Secret Superhero

  For Lui, Maggie, Anna, Kitty and all the gang at Punchbowl Zoo.

  Colt stood in front of a mirror in the Flynn family’s caravan.

  ‘No way!’ he cried.

  ‘You wanted a disguise,’ Birdy said.

  ‘A superhero disguise.’ He frowned at his reflection. ‘I look ridiculous!’

  Birdy made an adjustment to his red plastic nose. ‘No one will know who you are.’

  ‘I sure hope not,’ he said. ‘Whoever heard of a clown superhero?’

  ‘It’s perfect!’ Birdy was trying hard not to giggle. ‘It’ll make more people come to the circus. Captain Noah said crowd numbers are down now that the nights are getting colder.’

  It was true. The Lost World Circus was losing money. Keeping nearly 2000 birds and animals supplied with regular RatVax shots cost a small fortune. If the nightly gate takings didn’t improve soon, they might have to sell some of them.

  Someone was already interested in buying the rhino.

  ‘I’m not going to be a circus act,’ Colt muttered. ‘I’m just going to do rescues.’

  Birdy nodded. ‘And when people hear that the rescuer was a clown, they’ll come to the circus to see who it is.’

  ‘But they won’t see me,’ he said. ‘Well, they’ll see me when I ride Lucy around the ring, but they won’t know I’m the superhero clown because I won’t be dressed in this ridiculous outfit.’

  ‘Exactly,’ said Birdy. She gave him a mischievous grin. ‘But it’ll make the crowds nice and big again.’

  Colt studied himself in the mirror. She was right – he’d wanted a disguise and nobody would recognise him dressed like this. Not even his mother, probably.

  ‘Superclown,’ he said experimentally.

  And laughed.

  Birdy shooed him out into the main part of the caravan. ‘Wait in the kitchen. I’ve got a surprise.’

  ‘What if your parents come back and see me dressed like this?’

  ‘They’re helping put up the Big Top,’ she said, swishing the curtain closed. ‘They won’t be back for ages.’

  Colt heard some drawers banging and the rustle of fabric. After nearly five minutes, the curtain opened and another clown appeared. Her outfit was identical to Colt’s except the colours were reversed – white dots on a red background, instead of red dots on white. And her wig was green, not orange.

  ‘Tah dah!’ said the Birdy-clown, striking a dramatic pose. ‘Meet your new sidekick, Clowngirl.’

  ‘I don’t need a sidekick,’ Colt said.

  Birdy’s big, painted-on smile turned down at the ends. ‘I thought we were a team. I helped you save Lucy. And didn’t I make that holovid of Caruso getting out of his cage?’

  Caruso used to be the circus’s famous singing gibbon. That was before Officer Katt, the world’s meanest rat cop, thought the ape had rat flu and placed a quarantine lock on his cage door. She would have come back to carry out an Animal Termination if Colt and Birdy hadn’t outsmarted her.

  Colt reconsidered. ‘Okay, Clowngirl – you’re hired.’

  Birdy’s smile was back. ‘No, you’re hired, Superclown!’

  They exchanged high-fives.

  ‘I’d better go and get changed,’ he said. ‘Mum wants me to help her clip the giant anteaters’ toenails.’

  He went into Birdy’s room and began removing his frizzy orange wig. ‘Will there be time to get into all this gear if there’s an emergency?’ he asked.

  ‘Superman does it,’ Birdy said through the curtain.

  Colt was about to say, That’s just a movie, when there was a loud CRASH in the distance – it sounded like breaking glass – followed by the thunderous roar of a lion and the shrieking of peacocks. Then people started shouting and screaming.

  Birdy raced to the window and peered out.

  ‘Don’t bother getting changed, Superclown,’ she said.

  In her office at DoRFE headquarters, Officer Katt sat staring at a quivering holoscreen. A short holovid was playing over and over in Repeat mode from a VizCard. Somehow, someone at the circus had slipped the thumb-sized VizCard into Officer Katt’s pocket while she was investigating the removal of their famous singing gibbon from quarantine. Officer Katt had put the animal in quarantine herself. Whoever freed it had committed a serious crime.

  Over the past day and a half, Officer Katt had viewed the holovid fifty or sixty times. And with every viewing, the rat cop grew more angry.

  The holovid showed the creepy black ape using a screwdriver to free itself from its cage. Whoever recorded it must have wanted to prove that none of the circus people had been involved in the illegal breakout.

  You can’t prosecute an animal.

  And you can’t terminate it when it seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth, Officer Katt thought in frustration.

  But someone had given it that screwdriver, and someone had made that holovid. And Officer Katt was 99 per cent sure who that person was.

  Jabbing a button on her palm-computer, she watched as the 3D holoscreen dissolved in a cloud of fading pixels.

  ‘Okay, Snowy,’ she muttered. ‘Two can play at that game.’

  Grabbing her van keys off the desk, Officer Katt stormed out of the office.

  The first job to be done whenever the circus arrived in town was unloading the animals. Some stayed in their trailers, but the larger ones – Assam the rhino and his friend Rocky, Lucy the elephant, the giraffes, the zebras, the bison, the horses and the wallabies – were put into specially designed pens that fitted together like giant Build-It sets. The flamingos went into an inflatable swimming pool that had to be pumped up and filled with water at each new town. The meerkats had a collapsible wooden pit.

  All the big cats except one were left in their trailers – as were all of the bears, the wolves and the Tasmanian devils – with tall cyclone-mesh fences in front to keep paying visitors from getting too close.

  The big cat that didn’t stay in its trailer (a different one every day – they each had a turn) was put in The Jungle. This was a big, glass-fronted shipping container with jungle scenes painted on its inner walls. There were real tree branches, palm fronds, even a fake cave made of fibreglass. The recorded calls of extinct birds and monkeys played from speakers above the viewing window. The window was made of heavy-duty, reinforced glass.

  All the circus’s birds and animals – those that stayed in their trailers and those that didn’t – were enclosed in a canvas-walled area called The Menagerie. It looked like a sprawling red-and-white tent without a roof.

  The real circus tent, the Big Top, was only put up once The Menagerie – and all its weird and wonderful survivors from a time before rat flu – was safely in place. Erecting the giant tent was a tricky job that took nearly two hours. All the adult circus staff were expected to help, which left The Menagerie unattended.

  So nobody noticed when a crouching figure, wearing a dark blue hoodie and jeans, slipped in through a flap in the red-and-white canvas.

  Officer Katt had left her distinctive orange rat cop’s uniform in her DoRFE van. And she’d parked the van (also orange) two blocks away so she wouldn’t draw attention to herself.

  She wanted to draw attention to someone else.

  Colt Lawless, the boy she called Snowy, had made a holovid to send her a message. Now Officer Katt was going to send him a message.

  It was no secret that Snowy really loved the circus elephant. The whole world had watched live holovision coverage of their race to the state border, pursued by a DoRFE helicopter. The whole world had seen Officer Katt chase after them – and fail. She had nearly lost her job over it.

  Now Officer Katt was going to make him pay.

  At first she’d planned to sneak into The Menagerie and kill th
e elephant. As a senior rat-control officer, she could use sophisticated termination drugs that would leave no trace. But then she came up with a better idea.

  Why not make a fool of the boy with the whole world watching?

  And perhaps, as a bonus, seal the fate of the Lost World Circus once and for all!

  In Officer Katt’s opinion, ownership of any animal (Lost World or otherwise) posed a major rat flu risk and shouldn’t be allowed. She wanted Captain Noah’s circus shut down. And it was already running out of money, according to a report on last night’s news.

  It was the news report that gave Officer Katt her idea.

  Ryan Nottingham, inventor of the RyNo™ Firewall, wanted a real, live mascot for his mega-successful computer software brand. He was on his way from Los Angeles by private Sky Shuttle to make Captain Noah an offer that was too big to refuse.

  Imagine Mr Nottingham’s disappointment, thought Officer Katt, if he travels halfway around the world for nothing. Imagine if he gets here and the rhino’s gone.

  Not only gone, but dead.

  If a huge dangerous animal like a rhino got loose in the middle of a bustling city, the police would have no choice but to use their guns.

  Bang, bang – one less animal for Officer Katt to worry about.

  One more species made extinct.

  All thanks to a snowy-haired boy with a track record of releasing Lost World animals when their future in the circus was threatened.

  Snowy was going to be in so much trouble!

  The circus might be in trouble, too, Officer Katt hoped. It might even be closed down.

  Smiling, the rat cop flipped back her hood, revealing an ash-blond wig cut and styled exactly like Snowy’s hair.

  ‘Showtime!’ she whispered.

  Assam, Captain Noah’s Indian one-horn rhinoceros, was the last of his kind. In fact, he was the last rhinoceros of any kind. All the others – the massive black rhinos and white rhinos of Africa, the smaller Javanese rhinoceros and its little two-horned cousin from Sumatra – had disappeared a dozen years ago, killed by rat flu. Assam’s life would have been very lonely if he didn’t live in the Lost World Circus.

  And if it wasn’t for Rocky, the American bighorn ram.

  Unlike Assam, Rocky was not the last of his kind. Captain Noah had four other bighorn sheep, but Rocky didn’t get on with them. He was fourteen years old (ancient for a bighorn) and scarred from many fierce battles with his strong, young rival, Butthead. But Rocky and Assam got on super well. The two old bachelors travelled together in the same truck and shared a pen in The Menagerie whenever the circus stopped in a town.

  It was a pretty strange friendship between two very different Lost World species, but they seemed to enjoy each other’s company.

  Officer Katt stared into their pen. She hadn’t expected this. What was an over-sized goat doing in with the rhino? She didn’t like the way the goat was watching her. The rhino, on the other hand, seemed completely oblivious – he was more interested in the flamingos’ pool next-door.

  ‘Don’t mess with me, buster,’ Officer Katt warned Rocky as she set to work.

  She ignored the gate – it was padlocked – and began dismantling a section of the fence that formed the rest of the enclosure. The rails were made from short lengths of scaffolding pipe that screwed into sockets on the iron poles. All Officer Katt had to do was unscrew the rails one by one, starting from the top. Rocky watched her closely, blinking from time to time but not moving. His massive, forward-curving horns seemed longer – and were certainly sharper – than the rhino’s single one. When Officer Katt had only one rail to go, Rocky bleated and came over to see what she was up to.

  The rat cop backed away. The bottom rail came only halfway up the ram’s chest. He could probably jump over it. Officer Katt’s eyes darted from side to side, madly searching for escape routes. Why hadn’t she brought her stun gun? On a small metal table next to the wallabies’ enclosure stood a bucket of carrots. She grabbed a few and returned to the rhino’s pen, holding one out in front of her. Rocky snatched the carrot from her fingers and began noisily eating.

  The rhino’s ears twitched. He turned his massive head and sniffed the air. Then he came lumbering across the pen. Officer Katt quickly tossed him the other carrot and got ready to run. But there was no need – all Assam wanted was the carrot. He loved carrots. While the two animals were busy, Officer Katt quietly removed the last rail and stepped to one side. She took the heavy piece of pipe with her, just in case.

  ‘Time to go, guys,’ she said. ‘You’re free. Go out there and make chaos.’

  Assam was first to notice. His carrot was gone long before Rocky’s. Sniffing the ground for more, he emerged slowly from the pen. He was huge! Officer Katt backed away, waving the piece of pipe like Matilde Skywalker’s light sabre in Star Wars 10, Girl Jedi. The rhino ignored her. His quivering nostrils led him straight to the bucket of carrots. It was a bit high for him to reach, but that was no problem for a three-and-a-half tonne rhino. With a light tap from his giant horn, the table toppled over and the carrots went everywhere. Dinnertime! Rocky came trotting out of the pen and hurried over to get his share.

  The rat cop looked on helplessly. This wasn’t supposed to happen! The rhino was supposed to be running away, not hanging around having a feed. She could hear voices not far away. At any moment someone might come into The Menagerie and foil her brilliant plan. There was no time to lose.

  Officer Katt might have left her stun gun in the van, but she always carried a can of rat spray strapped to her belt. You never knew when you might encounter a rat. Swapping the pipe to her left hand, she pulled out the little orange can, ran around the far side of the feeding rhinoceros and gave him a blast in the face.

  Rat spray was lethal for rats. It killed them in a matter of seconds. But for larger animals it wasn’t so dangerous. It worked more like tear gas, inflaming their airways and making their eyes sting.

  Assam dropped his half-eaten carrot and let out a startled whuff of surprise. It was followed immediately by a bellow of pain as the rat spray went to work on his eyes and burned the sensitive membranes inside his nose and throat. Despite his huge size, Assam could move very quickly when he had to. With the speed of a Lost World cheetah he whirled around and lunged at his attacker.

  Officer Katt had anticipated the rhino’s reaction. She was already halfway up the side of the wallabies’ pen when Assam’s horn delivered a massive uppercut to the rails below her. But the wallabies’ pen wasn’t as strong as the rhino’s – it was made of wood. The rails splintered like matchsticks, one after the other, all the way from the bottom to the top. Officer Katt landed among the startled wallabies with nothing between her and the huge, angry rhino but a shower of falling wood. She raced across the pen, straightening her wig so she could see better, and scrambled madly up and over the pen’s back fence.

  Assam came after her. He hit the second fence like a bulldozer, smashing his way through. Escaping wallabies went bouncing off in all directions but the rhino kept coming. Officer Katt gave him another blast of rat spray and vaulted into the flamingos’ pool.

  The second dose of spray slowed Assam down. His eyesight hadn’t been very good to begin with, so now he was almost totally blind. His eyes were on fire, his nose was burning. Yet he could still smell something – water. He headed towards it.

  The flamingos’ pool collapsed under the three-and-a-half tonne onslaught. A sheet of water swooshed out across the grass, carrying two pink tangles of flapping feathers, scissoring legs and long snaky necks with it. Officer Katt managed to stay upright. She vaulted over the far wall onto the muddy grass outside.

  Assam didn’t come after her. Instead, he flopped onto his back and rolled from side to side in what remained of the water, trying to relieve the fire in his head. Officer Katt heaved a big sigh of relief.

  Then she heard galloping hooves.

  Rocky nearly got her. But years of hunting rats had sharpened Officer Katt’s reflexes
. She whirled around (with the speed of a startled rhinoceros) and gave him a face full of rat spray.

  The charging bighorn ram grunted in pain, shot past the sidestepping rat cop, and slammed into the wooden wall of the meerkats’ pit.

  BANG!

  A large vertical crack appeared, but the wall stood firm. Rocky’s head was on fire, he was nearly blinded, but mostly he was angry. His collision with the wall reminded him of all those times he’d locked horns with his hated rival, Butthead. He took two steps backwards, rose up on his hind legs, pitched forwards and gave the wall everything he had.

  SMASH!

  Officer Katt grinned as she watched the meerkats make their escape. She’d sneaked into The Menagerie to release the rhino, and now half the circus’s animals were loose!

  Snowy will be in even bigger trouble now, she thought.

  But if the rat cop’s plan was going to be 100 per cent successful, she really needed to get the rhino out of there and stampeding down the city streets.

  She hurried back to the wrecked flamingo pool. Assam was still wallowing in what remained of the water, like a Lost World puppy with fleas. Boldly grabbing his tail, Officer Katt gave it a very hard pull.

  ‘Get up, you useless animal!’

  Assam rolled quickly to his feet and turned to face her. The water had partially cleared his eyes. They still burned, but he could vaguely see the annoying, blond-haired human who had caused him so much pain. He charged.

  Officer Katt ran for her life. And as she ran, she zigzagged.

  It was hard to believe it now, but as a young woman Elsa Katt had actually liked animals. Growing up in a game park in South Africa, she’d dreamed of becoming a wildlife protection officer. But then rat flu came along and changed everything. Instead of training to help animals, Officer Katt learned to kill them.

  It was for the good of humanity, she told herself. Sooner or later, if all the remaining animals on Earth weren’t destroyed, rat flu would spread to people.

  And then everyone would die.

  One of the things Officer Katt remembered from her South African childhood was that rhinos didn’t have very good eyesight. The best thing to do if they charged was not to run in a straight line, but to zigzag. She was doing that now.