by Bindi Irwin
“Ah, Bindi—” Hannah whispered quietly to her friend.
“Yeah, yeah, you’re king of the jungle,” joked Bindi, distracted.
“Turn around very slowly,” Hannah cautioned. She pointed a little distance away from the wire fence. “Look.”
Bindi turned to see what Hannah was pointing at.
Not ten feet from the girls, swishing a very angry tail, stood a fully grown lioness.
Hannah and Bindi remained frozen to the spot. They watched transfixed as the lioness paced restlessly in front of them.
“Well, you got your lion,” Hannah whispered to Bindi.
“Sure did,” replied Bindi. It was just as Thabu had said. “Right when I least expected it.”
The closer the lioness paced, the more she blocked off their only escape option. Hannah carefully backed up to where Bindi was pinned against the tall wire fence.
“Let’s try moving slowly to the right,” suggested Bindi. She took a step and indicated for Hannah to do the same.
But the lioness didn’t like that and let out an angry growl. The girls froze.
Just then a gorgeous little lion cub came tumbling out of the bushes. The lioness nudged him with her nose while keeping a steady eye on the girls.
“No wonder she’s upset,” gasped Bindi. “She’s got cubs to protect.”
Bindi took another step. She knew that you should never get mixed up with a mother and her babies. The mother would do anything to protect them. They had to get away, and fast.
As Bindi took another step she stumbled on something sharp. She looked down to see the pair of wire cutters.
Of course!
She nudged Hannah. “Let’s get to the hole in the fence!” It was their only hope—but the hole was closer to the lioness than they were!
Bindi took a deep breath. If they were very slow and still with their movements, the lioness might lose interest in them. She didn’t seem to be on the lookout for food, which was a huge relief. The lioness kept a sharp eye on the girls as they began their slow journey toward the hole in the fence, keeping her cubs away from the two humans.
After what seemed like hours later, Bindi finally reached the break in the fence. She struggled to pull back the stiff and heavy steel mesh so that they could squeeze through.
“You go first, and make it quick!” Bindi nodded to Hannah while she held back the opening. With a swift glance at the lion, Hannah crawled through to the other side.
Bindi passed her the wire cutters and canvas bag the men had dropped. There might be food in the bag and it could be a long time before they found help.
Once Bindi was through to the other side, the girls looked for pieces of bush to cover up the hole. They didn’t want a protective mother lion taking too much of an interest in them!
“Phew!” Hannah sank down to the ground as if her legs could no longer hold her. “Now that was scary.”
Bindi joined her friend. “Yeah, definitely a close call!”
The sound of a distant engine interrupted them, and they saw far-off headlights that were getting closer by the moment.
They jumped up for a better look and called out, “Hey, over here!” They did their best to get the driver’s attention, Hannah waving the wire cutters.
A loudspeaker came on with a loud crackle. A voice rang out: “Drop your weapons and freeze!”
In an instant they were blinded by the jeep’s headlights.
The girls instantly dropped the gear they were carrying. Weapons? What were they talking about?
“These aren’t weapons!” cried Bindi. “We took this stuff from the men who broke in through the fence.”
The jeep screeched to a halt and two men approached the girls. It was difficult to see their faces through the glare of the high beams.
“Men? Seems to me it’s just you two troublemakers carrying what look very much like wire cutters.”
The man grabbed the canvas bag from Hannah and opened it. He whistled in disbelief and held up a camera with a very large lens. “And I’ll be guessing that this is your camera?”
The girls shook their heads. “It’s not ours,” stuttered Hannah.
“I guess you won’t miss it then.” The man threw the camera down hard onto the ground. It smashed into tiny pieces.
“Yikes,” whispered Hannah to Bindi. “Why would he do that? It’s an expensive piece of equipment.”
“No talking! You two can save your story for the police.” The man motioned for the girls to follow him. “We take trespassing pretty seriously.”
Bindi and Hannah realized they had no choice but to follow the men into the waiting jeep.
Bindi whispered to Hannah, “I have a bad feeling about this.”
Hannah nodded and bent over to tie a shoelace. “I’d rather have taken my chances with the lioness,” she muttered.
The girls were driven to the main office of the park and told to wait. The sanctuary manager had been called and was on his way to interview them. Bindi felt sure that when he heard what they had to say, this misunderstanding would quickly be cleared up.
In the meantime, all they could do was sit down and wait. Bindi saw Hannah stifle a yawn. A moment later Bindi was holding back a yawn of her own, and then Hannah started up again. Yawning was totally contagious and it was now about 4:30 a.m. They hadn’t got quite as much sleep as they’d planned and the office wasn’t very interesting. It was very bare apart from a large poster of a majestic giant sable antelope that dominated the room. Bindi had never seen one before and marveled at the power of the animal. It had beautiful shiny eyes, a muscular body, and long, sharp horns. She had read that the horns could grow almost as long as 5 feet. She shuddered at the thought of anyone wanting to harm such a beautiful creature.
The door burst open. In walked a well-dressed, efficient-looking man. He studied the girls. “I’m Brian Danbury. I’m in charge here.”
“Thank goodness!” cried Bindi. “Can you please call our mums? We haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Is that so?” Brian towered over them looking unfriendly.
“We told your staff over and over again what happened. We’re not making this up!”
Brian sneered. “And yet all the evidence points to you two girls being up to no good. Until you come up with the names of your accomplices, you can spend a bit more time cooped up in here. How does that sound?”
“We’ve told you, we interrupted the men trying to break in. We’re not with them!” said Bindi.
Brian stared her down, tapping a foot impatiently.
Bindi decided to change tack. She crossed her arms and adopted her most stern face. “This is totally unfair. When my mum finds out you’ve kept us here against our will, she’ll be really mad.”
Brian pulled a face in mock fear. “Ooh! Now you’ve got me scared. Police are on their way. You’re not going anywhere.”
And with that he left the room, closing the door firmly behind him.
The girls looked at each other as they heard the key turning in the lock. There was no doubt about it: they were being kept prisoner.
The sun was rising as Bindi gazed helplessly through the locked window. This was not what she had imagined her trek in Africa would be like!
The girls were stumped. They’d tried the windows and the door but both were locked. The phone on the desk was disconnected and, although Hannah had found her mobile phone in her jeans pocket, she couldn’t get any reception.
Bindi began to pace. “It makes me so mad that those men are getting away while we’re trapped in here!”
Hannah sighed glumly. “Why would anyone want to hurt such an incredible animal? And why are we getting blamed for trying to help catch them?”
Bindi didn’t have an answer to either of Hannah’s questions. Both girls turned as they heard the door being unlocked.
> Hannah jumped to her feet. “About time.”
A tall, thin, bearded man wearing rangers’ overalls entered the room. He carried a tray of food and bottles of water that he set down on the desk. He gestured to the food. “Brian asked me to bring you some breakfast. Help yourselves.”
The girls didn’t need to be told twice. They were starving.
As she ate, Bindi tried to appeal to the man. “Listen, my friend and I need to get out of here.”
He smirked. “Is that so?”
Bindi nodded. “We know some men tried to hunt the antelope last night and we have to stop them.”
Suddenly the man was all ears. “How do you know that?”
Hannah piped up mid-mouthful. “Because we were there and we’re being held prisoner here because we can’t identify the men. We saw them cut a hole in the fence. They were up to something bad!”
The staff member shifted uncomfortably. “Maybe they had a different motive.”
Bindi couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Why would you defend them? They were obviously doing something illegal.”
As she ate, Hannah studied the man more closely. He looked familiar to her. The more she looked at him, the more she knew she’d seen him before.
Hannah pointed to the man’s face. “You’ve got something on your beard.”
He rubbed at his beard self-consciously. As he did so a dark smudge appeared on his chin.
Bindi noticed the mark. “You’ve made it worse.”
She took a step closer for a better look. “It looks like…face paint.”
Hannah gasped. “I recognize you now. You were there last night. You’re one of the men!”
Without a word the man strode swiftly toward the door and closed it. Then he turned back to face the girls. He looked very serious now. “You’re absolutely right. I was one of the men breaking in last night.”
Hannah and Bindi sat in stunned silence, staring at the employee-turned-intruder. They were both scared about what he might do to keep his secret from getting out. Should they scream for help?
The man took a deep breath before speaking. “Listen to me for a moment. I wasn’t breaking in to steal or hurt an animal. I was trying to gather hard evidence to prove what’s really going on here at this so-called ‘sanctuary.’”
The girls gave him a quizzical look. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Hannah said honestly.
“Let me explain. This is an animal sanctuary and breeding center, by day. It’s a different story at night. They use part of the grounds as a reserve where men pay good money to hunt game for sport.”
Now Bindi was confused. “No, that can’t be right. Thabu said it’s for protecting the antelope.”
The man shook his head and continued, “A colleague and I figured out what was going on here a few weeks ago. Antelope numbers were decreasing and we didn’t know why. We’ve been trying to collect evidence ever since but it’s difficult. Brian is a powerful man and security is really tight. We’re searched whenever we arrive or leave the grounds.”
Bindi shook her head slowly. “How do we know you’re telling the truth?”
The man threw up his hands in frustration. He began to pace the room and seemed to forget about them altogether.
Hannah studied the man as he paced. “He could be telling the truth, Bindi,” she ventured hesitantly.
Bindi shrugged. She didn’t know what to believe.
The man paused and stared incredulously at Bindi. “Bindi? Steve’s Bindi?”
Bindi looked at him tentatively. “Huh? Steve was my dad.”
The man slowly sank into a chair. “This is incredible! Bindi Irwin.”
Bindi looked over at Hannah, surprised. What was going on?
Suddenly, he was all action. “Are you Bindi Irwin who lives at Australia Zoo? Daughter of Terri and Steve Irwin? Are you a global wildlife warrior whose mission it is to protect animals who can’t protect themselves?”
“I am,” admitted Bindi warily. “I’m just not sure if you are on the same mission.”
The man thought about it. “I can tell you something that proves that I knew your dad pretty well. Okay?”
Bindi shrugged. “You can try.”
“Your dad took a trip to Cape York three years ago to visit a croc sanctuary up there. Did he come home and talk about a guy called Mike Satchwell?”
“He showed me photos from that trip.” Bindi stared at the man. It gradually dawned on her. “You’re in those photos with my dad…but you didn’t have a beard then.”
Bindi made a quick decision. Turning to Hannah, she said, “We can trust Mike.”
Mike stepped forward to shake their hands. “I should have introduced myself earlier.”
“I guess your camera was the one they smashed?” said Hannah.
Mike let out a loud breath. “Did they? We weren’t sure if they picked it up. We already had great footage of them hunting and we were going back to take a few more shots. I dropped the camera while running away. All our evidence is gone!”
Hannah smiled. “So you don’t have a camera? But you do still have this.” She searched in her pocket and pulled out a tiny memory card. “I saw it among the broken pieces of your camera when I bent down to tie my shoelace.”
Mike’s face lit up. “Fantastic. This is all the evidence we need! Smart thinking.”
“Well, I’m not just a pretty face.” Hannah couldn’t help but feel pleased with herself. “And by the way, that lion that scared you off?”
Mike nodded.
“That lion was me.”
Mike shook his head in disbelief. “You’re kidding? We were scared off by a young girl?” He laughed. “Wait till the guys hear about that one. We’ll never live it down.”
Bindi cleared her throat. “Just a moment, guys. We have animals to rescue and a crook to expose!”
Mike began searching through the cupboards.
“There should be a camera in here somewhere. We keep one handy for the tourists. Help me look!”
The three of them started looking in every nook and cranny in the office. Finally Bindi let out a whoop of delight and held up a good quality camera, similar to the one the guard had smashed.
Mike took it and slid the memory card into the tiny compartment. “Fingers crossed that this will work.”
The three watched anxiously as the card loaded.
Bindi, Hannah, and Mike jumped apart a moment later as the door burst open. Brian stormed into the room, accompanied by two policemen. They were closely followed by Hannah and Bindi’s mums.
Mike hid the camera beneath his jacket and pretended to clean up the breakfast trays.
“What’s been going on?” Terri rushed over to Bindi and gave her a hug. “We got a call from the police saying you were being held here for questioning. We’ve just seen Thabu. He’s outside with Robert and the horses. But he couldn’t tell us what had happened.”
Kirsten checked in with Hannah. “Are you okay, darling?”
Hannah smiled. “I’m fine, Mum.”
Bindi was all business. “It’s fine. We’re fine. It’s more like a case of mistaken identity.”
Brian tried to take control of the situation. “You’re lucky I haven’t pressed charges.”
Kirsten looked concerned. “I want to know what’s going on.”
Brian puffed up his chest. “And I want to know who these two girls are trying to protect. They damaged property of mine, they were trespassing, and we know they had help.”
Terri bristled. She turned on Brian. “It sounds very much like you’re accusing my eleven-year-old daughter of doing something illegal. You better watch what you say.”
“And you should keep a closer eye on your brat. Creeping around in the middle of the night! This is a serious operation we’re running here. It’s no
place for helpless little girls.”
That last statement seemed to suck the air out of the room. Kirsten, Terri, Bindi, and Hannah all looked furious.
Bindi took a deep breath. “Mum, he’s right.”
“What do you mean?” questioned Terri.
Bindi turned to the police. “Look, I know I’m just a ‘helpless little girl,’ but I know this is a serious operation Brian’s running.”
Brian relaxed a little. “About time I was shown some respect.”
“But it’s not a sanctuary—in fact, it’s the opposite of a breeding sanctuary. Big game hunters are paying money to hunt these beautiful creatures for sport.” Bindi pointed to the poster on the wall. “And Mike here has proof!”
All eyes turned to Mike, who was hovering in the corner. He nodded his thanks to Bindi and spoke. “Bindi’s telling the truth. A couple of colleagues and I have been collecting proof after hours.” Mike looked Brian in the eye. “What you’re doing is despicable.”
Brian yelled at Mike, “This is outrageous! I refuse to stand here and be accused of such nonsense.” He pointed to Mike. “Take this man and these two brats away and arrest them!”
“Calm down, Mr. Danbury, calm down.” The police placated Brian. “These are very serious threats, Mike.”
“Of which we’ve yet to see any proof!” said Brian, before receiving another stern look from the police.
Hannah pointed to the bulge under Mike’s jacket. “I think the pics on the camera might be the proof you’re looking for.”
Brian watched with suspicion as Mike pulled out the camera. “But my guards said that camera was smashed…” He gulped as he realized what he’d just said. One of the police officers took a step toward him.
“Mr. Danbury—”
Brian backed away. “You can’t possibly take a child’s word over mine. I’m a very powerful man.” Brian looked around the room, sizing up the situation. All eyes were on him.
Before anyone could do anything to stop him, he snatched the camera out of Mike’s hand and took off out of the room.