Page 80 of Tiger Queen

“I don’t care if she denies it,” he said while storming out of the office. “I’m going to make her admit to it.”

I followed him outside into the cool night. I intended to tell him no, that we couldn’t do anything without proof.

Before the words could leave my mouth, an animal went trotting by.

One of the Bengal tigers. Chasing a squirrel.

And to our right, a chimpanzee screeched while running along the pedestrian path.

The walkie-talkie on Jake’s belt crackled to life. “The animals are loose. The animals are loose!”

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Rachel

I stared after the tiger in a daze. Panic gripped my chest like a vice, paralyzing me in place.

“No, no, no,” I whispered. “What is happening…”

“How the hell…” Jake said. “I know we opened Caesar’s enclosure, but that was the only one!”

“Someone’s opening the cages,” David said on the radio.

Jake put his walkie-talkie to his mouth. “You mean she is opening them!”

“Anthony and I are searching for her before she can do more damage,” David replied. “We need you two to track down the animals that are already loose.”

I grabbed the walkie-talkie from Jake. “Tough to do when we don’t know what’s loose. We saw a tiger and a chimp so far…”

“We’ll call out which cages we find open. Just go!”

Now that we had a task, it was easier to lurch into motion. The two of us jumped in the Mule and flew down the path.

“Where are we going?” Jake asked as I drove.

“The equipment shed. I have plenty of Thalazol here in the Mule, but we need more syringes and the dart gun.”

“I thought you hated using the dart gun. Said it scared the animals.”

I glanced over at him. “Scaring them is the least of our problems right now.”

He gripped the top of the Mule tightly. “True that.”

We passed the chimpanzee again on the way to the shed. He hopped along and made a happy hooting sound at us. The sight of him out and moving along made me panic again. Putting aside the fact that these animals were dangerous—which was a very important fact—the animals could injure themselves or each other.

I slowed down as Chloe, one of the female tigers, appeared up ahead. She was loping along without paying us any attention. Then she turned down a side path.

“Damnit, damnit, damnit,” I muttered.

“Chloe’s heading east from the equipment shed,” Jake said into the walkie-talkie. “Be aware.”

“Copy that.”

We reached the supply shed and quickly gathered what we needed. Two more jab sticks, a box of syringes, then the dart gun and a pack of darts.

“You drive,” I said as we loaded up the Mule.

“Good thinking. That way you can prep all the darts.”

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