Secret Safari by Susannah McFarlane Page B

left it to die and now she was going to be rewarded for it. Emma didn’t think so.
    â€˜Well, we’ll see about that,’ said EJ to herself. ‘I only just missed Adriana and so that means the pink lake is probably the flamingo lake I drove past earlier. Any further away and Adriana wouldn’t make the delivery in time. Dusk is when animals come to drink, once the heat of the day has passed.’
    EJ checked the time. It was a few hours before dusk but there was still no time to lose. She needed to be back at the lake before Adriana returned at dusk. EJ jumped back into the jeep, started the engine and turned back down the track the way she’d come. She had stopped Adriana twice before but only caught her once—she wasn’t going to let her get away this time.
    EJ knew she was getting close to the lake when she drove past the trees where the mother leopard and her cubs had been playing. They weren’t there any more and EJ didn’t give it another thought until she saw a cub alone on a rock close to the road. It looked familiar. EJ recognised the trail of uneven spots down both sides of its face and knew it was one of the cubs she had watched earlier. But now it was all alone, meowing.
    â€˜Where are your mother and sister?’ EJ wondered out loud, looking out across the grasses. ‘Are you playing hide and seek?’
    EJ waited, she wanted to make sure the mother leopard returned; a little cub out here on its own would be easy prey for predators. But the mother didn’t come. EJ walked slowly up to the cub who, being too young to be frightened and run away, stayed on the rock. EJ saw the grass around the rock had been flattened, as if someone had dragged something heavy away. Next to the rock was something EJ recognised, another dart, also marked SWR. Had Adriana taken the cub’s mother and sister too? The cub’s meows grew louder and it looked up at EJ.
    â€˜You’re hungry, aren’t you?’ said EJ, taking the bub-feeding charm from her bracelet. She twisted the small baby-bottle-shaped charm and a bottle appeared with a dial around the rim. EJ turned the dial to the ‘wildcat’ setting and offered the bottle to the cub, who gulped at it noisily, its thick paws reaching for the bottle. ‘This will fill you up,’ EJ said, smiling as the cub spluttered down the milk. ‘But you’d better come with me. You’re much too young and much too appealing to the vultures to be out here by yourself. And if you are coming, you better have a name.’ EJ remembered Rafiki’s story. ‘I’ll call you Tandi,’ she said. ‘And I hope you will be reunited with your family, too.’
    EJ got back in the jeep and with Tandi on the seat next to her drove back towards the lake. As they drove past another family of meerkats, lined up, watching, an idea began to form in EJ’s mind. She stopped the jeep and took the meerkat charm from her bracelet. She twisted five times and five life-sized meerkat models appeared. They were completely life-like except for the small night-vision cameras in their eyes. She got out and put the first meerkat-cam by the side of the road and activated the camera. EJ then drove another kilometre or so and placed another meerkat-cam on guard by the road. She then drove past and around the flamingo-covered lake, setting more cameras at the different tracks leading to the lake. Finally EJ drove her jeep right up to the lake and parked it by a group of trees. Tandi leapt out and began chasing a butterfly.
    I can’t leave the jeep here, EJ thought. It will give me away. She looked under the dashboard and found the button marked ED, Eco-Deco. All SHINE equipment had one. Pushing it would cause the jeep to self-destruct and rapidly decompose. EJ pushed it and moved quickly away. She knew Eco-Deco could be a smelly process. In minutes, nothing was left of the jeep.
    EJ turned on the meerkat-cam monitor on