Print ID confirmed came the electronic voice The metal door slid open smoothly revealing the brightly lit room that was the headquarters of WILD Workers were tapping away at computers Images of animals were everywhere on the giant monitors lining both sides of the room At the far end Uncle Stephen was staring at a display screen on the wall He wore a labcoat over his shorts and his hat was pushed back in his messy hair Your climate chamber’s great said Zoe Yeah agreed Ben The sandstorm is He went silent Uncle Stephen was staring intently at the screen in front of him a worried look on his face What’s the matter Zoe asked her uncle Erika just picked up some alarming intelligence said Uncle Stephen gravely No more fun in the climate chamber you’re off on a mission There’s no time to waste
Good thing we’re here then said Ben Are you going to give us a clue to the animal we’ll be rescuing asked Zoe Uncle Stephen usually presented a glass eyeball to the twins so they would have to guess what their mission was Uncle Stephen turned to his assistant Erika Bohn a woman sitting nearby She swung around in her chair to face them No time for an eyeball she said tapping a key but this might clue you in A picture of an animal eye flashed up on the screen in front of her There’s fur around it muttered Zoe Is it a wolf Not a bad guess Erika said She scrolled out so that a little more of the animal was visible Its fur is light brown with black markings said Ben And it looks thick So the animal lives somewhere cold said Zoe Uncle Stephen nodded Extremely cold he said
It looks like the eye of a big cat said Ben Uncle Stephen nodded A very rare one he added A snow leopard cried Zoe Their uncle nodded and smiled Correct he said Ben gave a whistle They are extremely endangered he said And hardly ever seen by people He turned to Zoe Did you know their tails are as long as their bodies Zoe laughed Thank you Mr Encyclopedia she said But you forgot to mention they can carry up to three times their own weight She turned to their uncle So what happened to this snow leopard We have a computer program set to flag up certain key words on the Internet Uncle Stephen explained It flagged a blog from a mountaineer in Himachal Pradesh I know where that is Zoe said before Ben could open his mouth The Indian Himalayas Precisely Zoe Uncle Stephen said He brought up a
satellite map of India on the screen and pointed toward a line of jagged white peaks running across the top corner I’ve been checking on the blog for a week now Erika said pointing Erika clicked on a post halfway down the page The mountaineer has been staying in a village called Ribek and climbing in the peaks a few miles west from there she said While he was climbing he caught a glimpse of a snow leopard sleeping in a rock shelter Lucky him said Ben Hardly anyone gets to see one Not just one Erika said Four A mother and three cubs She clicked a button on the keyboard Here’s a photo he put up on his blog An image of a large leopard and three fuzzy cubs popped up on the screen The mother leopard slept with her tail wrapped around her three sleeping cubs Her fur was covered in a beautiful pattern of dark circular spots with lighter fur in the middle
