The Last Elephant Read online

Kristin explained. If enough people heard that the last elephant in the world was about to be destroyed, there would be a public outcry and DoRFE might be forced to reconsider their decision.

  ‘After all,’ Colt’s mum said, ‘it’s the people who elect governments, and the rat cops work for the government.’

  ‘And that’s the most ridiculous thing!’ Captain Noah interrupted angrily. ‘DoRFE is a department of the state government. If Murray Landing was on the other side of the river, Lucy wouldn’t be facing a death sentence.’

  ‘Aren’t there rat cops in other states?’ asked Colt.

  ‘Every state has its own version,’ his mother said. ‘But none of the others are quite as unreasonable, or as ruthless, as DoRFE.’

  ‘Well, hello!’ cried Birdy, rolling her eyes dramatically. ‘Why don’t we just drive Lucy across the river?’

  ‘Shhhh!’ said Colt. People were listening.

  ‘Three reasons, Miss Flynn,’ Captain Noah said. He began counting on his fingers. ‘One: Lucy is currently in quarantine, so we’d be breaking the law.

  ‘Two: Lucy’s too ill to travel.

  ‘Three: even if she could travel, the nearest bridge is thirty kilometres upriver, and there’s a DoRFE checkpoint that’s guarded twenty-four hours a day.’

  ‘And four,’ added Kristin. ‘Lucy needs to be here when the holovision crews arrive.’

  ‘What holovision crews?’ Birdy asked before Colt could.

  ‘Remember what I was saying about people power?’ Kristin said, activating her wrist-phone. ‘Lucy’s going to be on the news.’

  Lucy wasn’t just on the news, she was on Your Current Affairs and Tonight with Verity Dingle. So were Kristin and Captain Noah. And in most of the shots, Birdy could be seen in the background, performing handstands, cartwheels and other gymnastic tricks.

  They watched it on a Captain Noah’s full-immersion HV. Filming hadn’t finished until nearly six o’clock, so he’d invited Colt and his mother to dinner. Somehow, Birdy had managed to get an invitation, too. After dinner, Colt and his mother were going to stay on and see the circus. Captain Noah had given them free seats because they had missed out on most of the performance last time. Colt was especially looking forward to seeing Birdy performing in her family’s trapeze act, the Flying Flynns.

  But first he watched her perform in the background during the HV interviews. It was a bit distracting, really.

  ‘There I am!’ Birdy cried.

  ‘Shhhh!’ said Colt.

  On the big, shimmering holoscreen, the spookily real 3D image of his mother was telling Verity Dingle that Lucy seemed to be improving.

  ‘There’s a very good chance,’ Kristin said, ‘that my patient will be out of danger by tomorrow morning.’

  The holocam operator cut to Lucy, sniffing at a cabbage Captain Noah had tossed into the quarantine area in case she was hungry. Lucy wasn’t eating the cabbage, but she did look a bit better. Just outside the orange-and-black tape, a small figure performed a nimble handspring that took her right off the shimmering electron field.

  ‘There I –’

  ‘Shhhh!’

  Colt’s mother and Verity Dingle were back on screen.

  ‘What about the risk to other animals?’ the famous holovision journalist was asking.

  ‘There is absolutely no risk!’ Kristin said heatedly. ‘The government’s vaccination program means that every farm animal and domestic pet in this country is immune to rat flu.’

  Verity Dingle seemed puzzled. ‘So why, then, is DoRFE considering destroying her?’

  ‘Because they can’t do the job they’re supposed to do,’ Kristin said. ‘DoRFE was set up to rid our state of rats. That’s why taxpayers like you and I pay their salaries. But they’re failing. There are still just as many rats as there were before DoRFE came onto the scene. So the rat cops try to justify their jobs by killing other animals instead.’

  The journalist raised her carefully plucked eyebrows. ‘That’s a strong opinion, Ms Lawless.’

  ‘Lucy is the last elephant on this planet,’ Kristin said. ‘She’s a living monument to everything this world has lost to the rat flu pandemic. We can’t afford to lose her, too.’

  ‘Is there any way to save her?’ Verity Dingle asked.

  ‘Your viewers can save her,’ said Kristin. ‘How many people watch this show, Verity?’

  ‘Between two and three million.’

  Kristin looked straight out of the holoscreen. It was almost as if a second Kristin Lawless was with them in the motorhome. ‘If two or three million people voiced their outrage, DoRFE might be persuaded to do what they are paid to do: kill rats, not elephants.’

  Five hundred kilometres away, in a big beach-side house in the state capital, a man activated his wrist-phone with a terse voice command.

  The tiny screen lit up and a woman’s face stared out at him. ‘Yes, boss?’

  ‘Are you watching Verity Dingle?’ he asked.

  He listened to her answer while staring sightlessly at the muted holoscreen that filled half of his lounge room.

  ‘I agree,’ he said. ‘We need to nip this in the bud before it has time to escalate.’

  The man listened some more, then shook his head.

  ‘No, tomorrow might be too late,’ he said. ‘If the animal-huggers get wind of this, we’ll never get the job done. I want you to do it tonight, Officer Katt.’

  Colt tossed and turned. Even though it was fully dark, he could see his surroundings almost as clearly as if it was daytime. Above his head was a low ceiling. To his right was a little fridge, a flash-looking Carbon Inverter cooker and lots of cupboards. Across from him, on a padded bench that doubled as a bed when the table folded away, a small dark-haired figure lay motionless in a sleeping bag. Just past Colt’s feet, a curtain screened off another room. Loud snoring came from the other side.

  Kristin had got a call shortly before the circus started. A sheep had rat bite and she had to go straight away. She and Colt were going to miss the show again! It was Captain Noah’s suggestion that Colt stay the night in his motorhome. The spare bed was already made up, and Kristin could collect him in the morning when she came back to check on Lucy.

  Birdy’s caravan was right next door. When she found out that she and Colt were going to be neighbours, she talked her parents and Captain Noah into letting her have a sleepover.

  Birdy was pretty good at getting her own way.

  She was a pretty good acrobat, too. The Flying Flynns were amazing. There were four in the family circus act – Birdy, her parents, and her sixteen-year-old brother, Dermott. Mrs Flynn looked a lot like Birdy. They had the same haircut and the same smooth, round faces; they even wore matching leotards. Mr Flynn and Dermott both had red hair and freckles. The Flynns really did seem to fly as they sailed back and forth between two huge swings suspended across from each other right up in the dome of the Big Top. At their full extension, the two swings didn’t quite meet, but the Flying Flynns crossed between them as if there was no gap at all. Sometimes, two Flying Flynns would cross at the same time, sailing over or under each other in opposite directions. And sometimes Birdy or her mother (who was small like Birdy) would fly across the gap, spinning or doing somersaults, and Mr Flynn or Dermott (who were both bigger), would be hanging upside-down from the other swing, waiting to catch their wrists and swoop with them back to the safety of the rickety platforms high on either side of the tent.

  It was scary to watch.

  At the end of their performance, the Flying Flynns tumbled backwards off the platforms, one at a time, into the safety net ten metres below. Then they swung lightly on ropes down to the ground.

  Colt felt relieved when they were all safely back in the circus ring. Holding hands, the Flying Flynns stood in a line and all bowed at the same time. They did it four times, in four different directions, and the crowd went mad. Colt’s hands were hot from clapping.

  ‘Do you ever fall?’ he asked an hour later, when he and Birdy were in
their beds at Captain Noah’s.

  There was no answer, just shallow breathing from the other side of the camper. Birdy was already asleep.

  But Colt couldn’t sleep. He tossed and turned. He was worried about Lucy. He kept thinking about what might happen to her tomorrow, when DoRFE got their lab test results. Could people power really save her?

  Nobody had any power over the rat cops when it came to animals, not even the real police.

  Colt sat up. What was the use of lying in bed if you were wide awake? Anyway, he’d had enough sleep over the past few days to last a whole week. He decided to go and check on Lucy. She might be getting better. She might even be hungry.

  Colt felt a bit hungry himself. It didn’t make sense – he’d eaten so much today. But his stomach rumbled, and there was no arguing with that.

  Colt dressed in the dark. Birdy’s mother had lent him a shirt and some jeans that Dermott had grown out of. They fitted much better than Captain Noah’s clothes and were a lot less embarrassing. Colt tiptoed to the fridge and pulled it open. There was a packet of Power Bars in the door that he hadn’t noticed before.

  ‘Why are you dressed?’ Birdy whispered behind him.

  Colt quickly closed the fridge and slipped a few Power Bars into his pockets. ‘I’m going to check on Lucy,’ he whispered.

  ‘I’ll come, too.’

  Colt knew it was no use arguing with Birdy. ‘I’ll wait outside,’ he whispered, clicking the door open.

  It was just after midnight and about a million stars filled the sky. No lights shone from any of the other circus homes. There was dew on the grass. Shashlik! Colt had forgotten his shoes. He unwrapped one of the Power Bars and took a bite. The door cracked open and Birdy slipped outside, wearing a hoodie and tights.

  ‘What are you eating?’ she whispered.

  ‘Just a Power Bar. Want some?’

  He was glad when she said no, then felt a bit ashamed for being so greedy. He was turning into a . . .

  ‘Rat!’ squealed Birdy.

  A small, black shadow went darting under one of the caravans.

  ‘Shhhh!’ said Colt. ‘It’s not a ghost rat.’

  ‘I hate all rats!’ Birdy whispered.

  ‘It can’t hurt us,’ he said. ‘C’mon, let’s go.’

  Colt knew his way around Circus City now. And his eyes seemed to see better in the dark than Birdy’s. He spotted two more scuttling shadows as he led her between rows of silent motorhomes and caravans, but neither looked white. Only one rat in a thousand was a ghost rat, but all rats carried rat flu and it was scary how many there were.

  The rat cops were useless!

  He and Birdy reached the end of Circus City and stepped out into bright starlight.

  ‘Huh?’ said Birdy.

  Fifty metres away, several shadowy figures watched a huge forklift raising a shipping container onto a truck.

  Colt grabbed Birdy’s arm and pulled her back behind the caravans.

  ‘Rat cops,’ he whispered, and his heart started racing. ‘I think they’re stealing Lucy!’

  ‘Will I go and get Captain Noah?’ Birdy asked.

  ‘There isn’t time,’ he said.

  The container was already on the truck and the forklift was backing up. Two of the watching figures hurried over to the truck and jumped in. For a moment, the inside light lit up their orange uniforms. The other rat cops climbed into a pale van and went bouncing off across the grass towards the gate. Behind them, the truck’s headlights came on, its engine rumbled into life, and the huge vehicle slowly moved clear of the tree.

  Lucy was no longer there – she must be inside the container!

  Colt’s muscles grew taut and a strange tingling, like a wave of electricity, passed through his body.

  ‘Follow me,’ he whispered.

  But Birdy probably didn’t hear, because he was already ten metres ahead of her, running.

  Colt caught up with the truck just as it reached the gate. He didn’t slow down. Without thinking, he jumped. The truck’s tray was about a metre and a half off the ground, and the top of the shipping container was another three metres above that – altogether it was a jump of over four metres. But somehow Colt made it. His fingers clamped onto the container’s cool, steel edge and he hauled himself up.

  ‘Catch me!’ cried Birdy.

  She was balanced on the gate post, her arms raised. As soon as Colt’s head turned, she launched herself fearlessly upwards.

  Colt panicked. He wasn’t a Flying Flynn! But his hands flew down, grabbed Birdy’s skinny wrists and pulled her up beside him.

  ‘Thanks,’ she puffed. ‘Hey, you’re a really fast runner. And that jump was amazing!’

  Colt was amazed himself. How had he managed it? He had never been a particularly sporty person.

  He yawned as a sudden wave of tiredness swept over him.

  Uh oh! he thought, recognising the symptoms. With the last of his strength, Colt rolled away from the edge of the big steel container and lay looking up at the stars.

  ‘Birdy,’ he whispered weakly. ‘I think I’m going to black out. Don’t let me roll off.’

  When Colt woke up, he was flat on his back, the container vibrating beneath him. Street lights flicked steadily past on both sides. They flashed on Birdy’s worried face as she crouched over him, her body swaying slightly with the truck’s movement.

  ‘Hey, sleepyhead,’ she said softly. ‘Rise and shine!’

  Colt rubbed his eyes. ‘How long was I unconscious?’

  ‘About ten minutes,’ Birdy said. ‘What’s going on with you?’

  ‘I don’t know. It’s happened a couple of times lately. The first time, I didn’t wake up for three days.’

  ‘You’re kidding!’

  Colt carefully sat up. ‘I wish I was,’ he said. He still felt a bit weak and groggy. But more than anything, he was hungry. Burrowing into his pocket, he pulled out two Power Bars and offered one to Birdy.

  ‘No thanks.’

  Colt ate them both and immediately felt better. The transformation was extraordinary. Not only was he no longer hungry, but he didn’t feel weak anymore, either. And his head was clear.

  He took a look at their surroundings. The truck was motoring slowly through dark suburban streets. Its headlights lit up the empty street ahead. There was no sign of the van or the forklift. Colt ducked when he saw some power lines coming, but there was lots of room.

  ‘Where are we?’ he asked.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Birdy said. ‘But I’m glad we aren’t going fast. It’s a long way to fall.’

  Colt ran his fingers across the cool metal surface beneath him. It was the only thing between him and Lucy. He wondered how the rat cops had got her to go into the container. They must have drugged her to calm her down, then all pushed her from behind.

  Birdy seemed to guess what he was thinking about. ‘Do you think Lucy’s okay?’ she asked.

  ‘Probably,’ Colt said. He put his ear to the metal and listened. All he could hear was the humming vibration of the truck’s wheels on the road. ‘I don’t think the rat cops will kill her until the lab results come back.’

  ‘So why did they steal her in the middle of the night?’

  ‘Because they must have seen the Verity Dingle show,’ he said. ‘Mum reckons the holovision crews will be back in the morning. There might be protesters, too. DoRFE couldn’t just waltz in and kill the last elephant with the whole world watching.’

  ‘Well, they could,’ Birdy said.

  He nodded. ‘Yeah. But after all that stuff Mum said, there would probably be a riot.’

  The truck turned a sharp corner and its two top-deck passengers had to brace themselves so they wouldn’t roll sideways.

  ‘Where do you think we’re going?’ Birdy asked.

  There were no more streetlights ahead, just the truck’s powerful high beams carving a long white tunnel into the night.

  ‘I don’t know.’ Colt shrugged. ‘Somewhere where the whole world won
’t be watching.’

  ‘Then what will happen?’

  ‘The rat cops will wait until the lab tests prove Lucy has rat flu,’ he said, ‘and then they’ll destroy her.’

  ‘We have to stop them!’ cried Birdy.

  Colt stared up into the starry night sky. It felt like they were flying through space, not riding on top of a shipping container with a kidnapped elephant beneath them.

  ‘That’s why we’ve hitched a ride,’ he said.

  The truck kept driving for what felt like hours. Birdy had left her ancient hand-held phone at Captain Noah’s, and Colt’s wrist-phone hadn’t been recharged since before he was in hospital, so they had no idea of the time. Nor did they know where they were. After leaving Murray Landing, the truck didn’t go through a single town. Several times it turned off the highway and took a series of narrow back roads before joining the highway again. Colt guessed the rat cops were trying to avoid attention by taking detours around towns, rather than going through them. Even in the small hours of the morning, a taxi driver, or a traveller recharging their car at a 24-hour autoport, might notice a big truck with a shipping container on the back rumbling past.

  It proved that DoRFE was scared of people power. What happened to Lucy would be done in secret, at a secret location, with nobody watching.

  Or so the rat cops thought.

  Colt was scared. He had no idea what he and Birdy would do once the truck finally stopped. They were just two kids. But they had to do something – they were Lucy’s only hope.

  He and Birdy had talked about it for a while, early in their journey. But it was impossible to make plans when they didn’t know where they were going, or what would be there when they arrived. Finally they ran out of ideas and Birdy fell asleep.

  Colt stayed awake. He was no longer tired and he wasn’t sleepy. He held Birdy so she wouldn’t roll off the container. Luckily it was a warm night. And luckily the truck wasn’t going very fast.

  He thought he heard Lucy once. They had come to a T-junction and the truck slowed right down. In the quiet moment between gear-changes, Colt heard a faint sliding sound just beneath him. It sounded like something was rubbing along the underside of the thin metal surface where he and Birdy lay. It must have been Lucy’s trunk, and it proved she was still alive. Not only alive, but awake. Colt tapped lightly on the iron, to let her know she wasn’t alone.