Grant turned the door handle and the heavy door hissed as it opened, as if in anticipation. The cold atmosphere made Robyn shiver, for more than one reason, but she shook it off and boldly led the way through the examination room to the holding pens. ‘I’m back,’ she whispered as she approached the woolly rhinoceros calf’s pen. He almost filled it, breathing shallowly. He was the size of a small pony, with thick stubby legs and a huge hump stretching from his shoulder into his back. He was covered in coarse reddish fur that did little to hide the multiple cuts and contusions across his body. Robyn sighed at the sight of the animal’s broken horn; panicked and angry, the predasaur had injured himself while charging at Ralph yesterday. She’d managed to calm the rhino down and perform some first aid once she and Yonker had returned him to the pens.

  Robyn’s heart went out to him. This evolutionary throwback had been used, manipulated, controlled by Gerhard. The man was a genius in his own sick way, learning to control the predasaurs with evil precision. For all the hurt he’d inflicted on animals, she hated him more than she would have thought she could hate another person.

  ‘You’ve done well, cleaning up his cuts and bruises,’ said Niko, studying the rhino’s injuries. ‘Nice work with the plastic sutures.’

  The rhino’s eyes snapped open and he stirred uneasily. Grant jumped and recoiled but Robyn instinctively reached through the bars of the cage to comfort the creature.

  ‘Careful,’ said Grant, ‘it’s still a predasaur.’

  ‘This one is different,’ said Robyn. ‘Look at his eyes.’

  ‘Sort of milky pink,’ Niko observed. ‘Not red like regular predasaurs.’

  ‘I saw that before,’ said Robyn. ‘I looked into his eyes, and I reached him. I connected. I know I did. Whatever Gerhard does to the predasaurs to close off their souls, it didn’t take with this one.’

  ‘The red in their eyes might be from broken blood vessels?’ Grant suggested.

  ‘Or from vasodilation,’ said Niko. ‘That’s when the blood vessels dilate to increase blood flow, allowing white blood cells and antibodies to get to a site of damage.’ She paused, took a shaky breath. ‘We know Gerhard’s team have bred the predasaurs to be in constant physical pain. Pain that can never be healed. It’s no wonder they’re so aggressive.’

  ‘But this one’s special.’ Robyn pressed up against the bars, closer to the woolly rhino. ‘It’s like . . . he’s still got a soul.’ She slowed her breathing, matching the beast’s own rhythm, reading the rhino’s stress and discomfort in the tremors of his muscles, and brushed her fingertips against his fur. Robyn knew that rhinoceros skin was sensitive, even though it was thick. She murmured gently to the beast and he relaxed, his eyes drooping shut.

  She felt a wave of homesickness and sadness – the connection between her and the woolly rhino reminded her so vividly of the bond she shared with the young lions Jari and Sabal, back at Crocodile Lodge.

  ‘You’re doing a good job,’ said Niko. ‘I’ll see if I can find any food for him.’ She moved off further into the holding pens, leaving Robyn and Grant alone.

  ‘Look at poor little Tanky there,’ Grant murmured, behind her. ‘You’ve clearly got a way with extinct rhinos.’

  ‘It’s a gift,’ Robyn said wryly. ‘Wait. Tanky?’

  Grant nodded and put a hand lightly on her shoulder. ‘As in, like a tank. Good name for him, right? I mean, he’s built like one.’

  Suddenly Niko cried out.

  Robyn jumped up and Grant was behind her in a second to see what was wrong. Niko was pointing to a large glass aquarium reinforced with hefty steel bands. Inside was a colossal crustacean, heavily armoured, with vicious claws, segmented limbs, and a tail that ended with a long, barbed telson. It looked as big as a full‑grown man.

  ‘What the hell is that?’ Grant whispered, as if scared the thing could hear him.

  ‘Looks like a sea scorpion,’ said Robyn. ‘Another extinct animal.’

  ‘It’s incredible,’ said Niko, and she looked both awed and disgusted. ‘Sorry to scare you; seeing it just took me by surprise.’

  ‘Wonder what Gerhard was planning for it,’ said Grant.

  ‘He’s been trying to control land animals,’ Robyn pointed out. ‘Makes sense he’d want something deadly in the water too.’

  Grant shuddered. But Niko, efficient as ever, had turned to the shelves stacked with bags of feed. ‘There’s herbivore pellets,’ she reported. ‘And some dried grass we can use as bedding . . . together with stuff to clean him out with.’

  ‘Let’s give Ralph that job,’ said Robyn, forcing a smile.

  ‘Tanky will need milk as well, won’t he?’ said Grant, finally looking away from the aquatic tank. ‘There’s a bucket with a teat attached by his pen.’

  Niko peered at some boxes. ‘There’s powdered milk formula, but it’s for foals. Horses and zebras, I suppose.’

  ‘He doesn’t look too fussy,’ said Grant.

  ‘I’ll take the locking clamps off the pen’s wheels,’ said Robyn. ‘We’ll have to get Tanky into the freight lift, along with as much food and drink as we can manage.’

  ‘We’ll need Ralph and Luke’s help to get him up the ramp and into his trailer,’ Grant observed.

  ‘The full five‑star treatment,’ said Niko. ‘I’ll go and call the lift. Check it’s ready to receive our precious little bundle.’ She looked between them and smiled. ‘You two can sort out everything else between you, can’t you?’

  As Niko walked away, Robyn felt Grant’s eyes on her, but she didn’t meet his gaze. Instead, she focused on preparing the rhino’s cage for movement.

  ‘I hope the truck comes with room for half a ton of hay bales,’ Grant said lightly, loading up a trolley. ‘I don’t fancy sharing Tanky’s pen.’

  Robyn bit her lip, wondering what was happening above ground. ‘I just hope the truck comes,’ she muttered.

  4

  Ralph tensed as the lift up to the surface jolted to a halt and the low hum of its machinery ceased. He was surprised by how unhappy he was to be leaving the sterile corridors and fluorescent lights of the scientific compound for the raw earthiness of the mine workings above.

  From the outside, Gerhard’s facility looked like an unassuming wooden building in the centre of a sprawling mine site. Inside, concrete and steel reinforced the timber shell and a secret lift led to underground labs and holding pens. With Gerhard overcome, their prison had become a temporary haven of sorts: a place of passing through, somewhere to rest before facing up to the full reality of their plight.

  But that feeling of safety had ended with the blare of the security alarm. We’re still in this up to our necks, thought Ralph, watching his dad and Xai exchange glances that held both anticipation and dread. His hand instinctively moved to the grip of his holstered revolver, a gift from Gerhard’s armoury, entrusted to him by his dad. He was used to target shooting, but the cold weight of the gun against his thigh made him feel sick. What if he had to use it in defence? Could he?

  ‘Promise me you’ll be careful with that thing,’ Luke muttered. He wasn’t carrying. Ralph could hardly blame him. Last time Luke had fired a gun, it had jammed and gone off in his face; he still bore the scars. Before this whole thing started, no way would Roland Ballantyne have allowed his son to step out into danger with a loaded gun.

  But these are extraordinary times, Ralph thought. Times meant for adventurists.

  The lift doors rattled open. Cautiously, Ralph followed his father out into the stale air of the miners’ long‑abandoned cafeteria. The whole place seemed deserted. To help maintain that illusion, the trucks used to transport predasaurs and prey alike had been parked out of sight in the mouth of an old mine tunnel. Exploring with his father and Yonker the day before, Ralph found that the tunnel could be accessed from a short passage excavated from the ground between the cafeteria and the mined‑out seam.

  Roland Ballantyne led the way across the cafeteria, unbolting its heavy wooden door and heaving it open. The hinges creaked, a low growl of protest, and cold, stale air wafted from the darkness. A motion sensor in the tunnel activated and light bulbs in the rocky ceiling flickered on. The mine shaft stretched out before them, its walls marked by untold years of labouring workers.

  Xai led the way into the mine, the beam of his flashlight cutting through the darkness like a sword. Roland followed him in silence, his eyes sharp and vigilant, carrying himself with the grace of a big cat ready to strike. Ralph and Luke cautiously followed them.

  Every step sent a shiver of anticipation down Ralph’s spine. The old walls seemed to close in around them, as if trying to stop their progress. Drops of water fell like distant whispers from long‑ago times.

  Suddenly, a sound, faint but unmistakable, reached Ralph’s ears – the shuffle of boots on gravel. Roland and Xai must’ve heard it too as they froze, every muscle taut.

  Just an animal, Ralph told himself, but he knew it wasn’t true. The enemy was near – already! Roland looked back at Ralph and Luke and gestured for them to retreat down the tunnel.

  But then a voice, rough and commanding, sounded from the darkness ahead of them. ‘No one move.’

  Luke swore under his breath. Roland and Xai brought up their guns.

  ‘Give it up, Ballantyne!’ the voice ordered. ‘There’s no escape for you.’

  The words reverberated down the passage.

  Roland exchanged a quick, knowing glance with Xai. Ralph knew what it meant: surrender was no option. He drew his own gun.

  As if on cue, the enemy emerged from the shadows – a squad of heavily armed soldiers, their faces obscured by the darkness and the glint of their weapons.

  ‘Black ops,’ Roland muttered, and Xai nodded.

  Ralph’s heart pounded in his chest, but his grip on his pistol remained steady.

  The first shots rang out, a volley of gunfire that shattered the air and ignited the mine with flashes of light. Terrified, Ralph grabbed Luke and pushed him to the ground, while Roland and Xai crouched behind timber supports with choreographed precision. As they returned fire, the echoes of gunfire mingled with the metallic clatter of spent casings hitting the ground.

  Roland looked across at Ralph in the half‑light and mouthed, ‘Get out!’

  ‘We’ve got to warn the others,’ Ralph hissed in Luke’s ear. ‘Come on.’ He crawled away, Luke beside him. Bullets whizzed past, kicking up dirt and stone. The acrid scent of gunpowder hung in the air. Time seemed to warp, seconds stretching into eternities until a shaft of daylight told Ralph that they’d reached the doorway to the old cafeteria. He scrambled up and ran into the still‑open lift. But Luke ran past, making for the door.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Ralph hissed.

  ‘Checking escape paths!’ Luke opened the door slightly, then stopped and slammed it shut again. ‘More soldiers,’ he reported. ‘Headed this way.’

  ‘Come on!’ Ralph shouted, jabbing his finger against the bottom‑floor button. Luke ran across and threw himself inside the lift as the doors started to slide shut.

  Ralph caught Luke and steadied him against the steel wall as the lift began to descend. ‘Those soldiers must be making for the other end of the tunnel so they can trap Dad and Xai in the middle. Classic pincer movement.’

  ‘Or else they know about this lift and they’re on their way to spring Gerhard.’ Luke shook his head. ‘We can’t let that happen.’

  ‘We won’t,’ Ralph said, bunching his fists as the lift doors opened. He pushed through them and hit the Talk button on the intercom panel. ‘Rob, Grant, Niko – Mbato’s troops are on their way. We couldn’t reach the transporter through the tunnel. They’ll be coming down here, shooting to kill. We have to cut our losses – leave the rhino, take the freight lift and get out. We’ll come after you with Gerhard.’

  There was no talkback circuit on the intercom. Ralph wondered if his message had been heard. Maybe Robyn and the others had already gone?

  Luke broke in on his thoughts. ‘What if the troops have that exit covered too?’

  Ralph glared at him. ‘Pray that they haven’t.’

  ‘We’re the prey,’ Luke muttered. ‘It won’t take those troops long to find the emergency staircase and come down here after us.’

  Ralph nodded. ‘Let’s grab Gerhard and go.’

  In the examination room, Grant felt cold as Ralph’s voice cut over the intercom. He looked at Robyn. Robyn looked at Tanky.

  ‘We can’t leave him,’ she said firmly. ‘He’s our most solid evidence, and he doesn’t deserve to be left here.’

  Grant stared. ‘You heard Ralph – there’s no transporter. What are we gonna do, walk him on a rope?’

  ‘I think we should take the rhino too,’ said Niko.

  ‘Thanks.’ Robyn looked at her gratefully. ‘Now I just need to sort one more thing . . .’ She quickly returned to the store area.

  Watching Robyn go, Niko lowered her voice. ‘If nothing else,’ she told Grant, ‘he’s cover for us. If there are troops waiting for us up there, I’d sooner be hiding behind a predasaur, wouldn’t you?’

  Grant felt revolted but understood the logic. A woolly rhino’s hide had to be incredibly thick. And being brutally honest, in a life‑and‑death situation, he knew he’d sacrifice a predasaur’s life for his own.

  For Robyn, he suspected it might be the other way around.

  ‘Well . . . I guess that if Tanky chases troops down as well as he chased Ralph down to the basement, we’ll be all right,’ Grant said with an optimism he didn’t feel. ‘D’you think we should try and slow down the troops if they’re coming here?’

  ‘Obstacles, you mean? Good thinking. So long as we don’t slow down Ralph and Luke too.’ Niko reached inside her belt and pulled out a weathered old revolver – a Colt Anaconda. ‘You shoot, don’t you?’ As Grant nodded, she continued. ‘Found this up above, dropped by a poacher, I guess. At long range I’m guessing you’re a better shot.’

  Grant took the gun uneasily and checked the chamber. ‘Two rounds against an elite squad of troops,’ he muttered.

  ‘Two rounds and a rhino,’ Niko said, forcing a smile.

  ‘Yay.’ Grant slipped the gun into his pocket. ‘We could wish for better odds.’

  ‘We could wish for lots of things.’ Niko shrugged. ‘I’ll start loading the freight lift.’

  Grant pushed through the door from the examination room, trying to think of delaying tactics that might be open to them. But his mind, like his fingers, kept straying to the cold weight of the handgun.

  5

  Ralph felt numb as he led Luke through the base corridors. The sound of a distant explosion was accompanied by a violent flickering of the lights and vibrations through the floor. Luke flinched.

  Dad, Xai, where are you? Ralph thought. A part of him was certain they must be dead, but death had seemed certain so many times before and they’d always scraped through . . . It can’t all end here, Ralph thought as he hurried towards Gerhard’s makeshift cell. It just can’t.

  Gerhard was smirking as Ralph unlocked the door.

  ‘Wondered how long it would take you to get here,’ he said. ‘I hear company is coming.’

  ‘And we’re going,’ said Ralph, passing Luke the gun while he untied the ropes binding Gerhard’s feet. ‘Don’t try anything.’

  ‘Why should I?’ Gerhard’s grey eyes glinted. ‘All I have to do is wait.’

  ‘Shut up,’ Luke snapped, pointing the gun at him.

  ‘Scared, huh?’ Gerhard pursed his lips and nodded. ‘I get that. You know, if you only pointed your gun at Ralph instead of me, and let me end this, you wouldn’t need to be scared.’

  Ralph tugged the rope tighter on Gerhard’s wrists, making the man wince. ‘I said, don’t try anything.’

  ‘It wasn’t me who got you into all this, was it?’ Gerhard went on calmly, looking at Luke. ‘I saved your life, remember.’

  ‘You and Mbato were the ones who put it at risk!’ Ralph spluttered.

  ‘You helped me, and I won’t forget that,’ said Gerhard. ‘Help me again, Luke, and you won’t have to be afraid any more.’

  Luke kept a tight grip on the gun. ‘The only time I’m not gonna be afraid, for myself or my family, is when you’re behind bars or dead,’ he said. ‘And one of those is a whole lot easier to pull off than the other.’

  Ralph looked at the sudden steel in Luke’s gaze and realised with a chill that he and Robyn weren’t the only ones to have changed. ‘You’d better do as he says, Gerhard,’ he said quietly, dragging Gerhard to his feet, making double sure his wrists were still firmly tied. ‘Move with us. No tricks.’

  ‘None needed,’ Gerhard said, equally softly. ‘This’ll end soon enough. You’ll see.’

  Ralph opened the door and listened out for the soldiers. Then he pushed his prisoner ahead of him. He wanted to believe that somehow they would be able to evade Mbato’s forces once again, but he had a horrible feeling that Gerhard was right.

  Grant unscrewed the lid of a 25‑litre drum of liquid soap. He had already taken the brakes off the wheels of several empty pens and cages and arranged them in the examination bay, ready to block the corridor. When he heard footsteps ahead, he swore his heart stopped beating. But Ralph’s voice called: ‘Hello?’

  ‘Here,’ Grant replied. ‘We’ve not left yet.’

  ‘What?’ The exasperation in Ralph’s voice rang loud.

  ‘All right, we’re ready now,’ Robyn shot back impatiently. Grant felt his heart jolt at the sight of Gerhard, who was being herded by Ralph and Luke. He’d tried to avoid all contact with Gerhard since they’d won the battle for this base, but now he felt a sheer, helpless anger just looking at the man’s smug face. Gerhard had let predasaurs kill Grant’s mentor Dane Mellanby – a man he’d been closer to than his own father – so he could film the carnage for use in his Predasaur video game, and Mbato could rid himself of another political opponent. Grant knew that he’d been destined for the same fate, if it hadn’t been for Robyn and Ralph.