Lost World Circus

by Justin D'Ath

  But today, from his vantage point behind the cattle trough, Colt could see elements of both worlds – the old lost one and the new modern one. A sleek orange helicopter sat in the middle of the three-and-a-half hectare compound. Beyond it, lined up next to the administration centre, was a line of circus trucks and trailers. They had been cordoned off with a temporary fence of iron posts and orange-and-black tape. Two rat cops stood at one corner, while another leaned against one of the trucks. Circus City – the caravans and motorhomes belonging to the circus staff – had been set up next to the gatehouse. More posts and tape fenced it off, guarded by another pair of rat cops. Colt knew his caravan would be there somewhere, as would Birdy’s, but his eyes were drawn to the far end of the compound. Something was going on down there. He zoomed his superhuman vision.

  ‘Shashlik!’ he gasped.

  A couple of temporary pens had been set up on either side of the veterinary centre where his mother used to work. The larger of the two was very sturdy, made of railway sleepers and steel uprights. It housed two elephants – Lucy and a tiny replica of herself. She’d had her calf.

  But that wasn’t what had made Colt gasp.

  Three humans stood outside Lucy’s pen. One was Colt’s mother. The second was Officer Katt. And the third was a man in a rat cop’s uniform, cradling a high-powered rifle.

  The two women were having a fierce argument.

  Colt couldn’t really hear what they were arguing about – they were nearly 200 metres away – but it wasn’t difficult to work it out. Officer Katt and the rat cop had come to shoot Lucy and her baby, and Colt’s mother was trying to stop them.

  He had to get over there in a hurry.

  Two hundred metres was quite a distance. Colt didn’t feel strong enough to run. He wasn’t even sure he could walk that far in his present condition. And if he tried, they would see him coming long before he got there. That would make things worse for his mother. And much worse for Lucy and her baby.

  Officer Katt wasn’t going to let Superclown get close enough to ruin her plans twice in one day.

  He looked over his shoulder. Where was the rat? It must have stayed in the dairy, scared of being trampled by the cows. ‘I need help!’ he called.

  Hungry, said one of the cows.

  That gave him an idea. There was a pile of straw bales next to Lucy’s pen. At least the rat cops hadn’t been letting her go hungry.

  ‘Which one of you can talk?’ he asked the cows.

  There was a chorus of voices: Us, us, us, us, us . . .

  They could all talk. More to the point, Colt could understand them. Jeez, his powers had really come a long way! ‘Here’s the deal,’ he said. ‘If you help me, I’ll get you some food.’

  Nearly all the cows answered: Food, food, help, food, us help, food, help.

  There was a gate a few metres past the trough. Colt made his way towards it, being careful to keep some of the cows between him and the fence at all times, so he wouldn’t be spotted from across the compound. He crawled under a little brown cow to unlatch the gate, then pushed back into the herd and squeezed between two big cream- and-black animals standing side by side chewing their cud.

  Sliding an arm across each cow’s back, Colt said, ‘You two can carry me. I want all the rest of you to form a herd around us.’

  Where is food? asked a cow to his left.

  ‘Over there near the elephant.’

  What is elephant?

  Colt sighed. ‘It’s a really big animal – even bigger than you guys. Can’t you see it over there? It’s all wrinkly and grey.’

  Us see it, said a cow in front of him.

  ‘Good. That’s where we’re going. Push the gate open, someone – it’s unlatched – and let’s go. Remember to keep me in the middle so no one can see me.’

  They set off across the compound in a big, tightly packed herd. Colt’s two cows stayed in the middle. He kept his head down and let his feet drag along the ground. It wasn’t long before the tattered remains of his right sock fell off. He almost followed it. Growing increasingly weak, it was all he could do to hold on to the two cream-and-black cows’ big, bony shoulders.

  Moo! went someone at the front of the herd.

  ‘Shhh!’ Colt said softly. ‘We don’t want to attract attention.’

  ★★★

  They had already attracted attention. Over by the elephants’ pen, the two arguing women had paused for a moment to watch the approaching cows. The rat cop with the rifle was watching, too.

  ‘How did they get out?’ muttered Superintendent Katt. ‘This place is supposed to be under quarantine.’

  Both she and the rat cop wore surgical masks. Colt’s mother didn’t.

  Hers lay discarded on the ground beside her vet’s bag. ‘I’m sure their RatVax shots are all up-to-date,’ she said. ‘As is this elephant’s.’

  There was a glint of triumph in Superintendent Katt’s eyes. ‘But not the baby.’

  ‘It’s only two hours old,’ Kristin said. ‘I was about to give it its shot when you arrived.’

  ‘We’ll save you the bother,’ said Superintendent Katt. She turned to the rat cop. ‘Shoot the mother first, Officer Owen, then the baby.’

  Officer Owen clicked a big brass bullet into the breech of his rifle.

  ★★★

  Colt knew nothing of this. He was still some distance from the elephants’ pen and he couldn’t see or hear anything other than the cows that surrounded him. They began to slow down.

  Elephant, said one of them.

  Food, said another.

  The cows spread out as they slowed. The two animals that had carried Colt across the compound went off in separate directions, leaving him unsupported. He wobbled for a moment, then collapsed to his knees, too weak to stand up on his own. As the herd dispersed further in search of the promised food, Colt was finally able to see where they had brought him. To a pen containing an animal that was indeed big, grey and wrinkly. But it wasn’t an elephant.

  It was Assam, the Lost World Circus’s Indian one-horn rhinoceros.

  Sharing the pen was Assam’s long-time buddy, Rocky the American bighorn ram.

  Colt and Assam were no strangers to each other. They’d had a wrestling match once. Colt had been dressed in his Superclown outfit, but the rhino still recognised him.

  And it respected him, because Colt had won the fight.

  Assam backed away nervously as the strong little human dragged itself through the dust towards his and Rocky’s pen.

  ‘Assam!’ the human gasped. ‘Could you do me a favour?’

  Superintendent Katt’s patience had run out. She had come here to get even with Snowy, aka Colt Lawless, aka Superclown, the meddling kid who had foiled all her plans, and whose revelations on live HV that morning would most likely send her to jail. Snowy had destroyed her career, now she was going to destroy the thing he loved most in the world – Lucy the world’s last elephant.

  And the surprising fact that suddenly Lucy wasn’t the last elephant – that now there were two of them – made Superintendent Katt’s revenge even sweeter. She could almost imagine the look of horror on Snowy’s face when he discovered that Lucy’s new-born calf was dead also. He would know that both elephants had died because of him.

  He’d know that Superintendent Katt had won!

  ‘Get out of the way, Doctor Lawless!’ she snarled. ‘You’ve wasted enough of our time as it is.’

  Colt’s mother had climbed up onto the rails between Officer Owen and the elephants. She was looking at the man holding the rifle, not at Superintendent Katt. ‘You’ll have to shoot me first,’ she said.

  The rat cop’s eyes darted back and forth between Superintendent Katt and the woman on the fence. It was obvious he didn’t know what to do. ‘Perhaps she’s right, boss. These animals don’t look sick to me.’

  ‘Just do your job, Officer! SHOOT THE ELEPHANTS!’

  Officer Owen moved sideways to get a clear shot, but Kristin scrambled nimbly
along the fence-top, keeping herself between him and the two elephants behind her. Lucy stood protectively over her calf in the pen’s far corner, making a deep rumbling noise that sounded a bit like stampeding hooves.

  The rat cop lowered his rifle. ‘Sorry, boss. I can’t do it.’

  ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake!’ Superintendent Katt went striding towards him with her hand held out. ‘Here, give me the gun. I’ll do it myself.’

  The moment they took their eyes off her, Kristin leapt off the fence. She hit the ground running and reached the two DoRFE personnel just as Superintendent Katt was taking the rifle. Officer Owen stepped backwards, leaving the two women struggling for control of the weapon. There was a loud thud and a gasp. Colt’s mother fell to the ground, clutching her leg. Her opponent had hit her on the kneecap with the rifle butt.

  ‘You’re as crazy as your son,’ Superintendent Katt muttered, backing slowly away from Kristin with the rifle in both hands. But she was the one who looked crazy. Her surgical mask had slipped sideways during the struggle and half her mouth was showing. She was grinning as she turned towards the elephants’ pen. She raised the rifle.

  ‘It’s such a shame Snowy isn’t here to see this.’

  The rumbling sound had been growing steadily louder. It wasn’t just Lucy. The ground was shaking.

  ‘Look out!’ yelled Officer Owen.

  Suddenly a big mob of cows came stampeding around the side of the veterinary centre. Superintendent Katt tried to jump out of the way. But she wasn’t quick enough. A glancing blow from a big, bony cow-hip spun her in a circle. The rifle went one way, the DoRFE boss went the other. She fell to the ground and lay there, covering her head as the last of the cows thundered past. Then there was silence.

  Superintendent Katt coughed a couple of times and raised her head. Dust filled the air. At first she couldn’t see properly. A huge shadow fell over her. She craned her neck. No way! A rhinoceros stood there. But that wasn’t the worst bit. It was the sight of its filthy, white-haired rider that took her breath away.

  ‘Officer Katt,’ he said softly. ‘We . . . meet again.’

  ‘It’s Superintendent Katt now,’ she corrected him.

  ‘Not for . . . much longer,’ Colt whispered. His voice sounded weak. He was lying on the rhino rather than sitting on it; he seemed to be having trouble holding on. ‘I think the police . . . will be here . . . soon.’

  Superintendent Katt squinted up at him. The rhinoceros loomed over her. ‘Can you move your animal back a bit?’

  Colt said something to the rhino. It made a loud whuff sound and backed away like a slowly reversing truck. Superintendent Katt climbed stiffly to her feet and began dusting herself down. It gave her a chance to look around. The boy’s mother was sitting on the ground about five metres away. Officer Owen crouched next to her, asking her about her knee. In the other direction, the rifle lay where it had fallen, partially concealed beneath the bottom rail of the elephants’ pen. Snowy hadn’t seen it yet. He was distracted by his injured mother and Officer Owen. Still dusting herself down, Superintendent Katt angled her body away from the boy and drew her stun gun from its holster.

  Then she turned back and shot Colt Lawless at point-blank range.

  Superintendent Katt’s stun gun was dialled up to its maximum setting – 120,00 volts. It was enough to stun an elephant. Enough to kill a human.

  There was a blinding white flash, an explosion that made Colt’s teeth rattle, and he felt himself flying through the air. He landed flat on his back on the far side of Assam. His hair was standing on end. Wisps of white smoke rose out of his clothes. There was strong smell of burning.

  He didn’t hear his mother scream – the explosion was louder. Somehow she had risen to her feet and came hopping towards him on her good leg. Officer Owen just stood there, ashen-faced, looking at the crumpled form of the electrocuted boy lying on the ground next to the rhinoceros. The huge animal was staring at Colt, too, as were several of the cows that were crowded round a pile of straw bales on the other side of the pen.

  Moo? went one of the cows, as if it was asking a question.

  There was nothing questioning about Lucy’s deafening shriek as she came charging across the pen towards the woman who’d shot Colt.

  But she wasn’t quick enough. Superintendent Katt dropped the used stun gun and snatched up the rifle.

  BOOM!

  There hadn’t been time to aim. She missed both elephants. The bullet hit the bottom corner of the veterinary centre, smashing a fist-sized hole in a PVC pipe that fed into the ground. Superintendent Katt ejected the spent casing and slammed another bullet into the breech. She was about to take a second shot when a big, goat-like animal came charging around from behind the rhino and shoved her backwards against the fence. Before she could recover, the mother elephant had wrapped its trunk around her from behind and pulled her hard up against the rails. Superintendent Katt was pinned there. She still held the rifle, but it was squashed against her chest with its barrel pointing harmlessly up at the sky. Rocky the bighorn ram looked up at her and snorted. Then he backed away about two metres, kicked dust in the air and lowered his head. But before he could charge, a much larger animal nudged Rocky firmly to one side with its huge, single horn. It was Assam’s turn.

  ‘STOP!’ yelled Colt. He was alive! He was sitting up. His voice was loud and commanding. ‘ASSAM, ROCKY, LUCY! EVERYONE STOP!’

  Everyone did stop, except Colt’s mother, who came hopping over and nearly fell on top of him. ‘Darling, I thought you were dead!’

  ‘I’m okay, Mum,’ he said. It was true. He felt fine. Better than fine. The electric charge from Superintendent Katt’s stun gun had caused a short-circuit in the wired transmitter vest that Levi-or-Leon had given him to wear. It had acted like a human battery charger. A superhuman battery charger. Superclown was back in business.

  He bounced to his feet. And froze.

  He was looking down the barrel of a rifle.

  Superintendent Katt grinned. ‘Tell all your pets to back off, Snowy.’

  Lucy still had her pinned to the fence with her trunk, but she’d stopped squeezing when Colt had yelled at all the animals to stop. This had allowed Superintendent Katt to lower the rifle that had been pointing harmlessly up at the sky. Now it was aimed at Colt.

  ‘Tell them to back off!’ she repeated.

  ‘If I do,’ he said, ‘will you promise not to shoot any animals?’

  ‘I’m not promising anything,’ Superintendent Katt said. ‘But if you don’t, I’m going to put a bullet right through your heart.’

  A tremor ran through Kristin. ‘You’re a monster!’ she cried.

  ‘And your son,’ said the woman with the rifle, ‘is a freak of nature.’

  Colt didn’t like being called a freak of any kind. He looked round at the animals. They were all watching Superintendent Katt with narrowed eyes. Even the cows were looking dangerous. And Officer Owen was giving his boss the same hateful look as everyone else.

  But nobody was going to do anything unless Colt commanded it.

  Puckering his lips, he gave a loud, three note whistle.

  Superintendent Katt’s finger tightened on the trigger. ‘What was that?’

  ‘Animal talk,’ said Colt, remembering something Birdy had said on the ship yesterday.

  His were the only set of eyes not focused on Superintendent Katt. He was looking at the broken pipe at the corner of the veterinary centre. There was a slotted inspection cap just above the hole. Even before the pipe was broken, the sound of an elephant trumpeting would have travelled down that pipe and been heard underground.

  What else might be down there listening?

  ‘I’m going to count to three,’ Superintendent Katt said. ‘And if this elephant doesn’t release me, I’m going to pull the trigger. One . . .’

  ‘If you shoot me, she’ll kill you,’ Colt said, buying a little time. His eyes darted back and forth between the broken pipe and Superintendent Katt.

>   She nodded. ‘But you’ll die first, Snowy. Two . . .’

  He didn’t wait for three. Superclown probably couldn’t dodge a bullet, but he could get out of the way in the nanosecond between the trigger-pull and the explosion of gunpowder that sent it speeding down the barrel.

  BOOM!

  Colt felt the bullet whistle past his ear as he jumped to one side. He pushed his mother clear as he went. It must have put weight on her damaged knee, because she cried out in pain. But her cry was all but drowned out by a blood-curdling scream from the direction of the elephants’ pen.

  Superintendent Katt had all but disappeared beneath a seething mound of small, furry bodies. The only part of her that remained visible was a hand desperately clutching the rifle.

  The rats were all colours – there were brown ones, grey ones, black ones and several ghost rats, too – and they swarmed over Lucy’s trunk as well as Superintendent Katt. But none of them bit the elephant. Lucy pulled her trunk free and retreated to the other side of the pen where her calf was waiting.

  Officer Owen came rushing forward, holding a can of rat spray at arm’s length.

  Colt stopped him. ‘I’ll take care of it.’

  Turning to the swarming rats, he said, ‘THAT’S ENOUGH! You can go home now.’

  The swarming animals quickly dispersed, scurrying off in a long, ragged line towards the broken pipe. The last to leave was a ghost rat. It looked up at Colt, white whiskers quivering, and said, It help. Then it turned and followed the others down the drain.

  Superintendent Katt lay nearly motionless in the dust. Her skin was sweaty and dotted with little red marks. Who knew how many fatal bites she’d received? She was already in the second or third stages of RF1. Colt kicked the rifle away, then went to fetch his mother’s veterinary bag. He found a scalpel and nicked the tip of one finger, then he returned to the limp, shivering body of his old enemy. He reached for one of her hands, but she pulled weakly away.