Poacher Peril (4 page)

“Afternoon, you mean!” Zoe grinned. “This BUG's fantastic. I'm trying to remember everything Erika told us about it. It's no use asking you – I could see you weren't listening to anything she said.”

“I
was
listening,” said Ben. “Well, a bit, anyway. I remember her saying we have to pretend to be on holiday, and the local people are used to tourists…and… and…”

“And that was it,” said Zoe. “You were either fiddling with the TV on the plane or eating.”

“One of those TV programmes told me a lot about Sumatra,” Ben argued.

Zoe didn't have an answer for this so she stuck out her tongue at him. “Get dressed,” she said. “We've got to go into the village and find out as much as we can about Tora. And we might get a mobile signal there. I can't get one here. We must be out of range. But remember to be careful. No-one must know what our mission is.”

“My mission is to buy food,” insisted Ben.

“You would think of your stomach first!” Zoe laughed.

Ben dressed quickly and they followed a narrow path, soon emerging into a little marketplace surrounded by houses. All the houses had steeply curved roofs with carved points at each end. Several of them had shopfronts. The place was bustling. Villagers called to them to come and see what they were selling.

“Erika was right,” Zoe whispered to Ben. “They're used to tourists.”

“They must be speaking Bahasa Indonesia,” Ben whispered back. “That's the local language.”

“No, it's English,” said Zoe, with a smile.

“It's not!” snorted Ben. “I can't understand a word.”

“Perhaps you should wash your ears out!” said Zoe solemnly. “The lady at that stall with the bamboo baskets is saying she has rice, fish and fruit – best in the village. Why aren't you there buying some? You said you were hungry.”

Ben just looked confused. Zoe burst out laughing. Making sure no-one was watching, she grabbed his BUG and pulled off the earpiece that was hidden there. “Sorry, couldn't resist. You were right. The language
you're
hearing is Bahasa Indonesia. And this is a translator. I've got mine in already. It makes the voices a bit electronic, but I can understand everything they say. Stick it in your ear. Never know what we might find out. But remember, don't let on.”

“Lead me to the food!” declared Ben, shoving in the earpiece. “What's that awesome smell? It's coming from that shop over there.” He pointed to a large hut with wooden walls and a tin roof. The front was crammed with a hotchpotch of goods – tins and belts next to T-shirts and jars of coffee and sweets.

A man was crouched over a small stove at the front. He was frying something in a pan. Ben grabbed Zoe's arm and dragged her towards it.

The shopkeeper looked up. “Banana fritters,” he said in English, giving Ben and Zoe a broad grin. “We call them
godok
pisang
.”

“Don't need your clever translator here,” Ben muttered in Zoe's ear. He pulled out the wallet of rupiah that Erika had given them. “Five, please.”

“Just one for me,” added Zoe.

“You are Australian?” asked the stallholder, ladling the sizzling fritters into a small bamboo bowl. He spoke with a strong accent.

“No, we're from England,” explained Zoe. “On holiday,” she added quickly. “With our aunt.”

The man nodded. “We have many visitors from Australia,” he told them. “Not so many from England. I am pleased to meet you. My name is Catur.”

“I'm Ben,” said Ben with his mouth full. “This is my sister Zoe, and this is a fantastic fritter!”

“It's nice here,” Zoe told the shopkeeper. “We can't wait to explore.”

“There are good bus rides,” Catur told them. “My brother-in-law is the driver. You can go as far as Gonglung. It's a big town.”

“And what about this jungle?” said Ben, pointing at the dense wall of trees around the village. “We want to see some wildlife.”

“Too dangerous to go on your own,” said Catur. “Tell your aunt to keep you away from there. There are fierce animals in the jungle, clouded leopards, many wild cats, even a tiger.”

Zoe nudged Ben's ankle with her foot.

“A tiger?” she gasped. “We'll definitely keep away!”

“Does it come near the village?” asked Ben.

“If it did you would not be in danger,” said Catur. “We would set a trap.”

Zoe started at this. “And kill it?” she blustered.

“No.” Catur smiled. “It would be taken to the Kinaree Sanctuary. It is a good place for tourists to see. Your aunt could take you. It is only a day's drive from here. Now, is there anything else you need? I have necklaces, scarves, many nice things for you to take home.”

Zoe shook her head. “We'll come back later. Thanks for the
godok pisang
.”

As they carried on through the village, they saw a man sitting outside on a veranda, drinking from a bottle. He wore a battered baseball cap and ragged trousers. He watched them coldly, rocking his chair on its back legs.

“He looks scary,” muttered Zoe.

At that moment, three other men came up the steps of the veranda. The raggedlooking man jumped up, glanced round suspiciously and opened his door to usher them inside. The men all removed their shoes. Zoe turned up her BUG and listened to the translated conversation.

“Got to keep it quiet, Wicaksono!” one of the newcomers was saying as he made for the door. “No-one must find out – especially my wife. She'll be really angry if she finds out what we're doing, even though there's a lot of money in it.”

“Money for
me
,” laughed the ragged man. “I'm the one who's going to make a killing!”

The wooden door of the hut slammed behind them.

Zoe and Ben walked away to a safe distance. Zoe turned to her brother. “He talked about making a killing and getting lots of money for it. Do you think that Wicaksono man could be our poacher?”

“I reckon you could be right,” said Ben. “And what is he most likely to be hunting?”

“Tora!” exclaimed Zoe, horrified.

CHAPTER
FIVE

“So we've found our poacher,” said Zoe, squatting under the shade of a palm tree in the marketplace. “I know Uncle Stephen said we had to stay away from poachers, but there's nothing to stop us just keeping an eye on Wicaksono's activities. We need to know what danger Tora's in, don't we?”

“Is there something on the BUG that tracks animals?” said Ben.

“Of course,” said Zoe, with an air of mock patience. “If you'd been listening to Erika, you'd know we can dart Tora with a tiny microchip. She'll hardly feel it. She'll probably think it's an insect bite. But that doesn't help us now.”

Ben grinned mischievously.

“Wait a minute,” said Zoe. “What are you planning? I can always tell you've got some crazy idea when you get that gleam in your eye.”

“We fire a tracking dart into Wicaksono,” said Ben, smiling broadly. “Then we can follow him and find out what's going on!”

“Someone's coming out,” hissed Zoe. She dragged Ben off between two of the houses.

They could just see the men talking on the veranda.

Ben got out his BUG and tapped in “tracking”.

“I see you've got the hang of it at last!” whispered Zoe.

Ben didn't answer. A target ring was showing on the screen.

Holding it up, he focused on Wicaksono's bare arm.
Click!
Ben fired a dart. Immediately the man flinched and clutched his arm. Then he looked round angrily.

“Keep out of sight,” muttered Ben. “If he sees us he might be suspicious!”

Wicaksono cursed and slapped his arm.

“He thinks it's a mosquito,” said Zoe in relief.

The man waved his friends off and went back inside the house.

Ben checked the screen. A satellite map of Aman Tempat came up and a green light pulsed just where Wicaksono's house was.

“It'll flash to warn us if he leaves the village,” he said.

“What are you doing?” came a translated voice in their earpieces. They looked up guiltily, then quickly pretended they had not understood. Zoe clicked the screen of her BUG to game mode.

It was the woman who had been calling from her stall. She stared at them and the BUG, puzzled. Then she grinned.

“You same as my young brother.”

She chuckled. She spoke in halting English now. “Play on computer all the time. Where your parents? I have food to sell.”

“We're with our aunt. She's away for the day,” said Zoe, “but we'll buy some food.”

The woman beckoned to them and they followed her to her stall.

“We're on holiday,” Zoe told the woman, while Ben eagerly inspected the baskets of brightly coloured fruit. She patted her chest. “I'm Zoe.” Then she pointed at Ben. “This is Ben, my brother. We're twins.”

“I'm Angkasa,” said the woman. She pointed upwards. “It means the sky.”

“We're desperate to explore,” said Zoe. “But people say the jungle is not safe.”

She was hoping the woman might know more about Tora than Catur seemed to.

Angkasa nodded. “Many stories about the jungle. There is creature called
orang
pendek
.” Angkasa took on a fearful look. “People say he is small man – hairy and strong like five elephants. My father saw one but not me.”

“Wicked,” said Ben, forgetting about the food for a moment.

“My father saw it at Silent Water,” Angkasa went on. “It is watering hole in the jungle.” She shivered. “We not go there. Evil place.”

“Do animals use it?” Zoe asked, glancing at Ben.

“Yes,” said Angkasa. “But not people. Even poachers keep away, I think.”

“Poachers!” exclaimed Zoe.

Angkasa nodded. “Not welcome in village. There was tiger eating our goats. We told Kinaree Sanctuary and got trap ready. We always do this. Sanctuary comes and takes tiger to safe place. But poachers got there first. Someone in village helped them.”