Desert Danger

Desert Danger — page 7 — A king-sized clue repeated Zoe That has to mean The king of the beasts interrupted Ben Wow We’re rescuing a lion That’ll be exciting His eyes went wide And a little scary Your BUGs are under your seats Erika told them Go ahead and give your uncle a call with your answer Ben and Zoe never went on a mission without their BUGs the Brilliant Undercover Gizmos their uncle had invented They looked like handheld video games but had lots of wonderful

Desert Danger — page 8 — applications like satellite maps communicators and animal tracking devices Zoe took her BUG hit the call key for WILD HQ and turned on the speakerphone Good evening Ben and Zoe came their uncle’s voice Did you figure it out yet Yep said Zoe It’s a lion Well done said Uncle Stephen You’re headed to the Kalahari Desert in Namibia Awesome said Ben So what’s the mission this time Uncle Stephen Here at HQ we picked up a news report on a Namibian radio station Uncle Stephen said A lioness has been seen prowling around a local well for a few days That well is the only source of clean water for the locals and they won’t dare go near it because of the angry lioness Lionesses don’t usually live alone do they asked Zoe I don’t think this one is alone said Uncle Stephen There have been several reports of strange sounds coming up from the bottom of the well Did one of the lioness’s cubs fall down the well Ben asked

Desert Danger — page 9 — That’s the most likely explanation yes said Uncle Stephen It’s probably calling out for its mother Erika drove the car through an open gate toward a rough track That would also explain why the lioness won’t leave the area she added Oh that poor cub said Zoe Don’t worry sis Ben said We’re going to rescue it And return it to its mother as soon as possible said Uncle Stephen Uncle Stephen’s voice grew serious Otherwise the cub will soon starve to death he said We don’t know how long it’s been down the well or if it’s injured That’s why we’re flying you straight there We need to preserve as many Namibian lions as we can especially the young ones Erika said Their numbers have been declining recently due to disease and because of humans unfortunately People illegally hunt lions and there have been several cases where lions were poisoned for being too close to farms

Desert Danger — page 10 — You should land in Namibia in the morning local time Uncle Stephen said Your equipment’s already been loaded onto the WILD Jet There’ll be plenty of time on the journey for you to watch the desert training videos We learned about sandstorms in the climate chamber last time we were at WILD HQ Ben said reminding their uncle And that will come in very handy said Uncle Stephen But you also need to be able to survive ordinary desert conditions The Kalahari is a dangerous place so I’m glad you won’t be out there very long Good luck Over and out Erika stopped the car next to a small plane idling on an airstrip You’ll be taking a vet’s kit with you in case the cub needs attention she said as they jumped out of the car And tranquilizer guns of course

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