressed ENTER. Okay, maybe not , she thought as she looked at her screen.

    I think it’s the right way around now but what is the code? thought EJ. Then she spied the‘That’s not an English letter,’ she said to herself, ‘so maybe this is not in code at all but another language, like the first message.’ And then EJ remembered Adriana talking on the plane. She said ‘merci, Madame’. That’s French, so perhaps this whole message is in French. EJ ran the text through her language app. ‘That’s better,’ she said when she was done.

    It was Adriana who had stolen the elephant’s tusk and