Big Game

by Stuart Gibbs

  “I suppose,” Dad said thoughtfully. “Setting up a wireless control system is quite easy. You could even control it with a smartphone. But rigging a machine to depress the trigger on a rifle would be a little more difficult.”

  “It could be done, though,” Hoenekker said. “I’ve seen setups before. They use hydraulics to pull the trigger.”

  “Well, Athmani did something like that,” I said. “He set the rifle up close to FunJungle—probably in the woods—then made it go off when he was with all of us to give himself the alibi. And to frighten us all into thinking there was a real hunter around.”

  “But the bullet went through the window of the rhino house!” Athmani exclaimed. “Are you honestly saying that I set up a rifle to make that difficult a shot remotely?”

  “No,” I replied. “You’d already taken the shot at Rhonda much earlier. Only, you used a silencer then so no one would hear. You missed her on purpose, but made sure there was plenty of evidence of an attack. Then, at Rhonda’s house later, you pointed out the bullet in the wall to us—and we all simply assumed it had been fired from the gun we’d heard. That’s why you shot at Rhonda, rather than a rhino that was outside. Because a bullet in the wall would be easy to see and would make it obvious that someone was specifically going after the rhinos.

  “But that didn’t convince everyone to cut the horns off yet. So you tried again. This time you climbed over the back fence. And even though there were plenty of places where there were no cameras, you came over right by one to make sure it filmed you. To throw us off the scent, though, you wore a wig to make it look like a woman was the hunter.”

  “And I suppose you’re going to say that I purposefully allowed you all to see me out in SafariLand as well?” Athmani chided.

  “No,” I said. “That was an accident. I think you were going to take another shot at Rhonda, this time from close range, to worry us even more. That’s why you brought a silencer that time. Because you didn’t want the shot to alert security while you were on the property. Only we happened to see you. But that actually worked out for you, because it was even more proof there was a hunter on the loose.

  “However, Doc still refused to cut the horns off, so you made one more attempt to convince us all the rhinos were in serious danger. Since security was now amped up in the park, you had to shoot from World of Reptiles. I’ll bet that this time, you actually planned to hit Rhonda. Not to kill her or anything, but to wound her so we’d know you meant business. But then Summer and I stumbled across you. You didn’t end up shooting at the rhino, but it didn’t matter. You had finally created enough evidence to convince J.J. the rhinos should all be dehorned.”

  “And what would be the point of all this?” Athmani asked. “I didn’t steal the horns. They’re locked in J.J. McCracken’s safe!”

  “No, they’re not,” I said. “The ones in the safe are fakes.”

  Mom, Dad, and Hoenekker gasped in surprise at this.

  Athmani didn’t. He flinched. But then he quickly did his best to pretend that he hadn’t. “What are you talking about?”

  “The pink stuff I found in the rhino house that you said was clay wasn’t clay. It was dental alginate. Dentists use it to make molds of teeth and stuff, but according to the Internet, sculptors use it too. You’re a sculptor. If you took a mold of a rhino horn, I’ll bet you could make a copy of it that looked exactly like the real one.”

  “I sculpt stone,” Athmani said, pointing to the Shona sculptures in his office. “A rhino horn made out of stone would weigh forty pounds and wouldn’t look a bit like the real thing.”

  “You didn’t make the fakes out of stone.” I bent and picked one of the curled bits off the carpet. As I’d suspected, it wasn’t stone at all. It was plastic. “You made it out of this. Right here in this office. Stone doesn’t curl. But plastic does. And the right kind of plastic probably looks and feels exactly like rhino horn. Or at least close enough to allow you time to get away with the real ones.”

  Hoenekker took the curl of plastic from my hands and examined it closely. Then he looked at Athmani suspiciously.

  “Oh, come on, now!” Athmani cried. “This is even crazier than I suspected! Remote-controlled rifles and fake rhino horns! These are the inventions of a boy with an overactive imagination!”

  “You were the one who delivered the horns to McCracken’s safe,” Hoenekker said suspiciously. “In fact, you volunteered to do it. No one was with you during that time. You could easily have stopped by here on the way, swapped the real ones for the fakes and then delivered those to McCracken’s office.”

  “I could have, but I didn’t,” Athmani said flatly. “I have done nothing but try to protect those rhinos!”

  “You’ve been arguing for dehorning them harder than anyone else,” Hoenekker replied.

  “To protect them!” Athmani argued back. “From a poacher who is still out there while you entertain ridiculous stories from a meddlesome boy!”

  “It wouldn’t be hard to check out Teddy’s story,” Mom said. “All we’d have to do is have J.J. open the safe and examine the horns left inside.”

  Hoenekker nodded, then turned to Athmani. “I think that’d make sense. Though you’ll be staying right here until we get to the bottom of this.”

  “I’m afraid that won’t be happening,” someone said.

  Hondo stood in the doorway, his gun aimed at us. “Get the horns,” he told Athmani. “Looks like it’s time for us to go.”

  CAPTURED

  All of us put our hands up.

  Among the many unpacked boxes in Athmani’s office was one marked LAW ENFORCEMENT SUPPLIES. Hondo found several sets of handcuffs in it and tossed them onto the desk beside Athmani. “Lock them up and let’s get out of here.”

  “I didn’t do anything,” Athmani told us weakly.

  “Oh, for crying out loud.” Hondo groaned. “Drop the innocent act already. There’s no point anymore. The kid figured everything out, and we have to go.”

  Athmani sagged. Up to that point, he’d done an impressive job of feigning innocence and pretending to be offended by my accusations. But now he showed his true self. He picked the handcuffs up, looking embarrassed about how everything had turned out.

  Hondo took Hoenekker’s gun from him, then ordered us, “Get down on the floor.”

  We did as he said.

  “I’m sorry,” Athmani told us as he cuffed Mom to the leg of his desk. “I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

  “We trusted you to protect those rhinos,” Mom said angrily.

  “And I did.” Athmani turned his attention to cuffing Dad. “Hondo wanted to simply kill them and take their horns. I came up with a way that let them stay alive. If Teddy hadn’t caught on, we wouldn’t have to do this.”

  “And you would have gotten away,” Mom spat.

  “We are getting away,” Hondo reminded her. “Hand over your phones.”

  We did. Hondo pocketed them.

  Athmani finished cuffing Dad to the desk and moved on to Hoenekker.

  Mom glared at Athmani. “If you sell those horns, you’re just as bad as any poacher. You’ll feed demand for more, which will lead to more dead rhinos. And for what? A little bit of money?”

  “No,” Hondo taunted. “A lot of money. Listen to yourselves, getting all worked up about some butt-ugly beasts. If you can’t eat an animal, what’s the use of it?” He turned to Athmani and asked, “Where are the real horns?”

  Athmani nodded to a closet in his office. Hondo opened it. A large black duffel bag was sitting on the floor. Hondo unzipped it to make sure the horns were there, then zipped it back up and hoisted it onto his shoulder. He ripped Athmani’s desk phone out of the wall so we couldn’t use it, then turned to me and grinned. “You were clever to figure it out, kid. But not clever enough to stop us.”

  He grabbed the handcuffs that were already on my wrist, apparently thinking Athmani had put them on me—what twelve-year-old ran around wearing a set of handcuffs?�
�and clipped the other end to a desk leg. “Come on,” he told Athmani. “The plane’s waiting.”

  Athmani followed him to the door, then looked back at us with genuine sadness. “I really am sorry,” he said.

  Then he shut the door on us and hurried down the hall.

  “Of course he’s sorry,” Hoenekker muttered. “If it hadn’t been for Teddy, he’d have been able to disappear without a trace.”

  Mom, Dad, Hoenekker, and I were all cuffed to the desk, unable to go anywhere and without phones. However, I still had the key to my cuffs in my pocket. I quickly fished it out.

  “Where’d you get that?” Dad asked, surprised.

  “From Marge. They’re her cuffs.”

  “So you can get loose?” Mom asked, relieved.

  “Yes.” I unlocked myself from the desk, then tried the key on Dad’s handcuffs.

  “It won’t work,” Hoenekker told me. “Every set of cuffs has a different key. Don’t waste time with us. You have to stop Athmani and Hondo! If they have a plane nearby, they could be in Mexico in less than an hour.”

  I looked to my parents. They seemed to agree.

  “Be careful,” Mom warned. “Hondo has a gun. Do what you can, but protecting those horns isn’t worth losing your life over.”

  “I’ll do my best,” I told her, then raced out the door.

  Hondo and Athmani were already long gone. Both of them were strong men in good shape. They could probably run much faster than I could. I was still tired from all the morning’s excitement, but I gave it my best, racing through the hall and then down the stairs.

  I emerged into the lobby of the administration building, expecting to find the guard who’d been on duty there that morning. Unfortunately, he was gone. One glance at his desk indicated his absence was probably due to Pancake. The place was a disaster area. The orangutan had yanked out every drawer and dumped out the contents.

  There was also a huge hole in the front window that had apparently been made by an orangutan throwing the guard’s chair through it. The chair lay in the entry plaza, busted into pieces.

  I ducked through the broken window and sprinted into the park.

  Far ahead of me, Hondo and Athmani were nearing the front gates. Beyond the gates, I could see Hondo’s car idling in the drop-off area. There was no way I could catch them. They had much too big a head start. The only security officer I could see was stationed in the booth at the employee entrance. He was too far away to hear me, but I yelled to him out of desperation anyhow. “Stop those guys! They stole the rhino horns!”

  Inside the security booth, the officer didn’t budge. Hondo heard me, though. He gave me a mocking wave good-bye.

  And then I heard purring. Or at least I felt it. I turned and spotted the elephant herd heading back home after their morning walk, closing in on the front gates.

  Something slammed into me, knocking me to the ground.

  It was Large Marge. She was still coated in icing and various pastry fillings. Her hair stuck out from her head in sticky coils that, combined with the rage in her eyes, made her look like Medusa. “I told you I’d get you!” she snarled.

  “Marge!” I yelled. “Athmani and Hondo are stealing all the rhino horns! If you stop them, you’ll be a hero!”

  “Shut up!” Marge knelt over me, pressing me flat on the ground. “I’ve had it with your shenanigans once and for all!”

  Athmani and Hondo were almost to the front gates.

  “I’ll let you arrest me if you want,” I pleaded. “But I need you to—”

  Marge clapped a chocolate-frosted hand over my mouth and roared. “I. Said. Shut. Up!”

  Only, the last word wasn’t exactly “up.” It was more like “Ungggggh.” Because Pancake whacked her on the head with a fist as she said it.

  Marge’s eyes rolled upward, and she collapsed on the ground beside me. Her face splatted right into an elephant poo the keepers hadn’t got around to cleaning up yet.

  Normally, I might have rolled her out of it, but there were other things to deal with.

  “Thanks,” I told Pancake, then yanked the gun out of Marge’s holster. “Cover your ears. This might be loud.”

  Pancake did exactly as I’d asked.

  I fired the gun into the air again and again.

  The elephants trumpeted in alarm.

  “Oh no!” Bonnie cried. “Not again!”

  I kept firing. I’d never shot a gun before. The recoil was bigger than I expected, so I had to use my other arm to steady it. I pulled the trigger until it clicked empty.

  The elephants stampeded in the opposite direction from me, right toward the front gates. Just as they had two days before, they left a trail of droppings and a river of pee, and they flattened everything in their path. The beautiful landscaping of the entry plaza was trampled within seconds.

  Athmani and Hondo were right in the elephants’ path. Athmani had the presence of mind to keep running, but Hondo flipped out. The guy already had issues with animals, and now the biggest ones in the world were charging right at him. He screeched like a little girl and froze in terror. As the elephants bore down on him, he whipped out his own gun and pointed it at the oncoming herd.

  “Stop!” he ordered. “Or I’ll shoot!”

  The little gun probably wouldn’t have made a dent in the elephants’ thick hides, but they bore down on him before he could fire anyhow. The lead elephant swatted him aside with her trunk and he flew through the air like a well-hit baseball. He smashed through the front window of the FunJungle Emporium and landed in a pile of Henry Hippo Junior commemorative merchandise.

  The elephants then plowed through the front gates, knocking them off their hinges like living battering rams. The gates crashed to the ground and were crushed beneath the elephants’ feet.

  Athmani reached the getaway car, but there was no time for him to get inside. The elephants stormed right over it. A steamroller couldn’t have done a better job. The tires exploded and the windows shattered. By the time the last elephant got to the car, it wasn’t much thicker than a sheet of tinfoil.

  I was about to run after them all when I heard a strange wailing noise coming from nearby me. At first I thought it was an animal in pain, but then realized it was coming from Marge.

  She was sitting up, wiping elephant poop and frosting from her face and crying. “I give up,” she sobbed. “Whenever I try to stop you, I lose. No one cares that you’re a menace, and look at what happens to me!”

  “I’m not a menace,” I pointed out. “The orangutan broke into the stores, not me.”

  “I know!” Marge bawled. “You’re right, as usual. The great Teddy Fitzroy solves another crime while I end up covered in poo! It’s not fair!”

  I wasn’t quite sure what to do. Up until that moment, I would have expected that seeing Marge soiled with poop and swearing off chasing me would be a dream come true. But now she seemed so sad and pathetic that I actually felt bad for her. I’d never seen an adult cry like this before, but I didn’t really have time to deal with it either. So I gave her a quick pat on the back, trying to avoid touching any of the disgusting stuff on her, and did my best to be reassuring. “There, there,” I said. “Things will get better.”

  Marge managed to stop crying and looked to me thankfully. “You really think so?”

  “Well,” I said, “they couldn’t really get much worse.” Then I raced off to see what had become of Hondo and Athmani.

  I got to FunJungle Emporium first. Hondo was still lying there in the window display, unconscious after being coldcocked by the elephant. He was buried under a hundred stuffed hippos. The duffel bag lay in a pile of broken snow globes.

  Bonnie ran up to me, angry as could be. “What on earth were you thinking with that gun? Someone could have been hurt!”

  “Sorry,” I said, unzipping the duffel bag. “I was trying to stop them from stealing these.”

  Bonnie gasped upon seeing the horns inside. Her anger instantly dissipated. “Are those real?�
�

  “Unfortunately, yes.” I looked out through where the front gates had been. With his getaway car flattened, Athmani was searching desperately for another way to escape, but the few other cars in the area were locked. Which left Athmani out in the open in the big, wide parking lot.

  “Athmani was in on this?” Bonnie asked, aghast.

  I pointed to Hondo. “It was his idea. But Athmani made it all happen.”

  The anger returned to Bonnie’s eyes, but it was no longer directed at me. “I’ll handle this, then.” She plucked the gun from Hondo’s hand and stormed into the parking lot. “You get those hands up right now!” she yelled. “I have zero tolerance for poachers!”

  Athmani realized he was caught. He froze and raised his hands in resignation.

  Beyond him, far across the parking lot, a lamppost toppled as one of the elephants bumped into it.

  “What on earth happened here?” someone demanded.

  Pete Thwacker stood behind me. He was staring in shock at all the destruction around us: the busted front gates, the trampled landscaping, the flattened getaway car, and the broken display window with Hondo lying in the middle of it.

  “The elephants sort of stampeded again,” I said.

  “Really?” An ear-to-ear grin blossomed on Pete’s face. “This is fantastic!” he crowed. “Look at this awesome devastation! The tourists are gonna love it!”

  EPILOGUE: RHONDA

  “It’s a girl,” Doc said.

  Everyone gathered outside Rhonda’s house cheered. While the birth of any new rhino was something to be happy about, females were slightly more important to the survival of the species than males. Rhino pregnancies last sixteen months, only one baby is born at a time, and it takes at least another year to wean them. That means it can be three to four years between births, which is very slow for an endangered species. So the more females there are to make babies, the better.

  “How’s she look?” Mom asked.