Panda Chase

by Justin D'Ath

  At that moment, a woman climbed up next to Jordan.

  ‘How’s he doing?’ she asked.

  ‘He was fine for a while,’ Jordan said. ‘We were talking and stuff. Then he just …’

  Jordan couldn’t say any more. He had to wipe his eyes.

  ‘Don’t worry, Jordan, she’s a nurse,’ Harry said from down below. ‘How lucky is that!’

  Pretty lucky, Jordan thought. Except she might be too late.

  ‘Can you climb down and make room for me, love?’ the nurse asked gently.

  They changed places. The nurse checked out the driver.

  ‘Is he …?’ Jordan said softly.

  ‘He’s a bit bumped about, but I reckon he’ll be okay.’ The nurse turned to Jordan. ‘How are you feeling, love? It looks like you’ve hurt your ear.’

  Jordan touched it and felt that it was wet. There was blood on his finger. ‘I must have cut myself when I leaned in the window,’ he said. ‘I didn’t feel a thing.’

  ‘If you can wait a few minutes, I’ll get a Band-aid from my car,’ said the nurse.

  Jordan felt silly. Compared to the truck driver, a little cut on his ear was nothing. He wiped away the blood with his shirt.

  ‘I’ll be okay,’ he said.

  Then they heard a siren. There were lots of cars now, and people who had stopped to help. Half of them were using their mobile phones. They must have been calling 000.

  A police car arrived. There was a fire engine not far behind it, then two more police cars. Finally an ambulance roared up with its siren wailing and all its lights flashing. It was like a movie.

  The twins backed away from the truck. Nobody took any notice of them.

  ‘The driver said something weird to me,’ Jordan told his brother. ‘He asked me to check on Pingwu.’

  Harry frowned. ‘Isn’t that the panda?’

  Jordan nodded. Pingwu was the name of the giant panda that was was supposed to arrive at Nullambine Zoo that week.

  ‘You don’t think …?’ he said.

  ‘Let’s take a look,’ said Harry.

  They walked round the back of the truck. One of the big back doors lay flat on the road, totally ripped off. The twins peered inside. Pingwu wasn’t there. There was just some dirty straw, and a few yellow and green sticks. Jordan reached in and picked one up. It was a piece of bamboo, with teeth marks at one end.

  ‘It was Pingwu’s truck, all right,’ he said.

  ‘So where is he?’ asked Harry.

  They both looked to the trees at the edge of the highway, but there was no giant panda.

  There was no Myrtle, either. She wasn’t where they’d left her.

  Both she and the FoxMobile were gone!

  6

  TOTALLY DANGEROUS

  ‘I thought you tied her up,’ Jordan said.

  ‘I thought you did!’

  They raced back to the place where they’d left Myrtle. There were deep scratches in the dirt. It looked like the FoxMobile had been dragged along upside-down! It must have tipped over when Myrtle took off.

  The drag marks were easy to follow. Myrtle had gone back along the Old Quarry road.

  ‘She must’ve got scared by all the sirens,’ Harry puffed as they jogged after her.

  ‘Or she might have been chasing something,’ puffed Jordan.

  ‘Pingwu?’ asked Harry.

  ‘It makes sense,’ Jordan said. ‘You know how Myrtle likes chasing things.’

  ‘She likes chasing cats,’ his brother said.

  Jordan nodded. ‘And you know what the Chinese call giant pandas? I looked it up on BRAIN. The Chinese name means “Large cat-bear’ ”.

  ‘But they don’t look anything like cats,’ said Harry. ‘And they’re ten times bigger.’

  Jordan had a scary thought.

  Maybe Pingwu was chasing Myrtle!

  Harry must have been thinking the same thing. ‘Are pandas dangerous?’ he asked.

  ‘They’re a kind of bear,’ said Jordan. ‘Bears are totally dangerous.’

  Poor Myrtle!

  But they needn’t have worried.

  They caught up with Myrtle around the very next corner. She looked okay, but she was stuck. The FoxMobile had become hooked on a tree stump.

  Jordan unclipped the rope, then gave Myrtle a hug.

  ‘You’re a very bad dog!’ he said into her thick, soft fur. ‘You know you shouldn’t run off like that!’

  Myrtle licked the side of his head to show she was sorry.

  Harry freed the FoxMobile from the tree stump and tipped it up. One of the back wheels was wrecked. Half the spokes were broken, and the rim wobbled from side to side.

  ‘We’ll never catch Pingwu now,’ Harry said.

  Jordan wiped his ear where Myrtle had licked him. It wasn’t bleeding anymore. ‘Um, who said anything about catching Pingwu?’

  ‘Isn’t that what we’re doing?’ asked his brother.

  ‘I thought we were going after Myrtle.’

  ‘Yeah. But we’ve got her now, Agent J. Our next mission is catching Pingwu.’

  Jordan shook his head. ‘Too dangerous, Agent H.’

  ‘Captain Amazing could handle him,’ Harry said.

  When he was little, Harry used to pretend he was a superhero called Captain Amazing. One time Captain Amazing jumped off their grandparents’ water tank and bashed his head on a fence post. That’s how he got the scar on his cheek.

  ‘Dream on!’ said Jordan. ‘We’re talking about a 200-kilogram wild animal.’

  Harry stuck out his chest. Sometimes he still acted as if he was Captain Amazing. ‘Pingwu isn’t wild. He was born in a zoo.’

  ‘Whatever. He’s still way more than Captain Amazing could handle.’

  ‘I suppose the Pet Whisperer could do better?’ Harry jeered.

  Talking to pets and other creatures was Jordan’s special power. Sometimes it seemed to work – especially if the animal was Myrtle.

  ‘I wouldn’t even try it with a giant panda,’ said Jordan. ‘Pingwu is way out of our league, Agent H. We should go back and get help.’

  ‘We don’t need help!’ Harry cried. ‘We’re Mission Fox! Going after escaped animals is what we do!’

  Myrtle seemed to agree. While the twins had been arguing, she had been sniffing the ground. Suddenly she took off towards the Old Quarry.

  ‘Hey!’ yelled the boys, and took off after her.

  7

  HONK!

  Myrtle would have made a very good sled-dog, but she wasn’t very good at tracking things. She lost Pingwu’s trail at the Old Quarry gate.

  Harry looked right and left. ‘Which way do you think he went?’ he asked.

  Jordan clipped Myrtle’s leash on to her collar. He didn’t really want to go searching for Pingwu, but he kept hearing Harry’s words in his head.

  We’re Mission Fox! Going after escaped animals is what we do!

  ‘Follow me, Agent H,’ he said.

  BRAIN said that bamboo was a giant panda’s number one food. And Jordan knew where there was a big patch of bamboo. Maybe Pingwu would be there.

  When Jordan and Harry got to the bamboo, they heard crackling sounds. Jordan tried to see in. There were too many stems. Harry tapped his shoulder and pointed up. Green leaves were swaying back and forth. Something big was in there.

  Then they heard munching sounds. It was Pingwu, all right.

  Myrtle heard him, too. She panted with excitement and pulled on her leash. Jordan had to hold on tight.

  ‘How are we going to catch him?’ he whispered.

  ‘I need a long rope,’ whispered Harry.

  ‘There’s one in the FoxPack.’

  To get the FoxPack off his back, Jordan had to switch Myrtle’s leash from one hand to the other. It was a bit tricky getting his arms out of the straps, and the leash slipped from his fingers. He bent to pick it up, but he was too slow.

  ‘Myrtle, stop!’ he hissed.

  Normally Myrtle did what she was told. Unless she s
aw a cat.

  Or heard a large cat-bear.

  In two seconds, Myrtle was gone. Into the bamboo.

  Jordan and Harry were too scared to follow.

  ‘MYRTLE!’ they yelled.

  There was a lot of noise. Crash! Thump! Snap! Leaves shook. Bamboo stems banged together like drums.

  The noises grew louder. Something came crashing towards them.

  ‘Here, Myrtle!’ cried Jordan, waiting to catch her.

  But it wasn’t a dog that came charging out of the bamboo.

  It was Pingwu.

  The giant panda stopped dead when he saw Jordan and Harry.

  For a moment, they all stood staring at each other.

  Then Pingwu let out a loud ‘Honk!’ and went racing off around the edge of the bamboo.

  Before the boys could move, Myrtle came crashing out, too. She didn’t stop dead like Pingwu had. She bumped both twins over.

  Whomp! Whomp!

  By the time Jordan and Harry were back on their feet, Myrtle had raced off after Pingwu, barking with joy. The twins ran after her. Around the bamboo, through the hole in the fence, into the scrub on the other side.

  They could hear barking and crashing ahead of them. There was another loud honk, then more barking, then …

  Splash!

  ‘Oops!’ said Harry.

  8

  CLIMB THE BRANCH!

  They caught up with Myrtle on the very the edge of the quarry. She was peering down at the water and wagging her tail. She looked pleased with herself. Harry and Jordan looked down, too.

  ‘Uh oh!’ they said.

  Pingwu had fallen in.

  ‘At least he can swim,’ said Harry.

  Pingwu was doing a kind of dog paddle. He was going in slow circles, looking for somewhere to climb out. But the quarry walls were too steep. When Pingwu saw the twins, he looked up at them and baaaa-ed like a lamb.

  It was a strange noise to come from such a big, strong animal – even stranger than the honking noise he’d made earlier.

  ‘Baaaa!’ he went again.

  ‘He’s calling for help,’ Jordan said.

  ‘Climb the branch, Pingwu!’ cried Harry, pointing.

  The branch they had lowered for the kitten was still there.

  ‘Go on, Pingwu!’ Harry urged. ‘Go to the branch!’

  ‘He doesn’t know what you’re saying,’ Jordan said.

  ‘You tell him then, Pet Whisperer.’

  Jordan didn’t think it’d work. Mostly it didn’t. But they had to do something, or Pingwu would drown. Already his dog paddle was getting slower.

  Jordan closed his eyes and tried to shut out all the other things that were going on. He imagined he was a giant panda.

  Climb the branch, Pingwu! he whispered in his mind.

  When Jordan opened his eyes, nothing had changed. The giant panda was still doing laps in the black water below them. Laps that got smaller and smaller, slower and slower.

  Climb the branch! Jordan mind-whispered, as Pingwu turned towards it.

  But the giant panda was scared and confused. He went straight past the branch and began another slow circle.

  Jordan was starting to panic.

  The branch! Go to the branch, Pingwu! he mind-whispered.

  But it was no good. Pingwu couldn’t hear him. Or he couldn’t understand.

  Suddenly the panda turned around. He swam slowly over to the far side of the quarry. He had just noticed the clay ramp where the kitten had tried to get out. Jordan crossed his fingers. But when Pingwu tried to climb it, his big paws kept sliding off, just like the kitten’s had.

  ‘It’s too slippery,’ said Jordan.

  Harry nodded. He turned to Jordan and frowned. ‘Where’s the FoxPack, Agent J?’

  Jordan looked over his shoulder. ‘I must have left it back at the bamboo.’

  Harry raced off to get it, leaving Jordan and Myrtle to watch Pingwu. Jordan had never felt so helpless. It was horrible watching the giant panda swimming round and round with no way out.

  He closed his eyes again and had one more try: Climb the branch, Pingwu!

  It didn’t work.

  9

  CAPTAIN AMAZING

  Harry was gone a long time. Finally he came back with two things: the FoxPack and Myrtle’s harness.

  ‘What’s the harness for?’ Jordan asked.

  ‘So Myrtle can pull Pingwu out.’

  ‘Genius!’

  Mission Fox Animal Rescue was back in business.

  Agent J attached the harness to Agent M, while Agent H got out the rope. The twins tied one end to the harness and made a big loop at the other end. Then Agent H let the rope down and tried to hook it around Pingwu’s head. But Pingwu kept ducking away from it.

  ‘He doesn’t know we’re trying to help him,’ Jordan said.

  Harry kept trying. Again and again, he dropped the loop in front of the swimming panda, and every time Pingwu ducked it.

  Swim through the loop! Jordan mind-whispered. You’ll drown if you don’t!

  Pingwu was swimming really slowly now. He was so tired he could hardly keep his head above the water.

  But no way was he going to swim through the loop.

  ‘Time for Plan B,’ Harry said.

  ‘What’s Plan B?’ asked Jordan.

  Harry didn’t answer. He took off his GoFaster sneakers and his socks. Then he removed his AMINAL RESCUE T-shirt, which he’d made himself (Jordan was a better speller).

  ‘No, Harry!’ Jordan said.

  ‘You’ve got the name wrong,’ said his brother, making his voice go deeper. ‘I’m Captain Amazing.’

  Before Jordan could stop him, he rushed forward and jumped.

  ‘Shishkebaaaaaaab!’ Captain Amazing yelled, as he dropped down to the water.

  SPLASH!

  Jordan stood at the edge, holding his breath until Harry’s head popped up.

  ‘You’re crazy!’ Jordan called down into the quarry.

  ‘Someone’s got to help that panda,’ said Captain Amazing.

  He started swimming towards Pingwu, splashing water at him and yelling at the top of his voice, ‘YAH! YAH! YAAAH!’

  Pingwu turned and swam slowly away.

  ‘YAH! YAH! YAAAH!’ yelled Captain Amazing, going after him.

  Jordan realised what his brother was doing. He was chasing Pingwu towards the branch.

  ‘Go Captain Amazing!’ Jordan said softly.

  Captain Amazing or not, his brother’s plan was working. Pingwu reached the branch and clung to it. Harry swam towards him, still yelling, still splashing.

  Jordan wanted to help.

  Climb the branch, Pingwu! he mind-whispered.

  Maybe Pingwu heard him, maybe he didn’t. But slowly, the tired animal started to drag itself up. Water poured out of his thick white-and-black coat as he climbed up the branch.

  ‘Way to go, Pingwu!’ cried Captain Amazing.

  High above him on the cliff top, Jordan punched the air.

  Then – SNAP! – the branch broke in two. And down went Pingwu.

  SPLASH!

  Right on top of Harry.

  They both went under.

  All that was left on the water’s rippling black surface were two bits of broken branch.

  10

  HARRYYYYY!

  Jordan didn’t realise he had jumped until he was halfway down. By then it was too late. There wasn’t even time to close his eyes.

  SPLASH!

  It felt like a huge, cold explosion. Everything went from light to dark. Jordan couldn’t see a thing. All around him was icy black water and a thousand tickly bubbles.

  Then he bobbed back to the surface. He took a big gulp of air and looked around. The rope floated next to him. But instead of grabbing it, Jordan swam in the other direction, across the quarry, towards the spot where he’d last seen his brother.

  It was hard swimming in his sneakers, so he kicked them off.

  He was halfway across when Pingwu’s big white-
and-black head popped up. The panda looked half-drowned.

  ‘Baaaa!’ it went, when it saw Jordan swimming towards it.

  It wanted him to help, but Jordan had other things on his mind. Well, one other thing – his brother.

  ‘Harryyyyy!’ he yelled when he reached the other side.

  His voice echoed around the quarry walls. ‘Harryyyyyharryyyyyharryyyyy!’

  But nobody answered him.

  11

  PET WHISPERER

  Something bumped Jordan’s leg. It felt soft and smooth, like skin.

  Harry! he thought, and dived down to grab him.

  But he couldn’t find anything in the cold, black water.

  When he bobbed back to the surface, Jordan heard something behind him. It sounded like a gasp. Quickly he turned around, treading water to stay afloat.

  At first he didn’t see anything that could have made a gasp. There was only Pingwu, clinging to a small rock that poked out of the quarry wall next to the clay ramp.

  Then Jordan saw a hand. It was gripping one of the floating pieces of branch.

  ‘Harry!’ Jordan cried, and quickly started swimming towards him.

  Another hand appeared. Then a head popped up on the other side of the branch.

  Harry’s wet hair hung in his eyes. His face was as white as milk.

  ‘Wh-what happened?’ he asked.

  ‘The branch broke and Pingwu fell on top of you,’ Jordan said.

  ‘How did you get down here?’

  ‘I jumped.’

  ‘You jumped?’ Harry said weakly. ‘When did you get so brave?’

  Jordan grinned. ‘Captain Amazing isn’t the only superhero in our family.’

  Harry no longer looked like Captain Amazing. He seemed dazed.

  ‘Hold onto the branch, Harry,’ Jordan said. ‘I’ll get you across to the other side.’

  Kicking his feet in the cold, black water, Jordan started pushing the branch. Slowly they crossed to the other side of the quarry. Myrtle watched them from the cliff top. The long rope was still tied to her harness. It dangled all the way down the rocky wall to the water. Jordan fitted it around Harry, with the loop under his arms.