by Matt Forbeck
The grin disappeared, and Marney now looked the way Dad did whenever he thought about Boston. “What do you mean they’re not there, Bobby? Did the ship come in?”
“Oh yeah,” Bobby said, “the ship showed up, but there ain’t no rhinos on it. Cap’n said they never got no rhinos in Malani. We’re wicked screwed, is what I think.”
For a moment Zoe heard only the rustling of the branches as the aye-ayes ran around the enclosure.
Bobby’s little voice asked, “Marn, you there?”
“I’m—I—dammit! I don’t understand, how can this have—I don’t even—”
“Look, Marn, you gotta call Father What’s-His-Name. He was supposed to put ’em on the ship in Malani, right? ’Cause this is crap right here.”
“Oh, I’m going to call him, believe me.” Marney started walking out the door of Little Madagascar, phone glued to her ear.
“We gotta get back in the truck and hit the road, but this really blows, Marn. You need to—”
Zoe didn’t hear the rest of what Bobby thought Marney needed to do as she left Little Madagascar. Dad stared after the zoo manager, looking worried.
But he seemed to shake it off in a minute, and he and Zoe wandered around the rest of the zoo. She enjoyed the giraffes and the bears—she got a great video of the brown bear swimming—and they had a late lunch at the Pink Flamingo Café. The café was empty except for the staff and a mother with a kid who Zoe figured was her son. The boy was eating soft-serve ice cream and the mother was playing with her phone.
For her part, Zoe had set her phone’s alarm to go off at 3:45 so they’d be able to get back to the red panda in time. When it went off to the sound of her favorite Katy Perry song, she tugged on Dad’s shirt to go see Mei.
The red panda was still asleep when they got there, but he looked like he was moving. Zoe whipped out her phone and started recording. One of Mei’s eyes opened, and then the red panda opened and closed its mouth a few times, making a tcha noise each time, then it yawned.
It was quite possibly the cutest thing Zoe had ever seen in her life. And she recorded it all! She couldn’t wait to put it online.
She and Dad walked toward the exit, hand in hand. “Thanks so much, Dad!”
“My pleasure, honey. Now c’mon, let’s go…” Dad’s voice trailed off, and he stopped walking.
Looking up, Zoe saw that Dad was looking at something. Following his eyes, she saw that what he was looking at was Marney, who was standing near the entrance, having an animated conversation on her phone.
“Yes, I know that you can’t refund—” She cut herself off, listening to someone talk, but Zoe couldn’t understand it this time. “Look, I just want to know what happened to—hello? Dammit!”
After saying that last word, she put the phone back in her pocket.
“Is everything okay?” Dad asked her.
“What?” Marney turned angrily on Zoe and her dad, then her face got nicer when she saw who it was. “Oh, I’m sorry, Mr.— uh…”
“Kerrigan. What’s wrong? Is it the rhinos?”
She nodded. “They’re gone. The person I got them from said he put them on the ship, but the captain says he never had it. He never even spoke to the person I got them from. This wasn’t an official deal with the government, it was through a—a private buyer, so I don’t really have much legal recourse. We’re on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and no black rhinos to show for it. We’re so screwed.” She grimaced for a second then shook her head sadly. “I’m sorry, I really shouldn’t be telling you all this. Everything will be fine, just—”
“Dad,” Zoe whispered.
“What is it, honey?” Dad asked.
“We should tell her about—”
Dad interrupted quickly. “Zoe, I’m not sure that this is any of our business.”
“But, Dad, he helps people! He helped us!”
Marney was frowning now, and turned to walk back into the zoo. “I’m sorry, but I should go.”
Zoe looked firmly at her father. “C’mon, Dad!”
Hearing these words, Marney turned around. “Honestly, we’ll be fine. I’ll figure something out. This zoo has survived for over a hundred years, it’ll survive this, too.”
Dad looked all weird for a second. Then he set his jaw the way he did when he decided he was going to do something—his jaw had looked just like that when he decided he was going to fink on his old boss—and said, “Maybe you will, but if you don’t, I know a man you need to talk to. You can find him at McRory’s pub in Boston.”
“A guy who hangs out in a bar is supposed to help me?” Marney didn’t sound convinced.
“He and his friends can,” Zoe said emphatically. “Dad told me once that there are wolves in the world and these people stop them. If it wasn’t for them, Dad would be dead!”
Dad put a hand on Zoe’s shoulder. “Zoe’s exaggerating, but—well, this man helped me out when I was in a bad way. It was the kind of trouble that could’ve gotten both Zoe and me hurt very badly. In the end, the people responsible paid for it, and we were able to start over here in Brillinger. Trust me when I tell you, Marney, this man will help you.
“His name is Nathan Ford.”